On the streets of Shencheng in the northern part of Xia Country, all kinds of passersby hurried along, as if they could not bear the temperature at dusk.
This wind made one’s scalp go numb.
Shencheng was a city with distinct four seasons, and its scenery was very good. Although its economy could not be considered developed, it made up for that with abundant produce.
Its spring and autumn were brief. It was only October, and after several drizzling autumn rains, the weather had already gradually turned cold.
At this time of year, wearing a cotton coat still seemed a little too early, but the hands of passersby exposed outside their overcoats were already frozen red.
Clearly, the leaves on the trees lining both sides of the street had not yet completely turned yellow, but one could already foresee the sight of them soon being bent over by swathes of white satin.
On the side street, a fragrance was wafting out from a bakery that had only just opened not long ago.
A chubby shop assistant smilingly carried out a baking tray and placed the freshly baked cheese bread onto the shelf outside.
Each round loaf was plump and pretty, steaming hot, with a layer of powdered sugar sprinkled on top. It looked extremely enticing.
Wearing a torn cotton-padded jacket with batting showing through, a boy who was not short had already been waiting at the street corner for a long time, staring fixedly at the bread on the shelf.
The cotton-padded jacket on his upper body was wide, while the pants on his lower body were short and tight, embroidered with pink cartoon patterns, even exposing his ankles. Coupled with the worn-out slippers, it was obvious at a glance that this outfit had been picked up from who knew where and pieced together, barely enough to keep out the cold.
His thin frame, and his face so covered in dust and grime that his features were almost impossible to make out, all seemed to indicate that he was just a beggar by the roadside. Yet the pair of exposed huge, round eyes were bright enough to be dazzling.
Sniffing, Mo Yi swallowed at the sight of the bread on the shelf.
Glancing around warily and noticing that there happened to be no one passing by, he slowly walked over. Then, while the shop assistant went back into the shop to get other trays, he quickly dashed past the shelf.
A burst of curses came from behind him, but Mo Yi paid them no mind at all. Only after he rushed out of the street, turned the corner, and disappeared from sight did he stop.
After running a fair distance, the boy did not even pant for breath. He lowered his head to look at the hot bread in his hand, and a satisfied smile curled up at the corner of his mouth.
After confirming that he was already safe, Mo Yi eagerly raised the bread to his face.
The freshly baked cheese bread had a crisp crust, with a sweet and soft interior, especially the cheese sauce tucked inside, still hot enough to burn. Just imagining it was enough to know how delicious it would be.
Taking a deep breath over the bread, he first used his sharp canine teeth to bite off a small piece of the crust and taste the sweetness, then eagerly began enjoying the food.
The bread was actually still very hot, but the boy could not care less. Even the corners of his mouth had turned red from the heat, yet he still ate greedily.
However, after biting several times in a row, he still did not get the cheese filling that should have been there. He simply tore the bread in half, and sure enough, the filling inside was empty.
The baker had made a mistake that might not appear even once in an entire shelf’s worth of bread, yet he almost always managed to run into it every time.
But Mo Yi was already used to it. His luck had never been very good. Being able to eat freshly baked bread was already something to be grateful for.
In no time, half the bread had been swallowed into his stomach.
Letting out a comfortable breath, the boy’s eyes showed a hint of contentment.
He liked this kind of fresh, delicious food. Unlike in the past, when for a very long period of time, he could only be locked in a drafty, broken thatched hut with iron chains, eating spoiled leftovers.
Occasionally, passersby would walk by beside him, and Mo Yi ignored them as well. He was no longer like when he had just come to this world, when he would tense up at the slightest approach from anyone, afraid that something might happen to him.
Some people here still cast him disdainful, disgusted looks, but more people were focused on their own matters and would not care about an insignificant little beggar by the roadside.
It could be said that the few days since coming to this world were the rare, comfortable days he had experienced.
Being able to have the peaceful life he had now was an extravagance he had once not even dared to imagine.
Smacking his lips, Mo Yi raised the other half of the bread, planning to continue his meal. But at that moment, someone suddenly bumped into him from behind.
His unusually sharp senses had already let him hear the sound ahead of time, and he dodged in time, so the young man who was only staring at his phone and not looking at the road did not hit him. But the hand holding the bread still accidentally struck the decorative sign beside him.
His palm loosened, and the bread fell to the ground.
Another day of daily bad luck…
Looking at the bread on the ground, Mo Yi sighed in his heart. Still, he bent down to pick it up, patted off the dust on it, and shoved it straight into his mouth.
“Host, this bread is already dirty! You can’t eat it!”
A suddenly anxious little milky voice came from the sea of consciousness, frightening Mo Yi so much that his hand trembled, almost dropping the bread to the ground again.
The corner of his mouth twitched. The boy ignored the words in his head, as if he could not hear them, and in just a few bites finished the rest of the bread.
Sure enough, what went into the stomach was the most reassuring!
The chattering voice still did not stop. In the sea of consciousness, a fluffy little flower dog said tirelessly to Mo Yi, “Host, host! When will you be able to hear me speak? 005 is so worried about you!
If you could hear me, that would be great. Then we could go do the mission.
Even if we don’t do the mission, we could first go find the target villain, that would be fine too. Your life right now is too bitter! Wuwuwu!”
The little flower dog looked at the down-and-out boy with a pained expression, its eyes red, ears drooping, endlessly chattering away, yet still getting no response at all.
The system did not understand. It had finally awakened, finally able to take care of its Host and communicate with its Host, so why did the other party seem as if he did not know it existed, not paying it the slightest attention?
Could it be that although it was still staying in the Host’s sea of consciousness, they could not contact each other? If that was the case, with the Host alone in an unfamiliar world, how scared would he be!
Not knowing 005’s anxiety, Mo Yi’s expression did not change in the slightest. As if he really could not hear the voice in his sea of consciousness at all, he walked forward entirely at his own pace.
Mo Yi did not originally belong to this world. His original world was very backward, unlike now, where there were countless speeding vehicles on the road, as well as delicious food he had never even seen before.
However, he also did not know very much about human life in his original world. Because from the day he was born, his body had possessed enormous energy. But this power had not brought him good luck. On the contrary, from the moment he had memories, he had been surrounded by malice.
He did not know exactly what he was, neither human nor beast. Although he had the form of a beast, he could also transform into a human. It was just that in human form, he could not get rid of the black beast ears and tail.
All the animals in the forest feared him and kept away from him, and he grew up in loneliness. When he was little, after first discovering a human village, he had naively thought he could find companions, only to be beaten all over and driven out.
People hated and feared him, and after discovering his power, they tried every possible way to control and use him. Yet their mouths never stopped saying that he was a symbol of misfortune.
Just like that, Mo Yi grew up amid insults and contempt, suffering humiliation and torment to the fullest. That cold world gave him not even a trace of warmth.
In the end, he could no longer endure it and chose to self-detonate, taking everyone who had trampled on him down with him.
He had originally thought that everything was over, but who knew that when he woke up again, he had not died, and had inexplicably appeared in a completely unfamiliar world.
In his sea of consciousness, there was suddenly this strange little thing, and it chattered at him with a bunch of bizarre words.
Even if he never responded, the other party would still occasionally mutter to itself, and it actually revealed quite a lot of information.
So now, Mo Yi had already learned that this little flower dog was a system created by a place called the Plane Management Bureau, and its number seemed to be 005. He also knew that the other party had approached him because it wanted him to help carry out some mission, apparently to change the fate of the villain in a small world and save the world, and so on.
However, just hearing the two words mission, he had already lost interest.
He had been deceived too many times by people wearing masks of false kindness. It was not that he had never tried to believe, but the result would always disappoint him. He had no interest in being used by anyone again.
As for what the other party said, that if he did not complete the mission, he would not be able to return to his original world, he cared even less.
That kind of world, what was there worth returning to?
He did not have the slightest attachment to his original world, and he also had no expectation at all for this so-called new world.
Without expectations, there would be no disappointment. If he could keep living peacefully like this, he would already be satisfied.
The only bad thing was that this body he now had, said to be a body replicated by the system using energy, was not as sturdy as his original body. His source power could no longer be used, and his other powers had also been suppressed.
Without sharp claws, and no longer able to breathe out flames, he even had no way to turn back into the beast form he had been used to in the past.
But this was fine too. He now looked like a real person, finally no longer an aberration, and there would be far less trouble.
In private, Mo Yi had also tried several times to secretly urge his sea of consciousness, wanting to drive this so-called system away.
But the other side seemed to have taken root in his brain. Most importantly, he actually felt that 005 matched him very well, not at all like it had barged in by force, but rather as if he had actively accepted it.
But how was that possible!
Mo Yi felt that it was a little strange, but strange things had already happened too many times during this period.
After coming to this world, there had even appeared in his mind some memory images he had never had before.
In the images, a man wearing a white robe had been smiling at him the whole time. The man had also taken the initiative to walk over, lift up the little beast version of him, and gently hold him in his arms, stroking the black fur on his body and coaxing him softly.
The man’s voice was clear and cool, but when speaking to him, his tone was full of warmth.
He remembered that man kissing his ears and calling him “Little Mo.” Gently, he said to him, “I’ll give you a name, how about calling you Mo Yi?”
“The Yi with four fires. Look, there’s also a red mark on your forehead like flames, and you’re also good at using fire, I think this character suits you especially well.”
“And most importantly, the meaning of Yi in a name is peace.”