Chapter 2 - Strawberry Flavored Scholar Gong (2): The most cutest lead and the second most system~
Thank you grump for proof reading
Shifting through the original host’s memory, Gou Liang tugged at his damp hair and looked at his school uniform that had been shoved into the toilet by Ye Hui’s people.
The corner of Gou Liang’s eyes twitched.
【Taking a deep breath, Gou Liang asked: Little Wanton, is there any cheap cleaning prop or any prop that can make a duplicate of the school uniform?】
—So disgusting, even if I’m not this body’s real owner, this kind of thing still can’t be worn.
【The system was surprised upon hearing that he was voluntarily spending points, the system who had already prepared to be a low dog was pleasantly surprised and stammeringly said: Have, have! There is Master, I’ll find it for you right away. 】
【Ding, based on Master’s request, there is a one-time use cleaning talisman, 2 points for one. Duplication prop, the entire set cost 666 points, I recommend a one-time use duplication prop, it cost only 6 points! 】
Gou Liang without any hesitation chose the recommended duplication prop.
A brand new school uniform appeared in front of Gou Liang. After taking off the articles of clothing that hid his wound riddled body, he let out a sigh of relief. As for the abandoned set of uniform, he carefully avoided touching it while retrieving his ID. Afterward, he very irresponsibly just left the uniform on the floor.
Using the original host’s memory he returned to the Ye house. Gou Liang silently headed towards his own room.
The servants didn’t really care about why he didn’t return all night. As for the original host’s mother and stepfather, other than Ye Hui this evil spawn, no one knew that he was out all night—yesterday was Friday, the master of the house had a rare to come by idle weekend. Taking advantage of this, the entire family had already left early this morning for a road trip.
If it weren’t for Gou Liang coming into this world, the original host’s body would only be found by the janitor when the school reopens on Monday.
Thinking up to this point, Gou Liang lifted an eyebrow.
The space and time for the mission worlds have been frozen within the lifespan of the mission targets, if the fragment hasn’t been completely retrieved, then the space and time of the world will repeat itself automatically. Within this limited time and space, all the deaths and births of souls are already pre-established. This time and space were formed by lord god before his consciousness fell into a deep slumber, it independently maintains the stability of the world.
Therefore, any extra soul will be obliterated.
This means that the soul of the mission undertaker cannot independently exist in the mission world.
They enter the mission worlds through the passageways left behind by lord god before lord god’s consciousness had fallen asleep. The opening and closing of these entries are momentary.
Consequently, when mission undertakers arrive in the mission world they must immediately find a body that had just died. They need a host whose soul hasn’t been received by lord god’s consciousness yet so that they could replace them. The time for finding a host is very limited, when a system is searching for a host they would pick a soul base on weak interrelation and long lifespan— these two principles to pick a host for the mission undertaker. For example, Gou Liang was immediately placed into a host the moment he entered the world.
In other words, Qi Cheng’s soul that is being sealed and frozen in the system space is not truly considered to be a deceased soul.
Gou Liang curved his lips.
If he wasn’t wrong, then before the system locks onto the mission target, he can pass time however he wants..before Gou Liang could continue thinking, a sound from his stomach interrupted him.
The Master and Madame of the house weren’t home, the kitchen staff slacked off and didn’t prepare any food for Gou Liang.
Fortunately, Gou Liang found a bank card in the original host’s drawer—the Ye House’s financial situation is extremely good, although the original’s stepfather didn’t really care about him, he didn’t wrong him materially. The card that he’s holding right now, a sum of money would be periodically wired to it as his allowance.
However, the more inferior the original host felt, the more he would try to protect his dignity, he never ate food that was thrown his way. This bank card had never been used before but now it is now under Gou Liang’s complete control.
Gou Liang was very satisfied with this.
His meager salary plus the fact that he has to raise two spirit pets that were equivalent to two bottomless pits meant that he had never experienced what it was like to boldly squander money. If he doesn’t live it up now then when will he!
He switched into an inconspicuous T-shirt and jeans, Gou Liang happily hummed a song as he walked out the door.
Song Lyrics ↓↓
“Eggplant stir fry, garlic noodles, cola chicken wings, I love to eat eat eat~ sour-sweet spare ribs, curry beef stew, red wine steak, drooling saliva~~ simmered fried fish, giant steamed mud crab, mala crayfish, I’m coming for you you you..”
【System: Spicy ears, save me! 〒▽〒】
Gou Liang ordered a large amount of food all at once, when the system for the third time pushed out a warning for the host’s stomach capacity exceeding the limit, Gou Liang let out a satisfied burp and reluctantly placed down his chopsticks. He raised his hand and said: “Waiter, pack it up for me please!”
The system had a heart full of ridicule but didn’t know where to start.
But to the system’s surprise, Gou Liang didn’t bring the food home for storage, instead, he went around for a stroll outside. He came up to a dirty alley that was piled high with trash and fed the remaining food to the hungry stray cats and dogs.
【System: Master, I’ve misunderstood you, you’re a big big big good person! Moved and crying JPG.】
【Gou Liang: ..No, you really misunderstood.】
Gou Liang tried his best to make a gentle expression as he soothed the stray dog and cats, his heart was drowned by a powerful flood. As for giving away his food, Gou Liang felt heartache but for the greater cause, he held back the urge to snatch back his food.
As for the ‘reason’ that could cause Gou Liang to place more importance on than food, there was naturally only one and that is lovely spirit coins.
This answer gave the innocent system a fatal hit.
【Gou Liang: I’ve tested it just now, although I’m away on fieldwork, this body is still under the restriction of a Space-Time Administration employee, the reward and penalty system is still effective on me. 】
The system don’t understand.
【Gou Liang patiently explained: Employee rule No.220: Actions that cause harm to the host’s body will result in different degrees of punishment such as a fee with a minimum of 30 spirit coins or even spending up to a century in solitary confinement. Although according to the contract, mission undertakers will have a certain degree of immunity to prosecution, we still have to be fined once with 30 spirit coins. Employee rule No.109: Actions that cause the host’s body to feel appreciation, gratitude, and give positive feedback that is equivalent to soul force can be converted into spirit coins as an additional reward. The lowest unit is one spirit coin.】
【Just now, my personal bank account increased by 55 spirit coins, that’s more than a day of my salary ne! So I have decided—】
【System: N-no need to for the details, My! Dear! Master!】
Faced with a master like Gou Liang who didn’t have any urgency or reverence for the mission but instead wants to wholeheartedly make extra cash, the system expresses ridicule and helplessness.
But what could it do about it ne?
There were so many failed cases before them, they had only just arrived at this world and the system had only just begun the work of searching for the mission target. They haven’t even met a single person that could trigger a match. So the system could only say: Master, as long as you’re happy ^—^
After the food was completely eaten by the stray animals, Gou Liang patiently brushed their fur. When it was time for him to leave, even the haughtiest feline creature was using its tiny claws to tug at the hem of his pants, unwilling to let him go.
Gou Liang revealed his dimples, smiled and said: “Be good, I’ll come see you again next time.”historical
A single sentence, a smile, and he received a gift of 10 spirit coins.
Gou Liang: *?(?′?`?)?* What is mission, can you eat it!
The system who had received a blow felt his microchips burning up, it swallowed its anger and begin to speed up the process of filtering out targets.
Gou Liang strolled around for a while outside, for him, the things in this world were a novel experience, although when he was extracting souls at work he had seen similar sights, in the end he could only look and not touch plus it was only the deceased’s memories. There was still a big difference in experiencing it for himself.
The world that Gou Liang had originally lived, civilization had long collapsed by the time he was born with only chaos remaining, he had only ever heard of the flourishing periods of the past from predecessors a generation older than him. The longings for a peaceful and stable world, from then on was buried in Gou Liang’s heart, now that he finally has a chance to experience it, he naturally have to make this trip worthwhile.
Gou Liang enjoyed a delicious dinner and it was not until nightfall did he finally returned to the Ye house.
The first night after coming into this world, Gou Liang hasn’t been idle, he sorted out the original host’s study material.
The original host was a student with average grades but his study habits were very good. At the very least he was partial towards literature, all the textbooks were neatly placed onto the bookshelves or have stored inside the trunk, even the textbooks from elementary school could be found.
Gou Liang spent five hours and went through the education that the original host had received for the past 15 years.
The room that was located at the end of the hallway and was ignored by everyone, at this moment if someone had pushed open the door and peeked inside, they would certainly be stupefied by the scene before them.
The book that was spread out on his knees, the pages were flipping one their own at a fast pace, creating a pleasant rustling sound.
The system is already unable to understand his master: Saying that he’s cheapskate isn’t false but he also really knows how to live it up. Look, isn’t it because he was too lazy to flip the pages by himself so he spent 5 points and bought a wind gathering talisman that’s effective for 5 hours from the system shop?
As the system was silently roasted his master, Gou Liang relaxed his body and leisurely sank down into the couch. As he read his book, he would scoop some ice cream and send it into his mouth, narrowing his eyes in contentment as he savors it.
In the Space-Time Administration Department, although the treatment of a soul filing administrator employee wasn’t the best, the recruitment standard for this position was actually the most severe out of the entire department. In order to qualify for this position, you must have an outstanding memory.
It was said that a thousand years ago there was an incident with the Filing Administration Department’s system causing it to overload. As a result, many sections of the soul records were lost. They were unable to look up the origins and destinations of the souls and it caused a huge inconvenience for the investigation work that happens after the filing part of the process. From then on, all soul filing administrator employees are responsible for memorizing the serial numbers of the souls that they file.
There is an unimaginable amount of souls in the myriads of worlds, this seemingly simple requirement is enough to eliminate two-thirds of the people with strong soul forces in the Space-Time Administration Department.
But these two-thirds of people also rejoiced.
The disparity in the benefits given and the amount of work required from this position immediately made soul filing administration the most undesirable post. This post is a position that sat firmly at the bottom of the Space-Time Department pyramid.
Back then Gou Liang was just a newcomer and didn’t understand the circumstances, on account of his outstanding memory he was “regarded highly” by the person guiding him back then and was assigned to the soul filing administration without another word. Later on, when he knew what was going on, he endlessly cursed the other party.
Gou Liang was born as a spirit user, even though his soul force was sealed right now, his memory, IQ, and eyesight that was improved by the soul returning grass still far superior to an average person’s. This level of reading for him was like a butcher handling his cleaver with ease.
Soon after, he controlled the wind gathering talisman to retrieve the next book.
The system whose brain is exploding shakingly climbed out from a pile of text and inquired weakly.
【My dearest Master, what are you doing?? T T】
【Gou Liang: Didn’t you say you don’t want to hear the details?】
【System: ..ying, I was wrong Master!】
【Gou Liang raised a brow, he revealed an “at least you know wrong” expression and said: Qi Cheng’s soul being sealed in the system space means that he’s still part of the body, his soul force will still be under his control. Since the reward and penalty system is effective, why can’t I treat the host as a client? Moreover, I remember that there was a special remark for rule number 109— if the negative soul force on the body can be reversed to positive soul force, the obtained soul force will be given to mission undertakers in equal amounts. Don’t you feel that this is very interesting?】
Spirit coins.
They are formed by soul force and is a dedicated food for the soul.
However, the employees of the Space-Time Administration Department all have very powerful soul force, unless they were injured they didn’t need any additional supplements for their soul force. Therefore, the soul forces that have been stored outside as a reserve became the common currency of spirit coins instead of food for souls.
All living things possess soul force, the only difference is whether it’s strong or weak, positive or negative.
Negative soul force is something very dangerous.
Take humans as an example, if a person’s negative soul force outweighs their positive soul force then that person will either be apathetic and pessimistic or that’s someone that’s vicious and cruel. The common ground is: these types of people are highly dangerous existence.
This danger isn’t just directed towards other people, it is also directed at oneself.
Someone that committed suicide will definitely possess more negative soul force than a murderer who had killed someone.
In short, all evil in the world will breed negative soul force and be fed back by it. This is not a good thing.
Compared to filing administrator employees, the most profitable profession in the Space-Time Administration Department was the job that comes a step before the extracting and filing of the soul which is the soul force recovery employees— they are specifically in charge of extracting the soul force of the deceased soul before sending the soul to the Filing Administration Department to undergo recycling. Of course, the soul force they extract also consists of positive and negative soul forces, after the negative soul force is extracted from the deceased soul it must be kept separately to receive an expensive and time-consuming purification process before it could be used again.
Therefore, it is best if the negative soul force can be reversed while the holder is still alive, hence the existence of the special rule.
Positive soul force is the opposite.
When someone is genuinely grateful towards a person, the other party would receive a portion of the other’s soul force, making them feel fulfilled or happy. For example, the stray cats and dogs that were fed by Gou Liang will give him their soul force for free out of gratitude.
Since Gou Liang is being restricted by the laws of space and time, the soul force he received will automatically be sent to the soul force depot of the Space-Time Administration Department before being distributed back to him. The soul force earned by him just now is far more than just 65 spirit coins— base on Gou Liang’s experience after the soul force went through the department’s “financing”, his reward was only a tenth of the actual amount.
Back at the Space-Time Administration Department, Gou Liang would definitely not stand for this kind of “Lei Feng Behavior” but now was different from back then, before the mission target appears he had nothing to do, wouldn’t it be perfect to earn some extra income?
When he receives the original host’s “soul force gift”, then whether or not the mission could be completed, he would still be able to earn a large sum. To explain this by taking ten thousand steps back, even if he doesn’t make much in the end, those despicable soul recovery employees that had made fun of him for 990 years, as long as he can make them receive an empty shell without soul force after the mission is over, Gou Liang could only express: How exhilarating!
Besides, although the original host lived like a failure, on the accord that the body could contain his soul, the original’s soul force shouldn’t be too weakne. ≡?≡?
【System: ..I unexpectedly can’t say anything back. m( _ _ )m 】
The fragments were scattered among the worlds but because of their special attributes, the Space-Time Administration Department couldn’t accurately lock onto the mission target. They could only use the roughest method to filter out the souls one by one, souls with the compatibility of more than 60% will undergo a second screening.
No one can predict how long this process will take nor can they confirm if the mission target is the true fragment holder.
Thus faced with Gou Liang’s slack attitude, the system can only turn a blind eye to it.
*
Sunday, 7 o’clock at night, the Ye family of four came back from their two days and one night trip.
They had already eaten dinner, when Stepfather entered the door and saw the empty dining room, he looked towards Gou Liang who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and asked if he had eaten. After receiving an affirmative response, there was no second communication between them. As for the original’s birth mother, she was a housewife that only cared about coaxing her youngest son Ye Yao, from start to end she had never noticed that her eldest son was standing right there not far away from her.
Ye Hui stood in a spot where his father wouldn’t see and surveyed Gou Liang. He meaningfully lifted his phone and was satisfied to see the opposite party cower and hide back into his room.
Monday.
Father Ye watched his three children get into the car before starting his own car and driving to work. What he didn’t know was that when the two cars had driven out of the district’s gate, Gou Liang was viciously pushed out of the car door by Ye Hui. The driver had long grown used to this sight, he didn’t even stop the car, only slowing it down slightly.
Ye Hui stretched out of the car’s window and waved at him: “There’s still 20 minutes before class, don’t be late and lost face for the Ye House.”
On his face was a vile smile.
In the car, Ye Yao burst out into a peal of loud laughter. It was as if it was only natural for this older brother born from the same mother as him to be bullied.
The car turned and left, Gou Liang who was sprayed with a faceful of engine gas: ..
He asked the system to buy a cleaning talisman and silently stared at the black limousine in the distance.
【System: M-m-master, you must endure it ah! Murdering someone will be fined, do you still remember this!】
【The malicious intent surrounding Gou Liang immediately scattered, he nodded: You’re right, I almost forgot. However, it’s not like I can only use murdering this one method to teach him a lesson. In this world, there are plenty of ways to make living feel worse than death. As long as the soul isn’t damaged..heh.】
System: This strong sense of uneasiness must be an illusion, ┭┮﹏┭┮
Of course, Gou Liang was still late to school.
Relying on feet to walk a distance that will take 20 minutes by car is enough to break a leg, not to mention that right now Gou Liang is still “heavily wounded”. When he slowly arrived at school, the morning’s first and second class had already finished, even the radio exercise have already been completed.
YuLe City High is an extremely expensive private school. However, the school campus itself wasn’t that big. After entering the main gate and walking up a gentle slope, there will be a 丄 shaped road. On the left side of the road was a sudden clearing that gave away to the sports field and the school building. On the right side was an avenue that led to a chapel, a library, and the cafeteria.
At the spot where the roads intersected was an eye-catching LED screen that publicizes the school’s moral and overall ranking. Beside it was a row of announcement boards.
Currently, this place was crowded with students who’ve just finished with the radio exercise.
【System: Master, I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen.】
【Gou Liang: No, it is already happening.】
Sure enough, a student who had noticed him suddenly yelled: “It’s Qi Cheng! Everyone look, Qi Cheng is here!”
A person with an especially large lung capacity blurted out: “Haha, Zhan Yongzhe, come and see who came! Hey, everyone make some space so it’s easier for the two male leads to cultivate their feelings ah! A confession in front of the whole school oh! Qi Cheng, you’re really too amazing, just by this point alone I will admit defeat ten thousand times! Top student Zhan, what are you still standing there for, Qi Cheng said that he likes you, at night he also wants to hug you to sleep ne! Give the other person a chance ma!”
Zhan Yongzhe angrily pushed aside the crowd and dashed towards Gou Liang. He gave Gou Liang a look of disgust. His hands were curled tightly into a fist by his side, he looked as if he wanted nothing more than to punch him.
The onlookers held their breath as they watched the show, this obviously had nothing to do with them yet they felt tense and excited.
But in the end, top student Zhan has proven himself to be able to endure what an ordinary person can not, he didn’t beat anyone up as the audience had expected. He only ruthlessly smashed the drink in his hand, his expression was like he had just eaten a mouthful of flies. He venomously said to Gou Liang: “Qi Cheng, you make me sick!”
【Ding, the matching function has been triggered! A susceptible target has been discovered, the system map will now cover the entire YuLe City High and begin a match search!】