Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The projection screen in front of her disappeared, You Xu’s vision was already blurred, and tears streamed down her face without her realizing it, unaware that her body was trembling.
“Warning, warning, host’s emotional materialization value has reached 60…70…75…breakthrough 80,” the system said, “Initiating emotional reset initialization.”
The memories in You Xu’s mind were stripped away into fragments, many things were like looking through frosted glass, indistinct.
After an unknown amount of time, You Xu stopped crying, calmed down, and after his reason returned, the system began to say: “Please prepare, host, to be transported to the next world.”
You Xu fell into the white light circle and disappeared into the blank space-time.
Waking up in a room filled with festive red, a red veil obscuring her vision, she glanced down at her wedding dress and the gold bracelet on her wrist. You Xu abruptly threw off the veil, without even checking the timeline, she stood up, walked to the table, smashed the porcelain wine pot, and, choosing the sharpest point, plunged it into her neck.
The candlelight flickered, the large red candle dripping tears, blood staining her red dress, leaving blood flowers on the floor.
….
When You Xu opened her eyes again, she was back in a blank timeline. She subconsciously touched her neck, feeling a lingering pain; the shards piercing her were real pain. Only after her life force had completely dissipated did the pain subside and she felt her way back.
This realistic pain made many hosts, even those unwilling to complete missions, hesitant to harm themselves. Therefore, the system’s usually calm voice was unusually angry: “You!”
It was the first time it had encountered resistance from a host: “Don’t you want to return to your original world?”
You Xu coldly replied with an “oh.”
She realized that besides using the desire to return to her original world as a reward— which was actually a threat— they were completely powerless against her.
“Warning,” the system said again, “Host’s Emotional Realization Value has reached 79!”
You Xu remained indifferent: “Oh.”
As mentioned before, the Emotional Realization Value could be incompletely reset due to the host’s own resistance. Besides, they only had the right to reset it once; emotions could still increase.
System: “…Teleport.”
You Xu was teleported to a new world. Upon waking, she saw herself dressed in rough clothes, her large hands calloused, squatting by the river washing clothes with a washing stick.
You Xu sneered, threw down the washing stick, kicked aside the wooden basin in front of her, and jumped directly into the lake. The earthy lake water filled her mouth and nose, her stomach swelled, and she sank deeper and deeper.
When she woke up again, she was surprised to find that she hadn’t returned to the blank spacetime. You Xu looked around the room: carved wooden doors and windows, light gauze curtains on the bed, and herself dressed in fine silks and satins, her hands much more delicate—she was probably a young lady from some wealthy family.
Was this a rebirth novel world?
You Xu pulled out the gold hairpin from her hair and plunged it into her neck without hesitation.
Blood gushed out, and You Xu gritted her teeth, enduring the pain.
When she awoke again, she was still not back. She saw only a pitch-black sky, the shadows of the trees in the darkness stretching like claws, and a cold wind carrying the stench of decay.
You Xu glanced at her small body, confirming that she had been reborn again, abandoned in a pile of corpses in the desolate wilderness.
This time, she still didn’t read the timeline, crawling out of the pile on all fours and leaving.
In this ordinary world, there was an ordinary person, sometimes living a life of hardship, sometimes enjoying flowers and birds. She would travel to sparsely populated areas, watch the sunrise and sunset, pick wild fruits and steal bird eggs, entertaining herself. She would also be mesmerized by the peach blossoms covering the mountains, remembering someone.
When the system’s energy was exhausted, You Xu returned to the blank timeline once more.
The system was furious: “What exactly do you want? Do you know how much energy it takes to send you through time travels? Do you know how difficult it is to find suitable identities for you?”
The system snapped, “I have to meet my performance targets too!”
The opportune moment for negotiation was when the other party was losing their temper, while the system still retained its rationality, and when it clearly felt powerless against them. You Xu seized the opportunity and said, “From my observation, the essence of your missions is actually requiring the targets not to harm the world. If I don’t have to kill them, but can still ensure they don’t turn evil and the world remains stable, is that acceptable?”
The system fell into a long silence. This was the first time a host had made such demands. Previously, when missions were set, the host would just bury themselves in their work.
To be honest, after countless evaluations and long-term experiments, eliminating the root cause was still the best way to eradicate potential threats.
You Xu sat cross-legged, smiling, and said, “Anyway, you’re already bound to me. If you don’t want to, that’s fine too. You just want performance, right? I’ll help you climb the ranks.”
System: “…”
A long silence ensued between the two, then the system gritted its teeth and said, “I’ll report to the host.”
You Xu waited and waited, but after a long time, the system finally spoke again: “Your request is acceptable, but to ensure the stability of the world, the target’s corruption value must be reduced to 0, and their trust in you must reach 100 for the mission to be considered complete.”
“If the target’s corruption value exceeds 80, we will forcibly intervene in the host’s body and control the host’s body to carry out the killing mission. This involves the host’s personal rights, so a contract is required.”
A glass panel appeared in front of You Xu, and she readily pressed her handprint on it.
“Alright,” the system retracted the glass panel, angrily saying, “Start the mission for the next world.”
“No way,” You Xu said.
The system became agitated again: “What’s wrong now?”
You Xu: “I want to reset the first world, according to the new agreement.”
The first world, as a beginner mission, could be reset at a chosen time. Many transmigrators didn’t have high scores or points on their first mission, so they had a chance to reset the parts they didn’t do well enough and improve their points.
“Okay, okay.”
You Xu: “Wait a minute.”
System: “What is it now!”
“I don’t want you,” You Xu said, “I want that stick figure.” The stick figure in her mind had disappeared at some point, turning into an invisible electronic voice.
The system was furious: “I am the professional killing system, 78 is the trainee system, only responsible for signing contracts and explaining some matters.”
You Xu understood. It turned out that this electronic voice had taken over from the killing mission stage, and its performance would be linked to her afterwards, which she was not happy about: “I want it, besides, I don’t need to do killing missions anymore.”
Although 78 was playing Tai Chi in her mind, gossiping, and not doing their job… it was still a good system.
“…” The system felt like it was being used up and then thrown away, but it couldn’t stand this host anymore. It would be better to transfer to another host. Besides, her terms and conditions had changed, which might affect its performance. It was the number one system on the host points leaderboard!
She had already caused it to lose two worlds, and its overall score had dropped considerably. Without it, she’d be crying and wailing in despair.
The extremely efficient electronic voice simply stopped talking, silencing itself. After a while, the poorly made stick figure appeared in the blank space, running over: “Host, waah~”
You Xu remained expressionless, pressing down on the whining monster with one hand: “Alright, hurry up and teleport me back to the first world.”
78 struggled to lift its charcoal-black head, saying with great emotion, “Host, I missed you so much, waah.”
You Xu pressed it down again, clearly only interested in her points. “Hurry up.”
“Okay, host.”
A long timeline appeared before You Xu.
“Please select a time point,” it said in a gentle, reminding tone, “You can only choose red points.”
A quick glance revealed only one red point. You Xu: “…” Did she even need to choose? Upon closer inspection, the point was right at the node of the kill mission.
The author has something to say:
When I first conceived this story, it wasn’t particularly heart-wrenching. But after I typed it out word by word yesterday afternoon, I cried like a fool and almost had a good cry with my best friend.
That’s when I knew I was dead. Then I looked at the comments, and I realized I’d passed away. (
Actually, I didn’t want to spoil it. Not knowing the ending, good or bad, is what creates anticipation. But seeing so many people sending me razor blades, I thought, “If I sell all these blades by weight, I’ll be rich!” [Just kidding.]
Thanks again to the soon-to-be-shut-down courier service for saving me from my impending riches! [That’s not the point.]
Thinking about everyone’s anticipation and emotions for a happy ending, I replied to each comment, emphasizing that this little world has a happy ending (I don’t know if anyone will read it). I felt guilty for shattering some people’s expectations.
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