Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Lou Sheng crouched and waited for a few minutes, but didn’t hear the voice in his head again. He stood up, feeling a bit uneasy.

If it really was a hallucination, he’d be in trouble. He didn’t have the money to see a psychiatrist now, and he heard it was quite expensive.

"Don’t worry, it’s not a hallucination. Your physical indicators are all relatively normal, though you are somewhat malnourished."

Lou Sheng’s legs went stiff, and his face turned ashen as he left the garbage station, climbing the stairs to the fourth floor. His rented apartment was on the fourth floor.

After closing the door, he threw his backpack on the table and lay down on the wooden bed without a word. He had no appetite for the leftover bun and silently calculated how much it would cost to see a doctor.

He truly understood the saying, "When it rains, it pours."

017 began, "I’m not..."

Lou Sheng turned over in pain and said irritably, "Can you just shut up?"

017 fell silent.

His mind stayed quiet for a full ten minutes, quite obedient. Lou Sheng’s expression grew even more unpleasant.

He’d never heard of anyone with a mental illness being able to control it themselves.

Finally, he said, "Talk."

"Hello."

"I am an emotion collection system from the GV Department, numbered 009-017, currently responsible for collecting GV in the real world."

None of it made sense to Lou Sheng.

"Sorry, I was worried you’d cut me off, so I rushed the explanation."

Lou Sheng took a deep breath, feeling a shiver.

This thing could read his mind...

017 said, "Since the system was just activated, all permissions are open. Once you restrict some permissions, I won’t eavesdrop on your thoughts without your consent."

Lou Sheng stayed silent, but doubts lingered.

017 sent a document directly to his mind.

It included a brief overview of the GV Department, the system’s duties, and more.

The GV Department is divided into two types of systems: one assists hosts in completing tasks and collecting GV in virtual worlds, while the other operates in the real world. Hosts in virtual worlds are typically deceased souls, while hosts in the real world are selected from marginalized individuals who exist outside the world’s main narrative to avoid the butterfly effect on the worldline.

When a host helps others, they receive positive emotional energy from them. This emotional energy collected by the system is called GV. Because of GV’s unique nature, even some highly spiritual non-human animals can produce emotional energy.

After reading, Lou Sheng mocked, "So you want me to turn into some kind of do-gooder?"

017 replied gently, "That’s the gist of it."

"Listen..." Lou Sheng curled his lips, "When you pick someone, can you at least check if they’re in a position to help?"

He was the victim, and 017 was the perpetrator. From the current perspective, 017 had indeed chosen the wrong person. Lou Sheng was already in dire straits himself, so how could he possibly have the energy to help others?

017 remained calm. Through Lou Sheng’s body, he saw the gray walls around him, and the room was painfully bare.

"Accumulating a certain level of gratitude points can improve the host's current living conditions..."

"No need," Lou Sheng interrupted. "Find someone else, please."

"Sorry, but once the system is bound, it can't be unbound quickly."

"That's your issue. I'm too busy to deal with some lousy task," Lou Sheng said.

No matter the system's purpose or what it could offer, he didn't need it.

He just wanted to live his life and trust only himself.

017 went quiet.

After a while of silence in his head, Lou Sheng carefully got up, concerned that 017 would keep bothering him.

"Hey, what was it, 009?" Lou Sheng couldn't remember the long system number, only vaguely recalling the first few digits, 009-XXX.

"Just call me 017."

"What's the deal?"

"017 is my system number in the department, 009 is the department number." The first 0 stands for the real world, and 09 is the GV Department's code.

"Alright, 017, just stop bugging me."

"You're being too polite."

Lou Sheng wondered how he was being polite and realized it was the "please" in his sentence.

—Crazy system.

017: "I heard that."

"..."

017: "If you want, I can disable the passive mind-reading feature. Only the thoughts you want me to hear will get through; the rest will be blocked. You can curse in private from now on."

Lou Sheng: "Turn it off."

He muttered a few more things to himself and found that 017 indeed didn't respond.

Lou Sheng told 017 to leave him alone, and by bedtime, 017 didn't show up again, nor did he pester him to do tasks.

The next morning, Lou Sheng woke up with a clear mind. The fresh morning breeze came through the open window, leaving him feeling unusually at ease.

Last night felt like a dream.

Lou Sheng called out in his heart: "017?"

017: "I'm here."

Lou Sheng: ...

Why is it still here?

017 patiently explained: "I mentioned to you yesterday that it can't be unbound quickly."

Lou Sheng was forced to accept the fact that he had to coexist with this unknown creature for a while. "Why did you pick me as the host?"

After a two-second pause, he heard the response.

"...This is the result of a random system assignment."

*

Lou Sheng rushed to catch the pre-morning rush bus, but by the time he reached the school area, it was still packed.

He stood by the bus’s rear door, his brow slightly furrowed.

Being hemmed in by the crowd was downright annoying.

Lou Sheng stood the whole ride, ignoring the occasional empty seat—he couldn’t be bothered to fight for one. As they neared the school, more students in the same uniform boarded, chatting like they knew each other. Even though it was early September, they were still in summer short sleeves.

Beiyang High’s summer uniform was plain—white with the school emblem on the chest and two blue stripes at the cuffs. It was plain to the point of being ugly.

At their stop, Lou Sheng was practically spat out by the bus door, along with a handful of other uniformed students.

Unlike Lou Sheng’s stoic face, they trailed behind him, laughing and buzzing with youthful energy.

They were just ordinary folks, far from the dazzling stars blessed by fate. But their smiles still shone bright.

017 watched quietly from inside Lou Sheng.

Lou Sheng walked into the classroom early.

The first day of school buzzed with enthusiasm. By the time he walked in, half the seats were filled.

Lou Sheng took a seat in the back row.

"Morning, desk mate…" Zhang Antong slid a chair out for him, all casual and eager.

Lou Sheng hooked the chair leg with his calf, tugged it back, dropped his bag on the desk, and sat down.

Zhang Antong leaned in, "Saw you getting punished outside yesterday, Sheng. Didn’t finish your homework?"

"Finished it. A scrap collector must’ve snatched it."

Zhang Antong snorted, "Bro, at least come up with a believable excuse? I mean, how’d Teacher Liang even let you get punished?"

Teacher Liang couldn’t stand students lying to her face.

In the whole class, only Teacher Liang knew Lou Sheng lived apart from his parents—the others were clueless. So, to Zhang Antong, Lou Sheng was the real deal—tougher than he was.

Lou Sheng was a loner by nature, rarely smiled, and once in class, he’d stay at his desk—either sleeping or studying.

He had good looks, but his unsmiling face made him seem intimidating, so most classmates kept their distance.

While others kept their distance, Lou Sheng also drew a circle around himself, isolating everyone else from his world. Apart from Liu Xing, he didn’t even have friends at Beiyang High School.

On the first day of school, the teachers spent half the class chatting, and the morning passed quickly.

When Lou Sheng ate at the school cafeteria, it was the same as usual, even more frugal than normal.

017 looked at his meal tray and thought: Eating like this could easily lead to malnutrition.

Then it occurred to him that his host seemed to already be malnourished.

After two classes in the afternoon, Lou Sheng started to feel listless.

At this age, most guys want to be as tall as they can be, but Lou Sheng hopes for an average height. He really dislikes his own build, thinking that since he's neither an athlete nor a model, what's the point of being taller? It's not like he's going to reach the sky or anything.

By the third period, his fingers started to tremble slightly as he held the pen. The physics teacher's voice went in one ear and out the other.

Lou Sheng couldn't keep up with the lesson, but his hand didn't stop, copying all the key points from the blackboard into his textbook.

Seeing him write non-stop, Zhang Antong pushed his supplementary book towards Lou Sheng and said, "You should get one of these; they're super helpful. They cover all the formula variations, so you don't need to take notes. I bought ones for math and physics, and I don't need notebooks anymore."

Knowing he meant well, Lou Sheng replied, "I’m good, the textbook’s enough."

Zhang Antong sighed enviously, "Yeah, I guess it’s true that struggling students have more supplies."

He was Lou Sheng's desk mate last semester as well, and he just did his homework and didn’t bother with extra practice, yet he consistently stayed in the top ten of the class.

When the class bell rang, Lou Sheng grabbed his cup and went to the front of the room to get some water, then returned and took out the textbook for the next class from his desk.

His fingers touched something hard inside the desk, and Lou Sheng paused, touching it again to confirm it was something that shouldn't be there.

He pulled it out and saw a palm-sized, square thing wrapped in black packaging.

It was a heavy piece of chocolate.

Lou Sheng raised an eyebrow and leaned down to peek inside the desk.

Along with the chocolate, there was a bag of milk candies and a bottle of milk.

Right then, Zhang Antong came back from the bathroom, and Lou Sheng called out to him, "Antong, who left this here?"

Zhang Antong looked confused, "No idea, I was in the bathroom and didn’t see anything."

"..."

"All sweets? Probably some girl left them there," Zhang Antong said, looking a bit envious. "And it’s only the first day of school..."

Why doesn’t he ever get this kind of attention from girls?

Lou Sheng remained silent, noticing that the packaging of the sweets had only patterns, no text.

Besides, he wouldn’t accept gifts from others, and who would even dare touch snacks that were more unmarked than generic brands?

017, overhearing their conversation, chimed in, "I put them there."

"I detected your blood sugar is low; you need to refuel."

Lou Sheng was startled.

"...You have this kind of function?"

017: "It’s no big deal."

"Take it away." Lou Sheng understood the principle of not accepting favors.

017 said, "Can't take it back."

It really couldn't be taken back; items exchanged from the service point couldn't be returned.

"I said I wouldn't do tasks for you."

"Mm."

Lou Sheng frowned, "I won't eat it."

017: "Okay."

Lou Sheng: ...