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ntranslator: baumkuchen editors: serefina, glitterypanda

nAfter working hard for an entire morning, Cheng Jian decided to take a break once his younger brother sent him his lunchbox from downstairs. As he ate, he casually took the opportunity to browse his brother’s Weibo.

nBut with this glance, he found a problem.

nHe tried to call Cheng Yuan.

nHis first phone call wasn’t picked up, so he contacted Su Xiulun to find out the whole story. After confirming that his younger brother had just gotten involved out of bad luck, he let out a slight sigh of relief.

nHe hurriedly finished off the meal his younger brother had sent him, and tried calling him again after half an hour. This time, Cheng Yuan picked up.

nHis voice held a hint of exhaustion as he told him he was okay.

nCheng Jian said, “Okay my ass. You’re at home?”

nCheng Yuan said, “On the way home.”

nCheng Jian said, “Go straight home, don’t go anywhere else. Wait for ge to get home.”

nCheng Jian knew that his younger brother wasn’t the type who could bear burdens.

nHe went downstairs. When he was just about to leave, the front desk receptionist told him that a man surnamed Yang had come by looking for him.

nCheng Jian asked, “When was this?”

nThe receptionist thought for a moment, “An hour ago, just when your younger brother came by to send you your meal.”

nCheng Jian, “……” Fuck.

nUpon reaching home, Chi Xiaochi shut himself in his room, acting dejected.

nCheng Jian arrived home almost right on his heels. The moment he entered the house, he ran right up to Cheng Yuan’s room.

nChi Xiaochi recounted Yang Baihua’s shameless demand and selectively skipped over his own response. It could be said to be appropriately concise.

nBefore Cheng Jian even heard the whole story, he started rolling up his sleeves, planning to have a little ‘chat’ with Yang Baihua.

nChi Xiaochi pulled him back, “Ge, don’t.”

nCheng Jian gave him a look, “Don’t? What don’t? Do you seriously still want to stay with him……”

nChi Xiaochi lowered his head, “With the way the two of us are now, there’s no longer any point in us being together.”

nAs his little brother officially announced his breakup, Cheng Jian was stunned.

nBut he decisively seized this opportunity and began a thousand word rant, launching a personal attack on Yang Baihua. He systematically dissected every way Yang Baihua wasn’t worthy of Cheng Yuan, yet even as he finished his scolding, he was still thinking indignantly, How dare you break up with my younger brother, you foolish piece of ** who’s never seen the world.

n……From this, it could be seen that Mister Cheng was really contradictory and had extreme double standards.

nConcerned Cheng Jian would talk his mouth dry, Chi Xiaochi worriedly handed him a cup of water and said, especially amiably, “Ge. I’ve made you worry.”

nAs if petting a golden retriever, Cheng Jian pressed down on his younger brother’s head and shook it. He was full of words he wanted to say to him, but in the end, he only spoke a single sentence.

n“Idiot. Just focus on your singing.”

nThe situation developed just as Chi Xiaochi had expected.

nBy the deadline of their bet, an hour before dinner, Chi Xiaochi’s Weibo post clarifying the situation had been forwarded more than 30 thousand times, and the comments had passed 10 thousand.

nAs for Tang Huan’s studio’s Weibo post, the comments section below were even more lively.

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nRight after the studio’s statement was released, it was met with a powerful slap to the face. Their so-called “audio source leak” became an utter joke.

n……In one breath, their audio source leaked into works that had been released several years ago. Tang Huan, are you a plagiarist or did you transmigrate? Pick one.

nAs for the marketing account that had been plagiarized from, Yundu had to spend such a huge sum of money on ‘public relations’ that this time the person had always been on top of hot topics like these, often playing the part of Tang Huan’s white knight, putting on a suit of shining armour and charging headfirst into enemy lines, was as quiet as a chicken.

nNetizens watching the excitement were eager to see the situation blow up, and would continuously @ said marketing account, calling for him to speak out.

nIt was not until Yundu’s new statement was released that everyone happily shifted their attentions.

nIn the new statement, the studio apologised to the public by saying that these two songs that were suspected of plagiarism had been bought and posting screenshots of the relevant contracts. They then solemnly expressed that they would make sure to hold the seller accountable and safeguard the creative rights of the original artist. Tang Huan would also be holding a conference for a public apology, inviting all fans to watch, and so on.

nMinutes after the new statement was released, the plagiarised party followed by releasing a very official-sounding, seemingly carefully doctored statement, thanking Yundu for clarifying this misunderstanding in a timely manner, and at the same time, expressing the need for the plagiarist to be held responsible for their wrongs, so as to open up a new sky for original music.

nThe fifth anniversary of Tang Huan’s debut was turned into a complete warzone, resulting in an utter mess.

nIn response to this kind of explanation, some were completely convinced, while others scoffed disdainfully.

nChi Xiaochi also threw in his two cents: “Sacrificing the pawns to save the queen.”

n061 said, “I can imagine.”

nChi Xiaochi held up his phone as he made his analysis.

nAlthough the screenshots provided by Tang Huan’s office had blacked out the name of the seller, it was still entirely possible to make out the two words under the shadow.

nIn order to save the backbone of their company, Tang Huan, what Yundu would have Yang Xiaoyan sacrifice, Yang Xiaoyan herself probably couldn’t even imagine.

nThose netizens who had been waiting for the two to rip into each other collectively expressed their lack of excitement, and then moved on to begin speculating about which of Tang Huan’s previous songs had been bought.

nAs a result, Tang Huan’s fans couldn’t stay silent any longer. Passersby and fans formed groups to tear into one another, making it extremely lively.

nThe second half of this play had nothing to do with Chi Xiaochi, so he was finally able to pull himself out of that mess and just happily watch the ruckus.

nAs he scrolled through the comments, he sighed regretfully, “Look, who doesn’t have at least a few placentas among their fans. I think that they’re looking forward to the end of their idol.”

n061 expressed his agreement, then said, “A lot of those watching the ruckus also aren’t fuel-efficient lamps either. They don’t actually care about the truth of the matter. When they’re done eating their melons, they’ll just find a place to spit out the seeds from time to time. This is what the oh-so-classy ‘entertainment gossip’ really is. Even though the studio cleared up the plagiarism accusations, when Tang Huan releases new songs in the future, there’ll definitely be people in the comments below scolding her for plagiarising, don’t you agree?”

nChi Xiaochi laughed, “You’ve really thought a lot about this.”

n061 said gently, “It’s because of you that I’ve thought about this.”

nChi Xiaochi, “……Ah?”

n061 had recently finished watching every single variety show Chi Xiaochi had appeared in.

nIn Chi Xiaochi’s original world, one particular stain on his career was being “illiterate”.

nOn one of his variety show interviews, the host asked him what his favourite book was.

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nChi Xiaochi answered, “《Harry Potter》.”

nThe host laughed and said in the past when he’d asked other guests before, all the guests would say that they liked reading 《Dream of the Red Chamber》, 《Jane Eyre》and other such famous works of literature. Chi Xiaochi was the first person who made known that they liked this kind of non-serious literature.

nChi Xiaochi wasn’t in the least concerned, “Is it so unspeakable?”

nThe host, “Then who’s your favourite character?”

nChi Xiaochi, “Sirius Black.”

nThe host, “Ah, a popular character. Can you tell us a bit about why you like him?”

nChi Xiaochi spoke in a confident and composed manner, “During his 13 years in Azkaban, Black survived for the sake of taking revenge for his friends. With his indomitable spirit and love for his friends, he was able to hold on, even able to eat rats in order to survive. ……I like his ending, he accomplished his dream, and as his godfather, was able to stay together forever with Harry, giving Harry a home, together, the two of them……”

nThe more the host listened, the more he found that there was something wrong. He interrupted Chi Xiaochi, saying, “But Sirius died in the end.”

nChi Xiaochi was clearly stunned, “……Died?”

nThe host laughed, “You don’t even know his ultimate ending?”

nThis mistake seemed to have hit Chi Xiaochi quite hard. For the rest of the interview, he seemed to be rather dazed when asking and answering questions, quite unlike himself.

nAfter this program was broadcasted, he received a lot of mockery for while, saying that Chi Xiaochi wanted to establish himself as a well-read literati, but this was beyond him, as his true character really was, after all, a good-for-nothing who couldn’t even get into university.

nThis black material was made into a set of screenshots by elitists and was often brought out to be presented when people started listing illiterate stars.

n061 felt like Chi Xiaochi had been given an injustice.

nHe said frankly, “I don’t think anyone would try to use 《Harry Potter》to establish themselves as an erudite person, and I don’t think that your three consecutive years of winning scholarships was fake. You probably just remembered some details of the story wrong and didn’t deserve to be criticised like that.”

nChi Xiaochi was unusually silent.

nAfter quite a while, he finally spoke, “I’m a public figure. No matter whether it’s positive or negative, dealing with public opinion is required coursework.”

n061 said, “If I had been around back then……”

nBefore he finished his sentence, 061 abruptly stopped speaking.

nChi Xiaochi laughed, “It would’ve been nice if you could have been there, you could helped me delete the posts. Every year, my PR fees are upwards of a million yuan. Lucas has almost worried himself to death.”

nLucas was Chi Xiaochi’s manager.

nHearing this, 061 chuckled, “It’s because you’re always making trouble.”

nActually, what 061 had wanted to say just then was, if I had been there back then, at least you would have a friend to accompany and comfort you.

nAs far as he knew, Chi Xiaochi had few friends in the circle. On the one hand, he had a high starting point, an independent personality, and didn’t like to make friends with people within the circle. On the other, as an actor, he had an unrestrained temperament, constantly making trouble and causing everyone in the circle to simply respect him from a distance.

nAs for why he didn’t say it, it was because 061 thought of how he had been reformatted by the Lord God before.

nAfter being reformatted, every one of 061’s system friends had advised him to not get too close to mere acquaintances, and although it was true that building a good relationship with his host would make it easier to carry out tasks, it was too easy to cause unknown problems.

nThinking this way, although he really admired Chi Xiaochi, it would still be best if he intentionally kept his distance.

nAs the human and system were chatting, Su Xiulun called, asking him to come over to the Xingyun music department if he had any time the next day as they had completed preparation of their preliminary work and could start recording the master copies of the songs.

nChi Xiaochi was still on the phone when he suddenly heard 061 make a sound of “yi”.

nHe didn’t at all react, and waited until he hung up before asking, “What’s up?”

n061, “The Lord God told me to return to the ‘Space Between Moments’ 3 hours after receiving this notification.”

nChi Xiaochi, “‘Lord God? ‘Space Between Moments’?”

n061 gave an easy-to-understand explanation, “The Lord God is my immediate superior. The ‘Space Between Moments’ is his office.”

nChi Xiaochi understood, and waved a hand, saying, “Then go. There’s nothing important going on here.”

n061 said, “The Lord God made the rule that systems can only return to the space when the host’s brainwaves have entered a stable state —— that is, after falling asleep. In the case of such abrupt summons, we need to have another system help fill in for us, ensuring that the rights of the hosts are not affected.

nChi Xiaochi asked, “Fill in? Who is it?”

n061 couldn’t help but laugh, “You know him. 009.”

nChi Xiaochi thought back for a moment.

nOh, that description writer with dreams of becoming a gourmet.

n061 said, “009 is a good kid, he’s just a little noisy.”

nAfter explaining the situation to Chi Xiaochi, 061 accepted the summons, and all the noise coming from him immediately stopped.

nChi Xiaochi’s mind was silent for a moment, before a young AI voice full of vigour sounded, “Host number 1198, I am system number 009, wholeheartedly at your service.”

nChi Xiaochi, “Hello.”

n009, “Hello. May I ask if you’ve eaten? May I ask if I can scrounge a meal from you?”

nChi Xiaochi, “……” Aren’t you being a little too straightforward?

n009 said with quite a bit of embarrassment, “I’ve heard 061 say that Chi Xiaochi’s cooking is delicious many, many times and I’ve always wanted to try it.”

nChi Xiaochi, “He’s said it many many times?”

nAfter a minute of subtle silence, 009 directly skipped over the question.

nHe pleaded, “I had to promise 089 that I would take ten night shifts before I could walk through the back door to get this opportunity.”

nChi Xiaochi asked, “Who’s 089?”

n009 answered, “Our random assignment system.”

nChi Xiaochi, “……”

nChi Xiaochi felt like he should give him a chance.

nSeeing how this child had been craving it to this extent.

nCheng Yuan’s parents weren’t at home, and after Cheng Jian had comforted his younger brother, he also ran back to the office to deal with company affairs, so only Auntie Chen was left in the house.

n009’s original body was a youth clad in a white shirt and black pants, looking around 18 years old. He wasn’t tall, but he had the benefit of having long, slender limbs, and with a pair of black-rimmed spectacles perched on his face, he looked like a good, diligent student of the Arts.

nUpon seeing 009, Auntie Chen asked, “Xiao Yuan, this is?”

nChi Xiaochi replied naturally, “He’s a junior from school, he’s come over to play and especially to taste my cooking. Auntie Chen, don’t work too hard, you should go take a break.”

nAs he spoke, Chi Xiaochi pulled out a chair, wanting to let 009 sit down at the dining table, but 009 stuck closely behind Chi Xiaochi like a little tail, “I want to watch you cook.”

nAuntie Chen had heard Cheng Jian mention it, so she knew what had happened on the internet today. She assumed that 009 had come to comfort Cheng Yuan and let out a gratified smile.

nShe was neither the best at talking, nor did she understand music. Now that a kind-looking and diligent young man had come to accompany Xiao Yuan, Xiao Yuan’s mood would become a little better.

nAfter sending Auntie Chen away with an excuse, as Chi Xiaochi stood in front of a chopping board, dicing up vegetables with smooth, sharp movements, he said, “I remember 061 telling me before that it was against the rules for systems to manifest their physical body in reality.”

n009 asked cautiously, “Are you going to report me?”

nChi Xiaochi raised an eyebrow, “What if I did?”

n009 pondered over it for a while, his face full of frowns. He rubbed his stomach before finally making up his mind, “Then…… then let’s eat first before talking.”

nChi Xiaochi sighed, he really was a gourmand with dreams and a sense of responsibility.

nProbably due to his fear of being reported, the moment the dishes were placed on the table, 009 started shovelling them down in large mouthfuls, as if wanting to eat enough to make up for having to die.

nChi Xiaochi was curious, “Won’t there be any problems with you systems eating?”

n009 drank down a piping hot mouthful of ham and bamboo shoot soup, delicious enough to make him smack his lips, “When we eat them, they just become data. A stomach full of 0s and 1s, heh heh.”

nChi Xiaochi, “……” We’re running a high-end operation here, a high-end operation.

nUsing his chopsticks, he picked up a piece of black pepper beef for 009, “I heard 061 say that you’re a first-generation AI who started out as data.”

nChopsticks in hand, 009 nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

n“Then you should know a lot about the Lord God’s matters?”

n009, “I only write descriptions. I don’t really know a lot about the Lord God’s matters.”

nChi Xiaochi said, “If you don’t know a lot about the Lord God, then you should at least be pretty well-informed. You’ve spent time in every department, right?”

n009 was shaken. His pair of almond eyes widened, “How’d you know?”

nChi Xiaochi said, “I see how skilled you are at bribing people. You’ve probably helped out a lot of people to be able to fight for the chance to run out for a meal.”

n009 rubbed his head, two dimples dancing at the corners of his smile, sweet and delicious, like a tangerine-flavoured gummy candy, “If you’re talking about the most well-informed system, it’ll definitely be 023. But I’m not bad either.”

nChi Xiaochi leaned closer to him, saying, “I have a few questions. I’ve really wanted to ask them ever since I entered, but I haven’t yet had the chance to talk to the Lord God. 061 didn’t start out as a system, so I think he might not be clear on some matters, so asking you might be a little faster.”

nSince 009 had eaten his food, and liked chatting with people anyway, he said magnanimously, “Just ask. As long as I know it and it doesn’t go against my confidentiality agreement, I’ll tell you.”

n“I feel like this superior of yours, the Lord God, is very interesting,” Chi Xiaochi asked, “As his subsystems, are you obliged to work for him?”

n009 bit off a piece of sweet and sour ribs, not quite understanding what Chi Xiaochi meant, “Ah?”

nChi Xiaochi simplified his next question, “Do you get any benefits from your jobs?”

n009 laughed merrily, “I’m a first-generation AI and started out as a system, so it’s my duty to serve the people. But those like 061-ge all have a designated number of tasks they need to complete; their task quota. I remember 061-ge telling me before that his task quota was 200. The current world you’re in is his 101st task.

n“What happens after they’ve successfully completed all their missions?”

n009 shook their head, “This I don’t know. But when I helped cover a shift in the logistics department, I found out that the people who became systems like 061 have all made a contract with the Lord God. Oh, in your words, it would be a labour contract.”

nChi Xiaochi was intrigued, “What are the contents of the contract?”

n009 munched on the spare ribs with relish, “I’m also curious about that, and even secretly checked it before, but I don’t have the rights to access such high-level information.”

nChi Xiaochi said, “I still have a few questions.”

n009 stuck out his thin and weak chest, “Go ahead.”

nChi Xiaochi asked, “As you guys travel through each and every world, what’s used to power you guys? Why is the Lord God doing this?”

nHe asked, “How do you guys choose targets? Are there any qualifications? Why choose me? And why choose Cheng Yuan?”

nHe then asked, “Also, after I complete the task and leave, what happens to the target?”

n009 was dumbfounded. From his slackened jaw, dropped a piece of half-chewed red braised spare ribs.

nThe author has something to say:

nThis chapter is about the main plot, including the story of Sirius and the secrets of the Lord God.

n……

n009 who’d been interrogated to tears: There really must be something wrong with the brains of people looking for reality in a virtual world……

nXiaochi: Laozi is indeed looking for reality in a virtual world.

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nsere: for some reason im randomly expecting 061 to pop back out and be jelly that CXC made food for 009

nbaum: nahh I’m sure our 061 is more classy than that <3 also, can I just say, I love Cheng Jian’s double standards lmaoo

nanyways, it’s serefina’s birthday!! Please wish her a happy birthday~~

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