“Okay.” Li Shu nodded. Even if Ruan Muyan didn’t come to find him, he would find an opportunity to contact her.
They found a dessert shop and sat facing each other in a booth. The dessert shop was on campus, and most of the people coming and going were students. The recent gossip about Li Shu and Ruan Muyan had attracted attention. Seeing them together, many people stopped to watch, curious about what was going on between the two.
Li Shu ordered a strawberry mousse for himself and asked, “What do you want to talk to me about?”
Ruan Muyan wasn’t in the mood to eat and ordered randomly. While waiting for the dessert to arrive, she poked at the ice in the cup and asked. “Li Shu, are you like me?”
It was a conclusion she had come to after a long time of thinking. Even though the system repeatedly assured her there wouldn’t be other challengers in this world, she couldn’t find any other reasonable explanation for what was happening besides something similar to her own experience happening to Li Shu.
“What do you mean by ‘like you’?” Li Shu raised his eyes, looking puzzled.
His attitude made Ruan Muyan hesitate for a moment, but she quickly reaffirmed her thoughts. “You don’t have to deny it. I just want to ask, since we’re similar, why are you obstructing me?”
“Miss Ruan, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense,” Li Shu smirked coldly. “How would I know what I did to interfere with you?”
“Li Shu,” Ruan Muyan said indignantly, “do you know that what you’re doing violates the rules? I was the first to enter this small world. Not only did you enter after me, but you also disrupted my mission. Aren’t you afraid of being punished by the main system?”
She couldn’t gauge Li Shi’s depth and didn’t know if he was experienced or a complete novice. She had to test the waters first. If things continued like this, her mission was destined to fail. No matter what, she had to put all her cards on the table. If she had known such a simple world would have such twists, she wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths to snatch the permission to enter this world from that person.
Thinking about the punishment for failing the mission, Ruan Muyan couldn’t help but shiver. She had been sailing smoothly up until now, and she didn’t want to fail in such a low-level world.
To protect the privacy of customers, there were booths in this dessert shop. When Li Shu and Ruan Muyan talked, they kept their voices low and wouldn’t be overheard by others.
“Punishment?” Li Shu played with the straw in his hand and teased, “What kind of punishment would there be?”
“At least you’re not avoiding my question anymore,” Ruan Muyan heaved a sigh of relief after hearing Li Shu’s answer. Seeing that Li Shu didn’t even know about the punishment world, her attitude became firmer, “Now that we’re in the same world, it’s considered fate. How about cooperating? You don’t want to fail the mission right from the start, do you?”
“Well… indeed I don’t want to,” unfortunately, his mission had already failed, and Li Shu pretended to be moved, “How do you want to cooperate?”
The fish took the bait, and a determined look appeared in Ruan Muyan’s eyes, “I want that man. If you can help me make him fall in love with me…”
“Isn’t that just beneficial to you? Are you sure this is cooperation?” Li Shu interrupted Ruan Muyan’s words, narrowing his eyes dangerously. He hadn’t expected this woman to still have designs on Li Heyuan.
“Of course it’s cooperation. You just need to give me the opportunity to meet him. I’ll handle the rest myself. As for your mission, wouldn’t it be easy to complete?” Ruan Muyan’s thoughts were simple. As long as she was with that man, completing whatever mission Li Shu had shouldn’t be difficult given that man’s identity.
During this time, she had already discovered the man’s identity—he was the head of the He Group. What this meant was self-evident. Just with Li Heyuan alone, she could instantly recover the points she had lost. Besides, compared to the man, the boys in the school were simply no match.
She believed that Li Shu would agree. Newcomers in a mission world were like blank sheets of paper, easy to manipulate. They would believe whatever they were told. Of course, once she succeeded, if Li Shu knew his place, she wouldn’t mind giving him a small favor. Otherwise, sabotaging a newcomer’s mission was quite easy.
She had thought about making such a request for a long time. From the recent events she had heard about, if Li Shu agreed, her mission would be more than half completed.
“So, what do you think? Have you considered it?”
“Why do you think I can help you connect with him? I’m just a student. What happened that day was just a coincidence.” Li Shu was really curious. How could this woman be so confident that, with his help, she could easily establish a relationship with Li Heyuan and smoothly conquer him?
“I’m well aware of what has been happening lately. That gentleman often comes to the school to find you, right? Officially, he says he’s visiting his nephew, but every time he comes to the school, the one he really spends time with is you. It’s all over the school forum; perhaps you’re the only one who thinks no one has noticed.”
“Students, here are your desserts.” The arrival of the waiter interrupted their conversation.
Li Shu accepted his portion. “Thank you.”
After the waiter left, Li Shu calmly ate his strawberry mousse without saying a word. Ruan Muyan nibbled at her dessert and, seeing that Li Shu had no intention of speaking, grew anxious. “Li Shu, have you considered my proposal?”
“I refuse.” Li Shu said lightly.
“What did you say?” Ruan Muyan thought she must have misheard.
“I said, I refuse.” Li Shu put down his fork, and cast a ll calm but oppressive at Ruan Muyan. “What gave you the illusion that I would definitely agree? Besides, I haven’t even mentioned what my mission is, and you’re already eager to help me complete it. Do you even know what my mission is?”
‘I don’t know.’ Ruan Muyan couldn’t utter those three words. She really didn’t know. She was thinking, how difficult could a newcomer’s mission be? She didn’t really intend to help him complete his mission; she just wanted Li Shu to introduce her to the man.
“You see, you haven’t even figured out my background and you’re already revealing your cards.”
Ruan Muyan hastily defended herself, “There are few types of missions. No matter which one it is, I can help you complete it. I won’t deceive you on this matter; I have no reason to, right? You hold leverage over me, I wouldn’t go back on my word.”
[Host, we have detected traces of a system on Ruan Muyan.]
Hearing 1314’s voice in his mind, Li Shu knew he had achieved his purpose for this meeting. He had no intention of staying longer with Ruan Muyan and stood up. “If this is all you wanted to talk about, then there’s nothing more for us to discuss.”
“Li Shu,” Ruan Muyan lowered her voice, “think carefully, do you really want to oppose me?”
“Oppose you?” Li Shu crossed his arms and looked down at her. “I merely refused your request. Ruan Muyan, sometimes it’s unwise to assume others are fools.”
After saying this, Li Shu left without looking back.
On his way out, 1314 relayed the information it had gathered to Li Shu: [Ruan Muyan is bound to a strategy system that relies on winning over outstanding men in small worlds to earn points. If she fails in her strategies, her points are deducted. Currently, her points are very low, which is why she set her sights on the protagonist.]
[You have such systems?] Li Shu was curious. This system seemed rather “unconventional.”
[This system is different from us, we’re not in the same system,] 1314 quickly clarified, worried about giving the host a bad impression, [As I mentioned before, a small world can’t have two systems. Once a system accepts a task, it will post a notice indicating that the world is off-limits. The system on Ruan Muyan is peculiar. However, I’m certain it doesn’t belong to the main system’s jurisdiction. It’s not a legitimate system. These systems exist to extract the small world’s energy to replenish themselves.]
Li Shu understood. It was like comparing official employees with opportunists. The former aimed for the stability of the small world, while the latter disregarded its well-being.
[There are measures for dealing with such systems. If the host can resolve the threat posed by Ruan Muyan, you will get extra points. The host may have noticed that Ruan Muyan’s influence on those she captured is diminishing. If this continues, she will be punished without the host needing to do much.]
Li Shu: [What kind of punishment?]
[Forcibly taking what doesn’t belong to her will eventually lead to a backlash.]
When 1314 said this, its voice had a cold, mechanical tone. It was only in moments like this that Li Shu could clearly realize that 1314 was devoid of human emotions. It was just an artificial intelligence.
Indeed, there was no need for Li Shu to take any action. He learned about Ruan Muyan’s recent situation from his classmates.
“Did you hear? Ruan Muyan’s harem has gone up in flames.”
“Exactly. She’s been stringing along so many guys, and they’re all top-tier in the school. Of course, it was bound to backfire. Did she really think everyone was blind?”
“I say she deserves it. It’s her fault for having such a big appetite that she didn’t even let go of those who already had girlfriends.”
Without having to ask specifically, Li Shu could hear all kinds of things about Ruan Muyan from various places. The fact that she dominated so many outstanding boys in the school had already made the girls dissatisfied.
Li Heyuan still liked to come to the school to see Li Shu from time to time. After a while, it was normal for his roommates to notice. To verify, the roommates even asked some girls in their class. The enthusiastic girls quickly told them about all the gossip. Confused, they clicked into a certain mysterious forum and exited out of it even more bewildered.
The roommates who had their eyes opened to a new world stared at each other in shock.
“This… can’t be true, right?”
“What can’t be true?” Li Shu pushed the door open just in time to hear this. “Weren’t you all going to play basketball? Why are you still in the dorm?”
The shock was so great that they were eager to know if what they saw on the mysterious forum was true. Who would still be in the mood to play basketball?
They just didn’t expect Li Shu to come back at this time. They quickly stood up to block the computer screen. “Nothing, we were just discussing Ruan Muyan.”
Li Shu didn’t suspect anything and walked straight to his bed.
“Xiao Shu, the door…” wasn’t closed. Zheng Jiarong looked at the man standing at the doorway and his mouth went open. He even forgot to finish his sentence.
Help! What do you do if you’re caught reading your roommate’s CP fan page by the actual people involved?
At that moment, the man’s deep, magnetic voice came through: “Shu Shu, are you ready?”
