VAP - Chapter 77
Chapter 77: Flawless Cold Bone, The Peerless Sword Venerable (1)
Main God Space.
Outside the main hall were the gates connecting the space to the various small worlds. And now, bubbles were rising in the silvery-white pool, meaning a "gate" had been opened.
Accompanied by a faint gurgling sound, silver-blue data passed through the water's surface, coalescing into a human form on the bank.
The young, black-haired woman opened her eyes. After a brief moment of daze, her gaze became clear.
Yue Du looked down at her snow-white, unblemished cuffs, her expression a little wistful.
Upon returning to the Main God Space, the long dress she wore in the Ayers small world vanished on its own. The white uniform belonging to a System replaced the gown emblazoned with the Galor crest, binding her body like a net.
Although she had anticipated this day would come when she decided to be with Nai Yin, she truly hadn't expected it to arrive so quickly, so... unexpectedly.
Yue Du took a deep breath and strode toward the main hall.
It was currently the Systems' rest period. There were no Systems queuing in the affairs hall, only a circle of customer service staff chatting.
One of the customer service staff was humanoid and male, though very short, and was joking with a black-and-white cat beside him.
He heard the sound of the door pushing open and turned back with a smile, but before he could speak, the smile froze on his face.
Yue Du sat down before the service desk and gave a polite nod. "Mr. E."
Customer Service E gave a dry laugh. "Ha, haha, welcome back."
"The Main System issued an emergency recall. How could I dare to ignore it?" Yue Du glanced around and smiled faintly. "But from what I can see, things don't seem very urgent here in the main hall. May I trouble you to ask, for what reason did the Main System issue an emergency recall order?"
Customer Service E was in charge of System mission inquiries. He looked left and right, only to see that his colleagues, who had been chatting and laughing moments ago, now all had their heads down, eyes lowered, attending to their own business, as quiet as mice.
This was too hard. Being customer service was too hard.
"...0996, please be patient. Let me check for you."
The unlucky customer service agent pretended to look at the light screen and replied, "The Main System issued the recall order to request that 0996 submit detailed reports for the two previous missions. Afterward, you can proceed to the next mission world."
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
"The deadline for submitting the reports?"
"B-before the end of today..."
There were still twelve hours until midnight.
Yue Du smiled gracefully. "I see. The order was so urgent, I thought it was for some important event."
Customer Service E: "Ahem, mission reports are also very important."
"But, if all I needed to do was write and submit reports, I could have done that in the Ayers small world, couldn't I?" Yue Du asked slowly and deliberately. "Why was it necessary to recall me to the space?"
The customer service agent was at a loss for words. After a long moment, he squeezed out, "An unwritten rule."
Fine, a rule.
Yue Du raised her eyes and glanced toward the magnificent, interwoven stream of data flowing in a corner of the main hall.
"Mm, I understand," she said.
The customer service agent could finally breathe a sigh of relief. "That's great. Are there any other questions?"
"No."
"Alright, have a pleasant day."
Yue Du turned and left the main hall.
Behind her, a stream of data flickered abruptly before quickly returning to calm, as if someone had just withdrawn their observant gaze.
In the Main God's office, the Main God, who looked like a corporate employee, closed the surveillance screen.
"Just as you wished. 0996 has rushed back, and She has not lost control."
From the shadows behind him came a voice, its emotion unreadable. "That's very good."
The Main God pushed up his glasses. "Forgive my bluntness, but recalling her early not only yields little benefit, but it might also awaken Her. This move is too risky."
The Boss said, "I just don't want to see them being all lovey-dovey."
The Main God stated the facts. "But you can't see them. In a small world where She exists, the most we can do is detect when a pre-set node has been triggered. Even with the forced installation of the System group chat channel, we can only see 0996—"
The Boss: "..."
The Boss said coldly, "That's none of your concern."
The Main God shut his mouth. In front of an angry superior, one could be silent, one could admit fault, but one must never talk back.
The Boss was silent for a moment before saying, "It's not just because of that."
"These next two days are the peak of my power. Whatever I want to do, only now can I guarantee it will be foolproof. If I wait for that System to slowly finish her mission, it will be too late."
The Main God's inorganic pupils behind his black-framed glasses widened abruptly. "You... you're going to suppress her?"
"No, it's Her."
"That's too difficult. The feasibility is very low."
"I don't think so. We were evenly matched to begin with, and my power is waxing these two days. How can a mere fragment withstand it?"
"Are you certain?"
"How could I be indecisive!"
The Main God's expression was complicated. He seemed to want to persuade them further, but in the end, he could only say, "Then I wish you success in achieving your desire."
...And I hope you won't have to pay the piper later, Boss.
System lounge.
Yue Du looked at the line of floating, luminous words before her.
"Confirm submission?"
She selected "Confirm" with a blank expression.
The line of words disintegrated in the air and quickly reformed into another line: "Report successfully uploaded."
Yue Du had written plenty of reports during her work, so writing a mission report now was second nature.
The entire text was conventional, the format followed regulations, the specific content was concise, and it concluded by stating that she had always kept the professional ethics of a System firmly in mind within her data core—two perfect reports were complete.
Regarding the section on mission completion status, Yue Du thought for a moment. She didn't fabricate anything, but she didn't write down the full, true situation either.
In truth, she highly suspected that the Main System had no idea how the hosts completed their missions.
Otherwise, why hadn't it stopped Nai Yin when she was taking one treasure and leaving another? Why didn't it add more mission restrictions? Since this went against the Main System's original intention of weakening the protagonist, it should have long since intervened with its cold, robotic voice.
But it never did, not once.
Although she didn't understand what method the other party used to detect mission completion rates, as long as there was no real-time surveillance, a lot could be concealed in the mission reports.
For example, the fact that her two hosts were the same entity, her relationship with the host, and the details of how the mission plot had deviated.
After submitting the reports, Yue Du lowered her gaze to the black seven-pointed star mark on her wrist.
This was the System's identity brand, and it could also be used to check her current point total.
She now had a full eighteen thousand points.
Some of these points she had saved up herself, but the majority came from the gifts from her two hosts before they un-bound.
Qi Jiu, Nai Yin.
They—no, it should be she—had both transferred all their points to Yue Du before parting ways.
"These things are useless to me," Qi Jiu / Nai Yin had said, their expressions identical as they spoke. "But they're very important to you, so of course, they should be yours."
They had different names, different bodies, and even different behavioral patterns, yet they gave her the exact same feeling.
Recalling the scene, Yue Du gently poked the seven-pointed star mark. Her expression softened, but it quickly turned resolute again.
Reviving Yue Hao required thirty thousand points. She was still short by twelve thousand.
She would go to the next mission world, for her family, and also for the lover she would be reunited with in the next world.
And so—
The next day, Yue Du went to the main hall to apply for her third mission.
This time, it happened to be the black-and-white cat's turn as the customer service agent. It had been startled by Yue Du yesterday and still looked a little scared.
As Yue Du turned to leave, she heard it ask timidly from behind her, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Yue Du smiled.
"Um, it's okay this time, but next time, you must rest for a few days before entering a mission world! Frequently crossing world barriers isn't good for Systems either!"
"Mm, I know. Thank you."
When the scheduled time arrived, bubbles rose in the silver pool. Yue Du waded to the center of the pool and closed her eyes.
Before dissolving into data and sinking to the bottom of the pool, Yue Du recited silently in her heart:
Qianhong Divine Province... Yun Yijiu.
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