FENG RAN WANTS TO TALK. WHAT WILL YOU DO? TALK WITH HER. AVOID HER.

Murong Yingyue stared at the text floating in front of her face. Her mouth fell open.

"No..." NO! GOD FUCKING NO! IF THERE'S A GOD IN THIS CRAPPY HODGEPODGE WUXIA WORLD, HE NEEDS TO CHILL THE FUCK DOWN!

"Listen, mom, I need to go to my room and have a mental breakdown. I'll come back down when I'm ready to face this cruel, merciless world." She turned on her hell, making her way upstairs. Feng Ran ignored her behavior, humming slightly as she sat down with a book.

Slamming the door of her room shut, Yingyue slumped down on the ground, unwilling to pick herself up from the floor, her cheek pressing against the cool wood. After staring into space, she got up and started to plan.

Alright, first things first. Is this a system-type or a Gamer-type interface?

"Status."

Nothing.

"Avatar."

Still nothing.

"Options!"

"Stats!"

"Inventory!" She felt a sense of victory when a blue text box appeared.

YOU HAVE INCORRECTLY ENTERED YOUR PASSWORD FIVE TIMES. PLEASE TRY AGAIN IN ONE MINUTE.

The letters in front of her face stayed still while her peripheral vision shook like a phone vibrating when it was disabled. (Which was pretty much the situation here).

Her cheek twitched.

"Fuck you!" She gave a middle finger to the air. "Shitty gods, be more consistent when you're designing this crap!"

MODERATOR OVERRIDE PHRASE DETECTED. SYSTEM OVERRIDE INITIATED. INTERFACE UNLOCKED.

"..." Lol wot?

"Status." Murong Yingyue tried again. Another blue screen replaced the one in front of her.

USERNAME: MURONG YINGYUE

RANK: MODERATOR (UNCONFIRMED)

TITLE(S): HIDDEN CHILD OF THE SOVEREIGN, THE FIFTH DISCIPLE OF CHU CHENG, DI JINMING'S NEWEST SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT, ???, ???, ???

LEVEL: 79 (98%)

SPIRITUAL ATTRIBUTE: SPACE, ???

SKILL(S): LVL. 7 SIZE MANIPULATION ART (ACTIVE), LVL. MAX ARTIFACT IDENTIFICATION (PASSIVE), LVL. 5 POISON IDENTIFICATION (PASSIVE), LVL. 8 HAGGLE (ACTIVE), LVL. ??? ???, LVL. ??? ???, LVL. ??? ???

STATS:

STR: ???

INT: ???

DEX: ???

AGI: ???

VIT: ???

LUK: ???

MURONG YINGYUE IS THE DAUGHTER OF MURONG ZILI AND FENG RAN, AND THE NIECE OF FENG WULIN. SHE IS THE FIFTH DISCIPLE OF CHU CHENG AND THE YOUNGEST FELLOW DISCIPLE OF DI JINMING, YUN SIYE, AND LU FEI. HER GREATEST DREAM IS TO LIVE A WORRILESS AND CAREFREE LIFE WITHOUT OBLIGATION. SHE IS CURRENTLY FAILING THIS.

Why is there so much missing information? Almost everything is unknown...

What was wrong with this status screen? Weren't they supposed to be almighty/all-knowing? Did she accidentally pick up some defective model?

Who were moderators? What did they do?

How did she end up with a system in her head? Why did it suddenly appear now? Did watermelon really taste better with a sprinkle of salt?

Wait, what?

Ah, sorry, I've never heard that one before. Salt on watermelon...

Murong Yingyue snapped her head around so quickly, she pulled a muscle. Cringing in pain and at the person in front of her, she scowled, ignoring the pop up that appeared when she turned to face him.

"Why the hell are you here?" Di Jinming rubbed his chin.

"I thought we needed to hash out the terms of our agreement. You said later, so I waited a while before coming over." I'm not even going to question how he got here. Master probably sold me out...

"He did." He confirmed, nodding regally. "It only took three lucky talismans. I just needed to help 'convince' him by offering to gift him another talisman on top of those three." Hmm... I should use that trick in the future.

"Okay, then. I'll need you to go through a trial run to make sure that you're capable of fending off any main characters while I'm going on one of Master's missions. I'll pay you half of the commission upfront, then the other half afterward. How does one thousand top tier artifacts sound for an entire mission? I'll also pay you for the trial run."

"50% more."

HAGGLE SKILL ACTIVATED.

"I don't run into main characters that frequently, and you're getting your entertainment from me. In fact, you're practically going sightseeing with me, not going off to actually protect me every time."

"Hey, aren't I also at risk here? What if I end up as some fodder villain?"

"Hmph. You're a mind attribute. If you fall prey to the influence, you deserve it."

"What if it's too powerful for me? I'm only in the seventh realm of cultivation." He argued.

"If the MC is in their 'face-slapping' phase, I won't go near them in the first place. You don't have to worry about them. Besides, you're aware of their existence now, so you should be able to resist them even easier than before. There shouldn't be a problem with that."

"But what if it does happen?"

"I'll drag you out of it. If you end up as a stepping-stone, it'll affect me too. MCs usually have a 'pull up all roots mentality,' so they'll end up going after anyone who's allied with you or have a close tie with you." She scoffed. "And they wonder why they have so many enemies."

"Fine, but can you convert that into one Superior grade artifact? I don't have much use for Inferior grades."

HAGGLE SKILL SUCCESSFUL!

+25 EXP

Artifacts had tiers, but within each tier were divisions of grades. Superior grade was the highest, followed by Excellent grade, then Mundane grade, and finally Inferior grade. Most people treated Inferior grade artifacts as money, since they didn't have many functions and only had spiritual energy stored inside of them. Generally, with each grade, the value of the artifact was multiplied by ten. There was also the issue of higher grade artifacts being more scarce, so often the value of those artifacts were more than ten artifacts of the grade below it.

"I can't split that up unless you want a deposit of five hundred Inferior Grades." Again, she ignored the blue window that popped up.

"I'll owe you a small favor, and make my first trial run free. But you have to come with me to meet someone. He's a reincarnator like you." At her rightfully suspicious look, he pouted. "I swear he's safe. He's not a main character."

"Fine. Let's swear an oath now. And make it open to renegotiation if something major occurs." Di Jinming gave her a side-eye.

"Really? An oath? Why not a contract?"

"I don't trust you. You'll find a way to get around a contract."

"Thank you for the compliment." He shot her a smug, shit-eating grin, clearly pleased with himself. She scrunched up her face in displeasure, but stuck her hand out to make an oath. He reciprocated the action, clasping their hands together, and they sent their spiritual energy flowing through each other.

"I swear on my eternal soul to honor our verbal agreement." Honestly, the words sound like some deal with a devil.

"I swear on my soul-"

"Your eternal soul, excuse you." There was actually a difference. If someone swore on their soul, it could still be retrieved through the reincarnation system. However, if it was their eternal soul, it would completely destroy their soul with no chances of getting it back.

"-my eternal soul to honor our verbal agreement." He corrected.

"Say it again." Yingyue insisted. "The whole sentence." Di Jinming gave her a long-suffering look.

"I swear on my eternal soul to honor our verbal agreement."

"Nice." She released the handshake they were in, the both of them cleaning off their hands. Murong Yingyue wiped her hand off on her robes, while Jinming took out a hankerchief and some disinfectant. "So do you need me to meet with your friend now or later?"

"Now is best." Burning the piece of cloth, he smoothed out his robes, patting off non-existent dust. "You have a talisman? If not, you'll have to hitch a ride with me."

"I might. I'll have to check my robes."

"You don't have any." Feng Ran said impassively, standing in the doorway. Murong Yingyue blinked.

"When did you get here?" It wasn't strange if she didn't notice her mother, but Yingyue thought that Di Jinming would at least realize she was there with his stupid cheats. Instead, he looked just as surprised as she did.

"After he started to talk to you. I was going to tell you two to keep it down, but I changed my mind."

"Keep it down?" My room is soundproofed. Did Di Jinming not teleport in here? Did he leave my door open when he went inside?

"Yingyue, I'm not sure if you know this, but usually when a man is inside a girl's room and they're both alone, he most likely wants one thing..." Murong Yingyue bent over and gagged.

"No!" She stared in horror at the implication of what her mother was thinking. "I need brain bleach..."

"I was also going to remind you to use protection, but I suppose it's not needed if you're not going to be having-"

"NooOooo!" A blur tackled Murong Yingyue in a tight hug. "Don't even say it." The man wrapped around Yingyue sobbed. "Yueyue, trust your father here. This man here is immoral! You're only thirteen, yet he wants to prey on you!"

Murong Yingyue rolled her eyes at her father.

"He's not. He's my First Senior Brother." Murong Zili only sobbed harder.

"That's even worse!" He wailed. "He'll use his position as your fellow disciple to cover up all his impure intentions!" Yingyue didn't listen to him, instead trying to fiddle with the options textbox after swiping away most of the messages that popped up from all the people talking around her.

OPTIONS:

SOUND: OFF

MUSIC: ON

NOTIFICATIONS: OFF

SCREEN SHAKE: ON

GAME STYLE: RANDOM

Notifications? I don't think that's related to the textboxes for interaction. I should turn off screen shake. That'll be annoying. Why are the options so limited? And music? What music? I should turn that off, too, just in case it's too loud. I don't see a volume control anywhere...

The last option caught her eye. Game Style? Does that mean playstyle? It that why the format keeps changing? Let's look through the different kinds of game styles first.

However, when she tried to tap and change the game style, it didn't work. It was locked in place. She tried swiping vertically and horizontally, but it stayed the same. She gave up, and decided to try other commands. However, before she could try to access anymore screens, her father released her and gently shoved her behind him. With a cough, he took out a pair of reading glasses and a massive scroll. Unfurling it with another cough, and kicking it so it rolled open, he began to read off of it.

"If you wish to date my daughter, you must answer all of my questions." He gave him a hard glare. "How old are you?"

Peeking over her father's shoulder, Yingyue read the contents of the scroll. On it, there was a neatly drawn decision tree full of questions to ask.

"I'm not dat-"

"So she's not pretty enough for you?"

"No, she's pretty but-"

"But what? She's too good for you! Now answer my questions, and maybe I won't kick you out for insulting her. How old are you?"

"Twenty-two..." Murong Zili threw his scroll at him, knocking him over to the ground.

Dafuq? He looks like he's seventeen! Fuck, this is illegal! I'm a minor here! Seeing her chance to avenge herself, she went in for the kill.

"Dad, he stole my first kiss!" Bitch, here's your comeuppance!

"WHAT? Get over here, you little shit! I'm going to kill you! I'll string you up by the balls and leave you hanging at the gates of the Celestial Palace! I'm going to swing you around until centripetal force detatches your head from your neck!"

And at this moment...

Di Jinming knew he fucked up. Looking to Murong Yingyue for help, he sent a mental message.

What the hell was that for? I thought we were working together?

Karma's a bitch, huh? She thought solemnly. From now on, don't read my mind, and don't ever kiss me again. If you promise to do this, I'll bail you out.

I will, I promise!

Good... just remember that I can say that you threatened me to lie to protect you.

I get it already!

"Dad, I was just joking. I wanted to see how you'd react. I'm probing for when I actually get a boyfriend."