Editor and proofreader: Oceanblue

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In a small, empty room, a body lay on a bed while a glowing white orb floated beside it, circling the body.

This was the system helping Ye Qingyun transfer bodies. It waited for Ye Qingyun to wake up, but the body remained still, with no sign of movement.

What was going on?

The system, confused, adjusted various data and suddenly received an anomaly report:

”Body transfer in progress… Malfunction detected, body transfer failed, requesting support!”

Body transfer failed? Doesn’t failure mean death?

The system was alarmed. It quickly reported to the main system and found Ye Qingyun’s soul body.

Ye Qingyun’s soul was not nearby. It was drifting in another direction.

Another force was competing for Ye Qingyun’s soul!

This couldn’t be allowed!

The system rushed to that location, mobilizing all the power it could, trying to reclaim Ye Qingyun’s soul.

But it couldn’t win!

The system increased its speed, racing forward, finally reaching its destination.

It was a small house in a remote town. The system rushed inside and, upon a glance, was shocked.

Ye Qingyun’s body, which should have turned to ash, was lying peacefully on the bed.

The system could sense Ye Qingyun’s soul nearby.

But how could this be? It had watched Ye Qingyun’s body be destroyed, reduced to nothing. Who had restored the body?

The system anxiously circled around before it noticed a small black glowing child nearby, so inconspicuous that it had been overlooked.

The system immediately snapped, “Did you bring him here and restore his body?”

The child looked at the system, “What does it have to do with you?”

“What do you mean, what does it have to do with me!”

The system was about to explode in anger.

“You’re harming him, do you know that? There’s no such thing as resurrection in this world! Do you want him to revive in his original body? That’s a violation of the basic rules! Even if Ye Qingyun is revived, the world’s consciousness will target him for breaking the rules!”

The child replied, “He won’t be targeted.”

The system fumed, “You don’t know anything! You—”

The child interrupted, “I am the world’s consciousness.”

The system froze, unable to say another word, stunned, ‘…?’

There were many things they couldn’t do because they would violate the world’s rules.

But now, the world’s consciousness was the one breaking the rules…?

“Do you have any more questions? If not, get out. Don’t disturb me while I’m doing important work,” the world’s consciousness said impatiently.

The system didn’t dare to speak. It shrank into a ball, silently observing.

The world’s consciousness muttered something, and the body of Ye Qingyun, which had previously shown no breath, began to show a faint pulse.

This was the sign that the body and soul were gradually merging.

The fusion of body and soul wasn’t immediate; it would take some time, anywhere from a few days to several months.

Taking advantage of the time, the system asked the world consciousness, “Aren’t you bothered by him? Aren’t you bothered that he’s a cannon fodder, tainting your pure protagonist?”

—

World Consciousness: “Do you have a problem? Is your taste in aesthetics off? How could you dislike him?”

System: ‘….’

The World Consciousness was so rude!

“You prepared that body for him, and it’s so ugly. Don’t you have any taste?” the World Consciousness continued, “I want him to revive in his original body. Do you have a problem with that?”

System: “…What problem could I have?”

The system and the consciousness both silently watched as Ye Qingyun’s soul and body slowly merged. Suddenly, the system heard the World Consciousness speak again.

“Ye Qingyun is dead… Gu Shenyuan will destroy the world.”

If the world were destroyed, then there would be no more World Consciousness. The World Consciousness didn’t want to die, and it didn’t dislike Ye Qingyun—in fact, it liked him a lot. That was why it personally intervened to restore Ye Qingyun’s body, hoping he and Gu Shenyuan could reunite sooner, without any more misunderstandings.

The system had no words to say. It opened its diagnostic function to check Ye Qingyun’s body and soul, wondering if everything was in order.

Upon checking, it found a big problem.

It seemed that the earlier conflict between the system and the World Consciousness had caused some confusion in Ye Qingyun’s soul. This confusion primarily affected his brain.

Given the current trend, it looked like Ye Qingyun would have memory loss for a while once he revived.

However, based on Ye Qingyun’s brain’s self-healing ability, this memory loss shouldn’t last more than six months. After that, he would be able to recall all his memories.

It was a minor issue, so… there shouldn’t be any problems, right?

—

Ye Qingyun opened his eyes.

The room in front of him was completely unfamiliar, with no sense of familiarity at all.

What was going on? He remembered that he had been hit by a car while trying to save a child, and he should have been dead. How was he still alive?

Could it be… a transmigration?

Ye Qingyun quickly jumped up, ignoring the dizziness in his head, and ran to a mirror.

Fortunately, it was still his face, unchanged. He was still using his own body, not transmigrating into some unknown cannon fodder.

Ye Qingyun remembered a novel he had read before where there was a cannon fodder character with the same name as him. Luckily, he hadn’t transmigrated into that cannon fodder; otherwise, he didn’t know what he would have done.

Ye Qingyun was a bit confused by this sudden transmigration, but he quickly composed himself and started organizing the things he had.

Soon, Ye Qingyun finished counting the supplies in the room.

The whole room had almost nothing of value, except for a few daily necessities and a few coins.

This… was all his property.

At just the right moment, Ye Qingyun’s stomach growled.

This wasn’t right! In novels, transmigrators usually end up in the bodies of important figures or become the favored ones, living a life of luxury. Why was it that on his first day here, he was about to starve to death in this small room?

Well, forget it. If he had transmigrated into some important figure’s white moonlight ^[1]a beloved person, he would have been afraid of messing up and revealing his true identity. It was probably better this way, plain and simple.

Ye Qingyun wiped his face, collected the few coins he had, and went out.

First, he needed to fill his stomach, then find a way to make some money.

Ye Qingyun felt nervous, especially when he went outside and saw the technology here, which seemed to be centuries ahead of Earth’s.

Ye Qingyun walked through the streets with a surface of confidence, stopping at a small food stall where he could afford the prices. While waiting for his food, he listened to the conversations of the people around him.

Not far from him, a few men were chatting while having drinks.

“These days, compared to before, it’s like night and day. Hey, we don’t have to pay eighty percent of taxes anymore. I feel like I’m suddenly rich!”

“Good luck. That person came out of nowhere, and now the whole royal family is dead!”

“But I have to say, that person was ruthless. He wiped out the entire royal family and all the officials who supported them… tsk tsk, I heard the blood was flowing like a river.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Are you sympathizing with them?”

“I never said that! What I mean is… doesn’t that person have some issues with his mental state?”

The man’s voice grew quieter, and Ye Qingyun had to listen carefully to hear what he said next.

“I heard that person’s lover was taken by the royal family, and by the time he found that person… sigh, it was dead and abused beyond recognition. That’s why he…”

The content of their conversation was rather unsettling. Although Ye Qingyun had no idea who they were referring to as “that person,” he still felt a tightness in his chest.

Even if all enemies were wiped out, what difference would it make? The lover who had died could never come back to life. The pain in that person’s heart surely hadn’t diminished in the slightest, right?

Ye Qingyun sighed, finishing his last bite of noodles, and went to pay the bill.

The owner of the stall was a round, cheerful woman. She smiled and said to Ye Qingyun, “You’ve been sitting here, and now everyone who comes to visit my stall is crowding around. I’ll give you a free meal, young man. Come back again sometime!”

Ye Qingyun was surprised to save some money and didn’t refuse her kindness. After taking the money back, he asked the owner where he could quickly earn a little money.

The owner thought for a moment and replied, “You look like you’re in luck. Why don’t you try entering the special-level intelligence quiz contest?”

This intelligence quiz contest had only recently appeared because people discovered that their new emperor had a special interest in various scientific research books and often stared at them in a daze. As a result, a learning wave spread across the whole star system, and various quiz contests emerged.

“This special-level intelligence quiz is especially difficult. The questions come from books that the new emperor values highly. No one has ever answered ten questions correctly in a row! But if you answer three questions right, you can win a small sum of money. You should give it a try,” the owner said.

—

Ye Qingyun was shocked.

What kind of country is this, one that loves learning and research so much?

He likes it!

Ye Qingyun had always been someone who loved immersing himself in research and hearing about the simple, scholarly spirit of this world made him so happy he could faint.

Although he definitely wouldn’t know any of the knowledge in this world, that didn’t stop him from eagerly wanting to try his hand at the quiz right away.

Ye Qingyun found the nearest quiz shop and signed up for the “Special Intelligence Quiz.”

The rules were simple: pay one coin before the quiz starts. If you answer three questions correctly, you win two coins. The more questions you answer correctly, the higher the prize.

“Good luck,” the shop owner smiled at him.

“Thank you, I’ll do my best,” Ye Qingyun said, picking up the quiz board.

The board would randomly display questions, with a ten-second time limit for each question. The presence of the shop owner watching nearby made it impossible to cheat.

Ye Qingyun had mentally prepared to randomly pick answers, figuring he’d be eliminated after the first question. However, when he saw the first question, he instinctively selected the answer that seemed the most suitable without thinking much.

The cheerful sound of a celebration rang out, congratulating Ye Qingyun for choosing the correct answer.

The shop owner raised an eyebrow, not paying much attention.

It was normal to get a few right with good luck. There was no need to make a big deal out of it. After the first three questions, the questions would become single-choice, and after five questions, they would become multiple-choice, getting progressively more difficult. This was why no one had ever passed all ten questions.

Good luck always has its limits.

Before the owner could even finish this thought, the quiz board cheered again: “Congratulations, you have successfully answered all ten questions! Your prize of 888,888 coins is on the way!”