“Bao’er, open your eyes and look at your mother…” A mournful wailing echoed in his ears, each cry like the blood-curdling screech of a cuckoo. It seemed as if the mother crouched by the bed would cough up blood at any moment if the slumbering child refused to open his eyes.

“System, are you done yet? Look at my mother, she’s crying so hard. Let’s bind next time!” Xia Chen was anxious. Although he was awake now, his consciousness was trapped in the system space as he was establishing the initial binding with the system, so he was unable to return to his body. He could only listen helplessly as his mother cried her heart out beside him. 

[Insufficient energy. If the binding is not completed this time, it will take more than three years of energy storage to open the system space again. Do you want to stop the binding?]

Xia Chen instantly shut up. The day when his body was feverish and unconscious, he already had preliminary contact with this golden finger that was seven years late.

According to the system, it came from a higher-dimensional world. Xia Chen didn’t fully understand, but it was basically an alien technology. 

As for how it got to Xia Chen, the reason was too long and involved interstellar secrets that he couldn’t know. In short, he had a stroke of luck and obtained this alien technology, which was some kind of assistance system that could help him reach the peak of his life.

However, before he could bind with the system, Xia Chen was hit and killed by a falling object from high altitude in his previous life.

The system exhausted all its energy to bring him to this time and space which according to the system, was considered a parallel space. The youngest son of the Xia family here and Xia Chen were the same person in different spaces.

When the system traversed time and space, the excessive energy consumption caused a mechanical disorder that brought along a trace of space-time turbulence. This repulsive force stained Xia Chen’s soul which caused his soul to be ejected from his own body after birth that led to him being a ghost for seven years. 

And the system, due to energy depletion, passively entered hibernation. In a hibernation state, it absorbed energy extremely slowly. If it weren’t for Xia Chen’s life being in danger, the system would have had to wait a few more years to officially start up.

In order to save Xia Chen this time, the system had to force a boot-up to bind with him immediately to open the system space. It relies on the energy in the system space to operate so that it can supplement the consumption and maintain the system’s operation to create a virtuous cycle.

Xia Chen’s understanding was probably equivalent to him buying a high-tech new phone. Although the phone belonged to him, he hadn’t recorded his fingerprint lock or anything yet, so he only had ownership but couldn’t use it. Once he recorded it, he could charge the phone, and the energy would charge up faster. 

At the same time, due to insufficient energy, Xia Chen’s initial binding with the system took a long time. His body had a high fever that wouldn’t subside. Not only because of the cold, but also his body’s natural rejection to the system. He would be able to recover from the fever once the binding was complete.

So Xia Chen could only endure it while staring at the snail paced progress bar, hoping it would reach one hundred percent soon.

“Yun Niang, don’t cry anymore. Taoist Xu said that our Yuanbao has an extraordinary fate. Once he passes this tribulation in his life, he will be fine.” Xia Chen’s father, Master Xia, said comfortingly to his mother.

“I only hope that my son will have a smooth life. Our family doesn’t lack food or grain. Why do we need great wealth and nobility?” Madam Xia said, unable to hold back her tears again.

It was said that grandparents love their eldest grandson, and parents dote on their youngest so Xia Chen, the youngest son, was the apple of Mother Xia’s eye. 

Xia Chen felt both sour and soft in his heart. In his previous life, he started attending boarding school in junior high. After his parents divorced, he didn’t even see his mother once a year. When has he ever experienced such deep maternal love?

“Mother, Father is also worried that you’ll cry yourself sick. You haven’t closed your eyes all night. Go and rest. Qiao’er and I will watch over Bao’er here,” the eldest son helped persuade her.

Mother Xia’s health hadn’t been very good in recent years. She really couldn’t bear it at this point. When she got up, she stumbled, but fortunately, her daughter-in-law Qiao Niang reacted quickly and supported her.

Mother Xia took the opportunity to grab Qiao Niang’s hand and said, “You should go and rest too. The whole family has been relying on you to manage everything these past few days. I haven’t had time to take care of Dong’er and the others.”  

“Mother, what are you saying?” When Qiao Niang spoke, there was also a hint of crying in her voice. “With Bao’er being so sick, my heart aches too. I wish I could suffer this illness for him, so how could I rest?”

Suppressing her tears, Qiao Niang continued, “Don’t worry mother. I have been taking good care of them these past few days. Dong’er is not a small child anymore. How could he bother me? You should go and rest. I’ll watch over Bao’er and as soon as he opens his eyes, I’ll go and call you.”

The family members took turns persuading her, which finally convinced Mother Xia to rest. Xia Chen also listened with trepidation. His mother’s health was really not good. If she continued to endure like this, he was afraid his mother would collapse by the time he recovered from his illness.

Xia Chen now hoped that the system wouldn’t let down its reputation as an alien black technology and would have items to nourish the body for his family to use. 

After Mother Xia went to rest, Father Xia and the eldest son went out to talk together, seemingly discussing the matter of inviting a doctor for Xia Chen.

Now there’s only Qiao Niang in the room to take care of him.

The Xia family trusted Qiao Niang so much and it was not without reason. 

Father Xia had three children. Above Xia Chen were an elder brother and an elder sister. The eldest brother was Xia Jinzi, the second sister was Xia Yinzi, and Xia Chen’s given name was Xia Yuanbao…

His siblings were already married and had children by the time Xia Chen was born, meaning Mother Xia gave birth at an advanced age. In the early years, raising two children alone had ruined her health so when Xia Chen was born a fool, the Xia family felt terribly guilty.

At that time, Mother Xia had no breast milk so Qiao Niang, the sister-in-law who had just given birth to her second son not long ago, and had abundant breast milk, offered to nurse Xia Chen. So, although she was his sister-in-law, she was no different from his mother.

Qiao Niang sat by the bedside and stared at the flushed boy on the bed without a blink, her eyes involuntarily turning red rimmed again.

The Xia family’s fortune came from Master Xia’s military merits. They were just an ordinary peasant family before and had never thought of inviting any wet nurses or nannies. Mother Xia was old and in poor health, so she couldn’t take care of children. It could be said that Xia Chen was raised solely by Qiao Niang. 

Xia Chen was a beautiful child. Perhaps because he was a fool, he wasn’t fussy at all. He was incredibly well-behaved compared to his nephew Nan’er, who was a few months older than him. As Qiao Niang raised him, she became attached to him. She personally raised and doted on him even more than her own son.

Qiao Niang kept watch beside him. When she felt the temperature of the wet towel on Xia Chen’s forehead rising, she would immediately wring out a new one and replace it. In the cold winter weather, her fingers soon turned red from the cold. 

Although Xia Chen couldn’t see, he could feel it. His heart, which was as anxious as fire, suddenly calmed down. He stared at the progress bar that had already reached ninety-nine percent and muttered to himself, “System, I’m actually quite grateful that you brought me to this time and space…”

[According to calculations, the host has the highest degree of integration with this time and space.]

The system’s answer was calm and rational. Xia Chen couldn’t help but smile. At that moment, the progress bar displaying the binding moved forward another notch, jumping to one hundred percent. A flash of light passed, and his consciousness appeared in a space filled with a high-tech feeling. The walls around him were all flowing data streams.

“System?” Xia Chen didn’t dare to move and carefully observed the room he was in.

[Binding complete. The Life Winner System is officially activated. System Z14212058 is at your service. Do you want to lock in your life goal now and start the career system?]

“Wow, impressive.” Xia Chen couldn’t help but gasp. Just hearing the name Life Winner System sounded like it was going to take him to the peak.

Xia Chen asked, “What does this career system mean? Can I choose any career? How many can I choose? Can I change it later?” 

Xia Chen had played online games before. Hearing the system say this, he felt it was a bit like a career roleplay in the games he played.

Moreover, since the system first asked this question just after binding, it indicated the importance of choice for this career system. Xia Chen guessed that since there was a career system, there might be career skills in the future, so he had to choose carefully.

[There is only one career system option, determined according to the host’s life goal, and cannot be changed once selected.]

“Life goal?” Xia Chen found it strange. “A person’s life will have many goals. A career can only adapt to one kind. Is this reasonable?”

[Resources are limited in the interstellar era. As an assistance system, the Life Winner System will use various data such as the host’s environment, resources, talents, and abilities as reference to formulate the most suitable life goal and the most efficient career plan for the host.]

Xia Chen understood. It turned out that he couldn’t choose for himself at all. Thinking about it this way, people in the interstellar era were quite pitiful. The reference data collected by the system didn’t mention interests at all.

“This isn’t the interstellar era. Resources were abundant in ancient times. Why not let me choose for myself?” Xia Chen tried to bargain.

He still had the idea of being a prodigy in the imperial examinations. Although his body was already seven years old, with the system’s assistance, he estimated that he could still catch the last wave of being a prodigy.

The system’s voice was as indifferent as ever: [The system’s initial settings cannot be changed. Does the host want to start adapting now?]

Xia Chen: “…”

“All right, how long will this adaptation take? If it’s too long, let me out first.” Xia Chen thought that having a golden finger was always better than not having one. Moreover, with such excellent conditions, he might be able to adapt to a particularly good career.

[Basic data collection completed. Adaptation is estimated to take thirteen seconds. Do you want to begin?]

“When did you collect it? That was fast.” Xia Chen muttered. Seeing that the time was short, he decided to determine his future career first.

“Begin,” Xia Chen calmed himself and said in a deep voice.

[Extracting career title…]

As the system’s cold, mechanical voice sounded, a light screen suddenly appeared in front of Xia Chen, with familiar Chinese characters flashing across it at an extremely fast speed, appearing for less than a second. 

Xia Chen focused and looked carefully. Because the characters on the light screen disappeared too quickly, he only saw a few scattered titles, some of which he didn’t even see completely.

But just seeing them was enough to make Xia Chen’s heart surge: Legendary Minister, Sovereign of an Era, Demon Vanquisher (?), Supreme Overlord, Unrivaled Strategist…

Which one wasn’t bigger than Xia Chen’s small goal of being the top scholar?

“It seems I was too ignorant and had a limited vision.” Xia Chen chuckled and rubbed his hands excitedly, feeling that his golden finger might really be very thick.

Ten or so seconds passed in the blink of an eye. The characters on the light screen flashed faster and faster and finally stopped at the time estimated by the system, leaving only one line of text on the light screen.

Xia Chen was full of excitement and happily went to look at the career title the system had adapted for him, but the words displayed on the light screen made him a bit puzzled.

“System, did you make a mistake? Why do I feel like this title doesn’t seem quite right…” Xia Chen stared at the light screen, the joy on his face gradually disappearing.

[System self-check in progress… Self-check complete. No errors found.]

[Resource integration complete. Host career planning initiated. Officially starting career system. According to the priority of adaptability, the host’s final career title is Divine Farmer of the Era.]

Xia Chen: “…”

“Hehe, Divine Farmer definitely doesn’t mean what I think it means.” Xia Chen struggled on the verge of death.

However, the system was coldly ruthless and unreasonable, quickly shattering Xia Chen’s illusion: [The system space has been opened. The host is expected to work hard at farming and reach the peak of life as soon as possible.]

Xia Chen: “…”

---

Author’s Note: 

Seeing so many familiar nicknames makes me really happy, hehehe. The golden finger in this book is very thick, really.

🌻🌻🌻

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