Noticing the time, it was already close to 1:30 PM. Chu Lian gently woke Li Xiu'er, who was dozing off on her shoulder, and slowly led her by the hand back to their classroom.
Just moments after the bell rang, Chu Lian and Li Xiu'er arrived in class. The physics teacher was already preparing the lesson. Seeing them, he gave a slight nod and said nothing more.
Li Xiu'er lowered her head shyly and hurried to her seat, while Chu Lian smiled, walking at her usual unhurried pace. Only after the bell had finished ringing did she take out her textbook, place it on her desk, and rest her chin on her hand as she gazed dazedly out the window.
To the outside world, she appeared lost in thought, but in truth, her mind had once again entered the system space.
"Ayase, Ayase, Ayase, I want to redeem the sheet music for 'Having You in My Life'..." Chu Lian's body had just materialized in the system space when she leapt forward, pinning Ayase—who had just woken from her nap—onto the sofa. Her hands happened to land right on Ayase's full chest, leaving the rest of her sentence stuck in her throat.
Ayase gave her a curious glance and teased, "Still not letting go? How long are you planning to grope me?" Hearing her voice snapped Chu Lian back from the wondrous sensation. Seeing the mock-annoyed expression on Ayase's face, she immediately jumped off the sofa, hands tucked behind her back, mumbling guiltily, "Umm, Ayase, I didn't do it on purpose..."
"Uh-huh. When you get excited, you get all frantic—I'm used to it. Besides, you'll have your own someday. No harm in getting familiar early..."
Ayase yawned, her sleepy eyes glancing over. "You could've just summoned the system interface yourself to redeem something. Why wake me up? I was hoping to stay lazy for a while longer..."
To her, any comfy place was a bed, so calling the sofa a bed was no big deal. It had no consciousness and couldn't protest anyway.
"Well, I had something to ask you. About that reward—what's the deal? You never mentioned this before." What Chu Lian really cared about was the reward system. She had wanted to ask earlier, but seeing Ayase napping, she had waited until now.
"The reward system? That's always been there. But the system doesn't tell you about it upfront. It only activates when you meet the criteria."
Ayase stretched lazily and explained, "The requirements aren't too high—50,000 fans, 10,000 hardcore fans, 3,000 die-hard fans, and 1,000 true love goddess fans."
"Also, you need to complete three tasks: one main quest, one side quest, and one other—like a special task or the Goddess Quest you're currently on."
"Lastly, your reputation must exceed 100,000, and your first published work must sell over 50,000 sets. This last part is the hardest. Think about the seven works we picked for you—each is a long story arc with many interconnected tales. Every one of them could be split into multiple physical volumes. Once activated, the system will issue rewards based on qualifying stats. The rewards are randomized and need to be checked manually."
By this point, Chu Lian was already breaking into a cold sweat. She hadn't realized that just choosing a task would involve so many twists and turns.
The stories in those books were each famous in their own right, but there was a catch—they were lengthy. If she couldn't publish them in one go and instead took three to five years to finish, the reward system's activation would be delayed as well, dragging down her development timeline.
Even without the rewards, she could estimate where she'd be in five years. But nobody could deny that a reward-enabled system and one without rewards were two entirely different beasts.
Thankfully, she had chosen The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was relatively short in length and could be completed in a short period of time. If she had picked a longer work, there was no telling when the system would've activated.
"So from now on, be extra careful with every choice you make. These hidden requirements aren't meant to trouble you—they're embedded by the system's original designer. He set them up to select the perfect host, never considering just how difficult that really is."
Ayase had always known about this, but due to various restrictions, she could never say anything. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't. It was a limitation imposed directly on her soul—utterly inescapable. Still, that didn't stop her from grumbling about the system's designer.
After calming herself down, Chu Lian finally broke free from the downward spiral of imagining all the implications and schemes hidden in the system's design. She made a silent promise to herself: from now on, she must evaluate every system option with great care. If she accidentally dug a hole for herself one day, she'd have no one to blame.
Speaking of fans, it had been a while since she last checked her stats. Now that she understood the importance, she opened her simplified attribute panel and began reviewing it in detail—only to find that it had undergone a drastic transformation since she'd last seen it:
Name: Chu Lian
Age: 13 / ???
Race: Human Loli
Gender: Female
Birthdate: 2002.02.08
Stamina: 7 (Light)
Speed: 7 (Flexible)
Strength: 7 (Easily Pushed Over)
Spiritual Power / Mana / Magic Power / Inner Power: SS / A / A / A (You possess infinite energy, but cannot use it)
Element: Empty
Luck: EX~E (Heaven's Favorite, but also Heaven's Jealous. Be cautious—any mistake could lead to disaster.)
Power: None ~ Unknown (The source of your mysterious background)
Personality: Sharp-tongued, Tsundere, Scheming, Resilient
Talents: Loli Heart, Orchid in the Valley, Sealed, Sealed, Condition Not Met, Condition Not Met, Divinity, ???
Skills: Remilia-sama's Dignity, Head-Hug Squat Defense, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Undetectable, Undetectable, ???
Techniques: ???
Items: Reimu's Donation Box, The Gloves Abandoned by the Ladykiller, Misaka Mikoto Outfit, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Undetectable, Undetectable, ???
Weapons: ???
Talents: C-grade Writing, D-grade Music, AA-grade Acting, C-grade Public Speaking, C-grade Basketball, A-grade Driving, B-grade Painting, C-grade Cooking, ???
Goddess Value: 7
Reputation: 127,544
Goddess Points: 1,324; Culture Points: 131,998; Skill Points: 0; Admiration Points: 3,500; Dream Points: 47,586; Item Points: 17; Integrity Points: 370,039
Assessment: A rookie with infinite potential—perfect for high-level bosses to group-farm. Has a chance to drop ultra-rare items. Of course, also highly likely to attract the animosity of unknown individuals.
After reading through everything, Chu Lian was left in stunned silence. She genuinely didn't know how else to react.
The sheer detail and complexity of the categories were astonishing. Some attributes were clearly still hidden—presumably set to reveal themselves as she grew.
She still didn't understand why her energy field displayed four different types… why all of them were rated so highly… and why she couldn't use any of them.
Why were there so many entries marked with "???" across Talents, Skills, Techniques, Items, Weapons, and Talents?
What were the "Unknown" or "Undetectable" entries? What did "Sealed" and "Condition Not Met" really mean? And why was her Luck stat not fixed, but a fluctuating range?
What did the "Divinity" talent mean?
As for the talents rated B and above, those were all skills she had already learned in her previous life, so they weren't surprising. What did shock her was how fast her Dream Points and Integrity Points had risen. Her Integrity Points, once depleted to only tens of thousands, had now surged close to 400,000. Clearly, her video was still slowly generating more Integrity.
Pushing these thoughts aside, she glanced at the red sofa where Ayase usually sat—but found it empty. With a faint sigh, she understood that some things she had to resolve on her own.
Now that she knew her origins and body held numerous unknowns, she felt more determined than ever to uncover the truth.
Still, she now clearly understood: the system wouldn't reveal things to her unless she had the qualifications. If she wanted to unlock those secrets, she had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Regardless of what her background might be, her origins, or the system's ultimate goal—it would all have to wait for the future.
With that thought, she pushed everything aside and returned to her initial goal—redeeming the musical knowledge for Having You in My Life.
"Having You in My Life: Redemption requires 12,000 Culture Points. Upon redemption, you will master all the musical composition and vocal techniques for this song."
She selected "redeem." A soft white light enveloped her, then faded as the knowledge imprinted itself into her mind.
Opening her eyes, she realized the second afternoon class had just ended. There was only one class left before the deadline to submit the performance proposal—she had to finish it quickly.