Chapter 296: Volume 1 Chapter 296 You Are My System (6)

Most monsters wandering outside at night are low-level; high-level ones are rare. Currently, the hunters of all major bases have only found monsters up to B-rank as the highest, let alone S-rank. Monsters above A-rank possess terrifying power; once they appear, they can easily destroy a city.

A catastrophic existence.

During the day, not a single monster could be seen; the boy rode his small electric scooter out of Pinminku and onto the wide road, the sun baking the asphalt, the temperature reaching 39 degrees, extremely hot.

Humans have evolved, with high resistance to heat; the higher the level, the harder it is to get heatstroke.

The boy wore a straw hat on his head for shade and heat resistance; along the way, aside from a few streams of sweat sliding down his forehead, his body was unaffected.

"Where are you going?" Jiang Zhi checked his direction; straight ahead lay one of the two major bases, Huabeijidi.

Huabeijidi takes North China City as its center, extending outward several hundred li to erect a high wall to keep out monsters; electric nets are placed along the wall, and outside it is coiled with sharp, menacing spike nets; watchtowers stand in every direction, so not even a sparrow can fly in, let alone monsters.

Near the base, there are many towns and factories; ten years ago, this place belonged to a first-tier developed city.

Xie Xunze usually speaks little, cherishing his words like gold, but in other crucial situations he talks excessively to the point of being deadly, and he is especially good at deceiving people, his scheming so deep he doesn't seem like a normal person.

"To the base."

Jiang Zhi clicked her tongue: "I thought you looked down on their base."

Xie Xunze's tone doubtful: "Why look down on it?"

Jiang Zhi said matter-of-factly: "No matter how big the base, it wouldn't catch your eye."

Xie Xunze seemed choked by her words, pausing for a long time before saying: "How high is my regard in your heart? Higher than the heavens?"

Jiang Zhi played along: "Isn't it?"

Xie Xunze out of nowhere said: "I think something you said earlier was quite right."

Jiang Zhi blinked, asking: "What words?"

Xie Xunze: "The best Character Cards are mythic SSR-rank, the lowest are foolish N-rank…"

Jiang Zhi's N-rank Card flared: "When did I ever say that?"

Xie Xunze gave her time to recall.

Jiang Zhi was so angry she didn't speak.

Suddenly, the road fell silent.

Xie Xunze still felt a bit unaccustomed, mainly because ever since she came out of Pinminku she chattered nonstop without pause.

He had never seen anyone who loved to talk as much as she did.

The electric scooter ran out of power after two hours, with more than ten hours' journey still left to Huabeijidi.

He would definitely not make it today.

After the boy got off the electric scooter, he pulled out the battery, then took a solar charging panel from his pack and connected it to the battery; once he got back on, the scooter regained power and continued forward.

Jiang Zhi stared, mouth agape: "You even know how to set up solar charging?"

Xie Xunze obeyed traffic rules, putting on a helmet: "It's very simple."

Jiang Zhi curious: "How simple?"

Xie Xunze didn't answer her question, instead throwing it back: "You don't know how?"

Jiang Zhi grunted.

Who would know how to do that?

Xie Xunze challenged: "You, a system, can't even do this? What good are you?"

Jiang Zhi: "……"

She shouted at the top of her lungs: "Xie Xunze!!!"

Xie Xunze tugged at the corner of his mouth, a hint of pleasure flickering in his dark pupils.

Night fell over the sky, the nighttime temperature plummeting, a contrast as extreme as a desert's temperature swings.

Three hours remained until Huabeijidi.

Xie Xunze found an abandoned house in a roadside town to spend the night.

Before nightfall, he had already prepared, sealing all the windows with planks and then arranging a bed for himself to sleep on.

Before sleeping, he needed to complete the mission issued by the Stupid System.

Since angering her at noon, the Stupid System had not initiated conversation with him, still sulking.

Xie Xunze stepped out of the house, drew his steel blade, and asked nonchalantly: "What is the mission?"

He waited a long time without getting a response.

Xie Xunze: "Are you there?"

Jiang Zhi suddenly appeared: "Haha! I haven't spoken to you in ages—do you miss me??"

She snorted triumphantly: "I knew you'd come looking for me."

Listening to her childish words, Xie Xunze couldn't help but ask: "How old are you?"

Jiang Zhi, still processing, replied: "I've been one year old since I was created."

Xie Xunze wore an "as I thought" expression: "Indeed."

Jiang Zhi caught the meaning in his tone: "You look down on me, don't you? You, a twelve-year-old brat, have no right to look down on me!"

Xie Xunze's face darkened: "Don't call me a brat."

Jiang Zhi, as if she'd found something amusing, grinned wide: "I'm going to call you brat! Brat! Beg me, and I'll stop."

Xie Xunze couldn't be bothered to deal with her.

All it took was her deliberately showing a displeased expression for her to be delighted—truly a Stupid System.

Today's mission is to kill twenty D-rank monsters.

Xie Xunze finished the task in just two hours.

Jiang Zhi realized he was no ordinary sly fellow.

Using the monsters' sensitive hearing, he placed a radio on a high building and continuously played piercing music.

He attracted the surrounding monsters.

The boy hidden in the night moved quickly; the monsters, annoyed by the radio's sound, had no attention for him and were killed one by one.

Twenty monsters lay dead together, not dropping a single item.

His luck was worse than last time.

The boy didn't care.

【Complete today's mission, obtain Character Card free upgrade reward.】

After hearing the mission completion sound, he asked: "How do I upgrade?"

Jiang Zhi cleared her throat and said solemnly: "Place the card over your heart, say my name, and that's it."

Xie Xunze: "Forget it."

Jiang Zhi couldn't understand: "Why?"

Xie Xunze hesitated: "Is this the upgrade method you came up with?"

Placing the Character Card over one's heart is embarrassing enough, and having to say her name—no one knows who came up with this method.

Jiang Zhi instinctively retorted: "How could that be?!"

Xie Xunze stood silent in place for a long time.

In the end, he still did it.

When he spoke her name, countless points of light appeared, condensing into a human figure.

The girl's light-green eyes sparkled like stars as she smiled and approached him: "You got tricked by me this time, huh? Hahaha! You don't need to place the card over your heart to upgrade; just say my name, you idiot!"

She was smug; if she had a tail, it would surely be pointing to the sky.

Xie Xunze looked at the person who suddenly appeared before him; after a moment, he wasn't angry, merely uttering a cold "oh."

"Is tricking me fun?"

Jiang Zhi nodded in agreement: "Exactly."

Xie Xunze wanted to tell her that her acting was actually clumsy.

When she responded with "how could that be," he realized the method for upgrading the Character Card was flawed.

The reason he still did it was merely that she had been angry with him all day; occasionally pleasing her wasn't out of the question.