Chapter 187: A stick-like shadow appeared on Lin Li's face

"'Def.' requests to add you as a friend."

October 1st. Lin Li, woken up by a 4:30 AM alarm, saw this message appear on his phone.

"Counting silently, fifteen days have already slipped through my hands; like a drop of water on a needle tip falling into the sea, my days drip into the stream of time, without sound or shadow. I cannot help but sweat and weep."

"Brother Ping, I miss you so much."

"Ignore"

After reciting the primary school text, Lin Li naturally chose to neither accept nor reject, opting for the cold shoulder.

Missing him is one thing, but Song Luping is currently a useless item. Until the system issues a task requiring him, there's no reason to add him.

Although Lin Li is a master of making up stories, he can't just make them up anywhere.

Adding him back just to talk nonsense is also a hassle.

Switching back to his main account, he saw someone sending out mass National Day greetings.

Lin Li smiled slightly.

"Lin Li: October 1st, the bright moon is in the sky; friends and family, enjoying the moon and flowers; a time for reunion, f*ck your mother; telling stories of the past, full of blessings; a bright moon, looking forward to the future; National Day holiday, may everything go as you wish!"

"Wang Ze:..."

"Wang Ze: Are you whipping a corpse?"

Lin Li was a bit shocked. Wang Ze actually replied instantly. Was he already awake at this hour?

No, that's not right.

Some answers are already known in one's heart the moment the question is asked.

"Lin Li: You b*stard, you haven't slept yet, have you?"

"Wang Ze: Nonsense, did you sleep?"

"Lin Li: Your life is basically ruined. Let me, the only male track and field athlete flag of Class 4, take over. I went to bed at ten last night and just woke up."

"Wang Ze: Friendly reminder, going to sleep at six in the morning is earlier than you, who went to bed at ten at night. You're the one who's ruined."

"Lin Li:... Idiot."

"Wang Ze: Enough talk, I need to go wash my hands first."

"Lin Li: Huh? Why are you washing your hands at four in the morning?"

"Wang Ze: The kid is too clingy."

"Lin Li:... F*ck you."

God damn "the kid is too clingy." You, this kid, probably have over a billion of them.

Because it was still raining today, even though it was 4:30 AM, it was as dim outside as the dead of night. In this weather, morning exercise could only be done in the living room.

Fortunately, the sound of his exercise wasn't loud enough to wake Wu Min.

Current progress is (24/30). After finishing today, he can reach 25. He expects to complete this task on the 6th. You could say victory is in sight.

【Update complete.】

However, it was only when he pulled up the system that Lin Li saw this notification.

Then he felt a bit puzzled.

Didn't it just update yesterday? Why is it updating again today?

Does it update not only on Mondays now, but also at the beginning of the month?

But updates are a good thing. The system is getting closer and closer on the path to anthropomorphism. Lin Li looked at his 【Mall】 immediately.

The result was unexpected: the free product refresh count hadn't refreshed; it was still grayed out.

Does this update not even provide basic update benefits?

Bad luck.

Lin Li clicked on the extra nameless interface and finally found the point of the update—in that interface without any text, the first of the three buttons lit up, seemingly interactive.

So Lin Li clicked it.

A blinding white light seemed to flash before his eyes, and Lin Li subconsciously closed them.

The overwhelming white light quickly vanished. Lin Li opened his eyes. The good news was that "Genshin Impact" didn't appear before him.

The bad news was that he was looking at a scene of ruins. The sky seemed to be just breaking dawn, with faint light spilling through the clouds. He could vaguely distinguish that the surroundings seemed to be a city turned into ruins. Strange roars seemed to come from far away, and the air carried a faint stench.

Lin Li blinked.

Lin Li blinked, blinked.

Lin Li blinked, blinked, blinked.

Is this right, brother?

This isn't right.

"Holy sh*t!!"

"Your mother!!"

"Where did you bring me? Is this still in the country?"

"Slap!"

Lin Li moved quickly and slapped himself, but the scene before him didn't change at all.

Looking down, Lin Li saw he was still wearing his short sleeves, shorts, and the indoor slippers he hadn't had time to change.

"Did I transmigrate? Is it that sudden, brother? You f*cking system, you didn't transmigrate earlier, why now? Are you f*cking kidding me?" Lin Li's brain stalled slightly; the situation before him truly exceeded his expectations.

Lin Li hurriedly pulled up the system and clicked on the interface from just a moment ago.

He saw that among the three buttons, the first one he had just interacted with turned gray again, but the second button lit up.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Ah..."

Just as Lin Li was about to try pressing it, he heard a faint, hoarse sound coming from a corner in the distance, along with the sound of footsteps treading on gravel.

Since he was already here, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. Lin Li turned his head. Because his phone wasn't with him, he changed his title to 【Light of Xiling】 to make the surroundings a bit brighter.

His six senses had been significantly enhanced by the nourishment of spiritual energy, so even though the sound was actually coming from afar, Lin Li still found cover.

Nothing is more important than one's own safety.

In his field of vision, a person slowly appeared from around the corner of a wall.

Actually, it was hard to describe it as a person, after all, what kind of person has a head and neck at an acute angle?

Dirty hair matted together by mucus, like a clump of withered grass.

A hole in the head, half the cheek shaved off, a mouth that couldn't close, reddish-brown drool dripping down.

The skin was generally cyan, with large areas pitted like rot, seemingly hiding pus.

Intermittent breathing, mixed with viscous liquid in the throat, made a hair-raising gurgling sound.

One eye socket was empty, while the other had a pale eyeball that was almost falling out, struggling to roll around.

"Buddy... you don't look like a local either." Lin Li crouched behind the cover and smiled awkwardly.

This f*cking has to be a zombie!

This must be a zombie!

【Home is always home, the other world is just a stopover. Home is the bond that no one can cut. Finally, today you have obtained the key to go home. Although you can only stay for a short time now, it is a good start, and there will eventually be a day of permanent residence.

After returning to modern times, having been polished by cultivation techniques in the other world, your temperament and charm are far beyond ordinary people.

At this moment, this beautiful lady who has fallen in love with you at first sight and is drooling over you is the best proof.

The day of returning home in glory, the time to step onto the peak, the brilliant life of modern times officially begins from this moment!】

【Task triggered!】 【Task 4: Hold this beautiful lady's hand and watch the sunrise.】

【Task reward: Random ability *1; Random system-oriented item *1; System currency *100.】

Lin Li:?

Quiet, let Lin Li think.

Where is the beautiful lady?

Lin Li looked left, right, up, and down while retreating, finally determining that the only thing around him that could barely be called a "living creature" was probably this buddy—no, this sister.

System? Can you f*cking open your dog eyes and take a good look!

Is this a beautiful lady?

He couldn't even identify the gender!

She fell in love with him at first sight? Drooling over him?

... It seems so.

But! But!

That's just wanting to eat him in a physical sense, right?

While Lin Li was thinking, the beautiful lady finally locked onto him, as he only had his head exposed.

"Err—" After a low roar, the beautiful lady began to sprint toward Lin Li with the gait of a deviant species, though only her movements were frantic; her speed wasn't exactly fast.

Please... you... collect_(!)

But the distance between the two did indeed begin to shorten.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Surging fighting spirit burned in Lin Li's heart.

Lin Li turned and ran.

While running, he pulled up the system and clicked the second lit button.

A white light flashed.

Lin Li ran toward the sofa in front of him and collapsed onto it.

Seeing the surroundings clearly and confirming it was his own home, Lin Li breathed a slight sigh of relief and lay limp on the sofa for several seconds before coming to his senses.

After calming down, Lin Li immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower. After washing, he sprayed disinfectant alcohol all over his body, the soles of his slippers, and the floor he had just stepped on.

Don't f*cking bring any virus from that bizarre world back.

You have to know, a mild cold virus from modern times would be a plague capable of slaughtering a city hundreds of years ago.

If he were the reason modern times turned into that world of ruins, the sin would be too great.

It was already 4:50 after the shower. Lin Li suppressed other thoughts and began to practice the Eight-Section Body Tempering Technique.

【Consecutive month... at least half an hour cumulatively (25/30)】

This time it took nearly two hours. It wasn't until nearly seven o'clock that he completed today's task, almost falling short of success.

No way around it. Although Lin Li tried his best to be serious, it was too easy to recall the bizarre experience of those few minutes, and distraction would be judged by the system as not being serious.

Lin Li lay on the bed.

Now he could finally think properly about what had just happened.

First, he had indeed transmigrated for a few minutes; there was no doubt about that.

Task 4, which was still hanging in the 【Task】 column, was the best proof.

And that interface without text—now, the first two buttons Lin Li had pressed were gray, but the third one had lit up.

Before there was text on it, Lin Li wouldn't press it. Who knew what would happen?

System, I really f*cking...

If this button doesn't have text, isn't it the same as a pile of sh*t code passed to the next programmer without a single comment?

The general meaning Lin Li could probe so far was that the first was "Departure" and the second was "Return."

Lin Li was actually a bit scared. Fortunately, there was a "Return" button that could be pressed at any time after departure; otherwise, if he were trapped in that world, Lin Li wouldn't dare imagine what his ending would be.

Looking at the trigger message for Task 4.

Lin Li was truly gritting his teeth.

Home, home, you treat modern times as a cultivation world, as an all-female world, and then treat that place as modern times?

The system is absolutely reliable in being unreliable.

However, Lin Li could also understand the system's logic a little bit.

This was originally a button that could return to modern times after being pressed in a cultivation world or an all-female world.

But because he hadn't transmigrated at all, after pressing it, it became going to another world?

But the problem was, according to the information he collected in those one or two minutes.

The environment leaned toward modern, he couldn't feel any spiritual energy at all, it wasn't a cultivation world, and the all-female world tasks never mentioned zombies. He hadn't seen any mecha wreckage just now either, so it didn't look like that either.

"Did you create a new world for me?" Lin Li could only draw this conclusion.

There was too little intelligence.

If Lin Li hadn't returned immediately, he would definitely have been able to obtain more intelligence.

But that would have been too reckless. First, there was the safety issue, second, he had absolutely no preparation, and finally, if he wasted time and interrupted Task 1, the sunk cost would be too high.

Looking at Task 4, he had to say, the reward for this task was very generous, and Lin Li was very tempted.

Having abilities, items, and currency—these were all things Lin Li wanted.

However... holding hands with a zombie to watch the sunrise?

That scene was a bit too aesthetic; Lin Li didn't dare to think about it.

"Can I just hold hands?" Lin Li looked at the system text and suddenly talked to himself.

The task didn't ask him to watch the sunrise with the beautiful lady either.

Borrowing a hand from this lady (physically), can I take it to hold while watching?

Anyway, it's already a zombie, so borrowing one to use wouldn't be too much, right?

Considering the system is unreliable, Lin Li felt that his unreliable idea would be considered reliable by the system.

He could try.

But definitely not now. Before there was text on the third button, Lin Li wouldn't press it.

There were still too many mysteries that made Lin Li feel puzzled.

When the first button lights up, he would consider going to that world again.

And he must make sufficient preparations; he couldn't be as muddled as this time—one thing known so far is that slippers, clothes, etc., can all travel to the other world with him.

So next time, Lin Li would definitely try to carry weapons and armor; he must never go empty-handed.

The prerequisite for completing the task is to ensure his own safety.

"The mortician of that world still lacks long-term vision and is ignorant," Lin Li sighed and complained.

If Lin Li were a mortician, he would definitely secretly tie the shoelaces of every deceased person together. Wouldn't it be very interesting when a zombie apocalypse broke out?

Making oneself happy is also saving others.

If the beautiful lady couldn't move, how easy this task would be to complete.

What a pity.

After thinking about these random things, Lin Li collapsed onto his bed, covered his face with a pillow, feeling a bit mournful yet amused:

"October really gave me a blow to the head."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 188 =====