SFR: Chapter 4

The system stared at it in a trance.

Some hosts were at -5 from the moment they arrived to the moment they left. Its host had only been here for two hours. He hadn’t spoken much to Fu Xiuning, but he had already gone from -5 to -15.

It was such a mess at the first meeting. Could the favorability really be raised again in the future?

Xing Shi had no idea that he had set a new record.

He said in the dead silence, “Teacher, I’ve finished singing.”

The trainees were forced to undergo a baptism of the soul. They maintained a dull expression and clapped out of habit. The applause became sparse before dying down again.

The vocal teacher calmed down and asked, “What’s the name of this song?”

Xing Shi replied, “I forgot it too. This is a folk song sung by the local people. It is said to be their spiritual totem.”

Everyone: “……”

Yes, they believed it.

Putting aside the totem, this song was definitely related to spiritual things. Maybe it was used by their ancestors to kill the enemy.

The vocal teacher asked, “Is there an original version?”

“I sang it according to the original version without any adaptation.”

The vocal teacher was silent, not wanting to recall his singing skills and the song. The dance teacher on the side asked, “Have you learned to dance before?”

“No.”

The two teachers signaled for him to go down.

Xing Shi returned to his previous position, and the system also calmed down.

‘It’s okay,’ it thought. Training would start once the classes were divided and the host could learn anything he didn’t know.

Then it thought again about how stubborn this person was. He might not be willing to learn seriously. The punishment program didn’t work on him and the novice lottery was a ‘thank you for your patronage.’ What could it do?

It tentatively applied to the main system for another lottery draw and fell silent after being rejected.

Xing Shi didn’t wait for it to go crazy and asked, “Did my singing force you offline?”

The system said sadly, “I am online.”

Xing Shi sensed the tone. “I’m a bit curious. Are you a smart product or something else?”

The system perked up. “If I tell you, you also have to answer a question for me. We both have to tell the truth.”

Xing Shi was very happy. “Okay.”

The system said, “We are high-dimensional intelligence, half mechanical and half biological. We have powerful computing power, independent thinking, and certain emotions.”

Xing Shi understood that this meant they could be dismantled and killed.

The system said, “It is my turn. There are many routes to capture Fu Xiuning. You can choose from a love line, a friendship line, you can be loyal to him and act like a dog for him, he can be tamed by you and act like a dog for you, or you can be father and son, etc. Which route will you choose? As you promised, you must answer seriously.”

Xing Shi pretended not to hear that it had assumed he would ‘cooperate in the capture of Fu Xiuning’ and didn’t argue with it.

Since all hosts had the same capture target, Fu Xiuning was the key point. He must contact Fu Xiuning. Therefore, the system didn’t need to spend time persuading him.

He said frankly, “It depends on his attitude. If his attitude is good, it is a friendship line.”

He wanted to dismantle the system. If Fu Xiuning was willing to cooperate, they could be comrades and kill these things together.

The system recalled Fu Xiuning’s record and asked, “What if his attitude isn’t good?”

Xing Shi said without thinking, “Then I will be his father.”

If he killed those things alone, Fu Xiuning would have to call him father.

The system: “?”

It was possible to be father and son, but the host was really daring. It wasn’t known how many hosts Fu Xiuning had ruined!

However, the host finally agreed to talk business and it certainly wouldn’t pour cold water on him. It happily found the next direction of work. “Okay, let’s try the friendship line first.”

Fu Xiuning listened to the whole thing without changing his expression. He watched number six’s performance before standing up and leaving.

He came here today because he thought the system would be restocked and he wanted to see if there was a new host among the trainees. Now that he saw the person, he didn’t stay any longer.

The trainees looked at Xing Shi with different expressions.

The boss had been standing next to him before the assessment. He only watched one person after Xing Shi finished the test and left. It was hard to say that there was nothing between them.

Feng Zifan knew that Xing Shi and Fu Xiuning had just met, so he regretted it even more. He thought that if he hadn’t left in the middle, he might’ve been able to get along well with Fu Xiuning.

The 16 people finished the test one by one. Xing Shi took last place without any surprise.

The assessments of the other two practice rooms were also completed one after another. Once the results of the three groups were put together, he was firmly ranked last.

However, the teachers were all optimistic about him.

Trainees must go through rigorous training before they could debut. It didn’t matter if the basics were poor in the beginning. They could learn in the future.

Today, they simply divided those with and without basics into groups to facilitate teaching. The assessment in a month would include many aspects such as vocal music, dance, performance, image and camera test. They would be scored comprehensively. Xing Shi had an excellent image. He just had to work hard, and he would be promoted to Class 1 sooner or later.

The next step was to assign dormitories.

The dormitories were double rooms with a bed, a desk and an independent bathroom. The overall space was slightly larger than that of student dormitories. The empty part was used to place refrigerators, two sets of floor-to-ceiling wardrobes, and a dance mirror. A small training area was opened up. In addition, the apartment had a public laundry room, gym and leisure area.

Dormitories were randomly assigned, but they were allowed to negotiate and change by themselves. They just needed to report to the company.

After the initial test, re-examination, and class division, some trainees already knew each other and wanted to live with familiar people.

Xing Shi wanted to reserve a bed here for the convenience of training. He didn’t care who he lived with. It was just a coincidence that the person he exchanged with was also ‘internally selected’ and had no relatives like him. The two of them lived in the same room and didn’t exchange with anyone.

Feng Zifan and Da Zhuang came to see him. However, after hearing the situation, they didn’t mention changing dormitories. They called their friends and went to eat.

Xing Shi saw someone trying to put an arm around his shoulder. His muscles tense and he immediately turned sideways. The other person’s arm missed. Before he could react, he heard Xing Shi ask what he wanted to eat and his attention quickly shifted.

It was evening and already dark.

High-rise buildings appeared one after another. The lights were brilliant and the streets were crowded with people and traffic.

Not far from the apartment was a shopping mall. Xing Shi followed them forward, listening to the horns of cars and the music in the stores. He smelled the faint aroma of food, and suddenly found himself in a huge and peaceful dream.

He stopped in front of a stall selling roasted sweet potatoes.

The system gave a reminder. “This is very filling. You are going to eat hot pot later.”

Xing Shi took out his phone and asked, “What is my payment password?”

The system stopped trying to persuade him and told him.

Xing Shi bought a baked sweet potato, broke it open, blew on it a few times, and took a bite.

The hot sweetness hit his taste buds, and it was so real. He looked at the bustling night scene in front of him and followed the team.

The company gave them three days to settle down.

Except for those who had signed contracts and those who were confident about the re-examination, everyone else had to go home or ask their families to send their things. Most people were currently staying in hotels, and they would go back to their own places after eating. It was at this time that Feng Zifan and the others knew that Xing Shi was a student of a prestigious college. The eyes of a group of poor students showed obvious admiration and envy.

Xing Shi smiled, said goodbye to them, and returned to school

The undergraduate dormitory of Z College was a four person room with a bed and desk.

Xing Shi recognized all three roommates through the system and found his own bed.

He took a professional book from the bookshelf and flipped through two pages at random. Then he put it back and changed the book. This time, he saw the original signature on the title page. The pen strokes were sharp and precise. They were almost the same as his own.

The same name and appearance, as well as a similar handwriting. What was the probability that it was a coincidence?

Did he transmigrate to a new world, or… had he come back?

Ever since he transmigrated to the magic world, his previous memories became fuzzy. Finally, only some common sense things were left to him to let him know that he came from a modern society. Now he transmigrated again, and he still couldn’t remember.

He called out, “System.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know where I come from?”

The system replied, “I don’t know. This is the host’s privacy.”

“Then do you know why I transmigrated?”

“I don’t know either. I am only responsible for supervising the hosts to do tasks…” The system said and remembered something. “You must’ve lost your memory, right?”

It explained, “The soul is an energy body. There will be a slight consumption during the transmission process. The side effect is different degrees of amnesia. The hosts who transmigrated are basically like this. Some people can slowly remember and some can’t.”

“But don’t worry,” it sold the benefits hard. “We have memory pills in our store that can allow you to trace back all your memories from birth to the present. As long as you get enough favorability points, you can exchange it using points.”

Xing Shi hummed calmly and put the book back.

Three days passed and the trainees started training.

In addition to professional skills, they also had to learn cultural knowledge such as language and art. The courses were densely packed.

Among this group of trainees, only three people had to balance their studies, including Xing Shi. After two weeks, one of them was tortured and was considering taking a leave of absence.

The system was originally worried that the host would give up, but he didn’t complain.

In addition, he would occasionally skip one or two unimportant classes to go to the company for training. This was very touching.

The only bad thing was that they had no contact with Fu Xiuning again.

Fu Xiuning didn’t live on campus, and only came to Z College for classes or when he had something to do. They rarely met in the company, and there was no progress in the friendship line.

The system saw that the host habitually found a place to lie down after lunch, and said, “The dormitory is in front.”

Xing Shi closed his eyes and didn’t move. “I ate too much. I want to take it easy.”

“…So why did you eat too much?”

Xing Shi didn’t answer and concentrated on basking in the sun.

The system knew that no matter what it said, it wouldn’t get a response. Therefore, it shut up. A few minutes later, it suddenly became excited. “Fu Xiuning is walking this way!”

Xing Shi pretended not to hear.

The system saw his dead look and couldn’t help it any longer. “What are you thinking? I reported Fu Xiuning’s location several times before and asked you to go there, but you didn’t go. What about the friendship line?”

Fu Xiuning didn’t ignore it this time. “If Fu Xiuning is someone who can be conquered by talking with him more, you only need to send one host. Why find so many people?”

The system wondered, “Then what is your plan?”

Xing Shi ordered, “First of all, don’t bother me.”

The system: “……”

It muted its voice in frustration. It realized that Fu Xiuning was going to pass by, so it simply stopped looking to avoid getting angry.

In the past half a month, Fu Xiuning had seen Xing Shi four times.

The first time was at noon after school. He saw a person running towards the gate from a distance in his car. He drove over and found it was Xing Shi. The other person had a bright smile and ran quickly to get takeout.

The second time was in the company cafeteria. Xing Shi’s table was filled with empty plates, and there were four boxes of desserts. He had already eaten one box and was enjoying the second box. Trainees had requirements for their figure, and desserts were limited. The fact that he had so many meant they must’ve been given by people who wanted to lose weight.

The third time was at the side gate of Z College. He was passing by on the way somewhere. Then he saw Xing Shi sitting at a crowded stall. He was slurping noodles without even looking up.

Today was the fourth time.

There was a small park in the school’s living area. He passed by and saw the person sitting on the double chair.

Xing Shi’s hands were in the pockets of his baseball jacket, and the hood of his sweatshirt was on head, covering his eyes and eyebrows. His legs were slightly apart, and he was slumped lazily.

There was a stray cat in the empty seat next to him, eyes narrowed and front paws tucked in. The sun was shining from above, and the whole picture was warm and cozy.

Fu Xiuning’s legs that were about to step forward paused. The bad factors in his heart came out.

How could a host live more comfortably than him?

He walked towards Xing Shi.