Shen Qiuxun died, but Shen Qiuxun came back to life.
He had been running a fever all night and only now managed to crawl out of bed. After haphazardly scavenging half a tube of Nutrient Fluid—no telling if it was expired—he drank it down. Only then did he feel his soul return to his body.
His whole body was sticky enough to paste Spring Festival couplets. He decided to go out and take a shower.
He twisted the doorknob. The light in the Living Room was a ghastly white, the walls a cement gray. The Living Room wasn’t large. Piles of messy Wooden Boxes and cardboard boxes were stacked at the base of the walls, leaving just a single path for people to walk. A desk sat in the corner, and at the desk sat a man.
[Capture Target is right in front of you. Host mission time remaining: thirty days.]
“Shut up,” Shen Qiuxun thought silently. He tilted his head and carefully scrutinized this Capture Target, his lips curving into a bored smirk. “But, yeah… I meant to ask you yesterday—why is the Capture Target a guy?”
[Please do not question the System.]
Yesterday, Shen Qiuxun had just arrived in this world. His focus hadn’t even locked on yet when a man in a suit in front of him confessed passionately, “Will you be with me?”
As fellow sudden-death aficionados all know, your brain crashes after dying suddenly. It takes a long time to reboot and update. He was still in a daze. The gibberish in his mind was all a blur, and he only caught the last sentence clearly:
[He does not meet the requirements. The person behind you—that’s the actual Capture Target.]
What Capture Target? Shen Qiuxun’s head was heavy as he looked over.
[You have to be with him.]
“Oh.” Shen Qiuxun fell silent for a long moment. Under the suited man’s confident, winning gaze, he suddenly called out to a passing silver-haired, green-eyed man and pointed directly at him: “No. You come here. I want to be with you.”
[?]
Xu Zhiyuan, who had just been passing by, paused slightly. He followed Shen Qiuxun’s fingertip and pointed at himself, hesitant. “Me?”
In short, on Shen Qiuxun’s very first day transmigrated, before his brain even arrived, he’d confess to Xu Zhiyuan in this muddled way. But there was still a long distance between fake affection and genuine feelings before the mission could be considered complete.
Back to today. Shen Qiuxun narrowed his eyes and sized up the mission target he’d picked up:
Showy silver hair, tall and broad figure, wide shoulders and narrow waist. He wore a gray Vest that exposed strong arms covered in scars.
Just as he was thinking this, the man turned his head to look at him. A pair of extraordinarily striking green eyes, like a coyote hidden in the jungle. Phoenix eyes, high nose bridge, a very superior facial structure—an aggressive, striking face with bold features.
[You could go up and talk to him. Praise him. Deepen your relationship.]
Shen Qiuxun let out a small yawn. So this was the “Tall, Poor, and Handsome” type? He wondered if the average looks of humans in this interstellar world had increased significantly.
The man’s irritated gaze landed on him. His green eyes were rampant with killing intent, yet it felt like he was fierce in appearance only, brittle inside. “What are you looking at?”
Shen Qiuxun looked him up and down, calmly withdrew his gaze, and rolled his eyes covertly. His voice was listless. “I’m just looking at you. Got two balls under your brows with a mind of their own?”
[…]
“…” The man’s already unfriendly features folded into shadows, making him seem even more unpleasant. His gaze was cold enough to freeze instantly.
Shen Qiuxun acted like nothing had happened. After saying his piece, he lost interest. He turned to open the door to the bathroom and walked in. The bathroom was tiny, coated with years of grime. Only a single bare bulb hung crookedly on the wall. Stepping inside was the sink, one step to the side was the toilet, and the shower area was just a sliver of space.
Closing the door, Shen Qiuxun took a quick shower, threw on his clothes, walked out, and shut the bathroom’s battered metal door, preparing to go back to sleep.
[Please take the Reformation Mission seriously, Host.]
He retracted the foot he’d stretched out, leaning sideways against the doorframe with his arms crossed. After a long pause, he spoke to that man at the desk. “What kind of stuff do you like?”
The overhead light cast blocky shadows under his fringe, beside his nose bridge, on the side of his neck, and across his collarbone.
His proportions were excellent. Tall and lean, with delicate collarbones, wide shoulders, and a narrow waist. The cheap black T-shirt was of poor quality, its bunched-up creases cinching a perfect waistline. The dim shadows accentuated his pale skin. His legs were long and thin, wrapped in patched-up Cargo Pants. It was like a scene from a black-and-white film—cold, clean, devastatingly beautiful.
This time, he got a clear look. The man was eating, a bowl of instant noodles sitting on the desk.
Shen Qiuxun grumbled internally: “Are you sure I have to romance him? A broke guy who can’t even afford group-buy takeout, who has to eat instant noodles?”
[Yes. Please do not question the System.]
The man stared at him fixedly for two seconds, his frown deepening. His grass-green pupils restrained themselves as they sized up that slender waist, only looking away when he heard Shen Qiuxun’s voice. He unhurriedly pressed down the lid of his instant noodles. He wasn’t quite sure what Shen Qiuxun meant either. “What?”
He really had been out of his mind yesterday. Xu Zhiyuan had been inexplicably called out to, met that pair of black, clear eyes, heard the other party say they wanted to be with him, and then inexplicably nodded… This, this, this, this was his first love!
Though, in the end, it was all still vague and unresolved.
Xu Zhiyuan pursed his lips, his expression turning even more fierce.
“Tch.” Dragging his exhausted steps, Shen Qiuxun drifted back to his room like a wandering spirit. It seemed he needed a long-term strategy.
The room was tiny. A bed that creaked at the slightest turn, a rusty six-door Steel Cabinet, a rusty iron desk. The walls had clearly seen better days; peeling paint resembled old scars. This was the definition of utter poverty.
Shen Qiuxun surveyed the room and finally found what he was looking for.
On the cabinet was an old Little Robot with a mirror embedded in its body. Red and blue wires were exposed, and one of its legs hung down at a twisted angle. It was probably broken.
Shen Qiuxun bent down a little, reached out to lift his thick bangs, and finally saw the face in the mirror clearly:
Pitch-black hair, ashen skin. Brows crowding the eyes, sanpaku. A faint dark shadow beneath his eyes. His eyes always drooped listlessly. The double eyelid crease was deep and narrow, tapering from thin to wide and then gathering at the outer corner. His eyelashes pointed down, dense and straight. At the outer corner, they crossed into an elegant, flowing arc shaped like a swallow’s tail. His irises were pure black.
Straight nose, thin lips. Even the color of his lips was pale, the corners of his mouth turned down. Even when smiling, the corners barely reached level. A tiny mole dotted the area below the corner of his lip, and below that was a sharp chin.
The entire face held only two colors: black and white. A touch of ghostly, Asexual beauty.
It was his own.
Shen Qiuxun blinked slowly, then lost interest. He let his bangs fall back down, casually combing through them until they covered his brow.
He flipped onto the bed and lay flat. Just as his eyes closed, the System in his mind started talking again:
[Host, let me reiterate: You were captured by the higher-dimensional system for violating the “Indifferent to Fame and Fortune” clause of the traditional virtues of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. After completing the system’s custom reform mission, the system will send the Host home.]
“This mission—do I seriously have to do it? What can you do to me if I don’t?”
[Kill you.]
“…”
Hearing the System’s threat, Shen Qiuxun finally opened his eyes with extreme reluctance. He vaguely recalled the information he’d received in the darkness the day before and felt deeply indignant:
“My only crime was wanting a job with a salary over three thousand a month. Does your boss just not pay you or something?”
[The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty System was born from the universe’s qi and fortune. Originating from a high-dimensional world, it strives to maintain world peace.]
“You’re being exploited for free labor, System Buddy.”
[Please do not attack the System.]
“You’ve already been brainwashed by capitalists.”
Shen Qiuxun had been a soon-to-graduate university student before his transmigration. An orphan, he relied on social welfare and his own hard work to get into a top university. But luck wasn’t on his side; it was the global economic crisis. Shen Qiuxun pulled several all-nighters looking for a job, attended countless corporate interviews, but still couldn’t get a job he was relatively satisfied with. Then, inexplicably, he dropped dead.
In the absolute darkness, a system claiming to “promote traditional virtues” approached him. The System said that his disdain for a monthly salary of three thousand had violated the traditional virtue of being Indifferent to Fame and Fortune, and thus, he must be reformed.
The method of reformation was to romance a Tall, Poor, and Handsome man. He had so many complaints he didn’t even know where to start. Shouldn’t the proper method have been giving him a few hundred million and forcing him to spend it all?
And it was a mandatory reformation! Before he could even agree, his vision went black, and when he opened his eyes, he was in this strange world! It was practically kidnapping!
Shen Qiuxun sighed, feeling that life was just one mess after another.
If this were ancient times, he’d definitely have penned several thousand words of poetry to express his grief over unrecognized talent.
The emotionless electronic voice in his mind didn’t answer him, arrogant to a fault.
Capitalists are always arrogant, ignoring all voices below them.
Buck up. Let’s sort out the opening scenario. He now had a dirt-cheap single room and a job that paid thirty a month with monthly benefits.
Looking forward to those Month-end Benefits!
“…”
[Host’s mission time remaining: thirty days. Please commence the mission as soon as possible.]
“Couldn’t yesterday count as sick leave? You guys are seriously inhumane. How is this practicing traditional virtues?”
[Request denied.]
Fine, whatever.
Shen Qiuxun’s drowsiness vanished. He sat up in bed. Beside the bed was the room’s only square window, tiny, just a bit bigger than his face. Because Lower Planets have extreme day-night temperature swings, the window glass was very thick.
The view outside was also a hazy gray. Buildings were low, generally two or three stories. Round windows looked like the buildings’ eyes. Only a few lonely pedestrians were on the road. In the distance, vast, rolling yellow sand was dimly visible. Not a single bright color was in sight. Barren and desolate.
Shen Qiuxun only truly felt the reality of transmigrating when he saw the visual Chip called a Lightbrain on his arm. This was a futuristic interstellar world. His current location was a Trash Planet, extremely remote and backward.
What was even more interesting:
To adapt and survive, humans had evolved the secondary genders of Alpha, Beta, and Omega. Humanity was divided into six categories. Alphas were at the top of the power structure, mostly societal elites possessing powerful physiques and Mental Power. Omegas had extremely strong fertility, were delicate and frail, and could release Pheromone to soothe agitated Alphas; they were precious. Betas were between the two, made up the majority of the population, and were the main laborers of society.
So this world had Male A, Female A, Male B…
Shen Qiuxun was a little dizzy from a screen full of English words. After analyzing it for a while, he reached a conclusion: He appeared to be a Beta. All this text had nothing to do with him.
Shen Qiuxun’s current identity was also an orphan. He currently worked as a clerk at a Black Market Pharmacy. He’d even had to bribe the recruiter with great effort to land the job. Exhausted and half-dead, he had finally become a wage slave. Oh well, not needing to job hunt anymore was at least some good news.
The high-tech of the future did pique his interest a little. The Lightbrain on his wrist was very low-level, with only three functions: photography, calls, and sending text messages.
Just as he was studying it, the Holographic Screen suddenly opened. An anonymous message came through: “Emergency overtime. The boss checks attendance at 7:30.”
“???” He hadn’t even eaten yet! Shen Qiuxun waited for a moment. “Hey, didn’t I come here to fall in love? I still have to work?”
[This is also part of the Reformation Mission.]
You’re just trying to work me to death.
“You go if you want. I’d rather die than go.”
A long moment later, stubborn Shen Qiuxun took a deep breath, accepted his fate, and picked up his jacket.
If he didn’t do it, plenty of others would be scrambling for the chance!
