Wen Bai pushed open the door behind the main hall. It was a carpeted hallway leading to a framed, abstract painting of indeterminate golden color.
At the end, there were only two paths, left and right.
The left path was sparsely populated, while the right path was bustling with servants carrying trays.
System 001 chimed in, "To the right."
Wen Bai quickened his pace towards the right. Many doors along the way were open, with people constantly entering and exiting, all wearing the same servant uniforms of the manor. Through the open doorways, Wen Bai glimpsed chefs with tall white hats, preparing food.
Further on, the doors were closed, and the area gradually became deserted.
System 001’s voice sounded, "Host, this is it! I sense it, there's no mistake."
Wen Bai looked at the door in front of him and twisted the doorknob. It was locked.
System 001, the all-purpose lock-picking expert, promptly unlocked the door…
Wen Bai suddenly felt a chill, breaking out in a cold sweat. He had felt cold intermittently since leaving his room earlier, but it hadn't been this pronounced.
Now, it felt as though the air was being sucked into his body through his palms.
He steadied himself, opened the door, and scanned the room.
This appeared to be a storage room. He switched on the light.
There were three rows of shelves and two aisles, with stacks of cardboard boxes on the iron racks.
The floor was clean, and the boxes looked new.
Wen Bai walked further in and examined them one by one, finding no one.
"There's no one here."
System 001: "No, it's here."
System 001 shifted its perspective and said to Wen Bai, "Between the second and third boxes from the back, starting from where you are."
Wen Bai turned as if to leave.
"It's right here, quickly! Catch it!"
Wen Bai's eyes immediately recognized what it was, and a flicker of disgust crossed his face.
But as he saw it, he lightning-fast extended his hand, directly capturing the small creature that was attempting to escape.
"Squeak squeak! Squeak squeak!" a short, plump white mouse squeaked frantically.
"Are you sure? This is a mouse…" Wen Bai endured the discomfort in his palms, his expression of disdain unconcealed.
System 001 was silent for a moment.
Then, it stated with certainty, "There's no mistake, why is it a hamster? I'll bet all my performance points, 001's entire score! It's this one!"
Wen Bai: "..."
"Your points are useless now," Wen Bai said coldly.
Then, something happened, and Wen Bai heard a sharp burst of static. System 001's excited, sinister voice rang out, "Got you."
The mouse in Wen Bai's hand struggled and squeaked wildly.
So noisy, and disgusting…
Wen Bai couldn't control his irritation and applied a little pressure. The mouse suddenly went still.
"Ah!!!!!! My host…" a small, sharp voice shrieked.
Upon hearing this voice, Wen Bai's expressionless face first registered confusion, then, belatedly, a rare look of shock. His hand instinctively loosened.
The short, plump mouse fell to the ground with a thud, motionless.
System 001: "It's dead?"
Wen Bai maintained his hand-in-motion pose: "I don't know."
The moment Wen Bai finished speaking, the little mouse on the ground suddenly leaped up, scurried up the shelves, and burrowed into a hole, escaping.
Wen Bai: "..."
System 001: "It's okay, I've caught its system."
That small voice once again sounded in Wen Bai's ear, seemingly flustered: "What… what do you want to do to me!"
System 001: "What do you think I can do to you."
Of course, it wanted to strip this little system of all its possessions and points!
"I, I was wrong! I… I'm not good-looking, I'm not as pretty as your host, you… you can have anything you want, please let me go…"
Wen Bai listened to the cacophony in his mind: "What did you do to it?"
System 001 gritted its teeth in bewildered rage: "I haven't done anything yet!"
Then the small voice immediately burst into tears, "Waaah!"
"I shouldn't have come, I was blinded by greed, I shouldn't have come even for 100 years of points, waaah…" Then came the continuous sound of "ding ding dong dong." "I'll give you everything, I'll give you everything, I'm really not good-looking,呜呜呜…"
"Shut up!" System 001 couldn't take it anymore.
"What exactly are you talking about? And what are these? Wait, this might actually be useful to me, I suppose I'll reluctantly accept it…"
After a period of "ding ding dong dong," it finally ended.
"However, can even animals be chosen hosts now?" System 001 asked curiously.
The sobbing little system retorted, "Do you think every system has so many points that they can choose their own host from birth! I don't have enough points to choose my own host, I'm just… " The little system's voice trailed off.
"No, when you can't choose, aren't they automatically assigned based on compatible attributes? That should be better than that… your current host, right?"
"No, not all systems can get a host now. But you can use points to exchange for one. Since everyone is trying to improve their performance, we small systems can exchange enough points for a host."
"When did this start?" System 001's emotionless voice grew colder.
"It's always been like this. 002 has already changed many hosts, otherwise how could it climb the rankings so quickly."
So, while all the other systems were going through connections, only it, 001, was striving for performance through merit?
And then it got schemed against?
Putting these vexing matters aside, System 001 said, "Since you discovered us, explain what you've been doing in this world. I'll return the useless things to you."
The little system immediately spilled everything like beans.
It turned out that it had secretly sneaked into this world, but found that it couldn't bind any host and could only wander. Eventually, it discovered that it could bind that hamster.
Then they saw the host of the top-ranked system on the wanted list, System 001.
Because the reward points were so high, even a small system like itself, which couldn't even bind a human host, harbored wicked intentions.
It had been biding its time, making many secret moves from behind the scenes.
System 001 said coldly, "So you anonymously reported Wen Bai, which is why the police came to question him?"
The little system meekly replied, "Yes."
"What else did you do?"
"I sent the male lead a synthesized photo of him and the female lead getting married in their original world."
"Continue."
"I also…"
Wen Bai didn't want to waste any more time here. Instead of dealing with a system whose host was a palm-sized mouse, he'd rather go get something to eat. "It hasn't done anything to the male or female leads, so don't waste time."
The little system suddenly became so scared that its emotionless voice faltered, "N-no… not yet! I haven't… haven't done anything."
Wen Bai, who had already started to walk away, immediately stopped. He asked with heightened acuity, "What else did you do?"
The little system sounded like it was about to cry, "I… I made the host chew through the male lead's rope…"
System 001: "What?!"
Wen Bai pushed the door open and walked out. At this critical juncture, he had to go back.