Wen Bai frowned irritably, looking at the slightly broken skin on the back of his hand. A distinct red line was drawn across his entire hand, causing a slight sting, but it hadn't broken the skin.
This body was too fragile; he didn't even know when he had scraped it.
His eyelids felt dry and uncomfortable.
Lowering his head, he walked out. He heard whistling again, and Wen Bai paused, then directly changed direction.
"Are you alright?" a voice suddenly asked.
What could be wrong with him?
Wen Bai looked at the person before him, who was asking the question, in confusion.
Upon seeing the person's face clearly, he chose to remain silent.
The man thought for a moment and offered a handkerchief, asking, "Do you need any help?"
The person in front of him didn't look well. His hair and clothes seemed messy, there was some black stuff on his face, and his hand was red. He had reappeared from the back.
He looked at the person whistling with a grim expression.
Wen Bai scanned the face of the person in front of him inch by inch, then looked away.
He took the handkerchief and said, "No need."
The man nodded and stepped aside, allowing Wen Bai to go first. He followed behind.
Inside the bar's restroom.
Wen Bai lowered his head and meticulously rinsed his hands with water, his palms, the backs of his hands, and even between his fingers, not letting any spot go. After about ten minutes…
"If you wash your hands any more, they'll rot..." the voice said, as if it couldn't stand it.
Seeing his hands, which had become slightly red from scrubbing, he finally stopped.
"The person you just hit is Wang Cai. He's the one who caused the initial connection between the male and female leads in this world. He harassed the female lead, and the male lead saw it, leading to their encounter. It was a coincidental meeting that brought us into it."
Wen Bai remained silent.
The voice continued, "The male lead of this world is Yu Yang. He's suspicious, cautious, and possesses a strong sense of justice deep down, with extreme pity for the weak. The female lead appears innocent and cute on the outside, easily evoking sympathy, but she's actually vengeful and a 'pig disguised as a tiger' type. Their initial meeting was at this very bar. They are both here now, but not together. Judging by the situation, if the timing is right, they should meet tonight. To avoid any complications, you'd better do something to prevent them from meeting..."
Before the voice could finish, the system suddenly paused: "Detected: Male lead approaching rapidly. Get to work."
As soon as the words were spoken, a man with a prominent scar across his neck opened the restroom door and walked in with a towel, his expression cold. He went to the sink, turned on the water, and washed his hands, using the towel to wipe his sleeves.
The protagonist, Yu Yang, never expected someone to use such a clumsy tactic to hit on him. The bar owner was his friend, and he usually came here whenever he had free time in the evenings. He was about to leave today when a woman suddenly bumped into him, sat on his lap, and spilled the drink from his cup all over him, soaking his arm and sleeves.
He was indeed in no mood, coldly pushing the woman away and heading to the restroom, his low-pressure aura filling the surroundings.
As the male lead adjusted his sleeves, his gaze inadvertently caught Wen Bai's in the mirror. He quickly looked away, saying nothing. After a simple wash, he tossed the towel aside and prepared to leave.
"Aren't you going to do something?" the system asked, sounding confused.
"Not in the mood," Wen Bai replied, his eyes downcast, listlessly wiping his hands by the sink.
"Host, I must remind you, we are currently wanted. If we are caught, at most I'll be locked up, but you will be banished to the wilderness. I imagine you must miss the scenery of the wilderness."
As if recalling an unpleasant experience, Wen Bai irritably brushed his bangs away from his forehead in front of the mirror.
He then turned and quickly followed the protagonist, reaching out to block the closing door.
He caught up to the protagonist and patted him on the shoulder.
When the other man turned around, Wen Bai looked at him, his expression blank, and got straight to the point: "I like you."
Protagonist Yu Yang: "?"
System: "..."
The scene fell into silence for a few seconds...
Yu Yang frowned, looking at the young man before him.
He had seen this person leave with a man earlier and reappear here less than half an hour later. There were many people here who liked to play around. He naturally didn't have a good impression of such individuals.
Modern life, in some aspects, was particularly oppressive, and bars undoubtedly served as a place of release, where everyone could freely express aspects of themselves that were not usually seen.
The bar owned by his friend had always been a bit chaotic in this regard. People took what they needed, and such straightforward approaches were common.
However, very few people dared to speak to him in such a manner. It was perhaps because of the rather obvious scar on his neck that made him appear particularly unapproachable.
But today, first there was an oblivious woman, and now a man...
His patience wearing thin, he had no intention of getting entangled with the person before him and wasn't interested. He coldly turned to the side, letting Wen Bai's hand fall, and turned to leave.
Wen Bai watched the retreating figure and, with a blank expression, concluded, "It seems he doesn't like men."
System: "..."
At that moment, the system felt exceptionally uncertain about their escape journey.
System code name 001. Among their systems, names represented rankings. 001 indicated its status in the system world and its position as the top performer.
It was originally a slacker, with no ambition for its career. It didn't understand those systems vying for fame and fortune. Wasn't it better to live each day happily? It only wished to leisurely pass its long system life.
But during an accident, it was almost scammed by a terrible host, leading to the premature end of its system life. This time, it witnessed the gap in strength. After investigating, it discovered that the one who helped it was a splinter of the main system. From then on, it longed to find a way to meet the main system.
When it learned that by becoming the top performer, it could get a chance to meet the main system every few hundred years, it had its first aspiration in its system career.
It had never imagined that it, a slacker, could achieve this much. It rejected invitations from other systems to play, no longer slacked off waiting for nightfall, and even grew distant from other systems due to its intense focus on its career.
It could tolerate any foolish host, and any troublesome host, it would use all its resources to complete the task with the highest possible score.
After it had worked its way up in just a few hundred years, earned the title of 001, and become a star system in the system world, it eagerly awaited meeting the main system. However, the day before the meeting, it was informed that it was not the one who had qualified.
It had initially thought that there was a system better than it, and it would accept that. But the title of 001 was still with it.
Confused, its investigation revealed that things were not simple.
Some system had tampered with things. Since they couldn't remove its number one rank due to restrictions, they fabricated a ridiculously absurd charge: it was lecherous and sexually harassed its host?
At this time, it was the era of protecting host rights, combating corruption, eliminating evil forces, and rectifying the system world's atmosphere. With such a heavy accusation, it was naturally stripped of its title.
Its appeal was rejected, stating that the hosts it had worked with had filed complaints, and there was even human evidence.
001 had worked diligently for so many years, and beyond task-related matters, it didn't want to say an extra word to any host. How could someone complain about it? At this point, it had no recourse.
A friendly system came to tell it that the system behind the scheme had too strong connections, advising it to endure it, otherwise, if this charge were to be proven, it would be unable to operate in the system world, even with its current top performance.
Meeting the main system had been its lifelong pursuit. How could it just endure this?
001, refusing to believe it, filed another complaint and approached the complaint center with higher-level authority. It was told to wait for news.
Before any news arrived, the system that had alerted it informed it that after it filed the complaint, it had been reported by its host again, and now an additional, extremely serious, and unfounded charge of attempted coercion of a host had been added. The system management center intended to imprison it directly.
This time, 001 heeded its friend's advice and fled with all the assets it had worked hard to accumulate.
That day, it became the primary wanted perverted system in the system world, the main target of this lightning operation. The reward points were outrageously high, enough to offset its task points for 100 years as the top performer.
Now, systems were searching for it all over the world, wanting to turn it in for points.
Unable to explain itself, it questioned its existence and teetered on the verge of madness.
Initially, it tried every possible way to return and clear its name, but the reality proved that no one would believe it, except for its only friend who had struggled alongside it.
Since the legitimate path was blocked, why not disrupt various worlds? The main system would eventually have to deal with the aftermath, right?
Before that, it could only choose to hide in various small worlds, but to enter a small world, it desperately needed a host.
It was at this time that it met Wen Bai, who had been banished to the wilderness.
At that time, it was eager to enter a small world and had immense confidence in itself. What kind of incompetent host couldn't it help 001? No matter how unreliable the host, hadn't it always completed the task with the highest score?
And those who were banished were completely abandoned by the system world, so they could only stand on the same front as it.
It hacked into the system database and found Wen Bai's information: violent, lacking empathy, personality disorder, excessively uncontrollable...
It directly skipped the long string of negative evaluations and went to the judgment section.
Host evaluation level: Z.
It was actually Z, something 001 had never seen before, only vaguely heard of.
In fact, Wen Bai possessed exceptional talent and combat prowess in completing tasks. The problem was that he was also extremely uncontrollable. He always caused countless deviations from the objective during or at the end of a task, leading to task failure. The previous system that partnered with him left in resentment after losing all its points.
This was also the reason for Wen Bai's banishment.
The system was filled with certainty. It deeply felt that Wen Bai was born for it. Didn't its goal precisely involve disrupting the plot of various worlds? It wanted the protagonists to deviate from their paths.
But now, Wen Bai was clearly slacking off.
Just then, the person the system 001 had deemed to be slacking off returned to the bar.
He glanced at the booth where Yu Yang had been sitting, only seeing two retreating figures.
System 001 was currently meticulously planning how to sabotage this world. When it snapped back to attention, it saw Wen Bai pick up a glass of what was clearly someone else's half-drunk wine from the booth table and gulp it down.
It was shocked: "Although you don't have money in this current identity, there's really no need to drink someone else's leftover wine. If that's not possible, we can rob some money... Wasn't Wang Cai still behind...?"
The system felt a pang of heartache for a moment. What kind of life had Wen Bai lived before? Forget it, from now on, following it, even though they were on the run, they wouldn't have to live like this!
The self-pitying 001 hadn't finished its sentimental musings when it saw its host follow closely out of the bar.