The Genius Cannon Fodder's Counterattack 2

A status panel visible only to Chi Xiaochi hovered before his eyes. It displayed the host's real-time body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, current outside temperature, and other data. The most conspicuous indicators on it were a pair of bars, one red and one blue.

The blue bar was regret value, while the red was affection points. Both had a maximum value of 100.

The blue number remained fixed at "9," while the red number was still falling because of Chi Xiaochi's remark, 'Did that cost you money?'

Chi Xiaochi sighed. "Why don't people ever like hearing the truth?"

The system felt a powerful urge to make a sarcastic remark, but held it in.

Yang Baihua said in disappointment, "Xiao Cheng, how can you say that?"

Chi Xiaochi didn't lose his temper. Instead, he said pleasantly, "Don't misunderstand, Old Yang. What I mean is, my brother was only thinking of us too. Having a car would make our lives much more convenient. I might not need it, but you could drive it to work. Just think how impressive that would look to your coworkers."

His manner was perfectly agreeable, as though the explosive remark he'd made a moment earlier had been nothing more than a simple statement of fact.

Watching the affection points rise by two, the system thought, A slap followed by a sweetener. Not a bad tactic.

Yang Baihua exhaled.

This child had been spoiled rotten since he was little and never knew when his words went too far. He probably hadn't even realized how hurtful that remark had been.

With that thought, Yang Baihua summoned a father's patience for a child and coaxed him, "Xiao Cheng, a car is a depreciating asset. Have you ever thought about how much gas costs every month, or how much it costs to buy a parking space? Can we afford that right now?"

"I'll earn money and support you!" With his hands behind his back, Cheng Yuan smiled with such sincere gentleness that it could melt anyone's heart. "My demo's almost finished. We'll have money then."

Yang Baihua said helplessly, "How many times have I told you? That isn't a real job."

"But I love music."

"Love can't put food on the table... Forget it. Let's not talk about this." Magnanimously, Yang Baihua added, "So we don't end up fighting."

"Okay, okay, we won't." Cheng Yuan took a step closer to Yang Baihua and said softly, "Actually, I was also thinking we could use the car to pick up your parents. Mom, Dad, and Third Sister are coming to the city next week, right? Once they're here, you can drive them to Xiaoyan's school and take her out for a meal or something. Didn't Xiaoyan ask when you were going to buy a car the last time she visited?"

Those two points struck precisely where Yang Baihua itched. He fell silent.

As he spoke, Cheng Yuan looked up at Yang Baihua.

Meeting his ardent gaze, Yang Baihua's heart abruptly skipped a beat.

It was winter. As the city lights came on, Cheng Yuan breathed out a puff of air. Through the hazy white mist, his already luminous, pale face seemed haloed in a delicate, entrancing glow. The night wind stirred the ring of down around the collar of his white puffer jacket, brushing it again and again against the smooth, slender neck that was as pale as fine porcelain, making Yang Baihua's heart tighten and burn.

Meanwhile, Chi Xiaochi's control panel displayed a translucent card. Its data read as follows:

Name: Beauty-Enhancing Aura (Trial Version)

Duration: 10 minutes

Quantity: 1

Quality: Excellent

Type: Single-use item

Redemption cost: 0 (complimentary)

Description: Egg fried rice wrapped in gold and silver, marrow-bone soup simmered until rich, crab-leg meat pried from its shell, or salted duck egg yolks glistening with scarlet oil—none can compare to your faint smile beneath the soft, clear light.

...Great analogy.

Chi Xiaochi asked curiously, "Was your copywriter a chef before this?"

After a moment's silence, the system said, "...09 is one of the original AIs, innate data. It just happens to enjoy studying recipes."

Chi Xiaochi found that wording a little strange.

Innate data?

Could data be acquired after birth?

Before he could ask further, the system cut in, "Mr. Chi. Your mission."

Chi Xiaochi: "Oh, right."

The system felt somewhat relieved when Chi Xiaochi refocused.

It had realized the moment it took charge of Chi Xiaochi that this new host was far more difficult to handle than most.

After receiving and reading the worldline information, Chi Xiaochi had pondered for a long time. The first question he asked was, "When I meet him later, can I run that Yang guy over with the car?"

System: "..."

Chi Xiaochi said, "Don't get nervous. We're only discussing it."

After a pause, he added, "Cheng Yuan's family is so rich. If some kind of traffic accident happened, they'd definitely be able to take care of it, right?"

The system said, "...You genuinely want to run him over, don't you?"

Chi Xiaochi said, "Not at all. We're only discussing it."

The system said, "Mr. Chi, you're dealing with a living, breathing person."

Chi Xiaochi replied in all seriousness, "Oh. Well, accidents happen. Nobody wants them to."

The system tried to reason with him. "...Mr. Chi, the laws in this world aren't much different from those in your original world. Intentionally injuring someone will land you in prison. Besides, if you flatten the mission target, how do you intend to leave this world?"

The primary metric for leaving a mission world was regret value.

Only when regret value reached 100 could the host leave the current world and be transferred to the next mission world.

The system had brought up regret value to dispel Chi Xiaochi's antisocial idea. Instead, Chi Xiaochi analyzed the matter with perfect logic: "They say regret reaches its peak at the instant a person dies."

System: "..."

Chi Xiaochi continued, "Even if he doesn't die and only ends up disabled, he'll have a long life ahead of him to spend regretting it."

System: "..." Please, just shut up.

The system's silence gave Chi Xiaochi his answer. He sighed. "All right. You really have no sense of humor, young comrade."

...And yet the system heard unmistakable disappointment in Chi Xiaochi's voice.

Unable to put its mind at ease, the system went out of its way to review Chi Xiaochi's file again.

...Chi Xiaochi was indeed an actor, not a criminal with a record.

Admittedly, scandals about him were everywhere: throwing his weight around like a diva, smoking in public and setting a bad example for minors, being uneducated and shameless about it, having a poor relationship with his parents, and having filthy sexual quid-pro-quo dealings with all sorts of older men, among countless other scraps of gossip. But most of them were rumors whose truth was impossible to determine.

After briefly filtering out that garbage information, the system thought, At least this host is probably just somewhat unconventional and has a few psychological issues. With proper guidance, there shouldn't be any problems.

So far, Chi Xiaochi had performed very well, and he'd used his complimentary skill card at exactly the right moment. The system detected that Yang Baihua's affection points, which had been falling moments before, were already showing signs of recovery.

Every new host received twelve complimentary, single-use skill cards. These items had a variety of functions, but each could only be used once. If the host found an item effective after using it, they could enter the system inventory and use the mission target's affection points to redeem it, then deploy it flexibly under different circumstances.

For example, right now.

Looking at Cheng Yuan, Yang Baihua's Adam's apple bobbed gently.

He knew Cheng Yuan was beautiful, but even the most beautiful person became nothing special once you'd looked at them long enough. Yet now, he had unexpectedly recaptured the feeling he'd had when he and Cheng Yuan first fell in love—the itch in his heart whenever he so much as glanced at him.

The little rabbit he'd raised, with its snowy-white fur, turned its round black eyes toward him, gazing at him with rapt devotion.

Someone so exceptional relied wholeheartedly on him and considered his needs in everything.

...This was how things should be.

Yang Baihua liked this feeling of "getting back on track."

Smiling, he asked, "You even remember that my cousin's name is Xiaoyan?"

Cheng Yuan said with unmistakable pride, "Of course I do. I remember everything that has anything to do with you."

For a moment, Yang Baihua felt the urge to kiss him.

But when he glanced aside, he happened to see Xiao Liu from the copy room getting off work, jangling his keys as he emerged through the company's revolving doors and discussed with two other coworkers where they should go for barbecue that evening.

Yang Baihua turned sideways, unobtrusively blocking Cheng Yuan from view. The hand he'd already raised halfway to stroke Cheng Yuan's face dropped with the motion and slipped naturally into his pants pocket. "Next time you want to add something to the apartment, don't forget to discuss it with me. It's our home, isn't it?"

Chi Xiaochi sneered inwardly.

Our home? Discuss it with you?

"You've crammed your whole damn family into this double bed of ours. Did you ever discuss that with me?"

But "Cheng Yuan" wouldn't think of any of that.

Given his personality, he would only understand that Yang Baihua had given his tacit approval, and the car could stay.

Cheng Yuan's eyes lit up, and the love in his gaze as he looked at Yang Baihua burned even brighter.

Yang Baihua smiled. "Want me to drive?"

Cheng Yuan volunteered, "You've been working all day. I'll drive." He opened the rear door and swept into a playful curtsy. "Boss, get in. I'm going to throw away some trash."

Yang Baihua laughed and readily climbed inside. As he surveyed the car's interior, he couldn't hide the envy in his eyes.

When would he ever be able to casually give away a car the way Cheng Jian could?

Meanwhile, Cheng Yuan picked up the mineral water bottle with only dregs left inside and ambled toward a trash can by the road.

Yang Baihua spent all day staring at a computer, so his eyesight wasn't particularly good. He didn't see the cigarette butt floating inside the bottle.

When Chi Xiaochi tossed the bottle into the recycling bin, the empty bottle struck the side with the soft crackle of crumpling plastic.

Chi Xiaochi asked the system, "You see it now?"

The system said, "Mm-hm."

—Cheng Yuan majored in vocal music. He had always treasured his voice and stayed away from tobacco and alcohol.

Chi Xiaochi had smoked half a cigarette. Although he'd made a perfunctory effort to cover it with chewing gum, the odor of smoke still clung to his mouth and cuffs. Yet his current lover hadn't noticed anything unusual at all—not even enough to ask a single question.

Of course, this was only a casual test on Chi Xiaochi's part and proved nothing.

To his mind, it was merely one small omen of Cheng Yuan's tragic fate to come.

Back in the car, Cheng Yuan buckled his seat belt and said, "When Mom and Dad arrive, let's pick them up together at the train station."

Yang Baihua visibly stiffened for a second.

Naturally, Cheng Yuan didn't notice anything amiss and continued, "I'm a really steady driver. We can take Mom and Dad to pick up Xiaoyan, then show them around Yunzhe Temple, go soak in a hot spring out in the suburbs..."

Yang Baihua said uneasily, "...We'll see."

Cheng Yuan's little trumpet of a mouth kept tooting away, brimming with energy. "Then I'll play the new demo I wrote for you. You'll be the first person to hear it. How about it?"

Yang Baihua was glad he'd changed the subject and readily played along. "Go ahead."

Cheng Yuan took out his phone and tapped the screen a few times.

A melodious instrumental drifted from the speakers, extraordinarily captivating. Yang Baihua had spent the whole day working, and the music flowing into his ears seemed to massage his taut nerves.

He sank back against the comfortable leather seat and fell asleep.

The system couldn't resist reminding him, "Mr. Chi, there's no need to use skill cards so frequently."

Chi Xiaochi had just used another hypnosis card on Yang Baihua, this one lasting an hour and a half.

Chi Xiaochi himself wasn't stingy with them. "I'm testing things out. Besides, can't I get as many affection points as I want?"

...There was nothing wrong with that assessment.

One person's affection for another naturally fluctuated. When lovers quarreled, their affection for each other could plummet to rock bottom, leaving each wishing they could strangle the other to death. When passion ran hot, they became inseparably sweet and affectionate again, and their affection points naturally soared again.

After Chi Xiaochi's flurry of fierce maneuvers, Yang Baihua's affection points had climbed back to 72, exactly where they had started.

Chi Xiaochi summed it up: "He lost a total of fourteen affection points over a car that didn't cost him a cent."

System: "..." Didn't ten of those points drop because of that one jab from you?

Chi Xiaochi continued his analysis. "One Beauty-Enhancing Aura card with a ten-minute duration, plus a few conciliatory words, and his affection points came right back. Redeeming another Beauty-Enhancing Aura card with the same effect only costs five affection points. When you do the math, affection points are still pretty easy to farm."

System: "..."

Had Chi Xiaochi deliberately provoked Yang Baihua just now to test the magnitude of the fluctuations in affection points?

And the word "farm" gave the system an ominous feeling.

Chi Xiaochi said, "For now, Yang Baihua's affection for Cheng Yuan only needs to stay at a passing grade. Check the inventory for me and see what I can redeem with the extra twelve points."

The system was stunned.

To leave their worlds as quickly as possible, its previous hosts had all revolved obsessively around their mission targets, desperately grinding the target's affection points to 100 before doing anything else.

After all, no one knew whether insufficient affection points might affect their mission's progress.

This was the first time the system had ever encountered a daredevil who started recklessly spending from the moment his score barely cleared the passing line.

The system searched the inventory. "For ten affection points, there's a thirty-minute 'Beauty-Enhancing Aura,' a five-minute 'Karate Black Belt buff,' a one-hour 'pain-free buff,' or a five-minute 'irresistible-charm aura'..."

Chi Xiaochi listened attentively to the whole list. "The first one."

After the transaction went through, he asked, "Does the 'irresistible-charm aura' come with a longer duration?"

The system said, "Yes. The longest lasts an hour and costs forty affection points."

Chi Xiaochi pondered this. "Then I'll save up a little longer."

...To the system, Chi Xiaochi's tone made it sound as though Yang Baihua were a pig at a meat-processing plant: cut off a front leg today, slice away the pork belly tomorrow; harvest it when it grew, let it regrow once harvested, on and on through the generations without end.

Feeling rather creeped out, the system said, "With the remaining two points, you can only buy small props or sex toys."

Chi Xiaochi: "Well, damn."

System: "...Mr. Chi, we're a respectable system."

Chi Xiaochi said nothing, merely smiled with knowing amusement.

His smile made the system's hair stand on end, to the point that its data began to fluctuate slightly. "We don't provide that kind of service. By 'sex toys,' I mean tangible little props that enhance romance, such as bouquets, river lanterns, and fireworks."

Chi Xiaochi said, "Then give me a shot."

"One firework costs three points."

Chi Xiaochi said without hesitation, "Give me one."

System: "..."

Chi Xiaochi said, "What are you waiting for? The failing grade's on me."

The system thought helplessly, Of course it's on you. Who else would it be on—me?

Once the redemption was complete, a clear chime rang out, indicating that the redeemed item had been added to storage.

Chi Xiaochi waited for what felt like forever. "Where's the firework?"

The system replied, "Your mission target..." He's still lying there like a corpse, completely offline.

"Who said it was for him?" Chi Xiaochi said. "Set it off now."

The system was puzzled, but did as he asked.

At once, a firework with an eight-layered core bloomed, trailing threads of snow and falling like meteors, embroidering the pitch-black vault of the sky with breathtaking light.

The firework burst in the distance, so its light arrived before its sound. As beads of radiance and threads of gold scattered through the sky, Chi Xiaochi suddenly said to the system, "...This is for you."

Before the words had left his lips, the delayed crack of the exploding firework finally arrived.

The system stared, slightly dazed, at the flying stars dispersing across the sky.

Chi Xiaochi's face was reflected in the car's rearview mirror. He was smiling.

Although Chi Xiaochi wore Cheng Yuan's face, the way he looked when he truly smiled was utterly unlike Cheng Yuan's guileless innocence. His peach-blossom eyes curved slightly, three parts wickedness mixed with seven parts languid indifference, giving him a breathtaking magnetism that made it impossible to look away.

Chi Xiaochi said to the system, "I'll be troubling you from now on. I look forward to working with you."

System: "..."

It was a little moving, but for some inexplicable reason, the system felt there was something off about those words. They had the air of a condemned man's final meal—give him something good to eat before taking him out and shooting him.

The system soon realized what was wrong. "This isn't the road back to Yang Baihua's place."

Chi Xiaochi said as though it were self-evident, "Of course we're not going home. Why else would I have hypnotized him?"

System: "..."

Chi Xiaochi glanced at the car's navigation system, confirmed the destination, then said, "...I want to go somewhere."