Mu Yue had already arrived home. A new contact popped up on Green Messenger — she had just added Wen Yuanting as a friend. They had only been in the same big group chat before, never having messaged each other privately.
Is this a fusion bug?
The 10,000 points of system credits were not even the main draw; what mattered was the urgency. The system had not given her any option to accept or reject this emergency mission — it had just been dispatched directly.
What she was concerned about was whether more similar emergency tasks would pop up in the future. And what if she failed to complete one? Huge benefits almost always come with sky-high risks.
Inside the system space, four little round creatures were pushing each other back and forth, hesitating. Finally, they stretched out their paws and flapped their wings, and the Chick flashed a resentful "here we go again" look, glaring at the three other system creatures who were all staring upward pretending to be innocent. It let out a world-weary sigh, deliberately fluffed up its feathers to look a little messy, then hopped out of the space and rolled right up to Mu Yue's feet.
Top Student: "Host, don't worry! There won't be any penalties if you don't finish the task!"
Mu Yue stared at the little yellow chick that had suddenly appeared, holding back the urge to reach out and smooth its ruffled feathers. She said nothing, but her expression clearly spelled out three words: I don't believe you.
Top Student rubbed its chicken claws together nervously. "There really are no penalties, it's just that..."
Mu Yue: "It's just what?"
"It's just that there's a possibility you might get dragged into the bug too. But!" Top Student quickly added, "that possibility is extremely low for you, Host."
Ha, she knew it. There was no way there was zero risk, no such thing as free 10,000 points.
Seeing that Mu Yue didn't seem eager to take on this emergency mission, Top Student said weakly, "If you really don't want to do it, you can just ignore it. There really are no penalties at all." It repeated the no-penalty line again.
But Mu Yue frowned even more hearing that. "What do you mean by 'just ignore it'?"
"If you ignore it, we'll apply to the main department to send a specialist to handle it. But that process might take a while. If the bug isn't judged to be very serious, there's a chance no specialist will come at all, and after a certain period of time, the world will eliminate it on its own."
"Eliminate it on its own?" Mu Yue felt more and more uneasy the more she heard.
Top Student was helpless too, nodding its little chicken head. "Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking. The world's self-elimination methods are mostly pretty crude. Wen Yuanting would probably be erased directly."
"..." Mu Yue fell silent. She even started to feel bad for Wen Yuanting. How unlucky did you have to be? First he'd been stuck in a ten-year loop, getting hit by a car every year, then he'd woken up after four months in a coma, and now if they couldn't fix this problem, he was going to get erased? And before that happened, he might end up stuck repeating the same cycle for god knows how many more years.
Mu Yue couldn't help but be curious. "How did he end up becoming this bug in the first place?"
The original host of this body had basically taken part in four different storylines, appearing in each of them with different roles of varying importance, and the overlapping identities had created tiny glitches. But what about Wen Yuanting? He didn't even exist in any of the four books.
Just a total bystander. The real King of Bad Luck.
Top Student explained that fusion bugs were just like that, the root causes were super complicated and the situations could vary wildly. Maybe there had been a target mix-up, like the rebirth trope in those fake-rich-daughter real-biological-daughter stories — maybe Wen Yuanting had gotten a little sliver of that rebirth effect, but since he wasn't the protagonist, he only got the demo version. Or maybe he was a character that had only existed in the original author's rough draft brainstorm, then got forgotten entirely so he never showed up in the published story at all. Or he could have just been one of the random background extras in a single scene.
As for the solutions, there was no one-size-fits-all answer either — different cases needed different fixes. For example, there was a core character who had been reborn 99 times, and without any corrector's help, he eventually gained enlightenment, shattered the void and ascended to immortality. Then there was a case where the bug was in a character's body — a guy who was already psychologically twisted, his body had fused with the genes of all kinds of monsters, and he turned into a full-blown disaster that required a top-tier corrector to take him out physically.
After listening to several of these cases, Mu Yue went even quieter. So Unlucky Guy over there wasn't even the most miserable one out there.
"You said the chance of me getting dragged into the bug is really small," Mu Yue said after a moment of thought. "Why is that?"
The soft little tuft of feathers on top of the Yellow Chick's head perked straight up, and it said hurriedly, "Because you, Host, already have deep, close relationships with so many protagonists. The chance of the world overlooking you drops to almost zero, especially when they need you around."
Mu Yue got it. It was like having ropes tied to all the protagonists. If she fell into a deep pool, the protagonists would yank those ropes and pull her right back out.
That was a solid layer of protection. And besides, 10,000 system points really were tempting.
Over in the boys' dorm at University A, Wen Yuanting had been staring at his phone nonstop ever since he walked Mu Yue back to the parking lot. He refreshed the screen dozens of times a minute, and his roommates were hooting and teasing him behind his back.
Wen Yuanting was already annoyed, he'd told them it wasn't a confession, but those idiots just wouldn't believe him.
Zhao Yang draped an arm over his shoulder. "Whoa there, Tingzi, you're totally gone for her, huh? The freshman girl still has a whole drive home, and she's definitely got stuff to do once she gets there. Waiting around like this isn't gonna get you anywhere."
"I told you, I need her help with something..." Wen Yuanting was worn out. He really was. Over the ten loops, he'd thought about just ending it all more than once. But every time he pictured his parents and his little sister sitting by his hospital bed crying, he couldn't go through with it. What if he actually did die? How heartbroken and miserable would they be? They'd probably spend the rest of their lives drowning in guilt, and even dead he wouldn't be able to rest easy.
But Wen Yuanting had no idea how much longer he could hold on.
Just then, his phone buzzed. Wen Yuanting looked down, and all his dejection vanished in an instant.
"Tell me the details. What was every one of your accidents like?"
The message was from Mu Yue. Her profile picture was four fluffy creatures that didn't exist in real life — super cute, a total contrast to her actual personality.
Mu Yue hadn't agreed to take on the task right away. Before she officially committed, she needed to get all the facts straight and weigh the pros and cons. The New Year was still a few months away, and if at any point during her prep work she realized there was real danger, she'd drop the mission immediately. After all, her role was never meant to be some savior.
As soon as Wen Yuanting got her reply, he started typing away frantically, carefully recalling every single experience he'd had and all the different things he'd tried to break the loop.
When he was done sending all that, Mu Yue slowly sent another line. "What if I'm just messing with you? Did you ever think I'd think you're crazy, then post all this stuff you just told me on my Moments and let everyone laugh at you?"
Wen Yuanting smiled. "No way. For one thing, you wouldn't do something that boring. And even if you did, if it helps me get rid of this 'curse', I'd only be grateful to you."
He didn't say that he'd actually already done that stupid thing once before. His parents had been so worried they'd dragged him to a psychiatric hospital to get him checked out.
After waiting for a good while, Mu Yue finally replied. "I can't guarantee anything."
Wen Yuanting let out a long breath of relief. That night, right before National Day, was the most peaceful, restful night of sleep he'd gotten in years.
Mu Yue was the first person who didn't call him crazy or say he was having hallucinations.
The next morning, Mu Yue paid the installment for her spatial storage for this month. She still had over 5,000 points left, and after thinking it over, she added 10 points to her Intelligence stat and 10 points to her Sixth Sense stat. Sixth Sense was extremely expensive, costing 100 points for just 1 point of the stat, but its effects were well worth the cost.
After spending 1500 points, Mu Yue still had more than 4000 points remaining.
When she opened today's sign-in mystery box, she drew another hot weapon, even more outrageous than the last one — a flamethrower. Mu Yue was really glad she'd splurged on the higher-tier spatial storage instead of the cheapest 1-cubic-meter option, otherwise she might not even have enough space to store this thing right now.
She put the item away in her spatial storage, then got up to wash up and eat breakfast. While she was eating, she carefully flipped through the four novels.
Last night, Wen Yuanting had told her every single one of his experiences in full.
The first time, the car accident happened in City A. He fell into a coma for a month, then regained consciousness, and after lying in bed for three more months, he opened his eyes to find he had traveled back a year in time.
The second time, he thought he had successfully rebirthed, and was overjoyed. He took precautions far in advance to avoid the day of the accident, even directly taking his family away from City A to travel abroad. He didn't even step out onto the street, just stayed in the hotel sipping drinks on a lounge chair — but he still got hit by a car. The third time, he decided not to go out at all, staying home the whole time, but while he was eating dinner that night, he accidentally choked on his food. His family called an ambulance, and on the way to the hospital, he got hit by a car again. The fourth time, he deliberately made himself sick with a fever to get admitted to the hospital, and he spent New Year's Day right there in the ward. But then a fire broke out in the hospital, and the moment he stepped out of the hospital entrance while evacuating, he got hit by a car once more. The fifth time, he chose to confess the whole truth to his family, but they just thought the stress had made him mentally ill. He ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where a mentally unstable patient took him hostage, dragged him into a vehicle, and he got hit by a car again. The sixth time, the seventh time... No matter what methods Wen Yuanting tried, no matter where he was, when the appointed time came, the exact same outcome would happen.
Mu Yue latched onto two key points: the timing, and the car accident.
Wen Yuanting had changed locations, but none of that worked. The only two things that never changed were the specific date, and the car accident itself. It had to be New Year's Day, and there had to be a car accident.
She combined the two keywords "New Year's Day" and "car accident" to search through the four novels, but none of the four books had any specific plot that matched that combination.
When she split the two keywords apart, she found that in Lin Xiaoxiao's novel, she had read through the entire story, and none of the events related to New Year's Day involved a car accident at all — not even a passing mention on the news or anywhere else. That novel was most likely irrelevant to the situation.
But in the remaining three novels, car accidents were a common occurrence. The novel with the clairvoyant male lead had the most car accidents by far. Whether it was the male lead, his underlings, his harem members, or the villains, all of them had been in car crashes, and there were more than a dozen high-speed car chase scenes throughout the story.
In the fake and real daughter novel, the fake daughter and other villains had gone mad and hired people to run over the female lead, but their target was very clearly the female lead, not some random unrelated person. It was a novel that focused on torturing the female lead, so all the suffering was directed at her. The White Moonlight novel also had car accident plots. Aside from the scene where the overbearing CEO hit the female lead with his car and then signed a contract with her to make her his stand-in lover, there were plenty of other car accidents mentioned, most of them appearing in trending news headlines. But three of those cases caught Mu Yue's attention.
The first case happened on the day the White Moonlight character returned to the country. The female lead was on her way home to prepare a candlelit dinner for the male lead, but a car accident on the road caused a traffic jam, so she got home late. The second case involved a top-tier female celebrity who had a terrible relationship with the female lead. The celebrity's sasaeng fan was chasing her car, and ended up crashing into another vehicle, causing a car accident. The last case was when the overbearing CEO finally realized he was in love with the female lead, and rushed out to stop her from leaving. But he got into a traffic accident on the road, and then it started pouring rain. He ran through the downpour as fast as he could, but in the end, he still couldn't catch up to the female lead.
None of these three incidents specified an exact date, nor did they give the full details of who was in the car accident or what exactly caused it. The other car accidents that were mentioned in the news headlines all had their causes explained, and would give details about the victims or their families. Most of them were over-the-top melodramatic plots or major multi-car pileups, and none of them really matched Wen Yuanting's situation.
When it came to the last novel, Mu Yue really didn't want to read it while she was eating, because it was so nauseating. The male lead was either showing off how awesome he was, or adding another woman to his harem, and she was scared she would throw up from reading it.
After she finished breakfast, she set aside time to read through it, and she was left feeling completely exasperated. The playboy male lead's novel had way too many car accidents. Every big shot in the story was living on the edge of the law, and there were all kinds of violent conflicts between different forces. The innocent bystanders who got hurt in these incidents were almost never given more than a few lines of description, let alone their names or details about their families.
It was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack, and Mu Yue almost felt like just washing her hands of the whole mess.
But she had arranged to meet Wen Yuanting that afternoon, as they had agreed on WeChat the night before. Some things couldn't be clearly explained just through text, so it was obviously better to talk about them face to face.
Mu Yue picked the meeting spot — a café with private booths that offered good privacy. The reviews also said the coffee and desserts there were pretty good, so she could try them out while she was at it.
Mu Yue arrived first, and Wen Yuanting showed up right on time not long after. The moment he walked in, Mu Yue narrowed her eyes slightly.
Today, Wen Yuanting was wearing a regular trench coat, but underneath it, he had on a tight-fitting black top — the kind of shirt famously known as the most alluring outfit a man can wear, on the same level as black stockings on a woman. His muscle lines were completely on display, and there were even points where certain areas of his body would become noticeably prominent with the slightest movement.
Wen Yuanting shifted uncomfortably and draped his coat over the back of his chair, trying his best to keep his expression natural. He could feel Mu Yue's gaze on him, and his heart was filled with frustration. He never should have listened to that idiot Zhao Yang! Zhao Yang had told him something like, "You need to think about what your strengths are. You have to show them off in front of your junior, otherwise what reason does she have to 'help you'?"
Obviously, Zhao Yang had never believed Wen Yuanting's story that he was just asking Mu Yue for help. But Wen Yuanting had really thought it over carefully, and he realized he didn't seem to have anything he could offer Mu Yue as payment. Money? She obviously didn't lack it. Be her bodyguard? She didn't need that either, and Mu Yue's own combat skills were pretty impressive.
He thought and thought, and the only things he seemed to have going for him were his face and his figure. On a whim, he had put on that shirt that all his roommates had given a thumbs-up to.
Mu Yue didn't feel even a little bit embarrassed staring at him. What was there to be embarrassed about? If a man dressed like that, it was obviously meant for people to look at. This senior of hers really did have a great physique, and the sight successfully reminded her of the muscular model her best friend had given her as a gift right before she "left" her old life behind.
The person doing the looking wasn't embarrassed at all, but Wen Yuanting, the person being stared at, was so flustered he could barely sit still. He wanted to put his coat back on, but he was sure that would look even more deliberate and awkward.
Mu Yue thought his flustered reaction was pretty funny, but she decided to get down to business first. When Mu Yue started asking him questions related to the car accident, Wen Yuanting quickly regained his composure. He answered every question Mu Yue asked, and tried his hardest to recall all the small details he had ignored before.
The most crucial question Mu Yue asked was whether Wen Yuanting had any idea who the person driving the car that hit him was.
It wasn't obvious just from reading the book, but if Wen Yuanting knew the details, tracking things down would be far easier. Wen Yuanting had actually considered this line of thinking before, but every single time he got hit, he would fall into a coma for a full month first. By the time he regained consciousness a month later, his family almost never talked about anything related to the incidents around his hospital bed. Most of the time, they followed the doctor's advice, only talking to him about happy, old memories in the hopes of waking him up.
But even though those relevant mentions were extremely rare, it didn't mean they never came up at all.
The two of them talked for quite a while, and Mu Yue sorted out a whole new set of clues from their conversation.
1. The second time, when Wen Yuanting was hit by a car that crashed straight into the vacation hotel, his father who was standing close to him got injured too, but his mother and little sister walked away unharmed. The third time, the whole family was riding in the ambulance to send him to the hospital when the entire vehicle was flipped over. Out of the whole family, only his sister came out of the accident completely fine.
2. All the car crashes seemed to be connected to a group of robbers who had either robbed a bank or a gold store.
Key words: sister unharmed + robbers
Mu Yue had enhanced memory skills, and right at that moment, she quickly pulled up the corresponding plot points from the novel she had read before.
She suddenly asked Wen Yuanting a question, "Does your little sister share the same family name as you?"
Wen Yuanting had no idea why Mu Yue was suddenly asking about his sister, but he answered her anyway, shaking his head. "No, I take my mom's last name, and she takes my dad's. My sister's name is Gu Zhiyou."
Gu Zhiyou. She had finally found the right person.
Mu Yue looked at Wen Yuanting with nothing but sympathy. This guy was miserable, truly miserable. He was the Comatose Brother-in-Law who was related to one of the countless love interests of that classic playboy male lead.
What was even more absurd was that one of the robbers who had hit this brother-in-law later ended up becoming a member of the male lead's core crew, a petty thief with incredibly exceptional lockpicking skills. And the male lead's whole crew was full of these kinds of "geniuses" from all sorts of shady backgrounds, the very people the male lead would praise as gold just coated in a layer of dust.
