Chapter 39 | Arc 3.
Seeing himself and his lover cuddled together, Su Yu inevitably felt a little lost and a little sad. He took a deep breath and then turned to look at the little ball. "Round Ball, for the next world, let"s choose a simple, ancient-world themed one. What options do you have?"
Round Ball looked at its host with concern, and slowly floated over while naming the options. There was a total of three possible worlds, situated in the ancient household, the ancient palace, or the ancient farmland.
In accordance with his personality preference of being cool and dashing, Su Yu chose the second option – the ancient palace.
And then, Round Ball displayed the optional side tasks available in this world: there were a total of two.
Option A: A palace maid who was driven to death by the Female Protagonist.
Option B: The household manager of the inner palace who was driven to death by the Female Protagonist.
“……” Looking at the two options before him, Su Yu felt the sadness in his heart be completely swept away, a cloud of rising irritation rapidly taking its place. “Round Ball, there"s a phrase of MMP hovering by my mouth, don"t know if I should say it?" [T/N: mmp is a Chinese curse phrase]
"Master Host, please have mercy!" Round Ball was also stunned by the tasks, and it immediately hugged its head and tried to fly away. "I don"t know why there"s only these two options, but, but…… the side tasks and the main task are both selected by the system after extremely careful calculations and a.n.a.lysis of the background and plot of the mission world. It is definitely the most favourable outcomes that exists, Master Host, please believe me!"
"…. Heh heh." Really want to tear this system apart, what to do?
To be a woman, or to be a eunuch, this was a worthy question indeed. Or, perhaps, he should just directly return to the real world and wipe his hands of this mess?
Round Ball was also worried that its host would just bail out of a fit of rage, and it timidly added, “Master Host, the Male Protagonist is still waiting for you. Um, without you, he will definitely be the most wretched existence in this world."
Su Yu stared at Round Ball with dead eyes, scaring it so much that it started spinning and emitting a trembling grey light. Its Master Host is too scary, ying ying ying QAQ.
Although he itched to just go straight back to reality, when he thought of his last words to Qi Chen, telling the other to wait for him, Su Yu could only let out a long and deep sigh and reluctantly choose Option B.
As a man, to be a eunuch is better than to directly transform into a woman, Su Yu could only try to comfort himself.
After seeing Su Yu make his choice, Round Ball immediately transferred Su Yu into his third mission world, all the while uploading the relevant background plot and main and side tasks into Su Yu’s mind.
But, before Su Yu could even start to listen to the original plot, he heard an unhappy voice sound next to his ear. "You there, why are you just standing here? Did you not hear zhen"s words?" [T/N: Zhen is how royalty refer to themselves.]
Su Yu blink and subconsciously raised his head, coming face to face with a handsome visage sculpted from marble, glaring down at him. On the other"s head was a Jade crown, and he wore a dark red robe embroidered with dragons. On his feet were a pair of black satin boots. Looking at this formidable air, if it wasn"t the male protagonist, then who else could it be??
As their eyes met, Su Yu fell into a momentary daze.
Round Ball hurriedly called out from the sidelines, “Master Host, although this is indeed your man, right now he has 0 IQ points and doesn"t recognize you! Looking so directly at the emperor in this dynasty is a great sin, punishable by death!"
Su Yu instantly regained his senses and lowered his head. "This servant was in a daze and accidentally offended His Majesty. This servant pleads for forgiveness."
Gan Qi, who also woke up from the momentary trance, found to his amazement that he actually wasn"t upset even though a servant had just gazed straight at him with such willful eyes. He waved a dismissive hand. “You"re forgiven. Do not follow me around anymore."
Saying that, Gan Qi headed for the outer courtyard, a large gathering of people following behind him.
Su Yu gave a perfunctory bow. “The servant bids goodbye to the Emperor."
Once Gan Qi had left, Su Yu began to walk towards his personal quarters, under the guidance of the little ball. “Which Dynasty is this? Even looking directly at the emperor is cause for death??"
His lover became a high and powerful emperor, whereas he was just a servant. What"s more, even looking at him was considered improper. Su Yu silently raised a middle finger in his heart.
“This is a special dynasty where the rules were set by the creator, not subject to any limitations. This was mentioned in the original plot,” the little ball answered truthfully, and then added in some of its own opinions. "I think it"s because the creator knows that his knowledge is limited, and that the worlds he create may have a lot of bugs, and therefore because he"s worried about being hara.s.sed and ridiculed, he added in that special clause." [T/N: they"re referring to the creator of all the worlds Su Yu has been to/will go to. He"ll come up again.]
“……” Su Yu actually felt a little speechless.
“Master Host, in front of you is the personal quarters of your body"s original owner." The little ball condensed a ray of light and pointed it in one direction. The original owner was the household manager of the inner palace, and therefore he had a small independent courtyard, near the emperor’s dwelling. Although it appeared a little shabby, it had everything one could need.
Su Yu pushed open the door to the yard and after a cursory look, directly headed into the house. Closing the door behind him, he didn"t choose to immediately begin a.s.similating the memories but instead, chose to look inside his inventory.
There was still only one item stored inside – the World Fragment. It was still just one piece and did not seem to be any different from before, and only under close inspection would one notice that the light it emitted seems to have become a little stronger.
"Well, it looks like Qi Chen and Chu Chengyan really are the same soul!" Round Ball announced its conclusion.
Su Yu roll his eyes at the little ball which had around the same level of IQ as the brainless male protagonist, and started reviewing the plotline for this world.
The plotline of this world was very simple, and the fate of the male protagonist was very bad. In the first two worlds, although one became the father to a child that wasn"t his, and the other wore many green hats, at least they all survived.
In this world, the male protagonist was only 22 years old when he was usurped, a gla.s.s of poisoned wine claiming his life.
And all this was because of the female protagonist Qin Yiran, as well as her true love, the male protagonist"s blood-related little brother, the Seventh w.a.n.gye, Gan Shen. [T/N: w.a.n.gye is the official t.i.tle for blood-related brothers of the king].
The male protagonist came from a long line of emperors, and actually was a very excellent emperor. But, when it came to matters of the heart, he was an infatuated fool. Ever since he was 18 years old and met the female lead Qin Yiran, it was love at first sight and be became determined to have her as his Queen. Since then, he hadn"t glanced twice at any other woman, and even after he"d succeeded the thrown, had not picked other imperial concubines.
But the female protagonist Qin Yiran was completely loyal to the 7th w.a.n.gye, whom she had known and loved since childhood.
The male protagonist was a decent man and not interested in stealing other people’s significant others, and therefore when he learned of this, he decided to let everything go and just focus on ruling his country. If things had only remained like that, then he could have at worse just been an unaccompanied, lonely emperor, but how could the plot let him off so easily?
When the female protagonist was 16 years old, she suddenly requested to enter into the male protagonist"s harem. Of course, Gan Qi had agreed. He had thought that maybe it was finally his lucky break and he could experience the love he"d been yearning for, but little did he know it was all just a huge conspiracy from the start to the end!
After Qin Yiran entered the palace, her att.i.tude towards the male protagonist was constantly very cold, not allowing him to touch or even to hug her. The male protagonist naturally felt very bewildered and hurt, but due to his deep love for her, he never forced anything and continued to treat her with love and tolerance, acquiescing to her every demand. Whenever he received anything good, he would always send it to her palace, hoping only for a smile.
But the female protagonist only had the 7th w.a.n.gye in her heart, and the reason she had entered into the palace in the first place was also for him. She continued to stay indifferent to the male protagonist’s tenderness and love, and even grew more disgusted with him when he began showering her with gifts. In the end, her actions were so outrageous and her att.i.tude so arrogant that everyone else wanted to slap her a few hundred times, maybe even slap her directly out of the palace.
But the male protagonist continued to love her, and no matter what she did, he remained considerate and tolerant. He was so infatuated that everyone else also wanted to slap him a few times, maybe to slap some sense into him.
This situation stayed like this until 2 years later, Gan Shen finished planning all his pieces and with the female protagonist"s help, delivered a gla.s.s of poisoned wine to the male protagonist. The 7th w.a.n.gye then successfully ascended to the throne as Emperor and the female protagonist also got to live happily ever after with him, her true love,
Story over. Round of applause.
After reading the whole plot, Su Yu felt quite stunned. “Can he still be considered a male protagonist??"
A man who only lived to be 22 years old, and had no relations whatsoever with the female protagonist…. could he really still be considered a male protagonist? He is obviously more like a cannon fodder, isn"t he?
“Yup, in the original plot, Gan Qi is indeed the male protagonist,” Round Ball announced. Then, it explained with an afterthought, "Actually, whether one is a male lead doesn"t depend much anymore on their screen time or outcome. Nowadays, the rebellion theme is popular in quite a lot of worlds, where the 2nd male lead overthrows the original male lead, and ends up with the female protagonist. In fact, in those cases, the ident.i.ty of the male protagonist is pretty much akin to that of cannon fodder."
Su Yu nodded absentmindedly and then took a look at his main task.
Main task: Personally have the male protagonist flip tiles 50 times. Each tile flipped will restore 2% of his IQ.
Seeing this main task, several veins bulged out from Su Yu’s forehead. If he and the male protagonist had no relationship, then this task was nothing, maybe just a little troublesome. But, the male protagonist is his lover ah! [T/N: Flipping tiles was how emperors chose their bedpartner for the night. The names of the women in their harem are carved on tiles, and all the tiles are presented to the emperor. He then flips over the name of the girl that he wishes to spend the night with.]
Telling your lover to flip other people"s tiles, wasn"t this the same as taking initiative to help them cheat on you??
Giving out such a task, heh heh, you system administrator.
“Round Ball, come here. I promise to beat you to death." Su Yu slowly narrowed his eyes, glaring to the side where a shocked little ball floated. The original owner of the body had a very handsome appearance, but probably because he had spent too long as a eunuch, his originally handsome looks had started to become slightly feminine-looking.
Therefore, with such a beautiful visage paired with Su Yu"s gloomy, murderous gaze, Round Ball was so scared it almost scrambled all of its data. "Ma, ma, ma, ma…… Master Host! I really don’t know what’s going on! Although the task information is released by me, but the task content really wasn"t chosen by me! Master Host, you must believe me, I really am innocent! QAQ"
Su Yu closed his eyes and rubbed his temples tiredly. He wasn"t really planning on beating up the little ball, he had already realized by now that although it had the impressive sounding system name of "I"m Scattering IQ to the Protagonist", it actually didn"t have a lot of power over a lot of things.
“Forget it, I"ll spare you this time,” Su Yu waved his hand. With a tired heart, he asked the next question, “At this point, where has the plot developed to?"
Round Ball shot off to check the timeline, chasing after this saving grace. When it saw the date, it"s whole being felt unwell. Why did they have to appear on this very date?
“What’s the matter?” Su Yu astutely opened his eyes and looked straight at the timid little ball.
Round Ball"s heart was filled with tears, but it didn"t dare not to answer. In the end, it stammered out hesitantly, "Today… today happens to be the day when the female protagonist enters the palace.."
Wolf Translator~
New arc! New arc!
extra release status: 22/40