Chapter 287 001 & Main System 2

The moment their skin touched, 001's heartbeat suddenly slowed down. "Again, another debt to pay?"

She didn't know why, but when she said this, she felt a little itchy in her heart.

"You won't need it anymore." said the main system.

Unfortunately, the warm feeling was fleeting. Before 001 could understand the implication of the words, the main system quickly let go of her.

She looked down and saw a silver bracelet already on her wrist.

"This is……"

"The latest system is currently in the testing phase..."

001's eyes lit up, and then he heard the main system continue, "However, according to your current permissions, there should be no function you can use."

So what's the difference between this and putting a bowl of braised pork in front of her but not allowing her to eat it?

"Xing Yan!" 001 looked up and glared at him, but met the smiling amber eyes of the main system.

The smile disappeared so quickly that she thought it was an illusion.

"You finally remember my name, Rongrong."

Hearing him call her like that, 001 shuddered. He rarely called her like that, only occasionally when he was angry.

"Of course..." Xing Yan slowly pushed his glasses up, "If you can complete the task, you might be able to unlock some features."

001 came timidly and left angrily.

Only after the door was completely closed did Xing Yan answer the ringing communicator.

A translucent floating screen condensed in the air, and the figure of a man was clearly reflected in the screen.

The other party was wearing a dark combat uniform, and the background seemed to be the cockpit of a certain aircraft. Fragments of nebula could be glimpsed passing by outside the porthole.

"What's the matter?" Xing Yan asked.

A man's voice sounded brisk on the other end of the line. "Why are you so quick this time? Didn't you manage to keep the person?"

Xing Yan walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down from the 101st floor.

The sky outside the window was just approaching dusk, and under the sky, countless aircraft were flying across like fireflies.

"That trick may keep her, but it won't keep her heart," he said calmly, "It's almost time to close the net."

The other person said, "You are really patient. You have been casting a net for ten years."

"Strictly speaking, it wasn't ten years." Xing Yan corrected: "Ten years ago, she was still a minor, and I wasn't that beastly."

Laughter came from the other end of the communication: "So when did you start planning this?"

Xing Yan tapped the window glass with her fingertips, reflecting the flowing neon lights outside the window. "To be precise, it started from the first day she became an adult."

"And so you indulge her failures time and time again?" the other person exclaimed in amazement, "Just to make her owe you a huge debt, so that in the end she has to..."

"You have to stay with me." The main system finished the second half of the sentence, its tone as calm as if it were stating data. "After all, other than the DLC, no place will take in a tasker who has failed 109 times."

The other party was silent for a moment: "Aren't you afraid that she will really resign?"

"No." The main system turned and looked in the direction of the transport pod. "She would rather starve to death than admit defeat. This is the worst habit the professor taught her."

So she got deeper and deeper into trouble, trying again and again to make a comeback, but failed again and again.

She was the person who had failed the most times and still hadn't given up that he had ever seen. Of course, he would kick out others if they failed less than three times.

The last ray of twilight outside the window disappeared on the horizon, and Xing Yan sat back behind his desk.

He raised his hand slightly, and a floating screen appeared in the air. He slid his finger, and countless task files passed by his eyes.

Except for the first one, all of them show 100% completion.

The person on the other end of the line saw it, too, and didn't seem surprised. He even smiled and asked, "Why is it still unfinished?"

Xing Yan did not explain.

It was okay if she didn't finish the first time, but when she started the second time, according to his usual practice, he would kick her out.

So over the years, except for the failure of the first mission, there has never been a second one in 001's file, and he was the one who cleaned up the mess of all the mission lines.

This is his secret, and no one knows about it except his good friend on the other end of the communication.

Xing Yan tapped his fingertips to encrypt and hide the file of 001.

The data stream on the screen receded like a tide, leaving only the red mark of the first mission failure, like a drop of blood in the snow.

"Because she needs this failure." He said softly, "She needs to believe that she still has a chance to start over."

The man on the other end of the line whistled. "What a touching love story! So, when are you going to tell her that she succeeded in all 108 missions?"

"When she's willing to stay with me." Xing Yan took off his glasses and rubbed his brows. "Or, when she truly surrenders."

…

001 is the 101st floor of the DLC that we will revisit a week later.

Although she has been offline frequently these days, she has not come here. She came this time because she felt that in the current situation, it was necessary to give the main system a shot of prevention first.

She felt that based on the host Jiang Fei's current progress, this task would most likely not be completed.

When we arrived at the 101st floor, the secretary said that the main system was in a meeting which had just started and we should wait for a while.

The system was in no rush anyway, so it took the elevator down and pressed the button for the 87th floor.

This floor is the data monitoring department, and her old acquaintance Lin Yue is on this floor.

Lin Yue was busy and asked her to wait for a moment. 001 said there was no rush and she would go to the bathroom first and come back to talk.

The bathroom was at the end of the corridor, and there was no one inside when 001 pushed the door open.

As soon as she sat down, she heard the sound of high heels walking in, accompanied by the chatter of several people.

"I heard the new guy in the mission scheduling department has been to the 101st floor three times this week."

"I just saw her carrying documents to 101. Did you know? The resource quotas for the systems she's responsible for have been increased by a level."

"The resource quota was directly raised by one level?"

Another female voice sounded a bit exaggeratedly surprised, the sound of high heels clacking on tile paused. "This treatment is too special, isn't it? Our DLC's resource management is so strict. Many veteran employees haven't had their applications approved for half a year. Why should she, a newcomer, get it?"

"Why? Don't you understand?" The person who spoke first scoffed. "Besides 001, who else can go up there three times a week? When 001 was with the main system, wasn't he also taken care of in every way? Now that a new person has been replaced, what's the reason?"

After these words were spoken, the restroom fell silent for two seconds, and then someone lowered their voice and continued, "So... 001 is going to fall out of favor?"

"What else?" The sound of the water stopped, and the man's voice became more determined. "Maybe in a while, 001 will even lose access to the 101st floor..."

The following words were like tiny needles, piercing 001's heart again and again.

She was sitting in the cubicle, and Xing Yan said the same thing that day, "You won't need it anymore in the future."

So there is a new person and she is no longer needed.