Chapter 37

The cub tilted its head back and looked around, feeling that everything looked familiar, as if it had been there before.

But no matter how hard I racked my brains, I couldn't remember what year or how long ago it was.

He stepped tentatively onto the lush grass.

There is a stream in front and a forest behind.

Dad is not keen on outdoor sports, especially wilderness adventures.

What's more, this place looks too primitive and remote, and he would never bring young children with him for safety reasons.

When I was at the Shen family, I didn't even have the chance to step out of the door.

It's true that you can run around with the dragons, but such delicate scenery doesn't really match those rugged species.

So, who brought him here?

It can't be that the kid traveled a long distance and sneaked away to play in such a far place, right?

It seems like... I am really awesome!

Somehow, Li Jue was certain that he had been here.

I once saw here——

The cub stopped exploring, and a mixture of confusion and excitement was obvious on its face.

“Xixi…?”

Li Jue's eyes lit up and he ran towards the stream.

Ling Xi, who was nowhere to be found just now, was standing there, smiling slightly, with one hand behind her back and waving at him with the other.

When the smaller one came in front, the larger one took out the thing hidden behind it.

A small glass bottle, filled with fine sand and gravel and swaying water plants, with two small fish, one black and one white, swimming freely.

"This is for you, do you like it?" Ling Xi stuffed the bottle into Li Jue's hand.

Zizi nodded, holding the glass bottle lovingly, and liked this gift very much.

Especially when the two fish, one black and one white, chased each other and circled their tails, it was just like...

The cub looked up.

Just like the silver highlight in the little brother’s black hair.

Li Jue finally remembered to ask: "Xixi, will you come with me?"

He didn't ask where he was, what happened, or where this place was.

The only thing he cared about was whether Ling Xi would be by his side.

With Xixi around, it seems like it doesn't matter where we go.

Ling Xi didn't answer immediately, which made Li Jue feel a little uneasy.

He placed the glass bottle containing the fish in the grass at his feet, reached for Ling Xi's hand, and asked again: "Xi Xi won't leave, right?"

Ling Xi looked into Li Jue's golden eyes and did not answer. Instead, she pulled her own hand out of his and did the same action again.

Hold the thumb of your left hand with your right hand, and raise your right thumb as well, gently pressing it against your forehead.

The younger one was a little confused. This was their game and also an agreement, so he just followed him and did the same actions.

The children looked like two elves with a single horn.

Ling Xi curled her lips: "Well, I won't leave you."

A happy smile appeared in Li Jue's eyes.

What this sentence means is that Xixi can——

"But, Juejue, please wait a moment."

Ayaka said.

The dimple that had just appeared on Li Jue's face disappeared in confusion, and she repeated his words, "Wait a minute...?"

Ling Xi stopped him and lowered her head to touch forehead with the cub.

It was a very warm, intimate gesture.

"When you reach the next place—the next world, you'll see me soon." The older one closed his eyes and said softly, "I told you, no matter where Juejue is, I'll come find you. Definitely."

These words were a solemn promise to him, but to the younger one, it was no different from abandoning himself.

Ling Xi heard sobbing nearby, opened her eyes in panic, and saw a tear sliding down the cub's fair and tender face.

The boy who had been calm just now immediately panicked and pulled his sleeve to wipe the little cub's tears: "Oh, don't cry, I don't abandon you."

Li Jue sniffed: "No?"

"Of course not." Ling Xi said seriously, "You and I are companions. So even if anyone in the world leaves, I won't. We can't leave each other."

Companion... ?

This was the first time the little cub heard this somewhat strange word.

Ling Xi touched the curls at the end of his hair and said, "You are still young now. When you grow up a little, you will understand the meaning of 'companionship'. You know, we are like these two fish."

He picked up the glass bottle from the grass and lightly touched the wall with his fingers. The fish were attracted and wagged their tails as they moved closer to him.

"They won't separate," Ayaka said, "so neither will we."

Li Jue blinked away her tears and looked at him.

When he was at the Shen family, he met Ling Xi for the first time.

After being transported to another world, I soon saw him again.

The children had not thought about how the little brother came through and what identity he existed in.

He only knew that the little brother had not lied to him, and that he would be wherever he was.

"Xixi."

"Um?"

"Did I know Xixi before?"

This is a question that Li Jue has thought about for a long time.

He was young, but he was no fool. Even when he was at the Shen family, the kindness Ling Xi showed him was definitely not something you could do just to make friends on your first meeting.

It was as if they had "met" each other long ago... long before they were born.

"Yeah, I know him." Ling Xi smiled, "Juejue and I have known each other for a long time."

It was so long that every bit of his memory was about waiting for Li Jue's arrival.

Until Li Jue was born, his life was full of waiting.

Fortunately, he waited for him.

Although Ling Xi didn't want to leave Li Jue alone, they had different identities, and she and Li Jue couldn't travel through the sub-world at the same frequency, so they had to move one after the other, and were destined to be separated for a short time.

The shadows of the trees swayed gracefully, and the stream flowed faster. These were all signals of urgency, warning them that they should not appear in this independent space that violated the central command.

Ling Xi always acts like a mature little brother in front of Li Jue, but in fact he is still a child, and his energy is not enough to fight against the center and support the existence of space.

"Juejue, you're a system now. You have to complete your tasks and abide by working hours. You can't stay somewhere else for too long." Ling Xi said, "You go to the next sub-world first. I'll find you soon - let's make a promise."

Both little hands raised their little fingers and hooked them together.

After repeated promises, Zizi was finally coaxed into giving a sniff. "Well, come quickly then."

"Okay." Ling Xi touched foreheads with Li Jue again, smelling the milky aroma of pear blossoms. "Soon."

*

One second she was standing on the grass or by the stream, and the next second she was in Qian Xing's arms.

Teleportation was a completely unfamiliar concept to Li Jue, who had been a human until recently. He groggily leaned on an adult's arm, "Brother, where are we?"

Qian Xing didn't seem to notice that Zizi had disappeared for a while: "We'll be there soon. I'll take you to the 'factory' first."

"'Factory'?" Zizi repeated in confusion.

"Yes, that's you, and the place where the other systems are located before they are transferred to the sub-world. It's also the passage closest to the core." The Sea Monster King paused, "Actually, I shouldn't be the one to tell you this."

Before each new system employee takes office, there will be a corresponding system assistant to conduct complete pre-job training, including job content, office location, colleagues, superiors, etc.

These contents are not within the scope of knowledge of the boss of the sub-world, but one of theirs... let's say a colleague, was very curious and kidnapped the previous communication post system, using some "little tricks" to make the other party tell the truth clearly.

Qian Xing thought of the boy with a bad taste and wanted to sigh.

After that guy knew that the new system was a child, he was full of confidence and waited until the end of the Dragon World to play a trick on it; bullying adults for a long time was boring, so he changed his taste and bullied the children.

As a result, the baby was intercepted by himself.

I don’t know what that kid will do after he gets the news.

Li Jue's assistant Momo frequently disconnects, and the baby is too young. The first sub-world has ended, and the pre-job training has not been completed yet.

That is, the baby cub.

If it were any other system, such a confused job wouldn't be done well, and the strict perfectionist Sea King would have taken the initiative long ago.

He hadn't spent much time with Li Jue, and his relationship with the little guy wasn't as deep as the one Huang Jinlong's family had with him.

However, if you ask him why he had the leisure to personally send the baby to the "factory"... this is a question that even he himself cannot answer.

Maybe I just have a lot of free time.

Fortunately, innocent children don’t think too much and don’t feel embarrassed about digging into the problem.

"We're here." Qian Xing asked, "Do you want to get off and walk by yourself?"

Li Jue nodded, but after being put down, he reached out to Qian Xing again.

The Siren King was a little confused: "What?"

"I need to hold it for a while." The cub said seriously.

Qian Xing finally experienced the feeling of being helpless because of cuteness.

He held the child's warm little hand in his cold big hand and repeated, "This is the 'factory'."

Li Jue looked up and exclaimed "Wow" at the spectacular scene before him.

In front of them, except for a vague dividing line that could barely be called a "door", the world inside had no boundaries and no end.

Up, down, front, back, left, right, wherever you look, you see conveyor belts running at the sound of a buzzing sound.

The conveyor belts are transparent and have a soft, swaying texture, resembling seaweed on land.

They were transporting pots of what looked like succulent plants, of varying sizes, some the size of a palm, others as tall as an adult.

They glowed intermittently, flickering, like thousands of stars scattered in another space.

The conveyor belts are much denser than imagined, or rather, there are no other buildings or objects here except the conveyor belts.

They crisscross and intertwine densely, like blood vessels and meridians, transporting the nutrients needed for the whole body to other places - or to other worlds.

"Those glowing things are the data of infinite space." Qian Xing saw that the child was stunned and took on the responsibility of explaining, "This data includes the player's, NPC's, boss's, and even your system itself."

The baby blinked his eyes and didn't understand at all.

It is still too difficult for such a young child to understand a completely new world with a different set of operating rules.

Qian Xing touched his head: "...It doesn't matter, these are not important. Just walk in and someone will come to pick you up."

Although the conveyor belt is not a metal machine, the obstruction of the sky still makes the cub feel afraid.

He hid behind Qian Xing and asked timidly, "Who...?"

"I don't know." The Siren King replied calmly, "'Factory' is a forbidden area for me."

If infinite space is compared to a workplace, it can obviously be divided into different areas:

In the sub-world, bosses and NPCs are staff, and players are customers;

Outside the sub-world, the system, system assistants and some special beings are staff members, and the others are customers.

"Factory" is a typical place "for employees only, no entry for outsiders".

It wasn't a question of whether he could get in, he couldn't even get close to the door.

Those who accidentally intrude will be absorbed into data, broken up, split, cleansed, reassembled, and then randomly sent to other sub-worlds.

In other words, he was the one who went in, but when he came out, no one knew what was going on.

Under the leadership of the Sea Monster King, the ocean world is in order and the ruler and the people live in harmony.

Qian Xing has no dissatisfaction with her own sub-world and has no plans to move to another place.

Li Jue saw his determination and realized that he would be alone again.

After losing Finks and Ayaka in succession, the child's panic and anxiety had reached the extreme.

"Brother, brother won't leave, right?"

He held Qian Xing's hand tightly, anxiously waiting for a firm and reassuring reply.

If the incident hadn't happened suddenly, it should have been Finks who came to say goodbye.

Qian Xing didn't want to be the bad guy, but there was no other way.

The high-and-mighty Sea King was willing to squat down for the first time, just to be at eye level with the cub: "I can't accompany you for the time being. But we'll see each other soon."

He had already asked Momo from Li Jue that after the Dragon World ended, the small system should come to him.

When the child heard this, tears welled up in his eyes.

How come everyone says the same thing?

Everyone promised to stay with him, and everyone left.

Even the farewell words are the same...

The little cub also squatted down and covered himself with his hands.

But the tears won't disappear.

"Baby, baby, aren't you being nice?"

"Why... do you want to abandon your cubs..."

“No… ow…”

The child cried breathlessly.

The cub squatted there and cried. It was so tiny, like a new mushroom popping up in the ground after the rain.

He curled himself up into a ball, and his long hair, which had not been cut for a long time, fell down, almost covering his petite body.

...a golden mushroom that can cry.

Qian Xing cut off her messy associations, sighed, and grabbed the child's wet little hand that was wet from wiping tears. She lightly touched his palm with her fingertips, and the wet water marks disappeared in an instant.

The baby looked at the wonderful water magic in amazement and forgot to cry for a moment.

"Li Jue, listen to me." The Sea Monster King's tone was calm, even gentle, but the child had to obey. "Everyone has to do things they don't want to do, no matter if they are three years old or three hundred years old. Do you want to see me soon?"

The cub, crying like a little cat, nodded vigorously.

"Then be brave and go in. Once you submit your report and it passes the review, you will go to the next world. I will wait for you there." Qian Xing said, "It won't take long."

Li Jue hesitated for a moment, then hugged the adult's waist and looked at Qian Xing expectantly: "Is that so?"

The Siren King was stunned: "...What?"

Li Jue spoke each word clearly: "Brother said, hug, hug."

Qian Xing realized that the child had misheard. However, he did not pry the child's hand away, but simply explained: "It's 'report', not 'hug'."

The cub really had no experience doing this kind of work that was typical of office workers, so he said helplessly, "Cub doesn't know how to..."

"You will." Qian Xing said firmly, "You are the system, of course you will. You just need to remember it."

“Remember…?”

"Yeah. Momo should have told you, right? This is the most basic step. No matter how incompetent it is, it won't skip this part."

Li Jue lowered his head and looked at his hands.

The assistant Momo did talk to him a lot. For a period of time, she kept nagging in his ear all day long, causing damage to the hearing of the growing cub.

Fortunately, the child was born with the ability to listen selectively to other people's conversations. Later, he only talked to Momo when he needed to ask questions, and treated its chatter as background noise at other times.

Have you said that?

The part about how to submit a report after completing the mission and how to enter the next sub-world.

Brother Yaoyao said that he is a system and he will definitely do it.

Qian Xing placed her palm on the cub's small shoulder: "Go. I'll wait for you at the finish line."

Parents who send their children to school on the first day probably feel this kind of conflicted and reluctant mood.

Xiao Lijue rubbed his hand and didn't notice that his cat ears and tail had disappeared. He looked no different from an ordinary human cub.

But her eyes are still as beautiful as a cat's.

His eyes were wet, and he raised his little face: "Will you wait for the cub?"

For the Siren King, even the most turbulent emotions will be buried beneath the calm surface.

He nodded: "Yes."

Li Jue sniffed, let go of his brother's hand, and mustered up all his courage to step through the door.

The moment he entered, a gust of light like the wind lifted his long hair and clothes.

The child turned around and looked like a little angel in a crystal ball under the light.

He waved vigorously to his parents: "Brother, see you soon!"

Parting is for the next meeting.

Young children are already beginning to learn to understand.

*

Now, the conveyor belt is above Li Jue's head.

"one two three……"

"Seven, eight..."

"Thirteen, fourteen..."

After counting to the twenty-fifth, Zizi couldn't count any further.

There are so many! It’s impossible for a little kid who hasn’t even started kindergarten to count them all.

In addition to the conveyor belt, Zizi is more curious about the glowing packages on it.

Brother Yaoyao said those were data.

What is data?

The little cub sucked his thumb and looked at the conveyor belt closest to him.

A glowing object as big as a cactus was slowly passing by him.

I really want to touch it.

"No."

"Don't touch it!"

"Those are valuable items, fragile items..."

“Leave now!”

Li Jue was shocked, thinking that the conveyor belt could read minds and talk.

Turning around, he saw several translucent creatures that looked like jellyfish or ghosts floating to his side. Their willow-like tentacles wrapped around the child's arms and brought him away from the edge of danger.

The ghosts looked at him.

"Your name... Li Jue..."

"A new system?"

"Boss communication post..."

"Why is it so small..."

"You can eat it in one bite."

Their voices are as erratic as their forms.

Whatever it is, it's not a human.

Having seen many different species, Xiao Lijue remained calm and wasn't frightened. Furthermore, the ghosts didn't seem to have any ill intentions. He blinked his eyes and looked up at them flying around. Upon hearing the last sentence, he waved his hands repeatedly, "No, you can't eat them. They're not tasty."

The ghosts chuckled:

"What an interesting little guy."

"How do you know it's not tasty?"

“That makes you want to take a bite even more.”

"It's great that we have such fresh blood."

Li Jue answered seriously: "Because the cub bit me."

After he takes a bath with shower gel, his father will also apply body lotion that smells like milk.

If it smells delicious, will it taste the same?

With a trial mentality, the two-year-old kid took a bite of his own chubby little arm.

The result was crying loudly in pain.

When Chen Yan, who was wiping her hair, heard the child crying and thought Li Jue had fallen off the bed, she rushed out of the bathroom. What she saw was the little guy struggling with her while tears fell from his eyes.

Chen Yan held his little arm in amusement: "Don't hurt yourself."

From then on, Li Jue knew that he was not delicious and could not eat, as it was very painful.

"Honey, you're so cute."

"Li Jue. Li Jue!"

“Smells delicious…”

The ghosts surrounded him, talking to each other.

Someone's branch tentacles had already begun braiding the child's hair, and soon it was tied into cute, wing-like twin tails.

The little cub with twin ponytails asked politely, "Excuse me, who are you?"

"Honey, we are here to pick you up."

"It's the ferryman."

"What a cute kid, I want to take a bite..."

Li Jue ignored the parts that were tirelessly trying to eat him and asked, "Are you also a system?"

"No."

“We are not the system.”

"We are... the system's guideposts."

"I'm a free broker."

"Dear, have you completed your mission?"

"It's done!" Li Jue replied, "Then, then the baby wants to go to the next world. But, I don't know how to hug him..."

"'hug'?"

"You mean the report?"

"Honey, you still can't file a report?"

The little guy nodded shyly, his face flushed: "Can you teach me?"

"The assistants should have told you all the rules." The ghosts chuckled. "That is your own power, dear. It is unique and belongs to you. Only you can do it."

Only...Zizi can do it.

The ghosts and Brother Yaoyao all said so.

Li Jue clenched his little fist.

He is no longer a child who needs to be held by his father or taken care of by others.

It's an independent and powerful little system.

As long as I remember, remember what Momo said...

The cub opened its little hands, and tiny lights emanated from its palms, like fireflies floating in the night.

More and more fragments of light danced in the sky, until the entire field of vision was covered with a gentle light golden color.

[——Searching the archives——]

[——Communication Post System Li Jue welcomes you back to the "factory"——]

[——Report received——]

【——Application submitted——】

[——Please wait——]

[——Mission review——]

【——Verification Complete——】

[——Congratulations on passing the Central Assessment——]

[——Communication Post System Li Jue, please enter the "Tower"——]

Before the child's eyes, the world vanished like smoke.