"You...you...you're back?" Zero looked at the cold moon that had suddenly appeared in the space, so excited that he couldn't even speak properly.
"Aren't you happy I'm back?" Leng Yue looked at Ling, somewhat puzzled. "Your jaw is about to drop!"
Ling buried her face in Leng Yue's arms, "You're really back! That's wonderful, that's wonderful!"
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Leng Yue held Ling in her hands, their eyes meeting.
"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Zero looked at Leng Yue. "It's been over a year in spatial time. Do you know how worried I was?"
Time in this space is likely much slower than in the mission world; it's like saying a day in heaven is a year on earth. Here, the ratio isn't quite as drastic, but it's still a difference of 1:100. Therefore, Leng Yue has actually been in the mission world for a very long time.
Leng Yue roughly calculated that she had indeed spent over 120 years in the previous challenge world. "I've wanted to come back for a long time, but there were no criteria for judgment, and no one pulled me back. If it weren't for Qian... he left me a clue, I think I still wouldn't be out here!"
To be honest, Leng Yue still feels like crying when she thinks of Qian Chen. She almost cried when she saw the images Qian Chen left for her. However, Leng Yue knew that crying then would be useless and no one would feel sorry for her, so even though tears were welling up in her eyes, she didn't let them fall.
"How is he...? Because he was looking for you, he kept traversing space, and his whereabouts were exposed at headquarters again." Ling said dejectedly, "None of us are having a good time. If you don't come back in seven days, I'll be recalled and reassigned by headquarters. He... must have suffered a lot while looking for you. Yueyue, thank goodness, thank goodness you came back in time!"
"Did the shielding spell stop working?" Leng Yue asked Qian Chen worriedly. "What else can we do?"
Zero remained silent for a long while before replying, "Do more missions, search in mission worlds, and be sure to get past headquarters quickly. Otherwise, you might never have the chance to stay together again!"
Zero was somewhat bothered that Leng Yue only cared about Qian Chen and not about it. It had almost been recycled and reassigned, yet Leng Yue hadn't reacted? It really was bothered.
"What did you mean when you said headquarters reassigned you?" Ling Zheng was unhappy, so Leng Yue asked this question.
Instant full recovery: "If a mission participant is out of contact with the system for too long in the mission world, headquarters will assume that the participant is dead or has left the space management headquarters. In that case, the system, which serves as an auxiliary tool for the mission participant, will be redistributed and recombined with the mission participant in order to maximize benefits."
“Maximize profits? Why do you say that?” Leng Yue asked.
"Think about it, isn't the system school consuming resources to train the system? Working with previous mission takers to complete missions, gaining experience and even leveling up, isn't that a resource? Since these are resources, headquarters definitely wants to make the most of them." Zero said this with a sense of helplessness. It's clearly a system with independent consciousness, yet it's being treated like an object by headquarters and disposed of at will. How could it not be upsetting?
"Suddenly it feels so dark," Leng Yue covered her eyes, "It feels like the future is completely bleak!"
“There truly are dark places everywhere, places we don’t want to mention or touch upon,” Leng Yue sighed. “Was this mission really not a bug at headquarters? Why should we bear the blame for their mistakes?”
"Xiao Mei's master said that these kinds of challenging missions are always like this. They're always a matter of life and death, with an extremely low success rate." Even now, Zero still feels lingering fear when he thinks about what Xiao Mei's master said. "Luckily you came back, otherwise I really would have become an orphan system!"
"Orphan System? What Orphan System?" Leng Yue was scrolling through the message bar waiting for notifications when she heard Ling's words and paused, unable to help but turn to look at Ling.
"It's because Xiaomei's owner said you definitely can't come back, and I'm going to become an orphan!" Zero explained in a low voice, looking very disappointed.
"Oh," Leng Yue said, not seeming to care much. "That doesn't seem to make no mistake, but isn't Xiao Mei's owner being a bit too direct?"
Leng Yue tapped a few more times, then, finding the message bar empty, closed the screen. Turning to face Ling, she said, "You look very sad. Is there anything I don't know?"
"Xiao Mei's owner doesn't seem to like me much. I haven't seen Xiao Mei in a long time." Zero said, her tail twitching limply, showing no energy at all.
Leng Yue looked at Ling seriously. "What do you think I should do to get Xiao Mei's master to accept you?"
Zero shook her head. "I don't know. Oh well, if I don't like it, I don't like it! Anyway, we can both survive without each other. And I still have you, Yueyue!"
"You... fine, whatever you choose, I'll support you." Leng Yue originally wanted to tell Zero not to give up, but then she held back. It was best for her not to interfere in Zero's relationship with Xiao Mei.
A message popped up in the notification bar, and Leng Yue quickly clicked to read it. It read:
Dear Ms. Lengyue, congratulations on completing "Death Countdown". You have successfully advanced from fourth-level Y-rank to third-level T-rank. We wish you continued success in your future missions and hope you will write new chapters in your career.
"That's it?" Leng Yue was dumbfounded. These few simple words were too casual, weren't they?
"Don't you need any certificates or anything?" Leng Yue said, then went to check the information again, afraid that she had missed something. In the end, she flipped through it from beginning to end, but there was still nothing.
At this moment, Ling pointed at Leng Yue's body, "Yueyue, look at your soul..."
Leng Yue glanced at Ling in confusion, then raised her hand to look at it, only to find that her hand had suddenly gained texture.
Previously, Leng Yue felt like an empty shell with a human form, or a soul with very low density, always light and airy, as if a gust of wind could blow her away.
But things are different now. Leng Yue feels she has gained weight, and at least she's no longer afraid of a force four or five gale. She feels substantial and grounded, and it makes her feel good, a sense of security.
"Is this a reward?" Leng Yue looked at her body with surprise and delight.
Zero shook his head. "No, this is the result of your own cultivation. In the last world, you became a ghost immortal, so your soul was well nurtured."
“But it wasn’t like this when I first came back,” Leng Yue said, looking at Ling. “Didn’t it only become like this after we received a notification?”
"No, I remember now, you were like this when you first came back, but we were all too excited to notice." Zero said, bringing up the scene where Leng Yue had just appeared. Sure enough, they saw it; Leng Yue was in this state as soon as she returned.
"So, headquarters didn't give us any reward at all!" Zero, with a dark expression, exclaimed. "That's incredibly stingy!"
Zero shook his head. "After upgrading, the rewards for completing tasks will be much greater. For tasks of the same level as before, the points will be ten times higher. Upgrading is like getting a raise and a promotion, which is why all task performers want to upgrade."
"I think what you're saying is more acceptable, but I still feel that headquarters isn't being fair." Leng Yue was still very dissatisfied and felt that the effort and reward were not proportional.
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