Chapter 282 The Diligent Emperor Used as Cannon Fodder (Part 7) Regarding Nangong…
Lin You was the first to notice Nangong Rou's change in mind. After confirming that she had started to slack off, Lin You explained the situation to the Emperor and asked him to cooperate with Nangong Rou in taking advantage of the system.
Although it is known that the subsystem absorbs the special energy of the mission target through some close interactions between the host and the mission target, the energy obtained from just a glance is probably negligible.
"Try not to get emotionally affected, just look at her briefly. I'm testing whether its energy absorption is forced through the task."
It was rare for Lin You to not consult with the target when doing a mission, after all, this opponent was extraordinary. The mission was not only related to her four relatives, but also to the survival of the entire small world.
Fortunately, Murong Yu was also pragmatic. He listened to Lin You's instructions without any objection and even cooperated by discussing the timing with Lin You.
Although Lin You's purpose was unclear, the evil creature was clearly up to no good. If this immortal lord hadn't appeared in time, he probably would have been killed by the evil creature before he could even take a look.
In many ancient supernatural stories, demons and ghosts usually rely on the yin and yang harmony between men and women to absorb people's vital energy.
For Murong Yu, Lin You's request was much more acceptable than the fact that he had almost been seduced by Nangong Rou.
It was easy to find an excuse to hold a banquet in the palace. Within two days, Murong Yu used the pretext of flower viewing to hold a family banquet in the Imperial Garden.
No outsiders were invited; it was just a few concubines and their children who gathered together to eat, chat, and connect with each other.
The Empress Dowager was too old to join in the fun, but she specially ordered someone to send over a few dishes as a token of her participation.
The peonies in the Imperial Garden were in full bloom, and the banquet was held in an open space not far from the peony bushes. Nangong Rou glanced at the peonies with a guilty conscience, and seeing that the Emperor was not paying attention to her and seemed to have forgotten about the seduction incident, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Murong Yu had a serious chat with the Empress, inquiring about her son's studies, her daughter's health, and exchanging a few words with the children's mother. Throughout the conversation, she paid little attention to the concubines who did not have children, showing a rather pragmatic approach.
Seeing this, Nangong Rou secretly pursed her lips. She and the other newcomer were one thing, they hadn't even been together yet, so there was no real affection between them. But Consort Yue had been with him for seven or eight years and had never received a single glance from him.
Nangong Rou found the emperor's approach of prioritizing women based solely on their reproductive status extremely distasteful, which further discouraged her from trying to seduce him.
However, a small task still needed to be done. After the emperor finished speaking, Nangong Rou stood up at the right time and respectfully said a few words of blessing.
Murong Yu glanced at her cooperatively, his eyes calm and emotionless, as if he were looking at a decorative vase.
[Ding! System Task: Obtaining a glance from the target has been completed. Reward: Choose two skill books from the system shop.]
Under Lin You's watchful eye, the subsystem's energy fluctuations flickered, but no significant changes occurred.
Even when Nangong Rou eagerly bought the pastry making skill book and painting skill book that she had been eyeing for a long time, the subsystem's energy was still a little short.
When I first tried out the "Pampered Empress" cheat, the key to completing the mission was to increase the emperor's favorability.
Although this subsystem doesn't explicitly display the favorability rating, many of the tasks it issues are linked to the emperor's favorability. Lin You makes a wild guess that the energy he can absorb is probably also related to this aspect.
Theoretically speaking, as long as Murong Yu doesn't increase his favorability towards Nangong Rou, the subsystem won't be able to absorb any energy.
After making a guess, Lin You decided to test it out. Coincidentally, the subsystem's taskbar had a task that required Nangong Rou to perform a talent and receive praise.
After listening to Lin You's analysis, Murong Yu nodded slightly, looked calmly at the concubines, and said, "It's still early. Consort Zhou is skilled in playing the zither, and Consort Nangong is skilled in dancing. Why don't they join in to entertain everyone?"
The subsystem, which had been feeling down about not receiving any energy, immediately became excited and urged Nangong Rou:
[Hurry, hurry, accept the quest! This is in accordance with destiny and the natural order; completing it will grant you the Ice Skin Jade Bone!]
Nangong Rou calmly said that she needed to go back and change her clothes, and Consort Zhou hurriedly went to prepare her zither.
After leaving everyone's sight, Nangong Rou spoke to the system, "I can take on the mission, but I don't want the Ice Skin Jade Bone reward. That thing is useless to me now."
If you ask me to do tasks again in the future, give me the rewards in cash points. Don't try to fool me with some unsellable junk.
As for the punishment, I only accept a deduction of money. If any other punishment is imposed, I will absolutely not accept any mission.
She no longer intends to seduce the Emperor. The "Ice Skin and Jade Bones" skill is naturally unnecessary now. Although the items in the system shop aren't great, you can still pick out something useful if you look carefully.
The subsystem was so angry at her haggling that it wanted to yell at Nangong Rou to do it or not, but it had brought people from the modern world and had been fleeced for so long.
He's been working on this for so long, and he hasn't made up for any of his losses. If he gives up now, the sunk cost will be far too high.
Since the system had already coaxed her so many times, it wouldn't make a difference if it did this one more time. The system reluctantly exchanged all the task rewards for points. Although the price was one-third lower than the original items, it was still a good deal for Nangong Rou.
With the system's anticipation, she finally accepted the talent show task. After changing into her dance costume, she once again stood among the peonies.
Wearing the same white gauze dress, but unlike her alluring performance last time, Nangong Rou danced with an ethereal and otherworldly grace this time, exuding a cool and refined charm that made her seem like a fairy, preventing anyone from having any impure thoughts.
The gentle and tender music that Consort Zhou was playing was also forced to change direction, and the melody became ethereal and melodious in sync with Nangong Rou's atmosphere.
Murong Yu already knew that Nangong Rou was forced to do a mission to seduce him, and he also knew that she wasn't interested in him, the emperor, but was it really necessary to dance like this?!
Although he didn't intend to have any relationship with Nangong Rou, since they were having a family banquet today, he figured he should at least find a concubine to cultivate a relationship with tonight.
Now, after watching this dance, I have no worldly thoughts left in my mind. I only want to go back, burn incense, bathe, and copy the Tao Te Ching three times.
Since the subsystem is not human, it cannot fully understand such subtle emotional changes. It only sees Nangong Rou dancing very seriously to complete the task, and the onlookers also appreciate Nangong Rou's dance.
However, this wasn't without its advantages. Murong Yu, who was initially worried that he wouldn't be able to suppress his feelings for her, wouldn't develop any affection for a woman who disliked him so much.
The song ended quickly, and Murong Yu indeed led the applause and praise, and rewarded the two with some jewelry and fabric.
From Lin You, Murong Yu already knew that the "freebies" Nangong Rou had obtained from the system were a complete guide to desserts.
He also thoughtfully waved his hand, saying that since the other concubines all had small kitchens in their palaces, he would bestow one upon each of them.
[Ding! System Task: Perform a talent show for the target and receive praise. Completed. 2000 system points awarded.]
Nangong Rou was quite happy. She could get double the reward for dancing once, and she could also confirm that the emperor really didn't hold a grudge because of what happened last time.
Murong Yu was quite happy, confirming that the evil entity and Nangong Rou, whom it wanted to control, were not of the same mind. This would make dealing with the evil entity much easier in the future.
Only the subsystem that was eagerly anticipating receiving energy was unhappy. It originally thought that even if seven-tenths of the emperor's praise was perfunctory, the remaining three-tenths would be enough for it to break even.
It's understandable that you need to invest more in the early stages of completing these kinds of strategy missions.
But to its surprise, the emperor wasn't even remotely sincere, let alone genuinely sincere!
If its energy hadn't already been converted into points as a reward for the host, the subsystem would have thought it was bugged!
As the assistant in this mission, the palace staff were also busy in their office, and within half a month they had developed energy detectors for the two subsystems.
Assuming each subsystem has an initial energy of 100, by the time they traveled through time and kidnapped two modern hosts, their energy had already been reduced by 20.
Currently, subsystem 1, which is the one Lin You found, has 76 units of energy remaining, while another subsystem, 2, shows 79 units of energy remaining.
If either of them has an energy level exceeding 1000, it means that the world's origin has been severely damaged; if both reach 1000, then this world will definitely collapse.
Lin You nodded to indicate that she understood. If it came to that, her mission would be considered a failure.
"Should I just reduce their energy to zero? Or should I... no, I mean, deal with them, make their energy negative?"
Looking at the displayed data, Lin You realized that the other person doing the task was also someone who was just slacking off and taking advantage of others. They were quite clever; no wonder they hadn't shown themselves yet.
The palace was startled by her message and hurriedly replied in a flurry:
No, no, no, once you deplete its energy to below 20%, it will shut down automatically, and then I can bring them back through the main system.
The reason why the other escaped subsystems can be ignored is because there is no place there where they can extract energy. Once their own energy is exhausted, they can be brought back by the court through the main system.
However, before the energy is consumed, the subsystem is still controlled by the thief's program. Forcibly capturing or destroying it will trigger the self-destruct mechanism, causing serious damage to the small world.
Lin You nodded, knowing that he was trying to minimize losses by recycling and reusing the materials, and didn't expose him, since this would make her task easier.
"Then could you ask the administrators if this task counts as a formal task, and if I still need to use the cheat code to try it out?"
The points given by the trial version of the cheat code are secondary; the treasure chest inside is really useful. Lin You's current equipment is basically all obtained from opening treasure chests, so it would be a real shame if it were gone.
After the court inquired, it quickly gave a reply:
[Due to the special nature of the mission, you can continue to try out the cheat codes. The rewards remain the same after successfully completing the trial, and there is no penalty for failure.]
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