Chapter 9: A Real System?
Su Yan hastily put his phone away. His heart pounded fast. Shit! What if anyone had seen that? Wouldn't they think he had snapped those photos with some kind of ulterior motive?
He only calmed down when he finally reached the station he had to get off at. He stepped out of the subway and sighed. This system-thing would get him into the hospital because of being overly stimulated if it went on like this.
Su Yan went to the counter and greeted his co-workers. He hurriedly took over from the one who had worked the previous shift and made himself comfortable. At this time of the day, there weren't too many people who came to the information. He would probably only be busy in one or two hours when all those tourists came by on their way to the next sight.
With a cautious look around, Su Yan took out his phone again. He examined the two photos. They really seemed to be taken in the subway but … not by him. Both of them were photographed from the front but he had sat diagonally from them so he couldn't have done so accidentally. Neither could the app have done it on its own. Whatever Nie Chang had written in that program he couldn't make a photo from the side into a photo from the front, right? Su Yan furrowed his brow. He couldn't, could he? Actually, he wasn't too sure but he really doubted it.
Something else had to be going on here.
"This couldn't be like in those system novels, right?" He raised his brows in doubt. Nah, that would be too strange. Even if there really was something like a system in reality: He hadn't been reborn so he shouldn't get one. Or maybe it had been delivered to the wrong person?
"This really sounds like the plot of a novel", he couldn't help but murmur. Maybe he should treat it like that for now and see what the program would do?
He considered it a bit and finally decided to do just that. He couldn't lose out either way, could he? In the worst case, he'd just be humoring Nie Chang a bit. And since they were friends that was probably alright.
"So, now, how do I find out more about this?" He looked at the abysmal 3% the app had calculated. "There should be some explanation for why it's so low, no?" He clicked on the number but nothing happened. Next, he tried the same with a photo and indeed, this time another window popped up.
The thing inside shocked Su Yan silly. First of all, a 3D-model of those two people had been generated. He could actually spin them around in all directions to get a better understanding of them. Below these models was information on the two people. A lot of information. The program had somehow listed their name and age, their heritage, their jobs and even some private things like their hobbies and likes or dislikes.
This … Well, it could be fake but he could probably verify at least some of these things, right? If Nie Chang was really just playing a joke on him, then it would be revealed at this point in time. But Su Yan felt that this being a joke was less likely. After all, how should Nie Chang have known who the people in the subway that day would be? How should Nie Chang have even known that he would take this subway? Normally, he'd take the one after that but he had been so angry because of Nie Chang's questions that he hadn't wanted to stay in the apartment any longer.
This could only mean one thing: This hadn't been staged by Nie Chang. This program or … this system had somehow ended up with him out of some other reason.
"I couldn't have really reincarnated, could I?"
Su Yan shook his head and closed the information on the businessman and the woman in the raspberry dress. Well, let's just try it again.
He looked around and spotted one of his male co-workers out of all people. Or, well, the guy wasn't working at the info counter. He was one of the security guards. He wasn't much older than he himself, maybe two or three years. As far as Su Yan knew, the guy was still single but didn't show much interest in women.
That type of clean guy … he would probably be what people called the 'second male lead'? The kind of nice guy that always helped the female lead and because he loved her so much even lent the male lead his aid until he finally stepped back in a show of great self-sacrifice so that the male and female lead could have an unperturbed happily ever after. One probably couldn't pair up such a guy?
Su Yan took a glance at his phone and lifted his brows. That strange program had actually already displayed a new line of text: [Target locked. Please choose a suitable partner for the target.]
So, just appraising a person would make that man the first part of the couple? Interesting. This really seemed like a legit system.
Su Yan looked around and spotted a young girl in a frilly, flowery dress. She seemed to be just old enough to have finished school this year or the last. The innocent type that would rouse a man's protective instinct.
A security guard and a frail young girl … Even if that person would only be the second male lead it should be enough for a rating of at least 50%, shouldn't it?
Su Yan looked back at the screen.
[Processing answer.]
Su Yan smiled. He was sure he had chosen a good couple this time.
[Processing complete. Calculated compatibility of the chosen couple: 0%]
What?! Su Yan's eyes went wide. How could the compatibility be even lower?! 3% was a really bad result but 0%? That was … Something had to be wrong with this method of evaluation.
He clicked on the photos again and searched for an explanation of why those two didn't fit. There wasn't anything. Only the information on the people themselves. He didn't dare read anything about it. One was a pretty maiden whose privacy he certainly couldn't invade and the other was a co-worker. If he accidentally let something he shouldn't know slip one day he'd be in deep trouble.
Su Yan pondered. If that thing on his phone was a real system, then it shouldn't be malfunctioning this easily. Maybe it was because of the thing he had already noticed himself: That co-worker of his would only be a plausible second male lead if he was a character in a novel. Of course, the possibility of a second male lead and the female lead getting together was zero. The calculation had to be based on that.
Hmph, I have one hundred chances. It can't be that difficult to find ten highly compatible pairings! Just you wait! Thus, Su Yan started checking out the men around him without noticing that his female co-workers were starting to look over in his direction and whisper.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone