章 16: Little Four Wants to Earn Money

編集者: mjn0898

Little Four rolled around the floor once sheepishly, before rolling over to Ling Lan's side. "It's okay. After fighting with you, I feel much better. I was really very unhappy before ..."

"How so?"

"When we were in the hover car earlier and Ling-Zero-Seven spoke, I had thought that this world had someone like me. I was so happy ... since leaving Mandora, I have never met another of my kind, I was so lonely ... but, after secretly talking to Ling-Zero-Seven, I found that Ling-Zero-Seven is not the kin I'm looking for. Although he is very similar, but it's just ... different ... not the same ... do you understand what I'm saying?" Little Four asked, somewhat incoherently, his face full of hope. He couldn't be blamed for his confusion; his mental intelligence was at the level of a five to six year old child at the moment.

Ling Lan replied jokingly, "Just like a human and a monkey?"

Little Four's eyes brightened and he nodded vigorously, saying, "Yeah, just like that."

Ling Lan patted Little Four's head affectionately. "Little Four, you forget, I am also a solitary existence in this world. Since you are also alone, and I am also alone, let us continue walking forward as companions."

Little Four was puzzled. "You are my host, of course I will continue to be bound to you in contract and never leave."

Ling Lan pulled Little Four into an embrace, saying softly, "That's not what I'm saying. I mean like family, like siblings, like the best of friends. Let's entrust our backs to each other, and become each other's most trusted person." Ling Lan was willing to put her faith in Little Four, for Little Four was the one who had accompanied her through the end of her last life, and he was also the one who had given her this new life. All these experiences had made Ling Lan accept Little Four, viewing him as a younger brother.

Ling Lan was determined to compensate for the regrets of the past life with her new life, and so she wanted a healthy body, freedom and space, and also a friend she could talk to about anything. A younger brother who trusted her, who she could also trust in return ...

Laying in Ling Lan's arms, Little Four was a little lost. He could not understand — his core dictated that he must be loyal to his host, so why did Ling Lan say they should become each other's most trustworthy person? Did they not already have that sort of relationship?

This was the first time Little Four was thinking with his full processing power — even if his core chip became overheated, even if his processes started to slow, he still wanted the answer to this question. Because of this, he knew what it was to want for the first time. He did not want to see Ling Lan disappointed. Even though he knew this was against regulations, he wanted to be selfish just this once.

********

It was now two months after the fight, and during this time, Little Four had managed to infiltrate this world's internet through the bed's equipped network. Under Little Four's clarifications, Ling Lan had learned that the virtual net here was already very developed, fully able to stand as a secondary world on its own.

Ling Lan highly suspected that her mum was able to confine herself at home most likely because of the existence of this virtual network, allowing her to do whatever she wanted to without needing to step foot out of her home. Moreover, she wouldn't have to worry about her identity, and could choose to live freely.

From the information he gleaned on the internet, Little Four had discovered the true value of the gene stimulating agents, and had also found out the typical absorption rate of the infants here. After Ling Lan was informed, she thought back to her first session with fear — they had overdid it with the absorption of the agent that time after all. Fortunately, throughout history, there were still a few babies who had absorbed even more agent than her, so at least she wasn't breaking any records.

The two of them conferred, coming to a decision that no matter how many tubes of agent the military brought next month, they would only absorb ten.

Actually, Ling Lan didn't even want to absorb ten tubes. She only wanted to absorb about six or seven tubes, an amount which would match up with her original assessment results. However, Little Four was firmly against it. Because from the information he had gathered, as they grew, the number of tubes an average baby absorbed would only increase rather than decrease after their first time. Only after they had matured would the number gradually fall and taper off, ending when they could finally no longer absorb any.

Since Ling Lan had already absorbed ten tubes her first time, it would make no sense for the number to decrease the second time. Rather than risk looking even more abnormal, she might as well continue absorbing ten tubes. After all, that number had already been established the first time, so it wouldn't be any more surprising to the military. Furthermore, Ling Lan's body really needed that agent — Little Four had found that ever since Ling Lan started training in physical skills, her spiritual power had started growing at an even more rapid pace. Little Four was worried that Ling Lan's body growth would not be able to keep up with the growth of her spiritual power.

After some internal debate, Ling Lan decided to accept Little Four's suggestion. Meanwhile, to better support Ling Lan, Little Four was struggling over how to earn money on the internet. This was because he had discovered suppliers for the agent on the net, and although the impurities in those agents were much higher than the ones provided by the military, that was not a problem for Little Four who could clear away those impurities as easily as he could eat a carrot.

Erm, well, he couldn't really eat human food, so ... alright, let's just assume it's a virtual carrot. The point is, it was very easy for him.

For this grand ambition, Little Four had even secretly created a bank account by hacking into the system of the Centre of the Federation Banking Alliance. Naturally, bypassing the defences of the system was like child's play to him, as easy as eating a virtual carrot. To ensure the security of the account, without any approval, he had set the account's level to triple-S. It wasn't that he didn't want to set it higher, but only one five-S account existed at the moment, which was the account of the Prime Minister of the Federation, so Little Four knew he couldn't go that far.

Ling Lan observed as Little Four did all this and finally understood how amazing Little Four actually was — in the virtual world, Little Four was a god.

However, no matter how amazing Little Four was, he still had no clue how to go about earning money, and so could only turn to Ling Lan for advice. Unfortunately, Ling Lan was also clueless about this. Think about it, her previous life was pretty much spent on a sickbed — other than learning about the world and getting information from the internet, she had basically spent the rest of her time reading novels and comics ... If she had known this day would come, she would have spent that time learning how to do business and looking up financial information instead ...

Thump thump thump! Ling Lan was startled by the sudden sounds beside her. Lifting her head, she was stunned by the pile of books that had appeared in the great hall of the mind-space ... Ling Lan picked up a random book from the pile. The cover read <Philosophy of Finance>. Looking at the titles of the other books in the pile, Ling Lan's face turned black.

Little Four looked at her with a face begging for praise, so proud of himself as if he had done a great thing.

Ling Lan said through gritted teeth, "Why did you bring out so many financial books? And where did you get these?"

Little Four said smugly, "Weren't you thinking about how you wanted to read more about these things? Luckily while you were in your previous body, I had downloaded and stored all the books I could get from the internet there. No matter what you want, I have it ..."

Ling Lan blew up. "You think if I finish reading these I can become a business expert overnight? I think you're dreaming! What good can books do?!"

Little Four drooped. "Are they useless?"

"Of course they are! It's all theory. It's not that easy in the real world — the most these books can do is just provide some entertainment," said Ling Lan, resigned. She knew very well that she had no talent in this area.

Little Four was very disappointed. With low spirits, he said, "So they are only for human entertainment. Looks like I've wasted my time. To get all these books, I have spent so much time ..."

Seeing this, Ling Lan felt sorry for Little Four, and quickly reassured him, "No no, there could still be some precious books in your collection. And some people who want these books may never be able to get them anymore ..."

A flash of inspiration rushed through Ling Lan's mind, but remained just out of her grasp.

Little Four sighed, "In your previous world, all these books were freely available on the internet, who wouldn't be able to get them? Stop trying to make me feel better ..."

"My previous world? 10000 years ago ..." Ling Lan finally caught hold of that spark. Excitedly, she said, "Little Four, I have figured out how we can earn money!"

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章 17: Redemption of Honour Points?

編集者: mjn0898

Little Four asked excitedly, "What is it?"

Ling Lan laughed and said, "After these ten thousand years, even if there are cloud drives and other sorts of storage methods, I don't think all books would have been preserved till now ... why don't you go look and see if there are any requests for old books on the internet?"

Little Four was a little hesitant — even if there were such requests, there wouldn't be many, which would only result in chump change. For his purpose of buying Ling Lan more gene stimulating agent, he would need a lot more money, the more the better, so this little amount would not even be a drop in the ocean.

Exasperated, Ling Lan flicked Little Four's forehead, saying, "Don't look down on this little bit of money. We just need to get started and collect some seed money first before looking for other ways to earn money. Otherwise, even if an opportunity appears, we won't be able to do anything."

With this, Little Four understood, and abruptly felt the weight on his shoulders grow exponentially. He stood up tall and thumped his chest, saying, "You can count on me." Looking at his seriously adorable 'believe-in-me-you-will-not-regret-it' face, Ling Lan couldn't help but snicker in her heart. She found herself thankful once again that she had Little Four at her side, who was willing to work hard for her benefit.

After some discussion, the two of them decided that Little Four would be fully responsible for all matters on the virtual network. That said, safety was the top priority — they'd rather take things slow and gradually accumulate their seed money, as long as they could keep things as covert as possible. Honestly, they really didn't need to rush. Even if they could buy the gene stimulating agents right now, who would be able to use them? Little Four was a virtual being, while Ling Lan was still a baby who could not even crawl properly yet.

After passing on the follow-up tasks to Little Four, Ling Lan happily went to bed without giving any further thought to the matter. Left alone, a fired-up Little Four rushed into the virtual world and started doing as Ling Lan said, slowly accumulating cash.

Ling Lan was someone capable of putting her full trust in others, so she did not pay any further attention to the matter after entrusting Little Four with it, not even asking for a progress report. Little Four was touched by this show of trust — oh how much faith did his lord have in him — so he decided he must do his best to serve her until his death.

A while back, Little Four had consumed several hundred thousand words of the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms when fulfilling the request of a client. After that, he had become obsessed, and this was reflected in his method of addressing Ling Lan — instead of the original 'host', he now called her 'lord'. Every time Ling Lan heard that form of address, her head would throb — why did this silly child love cosplay so much?

It had to be said that Little Four was really very innocent. He had no idea that Ling Lan's 'show of trust' was actually just blithe unconcern. In Ling Lan's opinion, while it would be great if they could earn money, it was also fine even if they didn't manage to earn any. After all, Little Four was the one who was gung-ho about it, and it was a zero-cost business, so it really didn't matter whether the results were good or bad. She was just glad to see Little Four in high spirits, no longer looking as lonely as he was before.

Alright, to be honest, Ling Lan had assigned this task to Little Four as a way to distract him and cheer him up — and poor Little Four had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

********

Time passed by quickly, and Ling Lan finally became a toddler capable of moving about on two feet. During this time, she had received one more round of agent injections, and as discussed, they stopped absorbing at the tenth tube like before. As for the military people, it was the same group as before, and they seemed to have come mentally prepared this time, remaining calm throughout the whole procedure. In fact, they were even gaining the mistaken impression that absorbing ten tubes was a completely natural phenomenon, not deserving of any surprise whatsoever. It had to be said that the military was certainly made up of extraordinarily mentally resilient and adaptable people.

One day, during Ling Lan's sixteenth month of life, she was practising her bendy poses as usual, diligently going through all nine stances one at a time. She had actually managed to learn all nine stances by the time she was just a little over fifteen months old, and since then, she had made sure to practise all nine stances in order every day. Of course, there were still inconsistencies and mistakes, but Ling Lan would correct them as she progressed, gradually converting the nine stances into basic instinct.

This time, when Ling Lan completed the ninth stance, she suddenly felt a surge of heat run through her body. It was so comfortable that she couldn't help but moan in pleasure. This was something that had never happened before — although she would also feel slightly warm and her body would be loose and comfortable after finishing the nine stances, she had never felt this sort of euphoric floaty feeling before.

Ling Lan laid comfortably on her bed, still basking in the echoes of contentment, when she abruptly found that her consciousness had been drawn into the learning mind-space.

Before this, she had always chosen to enter actively — this passive access was new.

Before Ling Lan could protest the learning space's high-handedness, an aloof man had appeared out of thin air right in front of her.

Ling Lan jerked in surprise, but immediately straightened up to say, "Hello, Instructor Number One!" She definitely must not let this formidable man notice her annoyance. Ling Lan intuitively knew that if she angered him, she would lose a layer of skin even if she didn't die.

"Firstly, congratulations on your perfect completion of the foundation chapter of the advanced physical skills course," said Number One, his face as emotionless and tone as cold as ever.

Despite that, for some reason, Ling Lan just felt that Instructor Number One was actually in a very good mood.

"Now you shall receive your reward," continued Number One.

Ling Lan felt excitement stir within her — what kind of reward would Instructor Number One give?

At this moment, an extremely mechanical voice piped up beside Ling Lan's ear, "Reward: first item, time remaining from deadline: 49 days, awards 49 honour points; second item, assessment results: perfect, awards 100 honour points. Total of all items: 149 honour points. Please confirm receipt."

Facing Number One this time, Ling Lan finally realised that the mechanical voice she had heard before had not come from Number One, but seemed to be the voice of the learning space's system.

Ling Lan chuckled dryly. Hindsight is truly 20/20 — she only noticed now that although Number One's voice was very cold, it was also crisp and clear, with none of the mechanical inflections of the system's voice. It was a shame that Instructor Number One had appeared behind her that first time, causing her to mistakenly attribute the mechanical voice to him.

Instructor Number One's voice rang out once more, "Now I shall explain the usage of honour points. Other than the core compulsory courses, the learning space also provides many additional supplementary courses which require honour points to unlock, and of course there are also games and other types of entertainment available. You may freely choose how you would like to use these honour points."

"Use? Does this mean that honour points are not that easy to get?" asked Ling Lan calmly. She knew very well that Number One's words may have some hidden meaning – it could even be another test – so she couldn't just take things at face value.

Unfortunately, her questioning was not fruitful this time round. Number One did not answer, merely keeping his silence, though Ling Lan could sense a very light trace of humour in his eyes. Perhaps she had guessed correctly that honour points were indeed very precious. Or perhaps this first seemingly generous award of honour points was another trap, trying to fool people into thinking honour points were easy to get so they would spend them thoughtlessly.

A large screen suddenly appeared in front of Ling Lan. On the screen, there were many general category selections. It looked like these were the things that she could redeem with her honour points.

"Do I really have to choose right now?" Ling Lan asked doggedly. Since she already knew that honour points were important, she didn't want to use them recklessly.

Number One said, "You must. This is also one of your lessons." Number One smashed her hopeful plans, and continued, "You must choose within ten minutes, or else the system will enforce a random draw."

At these words, Ling Lan's heart thumped. Something niggled at her mind, so without wasting anymore time, she opened the redemption window.

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