Chapter Fifty-Three: System Punishment

Su Tong didn’t even spare Ding Wei a glance, about to say something to Wang Yuanyuan. Suddenly—

“Host, new discovery! New discovery!” The little demon cried out in Su Tong’s mind.

Su Tong jumped in fright. Was the system issuing another side quest?

The main quests from the system were usually beneficial, giving Su Tong both pressure and motivation. But ever since the side quests had started appearing, they’d scared him half to death.

The side quests were the kind that could get someone killed. The last time, during the Three Kingdoms quest, if Wei Yan had succeeded in possessing him, with Wei Yan’s temperament, never mind what might become of Xiaoyu and Xiaoxiao in the future—Su’s father, with his demonic temperament, would have been the first to go. The news headlines would have been everywhere: “University Student Commits Patricide,” “Cruel Student Kills Father,” “Student Achieves Enlightenment Through Patricide”...

“What did you discover?” Su Tong asked nervously.

“Ahem, don’t be nervous, I just discovered a new ability of mine,” the little demon replied, sounding embarrassed. Before Su Tong could flare up, it hurried to add, “I noticed that Ding Wei is hostile toward you. Heh, impressive, right? I didn’t have this ability before.”

Su Tong breathed a sigh of relief, secretly wiping away his cold sweat. He snapped, “Impressive? Then get rid of the system! Let’s take charge ourselves, control... control...”

But halfway through, he faltered, for the system chimed in: “Detected disrespect toward the Great Deity from the host. Punishment will be administered as a warning. Host may choose any one of the following punishment options...”

Su Tong froze.

Not even allowed to joke?

“You have five seconds to choose. If no selection is made in ten seconds, the system will choose for you. Five, four...” The system, seeing Su Tong at a loss after displaying the punishment options, pressed on.

Su Tong covered his face. “I’ll take the first punishment.”

The first punishment was: shrink by one centimeter.

There was no other choice—the other three punishments were all the same, but with increasing severity; the last one quadrupled to four centimeters, and that in a hidden state.

After choosing, Su Tong immediately felt a contraction.

It had shrunk.

“What grudge did my manhood hold against you in a past life? Why do you always target it?” Su Tong’s heart wept in silent agony.

The little demon was mortified, since it had started all this.

“Don’t be upset, Host. There’s still more than half a month to go. Just stream one more time, and your faith power will definitely reach five hundred thousand, completing the main quest. The system told me that not only will your lost centimeter be restored, but you’ll even be rewarded with an extra one,” the little demon consoled him.

The little demon’s words were like sunlight breaking through the clouds, brightening Su Tong’s spirit.

The maximum value of his faith power had already reached four hundred sixty thousand and was almost stagnant, but one more live stream should be enough to complete it overnight.

The maximum is the upper limit of faith power; the current value is different. For instance, Su Tong had just redeemed one hundred thousand points yesterday, and it hadn’t recovered yet—his current value was only three hundred forty-one thousand five hundred twenty.

Although the songs from “Nian Nu Jiao” were classics, the most popular was “I Believe.” Even if a billion people heard it and liked it, if they didn’t care who the original singer was, the faith had nowhere to go—it wouldn’t reach Su Tong.

“Hah, then it’s fine. I don’t have a girlfriend anyway, so there’s no one to upset,” Su Tong said breezily.

“Su Tong, what’s wrong? Your expression keeps changing,” Wang Yuanyuan asked in confusion.

Su Tong snapped back to reality and waved his hand. “Nothing, just seeing this track and sunset, I suddenly feel inspired to write something.”

At that moment, Ding Wei spoke up, addressing Tang Yan, “Tang Yan, isn’t your department still looking for hosts? No worries—even one candidate works. Actually, as long as there are ten, it’s fine. There are plenty of departments at the university. Some are too small, so their events are handled by the larger departments, but there are still ten major ones. Even if each recommends one, it’s more than enough.”

The search for candidate hosts by the department’s arts committee was an assignment from the university’s arts committee—Ding Wei was part of that committee.

Tang Yan knew this well. She and Wang Yuanyuan just wanted to spend time with Su Tong, looking for an opportunity to invite him out.

Besides, recommending two candidates was within the requirements; if all else failed, submitting the minimum one was enough.

“Yuanyuan, do you have a pen?” Su Tong asked, ignoring Ding Wei and Tang Yan, turning to Wang Yuanyuan.

“A what?” Wang Yuanyuan was stunned, her mouth slightly open. How could Su Tong say something like that?

Asking a girl if she had...?

Tang Yan was equally dumbfounded, thunderstruck by what she’d just heard.

If Wang Yuanyuan hadn’t repeated the word, Tang Yan might have let it slide, but Wang Yuanyuan had repeated it, and even more clearly than Su Tong.

Ding Wei began to question reality itself. Where am I, exactly?

“Do you have a pen and paper in your bag? I want to jot something down,” Su Tong clarified. He wanted to record what had just come to him—a song lyric from his previous life.

That song didn’t suit Su Tong’s voice, nor the singers of the Great Qin Empire, but Su Tong really liked the lyrics and didn’t want to waste points to redeem them.

His clarification brought a flush to the cheeks of both Tang Yan and Wang Yuanyuan; they’d both misunderstood.

Good grief, what a pair of characters, Ding Wei was at a loss.

Su Tong was somewhat known for his talent, able to write poems and essays; a full-score college entrance exam essay circulating online was his work.

“Yes, yes,” Wang Yuanyuan hurriedly rummaged in her bag, producing a pen and a small notebook.

Su Tong quickly went to the bleachers, sat down, took out his phone, and searched online.

As he suspected, the song didn’t exist in this world.

Wang Yuanyuan and Tang Yan said goodbye to Ding Wei and followed, but kept a few meters’ distance, sitting nearby.

“Is Su Tong writing a poem again?”

“Probably. He’s very good at writing—he finished his speech for the last competition in just one day and one night. It was passionate where it needed to be, solemn elsewhere, and he won first prize.”

The two girls whispered, glancing often toward Su Tong.

Su Tong alternated between gazing at the track, looking at the horizon, and biting his pen, as if wracking his brains.

Tang Yan and Wang Yuanyuan thought he was composing a poem, but he was really just trying to recall the song lyrics.

After about twenty minutes, Su Tong capped the pen and stood up.

“Hehe, Su Tong, what did you write?” Tang Yan was practical and liked wealthy men, but she also admired talented ones—especially talented, handsome men.

“You could call it a poem.” Su Tong handed the pen back to Wang Yuanyuan, looking at the notebook with a trace of melancholy in his eyes.

What youth doesn’t yearn for love? What girl doesn’t dream of romance? No matter if it was the Su Tong of his previous life or the original Su Tong of this world, both had once missed a certain girl.

Seeing the look in Su Tong’s eyes, Tang Yan and Wang Yuanyuan had a foreboding feeling.

“May we see it?” the two girls asked.

Su Tong handed over the notebook. “I wrote it to share, not to hide. Go ahead.”

The two girls leaned in together. Even before reading the content, they gasped at Su Tong’s handwriting.

Such beautiful script!

But as they read line by line, their expressions changed.