Chapter Forty-Six: Debts Owed (Revision 8)

The Fanhua System, located in a corner of an administrative district on the Imperial Capital Star.

A raspy voice murmured and nagged about something, sounding carefully like an elderly person instructing a child about to embark on a distant journey.

"Fanhua Number One, remember your mission. You will be the hope of the entire Fanhua System. May you have good fortune on your distant path."

[Fanhua Number One initiating, Fanhua Number One shutting down...]

Vaguely, another slightly younger voice worried anxiously, "An unfinished work, can it bring back the seed of hope? There is not much time left..."

...

Huaxia, Ling City, No. 21 Minghua Road

[Ding! Successfully bound to host Ling Zhizhi, Fanhua Number One at your service.]

Ling Zhizhi was on the verge of tears, squatting desolately in the chaotic living room. The illuminated screen of the phone before her clearly recorded that her remaining balance was only 8,112 yuan.

It was over! Everything was completely over!

The sound ringing suddenly in her ears successfully captured her attention. Puzzled, she asked, "Fanhua Number One?"

[Host Ling Zhizhi, burdened with tens of billions in debt and unemployed... adept at sweet-talking and swindling, money-grubbing...]

While listening to this unfounded voice, a transparent screen glowing with a pink light suddenly appeared before Ling Zhizhi's eyes. On it was her exact basic information, matching word for word what the voice had just recited.

In addition, there was a ledger of all her assets, with glaring red minus signs that stabbed painfully at her eyes.

The system's cold and merciless electronic voice continued to echo in her ears, [Fanhua Number One is dedicated to serving you. The system can fulfill one request for the host within its capability.]

Ling Zhizhi, who had been about to chew it out, instantly lost her fire. How could this not be a good person? Opening the door comes with a giant gift package; this was clearly a benefactor sent by the heavens!

"Money, I want money! I want lots and lots of money!"

[The host's request has been completed. Please complete the novice task within three days. Overdue completion will result in the deduction of basic faith points. If the faith points become too low, the host will lose basic access privileges to the system to varying degrees.]

Ling Zhizhi could no longer hear the requirements of the task, entirely consumed by checking her mobile phone balance.

With a ding, a new text message came in.

—10,000,000 yuan has been transferred to your account.

After confirming that the text message was not fake, Ling Zhizhi was instantly struck by wild joy, "Little baby~ Tell big sister, what does big sister need to do?"

Even though this money was not enough to pay off her debts, this was hope!

Hope that would keep her from walking down a dark path. How wonderful it would be if there were even more.

Ling Zhizhi hugged her phone, overwhelmed with joy, when she suddenly felt a momentary stabbing pain in her head. The electronic voice immediately sounded, [The task guide has been distributed. Please read it as soon as possible.]

Tears welled up in the corners of Ling Zhizhi's eyes. She wanted to curse—damn it, that really hurt!

Sustained by the friendly gesture of the system sending her money, Ling Zhizhi endured its roughness and patiently speed-read what was purportedly the user guide in her mind. However, all this wonderful mood vanished completely when she saw a certain line of fine print.

"System! Can you explain to me why I suddenly owe you one billion?"

Ling Zhizhi found her previous gesture of thanking the system hilarious. She had actually firmly believed in pies falling from the sky.

[Fanhua System currency is exchanged for Huaxia currency at a ratio of 1:100.]

The system was brutally honest enough to make her liver tremble. Ling Zhizhi was left speechless. "Then why didn't you say so earlier? Would it have been that hard to let me change my request?"

Her grievance went unanswered, and the fragmented information in her mind made her dizzy.

One debt not yet settled and another rises. Was this playing on the notion that one doesn't worry when drowning in debt?

The debts her father dumped on her were already enough to make her slave away for several lifetimes...

A tight web of information enveloped Ling Zhizhi layer upon layer, and her furrowed brows never relaxed.

After quite a long while, Ling Zhizhi finally caught her breath.

Fanhua Number One came from the Fanhua System outside the galaxy, which was a purely futuristic world with a level of technological advancement beyond imagination. However, due to historical legacy issues, their mental state gradually withered as they grew older.

They called this condition—Mental Aphasia.

It crossed time and space to reach the galaxy to supplement the missing cultural foundation of the Fanhua System.

And she, Ling Zhizhi, happened to be its chosen host. Her mission was to assist Fanhua Number One, acting as a cover for its operations within the galaxy and serving as a communication medium—namely, live streaming.

During the live-streaming process, she could earn rewards, including but not limited to money, jewelry, and other valuable items.

The faith points it mentioned earlier were a form of mental energy. It was by virtue of this mental energy that she was able to bind with Fanhua Number One, which was why losing a certain amount of faith points would result in the loss of certain privileges.

A deep glint flashed across Ling Zhizhi's lowered eyes. A system that lands you in debt right at the start—how could that not be a trap no matter how you looked at it?

Still, wasn't this the textbook definition of someone handing you a pillow the moment you feel sleepy?

Since she happened to have no money, it happened to be able to make money, and she happened to owe it one billion, they were now grasshoppers tied to the same rope; she didn't have to worry about the system wandering off or herself turning lazy.

Looking at it comprehensively, this was a pretty decent gig. Ling Zhizhi clapped her hands together. Having stumbled onto the threshold of sudden wealth so quickly, she would definitely pay off her debts much earlier than Ling Zhiyi!

Good news came wave after wave, so she decided not to quabble over the lottery money being pocketed by her 'creditor'.

Having figured things out, Ling Zhizhi began to carefully examine the transparent screen before her. There were many greyed-out sections. Since she didn't understand, she asked, "System, how should these features be unlocked?"

Maintaining its aloof persona, the system only manipulated the font on the screen to move and arrange themselves into two sentences.

—Live streams generate fan points, which can be unlocked upon reaching a certain level.

—Complete the novice task to receive a novice gift package.

Ling Zhizhi was tempted by the gift package right in front of her. Sure enough, the system was a good system, proactively delivering goods to her.

The novice task was to successfully complete a live stream. For Ling Zhizhi, who had been impacted by live-streaming culture in the new century, wasn't this a piece of cake?

Ling Zhizhi acted immediately. Confirmed that the screen followed her line of sight, she lifted her foot and headed upstairs. Upstairs were all sorts of items she had brought from home; there was bound to be something meeting the requirements that she could live stream.

Lacking a cultural foundation, where would it be best to start explaining?

Ling Zhizhi found herself somewhat troubled. Logically speaking, none of the things she could bring out existed over there, but each one had a long history behind it. This was definitely not something suitable for a first live stream.

Standing beside a neatly arranged shelf, she eliminated items one by one, until her gaze finally landed on a few unpretentious scrolls of painting.

When speaking of refined culture, what naturally came to mind first was the four arts of the scholar: zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. If she started with painting, the style of this live-streaming room would be set.

According to the task requirements, Ling Zhizhi directly selected a spot and started her first live stream.

"Good afternoon, viewers and friends. The content of our live stream today is painting appreciation. Regarding paintings, the first things we need to distinguish are the categories of paintings and the techniques of creation..."

"What we are going to understand today is floral subjects within the classification of Huaxia paintings... Today's live stream ends here, thank you for watching!"

Ling Zhizhi straight-facedly transmitted the knowledge she knew through the live-streaming room, and the system smoothly distributed her gift package the moment she announced the end of the stream.

The gift box that suddenly popped up before her eyes convincingly proved to her that all of this was not fake.

Ling Zhizhi: "Cross-space transmission? This advanced?"