Doctors had come into her room, Big Black and Little Black and Black Bodhisattva had come in, the auntie who delivers meals had come in, but it seemed everyone treated this robot like air.

Yan Luqing had always assumed they were used to it, so she never showed any special reaction to the robot; she hadn’t even found it odd that the initial codename hadn’t been set.

Now that she thought about it, the thing probably appeared along with her transmigration.

That left only one possibility—

“Repair complete, restarting—”

After the mechanical female voice finished speaking, Yan Luqing watched the robot shrink and shrink in front of her, finally becoming an object like a camera suspended in the air.

Yan Luqing: …I’ve lived long enough to see every kind of scene.

She stared at the camera facing her, and a human voice, many times more natural than the mechanical female voice, reached her ear: “Hello, book-transmigrator Maria. I am the system 10902 bound to you this time; I am now activated. Would you like to be renamed?”

“Yes.” Yan Luqing looked at it and said, “You shall be called Makka Pakka.”

Makka Pakka gladly accepted the name, then said: “Please choose the voice you prefer: loli voice, older-sister voice, maiden voice, young-royal voice.”

“Young-royal voice.” After Yan Luqing made her selection, she suddenly remembered her golden finger, “So… my red WeChat bubbles were arranged by you?”

“It is a system gift, indeed!” Makka Pakka, now in young-royal voice, sounded excited talking about this. “Host Maria is truly very, very lucky, because this golden finger is a rare upgradable golden finger—”

Upon hearing this, Yan Luqing immediately perked up: “How to upgrade?”

Makka Pakka’s voice suddenly paused: “Ah, I just checked and realized, actually, it has already upgraded twice…”

Yan Luqing was stunned: “Ah? When?”

“Because ever since you transmigrated, the people around you have felt a great deal of… fright? fear? and sorrow, and of course also anger—though they didn’t directly show it to you.”

“Whatever kind of emotion someone produces toward you, you will upgrade in the corresponding emotion,” Makka Pakka said. “So you should have noticed that gray, blue, and red bubbles are obviously far more than the other two colors. This isn’t because they don’t have positive emotions, but because the upgrades weren’t gained, so they can’t be read.”

Yan Luqing: “……” Damn it, Little Black deserves half the credit—fright and fear, those two emotions alone he probably accounts for half.

No wonder she basically couldn’t read any positive thoughts, yellow and pink being pitifully few.

“So the reason I read repeating thoughts is also because I haven’t upgraded?”

“Correct.”

“To make others produce emotions toward me…” Yan Luqing silently repeated this sentence several times.

“Yes! For example, if you go do good deeds, be a volunteer, you’ll gain many positive emotions…” Makka Pakka lectured on endlessly.

From its meaning, it clearly wanted her to go out to upgrade—find people, do things, harvest emotions.

But her desire to upgrade was true, and her desire not to move was also true.

Yan Luqing pondered a moment, then suddenly said: “Then if I post something online, and people produce emotions toward the content I post, does that count?”

“……” Makka Pakka fell silent for a full five seconds, then hesitantly said, “In theory, it seems it should count… but no one has ever done that. I advise you still…”

“Then if I try, won’t we know?”

Yan Luqing at once downloaded the famous short-video app Dou-something, changed her ID to match her WeChat name “Runaway Saintess,” and began trying to be active in the comment sections of various viral videos.

Scrolled to a beauty matching her aesthetics—

Runaway Saintess: 【Don’t you yourselves have wives? Why are you looking at my wife】

Scrolled to a hot video’s godly comment—

Runaway Saintess: 【If the bookstore doesn’t have your works, I’ll smash it. Did I do right?】

Scrolled to a lousy sequel of a certain famous hot-blooded anime—

Runaway Saintess: 【My grandma brushing her teeth isn’t more exciting than this?】

Aside from being active in these comment sections, she also went into hot comment areas to brawl with trolls.

Under a video of a cat owner feeding their cat Boston lobster, someone commented: “Doing this for a cat, can your parents eat such good lobster?”

This made Yan Luqing laugh right away, and she replied on the spot: 【Stop pounding the keyboard here, if you’re so idle and bored, hurry up and go find yourself a jail cell.】

In one afternoon, she had 99+ likes, 99+ comments, her phone buzzing nonstop, all of it “hahahahahaha.” She very smoothly leveled up in yellow emotion—not just one level.

Makka Pakka: “……” was dumbfounded.

Every host who had ever drawn this golden finger had gone out eagerly seeking missions to upgrade. This one actually curled up at home posting comments online.

…The key point was, she even succeeded. That was the wildest of all.

Yan Luqing, delighted, casually left a few more comments, then put her phone aside to let it ring on its own. She asked the question that had been puzzling her: “So, why did you stay completely silent for so many days before, and suddenly pop out to activate yourself?”

Makka Pakka snapped back to attention and said: “Because Maria had not triggered the activation condition.”

Yan Luqing was stunned: “You were already here the moment I transmigrated. If transmigration itself isn’t the condition, then what is?”

“Only when something occurs that either causes a deviation in the plot, or causes a life-threatening danger to the book-transmigrator, will the system be activated.”

“???” Yan Luqing was confused. “So which category am I in now?”

“The first.” Makka Pakka directly projected a block of text before her eyes.

The general meaning was this: The deviation in plot here referred to which period of time and in what range the character should act—where the original plot takes place, the character must be there. Changes to details during this period didn’t matter, but time and location could not deviate.

After Yan Luqing finished reading, she thought for a moment and said: “So what you mean is, the reason you’ve appeared here is because I can’t stay here anymore?”

“Correct. Starting the day after tomorrow, you must begin walking the plot~” Makka Pakka said in a rippling tone, then as if suddenly remembering something, added, “—Oh, and you have to bring Gu Ci along too.”

*

Two days later, the first day of the October 1 holiday.

Yan Luqing and Gu Ci sat together in the car, with the simple luggage packed by the auntie placed in the trunk. Big Black and Little Black were in another car.

The driver in the front seat asked: “Miss Yan, may we depart?”

“Gu Ci, did we bring everything?”

Gu Ci glanced at her with an indifferent look, and gave a quiet “Mm.”

Yan Luqing nodded to the driver: “Depart!”

Two days earlier, when she learned that the plot required her to leave home, Yan Luqing had not wanted to agree. But Makka Pakka said if she deviated from the plot, the usual result would be the second outcome—life-threatening danger to the book-transmigrator. And this danger included everyone in the villa.

Yan Luqing immediately had Big Black and Little Black pack luggage, gave everyone in the villa a week’s holiday, and went to persuade Gu Ci to leave with her.

The so-called “plot” of the system referred to the event that Yan Luqing and Gu Ci’s high school classmates had organized for this October 1 holiday—a reunion autumn outing to climb Dieye Mountain, in the suburbs of the city.

The organizer’s text was sent to the whole group, and the WeChat group also @mentioned everyone. Since Yan Luqing received it, Gu Ci must have received it too.

According to their personalities, this was the kind of event both of them would never attend, but Yan Luqing went to find Gu Ci and insisted they should go together—

Gu Ci leaned lazily against the doorframe, looking at her. “Give me a reason.”

“……” Yan Luqing struggled for a long time, “I want to use this chance to let you go out and relax.”

Gu Ci looked at her, his fine-shaped eyes narrowing slightly, half-smiling. “What makes you think I need to relax?”

“Then…” Yan Luqing carefully changed her words, “Then you accompany me to relax?”

The amusement spread in Gu Ci’s eyes: “Every day at home saying being a salted-fish shut-in is the happiest life, Miss Yan, you’re even less in need of relaxing than I am.”

“……”

Princess Ci was too sharp-tongued. Yan Luqing had no way out, and was forced to play her trump card—that very night of drunkenness she truly didn’t want to face.

“Gu Ci… actually, when I sobered up yesterday, although I didn’t come to find you all day, I didn’t black out. I remember everything.”

She spoke this line with a tone as clear as Biluochun [a type of green tea], and saw Gu Ci’s finger twitch slightly.

Yan Luqing pressed her advantage, speaking again with a tone as mellow as Tieguanyin [a type of oolong tea]: “You probably won’t believe me, but I really do have quite a deep impression of that night. I still often dream of someone pinching my face…”

And then…

Then Gu Ci sat down beside her, and the two were already on the way to Dieye Mountain.

Although this trip was defined by Makka Pakka as following the plot, Yan Luqing’s mood was entirely like going on a vacation — and moreover, traveling with her favorite paper person!

Simply too blissful.

“Did you not sleep enough?” Yan Luqing was exuberant; in contrast, Gu Ci wore a drooping, cold look, the bluish tint beneath his pale eyes somewhat noticeable. “You should sleep; I’ll wake you when we arrive.”

Both of them were dressed in sporty outfits today. Gu Ci even wore a flat cap; at her words he pressed the cap down to cover his face, leaned back against the seat, and fell silent.

Yan Luqing glanced at Gu Ci’s profile, which exposed only the jawline, admired the runaway princess’s beauty for a while, then skillfully opened the Dou-something app.

This upgrade thing was too addictive.

With Gu Ci asleep, she could confidently begin her grand upgrading project.

…

Gu Ci’s sleep quality had always been poor.

In the moving car environment, he could hardly achieve even light sleep; he was only resting with his eyes closed.

Until he opened his eyes midway and casually caught sight of the expression on the face beside him.

The girl was looking at her phone screen; a faint pink had risen on her cheeks, and her originally pretty apricot-shaped eyes were almost curved into crescent moons. Whatever she was seeing, the joy in her eyes could not be concealed.

Gu Ci straightened slightly and casually glanced at her phone screen.

He had changed his glasses again; he still couldn’t see distant things clearly, but within two or three meters things were quite clear.

On Yan Luqing’s phone screen was the short-video app interface; the video featured a long-haired woman wearing heavy makeup, filter layers unknown, tossing her hair.

He watched Yan Luqing’s thumb quickly double-tap the screen to like it, then her hands flew across the keyboard.

Yan Luqing was typing: Goodness! I’m literally hyped, wifey

Gu Ci: “……”