My System Forces Me to Live off Women-Chapter 40 - 38: System Upgrade

"October 8, 2121, early morning."

"A person has two selves, one awake in the dark, one asleep in the light."

"I don’t know why Peifeng acted so dangerously online, but out of trust for him, I’ve chosen to forgive him. Perhaps he’s truly facing difficulties."

"Deep down, I’m somewhat pessimistic. I never deny the twisted complexity of human nature, the emptiness and pain of life’s journey. But like Russell, the longing for love, the pursuit of knowledge, and the insatiable compassion for human suffering—these three pure passions are my core driving forces."

"So after forgiving Peifeng, and out of sympathy, I chose to help him. Thirty thousand isn’t much. If he can successfully overcome his difficulties and focus on his studies, it will be worth it."

"At the same time, I will hide my identity and continue chatting with him using the ’Yun Xin Yue Xing’ account, observing Peifeng’s private words and deeds. A teacher, besides imparting knowledge, should also care about a student’s mental health and guide them to establish correct values. I haven’t done enough in this aspect before and need to improve."

Zhao Qingge closed the diary, glanced again at the computer, where a photo of Li Peifeng’s muscles was displayed.

"It should be in the gym at the school sports hall..."

With the meticulous attitude and serious expression of a detective examining a murder scene, Zhao Qingge scrutinized the photo for over thirty seconds, then right-clicked, saved, and closed it.

The chat box between the two appeared on the screen, the last line still being Li Peifeng’s bank account number.

Zhao Qingge slightly frowned and started typing on the keyboard.

...

[Zhao Qingge has gifted 30,000 yuan. Assessment task completed!]

[Reward: two lottery draws!]

[Total gifted and spent amount has reached 50,000 yuan. Reward: one lottery draw. There is still 33,276 yuan left to earn the next lottery draw by spending more.]

[Total remaining lottery draws: 3.]

"..."

Li Peifeng was stunned upon hearing the system notification. Task completed? When did that happen?

He had just sent his bank account number as per ’Yun Xin Yue Xing’s’ instructions, with a try-and-see approach.

"Did Mentor really transfer money to me?"

It wasn’t until a few seconds later, when a text alert sounded, that Li Peifeng, as if waking from a dream, took out his phone to check the message;

"Silver Merchant Bank Transaction Alert: An anonymous account has credited your account ending in 1575 with the amount of 30,000 yuan, making your current balance 555,230 yuan in Great Eastern Coin."

Anonymous? Can you really transact anonymously?

Li Peifeng quickly went online to check and discovered that Silver Merchant Bank indeed supports this feature. As long as the "Don’t let the other party know account information" option is checked during the remittance process, their name and account information will remain unknown to the recipient.

Of course, if the authorities investigated, they could still find out.

But, is my novice task truly complete?!

Happiness came so suddenly, it seemed simultaneously real, illusory, deep, and shallow.

Has the sword hanging over his head just disappeared, and he no longer needs to face the threat of death?

After confirming this fact with the system, a wave of joy and gratitude towards Zhao Qingge overcame Li Peifeng.

But soon, he fell into contemplation.

Why? Why would Zhao Qingge transfer money just because of a few words online?

"Is it really because of the chat and abs picture? Impossible! That’s just Mentor’s excuse to give me money."

"Ultimately, it’s because my Mentor is deeply concerned for his student. Upon hearing of my difficulties, he immediately, and generously, helped in an ’anonymous’ way!"

After a series of thorough deductions, Li Peifeng believed the latter scenario was more likely.

After learning about his situation through the muscle selfie demand, Zhao Qingge promptly called his parents to inquire about family circumstances, increased Peifeng’s research subsidy, and even gave a portion from his own pocket.

Now, upon knowing Peifeng urgently needs thirty thousand, he extended help once more, even willing to remain anonymous, acting with boundless compassion and generosity, logical and reasonable...

"To protect the best mentor in the world! Mentor, rest assured, from now on I will work tirelessly, dedicating myself wholeheartedly to writing, and will not graduate until I push you to become a distinguished young scholar. I will repay this thirty thousand, doubled, through gifts!!"

"Ahem~"

While Li Peifeng was deeply moved and resolved to repay Zhao Qingge, a TT notification sound made him instinctively look at the screen.

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "The transfer is complete. Have you received the money?"

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "What do you mean by not talking?"

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "Does talking company not count anymore?"

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "Are you waiting for me to call the police?!"

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "It’s past midnight, a new day has started, show me a new photo, sis wants to see."

"Nani?!!"

Li Peifeng stared at the screen, his face a bit pale, covering his mouth tightly to prevent himself from screaming.

Stop talking already! Keep talking, and I’ll start crying!

Where’s my mentor? Wait, where’s my mentor?

Where did my amiable yet stern, tirelessly educating with piercing insight, strict yet gentle, never out of line, upright in conduct, meticulous in action, role model for colleagues, example for students, one of Beihua University’s top ten mentors in 2120, Zhao Qingge, go?

Give him back to me!!!

...

"My mentor, no, how could Old Zhao be like this?!"

At two in the morning, Li Peifeng lay in bed tossing and turning, utterly baffled, unable to sleep.

After the chat with the female netizen "Yun Xin Yue Xing," he seriously doubted whether the person was Zhao Qingge because her words and actions were no different from those thirsty women in the group, even worse. She insisted on him singing a song before bed just to coax her.

Even ’Lost Fawn’ and ’Neighbor Old Huang,’ these two female book fans on his WeChat, never asked him to sing, only constantly demanded that he unlock his Moments.

Of course, ’Yun Xin Yue Xing’ didn’t ask to add him on WeChat either, because Zhao Qingge already had Li Peifeng’s WeChat. Adding again would undoubtedly expose her identity.

"Old Zhao, oh Old Zhao... it must be the perfume’s fault!"

Seizing the late night, Li Peifeng reviewed the clues of using the perfume in the past two days and had a vague idea.

The first time he used the perfume was the day before yesterday, which directly led Wu Wenyue to aggressively approach him.

Although both had mutual feelings long before, with Wu Wenyue’s character, she would definitely not do such a thing in normal circumstances. After all, she held back for more than five years, why couldn’t she after using the perfume?

Second time using it yesterday, when entering campus in the morning, he was besieged by younger and older schoolmates, needn’t say more, no matter how handsome, it shouldn’t drive a group of girls to lose reason, shamelessly surround him in public, taking turns asking for WeChat.

And the abnormal behavior of Wu Wenyue and Xu Manning, the speed with which they reconciled and put on that scene in his bedroom, was probably also due to succumbing to the perfume’s magic power.

And Zhao Qingge, being the person who interacted with him the longest and smelled the perfume the longest, had no reason not to be affected. During the day, she was probably suppressing due to the teacher-student relationship, and indeed funding the research grant from her own pocket is worth deliberating. Until evening, chatting on TT with the assumption of ’Li Peifeng not knowing she is Yun Xin Yue Xing,’ the accumulated perfume effects immediately burst out, and with the mask on, her words and actions naturally broke free.

"No wonder the system says the probability of completing tasks with perfume is nearly 100%, it’s even stronger, and harder to extract than ’Steel Kidney,’ the magic item. It’s just that I, as the user, can’t smell it, feel the power, so I subconsciously overlooked it..."

In the bedroom, Li Peifeng fumbled in the dark to find Nether Sea’s Breath, stroking the bottle, gaining more understanding of the protagonist’s final suicidal gesture in the movie ’Perfume.’

If life’s goals are too easily achieved, it becomes tasteless, easy to fall into emptiness.

Just like you raised some funds intending to start a business to earn tens of millions, initially prepared for hard work and several failures but eventual success. Suddenly, an obscure relative died, and you inherited billions; you achieved financial freedom but couldn’t experience the joy of hard-earned achievement.

This, of course, is wonderful, but also regretful... bull crap!

Anyway, Li Peifeng didn’t feel any regret, only a bit of trepidation towards Nether Sea’s Breath.

Just such a small thing can stir the deepest desires within people, changing thoughts and behaviors.

Nether Sea’s Breath, though not as exaggerated as the perfume in the movie that makes those who smell it see themselves as angels or Gods, forgiving even the killing of women, is enough to transform someone into a devil.

One could easily spray perfume, subtly influencing others to achieve one’s dark, unspeakable goals...

[Ding~]

[Congratulations to the host for completing the assessment, passing system certification, application permissions upgraded, system version updating...]

[Estimated update time: Twenty-four hours.]

[During the update, the lucky draw carousel is disabled.]

[Friendly reminder; users need to ingest a small amount of Nether Sea’s Breath to experience its effect.]

"Eh? Upgraded really is different, even learned to give friendly reminders."

The system’s sudden goodwill made Li Peifeng deeply grateful, sincerely suggesting: "System friend, I ate quite a lot today, probably a lot of crap in my intestines, why don’t you eat it all like before? Save me from fighting over the bathroom with the two of them tomorrow morning!"

"..."