Chapter 421: The Silent System

Once they had sat down together on the living room sofa, Yang Haoran placed the gifts under the coffee table. He took the bag of fruit from his girlfriend Ji Youxi’s hands, opened it, and handed it to his mother with a smile. “Mom, Youxi specially bought these red globe grapes for you. She heard me say you like them and spent a long time picking them out.”

The opened bag revealed two exquisitely packaged bunches of red globe grapes. Small and delicate, each grape was plump and round, with a vivid, dripping freshness—like freshly polished agate glistening with morning dew, translucent and radiant with a tempting luster.

Liu Ruoxi gave her son a meaningful look, knowing full well that he had been the one to pick them out. She said with a smile, “Haoran, why don’t you go wash these? Bring them back here later—Mom would like to eat some.”

“Youxi, come with me to the bedroom. Since it’s our first time meeting, Auntie would like to give you a gift.”

Just as Yang Haoran picked up the grapes, he heard his mother’s words to Ji Youxi and was visibly stunned.

“Oh! Okay.”

Ji Youxi seemed entirely unsurprised and nodded in agreement.

Yang Haoran stood frozen in place as both Liu Ruoxi and Ji Youxi turned their eyes toward him.

“Hey, wait—Mom, washing the grapes can wait. How about I come with you to have a look?”

As Yang Haoran moved to set down the fruit, he was met with a simultaneous response:

“No!”

Yang Haoran looked at his mother’s calm expression, then at his girlfriend Ji Youxi’s equally composed face, and was utterly baffled. Since when did you two become so in sync? Am I in the way?

He found it strange—it almost seemed as though his mother already knew Ji Youxi… No, more accurately, it was as if his mother and Ji Youxi already knew each other.

Facing the gazes of both his mother and Ji Youxi, and outvoted two to one, Yang Haoran had no choice but to pick up the bag of fruit and head toward the kitchen.

After Yang Haoran left, Liu Ruoxi and Ji Youxi did not exchange a single word. One after the other, they ascended the spiral staircase to Liu Ruoxi’s master bedroom. Once inside, Ji Youxi closed the door and turned the lock.

When she turned back, Liu Ruoxi was scrutinizing her. Ji Youxi’s beautiful eyes showed not a trace of fear. The two women stared at each other—without Yang Haoran present, the atmosphere instantly grew tense and charged.

“Ji Youxi, what a coincidence—my name also contains the character ‘Xi’ (曦). I wonder if it’s just chance or fate.”

Liu Ruoxi spoke first: “You’re a player too!”

Her tone held no doubt, instead brimming with unwavering certainty in her own judgment.

Ji Youxi nodded and said, “I am like you, but also different.”

“Your class?” Liu Ruoxi had already suspected as much.

“No.” Ji Youxi shook her head.

Liu Ruoxi frowned slightly and looked deeply at Ji Youxi. “From what I know, the game players I’m aware of did not invite you. How did you become a player?”

This was the biggest question on Liu Ruoxi’s mind. She had discussed it with her close friend Shen Qing, who speculated that Ji Youxi might have obtained the system around the same time as Liu Ruoxi—which seemed the most likely possibility.

Sure enough, Ji Youxi’s next words confirmed Liu Ruoxi and Shen Qing’s suspicions.

“It happened a little over a month ago, nearly two months now.”

Ji Youxi did not hold back and said softly, “I was handling transfer procedures at school when I heard that voice. I suppose it must have been around the same time for you.”

Liu Ruoxi judged based on the timeline and nodded slightly. “Then how are you different from me?”

“You’ve asked quite a few questions already. Now it’s my turn—I have a doubt I’d like cleared up.”

Instead of answering, Ji Youxi turned the question back: “When you were choosing your class back then, why didn’t you choose the Consort class first?”

This was something she had wondered about. Based on her analysis, her boyfriend’s mother, Liu Ruoxi, should have been the first to load the Fallen Angel game. Among the five classes, common sense would dictate that most people would choose the Consort class, which held the highest status.

Ji Youxi had previously suspected Liu Ruoxi might have particular preferences—like Shen Qing, whom Yang Haoran had mentioned. But from what she learned through her boyfriend, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Liu Ruoxi’s expression stiffened, and a wave of shame instantly washed over her. Why does every player have to ask me this question? Can I never move past this?

She took a deep breath to steady herself and replied, “It was just a coincidence. I didn’t want to choose any class—I didn’t even want to become a player in this game. On the contrary, its arrival caused things that should never have happened to happen.”

Ji Youxi recalled the system prompt from when she chose her class and suddenly understood. A faint smile touched her lips. “Now, back to me. What makes me different from you isn’t my class.”

“Although I am a game player like you, my system is not the same as yours. It’s just a broken system with a dysfunctional artificial intelligence.”

“Player Ji Youxi, how dare you slander the great Ba—”

“Xiao Ba, shut up!”

Ji Youxi instantly retorted in her mind, leaving the intelligent life form Barbarossa furious and frustrated. It then turned to Liu Ruoxi’s side and began loudly ranting [expletive]…

Through the intelligent life form Barbarossa’s complaints, Liu Ruoxi quickly learned a great deal about Ji Youxi. Just as Ji Youxi had said, when the system was initially loading, since Liu Ruoxi had loaded the system first, it resulted in insufficient energy for Ji Youxi’s system. As a result, Ji Youxi ended up with a broken system—her system interface couldn’t trigger quests, had no system shop, and was merely a bare-bones panel.

Regarding why she hadn’t been informed about the existence of other players, Barbarossa gave Liu Ruoxi an unexpected answer: the other party’s class permissions were higher than hers, second only to the Controller. The Consort class was special and unique.

“Player Liu Ruoxi, you needn’t worry. Although her permissions are higher than yours, she herself is utterly detestable. Yes, in human terms, she is absolutely despicable.”

Sensing Liu Ruoxi’s inner concerns, and perhaps out of shared indignation, Barbarossa spoke with vehement anger: “The energy collected by the system from all of you, according to the system’s underlying rules, was entirely allocated to Player Ji Youxi to help her repair her broken system. Yet, s-h-e r-e-f-u-s-e-d! She really deserves to be [expletive]…”

“She is the root cause! If not for her, the Fallen Angel game wouldn’t have so few players! This is why the system’s recovery has been so slow.”

After its outburst, Barbarossa summed it up, giving Liu Ruoxi a sudden moment of clarity. No wonder—aside from the initial invitation quest, the system never responded no matter which women I encountered afterward.