Chapter 21: Let's Add a Mattress
With a soft "plop," the fluffy ball was tossed onto the table. Its remarkable flexibility caused it to flatten slightly, but then it slowly returned to its original, round shape. It even rolled over once on the smooth tabletop, smacking its lips and mumbling to itself, "Today’s bed feels a bit chilly… I should add a mattress next time..."
Chao Xu: ...
Is this thing made of liquid? How does it bounce back like that?
Chao Xu picked up the still-sleeping fluff ball, her face expressionless as she stared at it. Even in its slumber, the little ball suddenly felt an inexplicable pressure.
Then, with no change in demeanor, Chao Xu tossed the fluff ball back onto the table and kneaded it back and forth, as if it were dough.
“Ouch, ouch! Host, stop it! It’s bad luck to disturb a system’s sleep so early in the morning, you know?”
Chao Xu gazed at it and, quite unexpectedly, smiled. The smile was like an April breeze—warm and gentle, melting away all defenses.
The fluff ball stared, dumbstruck, at this rare smile, barely able to process it before Chao Xu’s expression turned cold and indifferent once more, and she tossed it back on the table without mercy.
“Sorry, I wouldn’t know.”
The fluff ball, its face pressed against the cold surface: ...
Damn it, it really shouldn’t have indulged in such unreasonable fantasies about its host. (ﾉꐦ๑´Д`๑)ﾉ彡┻━┻
Chao Xu pinched the fluff ball between two fingers, her expression unreadable as she looked into its beady eyes. “Stop with all that nonsense. Tell me, what’s the deal with the memories you sent me? Why is there only information about my identity, but almost nothing about Chao Si’s own memories?”
She despised being deceived.
The fluff ball trembled in midair. Clearly, its host was just an ordinary amnesiac, yet in that instant, it felt an inexplicable sense of pressure—an aura that belonged only to someone of the highest rank.
After a couple of shakes, the fluff ball whimpered, “I really don’t know. This is my first time taking a host on a mission, too. Maybe I should ask the main system for you?”
Chao Xu: ...
So, it’s unreliable as well.
Suddenly, the fluff ball found the ground gone from beneath it and tumbled across the tabletop, rolling twice before coming to a dizzy stop. Opposite it, Chao Xu idly played with her nails. “You’d better ask quickly. Otherwise…”
She left the sentence hanging, and that unfinished threat only made the fluff ball’s imagination run wild.
No, it had to hurry.
After a frantic effort, the fluff ball waited anxiously for a reply.
Soon enough, the service system responded.
“Hello, with so many hosts under the main system, incomplete memory transmission is a normal bug. Please resolve it yourself.”
The fluff ball was full of confusion. “Doesn’t the main system fix bugs?”
The reply was immediate: “Sorry, according to our terminal, you are ranked dead last among all systems. There’s no point wasting resources on useless trash.”
Its little paw hovered over the keyboard, then fell. The fluff ball didn’t ask any further.
Plip. Plip.
As Chao Xu waited for a response, a faint sound reached her ears. She looked down to see that the once plump fluff ball had collapsed into a puddle of indignation, trembling all over, with tears of some transparent liquid streaming from its beady eyes.
Frowning, Chao Xu glanced at the conversation on the screen, then silently picked up the limp little ball.
Sobbing miserably, the fluff ball wiped its tears with a trembling paw. “Host, do you think I’m useless? Even the service system despises me. Boo hoo…”
It was terrified that Chao Xu would abandon it for being too weak.