Xue Chenjing, the jellyfish monster, was as clingy as ever, and Yu Yi finally got a full taste of it this time.
His pseudopods wrapped around the wooden building, unconsciously pulling leaves from the trees and laying them inside the house. The leaves piled up around the bed, layer by layer.
Yu Yi woke up to a sea of green. Xue Chenjing was asleep, but his pseudopods were still hard at work, gathering leaves and weaving them into a new nest around the bed.
"After living in a bird's nest for a few days, did you start building your own nest too?" Yu Yi muttered, stretching her sore limbs. Immediately, a pseudopod dropped its task, shook off the leaves, and eagerly rubbed against her, trying to get her attention.
Yu Yi glanced at Xue Chenjing, who was still asleep. She reached out and touched the pseudopod, finding a familiar mark on its head—a tooth mark she had left behind.
"Why hasn't this mark disappeared?" Yu Yi wondered, running her fingers over the tooth mark. Xue Chenjing had healed from much worse injuries, so why couldn't he heal this one?
The pseudopod, behaving just like its master, swayed in her hand and then boldly wrapped around her wrist. Even though she had gotten used to it, the cold, slimy sensation still made her shiver.
Another pseudopod seemed to disapprove and tried to pull the clingy one back to continue building the nest, but the one with the tooth mark refused to budge, stubbornly clinging to Yu Yi's wrist and rubbing against her hand.
The struggle escalated, involving more pseudopods, and the room was soon filled with rustling leaves as they all seemed to give up on their tasks and demanded attention.
Yu Yi heard a low hum from Xue Chenjing, who seemed to sense the rebellion of his pseudopods even in his sleep. His brows furrowed, and his eyes moved under his eyelids as if he were about to wake up.
Yu Yi quickly said, "None of you can move. Line up, and I'll pet you one by one."
The trembling pseudopods immediately froze. Yu Yi gently grabbed the nearest one and pressed her warm palm against it. The transparent flesh turned pink under her touch, and she rubbed it like she would a cat or a dog.
To avoid confusion and prevent any fights, Yu Yi used a bit of her spiritual energy to mark the pseudopods she had already petted.
When the pseudopod was pushed away, it still looked reluctant, acting like a spoiled pet that wanted more attention.
Yu Yi was about to give it one last pat when another pseudopod suddenly yanked it away, and it disappeared from the bed.
The other pseudopods tried their best to stand out, some by crushing leaves and smearing the juice on themselves, and others by simply inflating themselves to appear more noticeable.
Normally, their ability to hide and blend in would have been an advantage, but now it only worked against them.
Yu Yi pointed at one, and it eagerly swam over, rolling around in her arms. She laughed as it tickled her, and her fingers slid down its soft surface, making it quiver.
Xue Chenjing's forehead was covered in sweat. The sensations from his pseudopods were slowly feeding back to him, making them restless and impatient, yet they had to wait their turn.
Occasionally, one would get its turn and feel satisfied, but it only made the others more desperate, like trying to quench a thirst with a single drop of water.
Yu Yi's hair swayed with the rhythm of Xue Chenjing's breathing, growing hotter and more urgent. She turned to face him, holding the pseudopod and playing with it, her eyes fixed on his flushed face.
The sensations from the pseudopods built up, and finally, like a dam breaking, Xue Chenjing's body jerked as he woke up, his eyes still hazy with sleep.
Yu Yi watched his reaction and calmly asked, "You're awake?"
Xue Chenjing stared at her, his expression blank, still trying to figure out what had happened.
"Your pseudopods have nearly stripped all the leaves from the trees," Yu Yi said, picking up a green leaf and placing it on his flushed cheek. The cold sensation made him blink, and his eyes slowly focused.
Xue Chenjing's sluggish mind began to process what had happened. He realized the strange feelings in his sleep had come from Yu Yi playing with his pseudopods. One of them suddenly pulled away, and the room was filled with falling leaves as the pseudopods disappeared.
Yu Yi's arms suddenly felt empty as Xue Chenjing's head moved into her embrace. He muttered, "Don't bother with them. If you want to touch something, just touch me."
Yu Yi: "..." No dog could be this clingy.
As the pseudopods disappeared from the wooden building, Crane Senior Brother squawked loudly from a bare tree branch, his cry more mournful than a funeral dirge.
A pseudopod quickly shot out from the window and knocked him away.
The sharp cry, however, pulled Yu Yi out of the whirlpool of Xue Chenjing's charms. She pushed him away, got up, and dressed, tying the delicate ribbon at her waist and pulling out her hair from under her clothes.
Her smooth hair cascaded down her shoulders, hiding the slender waist barely covered by her thin clothing. Yu Yi glanced at the window, her profile shining in the sunlight, her lips glistening with golden light as she said, "You can sleep some more. I'm going to bathe."
Xue Chenjing unwillingly leaned in, "I want to join too..."
“No way.” Yu Yi firmly refused. If she indulged him in following her, the outcome would definitely be an absurd excess. Even now, as she moved, she still felt a bit uncomfortable.
Before he could continue his persistent clinginess, Yu Yi quickly cast a cleaning spell on his forehead, touching it briefly before pulling away.
By the time Xue Chenjing opened his eyes from the spiritual energy that swept over him, her figure had already vanished.
Xue Chenjing lay back with a deadpan expression, shrugging his hands. The leaves piled on the blanket rustled with his movement. He grabbed a handful of leaves, glanced at them with disdain, and flung them away.
He lay on the bed for a moment, unable to sleep with a lonely pillow. Finally, he slowly got up, casually threw on a robe, and kicked the fallen leaves on the ground as he walked downstairs.
After recovering his memories, Xue Chenjing almost tripped over when he saw the toothmarks on the desk on the first floor. Before Yu Yi returned, he searched the entire house, cleaning off all the toothmarks that were imprinted on the corners of the desk, the stairs, and the stools.
There is also the pile of spoils he has stacked in the house. Every time his gaze sweeps over one of those items, he can remember how he flaunted them when he brought them back, and how he ridiculed his former self, discussing how he is a scumbag unworthy of Yuyi.
There was also a time when he climbed all over the tree, rummaging through bird nests, and wanting to chase her away with a strong smell of birds on him.
Xue Chenjing thought back and wished he could turn back time to a few months ago and choke himself to death. He sat on the terrace, glancing at the bare branches around the wooden building, and closed his eyes to organize his returning memories.
After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes, his face dark, and shouted, "System."
The system came online with excitement, saying, "Host, host, you finally remembered me!"
Xue Chenjing's enthusiasm for it was extremely cold, with no intention of exchanging pleasantries, and directly asked: "I remember that when you first bound to me, you said that only I could hear your voice."
System: "Uh... theoretically, that's indeed the case."
“At that moment, when you were under the Demon Suppression Tower, how could A Yi accurately call out to you and ask what your affinity level was?” When Xue Chenjing asked this question, he already had an inkling of the answer in his heart.
Yu Yi could always hear the voice of his system.
At the very beginning, she could easily see through his disguise and discern his lies. She always knew she was approaching him with ulterior motives, aware of all his dirty thoughts, yet still willing to accept him.
Xue Chenjing lowered his head, burying his face in his palms. His hair, loosely tied at the back, fell forward, obscuring his features.
The system heard the suppressed gasps and quickly said, "Master, don't cry yet. Although there were a few hiccups along the way, our ending is still beautiful. You should be happy."
It toned down its voice and, with a serious and solemn demeanor, chimed in his mind.
**[System: Ding—The target's affection level has reached 100%. This value is determined by the system as the optimal level for achieving a Happy Ending. However, this does not represent the upper limit of affection, as the human heart is boundless and cannot be quantified. Love and affection originate from the heart and must be felt with the heart.]**
Congratulations to the host for successfully completing the Guided Task and achieving the final Achievement. The system Reward has been credited. The host may choose whether to redeem it.
After a while, Xue Chenjing slightly raised his head, peeking through the gaps between his fingers at the system reward displayed before him.
The faint light reflected in his moist black eyes. His pupils constricted, and he slowly lowered his hands, his eyes widening as he stared unblinkingly at the text floating in front of him.
"Is this the final reward?" Xue Chenjing heard himself ask woodenly, unwilling to accept what he saw.
But the line of glowing text hovered before him, reflecting in his eyes, forcing him to confront it.
She could hear the system's voice. The so-called "Target's Affection Level" was actually measuring his own affection. And the final reward was something she had longed for.
If he still couldn't figure out what this meant, he would be incredibly foolish.
The system detected the host's doubt and knew it could no longer hide the truth. It admitted, "Yes, I was originally supposed to be the heroine's system. When dispatched by the main control system to this world, I should have been bound to Yu Yi. However, I mistakenly bound myself to you instead."
"No, it can't be said to be a mistake." Although the system initially thought it had made a mistake by binding to the wrong person, it deliberately chose ambiguous moments to report the fluctuating affection levels at the beginning to deepen the host's trust and facilitate the task.
As it turned out, this tactic worked. What the system didn't know was that Yu Yi could also hear its voice.
The system pulled up the failed Guided Task record from its internal database and displayed it before Xue Chenjing, continuing, "The host has also remembered that you have experienced a previous life together. In that life, the system was bound to Yu Yi, and the task failed. This life is the restarted second attempt."
Xue Chenjing remembered. In that failed life, he had indeed heard the system's voice coming from Yu Yi at the very end.
Back then, he didn't know what that voice was, but now he knew better than anyone.
Xue Chenjing's gaze was fixed on the glowing line of text representing the final task reward. Slowly, he clenched his fingers into a fist, the joints cracking as he tightened his grip. The line of his jaw became sharp and rigid as he forced out a question from his throat, each word seeming unbearable.
"You want me to send her away myself?"
The system remained silent for a moment but still had to state the matter formally. "Host, you also have the option to decline this reward."
