Chapter 63: Two Thousand Mission Points

After Chen Junze won second prize, he bragged to Shi Qiongqiong countless times about how amazing he was, eliciting envy and admiration from her.

Sang Zhiyi participated in this competition and directly won the highest Special Prize.

Holding the medal, Sang Zhiyi placed it in the bedroom of Shi Qiongqiong’s home.

Look, those glories that once seemed so out of reach are now right at your fingertips.

***

After Sang Zhiyi arranged this medal, System Sir informed her that the main mission was complete and she could leave at any time, or choose to continue living in this world—the reminder appeared once again.

Sang Zhiyi, of course, chose to leave directly.

Familiar with the process, she said goodbye to this world, and with the familiar flash of white light before her eyes, Sang Zhiyi’s soul was extracted from this world.

Returning to this small dark gray space for the third time, Sang Zhiyi noticed that its length, width, and height had all changed significantly.

Calling it a “small space” was no longer quite appropriate.

The length of this space was at least over thirty meters, the width over ten meters, and the height at least over four meters—looking around, it was just a spacious, empty open floor.

System Sir’s methodical mission settlement report arrived on time.

[Congratulations on completing the intermediate world mission (temporary).

Calculating your mission points.]

[Main mission: Change the tragic fate of the cannon-fodder supporting female lead’s original owner.

Final rating: SS-rank.

Reward: 1000 mission points.]

[Side mission one: Realize the original owner’s dream career, becoming an accomplished young painter.

Reward: 800 mission points.]

[Side mission two: Create a certain influence in this world’s cultural and entertainment fields.

Reward: 50 mission points.]

[After calculation, you have earned a total of 1850 mission points, which have been deposited into your personal account balance.]

[Your current account balance is 1850.2 mission points.]

When she saw the settlement list, Sang Zhiyi was genuinely surprised.

The rewards were this generous?

Compared to the single-digit mission points from the previous world, this was a qualitative leap.

Sang Zhiyi remembered that she owed the system store 2000 mission points on credit, and now she had almost enough to repay.

System Sir gave an official explanation for this: because the mission point coefficient for intermediate worlds is different from that of novice worlds and other primary worlds, and the temporarily increased difficulty intermediate world has certain particularities within its mission point coefficient, the final settlement resulted in this outcome.

Sang Zhiyi crossed her arms and carefully examined the text on the virtual electronic screen before her.

The main mission was still the highest reward item, a full 1000 mission points.

Looking at her “SS” rating, Sang Zhiyi frowned slightly.

The novice world’s mission rating was capped at S-rank, so that was one thing, but would she only get SS-rank mission ratings in other worlds as well?

She didn’t know how to achieve the highest SSS-rank mission rating.

Sang Zhiyi was genuinely a bit urgent about obtaining higher main mission ratings to earn more mission points.

She sighed softly.

After all, based on the information available now, earning more mission points was the only path to help System Sir regain his memories.

As for resurrecting herself and being reborn, Sang Zhiyi felt that could wait a bit; System Sir’s matter had higher priority.

…She always had to live up to all the kindness and sacrifice he had shown her.

Pulling back her slightly wandering thoughts, Sang Zhiyi continued studying the settlement information.

Unlike in the previous world, where she had “taken the original owner’s career to the extreme,” this time the first side mission was “realize the original owner’s dream career” — similar but different in essence.

Sang Zhiyi used the coefficient rules System Sir had told her to calculate and found that this side mission clearly gave more rewards than the previous one.

More intuitively, using the main mission points as a reference: previously, the S-rank main mission rating gave 20 points, and side mission one gave 10 points, which was 50% of the main mission.

This time, the main mission achieved an SS-rank rating, which certainly gave more points than the previous world’s S-rank, so theoretically speaking the proportion of points from the corresponding side mission would be lower.

But in the end, side mission one’s points accounted for 80% of the main mission’s points.

Clearly, realizing the original owner’s dream career yields many more points than taking the original owner’s existing career to the extreme.

However, there is a problem: whether the original owner’s existing career and dream career are the same is about a fifty-fifty probability, something the host cannot actively control; it depends on the specific situation of the world they transmigrate into.

Shaking her head, Sang Zhiyi felt a bit regretful.

This world’s side missions were missing two rewards for favorability of the male and female leads compared to the last world.

There was no helping it.

The male lead of this world was a scumbag Sang Zhiyi only wanted to send to prison as soon as possible.

He had tried to chop her with a kitchen knife—what favorability could there be?

As for the female lead, in this kind of male-oriented harem world, there was no single female lead, and the female leads appeared later in the timeline and didn’t have a chance to show up.

The points for influencing the world also increased due to the change in the world’s mission coefficient.

Although Sang Zhiyi didn’t put much effort into this aspect this time, and her influence was far less than in the previous world, the final amount of points she earned was actually larger.

After finishing her research and summary, Sang Zhiyi reached out and closed the settlement list page on the electronic screen.

She was about to tell System Sir that she was ready for the next world mission when she suddenly heard a new notification from the system.

[Upon detection, your accumulated mission points have reached 1000.

Special system store permission has been unlocked.

You may browse at your convenience.]

[Thank you for your efforts.

Please continue to strive.]

Sang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Oh?”

A special store?

A new icon appeared in the bottom right corner of the electronic screen.

Sang Zhiyi clicked it, and her pupils instantly contracted.

Compared to the dazzling array of goods in the regular system store, the items for sale in this special system store were pitifully few: only three items.

[Real World Return Ticket]: Allows the host to temporarily return to the real world in a normal human physical form (return anchor point is the point in time when the host last completely departed from the real world).

Price: 1000 mission points/1 hour.

[Resurrection Ticket]: Can unconditionally resurrect the host once, applicable to any world (including the host’s current real world).

Price: ??? mission points (insufficient permission to view).

So the method of resurrection was right here in this special system store.

But the specific number was still unknown, and it certainly wouldn’t be low.

Compared to the [Resurrection Ticket], which was like a pie in the sky, the [Real World Return Ticket] was obviously much more attainable.

With Sang Zhiyi’s current mission point balance, she could buy one hour’s worth.

A one-hour opportunity to return to the real world, with the note that even her body would be temporarily restored, and she would return to the exact point in time after her death when her soul left her body—there was a lot she could do with that.

At the very least, for Sang Zhiyi, making those responsible for her “accidental” death pay a price was entirely achievable.

And, by purposefully returning to the real world, she might be able to search and investigate in a targeted way, obtaining clues about System Sir’s true identity.

After all, it was quite certain that System Sir came from the same world as her.

But Sang Zhiyi only thought about it for a second before rejecting this option and closing the special system store interface on the electronic screen.

The reason, in a word: poverty.

Sang Zhiyi currently had less than 2000 mission points in total, not even enough to repay her credit.

In the last world, Sang Zhiyi had already experienced how convenient and useful mission points were, and how they were insufficient.

To achieve a higher mission rating in the next world, she definitely needed to keep some in reserve.

“System Sir,” Sang Zhiyi spoke up.

“Can I choose the difficulty level of the next mission world myself?”

[Yes,] the system replied.

[You have currently unlocked primary and intermediate worlds.

You may freely choose the difficulty level among the unlocked ones for the next world.]

“What about advanced worlds?”

Sang Zhiyi asked.

She wasn’t worried about having too much debt; after all, she already owed System Sir so much.

Asking System Sir to use his privilege again to allow her to enter an advanced world on an exceptional basis no longer carried the same burden of guilt for Sang Zhiyi as it had at first.

Her primary goal now was to earn mission points.

A faint sound of static passed, and Sang Zhiyi could somehow sense System Sir’s difficulty in that mechanical sound.

Sang Zhiyi immediately changed her approach: “How many more intermediate world missions do I need to do to unlock advanced worlds?”

She didn’t say “if it’s impossible, forget it” or comfortingly say “it’s okay,” but directly moved the topic forward to ask the system.

Whether or not the system currently had emotions or cared about these details, Sang Zhiyi tended to use this kind of language to try her best to avoid putting pressure on him.

The system’s response was still very prompt: [You need to have a personal account balance of at least 2000 mission points to unlock it.]

Sang Zhiyi: “…”

She looked at her personal account balance.

She was short by less than 200 mission points…

Sang Zhiyi felt a bit regretful.

She should have worked harder in the last world to increase her influence on the world.

This special intermediate world’s mission point coefficient was so high, she might have been able to scrape together those hundred-plus mission points.

Regretting what had already happened was useless.

Sang Zhiyi closed her eyes, then smiled and said to the system, “Then I’ll choose the next intermediate world.

We can start the mission now.”

However, this time the system did not respond immediately.

Sang Zhiyi: “…?”

She found it a bit strange.

A vague guess formed in her heart, and her eyes flickered.

[Miss Sang,] System Sir’s clear, magnetic voice sounded again.

[Miss Shi Qiongqiong wishes to meet with you.

Do you agree?]

Sang Zhiyi’s heart settled.

Just as she thought.

“I agree,” Sang Zhiyi said quickly.

The place where Shi Qiongqiong was located, like Ren Xiaoqian’s before, was a space that was pure white in all directions.

Shi Qiongqiong was much shorter than Sang Zhiyi, with a ponytail, wearing a striped top and a plaid skirt, radiating youthful energy.

“Sister Sang Zhiyi!”

Shi Qiongqiong trotted over, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Sang Zhiyi.

“Great, I can really meet you!”

Sang Zhiyi quickly assessed the small girl before her and saw that her mental state was quite good.

She was pleasantly surprised. “Hello, I’m very happy to meet you too.”

Noticing Sang Zhiyi’s expression, Shi Qiongqiong looked a bit embarrassed.

“It’s really all thanks to you, sister…”

“I… well… how I died, you should know.”

Shi Qiongqiong’s smile faded a little.

“That kind of death left me for a long time with heavy resentment and hatred dominating most of my rationality.”

“I think at that time, I was probably like a fierce ghost, with only ferocity inside me, only wanting to tear apart everything to vent my pain.”

“When the system said it could help me take revenge, I agreed without hesitation.

Then I was trapped here, watching host after host use my identity, my body to change my fate.”

Shi Qiongqiong showed a slightly troubled expression.

“But the system told me that this is a primary world.

The initial points the previous hosts transmigrated into were all around the time the rumors about me just started spreading.

Sister Sang Zhiyi, you’re the first I’ve seen who directly transmigrated into the last few minutes before my death…”

“Is it,” Shi Qiongqiong’s eyes held obvious guilt, “is it because my resentment was too heavy, which increased the mission difficulty?”

“I could feel that although many hosts before helped me take revenge and tried hard to fight the rumors, even though most succeeded, the amount of purifying energy they could bring me was still relatively limited…”

“It must be because I couldn’t get effectively purified for so long that I dragged you into this…”

Hearing this, Sang Zhiyi immediately reached out, gently grasped the young girl’s shoulders, and spoke in a very soft voice to interrupt her.

“No, not at all.”

She patiently explained to Shi Qiongqiong about how she had specifically chosen to temporarily increase the world’s mission difficulty.

Looking at Shi Qiongqiong’s increasingly relieved expression, Sang Zhiyi couldn’t help but pat her on the head.

Such a cute young girl should be happy.

“Qiongqiong,” Sang Zhiyi asked the question she cared about.

“Didn’t the previous hosts bring you obvious purification effects?

Could you tell me more about it?”

Shi Qiongqiong nodded.

“Mmm!

It’s just that most of them chose to directly suppress the spread of the rumors, to minimize the impact of the rumors.

Some also reported Chen Junze, the source of the rumors, to the police.”

“The less common methods I can’t quite remember…” Shi Qiongqiong said apologetically.

“For most of that time, I was confused and in a haze.

Only the methods that were used often left an impression on me…”

“But I’m very sure!

Only you, Sister Sang Zhiyi, seriously demanded an apology from every single cyberbully who hurt me!”

At this point, Shi Qiongqiong’s voice became tearful.

“The previous hosts at most found a few particularly extreme cyberbullies and called the police to warn them.

Only you remembered every single cyberbully without missing one!”

“It was when I saw you compiling the comments of their violence against me one by one that I started to feel the resentment inside me gradually fade, and my rationality slowly returned, bit by bit.”

“Later, when I saw you send Chen Junze to prison, that feeling of being purified became even more obvious.

Even when other hosts called the police to arrest Chen Junze, he had only spread rumors online; others made the rumors even more revolting, and Chen Junze was at most detained for a few days.”

“I know the other hosts also worked very hard to help me, and I am very grateful to them, but their methods indeed didn’t feel as satisfying as yours.”

“And you’re really cool!”

Shi Qiongqiong looked at Sang Zhiyi with sparkling eyes, full of admiration.

“You could actually kick that scumbag flying with one kick!”

Sang Zhiyi: “…”

So even Shi Qiongqiong, watching from here, was affected by System Sir’s correction of that event?

Sang Zhiyi lowered her eyelids slightly.

As expected of the best successor recognized by the Main God, System Sir’s permission level was truly quite high.

Shi Qiongqiong continued speaking. “Also, when you refused to go back to my university, making it get criticized by many people, that also felt really satisfying!”

“But what ultimately made me feel like my whole self was finally okay was those years when you went back to my high school to repeat the year, then got into such a good art university and studied oil painting!”

Shi Qiongqiong looked intently into Sang Zhiyi’s eyes, speaking very earnestly.

“Before this, I never imagined that any host would choose this kind of path, because it really takes too much time and energy.”

“Changing my fate is actually not too difficult.

Just curbing the spread of the rumors would be enough.

It could be done in a few days to at most a couple of months.

The previous hosts all completed their missions quickly and left.”

“Only you stayed for so long, so long.”

“Watching you study, live, paint day after day, it was like slowly soaking my whole being in a warm, comfortable bath.

Those resentments and hatreds, those injustices and pains, were all dissolved.”

“I think the word ‘purification’ isn’t even quite right for this process. ‘Healing’ is the right word!”

Shi Qiongqiong took a deep breath, then told Sang Zhiyi word by word: “It was you who healed me from a fierce ghost back into a human!”

As her words fell, Sang Zhiyi saw golden-white light fragments suddenly emanate from all over Shi Qiongqiong’s body.

These light fragments quickly dispersed into the surroundings, blurring Shi Qiongqiong’s entire silhouette.

“Ah, I can leave here now!”

Shi Qiongqiong seemed to sense it, looking at her gradually dissipating body with a tone of light relief.

Finally, Shi Qiongqiong seized the moment to shout loudly to Sang Zhiyi:

“Sister Sang Zhiyi, thank you, thank you so much—!”

“If after my reincarnation and rebirth I still have a chance to meet you, that would be wonderful—!”

“Oh, right!

I have here some things called mission points that previous hosts fed back to me.

They should be useful to you!”

A not unfamiliar ball of light was thrown by Shi Qiongqiong.

Sang Zhiyi reached out with both hands and caught the ball of light just at the last second before Shi Qiongqiong disappeared.

To be honest, when she heard that Shi Qiongqiong wanted to meet her, Sang Zhiyi had already thought about obtaining some mission points from her.

After all, from Ren Xiaoqian, she had learned that the original owner could receive energy feedback from hosts doing missions.

But at this moment, actually receiving something, Sang Zhiyi still felt a bit complicated.

The system promptly prompted: [You have received a gift of 207.8 mission points from Miss Shi Qiongqiong.

Would you like to deposit them into your balance?]

Sang Zhiyi was quite surprised by this amount. “So many?”

Aside from herself, who had temporarily increased the mission difficulty, weren’t the other hosts just doing primary world missions here?

How had they managed to accumulate over two hundred mission points?

To compare, Ren Xiaoqian in the previous world had accumulated less than twenty.

[It’s the result of many small contributions adding up,] the system explained.

[This world’s mission difficulty is low, but each time’s purification effect on Miss Shi Qiongqiong was relatively weak.

This led to a far exceeding average number of hosts coming to complete missions, allowing Miss Shi Qiongqiong to accumulate these feedback mission points.]

[It is precisely for this reason that this world could serve as your temporarily increased difficulty mission world.

Ordinary primary worlds do not have this qualification.]

Sang Zhiyi understood.

Shi Qiongqiong had indeed mentioned that previous hosts’ purification efficiency wasn’t very high.

“Deposit these mission points into my balance,” Sang Zhiyi said to the system.

“This way, my personal account balance exceeds 2000, right?

For the next world, I should be able to choose an advanced world?”

She now had a full 2058 mission points.

[Yes,] the system replied.

“Then let’s go,” Sang Zhiyi smiled.

“I’m ready to depart now.”

[Sorry, Miss Sang, before departure please allow me to remind you,] the system said.

[Because your personal account balance has exceeded 2000 mission points, reaching the amount needed to repay the system store credit, the 2000 mission points must first be deducted before you can enter the next world for your mission.]

Sang Zhiyi: “…Huh?”

For once, Sang Zhiyi was a bit stunned.

Having to repay debt first was understandable, but this meant she would only have 58 mission points to use in the next world?!

Sang Zhiyi was momentarily speechless.

That was even less than the 61.2 mission points she had brought into the last world, and the last world wasn’t even a true intermediate world, yet she was about to face an advanced world!

After working hard for years, she ended up with less than at the start…
Holding her forehead and sighing, Sang Zhiyi spoke.

“Okay, I understand.

Just do it that way.”

She would just have to work hard to earn more mission points in the next world.

Let her see what this so-called advanced world is really like.

***

Cold.

That was Sang Zhiyi’s first sensation after transmigrating.

Inside and outside her body, from all directions, pervasive cold dominated all her senses, making her entire body tremble.

Her upper and lower eyelids had frozen shut.

Sang Zhiyi struggled to open her eyes, and with her eyelashes slightly obstructed by frost, she saw a crystal clear ice blue all around her.

She was in a… prison made of ice.

These ice blocks were clearly not ordinary.

Sang Zhiyi could feel that not only cold emanated from them, but also something like clinging parasites, forcefully invading her internal organs, depriving her of vitality, making her whole body weak and feeble, struggling to even maintain her kneeling posture.

Sang Zhiyi tried to support herself with her palms on the ground.

In this state, her mind was groggy, making it difficult to receive and process the information System Sir had transmitted.

…This advanced world really was giving her a harsh welcome.

Sang Zhiyi almost exhausted all her strength just to browse through the information of this world once.

This time, she had transmigrated into a xianxia world.

The original owner’s name was Yi Jinghong, a renowned female sword cultivator in this world, and also the fiancée of this world’s male lead, Yue Buping, whom he would kill to attain enlightenment.