Chapter 001: The Accident

**

In the hospital corridor, Yuan lay on a stretcher, his head swathed in bandages, an IV line snaking from his arm. The bloodstains smearing his face and uniform hadn’t even been cleaned off yet.

His mother-in-law, Shen Ruyu, sat beside him, her face a thundercloud. 

“Are you fucking blind?” She cursed furiously. “Who do you think you are, picking a fight like that?”

“You’re just a stinky security guard! How dare you block the boss’s wife’s car? Have you got a death wish?”

Yuan hung his head, enduring the tirade. His mind drifted back to the incident that landed him here.

He worked security at the entrance of Xinhui Real Estate. 

Earlier that day, a Ferrari had pulled up to the gate, its horn blaring incessantly, screaming as if it were a matter of life and death.

Yuan hurried out. “Ma’am, this is the internal employee parking lot. Visitor parking is in the underground garage.”

The Ferrari’s window rolled down, revealing a beautiful young woman with permed waves and oversized sunglasses.

She instantly flew into a rage, snatching off her sunglasses and hurling them at him. 

“You stinky security guard! Who are you calling a ‘ma’am’?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Yuan explained patiently. “The barrier is automated. It only opens for registered license plates.”

“That old turtle bastard!” the woman shrieked. “He didn’t even register my plate?!”

Enraged, the woman in the Ferrari slammed her foot on the accelerator, crashing straight through the barrier.

The shattered barrier arm struck Yuan squarely on the head, knocking him unconscious.

The next time he awoke, he was in the hospital.

His wife, Yao Nan, returned from paying the bills.

Seeing her mother’s fury, she said cautiously, “Mom, it really wasn’t Yuan’s fault.”

“Not his fault? If he hadn’t run his mouth, would this have happened?”

Shen Ruyu only grew angrier. She slapped the hospital bed frame.

“We went to so much trouble to get him this job. He’d only worked a couple of days and he’s already offended the boss’s wife! I told you before, you must have been blind to fall for such a poor, useless good-for-nothing.”

Shen Ruyu was just forty, a demanding age. With her elegantly permed curls, she retained a striking charm.

Though fine crow’s feet etched the corners of her eyes, her features were delicate, enhanced by light makeup that made her remarkably attractive.

To say she was ‘well-preserved’ was an understatement.

In her youth, she had been a renowned local beauty. Tall, her figure was now pleasingly plump, not fat, but ripe and womanly, exuding a stunning, mature sensuality.

She was curvaceous in all the right places, her body a perfect hourglass of seductive flesh.

Today, she wore a low-cut top; with her slightest movement, the deep cleavage and swell of her pale breasts swayed, a mesmerizing sight her bra struggled to contain.

Yuan couldn’t help stealing glances, unconsciously swallowing hard.

His mother-in-law’s figure was nothing short of explosive. Even dressed conservatively, her chest seemed ready to burst free.

His wife Yao Nan, oblivious to her husband’s wandering eyes, simply bowed her head in silence under her mother’s scolding.

Shen Ruyu’s own marriage was an unhappy one, leaving her with a notoriously short temper, a veritable tigress.

Sharp-tongued and harsh, she had only grown worse since hitting menopause. When her fury was aroused, it was a fearsome thing.

“What did the doctor say?!”

After cursing for a good while, Shen Ruyu finally spat out, “If he can’t be cured, he might as well just die.”

Yao Nan replied timidly, “Mom, the doctor said he has a concussion and needs to be observed overnight.”

“This good-for-nothing didn’t have much brains to begin with. Observe my ass.”

Shen Ruyu stood up, snatched her bag, and said, “You wait here. I can’t stand the sight of this bum.”

With that, Shen Ruyu stormed off. Yao Nan offered a bitter smile, sat back down by the bed, and asked gently, “Husband, are you okay?”

“A bit dizzy.”

Yuan felt somewhat dazed. Wronged, he couldn’t help sighing.

“Wife, I really don’t know what Mom was thinking. A security guard job only pays four thousand a month, and she said she had to pull strings to get it.”

“Xinhui Real Estate is a leading company,” Yao Nan soothed. “Mom meant well for you.”

Yuan didn’t want to complain further. His mother-in-law cared too much about face. She couldn’t stand him working freelance, all so she could tell people he worked at a prestigious company and save face.

“Rest easy. Auntie will look into your job situation. They’ll definitely have to cover the medical bills.”

A nurse came to check his IV drip. His wife Yao Nan sat quietly by his side, sighing helplessly.

Lying back, Yuan gazed somewhat dazedly at his wife. From head to toe, she could only be described with one word: plain.

Not tall, not short, not fat, not thin. A small chest, and similarly unremarkable hips.

Her features were ordinary, not ugly, but certainly not a beauty.

A birthmark on her face made her deeply insecure.

The Yao family had three sisters.

The eldest, Yao Xin, was tall and gorgeous, a stunning beauty.

The youngest, Yao Le’er, was a youthful, big-breasted little lolita.

Their mother was an even more mature, voluptuous, and beautiful woman.

Overshadowed by her family’s brilliance, his wife Yao Nan had always been considered the ugly one.

Rumor had it her father, Yao Baichuan, had once even demanded a paternity test, suspecting this ‘ugly duckling’ wasn’t actually his seed.

Since marrying into the Yao family, Yuan’s life had been suffocating. If he had to name his greatest comfort, it was his wife’s gentle nature.

“Sleep now, don’t overthink it.”

Yao Nan lowered her head shyly, holding her husband’s hand.

Yuan drowsily closed his eyes. It felt like he was dreaming. A huge computer monitor flickered with static before his eyes.

[Signal connection successful…]

[Brainwave frequency stabilized, connection established. Establishing network connection…]

[Gene bank data backup complete. Data calculation qualified. Beginning host binding…]

Yuan’s eyes flew wide open. His body twitched violently, his mouth agape but unable to utter a sound.

As the strange noises ceased, an intense, electric agony wracked his entire being. Yuan could feel every cell screaming in protest.

Succumbing to the extreme pain, his body fell unconscious again, but his mind became piercingly clear.

Yuan found himself in a four-dimensional space. Streams of code flew past him at blinding speed, accompanied by that ethereal, cold voice:

[Binding successful. Host: Yuan. Species: Human. Sex: Male. Age: 25…]

[Analyzing various data parameters. Gene data collection ongoing…]

“Wait, what are you?!” Yuan cried out anxiously.

The whirling code made him dizzy. Then a display materialized before his eyes, a huge monitor lighting up:

[Host, it is an honor to be successfully paired with you.]

“Host… you… what are you??”

Yuan felt his head spinning. This dream was utterly bizarre.

[I am the System. The System you summoned!]

The screen suddenly spat out a USB connector, which plugged directly into Yuan’s brain.

He watched in horror as the interface vanished into his forehead.

In a distant, high-level civilization, technology had transcended physical forms.

This technological system, which had found its way to Earth, had been collecting data on lowly creatures like humans, slowly taking shape, but had remained dormant, unable to activate.

Today, Yuan’s brain had suffered severe trauma.

By all rights, he should have been brain dead.

But in that instant, the violent fluctuation of his brainwaves happened to resonate with its frequency.

The gene calculation was a perfect match, and he instantly became its host.