What Is This Cheap Thing? It's Not Impressive at All!
Never test human nature!
Chu Yao silently repeated that iron rule to herself.
Because human nature simply couldn't withstand any test.
Loyalty often depended on whether the price of loyalty was high enough; betrayal depended on whether the reward for betrayal was tempting enough.
It was a truth she had paid for in blood and hard lessons.
Although her elders and teachers in this life had given her endless warmth, that wasn't enough to make her let down her guard in the slightest.
Entrusting her safety to the goodwill of others was the most foolish thing in the world.
Only power held in her own hands and constant vigilance were the foundations of survival.
It wasn't that she didn't trust them. It was that she, Chu Yao... couldn't trust any world, or the bad luck she might have inherited from once being a "vicious female supporting character."
It was still safest to shut the door!
Shaking her head and casting aside those rather heavy thoughts, Chu Yao decided to get down to business.
She would investigate the "Myriad Worlds Trading Group" system that had suddenly appeared!
Almost instinctively, she focused her spiritual sense and gently touched the inside of her left wrist.
"Pop~"
As though an invisible bubble had been punctured, a very... crude webpage interface abruptly appeared, floating directly in front of her eyes.
Why call it crude?
The interface had the classic gray-blue color scheme of Windows 98, complete with jagged, pixelated borders. It looked like a half-finished product some third-rate programmer had cobbled together with his feet.
And it did seem that only she could see it, because her spiritual sense could clearly "feel" that the thing was isolated from physical space.
There was an icon in the very center of the webpage.
A plump, round, adorably goofy-looking... penguin?!
Chu Yao: "...Heh."
A penguin?!
Q... QQ Pet?!
No, wait. Wasn't this... the icon of that social networking software that would one day rule countless computer desktops?
Seriously, sir?!
What era had this system transmigrated from?
And at this point, hadn't that software not even been officially created yet?
Wasn't this copyright infringement, hey?!
Her lips twitched. She couldn't even find the words to criticize the system's aesthetic sense and awareness of copyright.
With a helpless sigh, she used her spiritual sense to click on the chubby penguin icon with practiced ease, as though she had clicked it thousands of times in her previous life.
"Ding-dong~"
A crisp notification sounded in her mind, though it was a cheap sound effect with the same electronically synthesized quality.
Immediately afterward, the background of the page she had opened turned into a starry sky, and then...
"Whoosh—bang! Whoosh—bang!"
A few pixelated fireworks burst in the center of the screen. Their colors were oversaturated, their shapes perfectly regular, and they had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. They were accompanied by an equally cheap "celebration" sound effect.
Chu Yao: "..."
These effects, this art style...
They were exactly like the celebratory animation that popped up when she finally managed to win a game of FreeCell on Windows in her first life!
It was full of that old-fashioned, primitive, utterly halfhearted feel!
Help!
Had this system just crawled out of a pile of discarded computers from the nineties?!
What happened to the promised impressive, flashy, badass Myriad Worlds Trading platform?
This? This was it?!
Couldn't it even spare the money for fifty-cent special effects?
Couldn't it be just a little more polished, hey?!
My eyes!
Chu Yao pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling her expectations for this so-called "golden finger" plummet off a cliff.
She was already beginning to seriously doubt whether this thing could actually help her make a fortune and reach the pinnacle of life.
Author's note: Thank you, dear readers, for the favorites, likes, check-ins, comments, flowers, coins, and memberships. Love you all, finger hearts ♥