"Seeing you today, you really are as cute as the rumors say."
Flattery never fails!
Even without a deep understanding of Theresa, it didn't mean Li Pu didn't get her. On the contrary, Li Pu understood her very well; at least he had fully unlocked Theresa in Honkai Impact 3rd, and acquired all her outfits.
To put it simply, dropping a World's Cutest right off the bat was practically foolproof.
Such flattery managed to ease the atmosphere somewhat.
Wait, isn't getting hired something the human resources or another administrative department handles? Li Pu still felt a bit hesitant in his heart as he thought: Why did Theresa have to ask about me personally?
"Hmph hmph hmph hmph~" Theresa wore a cunning smile on her youthful face, one that didn't quite match her age.
"I heard that Mr. Li Pu had a tiny conflict with some students of the academy today. Is this true?"
"Just a minor misunderstanding," Li Pu explained helplessly. "Although I've already explained myself, she simply wouldn't believe it. There was nothing I could do."
"Our academy's students can be a bit stubborn, and I hope Mr. Li Pu won't take it to heart," Theresa said. "Still, Mr. Li Pu's earth-shattering move today was quite unexpected."
"Nobody can beat me, after all~" Li Pu shrugged and said, "I won't take a little thing like that to heart."
"That's good~ That's good." Theresa took a form out from her desk, placed it on the tabletop, and said, "This is your employment registration form."
"If you don't have any other questions, just fill it out and hand it to the personnel office."
"Then you can start working."
"Oh, oh, oh, um..." Li Pu didn't really have any problems, or rather, he had an unspeakable difficulty. He scratched the back of his head and said, "Um... could I possibly draw a little bit of my salary in advance?"
"Look! It's not like I want to take the money and run, it's just that I really have no money left lately..."
Li Pu didn't want to say it like this, but reality was just that kind of situation. If he couldn't get an advance, he'd really be eating inorganic matter soon.
"Hahaha~" Theresa laughed heartily, not looking displeased at all as she said, "It's fine. Since you were recommended by the Raiden Group, I believe you still have some character."
"You can draw half a month's salary in advance, but I have one question."
"Are you really twenty years old yet?"
"We don't employ child laborers here."
Of course he was full, at least in terms of psychological age. As for his actual age in this lifetime, well, counting from the moment of his transmigration, it was only a thousand and one days.
However, this wasn't important. What mattered was that today he finally secured a job!
"This really is a long-awaited wonderful beginning." Li Pu had already changed into work clothes—a set of gray canvas garments and a flat cap. In his left hand was a bucket, and in his right was a mop.
"Time to start today's janitor work... as if!"
"I, Li Pu, am overflowing with talent and understand everything." Li Pu slammed the mop onto the ground and said angrily, "To actually end up as a cleaner."
"Damn eternal loli, making someone like me, a great talent, do this kind of work!"
"Really..."
"I just have to endure it."
Li Pu was genuinely unhappy. He was furious, yet completely helpless. After muttering complaints for a long time, he picked up the mop again and sighed self-pityingly: "Whatever, who told me I have no diploma, no degree certificate, and not even a graduation certificate?"
"Whoever tells me this society doesn't care about diplomas in the future, I'll smash his dog head!"
He had been rejected a thousand times for jobs, primarily because of his seemingly underage face coupled with not having a single shred of proof of his educational background. Of course, he naturally looked down on the most ordinary manual labor jobs anyway.
He just hadn't expected to end up doing precisely this kind of work after all.
"Whatever~ Whatever." Li Pu leaned against the windowsill behind him, wanting to smoke a cigarette. But then he thought better of it, remembering that this was a girls' school, and gave up the idea.
"You still have to work for a living, otherwise you'd only be able to rely on soft rice."
"Come to think of it, I seem to remember I had a mission or something."
Li Pu suddenly recalled something very important. After transmigrating, it seemed he had completed his very first mission—a very important mission indeed.
Li Pu immediately closed his eyes and chanted silently in his heart: King of Understanding System, Li Pu, online.
The moment he finished chanting that phrase in his heart, the pitch-black void before his eyes suddenly gained a bit of light and shadow. Golden light and shadow emerged within his vision.
A speck of golden light rapidly spread outward, followed by countless characters that Li Pu couldn't understand flashing swiftly across his eyes.
As more and more characters appeared, borders gradually formed, alongside text he could read and patterns he could comprehend.
King of Understanding System is online. Hello, Li Pu, welcome online.
The next second, an electronically synthesized female voice, trying its best to carry a hint of emotion, rang in Li Pu's ear.
"Congratulations, you have completed the final item of the system's initial mission: 'Find a job'," the system's voice stated. "Initial mission complete. You have obtained the title 'The Awakened'."
"Equipping this title will increase your learning speed by 5%, increase your damage resistance by 50%, and grant a 50% trigger probability for Novice Protection."
"Congratulations on obtaining a chance at a lucky draw. May you continue to forge ahead on the path of becoming the King of Understanding."
A system—this was probably the sort of gadget every transmigrator possessed.
It was just that Li Pu's system seemed a bit more primitive.
It didn't act cute, it didn't sell out, it didn't provide any loans to transmigrators, and naturally, it lacked a system store to supply the transmigrator with all sorts of bizarre items.
It only issued missions; complete them and get rewarded. If you failed, as long as you didn't mind stalling your progress, failing carried no penalty either.
The system's very first mission for Li Pu was Survival in Another World: obtain a resident ID, apply for a bank card, find a place to live, purchase food and furniture, and find a job.
It sounded like a mission without much difficulty, and the preceding steps were easy enough to handle.
The system had provided Li Pu with fifty thousand yuan in initial funds, which allowed him to smoothly complete the first few tasks.
Only this final task wasn't so easy to finish.
Without a diploma, aside from an ID card, he couldn't produce any decent employment history to write down, plus he looked like a junior or senior high school student.
This left Li Pu unable to find the ideal job, while the jobs he did find were completely unrelated.
After searching for a job for so long, he had thought that running into Mei meant his luck was turning around and he'd find an ideal occupation.
Yet he discovered it was still just this kind of work.
He really didn't know what to say.
System. Li Pu shook his head, unwilling to dwell on these matters any longer, and focused his attention on the final thing the system had given him: What is this lucky draw thing?
"A lucky draw determines rewards or awardees through a drawing method," the system explained. "In your case."
"You can choose to draw a character, draw equipment, or draw a branch mission."
Chapter 3: The King of Understanding System Also Loves to Screw People Over "Character? Equipment? Branch mission?"
Li Pu felt like his system was messing with him.
"Leaving aside equipment and characters for a moment, those are things I can wrap my head around if I draw them," Li Pu complained. "Even a branch mission requires a lucky draw?"
"Shouldn't missions be handed out directly?"
"Drawn missions fall under the category of extra missions," the system explained after Li Pu finished venting. "Aside from the mission rewards, a branch mission's objectives, workflow, and completion conditions can all be customized."
"They belong to custom missions, and the rewards are determined based on the evaluation score after the mission is submitted."
"Tch~" Li Pu curled his lip upon hearing the system's explanation and said, "Aren't rewards a given when you complete a mission? This lucky draw mechanic really feels utterly meaningless."
"Missions are extra missions, and the rewards are not fixed. The draw only determines whether you have the qualification to create the mission," the system explained to Li Pu once more. "Such missions will inevitably have rewards; the harder they are, the more bountiful the reward. The missions assigned by the system have fixed rewards that do not increase in bounty as the mission difficulty rises."
"In other words, the main storyline mission will only grant a single chance at a lucky draw, regardless of what kind of mission is executed."
Now Li Pu finally understood what this branch mission business was all about. It seemed his system was truly different from other people's systems.
Other people's systems existed to make transmigrators suffer, but his system was designed to make him inflict suffering on himself!
Since the mission system was so different from everyone else's, were these characters and equipment going to be different too?
"What about characters and equipment then?" Li Pu glanced over his system interface and said, "It seems there's only a mission issuing system and a lucky draw system. Where's the mission store? Why isn't there something like that?"
"Items in this system can only be acquired through lucky draws, and cannot be purchased using money, points, or similar currencies."
"A scam! A total scam!" Li Pu couldn't help complaining upon hearing that. "Was this system written under the direction of Tencent or Mihoyo? It's all lucky draws and nothing for sale."
"Characters obtained from lucky draws grant access to things normally unobtainable once equipped," the system immediately explained upon hearing Li Pu's complaint. "These things include, but are not limited to, a character's 'wisdom', 'memories', 'abilities', and so on."
"Items obtained from lucky draws include, but are not limited to, 'weapons', 'armor', 'electronic products', 'vehicles', and so on."
"And the sources of these things include, but are not limited to, 'anime', 'manga', 'games', and the like."
"The genres include, but are not limited to, 'sci-fi', 'xuanhuan', 'magical fantasy', 'superpowers', and so on."
"Oh... I think I roughly get it." After listening to the system's explanation, Li Pu also more or less understood how his system operated.
Although it didn't provide system store services, it could supply all sorts of bizarre props.
However, unlike other systems with clearly marked prices, if he wanted to get what he wanted, he had to rely on his own face.
"I'm still pretty confident in my face," Li Pu said with a confident stroke of his chin. "If I'm going to draw... then... then I'll draw a character first."
Thinking about it carefully, missions were actually the highest in difficulty. Drawing only determined whether you had the qualification to establish a mission, which from the very beginning raised the difficulty of acquiring the final reward. Secondly, the harder the mission, the more bountiful the reward, which forced the transmigrator to artificially increase the difficulty of the custom mission.
Thus, wanting to get the ultimate reward required clearing many preconditions.
Meanwhile, equipment was relatively lower in difficulty. The scope of equipment was far too broad, and moreover, equipment tended to have a certain degree of specificity.
This specificity might stem from the actual environment or the conditions of use, and you couldn't designate what equipment you pulled.
Therefore, drawing equipment once wasn't a particularly cost-effective move.
Especially since equipment definitely required future maintenance, investing in that direction right after finally obtaining a stable income was a bit too early.
The absolute best option was characters. According to the system's explanation, once acquired, you could obtain a character's 'wisdom', 'memories', 'abilities', and other such things.
If he pulled a good character, the enhancement to himself would simply be instantaneous.
He hadn't heard any news about Honkai yet, but this was still Changkong City, and this was still St. Freya Academy! If he managed to pull a good character, his self-preservation capability would improve quite a bit.
"Let's go with this." After pondering repeatedly, Li Pu finally made his decision and said, "I intend to draw a character!"
"Please draw the symbol you desire on this summoning card with a single continuous stroke," the system said with its emotionless electronic voice. "Note that you only have one chance. Of course, this is merely a formality; the summoned character has no relation whatsoever to the pattern you draw or its complexity."
"Please begin."
"This..." Li Pu looked at the floating piece of paper in front of him—written as 'paper scrap', read as 'card'—and said, "Is your boss running a pig farm?"
Wasn't this method of drawing characters way too much like Onmyoji?
Too weak to complain, too weak to complain.
Li Pu decided to casually draw a five-pointed star on it. Anyway, it was the most complex pattern he could think of that could be drawn in a single stroke, and it also carried a certain religious flair.
Drawn in one stroke, a somewhat awkward five-pointed star appeared on the paper talisman.
Following that, the paper talisman began to burn. Red flames consumed the paper from bottom to top, and right as it burned about halfway, a card in the true sense of the word began to emerge.
First a corner appeared, and then, as the burning continued, it gradually and fully manifested before Li Pu's eyes.
"Oh my sweet goodness, to think it's even a Mooncancer?" Li Pu looked at the card and muttered, "This... this has a bit too many elements, doesn't it?"
Indeed, what appeared after the paper talisman finished burning was a card that couldn't be called an exact copy, but its basic composition and color scheme were remarkably similar.
When the card was completely and utterly revealed before Li Pu, another anomaly occurred.
A beam of light began to emerge from the center of the card, spreading outward in a circular wave. By the time the white light had dyed the entire card, it suddenly dissipated, and the true character's standing illustration appeared right before Li Pu.
"Character: Artoria Pendragon, Rank A."
"Long-term mission 'How to Become the King of Understanding' unlocked."
"Character mission 'Nobody Understands King Arthur Better Than Me' unlocked."
"Normal mission 'If You're a Man, Last Five Minutes' unlocked."
Before you continue