"What on earth are these?"
Dazed by the sudden influx of messages, Li Pu pressed his temples to make himself feel a bit more comfortable and said, "Pulling characters is pulling characters, why did these quests suddenly pop up out of nowhere?"
"What is even happening here?"
Pulling a character was expected, but what he hadn't anticipated was three quests suddenly being dumped on him all at once.
Facing these three quests, Li Pu, who still hadn't figured out how to use the characters yet, genuinely felt a bit overwhelmed.
"System, explain to me what a character is?!" Li Pu snapped back to his senses a bit and said, "What does it mean to use a character? What can these characters even be used for?"
Strictly speaking, this was the first time his system had finally gotten onto the right track.
Before finding a job, he had simply been executing the initial transmigration mission.
Aside from being able to check quest progress, this lousy system couldn't do a single thing.
Just as it felt like things were getting on track, he was bombarded by this massive wave of information, leaving him flustered and scrambling, unable to make sense of anything or see how it all connected. What did How to Become the King of Understanding mean? What kind of quest was Nobody Understands King Arthur Better Than Me? And what was A Real Man Needs to Last a Full Five Minutes supposed to be about?
The most crucial part was that, while he felt like pulling characters would bring some immediate, tangible benefits.
How were these characters actually used?
Li Pu genuinely had no idea.
"King of Understanding, my foot..." Li Pu muttered, "There are also plenty of things I don't understand. System, explain to me what a King of Understanding is?"
"A King of Understanding is just what it sounds like literally," the system explained faithfully. "You have to reach a point where nobody in the world understands XXX better than you do. Once you achieve that, you are the King of Understanding."
"The King of Understanding quests are meant to make you learn what you need to learn, and achieve a level where you understand it better than anyone else."
"The method for using characters is 'Equipping', which in layman's terms means 'Transforming'."
Continuing its explanation about characters to Li Pu, the system said, "You 'equip' characters through special actions. Once 'equipped', you gain the characters' relevant 'skills' and 'memories'. However, the 'skills' and other things that transcend normal physical fitness and abilities are only effective while you are actively 'equipped' with the character."
"Any character you pull will be rated based on your level of understanding of them."
"Take Artoria Pendragon as an example."
"Your level of understanding of the character is 'Slightly Understand'."
"Under 'Slightly Understand', the character rating is A."
"Rank A has heavy restrictions: the character can only be equipped for five minutes, and there is a 24-hour cooldown after each equipment session."
"At the same time," the system continued to explain, "due to the very low rating, Rank A only allows you to unleash 20% of the character's combat power."
"If you want to upgrade a character and truly understand them, you can acquire related equipment through gacha pulls or crafting yourself, understand the character's persona, study the historical prototypes of the characters, or Cosplay the character. You can read the character's memories in the first person and roleplay as them, or use side quests to briefly transmigrate and directly interact with the character to improve."
"It can be simply summarized as an increase in the 'understanding' degree of 'I understand the character very well'."
"Going from 'Slightly Understand' to 'Understand a Bit More' can upgrade the character to Rank S, extending the equipment duration, shortening the cooldown, and increasing the combat power you can unleash."
"And so on and so forth, with the highest level being 'Nobody understands her better than me'."
"The character rank is EX, allowing for permanent equipment and unleashing 1,000% combat power."
"Regarding permanent equipment, the system needs to issue a warning," the system's voice suddenly turned serious and full of threat as it said, "Never let others know that you are capable of equipping characters."
"Otherwise, the character will turn into a 'skin', and a 'skin' has zero effect no matter how well or poorly you understand them."
"Furthermore, it is a permanent, mandatory binding."
"So please be mindful yourself and do not expose it."
"If you expose it, bear the consequences yourself."
"Oh, I get it now." Li Pu more or less understood what this meant and said, "Exposing something like this, how could that happen? Since this is the King of Understanding System and the King of Understanding training quests."
"Then as the King of Understanding, I won't be modest. There is nobody in this world who understands how to hide their identity better than me."
"So, how do we actually equip a character?"
"In the name of the moon, I will punish you," the system's voice suddenly changed slightly, sounding as if it were holding back a laugh as it said, "If you don't know how, I can transmit the video to your phone."
"You can review it. Right, you must be full of emotion, stay in character, and truly immerse yourself."
"Under the King of Understanding System, any action or emotional comprehension that falls short, or is expressed inadequately,"
"Will prevent the transformation. Please practice diligently."
As the system's voice trailed off, the atmosphere suddenly froze.
In the name of the moon, I will punish you—how could he not know that? Li Pu wasn't afraid of being laughed at; this stuff still counted as his own dark history from childhood!
Not referring to the anime, but something else entirely.
Childhood days were in the past, and now he actually had to do it all over again...
"Can we negotiate?" Li Pu stammered, "This... transformation business, can we change it? Switch to a different way to equip."
"Of course you can," the system said sincerely. "There are also the Balala the Fairies style, the Cardcaptor Sakura's tarot card style, the Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne style, the Mermaid Melody style, and several other alternative options."
"You can also pick one you like yourself. The King of Understanding System still provides user-friendly and personalized services."
"You call this freakin' user-friendly?" Li Pu blurted out almost instantly, but the very next second he immediately corrected himself and said, "Can we... please... change it?"
"Change to something less complicated, something more manly?"
"Naked lap around St. Freya," the system also blurted out almost instantly, correcting itself the next second by saying, "No, nothing was just said."
"Because the character you pulled is a magical girl, please transform using a magical girl's method."
"If you don't even understand magical girls, how can you call yourself the King of Understanding?"
"That makes so much sense, I feel like I have no way to refute it..." As if! How could he fall for that so easily?!
"There has to be another way, right?" Li Pu shouted loudly, "My ears aren't deaf and my memory is great, you definitely mentioned another way just now, didn't you?"
"I did," the system didn't hide anything and said bluntly, "A naked week around St. Freya, as long as you're willing."
"I respect you as a real man, I can grant you a special privilege."
"If you're not willing," the system said, seemingly refusing to back down, "Once you pull a bishonen character,"
"You can have a new equipment option!"
"At the very least, for now you can pick this one or choose from the alternatives!"
Chapter 4 This Is a Real Man's Quest
"Wash, scrub, wash, scrub~ Oh-oh~"
A singing voice that wasn't exactly pleasant, but barely passable. Of course it wasn't too loud either, at most just humming a little bit louder than usual.
Carrying his bucket and shouldering a mop, Li Pu walked down the corridors of St. Freya Academy. Singing so uninhibitedly, he nevertheless stopped walking very shortly after.
"Are they having class?"
Li Pu pricked up his ears to listen for a moment.
These were the crisp sounds of reading aloud. It seemed to be class time right now, which was why he was the only person in this hallway.
His behavior just now didn't seem very appropriate.
Li Pu closed his mouth; he finally realized that his actions were a bit out of line. This wasn't just any ordinary public space. This was a school.
The bit of noise he had generated wasn't really suitable for this place, nor was it very welcome.
Having closed his mouth, he was soon drawn right back in by the atmosphere of the place, causing him to involuntarily stop walking and halt his chores to gaze at where he was standing.
"This really is a place full of European style," Li Pu looked at the corridor and said, "It's truly filled with Roman-style architecture."
"There's a feeling of being able to experience a foreign land without ever stepping outside."
"Classical architecture lovers are going crazy."
Just like stepping into a museum, an art gallery, or some historical exhibition hall, every single corner here embodied a profound, grand artistic aura that felt steady and heavy.
Li Pu got a little lost in his viewing, forgetting about the work at hand.
However, his mind wasn't really focused on his chores anyway.
For one, it was already quite clean, not dirty, and didn't have any areas that particularly needed special cleaning.
On the contrary, the artistic atmosphere here was exceptionally rich—simple yet far from plain, exuding a low-key luxury in its decoration style and this exotic cultural vibe everywhere you looked, which was truly captivating. At this very moment, there weren't many people in the hallway, save for the crisp sounds of reading aloud and the teachers delivering their lectures.
This intense scholarly and artistic aura was genuinely a bit addictive.
Yet Li Pu quickly snapped out of this inescapable intoxication, looking down to his left to see a mop, looking to his right to see a bucket, and then looking down at his own grey work uniform.
If one had to stubbornly pick out something out of harmony here, it would probably just be him.
Even if the working class was the greatest, this outfit...
"Sigh, I'm clearly very talented, and I don't discriminate against any kind of work, but being a cleaner is still a bit of overqualification, right?" Li Pu lamented for himself, feeling an irrepressible urge in his heart as he thought, "Maybe I should find myself some work to do—better, stronger, and more talented work."
"I can't be a cleaner for the rest of my life, can I?"
The job wasn't what he liked, and it fell far short of what he had imagined. It really gave a person zero motivation.
Even if this was a job, even if he knew that slacking off on the first day wouldn't do his future development any good. Even if he knew he should work hard and take things seriously. No matter how many inspirational quotes he had read, no matter how much he tried to encourage himself.
Unhappy was unhappy, unmotivated was unmotivated.
"No, I have to find a way!"
Li Pu perked himself up. If he didn't want to be a cleaner for the rest of his life, he had to figure out some way to carve out a path for promotion.
"This is a girls' school, though. Jobs suitable for me, decent jobs, might really not be enough..."
Li Pu's heart surged with restlessness as he let his mind wander, wondering if he could find just a little bit of room for upward mobility.
Like a thief, he quietly approached the doorway of a classroom and glanced inside.
It really felt just like being a thief, sneaking a peek while not daring to look for long. He simply swept a glance across and quickly pulled his gaze back, but this quick look suddenly gave Li Pu an idea.
"I need a space to showcase myself." Li Pu suddenly felt a few more ideas taking root in his heart.
"Judging by the current signs, this isn't the Honkai-stricken Changkong City, nor is this a place for training Valkyries."
"In that case, as a retired mess hall cook, my professional skills should still have some use here."
"Maybe I can encounter some sort of lucky break here."
Before transmigrating, Li Pu was a retired mess hall cook, but as a mess hall soldier, Li Pu wasn't lacking in the slightest. First of all, he enlisted while in university; secondly, even though he was in the mess hall squad, he hadn't fallen behind on a single tactical skill.
Furthermore, what he studied in school was computer engineering—fixing computers, repairing networks, writing small programs, and things of that sort were all well within his wheelhouse.
Although more than a thousand days had passed since his transmigration without him doing any proper work, that didn't mean his hands-on skills had declined.
"Who knows, I could go check out the cafeteria first; they should be starting to prepare ingredients soon."
Li Pu made up his mind to go take a look at the cafeteria, seeing if he could first bluff his way into becoming a chef, then work his way up to head chef, and finally see if he could land a position in logistics management.
If he could ultimately secure a position like head of logistics management, that would simply be fantastic.
One had to know that logistics came with quite a bit of perks.
As long as he could snag a logistics official position, sipping little drinks, eating little side dishes, and being served canned beef—it couldn't get any better than that.
No sooner said than done, he grabbed his bucket and walked toward the cafeteria.
As for this place, it was clean anyway, and when they assigned the tasks upstairs, they hadn't explicitly said he had to clean right here. Running over to take a look at the dining hall was completely justified, right?
Carrying his bucket out of the teaching building, he found that the cafeteria wasn't connected to it.
St. Freya occupied a massive area of land—large enough for St. Freya to extravagantly separate the teaching buildings, office buildings, art gallery, library, e-library, dormitories, dining halls, and bathhouses! Yes, bathhouses, hot spring bathhouses rather than ordinary bathrooms, and a whole series of other facilities into completely independent zones.
To get from the teaching building to the dining hall, one had to pass through the outdoor athletic field and the swimming pool.
St. Freya's swimming pool wasn't just a single standalone venue; it was divided into indoor and outdoor pools, and Li Pu hadn't been inside the indoor one yet, so he couldn't see it.
The outdoor one looked somewhat like a medium-sized water park.
Moreover, the outdoor swimming pool also came with an independent changing room.
This changing room happened to be right along Li Pu's path.
Passing by that side, he saw that students were already swimming, seemingly having a swimming class with a teacher supervising nearby. Li Pu didn't dare to look too much; this was a domain for girls.
For the sake of his own future, it would be best for him to have a little less trouble.
Before you continue