Lu Xing took out his phone on the subway and discovered that the Life Exchange app had changed.
The "Experience in Progress" loading bar had finally ended, turning into a button that read "Click to Enter Game."
Lu Xing barely hesitated before reaching out and tapping it. He wanted to see what other tricks this game had up its sleeve!
The next moment.
The app interface vanished, transforming into a screen of light before his eyes.
"..."
Lu Xing froze for a moment before realizing that the game had become something like a system, effectively binding itself to him.
Looking closely at the game interface, he found a character panel, a store, a top-up portal, quests, and other common game features.
Curiously, Lu Xing tapped the character panel.
Player: Lu Xing Age: 20 Level: 1 Skill: Soul Exchange (Passive. Current exchangeable characters: Jiang Xuannv, Anne Vizeswinton, ???, Xiao Yu.) Experience: 0
It was the simplest character screen Lu Xing had ever seen. There were no attributes, equipment slots, talents, or anything else.
Its only skill was even a passive one.
What puzzled Lu Xing was that Cold Ice Fairy's name was represented by question marks. Was it because he did not know her name, so the game system could not display it either?
When he opened the store, a massive assortment of items immediately appeared: tissues, computers, bear-shaped biscuits, the Universe Mirror, Immortal Path Fragments, Nongfu Spring water, Giant Dragon Magic Cores, small spacecraft, the Solar System Space Station...
All sorts of random things were arranged without any order, with prices ranging from 1 to one billion. Only after staring at it for quite a while did Lu Xing realize that the store contained things that had existed or appeared in all four worlds.
He tried searching and found that even "Maria" could be purchased for one hundred million—Maria was the super AI that controlled all humanity in the Future World.
In other words, if Lu Xing had the money now, he could buy a Maria and put her in the Future World, letting the two Marias battle it out online to see which was stronger.
"How do I top up?"
Lu Xing eagerly opened the top-up portal. This was the first time in his life that he had wanted so badly to spend money on a game!
Unfortunately, the game gave him no such chance.
At present, currency could only be exchanged with experience points. No other top-up methods were accepted.
Thinking about it, that made sense. If one hundred million could buy a super AI capable of controlling all humanity, it would be far too cheap.
Lu Xing then tapped the quests and found that the game had already generated four of them.
Beginner Experience Quest One: As Miss Anne, fully experience a Noble Lady's day and receive an evaluation of 60 points. Quest reward: 1,000 experience points.
Lu Xing sucked in a sharp breath. Good lord, it was ramping up the difficulty right from the start!
As a modern male college student from Earth, he had to play a Noble Lady in the Magic World and earn an evaluation of sixty points.
How was that any different from making Anne solve advanced calculus problems?
After thinking it over, Lu Xing could not come up with any good solution. He could only look at the next quest first.
Beginner Experience Quest Two: As Jiang Xuannv, spend three days in the Virtual World. Requirement: Do not be punished by artificial intelligence to the second level. Quest reward: 700 experience points.
Lu Xing frowned. This quest looked fairly simple—he just had to stay in the Virtual World for three days.
But judging from the reward, it was clearly not so simple.
Just because Jiang Xuannv could remain on the first level of the Virtual World for sixteen years did not mean he could last three days.
Then he looked at the next one.
Beginner Experience Quest Three: Learn ???'s name. Quest reward: 500 experience points.
Lu Xing had no idea how to judge this quest, because it really did seem simple. He had already left writing on the ice chamber wall, including a question about Cold Ice Fairy's identity.
But when he thought of that Fairy's personality while she was in seclusion, Lu Xing found it hard to say.
Finally.
Beginner Experience Quest Four: As Xiao Yu, the female CEO, complete a contract signing. Quest reward: 200 experience points.
Lu Xing nodded. This one really was simple. No argument there.
It looked difficult, but in reality, with the help of a cheat device—namely, his phone—negotiating a contract as Xiao Yu was instead the easiest task.
After returning to school, Lu Xing called Xiao Yu.
"I have some bad news and some good news."
"..."
Xiao Yu was speechless for quite a while before she said, "I can think of plenty of bad news, but I really cannot imagine what good news there could be. Can you tell me?"
Lu Xing smiled. "The good news is, you will have more chances in the future to work up a huge appetite and eat a lot in one meal!"
"Do you think I'm a pig like you?" Xiao Yu gritted her teeth in irritation. This guy was making fun of her for eating too much again. It had obviously been his body that ate it all!
"Hahaha."
After the joke, Xiao Yu finally asked seriously, "So you mean that in the future, you and the girls from the other three worlds will exchange bodies again?"
"Yes."
"Fine. Come see me tomorrow. I'll have my driver pick you up. We'll meet at my home again, like today."
Once she accepted reality, Xiao Yu was decisive and straightforward. Lu Xing quickly agreed as well.
They both needed to understand each other's social circles, as well as certain agreed-upon taboos—for example, not being allowed to look at cows, or something else.
Soon, the next day arrived.
Xiao Yu woke up in her villa at home. When she opened her eyes, she was dazed for a moment, thinking she had dreamed it all. In that dream yesterday, she had exchanged bodies with a male college student and spent an awkward, uncomfortable day.
I hope it was a dream.
Xiao Yu took out her phone and searched through it. Very quickly, she found the name she had labeled "Lu Xing."
Sigh.
The dream had shattered.
Xiao Yu got up and washed up. Before heading to the dining room for breakfast, she called Lu Xing.
"Are you up?" Xiao Yu did not stand on ceremony with him. They were not friends, but they were closer than friends.
"Hello."
Yet Lu Xing greeted her in a stiff tone.
Xiao Yu was somewhat startled. Instinctively, she sensed that this was not Lu Xing's tone, and cautiously asked, "You are...?"
"You may call me B74."
"You're... Jiang Xuannv?!"
"Jiang Xuannv is my name. B74 is the abbreviated designation of my number."
"..."
Xiao Yu tried hard to convince herself that Lu Xing was not mentally ill—Jiang Xuannv had crossed into his body!
Meanwhile.
"Welcome to wakefulness, compatriot."
Lu Xing woke up in a pure white room, hearing a calm young girl's voice by his ear.
Before he could figure out what was going on, the young girl spoke again. "The current morning time is seven o'clock and ten seconds. Please wake fully within three minutes, get dressed within five minutes, finish breakfast within ten minutes, leave your home before 7:15, and head to school at SH-755 on the first level of the Virtual Zone. Morning classes run from 7:30 to 12:00."
"?"
Lu Xing finally figured out the source of the voice. It was a small hairpin above his head.
It had not made any sound. Instead, it had directly transmitted the voice into his ears as a signal.
If he remembered correctly, this voice was exactly the same as Jiang Xuannv's.
"Who are you?"
Lu Xing asked aloud. This thing seemed somewhat intelligent.
"I am the Smart Hairpin created by B74. I am used to remind you, compatriot, to obey the rules of the Virtual World. If there is anything you do not understand, you may ask me at any time."
"Also," the hairpin added, "you do not need to use your throat to speak, compatriot. You only need to transmit commands to me in the form of signals."
"Signal form? How do I do that?"
"There is an implanted chip in your brain. It will automatically interpret your thoughts and send them out as signals."
"..."
Good lord! Future human technology had already reached this level?
Before you continue