The Stingy System and the Complaining Youth

Yu Luo dazedly opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling, muttering to himself, "A strange ceiling... Pfft, you thought I'd say that!"

Yu Luo leaped to his feet and looked around his surroundings. What greeted his eyes was a classroom, a blackboard covered in meaningless graffiti, toppled desks and chairs, shattered window panes, and blood-stained walls.

"What the hell is this place, a real-life 'School-Live!'?" Yu Luo quipped to himself, "Does that mean there are zombies wandering around the playground outside?"

Yu Luo boldly walked to the window and looked down. As expected, a large group of figures were indeed milling about on the playground, shambling unevenly, not like normal humans at all.

"It really is..." Yu Luo's mouth twitched. "So, according to the standard plot, shouldn't something strange appear now to tell me I've really transmigrated and I'm not dreaming or filming a movie?"

Yu Luo continued to spout his complaints without pause, completely lacking the tension one should feel when surrounded by zombies, nor the excitement of having transmigrated. All that filled his heart was the cliché feeling of a standard opening and a desire to complain.

"You've got some nerve..." a female voice echoed in Yu Luo's mind, filled with a profound sense of speechlessness. "Although I really don't want to encourage your complaining, you're actually right. You have indeed transmigrated. This is Changkong City during the Third Honkai."

"There really is..." Yu Luo was also speechless and fell into deep self-doubt. "Could I be the 'Leader' or 'Great God of the Universe' or something? Why does everything I say come true? I was just casually complaining."

"Hmm, after my in-depth scan of you, you are neither Haruhi Suzumiya nor Yuki Nagato. Stop dreaming," the voice in his mind ruthlessly shattered Yu Luo's thoughts and told him something more realistic: "You should focus on how to survive here."

"Don't I have you?" Yu Luo casually righted a desk and sat on it. Half of a tattered student ID fell out of the desk compartment. Yu Luo curiously picked it up. The name and photo on the student ID were gone, only the words "[Changkong City Qianyu Academy]" were visible. There were also messy scribbles. Although he couldn't recognize them, Yu Luo understood the meaning of the handwriting—

"They've gone mad, someone save me!"

Hearing Yu Luo's words, the female voice in his mind said helplessly, "I can't help you."

"Huh?" Yu Luo asked in surprise. "No way, you're supposed to be a System or something, you must have a way."

"That's right, I am the Fate Order Pay-to-Win Gacha System," the female voice in his mind stated ruthlessly. "And I have a hundred ways to help you escape from here."

"Then why did you say you couldn't help?" Yu Luo pouted.

"I have a way, do you have money?" The female voice in his mind had a tone of disdain. Yu Luo could even imagine the face of a poor, shabby woman.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Yu Luo suddenly felt something was wrong and quickly stood up, asking this inexplicable System, "So, if I don't have money, I can't use you?"

"As a pay-to-win gacha system, what the hell can you do without money?" The system was first extremely disdainful, then it switched to a seductive tone. "Use your boobs... oh, no, your brain. Use your brain to think carefully, without paying, will you become stronger?"

Yu Luo listened to these unusually familiar words, fell silent for a moment, and tentatively asked, "Is your founder's surname Ma? Is your main body a penguin wearing a scarf?"

"No, my founder's surname is Chen. His famous saying is 'Profitability is more important than values'," the system also replied after a strange silence.

Yu Luo leaned against the window, looking at the dense crowd on the playground. They were all kinds of girls, wearing sailor uniforms, cheerleading outfits, sports uniforms, and oversized penguin suits. Each of them had a good figure and a pretty face, but unfortunately, they had lost their minds and turned into non-human monsters.

"Can you give me a beginner's gift package? Don't all your peers offer this service?" Yu Luo's heart sank as he saw the playground outside. He knew that he, an ordinary person, no, perhaps even less than ordinary, could only place his hope of safely escaping from here on the system that looked down on the poor.

"Am I the kind of degenerate slut who lowers her standards?" Yu Luo imagined a woman with a poor, shabby face looking at him askance, as if he were a joke. "Use it if you want, or get lost."

"I..." Yu Luo almost choked to death. His eyes rolled, and he began to use a skill etched into his DNA—provocation.

"I say, you're being so evasive. Is it because you're actually a useless system?" Yu Luo adopted the system's attitude from earlier, his tone extremely harsh.

"Hmph!" The system snorted, seemingly quite bothered by Yu Luo's description of it as a "useless system," and said with a hint of excitement, "What do you know? Would you be like this if you paid eighty thousand?"

"If I had eighty thousand, I'd come to you?" Yu Luo retorted sarcastically. "Even when buying things at the supermarket, people offer samples. You don't even offer a trial. Are you a pirated copy, useless?"

As soon as Yu Luo finished speaking, the system in his mind seemed unable to tolerate Yu Luo's slander and directly issued a mission:

"Beep! Main Quest [Escape Changkong City] issued.

Quest Content: Safely escape Changkong City.

Reward: ???"

"First Stage Quest [Escape Qianyu Academy], Quest Content: Safely leave Qianyu Academy.

Reward: 5 Saint Quartz."

"Weekly Quest [Arm Yourself].

Quest Content: Find a suitable weapon to arm yourself and increase your combat power.

Reward: 1 Saint Quartz, 2000 Friendship Points."

Three system prompts sounded in Yu Luo's mind. Yu Luo checked the system panel and found only Master Information, Shop Exchange, Servant Compendium, Noble Phantasm Compendium, Gacha Pool, Quest Log, and World Gate interfaces.

Among them, World Gate and Shop Exchange were grayed out and unusable. Yu Luo clicked on Master Information and found only his name, followed by a "V0" designation. Below it was a large area of neatly arranged boxes, all gray question marks, impossible to view. The Servant Compendium and Noble Phantasm Compendium could be opened, but they were empty.

Yu Luo finally clicked on the Gacha Pool, and three interfaces appeared. One was the Friendship Pool, where one could draw 1-star to 3-star Servant cards and Noble Phantasm cards. A ten-pull cost 2000 Friendship Points. The daily free option below was lit up and usable.

The second was the Normal Pool, featuring a 3D holographic projection of a golden-haired, blue-eyed girl with a holy sword, wearing armor and sporting a "daisy" (ahoge). Below it clearly stated: Summon 1 time: 3 Saint Quartz; Summon 10 times: 30 Saint Quartz, guaranteed 4-star.

The third was a Limited UP banner. It also had a 3D projection, but unlike the Normal Pool, this projection was of a scantily clad young girl with brown skin, wearing revealing clothing, her pink hair casually tied up, holding two short swords, one black and one white. Next to it was a line of text: "Chloe von Einzbern is currently on rate-up, appearance rate increased by 100%." Below that was an expiration date. Yu Luo looked closely and found it was two weeks later.

"Hey, hey," Yu Luo complained to the system in his mind, "Don't think I haven't played Fate Order before. I'm an Opening-rank Master, mind your tone when you try to trick me. Little Black was clearly a free 4-star event reward, and you're making her a limited banner? That's too greedy!"

The system coldly replied, "If you don't want it, you don't have to draw. I'm not forcing you."

"What kind of operational attitude is that!" Yu Luo was enraged. "Where's the selectable 4-star Servant that should be available at launch?"

"Sorry, there isn't one."

"Then the free normal pool ten-pull at the start?"

"It's been changed to a Friendship Pool ten-pull."

"This Fate Order of yours must be the X-version server! It's so greedy, just like you!"

The system fell silent again, seemingly realizing it had gone a bit too far. Yu Luo received another prompt in his mind: "Beep, received item [Summoning Ticket] x1, can be used to replace Saint Quartz for one draw."

"So stingy," Yu Luo grumbled indignantly.

However, it seemed Yu Luo's commotion was a bit too loud. A shrill, inhuman scream sounded from not far away, and heavy footsteps slowly approached the classroom Yu Luo was in.

"Thump... thump..." A long shadow fell on the wall, growing closer. Yu Luo finally realized that he was in the midst of zombies, and the sense of threat to his life finally surged into his heart.