Dreams and Reality

"I'm begging you, please save my mom."

"Besides my mom, all I have left is a little sister who's not even six months old."

In the cold emergency room, thick with the pungent smell of disinfectant, Mo Jingchun knelt on the floor, holding his mother's icy hand as he pleaded desperately with the doctors.

Neither the doctors nor the nurses in the emergency room paid any attention to Mo Jingchun, who was kneeling on the floor with tears streaming down his face. Everyone was completely focused on the patient they were trying to save.

"Chief, the patient is in ventricular fibrillation."

Without a word, the chief mentioned by the nurse began performing chest compressions, trying to pull the patient back from the brink of death.

The nurse had led Mo Jingchun outside the emergency room. He was trembling all over and had no idea what to do. His mind was a complete blank, and he was utterly dazed.

It had all happened so suddenly. People always said no one knew whether tomorrow or an accident would come first, but Mo Jingchun had never imagined that an accident would strike his mother.

After paying the bill, Mo Jingchun's hands and feet went cold, and he sank helplessly to the floor outside the emergency room.

Mo Jingchun couldn't bear to imagine what he and his little sister would do if his mother were gone too.

Ascites! He had just looked up the cause the doctor had mentioned on his phone, and Mo Jingchun had completely fallen apart.

He should have noticed that something was wrong with his mother's health!

Not long after his little sister was born, Mo Jingchun had noticed that his mother's belly seemed larger than before. Naively, he'd thought it was normal.

It wasn't his fault for thinking that. Everyone's body was different, and many women still had large bellies after giving birth.

Even Mo Jingchun's mother hadn't noticed that anything was wrong.

That morning, Mo Jingchun discovered his mother hadn't gotten up and that his little sister wouldn't stop crying. Only then did he realize his mother was unconscious, her belly swollen so large it was frightening.

At the service desk outside the emergency room, two nurses looked at the bewildered Mo Jingchun and sighed. They had seen too much life and death, and every sort of patient's family member. They had grown numb to it all.

But seeing eighteen-year-old Mo Jingchun outside the emergency room still made their hearts ache. They couldn't imagine how someone who had just finished the Gaokao, and was still a child himself, could raise a helpless infant.

"Family of Zhou Wan?"

The moment the emergency room door stirred, Mo Jingchun hurried to his feet.

"Doctor, how is my mother?"

"She was brought in too late. We did everything we could."

"Go and see your mother one last time."

The doctor's words struck Mo Jingchun like a bolt from the blue. He couldn't accept it.

At the bedside, Mo Jingchun clutched his mother's arm and cried out in anguish, trying to wake her. No matter how desperately he called, the familiar figure on the bed remained motionless.

"My mom... she won't wake up again, will she?"

"No. Right now, medicine and machines are just keeping her vital signs going. Once we turn off the machines, she'll be gone."

At the doctor's words, Mo Jingchun could only keep crying, his nose stinging as he struggled to find something to say.

In the quiet night, moonlight spilled across the earth, painting a vast and beautiful scene.

Beneath the bright moon, two tear tracks were clearly visible on Mo Jingchun's face. Looking closely, one could even see tiny points of light in the corners of his eyes.

Suddenly, Mo Jingchun's body jerked as if he'd been shocked.

The next second, Mo Jingchun opened his eyes and instinctively turned toward the small figure to his right. He reached out to check for breath beneath his sister's nose.

Thank goodness. The little one was still sleeping soundly, free of all worries.

With no sleep left in him, Mo Jingchun sat on the bed in a daze. This wasn't the first time he'd dreamed about his mother dying.

Every time he woke from the dream, he inevitably spent the rest of the night awake.

He'd never had time to examine the transparent panel that had appeared in his mind on the very day his mother died.

After relatives and neighbors helped him take care of his mother's funeral, Mo Jingchun finally had time to study the system.

According to the information the system had sent him, its full name was the Black Technology Lottery System. By completing the tasks it issued, he could earn Points, which could be used in a lottery. The prizes were all kinds of Black Technology, along with a certain chance of getting nothing.

To Mo Jingchun, who had finished the Gaokao just over a month ago, that "certain chance" was probably pretty high.

Host: Mo Jingchun

Age: 18

Points: 0 (Used to exchange for lottery attempts)

Lucky Draw Attempts: 1 (Newbie Gift Pack, guaranteed prize!)

System Warehouse: Empty

Tasks: None

Besides the panel, there was also a familiar, enormous lottery wheel. It seemed familiar because Mo Jingchun had seen similar wheels at the supermarket more than once. The difference was that the system's wheel was truly huge, and its prizes were all kinds of Black Technology.

There were so many prizes on the wheel that Mo Jingchun's eyes went blurry. Some were Black Technology he knew about; most were things he had never even heard of.

He glanced at his little sister, Candy, still fast asleep, then at the bright full moon outside the window. Mo Jingchun took a deep breath and made up his mind.

"System, I want to use my newbie lucky draw attempt."

"Respected host, do you confirm that you wish to use your newbie guaranteed-prize lucky draw attempt?"

"Use it!"

In Mo Jingchun's mind, the transparent panel immediately transformed into a gigantic Lucky Draw Wheel. Slowly, its pointer began to spin, and Mo Jingchun's heart pounded.

As he watched the pointer pass one piece of Black Technology after another, Mo Jingchun clenched his fists nervously.

At last, under Mo Jingchun's doubtful gaze, the pointer stopped exactly at the very bottom. Wasn't that a little too fake? Could the pointer be affected by Blue Star's gravity?

"Congratulations, respected host! You have won the Source Code of AI Butler First Generation Jarvis."

"Would the host like to claim the prize now?"

Mo Jingchun didn't choose to claim it immediately. He'd won the AI butler he'd been looking forward to, and of course he was excited. After all, his first choice of major at Jing University had been Software Engineering, and his admission letter was already on its way.

Still, Mo Jingchun was perfectly clearheaded. The first thing he did was ask the system what he wanted to know.

"System, does the pointer always stop at the very bottom of the Lucky Draw Wheel?"

"No. This time was just a coincidence."

Mo Jingchun felt a little disappointed. It made sense. If the pointer stopped in the same place every time, what kind of Black Technology Lottery System would that be?

"System, claim the prize."

A huge amount of information flooded into Mo Jingchun's mind: a whole set of code, along with various algorithms and formulas.

The sudden flood of information made Mo Jingchun feel as if a needle had stabbed sharply into his brain. He sucked in a breath from the pain.

"Ghh—"