The System Arrived, Then Died Again

In a space where time had come to a standstill, Tokiju floated quietly.

With time no longer flowing, he couldn't even think.

Days passed in the outside world, but Tokiju, trapped in this space, remained completely unaware.

Then a mechanical voice devoid of emotion forcibly brought part of his consciousness back.

[Ding! An abnormal environment has been detected around the host. The system is forcibly activating.]

[Ding! An abnormal flow of time has been detected around the host. The system will forcibly intervene.]

[Ding! To free the host from his current state, the system will sacrifice itself to provide a targeted beginner's gift pack.]

[Ding! The host's thoughts are not yet clear. The beginner's gift pack will be issued automatically.]

[Ding! Beginner's gift pack issued.]

[Congratulations, host. You have received Left Eye of Time and Right Eye of Light *1.]

[Congratulations, host. You have received Regenerative Custom Mechanical Puppet *1.]

[Congratulations, host. You have received 100 slots in System Space.]

[Ding! Beginner's gift pack issued. Dual Eyes of Time have automatically replaced the host's eyes, and the Custom Mechanical Puppet has been stored in System Space.]

[Ding! A system violation has been detected. The system will self-destruct in 3 seconds.]

[3, 2, 1, 0. System self-destruction initiated. May the host have a wonderful life ahead.]

As the mechanical voice faded away, Tokiju's eyes snapped open.

His right eye had changed from its original pale yellow to a vivid orange-yellow, and its pupil had turned blue-green.

That wasn't all. Emerald-green specks of light, like stars, dotted the entire iris, making it look like a starry sky.

The pupil of his left eye had turned pure white, with twelve evenly spaced black markings around its outer edge.

Three black hands of varying lengths sat at the center of the pupil, the longest slowly rotating clockwise.

After the longest hand completed a full rotation, the second-longest moved forward a little.

If Tokiju had been able to see his own eyes,

he would have immediately realized that his left pupil was a clock, ticking through the twelve traditional Chinese double-hours.

"Haah, haah, haah!"

Coming back to himself, Tokiju floated in the air, gasping for breath, his heart still pounding with fear.

Because time had stopped here, he hadn't had the slightest room to think. He hadn't even been able to understand what was happening.

Only the system's awakening and intervention had allowed him to become dimly aware of his own state. That was why he was so shaken.

Of course, he had heard the system's mechanical voice just now. But it had all felt like something he only realized after the fact, so he hadn't been able to respond.

The good news was that, like other people who'd transmigrated, he had a system.

The bad news was that the system had self-destructed to save him.

Thinking about it left Tokiju speechless.

He looked up and glanced around, discovering that he was in a strange space.

He couldn't sense any gravity. Specks of light floated through the darkness, keeping it from becoming pitch-black.

After taking a quick look around, Tokiju put those thoughts aside and silently asked, System, system, are you still there?

There was no response, but a strange light panel appeared in front of him.

It wasn't the much-anticipated character status screen. Instead, it was a translucent panel with three buttons.

The buttons were labeled 6:00–8:00, 11:00–13:00, and 17:00–19:00.

Looking at the numbers, Tokiju immediately recognized them as the morning, midday, and evening time slots.

The button representing midday was lit, while the other two were dark.

Seeing this, Tokiju shrugged and pressed the midday button without hesitation.

There was only one way to find out whether it was good or bad.

As soon as he pressed it, a circular wheel appeared and began spinning rapidly.

With Tokiju's current dynamic vision, he could just barely make out the various rewards as they whirled past.

But once he did, the corners of his mouth twitched.

The wheel was covered with sunflower seeds, peanuts, bottled water, milk tea, spicy snack sticks, instant noodles, and other foods that catered to the appetite.

There was nothing else. No overpowered ninjutsu, no overpowered weapons—nothing but food.

So these three buttons are for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... Tokiju thought with a rueful smile.

When the wheel stopped, it landed on the section labeled "milk tea."

Then nothing happened.

If the system were still alive, Tokiju would surely have heard a mechanical voice saying, "Ding! Congratulations, host. You have received X cups of milk tea."

But all he got in response was silence.

Tokiju stared at the panel, which had returned to its three-button screen, and thought for a moment. Then he suddenly slapped his palm and silently said, Open System Space.

With a single thought, a translucent panel appeared, divided into a 5-by-20 grid of 100 slots.

Only the first two slots contained anything. All the rest were empty.

The first slot held a plain puppet without a single decoration.

That must be the mechanical puppet from the beginner's gift pack, Tokiju thought, then looked at the second slot.

It showed a cup of milk tea, with *2 printed in the lower-right corner.

Looks like that spin won me two cups of milk tea.

With a thought from Tokiju, a cup of milk tea appeared in his hand.

Feeling its chill, Tokiju hadn't expected the drink to come with ice.

Whether the ice would melt while stored in System Space was another question.

He shook the cup, inserted a straw, and took a long sip.

Mm, the same familiar recipe, the same familiar taste.

After finishing the milk tea, Tokiju felt thoroughly satisfied.

He put the empty cup back into System Space. He didn't want the place littered with trash, especially since he had no idea how long he'd be stuck here.

Giving the panel another look, Tokiju was surprised to spot a trash-can icon in its lower-right corner.

He immediately focused on the empty cup and dragged it onto the icon.

Watching the cup vanish without a trace, Tokiju smiled. It seemed he'd found a way to dispose of things from now on.

After those simple tests, Tokiju had also confirmed that the system really had self-destructed.

Only the system's AI had destroyed itself. Some of the system's basic functions remained, such as the meal-time check-in and prize draw.

They were just ordinary foods without any special effects, but it was nice to satisfy his appetite now and then.

Of course, the system surely had more functions than that. But with the AI gone, the system had naturally ground to a halt.

Whether he could figure out any other functions in the future was anyone's guess.