Salty Fish System

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Salty Fish System (咸鱼系统)
Alias(es)	Salty Fish 3 6
Type	Certified system with an official identification code and authorized post 93
Affiliation	Main System; bound to Wenren Luoshui 1 63 87
Occupation/Role	Gossip provider, information analyst, shop intermediary, and mission dispatcher 28 87 89 169
Status	Active during Luoshui’s missions in the 1960s world 185 188
First Appearance	Chapter 1, “Memories restored” 1

Power Progression

The system’s documented upgrades concern access, plot manipulation, and embodiment rather than named cultivation realms.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Full-version activation	60	Ends the gossip trial period, introduces paid access, and grants Luoshui a plot-alteration ability.
Plot-change opportunity and credibility perk	63	Awards one opportunity to change the plot. Secures an additional Main System perk that makes Luoshui’s gossip-related statements sound reasonable to nearby listeners, even without evidence.
Top-up software upgrade	87	Adds trial, weekly, and monthly subscription options. Weekly and monthly passes include plot-change opportunities.
Living-body binding	97	Luoshui discovers a hidden shop feature and binds the system to Big Yellow, allowing it to occupy the tiger’s body.
Size reduction	98	Discovers that it can shrink its tiger body to approximately house-cat size.

Appearance

• Original manifestation: A small, round blob. It can conjure hands using energy and wears rings made from cut, colorful cores 14.
• Voice: Initially described as cold, flat, and electronic, although its later speech conveys excitement, indignation, and distress 2 60 80.
• Tiger body: Takes over Big Yellow through the living-creature binding feature; subsequently learns to shrink 97 98.
• Later forms: Appears as a tiny kitten in Luoshui’s arms, a hamster in the 1960s world, and a squirrel while briefing her on rescue missions 134 164 169.

Personality

Salty Fish is an enthusiastic gossip collector with a habit of building suspense before revealing a scandal. Luoshui frequently has to demand the actual information, and both she and Yunjian derail its stories with jokes. It becomes defensive when its abilities are questioned and proudly distinguishes its authorized status from that of defective systems 3 11 35 36 93.

Its commercial instincts are strong: it charges points, promotes subscriptions, and complains when it sends information before collecting payment. It also has a social life beyond its host, including friends, gatherings, training, and an unsuccessful romantic confession that leaves it heartbroken 9 16 45 80 87 93.

The system is protective of Luoshui, but its sympathy does not prevent blunt jokes or questionable suggestions. It condemns exploitation and offers to counter hostile system items, yet also proposes confiscating officials’ wealth to fund disaster relief 52 80 93 94.

Food becomes a major pleasure after embodiment. It can monopolize shared snacks, experiences hunger and cold, and prefers eating to build winter fat over exercising to stay warm 103 149 164.

Abilities & Skills

Gossip Detection and Database Search

The system detects new gossip, searches stored information, and supplies accounts of concealed crimes, family histories, and private behavior 13 28 45.

• Sends electronic documents when a story is lengthy or disturbing, including the Huiju princess’s history and Wang Zimian’s family record 28 80.
• Exchanges information with other systems, giving it access to gossip beyond the Li Kingdom’s era 35.
• Can compile statistics, as it claims to have done concerning men’s sexual health in the Li Kingdom 37.
• Is not omniscient: it cannot investigate the Dongchang envoys while they are too far away, and initially has no database gossip about Lord Wu’s family 78 96.

Analysis and Foreknowledge

Salty Fish interprets substances, identifies transmigrators and hostile systems, and describes events contained in story scripts 31 64 90.

• Identifies Carefree Paste as opium and explains its addictive effects and potential damage to the kingdom 90.
• Reveals Saga Xiu’s origin as a Wakoku military officer from 1937 90.
• Explains the missions, energy problems, and intended manipulations of defective systems 31 64 70 93.
• Its script knowledge does not guarantee an outcome. It expects the Empress Dowager to become unresponsive after needle removal, while Luoshui argues that her spiritual-energy treatment can change that result 12.
• Hidden information can surprise it: the silver needle in the Empress Dowager’s scalp prompts it to recognize an undiscovered plotline 11.

Mental Communication and Privacy

The system speaks within Luoshui’s mind. Her parents, the emperor, and many court officials can overhear these exchanges, although Luoshui initially believes the conversations are private 1 2 6.

• Access is uneven: Prince Chen cannot hear the thoughts circulating around him 45.
• Certain sensitive exchanges become birdlike chirps to outside listeners, suggesting conversation encryption 31.
• The discussion of full-version pricing and perks is heard only by Luoshui and Yunjian; the purchase announcement becomes audible to the wider group 60.
• It can detect and report particular thoughts of the emperor, but does not hear the ministers’ silent pleas for a story to continue 36 94 137.

Plot Alteration and Credibility

Initially, the system tells Luoshui that she can change the plot through her own abilities. The full version later grants a specific plot-alteration function 1 60.

• Awards a single plot-change opportunity in Chapter 63 63.
• Supplies further opportunities through weekly and monthly subscriptions 87.
• Luoshui later acknowledges adjusting Mao Shaoqin’s character setting, while rejecting the system’s claim that she is responsible for his subsequent behavior 75.
• The credibility perk makes her gossip-related claims sound reasonable without evidence; the system explains that this is standard functionality in some worlds, not necessarily a bug 63.

Protection Against Hostile Systems

Salty Fish identifies itself as a legitimate, certified system rather than a defective product surviving by draining its host’s life force 70 93.

• Recognizes Wenren Shuang’s system as an escaped defective system destined for the Destruction Center 31.
• Identifies An Sijia’s fortune-stealing system as a discarded product with insufficient energy 93.
• Claims it can reflect any items An’s system uses against Luoshui back onto An herself. This is a stated defensive capability, not a demonstrated reflection in the supplied passages 93.

Physical Embodiment

A hidden shop feature allows the system to bind to a living creature despite its earlier insistence that physical forms are rare among systems 97.

• Occupies Big Yellow’s tiger body and discovers a smaller, house-cat-sized form 97 98.
• Continues providing gossip after becoming embodied 98 99.
• Experiences bodily needs and limits, including hunger, winter cold, and exhaustion after running around 149 164.

Media, Trade, and Item Services

• Copying: Produces copies of examination papers and essays for Luoshui’s blind-box business 14.
• Recording: Photographs Lang Liuliu’s comic interaction with the emperor 77.
• Viewing: Broadcasts footage of Wenren Qiao and supplies the “Privacy-Free Player” used to observe Xu Miaomiao’s activities 89 188.
• Trading contacts: Creates a group chat with Overzealous Farmer and Myriad Worlds Dealer, allowing Luoshui to purchase produce and modern goods 89.
• Storage: Holds Luoshui’s purchased firearms and ten nuclear bombs, while warning that she cannot use them in the current space-time 89.

Shop, Currency & Subscriptions

Points and Purchases

Gossip-seeking earns points for both host and system. Points can be used to redeem shop items, and broken porcelain and jade can also be exchanged for points 11 34.

Item / Service	Documented Cost	Function
Because of You	0.01 points per item 10	Single-use item allowing one designated recipient to hear Luoshui’s thoughts for ten minutes. Luoshui later purchases it for multiple bystanders while excluding An Sijia and Su He 98.
Document copying	50 points for 100 copies 14	Copies examination papers and essays.
Paid gossip continuation	1 point in the Wenren Shuang episode 64	Unlocks the remaining story content.
Living-creature binding feature	Cost not stated 97	Enables the system to occupy Big Yellow.
Privacy-Free Player	Cost not stated 188	Lets Luoshui and Yunjian watch events involving Xu Miaomiao.

Subscription Options

Option	Price	Documented Benefits
Three-day trial	Not stated	Listed among the new top-up options 87.
Weekly pass	Not stated	Replaces per-story payment for gossip and grants one plot-change opportunity 87.
Monthly pass	9.9 taels of silver	Replaces per-story payment for gossip and grants three plot-change opportunities 87.
Consecutive-month offer	68 taels; quoted as 5.67 taels per month	Discounted subscription offer. The system receives a three-percent commission from the payment 87.

• An annual pass is not initially configured; when Luoshui asks, the system offers to approach the Main System about arranging one 87.
• It confirms that unused gossip opportunities can be saved for later 87.
• It intends to spend its commission on coveted durian and stinky-tofu cosmetic skins 87.

Relationships

• Wenren Luoshui — Host and constant bickering partner. Salty Fish supports her against hostile systems, while she threatens to unbind it or withhold dinner when annoyed 60 93 176.
• Yunjian — Frequent participant in its gossip sessions. She teases its memory, questions its claims, and defends Luoshui when it assigns her blame 35 70 75.
• Main System — Source of software upgrades and additional perks. After entering Big Yellow’s body, Salty Fish fears it has been abandoned by the Main System 63 87 97.
• Lang Ling / the emperor — Unintended listener and frequent gossip subject. The system also praises his governance and supplies information that helps him recognize threats 2 6 84 90.
• Yin Xing — Comforts the newly embodied system with dried apricots as it adjusts to its tiger body 97.
• Big Yellow — Tiger whose body becomes the system’s first documented living vessel 97.
• Overzealous Farmer — Trading contact who supplies fruit, vegetables, and later grain for disaster relief 89 94.
• Myriad Worlds Dealer — Trading contact who supplies department-store goods and modern weapons 89.
• Monitor friend — Detects meritorious souls trapped in exploitative small-world scripts. Its inability to enter those worlds, combined with an understaffed department, leads Salty Fish to recruit Luoshui 169.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Court Gossip as Intelligence

• Guangping Marquis Estate: Exposes abuse, financial motives behind the proposed princess marriage, and the old madam’s concealed suffering. The emperor orders an investigation 2 3.
• Empress Dowager’s curse: Identifies Liu Yuner’s role after Luoshui discovers a silver needle, helping uncover the Child-Aversion Art 11 12.
• Chu household warning: Its account prompts Grand Commandant Chu to return home and stop his nephew before his granddaughters are harmed 13.
• Foreign threats: Reveals the Huiju princess’s concealed infection scheme and later identifies Dongchang’s supposed miracle medicine as opium 28 90.
• Disaster relief: Its discussion of officials’ debts and possible confiscations helps frighten the court into donating several million taels; Luoshui also purchases relief grain through its trading network 94.

Embodiment and An Sijia’s Schemes

Luoshui’s exploration of the shop gives Salty Fish a tiger body. Its initial alarm gives way to enjoyment of food and companionship, and it continues exposing An Sijia’s attempts to pressure Luoshui through Su He’s fabricated sob story 97 98 99.

Rescue Missions in the 1960s World

Salty Fish offers a route back to the Li Kingdom for Luoshui and everyone displaced with her. The assignment is to rescue kind souls with substantial karmic merit from scripts designed to make them sacrifice everything for supposed lovers 169.

Mission Milestone	Reward / Requirement
Initial estimate	Roughly five to ten rescue missions 169.
First documented merit award	1,000 merit points 176.
Estimated return requirement	Approximately 5,000 merit points 176.
Later documented award	1,500 merit points 185.
Return achieved	Luoshui earns enough points to return with Yunjian, Sui Yun, and the emperor; their departure allows the world to repair itself 198.

• Identifies Xu Miaomiao as the third protagonist encountered during the mission sequence 185.
• Supplies the viewing device used to monitor Xu’s behavior as Luoshui exposes the dangers of her system-assisted food 188.

Trivia

• The crops-category upgrade in Chapter 21 belongs to Yunjian’s Taobao marketplace, not a documented upgrade of Salty Fish 21.
• Despite initially lacking a living body, it already enjoys cotton candy and insists that compressed cotton candy is different from cotton-candy-flavored chewing gum 74.
• Its gossip becomes so familiar at court that ministers privately bet on whose secrets will be revealed next, with the imperial family a popular choice 96.