Huang Zhetian covered his right eye with his injured hand. It wasn't just the stinging pain from the Pepper Spray Asuka had sprayed at him earlier; he was also suffering the side effects of using a system skill...
He really couldn't understand why the Practice System wasn't called the Price System. Every use of a skill, and even some items, demanded an equivalent or exorbitant price...
He had wondered about this long ago. Later, the system had given Huang Zhetian a lengthy explanation: "You want to change the plot? You think it's that easy?
You think you can handle benefits you get for free? On what grounds? I'm not begging you to change the plot. You're begging me to do it. This is a business, understand? Sure, free things are nice, but take too many and you'll start thinking you're entitled to them, rather than earning them through your own strength. Of course, I don't want you begging me, either. I want you to earn them through your own ability. Treating things that aren't yours as something another person owes you is a dangerous, mistaken way to think.
I don't want you begging like a beggar for whatever someone happens to give you. I'm sure you don't want that, either. Paying a price to use skills you've earned through your own strength to change something that should be unchangeable is only right."
Recalling what the system had told him, Huang Zhetian wiped his injured hand with tissue after tissue until the wound stopped bleeding...
Looking into the mirror again, Huang Zhetian suddenly felt as though he could see several different versions of himself.
The wild, uninhibited self who had first met Asuka aboard the warship...
The self who had basked in sweet, triumphant happiness after his relationship with Asuka had