After splitting up with Lu Xunji, Xie Ji carried his little stall back to its original spot.
Fortunately, Lu Xunji had put away his handwritten sign earlier. Xie Ji took out the slip of paper, dusted it off, and set up his little stall again.
The surrounding vendors watched with a measure of shock in their eyes.
They had seen gutsy people before, but never anyone this willing to risk his life for money. He had just been taken away by urban management, and now he actually dared to come back and set up shop?!
The fans in the livestream were speechless too.
[Xie Ji really has no fear of death.]
[Where are the people defending Xie Ji earlier? Fine, say he didn't know running an unlicensed stall was against the rules before, but he just went into the public security office and came straight back. Isn't this knowingly breaking the law?]
[But Xie Ji's pills really work, and they sell for a pretty high price. He made over three hundred thousand in just a few hours. Even if urban management takes him away again, the maximum fine is only five thousand.]
[Who knows what those pills of unknown origin are made of? If they're so effective, why haven't we seen Xie Ji use them himself? Do other people's lives not count?]
[Xie Ji has officially joined the ranks of lawbreaking celebrities. I can't even.]
[Honestly, this really does make me like him a little less.]
Xie Ji sat cross-legged in front of his stall, comfortably listening to the nonstop notifications in his head.
[System notification: Netizen A's aversion toward the host +1. Gained 10 points.] [System notification: Netizen B's aversion toward the host +1. Gained 10 points.] [System notification: Netizen C's aversion toward the host +1. Gained 10 points.]
Young Field was now an immensely popular variety show, so naturally, its traffic was enormous. Although each increase in aversion was small, the sheer number of people made up for it. The points in the system shop began rising steadily, bringing in a very substantial haul in just a few minutes.
The little black snake watched the endless stream of points falling from the sky, momentarily unable to process it.
Was this the prowess of a gold-medal quick transmigrator?!
While other hosts were doing everything they could to grind the protagonist's favorability, he had already started grinding the entire world's aversion?
A genius. This was a true genius...
Xie Ji had only wanted to give it a try. Since he could unlock Ji Shi's favorability bar, perhaps he could unlock other people's too. He hadn't expected the system to be this capable.
The points in the system shop were rising almost exponentially. Without hesitation, Xie Ji opened the gacha shop and splurged on a thousand pulls.
As expected, he pulled Whitening Pills, Hair-Growth Pills, an assortment of everyday skills, and two Turn Stone into Gold Fragments.
Just as Xie Ji was about to admire the system shop, something small in a corner of the storage seemed to give off a faint glimmer.
Xie Ji stopped himself from closing the shop and dug the object emitting white light out of storage.
"What's this?" He turned it over in his hand, inspecting it, but couldn't find anything unusual about it.
It was just a little fruit glowing white.
Mixed in with a pile of Whitening Pills, it didn't look particularly impressive.
Little Black appeared inside the system space. "A Divine Sense Fruit, I think. I didn't expect you to pull one of these. The odds of getting it are even lower than getting a Turn Stone into Gold Fragment..."
The snake sighed. "The computational power contained in a Divine Sense Fruit can enhance your divination, but..."
Before the snake finished speaking, Little Black turned around and saw Xie Ji toss the little fruit into his mouth and crunch away at it.
"Aaaaaah! You just ate it like that?!" Little Black rushed over and strangled Xie Ji's neck with its tail. "Do you know how precious that thing is? You wasteful bastard!"
With his mouth stuffed full of fruit, Xie Ji spoke indistinctly as he chewed. "Didn't you say it was good stuff... Cough, cough! Let go, let go! You're going to strangle me."
"I might as well strangle you! How much computational power can you absorb like that? There's a proper way to eat high-grade stuff like this, okay?! Not only will you fail to absorb it all this way, there could also be side effects!"
Little Black tightened around Xie Ji's neck and screamed frantically, "Don't swallow, don't swallow! Spit it out! Aaaaaah!"
Under his shaking, Xie Ji successfully... swallowed the fruit.
Both fell silent. Xie Ji rubbed his stomach. "Doesn't seem like there are any side effects."
Little Black seemed to have lost all strength and all recourse, coiling around Xie Ji's wrist like a rag. "The side effects of a Divine Sense Fruit are complicated and variable. Neither their timing nor their effects are known. It could be a lightning strike, or a heavy object falling from the sky. Basically, it could be any kind of fatal accident. You'd better pray you're lucky..."
Xie Ji pulled a stern little face. "Why didn't you tell me sooner if it was that dangerous?"
"You fucking ate that fruit like you'd been starving for eight hundred years! I wanted to tell you, but did you give me the time?!"
Xie Ji waved a hand. "I've already eaten it. What else can I do? Kill me if you've got the guts."
Little Black: "..."
Being Xie Ji's system was such a joy. The thrill of potentially dying in the line of duty at any moment was addictive.
Xie Ji closed the system and returned to reality, propping his cheek on his hand as he sat at his stall and thought.
As he was now, he wasn't particularly proficient in divination.
He had once been a young Daoist priest in a small world, spending an entire lifetime devoted to cultivating the arts of divination, exorcism, and warding off misfortune, and had achieved great mastery. But ever since leaving that world, his divination had been greatly weakened by the influence of world power.
If this thing really could permanently improve his divination without being affected by the world, it would be immensely helpful for his future missions.
Xie Ji stretched in his chair. Now that he had earned his points and it was nearly time, he ought to pack up and go find Lu Xunji.
Just as he was about to pack up, a middle-aged man arrived at his stall, panting. He slapped an aluminum case down on the little stall and declared with tremendous force, "I heard you have Hair-Growth Pills that can make people's hair grow. Is that true?"
Xie Ji sat down and looked the balding man over. It seemed he really was plagued by hair loss.
"You mean this?" Xie Ji took out a Hair-Growth Pill. "The Thunderbolt Super Invincible Overlord Hair-Growth Pill, which can instantly give you a head of long, glossy black hair-in three seconds! So you never have to feel inferior in life! All-natural and pollution-free, with absolutely no side effects on the body, and effects that last a full six hours?!"
The man: "..."
He didn't know when it had acquired so many prefixes, but there was no doubt that this was exactly what he needed!
After watching the livestream earlier, he had brought his money and rushed here without stopping. He had thought Xie Ji wouldn't return after being taken away by urban management, and had been about to head home in despair.
He hadn't expected Xie Ji to care more about money than his life and actually dare to come back here to sell pills!
Whatever dubious science and chemical wizardry went into these pills, as long as they could make his hair grow back, even if it was only for six hours...
The man held out a trembling hand. "Yes, that's the one. I'll buy it, no matter how much it costs!"
The surrounding vendors had already gotten through to the reporting hotline.
If Xie Ji was caught again, it probably wouldn't end with just a fine and a written self-criticism.
To their surprise, Xie Ji plopped back into his seat and pursed his lips. "Oh, sorry. Sold out."
The man: "..."
[System notification: Zhou Tianye's favorability toward you -10. Gained 100 points.]
Zhou Tianye snapped angrily, "Isn't that one in your hand?"
Xie Ji put it away. "This is a sample. Not for sale, thank you."
[System notification: Zhou Tianye's favorability toward you -10. Gained 100 points.]
Zhou Tianye said, "Then what was that whole long spiel just now for?!"
Xie Ji gathered his sleeves. "Practicing tongue twisters."
With that, he turned and sauntered away.
Zhou Tianye: "..."
[System notification: Zhou Tianye's favorability toward you -100. Gained 1,000 points.] [System notification: Netizen 123's favorability toward you -1. Gained 10 points.] [System notification: Netizen 124...]
The netizens who witnessed all this were utterly dumbfounded. The barrage of comments went blank for over a minute before a single [Xie Ji really is such a little shit...] broke the silence.
[Xie Ji bullies the whole world equally.]
[I'm so touched. Xie Ji never intended to knowingly break the law. He just wanted to be an ordinary, unremarkable little shit!]
[Okay, but why am I still feeling this inexplicable anger?]
[Putting myself in that man's shoes, I'm already losing my mind with rage.]
[When Xie Ji sells pills, you say he's knowingly breaking the law. When he doesn't, you say he's being a little shit. What exactly do the haters want?]
[Exactly. We tell you, but you don't want to listen.]
[Stanning Xie Ji is like having a criminal record on the internet. I don't even dare say hello to people out there, in case they find out my fave is an inhuman little shit QAQ.]
[God gave Xie Ji a beautiful face, but forgot to give him the instruction manual...]
[I can't even. When we called you a fox spirit, we wanted you to seduce our Young Master Lu like one! Not use every last scrap of your cleverness to be a little shit! Do you even know how to be a fox spirit? Move over. Give me your face. I'll do it!]