He Wuning drove smoothly out of the safe zone and exhaled, then immediately let himself drive with abandon.
He tore across the prairie, flattening unlucky slimes under the wheels, and returned to the spot where he'd done his Awakening Quest, planning to spend the night there.
As he pulled out his sleeping bag he asked Q-chan, “Was something off about that stone giant today?”
“Hmm?” Q-chan blinked its round eyes at him when he actually spoke to it. It made a cutesy little noise.
He Wuning looked at it. “Has the game changed something? Stone giants are baseline heavy-hitters—never heard of one going berserk when near death.”
Besides, he clearly remembered the giant rolling its eyes like it was deciding whether to kill him first or the girl—like it had thought. It seemed almost… alive.
Q-chan’s voice suddenly switched to a flat, monotone mechanical voice; its round eye flickered three times. “Detecting… Sorry, you currently do not have permission for that query.”
He Wuning raised an eyebrow at the word permission.
He’d already heard that term once today.
He took two fragments from his pocket and said, “Then answer this instead.”
“What’s this?”
The fragments in his hand seemed to be scanned. The mechanical voice answered without emotion: “Detected Administrator Permission Fragment. Scanning—”
“Scan complete. Confirmed as 8% Administrator Permission Fragment. Qualification detected. Would player like to bind?”
He Wuning raised an eyebrow. “What does binding do?”
“Sorry, you currently do not have permission for that query.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Bind it, then.”
“Binding in progress. Please wait.”
The two fragments in his hand floated up and emitted the pale glow of a synthesis. When the light cleared, a peculiar key hovered before him.
A mostly transparent key, with only the head and tip inlaid with black iron—no doubt formed from the two Administrator Permission Fragments he’d had.
“Synthesized: Incomplete Administrator’s Key. Unlocked: Primary Administrator Permissions (8/100). Congratulations. You now qualify to access the truth of the world. Enjoy the game.”
The emotionless mechanical tone fell silent. Q-chan blinked and immediately became lively again. “Wow! Sweetie, you actually unlocked Administrator permissions! Amazing!”
“Ah, now I that I think about it. It must be a special fate that I can meet you from the vast sea!”
“Ugh—don’t call me ‘sweetie.’” He Wuning frowned.
“Okay, Big Brother!” Q-chan switched terms cheerfully and crisply. He Wuning froze for a beat.
He’d objected to that pet name many times before; Q-chan had always ignored him. This sudden change—was it because of the key?
He Wuning held up the key. Q-chan fluttered over and, with obvious brown-nosing enthusiasm, gave his hand a little massage with its stubby hands. “Hehe—boss, any questions?”
“Although you’ve unlocked admin permissions, they’re still primary, so you still lack full autonomy. Big Brother, try using your imagination and explore the new functions yourself! I can operate within the permission scope—outside it, I’m sorry, I can’t.”
There was a touch of ingratiation in the system’s tone that He Wuning hadn’t heard from it a moment ago. He frowned. “Wasn’t that voice yours before?”
“That was the Voice of the World,” Q-chan said respectfully. “You can think of it as my direct superior—the manager of all intelligent systems. It borrowed my body earlier.”
Q-chan egged him on. “Administrator permissions have lots of neat uses, you should try them, Big Brother!”
He Wuning considered it. Since these were just primary rights, start small and experiment to map the permission boundary. “Rename the milk-tea shop?”
“Can do!” Q-chan chirped. “What do you want to change it to?”
He Wuning thought of Yi Luo’s “has character” remark and pursed his lips slightly. “Never mind—no rush. Later.”
“Replace the system then?”
Q-chan froze for a moment, then immediately burst into a full-blown tantrum on the floor, wailing: “Nooo—Big Brother! It’s only my first day on the job! Give me another chance, wuuuu!”
“I’ll be good! I’ll manage the system properly! Isn’t it enough that I took off my skirt?”
He Wuning: “…I meant changing my ability.”
Q-chan scrambled up from the floor: “Ah! Big Brother, you should’ve said that earlier—you scared me to death!”
“Let me see… Changing abilities… Warning! Permission blockage detected. Viewing prohibited!”
He Wuning frowned. “Permission blockage?”
That seemed different from the previous “No permission” message. He eyed it suspiciously, raising a brow with a grim expression. “So… this is a special ability the game assigned to me? Can’t change it? Targeting me?”
Q-chan blinked: “The game doesn’t target players! The game is just a platform—always fair. Only players target players, oh!”
He Wuning felt like there was some hidden meaning in that statement.
But for now, he couldn’t change his ability, and this so-called “Administrator Permission” didn’t seem to have much use.
Q-chan whispered sneakily: “Big Brother, if you can’t change it, you can at least upgrade it!”
“Your milk-tea shop is already level 3, so you now have 2 new skill points…”
The skill tree interface opened. Q-chan rubbed its hands awkwardly. “Don’t get mad when you see this—this is your original skill tree.”
He Wuning glanced at it. Aside from unlocking new milk-tea recipes, what else was there—“Unlock batch production,” “Unlock delivery phone line,” “Unlock tea temperature control”—all sorts of trivial, almost useless skills that made his blood pressure rise just by looking.
He took a deep breath, trying to keep his tone from sounding grinding-teeth angry. “And upgrades?”
Q-chan: “Administrator permissions can change existing skills on the skill tree. Though it’s still within the original framework and has limitations, as permissions increase, the range of selectable changes grows!”
“Big Brother, you just pick the skills—later we can gradually modify them!”
The initially unlocked “Pure First Love Milk Recipe” blinked. He Wuning clicked it with low expectations.
A long list of possible recipe upgrades appeared. The first few were basic stat boosts; further down were large grayed-out options he couldn’t choose yet. Surprisingly, some even had a “Revive” effect.
He frowned: “How do you drink milk tea if the person is dead?”
“Oh, you’re asking silly questions again~” Q-chan shyly covered its face. “Of course, you feed it mouth♂to♂mouth~”
That skill was buried at the very bottom and likely required extremely high permissions. He Wuning shook his head and ignored it for now.
He currently had only five selectable upgrades: Attack, Spirit, Defense, Speed, and HP, each +10%.
His gaze landed on HP and Defense. Those base stats were weaker, and without equipment to compensate, he needed to prioritize.
After hesitating between “take more hits” and “take hits more comfortably,” he finally chose the Defense boost. The milk-tea recipe changed slightly:
Unlocked menu: Pure First Love Milk – Price: 80
Effect: Increases defense by 10% for 15 minutes after drinking. One cup per person.
Required materials: Tea *10, Milk *10
Material consumption and price had increased tenfold, but it was still quite affordable. This kind of utility item could sell for thousands of coins in the player trading center—but demand was low; buying one was mostly luck.
Though the Defense boost wasn’t game-breaking, it made the system a decent auxiliary tool. He Wuning felt his heart, previously nearly crushed by Q-chan, somewhat recover.
Q-chan winked at him: “Also, the price is just a suggestion—you can set it yourself, Big Brother!”
“And the remaining skill points, I recommend unlocking the prerequisite for ‘Delivery Service’ quickly…”
He Wuning glanced at his skill tree. Between the “Delivery Service” skill, there were two milk-tea recipes he hadn’t examined yet. His thoughts were interrupted by a message from the “Broker.”
He Wuning answered: “Hello?”
“Big Bro, are you still spending the night at the usual spot?”
“Yeah.”
“Then keep an eye on your surroundings—Yi Luo’s coming for you.”
He Wuning tensed like facing an enemy: “What’s he coming for?”
“The message says he forgot to get your friend slot,” the Broker relayed dutifully. “He said with how you drive, this car’s going to need repairs eventually. Add him as a friend ASAP so you can handle things privately later, without using my hotline.”
He Wuning: “…”
“I’m guessing you’re staying at the usual spot. He’s probably nearby. Why don’t you flash your hazard lights?”
He Wuning just wanted to drive off.
But he glanced outside. The night was deep, visibility low and black as pitch. Even without monsters, staying outdoors at night wasn’t very safe.
He frowned in annoyance and instructed Q-chan to turn on the hazard lights.
“Got it, Big Brother! Leave it to me!” Q-chan puffed out its chest, floated to the milk-tea car’s driver seat, but before it could act, a blurry figure dashed past the front of the car. Startled, Q-chan screamed and slammed itself into He Wuning’s arms. “Big Brother! There’s a ghost! Wuuuu! So scary!”
“Cough!”
He Wuning coughed. Though it had no attack power, it was made of steel. Diving headfirst like a little cannon, it nearly knocked him over. He checked his HP nervously.
—Good, no damage.
The figure at the window tapped on the glass. He Wuning glanced and barely recognized Yi Luo.
Looks like he didn’t even need the hazard lights; Yi Luo had found him on his own.
Yi Luo got in and got straight to the point. After adding him as a friend, He Wuning studied him: “Nothing else besides adding me as a friend?”
Yi Luo seemed surprised: “Huh?”
“Chasing me this far just for a friend slot?” He Wuning implied. “Nothing else?”
He wasn’t sure if Yi Luo had seen the dropped item earlier. If he had seen the “Administrator Permission Fragments,” then…
Yi Luo paused, then smiled: “Oh—I get it, I get it. There could be something else.”
“I came all this way, might as well take ten more cups of milk tea back.”
He Wuning stared silently at him.
Yi Luo shrugged: “It’s not that I’m stingy—eight coins a cup, I wouldn’t mind buying a hundred—but I just can’t carry that many.”
“If you’re willing to deliver, I’ll buy a hundred more.”
Looks like he’s not pretending to be clueless—he really is.
He Wuning expressionlessly withdrew his gaze: “Milk tea’s price went up. Eighty a cup.”
Yi Luo thought for a moment: “Does that include the friend slot?”
He Wuning shook his head: “No, the milk tea got upgraded.”
“Oh.” Both ability- and system-type powers improve somewhat with leveling, though in various directions. Yiluo asked casually: “So what’s the upgrade? Ten-times concentration? Jumbo size?”
“Do I look like I make coffee?” He Wuning frowned. Though his guess was indeed in line with typical underwhelming system evolution.
“It’s a ten-percent defense boost.”
Yi Luo looked surprised. He and He Wuning locked eyes for a moment before Yi Luo’s expression turned serious: “Give me ten cups. I won’t deliver these to the treatment center; I’ll take them straight to the command post. No problem?”
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The author has something to say:
Mini bonus skit (not canon):
He Wuning: What if I said there’s a problem?
Yi Luo: Then I’d just coax you.
He Wuning: “…”
Q-chan: Eek~
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