The two did not linger this time. After fading out of the main plot line, they smoothly handed over the transition period to others, and left the world together.
After raising a level, the system was happy to run out and find other systems to show off, disappearing in a wisp of smoke.
Lu Deng was dumbfounded, but he still bought it a brand new system skin as a congratulatory gift. He stayed in the main control room for a short period of time to repair his body while he waited for the system to have its fill of fun before heading off to a new world.
This time it was an interstellar setting.
The main character was named Antonio, born into the royal family of the planet Aowei with a group of brothers and sisters who stared at him like a tiger watching its prey.
Antonio was a growth type protagonist who relied on his charisma to gather his teammates and accumulate power, going from an unappreciated royal son to the heir to the throne.
The cannon fodder Lu Deng needed to save this time was named Gu Song, a young man who was brought to Aowei as a slave after the demise of his galaxy. He was then bought by Marquis Lu Feng, the Minister of Military Affairs of the Empire at that time, to take care of and accompany his sickly young son.
The Lu family's blood was extremely precious, as they were descended from the ancient Earth that had long since disappeared. Proud of their heritage, they still retained the original way of naming a person with their family name coming first. The name Gu Song was conferred to him after being brought back to the Lu family.
The young master under Gu Song's care was named Lu Qingshi. Because he was accidentally exposed to strong radiation in the mother's womb, his health was poor since birth and would gradually weaken even more as he grew older. Despite the advanced medical treatments of the era, it could only barely slow down the degeneration of his health[mfn]Anna: Bullshit! They can do all this and not cure radiation, really???? IN A SPACE SETTING??? NOT CURE RADIATION?? 😭; Kisk: I just wanna know how a pregnant woman was 'accidentally' exposed to radiation; MG: It just happened la, plot armor is every author's baby[/mfn].
Because they felt guilty, the family desperately pampered him until he developed a spoiled and moody temperament. As a result, Gu Song's life during these 10 years with the young master was not easy.
If it was just accompanying the young master, it didn't really matter, he could tolerate it. But at Lu Qingshi's coming of age banquet, the protagonist accidentally exposed the chilling truth. From the beginning, Lu Feng did not only intend to have him serve as Lu Qingshi's attendant, but he wanted to use him as a spare body for his young son.
Although they all loved this frail young master very much, the Lu family did not know that Lu Qingshi's body was severely damaged by radiation. Despite the fact he did not die within a few years like his mother, his body had been steadily declining. Sooner or later he would also face the threat of death.
Lu Feng could not accept the death of his youngest son, who carried the last traces of his late wife, and actually took such a risk. He planned to wait until Lu Qingshi's mental strength was sufficient, before destroying Gu Song's mind. He would turn into an empty 'container' before his son's consciousness was imported into his body.
Even in the interstellar world, the act of using a living person as a vessel like this was extremely cruel.
After the protagonist learned the truth, he lashed out in anger, but still failed to save Gu Song. Lu Feng forcibly attempted the consciousness exchange. Because the preparation was too hasty, Gu Song's mind was destroyed, while Lu Qingshi also failed to wake up.
The exposure of the scandal seriously affected the reputation of the Lu family. Soon after, Lu Feng relinquished his title on his own, choosing to withdraw from his post to take refuge in seclusion. The second prince, who had always been supported by the Lu family, also suffered a great loss of strength. This became an important plot point in the protagonist's ascent to the top.
Lu Deng was silent as his eyes fell on the impassive plot text.
The roles available to him in this world were closely related to the original characters of the plot; it was the first time that he had encountered such a situation.
The characters that were usually open for him were generated later on and did not originally exist in the target world. This time, however, it seemed there was no way to find his own place in this particularly close relationship, he could only take another's.
[Host….]
Sensing the changes in his mood, the mechanical voice hesitantly called. Lu Deng looked up with a smile and spoke in a warm voice, "It's okay, I'll take a look."
Among the roles that were created, there was a butler attendant who was colleagues with Gu Song, as well as a gardener who looked after the Lu family's garden. Those roles could be taken into consideration.
If he was Lu Qingshi's cat, he might be able to rub against those close to Lu Qingshi, and possibly even be picked up and pet.
Suppressing the silent emotions swirling at the bottom of his heart, Lu Deng lightly inhaled, pursed his lips and raised his hand to make his selection. Suddenly, the options under him flashed twice and turned gray, no longer selectable.
Lu Deng was slightly startled and raised his head in doubt.
The system's cursor flashed back and forth several times over the words 'close care and companionship' and 'spoiled', as the selectable characters suddenly turned gray one after another. Finally, the mechanical voice exclaimed with gritted teeth: [Host, just wait, I'll go steal a role!]
[Steal what-]
Lu Deng never knew that a role could also be stolen, don't know who the system went out to play with to learn such a powerful skill. Speechlessly watching the system screen buffering circle turn into a gyroscope, he saw the optional role suddenly turning a distinct and conspicuous color.
Before Lu Deng could see it clearly, the light around the character shone and the portal that would only be opened with the usual selection appeared out of thin air. The mechanical sound of the system quickly rang out: [Host, quickly come in, I can only hold on for ten seconds!]
Lu Deng's gaze fell on the screen and turned complicated.
[Lu Qingshi]
His heartbeat sped up as he felt the wishes of the new role grow, sprouting like flowers inside him.
The system did not rush him any further as it continued supporting the portal under the shield.
Before the plot opened, the information was just a basic setting. Only after the world was officially launched would the data be imported to flesh out the characters. As long as the role was preempted before the data was allocated and the host's data was imported into it, this identity would become the host's.
Its host had always been sensible, considerate, and cautious about breaking the rules. He was more qualified to be willful in this instance than other hosts.
The countdown was decreasing second by second. Seeing that the scarlet letter had fallen to 3, Lu Deng finally stepped forward and plunged into the portal.
When he woke up again, he was in a completely strange body.
The feeling of this body was quite different. Lu Deng blinked and sat up, the soft fleece blanket slid off his body and landed on the large bed.
Everything in front of him was half a size bigger. Eyes alight with curiosity, Lu Deng stood up from the edge of the bed and walked to the mirror.
The figure in the mirror was much smaller than what he was used to. The body was probably five or six years old and looked similar to his original self. He didn't know if the characters would automatically be modified according to the data after they were imported.
He had never seen himself at this point in his life, and even his memories of this period were blurry, remembering only the endless experiments, the never-ending cold and the pain. Being imported at this age, it was as if he had a second chance to do it all over again.
The bedroom was spacious and bright; the walls were a light blue while a soft beige carpet that showed slight depressions when stepped on covered the floor. Bright sunlight spilled in through the windows, half hidden by goose yellow curtains. Spread around the room was furniture made of white maple wood, the corners deliberately polished round and smooth. Even if he ran around recklessly, it would be difficult to injure himself.
He had never lived in such a place specially prepared for children. Lu Deng felt a strong expectation grow within. Looking around carefully, he contacted the system in his mind: [If I replace the original role like this, won't it cause chaos in the world?]
[Not if the host keeps up with the original's persona!]
The system chimed in a timely manner. Luckily, at this point in time, the branch plot had just started, and no supporting data had been filled in. Lu Deng's arrival was just right.
Seeing the host wearing exquisite, blue checkered pajamas, little stars appeared on the system screen with joy. Lu Deng began to read the character introduction word by word: [Lu Qingshi, the youngest master of the Lu family. Pampered by the whole family. Arrogant, tsundere, in poor health, willful and temperamental…]
System: […]
Lu Deng: […]
System: [Host, please work hard. You can not collapse the character settings, or the world macro data may collapse!]
The first principle when performing the task was to not disrupt the plot. Lu Deng took a breath, feeling that the pressure on his shoulders suddenly increased a lot, and nodded solemnly as he recalled the current plot point.
This was the day when Gu Song was brought back. Lu Qingshi was in a bad mood because he was kept at home for too long. During the lunch break, he snuck through the window, and got lost in a quickly growing snowstorm.
When Gu Song came to the Lu's house, the first task he received was to search the entire imperial capital for this young master who had run away from home.
For the character settings to not collapse, the easiest thing to do was to strictly follow the plot.
Lu Deng made up his mind, carefully spread the blanket on the bed, opened the closet and took a few warm clothes. He put them on top of the blanket, then took out two cupcakes and a box of sweet milk from the incubator, and skillfully folded the blanket into a tidy sack.
The height of the window was a little too tall for his current size, but below was a garden that could provide a bit of cushioning.
When Lu Deng finished calculating the height, he jumped up smoothly with his hands on the edge of the window, and visually inspected a lush and evergreen sky star tree. Afterwards, he took a leap with the pack on his back, and gently slid to the ground through the cushion of the branches.
The twilight was gloomy with thick clouds covering half of the sky and the biting cold seeping through his thin pajamas.
Though the body was still young and hadn't felt the full effects of the radiation poisoning, it still had a congenital deficiency and was weaker than others.
Lu Deng shuddered as he unpacked some warm clothes that were thick and had fine stitches. Even though they were separated by the paper bag, the clothes still carried the sweet smell of the cupcake.
Following the route given by the system, he walked along the garden path and crawled out of a small hole in a door by the back corner.
Lu Deng walked for a while until he couldn't help but stop.
As his stomach began to clench with hunger, the aroma of the cupcake became more pronounced, brightly seducing him.
Tiny snowflakes floated down from the grey clouds overhead, landed on his palm, and quickly melted into a small pool of shiny water.
Lu Deng found a place to sit down, unpacked and took out the cupcake for a careful bite.
The refreshing sweet taste filled the mouth in a blink of an eye. It was soft, a little crisp on the outside, and was just right to eat with sweet milk.
The cupcake's baking cup was painted with cartoon illustrations of silly cocoa beasts holding their tails in a ball, which could be fully revealed when it was completely eaten.
He truly was a young master, traces of pampering could be seen everywhere.
Lu Deng chewed slowly. When he was done, he re-sealed the half carton of milk that was left over, put it back in his bag along with the rest of the cupcake and continued on.
Lu Qingshi was only five years old, so it was almost impossible to walk so far that the Lu family could not find him. It's just that the young master had a bad temper and it was forbidden to interrupt his evening nap. He couldn't tolerate any movement at all. The whole family remained in the house and did things quietly. Even the servants were not allowed to walk around at will during this period of time. This was what gave him the opportunity to sneak out alone.
Although he ran away, he didn't go too far. With his small size, Lu Qingshi was able to find shelter in a gap behind a store, hiding from the Lu family's anxiously searching servants and several brothers. However, he wasn't able to escape from Gu Song, since he was used to playing hide-and-seek with the other slaves since childhood.
Children were sensitive about their pride, not to mention a little master that was spoiled to the heavens.
Even though he was freezing and had long been looking forward to being found, Lu Qingshi still gritted his teeth and refused to make a sound. When he was finally carried out of the snow pile by Gu Song, he threw a temper tantrum.
Lu Deng studied the plot, vaguely worried.
So, I have to lose my temper…
❆
The sky darkened, and the snowflakes were no longer small. They flew down from the dim sky and were blown by the biting cold wind.
Lu Deng ate the remaining cupcake and milk, got up and threw it into the recycling bin. Wrapped in a warm blanket, he crawled into the hiding space determined by the plot, unable to help but feel a little tired.
Currently, he was full and warm and he knew that Gu Song would be able to find him. Although the place he was curled up in was not as comfortable as the big bed, it was much better than the cold cage in his memory of his own childhood.
Lu Deng waited patiently, chatting softly with the system in his mind: [If it were me, I would definitely not run away from home.]
It really couldn't bear to call the host's behavior of going out with luggage and food as 'running away from home'. The system's mood was complicated. While responding to the host, it diligently fanned the wind, gradually blowing away the snow pile. The snow covering the small footprints was blown clear again so that the target could quickly find the host.
Although the host was in very good condition, the weather was getting colder after all, and this body was extraordinarily precious. In the original plot, Lu Qingshi was seriously ill because he ran out like this without a care to his survival.
These kinds of insignificant little details could be changed a little bit. Still, if one dragged it on for too long, they would still feel uncomfortable when they really became sick.
As it slowly turned dark, the snow became worse, swirling outside the hiding spot and accumulating a large snow nest.[mfn]T/N: How he did not get hypothermia is beyond me OTL; E/N: Depends how cold it was. There was also a barrier to the wind, so you could last a while, especially if clothed properly. ^-^[/mfn]
Lu Deng quickly got used to it. Although he was carefully spoiled in these few worlds, he was not unable to withstand the hardship of winter weather. He hugged his knees and quietly shrank into the crevice, patiently counting the snowflakes falling in front of him.
The next step of the plot was still more than half an hour away, but the system grew more and more anxious to locate Gu Song who was looking around. Whenever he was about to take a step in the wrong direction, the system blew a strong wind at him, guiding him back to the right path.
Looking for the young master he was going to serve in the wind and snow, the thinly clothed young servant was mysteriously pushed by the wind, confusing his steps. [mfn]E/N: Couldn't get the Ghost Busters song out of my head after this[/mfn]
Gu Song turned back around, and, guided by an inexplicable thought, his gaze fell on a string of small footprints that led farther and farther away.[mfn]TLC/N: *plays JAWS theme*[/mfn]