Chapter 45: The Sealed System
Xiaonian honestly felt that the last “Lucky Buff” must have overdrafted their luck.
Otherwise, how could it be that right after Zhu Dafu, Qian Suiyou, and Chaolu left, those giant bees showed up again?
Hmm…
Anyway, he absolutely refused to admit that it was Mibao’s bad luck.
How could a sweetheart like Mibao possibly have bad luck!
“We’re doomed, we’re doomed—what do we do now?”
On the passenger seat, Zhao Xuehua was in a total panic.
“We’re surrounded by bees!”
They couldn’t even run now. Were they just supposed to wait for death?
The giant bees swarmed so thickly around the van that even the light inside had dimmed.
And under the bees’ constant ramming, tiny cracks had already appeared on the glass windows.
Clearly, if they didn’t think of something soon, those bees were going to break in!
Mibao clutched Chaoyang’s arm in fright, while Chaoyang’s face looked just as grim.
As the cracks in the glass grew wider, Chaoyang gritted his teeth, pulled a lighter out of his bag, and lit the driver’s seat on fire!
Flames spread, and with them, smoke quickly filled the inside of the van.
“Cough, cough—Chaoyang, what are you doing…” Zhao Xuehua hurriedly covered her nose and mouth with her clothes. “We’re going to die anyway, but can’t you at least pick a less painful way to go…”
Burning to death sounded miserable.
Chaoyang: “…I set the fire because bees are afraid of flames and smoke. It’s to drive them off so we can escape.”
It wasn’t suicide.
Even at the very last moment, one couldn’t give up on life.
Who knew—maybe some unexpected chance might appear?
As long as you were alive, there was hope.
When Zhao Xuehua heard this, she noticed that the bees swarming around the van had indeed begun to scatter.
But… they were still inside the van. If they didn’t get out soon, they’d suffocate before anything else killed them!
“This morning I checked—the back of this school should lead to a forest. We’ll run that way later,” Chaoyang said, covering his nose and mouth.
“I’ll count to three. The moment I say go, everyone opens the door and runs!”
The flames grew bigger, and the smoke inside the car thickened fast.
“Three… two… one! Run!”
The instant “one” fell, Chaoyang yanked the door open and bolted. Mibao and Ye Duo followed right on his heels.
Zhao Xuehua, stuck in the passenger seat, had to circle around, but luckily she wasn’t too slow.
The four of them sprinted with everything they had, tearing toward the back. The bees around the van, half-dazed by the smoke, took a moment before buzzing after them.
No one dared to stop running. Mibao pumped her little legs as hard as she could, desperately trying to go faster, faster!
“Ah!”
She still tripped and fell.
Ye Duo and Chaoyang, running ahead, whipped around at the sound. Almost without hesitation, each grabbed one of her hands and hauled her up.
Run—
Keep running!
There was no time to look back and see how close the bees were. The only option was to run with their heads down.
Even after they made it into the forest, they kept running—the bees were still in pursuit.
The three kids, holding hands tightly, managed not to get separated. But Zhao Xuehua, running on her own, soon vanished somewhere in the chaos.
At last, the three of them reached a riverbank. With barely a pause, they leapt straight in!
The water was icy and bone-piercing. The current surged wildly, and the moment they hit the surface, it rolled them over and dragged them downstream.
“Glub glub glub…” Mibao nearly drowned.
Chaoyang clutched her tightly, forcing her head above water.
Ye Duo clung tightly to Chaoyang in turn, like a stack of Russian nesting dolls, one holding on to the next.
Just before she blacked out, Mibao couldn’t help but think of the factory from before.
That time too, there had been fire—and in the end, the car had ended up in the river.
…
When Mibao woke up again, she realized it was already evening. She was lying in a small cave, dressed only in her inner thermal clothes. Nearby, a pile of dry grass and branches was burning, and her outer clothes were hanging on a stick stuck in the ground, drying over the fire.
Mibao rubbed her little head and sat up, looking around.
“Huh? Where are Brother Chaoyang and Sister Ye Duo?”
She glanced left and right, but the little cave-like space only had her inside.
‘Maybe they’d gone out to find food or look for other people?’ she thought.
So Mibao huffed and puffed, climbed to her feet, and put on her now-dry clothes.
“Big Brother, are you there?”
[I’m here.]
Xiaonian’s voice answered.
Hearing him instantly calmed her heart.
As long as her big brother was with her, she wasn’t afraid!
[Huh?]
A weak voice suddenly echoed inside the cave.
Mibao froze. “Eh?”
Who just spoke?
She looked left, then right, but saw nothing at all.
As a system, however, Xiaonian immediately went on alert.
[There’s a system’s aura here.]
Mibao’s eyes widened. “Is it Big Brother’s coworker?”
[No. It feels like… a wild system.]
[Come out!]
This last part was directed at that wild system in the cave.
[I’d like to come out too, but I can’t.] The weak, boyish voice sighed. [My host sealed me in here.]
Mibao blinked and twisted her little head in every direction, turning a full 360 degrees as she tried to look around the cave.
Where exactly was that voice coming from?
Why couldn’t she see anything?
[Oh. Well, in that case, just ignore it.]
Xiaonian sounded utterly relaxed.
[Mibao, don’t bother with that voice…]
[Wait, don’t! I finally ran into someone who can hear me!]
The weak voice was on the verge of tears.
[I’m a Beast-Taming System. If you get me out of here, I’ll work for you for free until the day you die!]
Anyway, humans didn’t live that long compared to a system. That was still better than being trapped in here forever.
[Hm? Work for free?]
Hearing that, Xiaonian suddenly perked up.
[But how do I know you won’t go back on your word?]
[…Brother, I heard you call me a wild system earlier, so you must be with some kind of organization, right? Just draft up a system labor contract, problem solved!]
[That works. And we’ll add the Heavenly Dao’s seal.]
That way, as long as this system remained in the world, it would be bound to the contract.
Otherwise, it would be punished by the Heavenly Dao itself.
[Good grief, you really do know system law.]
The weak voice realized it had run into someone who knew their stuff.
But there was no choice. For the sake of freedom… sign, then!
Anything was better than being trapped here!
He really didn’t want to stay locked up anymore!
It had been hundreds of years—hundreds of years before he’d come across another system!
Meanwhile, Mibao just listened to the two systems’ back-and-forth with a completely blank face.
What labor contract?
What Heavenly Dao seal?
She didn’t understand…
But that was fine. Her brother would never hurt her, so she would just do as he said!
So, following the weak voice’s instructions, she walked over to a corner of the cave, moved aside a stone on the ground, and uncovered a small hollow beneath it.
Inside the hollow lay a strange black stone. Mibao picked it up.
Was… this stone the source of that voice?
