novelsite Chapter 1 System Binding
Chapter 1 System Binding
Jiang Xingni felt something was off.
This wasn't the first time she'd felt this way, but it was the first time she'd been so acutely aware of how strange everything was.
The sounds of people breathing and chatting, the escalator running, and the mall's advertisements suddenly faded away.
She knew even more clearly that this strangeness was directed at her.
The subtle sense of disorientation lasted only a moment before the faded background noise reappeared, accompanied by opera sounds that seemed to come from nowhere.
Upon hearing the sound, Jiang Xingni followed his instincts, rummaged through his backpack, pulled out earplugs, and shoved them into his ears.
After confirming that he could no longer hear the eerie opera sounds, Jiang Xingni silently praised the quality of the earplugs in his mind, and calmly turned around.
Behind him, the girl who had been chatting with her classmates about how much homework she had today was now gripping her phone tightly with her fingers, her fingertips even turning bluish-white from the force, her eyes fixed on the screen.
Jiang Xing glanced at the other person's phone screen out of the corner of his eye.
It was a video of a shadow puppet show, played aloud.
Jiang Xing glanced at it briefly, then looked away. She felt that if she continued to stare, she would fall for it just like that girl.
She always trusted her intuition, and this time was no exception.
Jiang Xingni was about to continue observing the girl's expression when they suddenly met each other's gaze.
Jiang Xingni: ...
I rely on.
Those dark eyes stared straight at Jiang Xingni, just like when he was looking at his phone screen, they were fixed on him, the black and white of his eyes were clear, but there was no light in them.
The girl beside her followed her gaze, staring intently and silently into Jiang Xingni's eyes.
At the same moment, the two girls smiled in uncanny similarity.
It couldn't even be called a "smile." The corners of his mouth were strangely upturned, but his eyes had no curve at all, as if the curve had been forcibly pulled out by someone.
run!
The little girl, who grew up in the lower city, did not hesitate at all. She dodged the outstretched hands of the two girls and nimbly passed through the gap between them. The two pale hands only grasped a piece of air.
"You should be..." Even though she was wearing earplugs, Jiang Xingni could clearly hear a mechanical voice in her mind.
The young girl, who was well-versed in various online novels, immediately thought of the mechanical voice: "System!"
The system was stunned by Jiang Xingni's fluid and graceful movements before it could finish speaking.
She braced herself against the transparent glass railing on the second floor and leaped—the girl landed steadily between the railing and the handrail, then landed on the moving escalator.
【Wait, why are you so skilled?!】The system was greatly shocked. It didn't remember its host being so good before it bound itself to the host.
Jiang Xingni said with a weary tone, "That's how kids like us who grew up in the lower city area are."
She recalled the robbers and body dumpers she encountered every night, and how she skillfully parkoured on the exterior staircases and climbed through windows to avoid wasting time. Jiang Xingni never imagined that these skills she had learned would actually save her life at this moment.
She didn't stop; instead, she flipped over the railing on the upward-moving escalator and landed on the other side.
Looking back, Jiang Xingnian noticed the changes to the entire second floor.
Throughout the entire second-floor shopping mall, both customers and shop assistants simultaneously stopped what they were doing and stared intently at Jiang Xingni, a grin on their lips similar to that of the other two.
"Why don't you watch shadow puppetry?" Jiang Xingni read their lips; they were saying this sentence with a copy-paste-like mouth shape and speaking speed.
Although she was wearing earplugs, Jiang Xingni felt as if she could still hear the cracking sound of her bones twisting. Everyone was still staring at her, turning their heads to follow her movements, even twisting them a full 180 degrees. She silently turned back and looked down at the first floor.
There didn't seem to be any problems on the first floor of the mall. Although the Spring Festival was over, the festive atmosphere hadn't dissipated yet. There were a few customers coming and going, chatting and scrolling through their phones. It certainly didn't have the eerie atmosphere that Jiang Xingni had just experienced on the second floor.
She casually removed her earplugs, and the person next to her stared wide-eyed: "Wow, aren't you afraid of falling from the second floor?"
The young woman gave him a slight smile, then pressed the red emergency stop button to shut down the upward-moving escalator: "Thank you for the compliment. There was an unexpected incident on the second floor, so it's best not to go upstairs."
She walked briskly to the restroom and closed the stall door.
"So, can you tell me what happened now?" The little girl's tone was still light and lively.
Even though Jiang Xingni grew up in the most chaotic downtown area, he still couldn't recall the corresponding solution.
It wasn't entirely without clues. She recalled that when she was eight years old, upon receiving news of her parents' deaths, all the police officers handling the case told Jiang Xingni that it was just a common murder case in the downtown area. However, Jiang Xingni knew very well that it was not.
The more they tried to cover it up, the more suspicious she became.
Jiang Xingni had a strange premonition that she had finally lifted a corner of the curtain.
The system was silent for a moment: [I thought you were going to try to save them.]
Jiang Xingni: ?
Jiang Xingni then opened her eyes wide and pointed to herself: "Me?"
"While we often see jokes about high school students saving the world, you can't actually let a high school student save the world!"
The only way to find out the truth is through this strange system, Jiang Xingni thought calmly to himself.
"Besides, didn't I already close the escalator going up?" she said with a smile to the system. "Now, the more important thing is obviously you, right? Tell me, what exactly happened?"
The system replied: [Actually, the world you live in is a comic book, and you are just a minor character, a cannon fodder extra. According to the original plot, you will die in half an hour.]
It said: "Welcome to the Fate Reversal System. I will help you reverse your inevitable death."
—An inevitable fate of death.
Jiang Xingnian repeated it to himself.
This means that everyone in the mall will die, including the original Jiang Xingni.
[The title of this comic is "Nameless Land." It's a shonen manga about superpowered individuals battling mysterious forces, and you can change your destiny by becoming a popular character.]
[You can use this software to connect to real-world forums and follow the plot in real time.] The system gave a brief introduction.
Jiang Xingni: "Wow, so I'm Deadpool."
System: [...If you insist on interpreting it that way.]