CH 25

Finally, the carefully prepared gift was given. As the host was in a daze, Ji Tong stuffed a small piece of cream cake into his mouth to treat himself.

These were genuine one hundred types of flowers. After he listed the names of the flowers, he planted them one by one himself.

Then seeing such a grand scene after he completed his work, Ji Tong always felt it was too wasteful to appreciate it by himself. The host couldn’t see the consciousness space at present and he could only take photos to show him.

The host had no concept of flowers. Ji Tong, who had bulging cheeks, also took the initiative to reach out his finger and introduced it. “This is a yellow iris, this is gardenia, this is Chinese rose… there are also paulownia flowers.”

In the consciousness space where he had free reign, he could not only ignore the different flowering periods but even the paulownia flowers that grew on trees turned into plants, allowing them to bloom in the garden all year round for the butterflies to settle.

As for the origin of the butterfly, Ji Tong wasn’t ready to tell the host for the time being.

What if the host felt embarrassed after hearing it and the butterfly disappeared?

Then he would’ve planted so many flowers for nothing!

Ji Tong nagged and finished reporting the names. Even so, Pei Qingyuan listened to it tirelessly and asked him, “Are they in my heart?”

Consciousness and the heart were almost the same thing, right?

Ji Tong nodded and specially emphasized, “I planted them myself!”

He was an artificial intelligence who loved labor very much.

He saw that the host was silent for a long time before he said, “I’ve never seen so many flowers. Each one is beautiful.”

Having received the compliment he wanted, Ji Tong happily took a bite of the cake. He was about to see if a second butterfly had appeared in the host’s heart when he heard the host’s particularly serious voice.

“I will work hard to grow it.”

As he spoke, Pei Qingyuan carefully put away the photo. It was as if he was holding a precious, priceless treasure.

Ji Tong heard the host’s determination and was quite moved.

He wanted to become handsome compared to the elementary school student Fang Hao as soon as possible!

Speaking of growth, the first main task was completed when the group had been sitting at the dining table to eat and the host gave him food. The task reward could’ve been chosen, but he had been busy celebrating the host’s birthday at that point and couldn’t care about the task.

Now there were only the two of them left in the family. Ji Tong immediately gave a reminder, “Ruan Ruan, you can choose a task reward.”

After the host completed a task, he could choose one of three random rewards.

It was said to be a random reward, but as the system, he had a certain amount of room to operate things.

This was a little trick Ji Tong had acquired about from Fang Hao.

It was said that Fang Hao and his host had certain differences in aesthetics. His Long Aotian host liked deep black while the Long Aotian system liked golden. In order to correct the host’s aesthetics, Fang Hao secretly set all the physical rewards that might appear to be golden before releasing the rewards.

In this regard, Ji Tong could only say: As expected of an elementary school student.

He wouldn’t do such a childish thing.

He just wanted to add a little fun to the boring life of the host addicted to studying and working.

The task panel appeared in front of Pei Qingyuan, projecting a shallow fluorescence on the white wall. It looked very sci-fi.

Pei Qingyuan adapted to it and saw a string of words in the center of the screen indicating that it was being randomized. This was accompanied by the special effect of fireworks, inexplicably giving it the atmosphere of a supermarket lottery draw.

Ji Tong sat beside him and looked at the virtual screen with great interest.

[The rewards have been randomized.]

[A. Read the thoughts of a specified person for a day.]

[B. A white cat with a heart on its butt.]

[C. 50,000 yuan in cash.]

[The host is asked to choose one of the rewards. It can’t be changed after the selection.]

After reading these three options, Ji Tong’s smile instantly froze.

Why were the host’s random rewards so useful?

Fang Hao clearly said that this random system often produced some strange and useless rewards such as ‘handsome bangs that can’t be blown by the wind’ or ‘straw hat that doesn’t fall off when fighting.’ Therefore, Ji Tong made a clever move and decided to stuff a cute cat with a heart on its butt into the black box. He hoped that the host could look at the cat’s butt when he was tired and effectively relieve the pressure from studying.

He hadn’t expected the two other rewards randomly drawn to be so serious and useful. The painting style of the heart on the butt was too out of place.

Pei Qingyuan was obviously also shocked by this reward in the middle. He looked back and forth at it several times and his face was stunned.

“Is there nothing wrong with option B?” He asked rationally.

Ji Tong could only squeeze out a polite smile, unwilling to admit his mistake. “The random system is like this. It is full of unexpected surprises, haha.”

He knew that the host definitely wouldn’t choose this most useless option at first glance, but he was still obsessed with the butt with the heart. He pretended to be an adult with an intellectual disability and struggled hard. “Ruan Ruan, the option ‘a white cat with a heart on its butt’ lasts the longest and is definitely the most useful. This is the conclusion I have come to after analyzing a large number of multiple choice questions. The option with the largest number of words has the highest probability of being the correct answer.”

“……” Pei Qingyuan thought for a moment before actually nodding. “I will just choose B.”

This time, it was Ji Tong’s turn to be shocked.

“…Host, did you read the options wrong? Once selected, it can’t be changed.”

He really hoped that the host would choose this option but he didn’t want to delay the host’s future.

50,000 yuan would allow the host to stay at ease without worrying about money until college. Hearing the thoughts of a character could allow the host to know what others thought directly. This was very useful when thinking about it.

“I’m not mistaken. I chose the cat.” Pei Qingyuan said calmly. “You are right. This option is the most useful.”

Money and other people’s thoughts were the most useless rewards for him.

He could get them entirely on his own.

Pei Qingyuan confirmed the choice and the options disappeared. A few seconds later, a pure white cat appeared in front of their eyes. The sapphire blue eyes shone with a crystal luster. He moved to Pei Qingyuan’s feet and arched against him affectionately.

Under the breathless gaze of one person, the cat’s pure white tail was raised high, revealing his furry back. There really was a round and cute red love heart on his butt.

The air was silent for a few seconds. Then Ji Tong was the first to laugh.

“This heart… it looks a bit silly.”

The noble and elegant posture of the snow-white cat was completely destroyed.

Pei Qingyuan also had a smile on his face, agreeing with him.

The cat seemed to understand their words. He turned his head away a bit arrogantly, jumped nimbly onto the sofa and slid into the child’s arms with a meow, tickling his waist.

Ji Tong was surrounded by warm fluff and imitated the meow. His eyes curved as he smiled.

Pei Qingyuan sat on the side and watched the third family member who suddenly arrived.

The cream flowers on the cake were still in full bloom.

Ji Tong thought with satisfaction that this cat with an elegant front and a stupid back would definitely be able to effectively soothe the host’s mood.

He really was a genius system.

New text appeared on the task panel that hadn’t disappeared yet.

[The host selection reward is completed. 10 growth points have been obtained and the main story progress has increased by 5%.]

[The system level is increased to level 2. Two ways to upgrade the system have been unlocked.]

[A. The duration of the advanced form has been increased from one hour to five hours.]

[B. The appearance of the advanced form will increase from around 3 years old to 10 years old.]

[Please ask the host to choose one of the upgrade methods. It can’t be changed after the selection. The selection result only applies to this upgrade, or you can keep the growth value until the next upgrade.]

The host had gained growth value and Ji Tong’s human form could finally be upgraded.

However, it was difficult for him to choose between the two upgrade methods.

The former would allow him to often appear next to the host and have more time for meals. The latter could get him one step closer to the handsome man in black and he should be able to help the host more.

Fortunately, the choice needed to be made by the host. After all, the ultimate goal was to assist the growth of the host. The human form of the system was limited to avoid the small probability of the system usurpation.

After seeing these lines of text, Pei Qingyuan didn’t think for too long. He took the initiative to say, “I want to choose the first item. Is that okay?”

The host didn’t seem to hesitate at all.

Ji Tong was a bit surprised and said in response, “Yes, the host can decide.”

He was just very curious about the reason why the host made such a decisive decision. He wriggled around for a bit before asking, “Why did the host choose this one?”

The cat in his arms straightened up and seemed to look at the quiet new owner beside him with interest.

Under these undisguised curious eyes, Pei Qingyuan’s movements paused.

For some reason, he couldn’t honestly express the wish in his heart.

He thought for a while before prevaricating. “Once you grow up, you can’t use this identity any longer. Uncle He and the others will be reluctant.”

On the surface, the three year old Ji Tong was the child he was in charge of tutoring. Once he no longer appeared, Pei Qingyuan could explain that he was no longer a tutor or that Ji Tong’s family had moved away.

But in this way, the people Ji Tong knew from the bakery and the basketball team would never see this child who loved to eat again.

Then after Pei Qingyuan graduated from high school in the future, there was a high probability he would leave the city and go to college elsewhere. Ji Tong would naturally disappear and they wouldn’t be too sad.

Ji Tong thought this made sense and nodded repeatedly. “Host, you are really thoughtful.”

He hadn’t expected the host to be quite emotional.

Then he could now start preparing a more complicated late-night snack menu for the generous Fu Chengze and the others.

Thinking of this, Ji Tong narrowed his eyes excitedly, as if he could smell the fragrance of a late-night meal.

The cat with a heart on his butt meowed happily.

Ji Tong meowed back at it and turned to Pei Qingyuan. “Do you want to give it a name?”

Ji Tong had little confidence in his ability to name things. He might directly call this cat ‘Butt.’

Pei Qingyuan said without thinking, “Hua Hua?”

There were flowers on the cake tonight and the photo was full of flowers.

Ji Tong deeply agreed. “Good night.”

There were a hundred types of flowers and a butterfly and the cat’s nickname was Hua Hua. This was a reminder of the cyber sweat he spilled in the flower field.

The cat, which was snow-white except for its butt, had no miscellaneous fur and was named Hua Hua.

Hua Hua raised his tail and jumped into Pei Qingyuan’s arms, wanting to protest. However, his new owner didn’t even look at him.

Then Ji Tong remembered another important thing.

He said casually, “By the way, I can change into a non-human daily form for a long time. I can stay by your side or I can stay at home. Some systems are designated to become dolls while others become swords… what form does the host prefer?”

Hearing this, Pei Qingyuan forgot the cat in his arms. He thought about it seriously and his tone was particularly solemn. “I will think about it.”

Hua Hua immediately pulled at his clothes angrily.

Eccentric humans!