46 Retrieving Items from the Inventory, a Mundane Task

Tears started to fall out of Zhou Lei's face. This time, his misfortune was caused not by System, but by his sister herself!

His mind was full of thoughts as to how to punish her for it.

He was so preoccupied that he didn't even acknowledge that his sister tripped.

"Ah, it hurts!" Zhou Zhenya wailed as she held onto her nose while lying on the floor.

As both Zhou Xiang and Zhou Jiahao heard their daughter shouting, they couldn't bother to stay back anymore, so they decided to go to their son's room.

However, as soon as they arrived, they witnessed a scene.

Zhou Zhenya's eyes... they were glowing! It was only for a split second before everything went back to normal.

Zhou Lei, who was by the side, ignored his sister and instead absorbed the only two books that were left.

They were the "Master Author Book" and the "Artist Virtuoso Book".

Despite having done it once already, Zhou Lei still found it to be really painful. He also did them consecutively, which meant that even though the pain from the first absorption hadn't faded yet, another one came into the fray and doubled the pain! As such, he was on the verge of tears as well.

He was also lying on the floor, rubbing his temples.

"H- huh?" Zhou Jiahao was utterly confused by what was happening. Both of them were now... crying?

On the other hand, Zhou Xiang had a vague yet completely wrong idea of what had taken place. 'Did they... do it too intensely or something...?'

Because of Zhou Lei's sobbing, the parents' attention was diverted from Zhou Zhenya's glowing eyes.

It was not like Zhou Lei did it on purpose. However, he was currently seeing it himself.

'So... is she the one that absorbed the books?' Zhou Lei thought as a tear fell from his eye. This was too unfair, too unfair!

He opened System's interface to confirm his suspicions. Lo and behold, most of the stats with the [Sister] tag before it were all above 100...

He looked at his in comparison... don't even think about it...

Anyway, Zhou Lei also thought about the fact that his sister absorbed that many books. He himself absorbed just a couple, but he already felt like he was in the depths of hell... how could absorbing that many books feel like? Or does she feel it at all?

'I guess this is divine retribution!'

In fact, Zhou Lei's suspicions were all spot on as Zhou Zhenya was whimpering on the floor with an extremely heavy strain on her head.

'This... this hurts!' Zhou Zhenya was about to fall unconscious. She was barely holding on as she tried to stay conscious.

She didn't even notice her parents come into the room as she was too focused on not fainting.

.....

After the whole situation alleviated, Zhou Zhenya lied in her room recuperating. As for Zhou Lei, he stayed in his own room.

"What." Zhou Lei checked System again just to make sure of his sister's bloated stats, but what he was welcomed with was a prompt.

"Please pay your debt of $11500."

"Why do I have a large debt?!" Zhou Lei asked System furiously.

"Host has bought a total of 23 books, $500 each. Total sum is $11500." System replied in the usual calm manner.

"Bought? Me, buying things? It was a f**king bug for crying out loud!" Zhou Lei was really fuming right now.

He just retrieved the one freebie book from his inventory, but suddenly, an avalanche of books fell on him! And now System was asking for payment?

Zhou Lei was on the verge of tears. It clearly wasn't his fault! What's more, he didn't even make use of the books, his sister absorbing them before he himself could!

After a while, Zhou Lei cooled down. He knew that even though this system was really buggy, it has made an impact on his life after only three days! He more or less needed to find a way to repay this "debt" of his.

"Haah, so I need to follow through..." Zhou Lei recalled the two books he absorbed earlier: the Master Author Book and the Artist Virtuoso Book.

With those two books, he could easily create money on the world wide web by becoming an author of either a novel or a comic.

There were also the two other freebies that he availed from the system shop earlier, which would greatly help him.

The only matter hindering Zhou Lei from retrieving the other two items was the fear that the same thing could happen as with the book, and that was unintentionally buying items of the same branch.

"Hmm, should I do it or should I do it?" Zhou Lei was having a hard time deciding whether he should do it or do it.

"Ah, fine, here goes nothing!" Zhou Lei silently prayed that System won't extort him of his money anymore.

He retrieved the glasses first, hoping that System wouldn't bug out.

A light shined directly in front of Zhou Lei's eyes. It seemed that instead of landing in front of him like the books, it was going to appear latched onto his face!

"Pretty nice!" Zhou Lei commented.

A hologram of a pair of glasses was projected in Zhou Lei's face and was adjusting itself to fit Zhou Lei's head. Eventually, it was the right size and materialized into the real pair of glasses.

"Hmm..." Zhou Lei was trying to get used to the glasses. It wasn't too big nor too small, it was just the right size, so it didn't take that long.

"So it doesn't hinder my vision, eh?" Zhou Lei thought that, like most pairs of glasses, it would enhance the vision of those who were of poor eyesight, and dampen those who had okay eyesight.

However, these glasses didn't do anything like that. It seems that, other than giving him endless ideas, as said by the description given by System, it could also be used as an accessory.

"But... where are my endless ideas?" Zhou Lei thought. The surge of ideas he expected to get was not present in his mind. On the contrary, all he could think about was the whereabouts of said ideas.

"Is it a scam?" Zhou Lei was now doubting System. Although so far, System hasn't given him any fakes, considering that it has only given him about three items, there was a possibility that the glasses wouldn't work.

Of course, Zhou Lei highly doubted that possibility since System was a miracle worker. It changed his whole appearance overnight and improved his voice and cooking skills instantly!

How a measly idea generator wasn't working was none of Zhou Lei's concern, as it should eventually work sooner or later.

The next item, the keyboard, was retrieved from his inventory and materialized the same way as with the books: it landed in front of him.

With his arms stretched out, Zhou Lei found it very easy to catch the keyboard.

"Wow, this thing looks awesome!" Zhou Lei couldn't help but nod his head in approval. The keyboard looked high-end and expensive, with LED lights surrounding each key.

Obviously, as there was no power source to draw electricity from, these LED lights were not lit up. Zhou Lei only noticed them because of the seemingly see-through material that surrounded each key.

"Hmm, I should test it."

With great satisfaction, Zhou Lei stood up and went to the computer room.

Looking at the seemingly high-end keyboard and looking back at the ancient computer at the end of the room, Zhou Lei couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment.

"Hmm, are there computers in System's shop?", Zhou Lei thought. "If that's the case then that'd be great."

He planned on buying a new high-end computer from System, or at least something that was better than their current computer.

He walked towards the computer, opened it, and plugged off the previous keyboard.

The keyboard was full of missing keys. If one tried to type anything on it, they would be drastically impeded by the lack of keys on the keyboard.

Only the ones who have memorized the positions of the letters on the keyboard, like Zhou Lei, could operate it smoothly.

"I'll miss you, ancient keyboard." Zhou Lei whispered to the keyboard while opening the window outside.

Immediately, the smell of trash and smoke entered the room, as well as the smell of sewage.

He then threw the keyboard out.

The window was actually useless, since outside was just another building. The gap between the building and the Zhou house was measly, it could be measured by a hand.

The keyboard that was thrown outside fit into that gap and fell down.

Zhou Lei popped his head outside the window and looked down, seeing the keyboard.

"It's just right there..."

Not being able to bear the stench anymore, Zhou Lei closed the windows and resumed setting up the new keyboard.

"Hmm..." Zhou Lei looked at the plug of the keyboard. It was a USB, instead of the plug that the previous keyboard had.

Looking at the USB ports on the CPU, Zhou Lei realized that he had a problem: the USB ports were all already occupied!

Two for the two printers, one for the mouse, one for the speakers. There were a total of four ports to plug the USB in.

"What should I eject?" Zhou Lei had a hard time deciding. This keyboard would be plugged in indefinitely, so it wasn't possible to eject an essential.

The mouse was, of course, not unpluggable. Obviously, this was very much needed for using the computer, otherwise, he would have to memorize every single keyboard shortcut to operate the computer.

The speakers were also essentials, since sound was rarely turned off by his family when they use the computer.

Zhou Lei had his own earphones, so he didn't have a need for these speakers, but his family needed both the keyboard and the speakers.

That led to the last two machines plugged in, and they were the two printers.

"Do we need two printers?" Zhou Lei contemplated.

To hasten the process of printing, his father used both printers. However, recently, his father has been printing in his workplace instead of here.

"Anyway, if he ever needs to print something again, he can do it on the other printer..."

"In that case...!" Zhou Lei finally made a decision. He was going to unplug... the speakers.

It was then that System gave him a new quest.

Quest: Stop being dumb, you piece of s**t

Description: Why the f**k are you so dumb?! Popular guys aren't dumb.

Reward: 10 lottery tickets, 10 upgrade points

"Wait, what...?" Zhou Lei was, at first, pissed off by the quest System gave him, but as time passed, he could only be confused. He did not understand at all what System meant!

"Please elaborate." Zhou Lei spoke to System directly in his mind, but he didn't expect it to answer.

Contrary to his expectations, however, System responded, although with a different response as opposed to what he expected but didn't expect.

Quest: Stop being dumb, you piece of s**t

Description: Why the f**k are you so dumb?! Popular guys aren't dumb.

Reward: 10 lottery tickets, 10 upgrade points

"What the heck?!" Zhou Lei was really getting angry now. At first, he was really glad that System responded, but it turned out that it just repeated what it said earlier!

"Ugh, what the heck is System talking about..." Zhou Lei muttered to himself.

In his fit, he forgot his previous decision to unplug the speakers. Instead, he unplugged one of the printers instead, as it was obviously the logical choice.

System notified him that he completed the quest.

"Hmm? That quickly? What did I do?" Zhou Lei's head was full of questions.

Nonetheless, he gratefully accepted the reward like an awesome guy.

"Yes, yes. I'm so cool, I complete quests without being aware of them." Zhou Lei was slowly turning into a narcissistic person.

System gave him a new quest.

Quest: Be modense

Description: In all of the Japanese novels, the dense but modest main character always gets all of the girls. This is the way to be popular.

Reward: 1 Mind-Controlling Cube, 10 upgrade points

"Wait..." When Zhou Lei read the quest name, he realized how much self-praise was contained in his previous remark, and was regretful.

He also felt lucky that no one was around to see that, otherwise they would've condemned him for his excessive narcissism.

He had to change his character now. To one of a dense, modest, kind, sensitive to girls... basically a person without any personality.

"Hmm... would I want this?" Zhou Lei contemplated. This would surely help him get popular, but did he really want to do it with a fake personality?

"Yeah, no." After thinking for a while, Zhou Lei finally decided against it. He should just fake the two traits given by the quest. Who knows, maybe he could mold his actual personality into that of modesty and denseness?

As he read the rewards, his eyes doubted themselves. Zhou Lei also doubted his eyes, but that's not the main point!

Anyway... he was shocked. In the rewards was something that was neither a lottery ticket nor an upgrade point.

It was... an actual item! An actual usable item! Also, based on its name, it should control other people's actions!

No matter how kind someone may be, curiosity would always tempt him to try it at least once.

He read its description.

Name: Mind-Controlling Cube

Description: Contrary to the name, this cube doesn't completely control someone's mind, as technology that advanced hasn't been developed yet. Instead, it just puts people in a 5-meter radius in a trance, being completely captivated by the user of the cube. It is not effective against people above 53 years old.

Time limit: 1 day

Used: One (1) times

"Oh, so it doesn't completely mind-control..." While reading the description, Zhou Lei muttered to himself in a low voice. His voice contained a tinge of disappointment.

The description implied that someone with a strong enough will could resist the cube.

"Even though System performed miracles already, why can't it do such a simple thing? Technology not advanced enough? What a lame excuse. Obviously, we have already gone past 'technology'."

After his thoughts, his desire to get this Mind-Controlling cube drastically decreased. Even though its effects were already amazing, as Zhou Lei was used to more amazing things because of System, this specific item did not satisfy his standards.

However, he still held a hint of anticipation for it. After all, it was still an item given by System. Surely, these people that had a 'strong will' were rare, and most people would be affected by the item.

As he reached the bottom of the description, he noticed something peculiar.

"Wait, used one times?" Zhou Lei was puzzled, "That's the wrong grammar!"