In September of autumn, a new academic year began at Haidong University.
On the second floor of the cafeteria, which looked like a giant sandwich from the outside, a few gazes unabashedly surveyed the new junior girls coming and going on the road from a row of seats by the window.
"Yu! It's rare to see you here today. Don't you usually have a part-time job at the Student Affairs Office at this time? How come you have time to have lunch with us?"
After a satisfying meal, the group left the cafeteria and strolled by the lakeside lamps, chatting and laughing. The head of the dormitory, with a big grin, looked at the young man beside him.
Gu Yu, seeing his roommates' gossipy looks, couldn't help but smile bitterly:
"There was just no work at the Student Affairs Office today, and they didn't need me on duty, so I snuck out early! Besides, if I don't take these few days to appreciate the beauty of the new junior girls, in a few days when autumn properly sets in, everyone will be nesting in their dorms."
Everyone burst into laughter at the mention of nesting. Then the dorm head sighed, "Alas, it's just wishful looking for me since I'm a born singleton. I'm afraid there's no hope of finding a girlfriend during my college years. You all know that. My mom has been nagging me on video calls, urging me several times already!"
The dorm head's gaze wandered over the girls with long lean legs passing by, then, as if he had an idea, he turned his head to his roommates and said:
"Right, we all agreed! Bros before... well, whoever gets a girlfriend first is the dog, haha!"
Hearing the dorm head say this, the others offered perfunctory nods, especially Gu Yu who simply shrugged indifferently, as he was in no rush whatsoever to find a partner!
Gu Yu lost both his parents at a young age. He was raised by his grandma who passed away at his age of ten. While he didn't have a good family background and parental care, he struggled just to enroll in a prestigious university in Modu. Because of his material inferiority, he had never dated.
As the saying goes: "A full belly leads to lustful thoughts," but when he couldn't even fill his belly, how could he have the energy to think about love?
Still, perhaps it was true that "when God closes a door, he opens a window."
Just over two years ago, soon after he had scraped together enough tuition money, he unexpectedly activated the Infinite Check-in System!!!
A system! It actually existed!
And the tasks given by the Check-in System weren't difficult; all it asked for was to check in at a certain place at a certain time, to earn corresponding Check-in Points!
Check-in Points could be exchanged in the system's check-in shop for numerous rewards that ordinary people could only dream of!
Things like sports cars, shops, or rewards such as unparalleled beauty, a godly physique, or peerless martial arts techniques could be directly exchanged if one had enough Check-in Points!
But there lay the problem! This damn system still hadn't opened its shop to this day! He could see the items in the shop, but frustratingly, he was unable to exchange them!
Thus he had accumulated quite a few Check-in Points to date but had not yet exchanged them for any rewards!
But Gu Yu believed that one day the shop would open; otherwise, wouldn't the system just be toying with him? So he always tried to complete each check-in task issued by the system!
He grabbed every Check-in Point he could, all for the day the shop finally opened, so he could reach the pinnacle of life!
While the system's regular tasks were quite normal, sometimes they would go haywire.
Like once during winter, at half-past four in the morning, it issued a task that required him to stay on the rooftop of the eighth floor of the dormitory for ten minutes!
Half-past four in the morning, in winter!
Gu Yu shivered from the cold! He even got caught by the dormitory supervisor!
The supervisor's heating system was broken, so he went up to the rooftop to investigate and found Gu Yu, shivering at the edge of the rooftop!
The 68-year-old supervisor held him tight, pleading with him not to jump; he insisted that Gu Yu, who looked to be only in his twenties and hadn't even married yet, shouldn't give up on life!
Gu Yu, phone in hand, repeatedly assured the stubborn old man that he was just out to take pictures of the early morning snowscapes, and not contemplating life, and the supervisor reluctantly let him go.
In the following days, his dorm mates, having heard about the incident, almost took turns standing guard at the dormitory door every night, even hanging a bell on the doorknob, to prevent him from sneaking out!
Thinking back on these things, Gu Yu found it quite amusing.
Although the system had issued other tasks afterward, none of them left as deep an impression as that one!
Just then, the third brother in their dormitory suddenly pointed at a window of the Student Affairs building and said:
"Isn't that the office of the Student Union President Lin Xinyue? It's almost ten, and the light is still on! Seriously dedicated and responsible!"
"I remember Lin Xiaohua is a senior sister who's in her final year! In just half a year, she'll be graduating." seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
The second brother nodded, then lamented, "And we still don't know which lucky guy will end up with the school beauty."
"Hehe, who doesn't know that Lin Xiaohua is a high and cold beauty, an ice queen? During her four years at college, so many have confessed to her, but she hasn't accepted a single one! Her standards must be incredibly high!"
Third brother: "I think that's not necessarily the case. What if Lin Xiaohua is cold on the outside but warm on the inside? You guys know, right? Lately, the 'contrast craze' is all the rage on Magic Bean short videos!"
Everyone was speechless: "...."
Damn contrast craze! How did the topic even get there!
On his part, Gu Yu couldn't get a word into the conversation and could only listen to the banter with a beaming smile when the system suddenly sprang into action.
A voice echoed in his mind:
[Ding! New task issued! Check-in location: Student Union President's Office, duration: 10 minutes. Note: Must be completed before 10 pm tonight. If this check-in is not completed, the system will automatically unbind!!!]
Gu Yu was stunned. Freaking system threatening to unbind if he didn't complete a check-in!
Would all his two years of effort be wasted?
Most importantly, this task was absurd! The check-in location was Lin Xinyue's office, and he had to stay for ten minutes!
Gu Yu's mouth twitched fiercely. Just thinking about facing the ice queen made him feel like his brain was short-circuiting.
However, he definitely had to do the check-in task!
He glanced at his roommates and then back at the lit office window and had a sudden stroke of genius:
Picking up his phone, he pretended to read a message and then said with a troubled tone,
"Damn! The teacher at the Student Affairs Office asked me to go back and help out. You guys keep walking; I've got to make my getaway!"