Chapter 78: The Thing in Your Head Started Talking

Beep—

【Li Tiezhu! Fuck your mother!】

【Fuck—】

【Fuck—】

【Fuck you, you idiot! You sold me out!】

The System's furious electronic voice buzzed and rattled inside Li Tiezhu's head.

All those bleeped-out words — anyone else might not have understood, but Li Tiezhu was a modern young man. How could he not know exactly what they meant?

He froze for a moment, then rage surged through him, and he fired right back at it inside his mind:

"You have the nerve to curse at me?! You conniving, backstabbing piece of junk! If your invisibility wasn't so unreliable, would Master have even noticed me?!"

【Oh, go Fuck yourself with a spinning—】

【You're just too weak! You can't even hide your Foundation Establishment spiritual energy! How is that my Damn it problem?!】

"I'm weak?! Damn it, what do you expect from someone at the Foundation Establishment Stage?!"

"When you were handing out those garbage missions, you didn't seem to think I was too weak then, did you?!"

The System was clearly furious too — its electronic voice was starting to crack: 【If it weren't for this System, you'd still be digging wild vegetables in the mountains! You wouldn't even get to eat hot food!】

"Tell me — was it you who dragged me into this transmigration?!" Tiezhu finally blurted out the question that had been burning in his soul.

【System log clearly records: the idiot host, in his original world, shouted at the top of his lungs, "I can't take this damn job for another day — someone give me a System and let me transmigrate!"】

The System coldly presented its evidence: 【This System responded to the summons. Fully compliant and lawful!】

"Lawful my ass! Did you ever ask for my consent when you bound yourself to me?! And you keep issuing these ridiculous missions — fail one and you electrocute me!"

The System replied with righteous indignation: 【…Per Clause 3 of Article 7 of the User Agreement, blinking is considered acceptance of the binding.】

"Fuck that?!"

Li Tiezhu nearly ascended to heaven on the spot from sheer rage.

"I'm a living person! How am I supposed to not blink?! You human-trafficking piece of garbage!"

…………………………

The man and his System bickered furiously inside the theater of Li Tiezhu's mind, spittle flying everywhere — well, if the System had spittle, anyway.

Neither of them noticed that Si Chen was sitting across from them, watching quietly.

After quite a while — right around the point where Li Tiezhu and the System were trading insults about each other's ancestors going back eighteen generations — Si Chen rubbed his temple and finally spoke:

"Could you two… keep it down a little?"

"Huh?" Li Tiezhu instinctively looked up, completely bewildered. "Master, I didn't make a sound…"

He stopped mid-sentence. It hit him all at once. His eyes went wide as saucers, as if he'd seen a ghost.

At almost the exact same moment, the System's endless stream of curses inside his head came to an abrupt halt.

The flying vessel fell silent. The only sound left was Heishan's gruff voice drifting in from outside the cabin, debating whether or not to put chili peppers on the roasted whole lamb.

Li Tiezhu sat there with his mouth hanging open, frozen in his leg-hugging posture, slowly tilting his head up to look at Si Chen's calm face. His mind went completely blank.

M… Master… what did he just say?

Keep it… down?

How could he possibly… have heard that?

"M… Master? You… you can hear it?!"

Si Chen nodded, his tone perfectly matter-of-fact. "Mm. I've been hearing it since 'your grandpa.'"

He looked at Li Tiezhu and added, "You two were arguing so loudly. It was hard not to hear."

Li Tiezhu: 【!!!】

System: 【!!!】

"Waaah — Master! You have to stand up for me!"

Li Tiezhu snapped back to his senses and dropped to his knees with a thud, and this time he was genuinely crying.

"Master! —"

Tears and snot streaming down his face, he pointed at his own head and wailed:

"It's this thing! It started it!"

"It forcibly bound itself to me and then made me work to pay off a debt!"

"I'm just a child, Master!"

"It exploits child labor! It charges loan-shark interest! And it called me an idiot! Waaah…"

He didn't care about maintaining any Immortal Emperor image right now — first things first, he was throwing this black-hearted System under the carriage!

【……】

The System seemed stunned by this shameless act of betrayal, but it didn't dare make a move with Si Chen present.

Si Chen watched Li Tiezhu cry his eyes out, then "sensed" the System curled up in a corner of his mind, too frightened to move. He found the whole situation rather amusing.

He stopped paying attention to Li Tiezhu's hiccupping sobs and addressed the trembling System directly:

"What is your name?"

Li Tiezhu jumped in first, voice cracking with tears: "Master! It's called the 'Supreme Unrivaled Sovereign of the Myriad Worlds System'! Just listen to that name — how arrogant! How shameless!"

The System immediately switched to a fawning, honeyed electronic tone:

【Esteemed lord, please allow this humble System to correct Li Tiezhu's inaccurate statement.】

【This humble System's full name is the "Supreme Unrivaled Sovereign of the Myriad Worlds… Youth Edition."】

Si Chen grew even more curious. "Youth Edition? What's the difference?"

【The difference is…】 The System's electronic voice carried a note of flattery. 【Beneath you, supreme and unrivaled.】

Li Tiezhu was absolutely floored by that shameless answer. He had never seen a System with such breathtaking audacity.

Si Chen laughed.

He could sense that, while this System was a bit slippery, it held no genuine malice toward Li Tiezhu — and forcibly separating them seemed like it would do harm to both parties without any real benefit.

So he offered some well-meaning advice: "Since you two are bound together, you might as well try to get along."

He glanced at the still-sniffling Li Tiezhu. "As for those points you owe — consider them forgiven."

The System asked cautiously: 【Um… esteemed lord, under which clause would the debt be discharged, if I may ask?】

Si Chen thought for a moment. "Under my clause."

The System went silent.

After a beat, the electronic voice rang out again:

【Ding! Terms updated! Per the "Si Chen Clause," all outstanding points owed by host Li Tiezhu are hereby written off, effective immediately!】

【Wishing you a pleasant cultivation journey!】

Si Chen gave a satisfied nod. He hadn't really been intent on making a big deal of it — it had just been too noisy. Now that things could settle down, that was good enough.

The System let out a long breath of relief as well; its data streams flowed considerably smoother.

So this great lord was actually quite reasonable to deal with. It congratulated itself inwardly — decisively backing down just now had indeed been the only correct choice.

With the little drama resolved, Si Chen found himself genuinely curious about the System's origins.

He had existed for so long and witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations, yet a creation that parasitized itself within a living being's consciousness — that was something he had never encountered before.

"Where do you come from?" Si Chen asked.

The System was quiet for a moment, its electronic voice turning guarded: 【Information regarding this humble System's origins has been deleted for unknown reasons. But this humble System can guarantee it bears absolutely no ill will toward its host.】

Li Tiezhu muttered under his breath from the side, "Yeah, right…"

Si Chen didn't mind.

The universe was vast — having a few secrets was perfectly normal. Back in his star days, hadn't he himself encountered that black-haired young man whose consciousness could meet his gaze directly?

That thought stirred something faint within him.

Perhaps omniscience wasn't such a great thing after all. If you knew everything, how unbearably dull would this long existence become?

It was precisely because so much remained unknown that this world felt so vivid and alive.

He was content to explore it slowly — like savoring a new dish, tasting each layer of flavor one by one.

Besides… he had all the time in the world.

"Master…"

Li Tiezhu wiped his tears and asked tentatively, "Will it still electrocute me?"

"It won't."

Si Chen smiled and "looked" toward the System. "Right?"

【Of course not! This humble System has always been a law-abiding citizen!】 The System immediately pledged.

Only then did Li Tiezhu let out a full sigh of relief, feeling as though he had finally been liberated from the clutches of a black-hearted capitalist.

Si Chen watched Li Tiezhu's unburdened expression, and a word from their earlier argument suddenly came back to him.

He asked with genuine interest:

"So then… what does 'transmigrate' mean?"