I Ran Away with the Scumbag's White Moonlight Chapter 53

The young master ran a long way, leaving only a trace of green on the vast snowy plain. Once there was no one else around, the sound of his rapid breathing drowned out the wind sweeping over the snow, and he finally slowed to a stop.

The cold air rushed from his slightly reddened nose into his chest, swirling around before settling into a faint mist between his mouth and nose. The young master panted heavily, and when he looked down, he saw the little snow rabbit he hadn't had time to put down in his hurry. It was now looking at him with its round, red eyes.

The familiar softness of the fur ball gave him some comfort, and the young master reached out to stroke the little snow rabbit's ears. As he did so, his movements slowed, and the light blush on his face from running gradually faded.

In the vast expanse, devoid of human presence, the wind's sound receded, leaving only his own breathing in his ears. The young master's expression grew pale, and he reached out to place the little snow rabbit back on the ground.

When he stood up again, his right hand was already on the hilt of his sword at his waist. The little fur ball at his feet looked up at him in confusion, even nudging his soft boots. However, the young master didn't pick up the little snow rabbit again. His face grew even paler, and under the warm sunlight, his fair complexion took on a transparent fragility.

Even though he held the sword hilt firmly, Ling Yao knew that his most prized sword couldn't protect him. His light pink lips pressed together unconsciously, and his whole body tensed to the extreme.

Until a slightly helpless sigh sounded.

The voice was somewhat cool, but its tone was clear and didn't seem overly distant. "Your current energy is insufficient; it's best not to come out for now."

The young master shivered and blurted out, "You..."

As soon as he spoke, he realized something was wrong. The voice hadn't sounded in his ears but appeared in his mind. He tried to mimic the same way, turning his voice into his consciousness.

"You know I'm awake?"

"Yes."

The one communicating with the young master was Shi Jingxian, who was supposed to take over the body. Seeing the obviously tense young boy, he couldn't help but soften his tone.

"Actually, you've been awake from the start, haven't you, Young Master Ling?"

Recalling the entire process of the second task, various anomalies had already appeared from the moment Shi Jingxian entered the task. After reading the task storyline, he was routinely judged by the system as having an emotional fluctuation level of 0. However, when Shi Jingxian took over the body and saw the Left Guardian for the first time, he couldn't control the tears that burst from this body.

Later, when he met the Sect Leader, his tears were equally uncontrollable. Although Ling Yao's consciousness couldn't clearly influence Shi Jingxian's actions and choices, the body's reactions were unusually honest. Including when Shen Zhuo, who had just awakened, diverted the Sect Leader's attention, this body also showed obvious symptoms of chest tightness and unease.

Shi Jingxian had long sensed these unusual emotions, but since the various tasks in the Life Repair System inherently involved intense emotional fluctuations, empathizing with the task object was common and even one of the important issues a Restorer had to face. Therefore, at first, Shi Jingxian attributed it to a normal empathetic reaction.

But such obvious emotions had never appeared in previous task worlds. Even in the same Ω1 series, Shi Jingxian hadn't found similar anomalies in Ji Xuanran.

So he gradually became suspicious.

However, Shi Jingxian had participated in nearly a hundred tasks and had never encountered a situation where the task object awakened early, so these suspicions were only guesses. Until just now, when the overly frightened young master took back control and ran, Shi Jingxian finally confirmed the other party's consciousness was awake.

"Young Master Ling, you should have seen my tasks during this time clearly." Shi Jingxian asked directly, "Can you tell me when you discovered you could control the body?"

Although Ling Yao had been awake from the start of the task, he certainly didn't have enough ability to control the body at that time—otherwise, with a blood feud and returning to the time before everything happened, Ling Yao would definitely want to personally take revenge on Xuanyuan Nan.

So Shi Jingxian speculated that something must have happened midway, allowing Ling Yao's consciousness to regain energy and bypass Shi Jingxian to gain control of the body.

According to Shi Jingxian's speculation, from the series of anomalies that occurred earlier, the time when he fainted from watching the task storyline too many times and was inexplicably replenished with mental fullness was the most likely. However, after hesitating for a while, Ling Yao told him another answer.

"It was when I saw the Heart-protecting Chain of Sect Leader Bai."

—So it was a change that occurred after the main system came.

Shi Jingxian couldn't help but frown secretly.

So it really was an external force that caused the change.

So far, although he had already had a direct encounter with the main system, due to the interception of data that couldn't be analyzed, Shi Jingxian still couldn't discern the other party's true stance.

And currently, Ling Yao's awakening and recovery were indeed too strange—although Ling Yao was a bit nervous, he bore no malice towards the Restorer. But if it were a task protagonist who harbored resentment towards the Restorer and gained the ability to control the body early...

At that time, not only the task but even the Restorer himself could be in grave danger.

After thinking about it, Shi Jingxian decided to first negotiate with the young master.

"What I just said about your current energy being insufficient is not an alarmist talk."

Shi Jingxian explained to him. After Ling Yao bypassed him to control the body, he hadn't run far from the hawthorn tree when Shi Jingxian received a system prompt—the task repair progress dropped from the previous 90% to 88%. Shi Jingxian hadn't received any other inappropriate messages, so it seemed that the 2% could only be the energy consumed by the young master.

"When the progress reaches ten percent, the task will end. Then everything will return to normal."

"For the sake of progress, Young Master Ling should consider carefully."

Shi Jingxian's words were very tactful, and after listening, the young master was silent for a while and lowered his voice.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run out on my own."

Ling Yao quickly returned the control of the body, and he added in a softer voice—"Thank you for this time."

Shi Jingxian smiled, "It's okay."

He somewhat understood why the Sect Leader always liked to ruffle Ling Yao's hair. Unfortunately, the two couldn't meet in person now, or Shi Jingxian could also reach out and ruffle this young boy's hair.

After the conversation, Shi Jingxian bent down to pick up the little snow rabbit waiting obediently beside him and turned to head towards the main hall. Although the young master had just run over from the hawthorn tree, some time had passed, and the three might not be waiting in the same place. On the contrary, Shen Zhuo, who had just come out of seclusion, would definitely return to the main hall.

As Shi Jingxian walked, he continued to communicate with the young master's consciousness.

In fact, when Ling Yao's consciousness first affected the body's reactions, the task progress bar didn't drop. Just now, Shi Jingxian also observed carefully. Although Ling Yao ran away from the hawthorn tree, the system sent a prompt, but the young master ran so far on his own, and the progress bar didn't continue to drop.

This means that what really caused the progress bar to drop was Ling Yao's act of seizing control of the body, while his manipulation of his own body didn't consume energy.

So the young master wasn't unable to come out and control his own body, as long as Shi Jingxian voluntarily ceded control.

Shi Jingxian also told the young master about this, and on the way, he found a secluded place to test this hypothesis with Ling Yao, and the result was indeed as Shi Jingxian expected.

However, after the control was ceded to Ling Yao for more than a quarter of an hour, the system sent another prompt, and the task repair progress dropped from 88% to 87%.

After learning that the progress had dropped again, Ling Yao quickly withdrew his consciousness. He even apologized to Shi Jingxian with a bit of guilt. Shi Jingxian didn't mind much; a 3% progress drop in exchange for a clear concept was worth it.

What he was most worried about wasn't the task progress, which currently seemed the most important.

After comforting the young master, Shi Jingxian went through the whole situation again. Although he told the young master that the task was going smoothly and that he would leave after the progress was completed and return the body, in fact, the bug of the young master's consciousness awakening had already become more serious than imagined.

Shi Jingxian had done nearly a hundred tasks, and it was the first time he encountered a situation where the protagonist's consciousness awakened early during a task, let alone the young master being awake from the start of the task.

Shi Jingxian's memory ability was outstanding, and he carefully recalled the situation when he took on the Ω2 task, finding that the task's access process was no different from before. Since it wasn't a program error, and the bug appeared from the start...

Thinking of Lan Luohai's attitude towards the protagonist, which was completely different from the storyline in the previous task, Shi Jingxian couldn't help but frown.

Then this bug is very likely to have been caused by certain factors in the previous task.

The Life Repair System is an extremely precise and complex task platform. On Shi Jingxian's home planet, apart from a very few system maintenance personnel, everyone else is a Restorer participating in tasks within the system. Not to mention the system's updates and upgrades, even its daily operation requires an enormous amount of energy.

The Life Repair System has always been regarded as a legacy and pride by the home planet because it can flawlessly carry so many people through so many interstellar consciousness transmissions and help so many good people with collapsed consciousness regain new life.

But the current bug overturns everything.

Thinking deeper, it's not just the platform's operation; the entire task mechanism of the Life Repair System is fundamentally questioned—the Restorer's task is to repair collapsed consciousness. But Ling Yao, the task object's consciousness, was clearly awake from the start, so what exactly is Shi Jingxian repairing in the Ω2 task?

These questions weighed heavily on Shi Jingxian's heart, and he once again realized that this difficult series of tasks was far more complex than imagined.

Before he could find any clues, Shi Jingxian had already reached the main hall of the Xuanyun Sect. He looked up at the plaque hanging high on the majestic and solemn building and couldn't help but rub his brow.

Thinking too much is useless. For now, his most urgent goal is still to ensure the task's completion. To avoid further complications and delays for Ling Yao.

Shi Jingxian walked into the main hall, and before he could find someone to announce his arrival, he bumped into someone rushing towards him.

"Child? Where did you go?" The Sect Leader's expression was full of worry and doubt. "What happened just now?"

It wasn't just the Sect Leader who came to meet him, but also Shen Zhuo, who had been inseparable from him since waking up. And...

The culprit who had just scared the young master away, Bai Qinglian.