[Beep—]
[System upgrade complete… Host deployment in progress… Deploying… Deployment successful.]
[Dear host, welcome to your new world. Wishing you success in your mission. Goodbye.]
“……”
The darkness receded like the tide, and Gong Ze slowly opened his eyes.
A stained ceiling and cracked, peeling walls came into view. On the nightstand sat an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts, along with several used pheromone suppressant injectors.
Gong Ze frowned and sat up.
His gaze swept across the floor, littered with messy garbage and beer cans, with barely any room to step.
He looked down.
The wrinkled T-shirt on his chest was baggy, but his pecs were slightly defined, and his skin felt firm and elastic — probably not an elderly body.
Though young and strong, he led a decadent, slovenly life…
Gong Ze raised a hand to touch his itchy, greasy hair and immediately scowled.
Just how much of a slob was the original owner of this body?
Unable to stand it any longer, he immediately got out of bed, stepped into cheap blue plastic slippers with a look of disgust, and started searching the apartment for the bathroom.
He had to take a shower immediately!
He couldn’t stand this body for another second.
“System.”
[Yes, dear master, I’m here~]
A small golden sphere with chicken-like wings squeezed out of thin air, made a pop sound, and flew to Gong Ze’s side.
Gong Ze pushed open the only two doors in this tiny fifty-square-meter apartment while asking in a low voice, “The system upgraded?”
[Yes! The main upgrade is to the user experience features. Now the main system prompts can act cute too~ Plus, there are tons of voice options to choose from — loli voice, mature woman voice, handsome guy voice. The plot prompts will also be more precise.]
“……”
After Gong Ze handed over Lu Youling’s spiritual spring in the last world, the main system suddenly upgraded.
“Didn’t they say the Main God is stingy and doesn’t have that much energy?”
[No idea~]
Gong Ze narrowed his eyes.
He didn’t believe for a second that there was no connection here.
Thinking back to what the Main God had told him — that it was helping him as part of an exchange of interests —
It said Gong Ze didn’t need to know its goal; he just needed to get along well with his teacher. Once it obtained what it wanted, it would finally hand over his teacher’s soul to him.
It seemed the Main God was using him to collect the power it needed.
Tch…
Beings greedy for power are often not as strong as people imagine.
Suddenly realizing he had leverage over the Main God, Gong Ze’s mood improved slightly.
“What’s the plot for this world?”
[Oh oh, hold on, coming right up!]
With a flap of its little wings, the system sent a stream of memories into Gong Ze’s mind.
This was an ABO world.
Beyond male and female, humans were divided into three secondary genders: Alpha, Omega, and Beta. And the owner of this body was a useless Alpha.
His pheromones were weak.
He couldn’t even fully soothe his own Omega through their complete heat cycle.
But the original owner had good looks — broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs, a face that made young Omegas drool, deep-set eyes, and a thin-lipped mouth. Walking down the street, people chased after him.
Thanks to that irresistibly charming, universally adored face and an amazing body, even wearing a potato sack looked like a runway strut.
It was precisely because of this that such a weakling Alpha could find a spouse.
Unfortunately, the original owner had only looks going for him.
Inside, he was a pathetic coward.
Not only were his pheromones weak, but he also cried at the drop of a hat — wasting the face of a strong Alpha. He was timid and hesitant in everything he did, couldn’t squeeze out two words to save his life, and screamed louder than a little Omega at the sight of a bug.
His brain was hopelessly dull. He dropped out of high school and started working odd jobs.
As it turned out, the guy had high expectations but low ability.
He couldn’t handle heavy labor, and he didn’t want to do dirty work either.
In the end, he could only manage to wipe tables at a café and live off the tips customers gave him.
The Omega who had married him because he was good-looking quickly grew tired of the original owner, cursed him out, divorced him, and ran off—leaving behind only a five-year-old child.
Hmm?
Child???
Gong Ze paused: …
The system stopped fluttering its wings: …
Holy shit! A child?!
Where is the child?!
A few seconds later, the man and his system frantically began searching the room for the alleged five-year-old little munchkin. Gong Ze even checked under the bed—nothing.
The large wardrobe? Nothing.
The system’s teeth chattered: [If, if there’s a child, why is there no sound… Aren’t kids that age supposed to cry when they can’t find their parents?…]
Gong Ze: …
The system shuddered: [Could it be…]
Gong Ze: …
Gong Ze: … Shut up. Maybe the little munchkin is sleeping.
A cheap rental apartment, beer bottles everywhere, a useless Alpha, a child left behind by an ex-wife—
No wonder Gong Ze and the system were terrified.
Who wouldn’t worry about the child’s safety in a scene like this? This was practically the classic opening of a domestic abuse story!
The man and his system searched everywhere for the child.
But they had looked everywhere except the bathroom. Wait—the bathroom?
Gong Ze: …
The system: …
Gong Ze immediately rushed toward the bathroom door.
Swish.
The moment he pulled the door open, Gong Ze and the system saw the child inside—huddled in the corner, wearing a dirty little tank top and tiny shorts, sitting barefoot on the filthy, ice-cold bathroom floor.
The child leaned his head against the wall, arms wrapped around his knees, eyes closed.
Gong Ze and the system stood frozen outside the door for a moment. In the silence, Gong Ze slowly stepped forward, reached out, and held his hand under the child’s nose for a few seconds. A faint, weak breath brushed against Gong Ze’s fingers. Only then did his tense expression relax.
“He’s alive.”
Hearing this, the system let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.
[Thank goodness, thank goodness~]
But soon, Gong Ze frowned, realizing something was wrong.
The breath was too hot.
He felt the child’s forehead—it was burning up.
Gong Ze’s pupils contracted slightly. He quickly scooped the child into his arms. The boy’s ice-cold body temperature made Gong Ze’s mood plummet. This kid had a fever from being cold—only his forehead was hot.
“System, call an ambulance!”
[Huh? Oh—right away!]
Gong Ze furrowed his brows and wiped the child’s dirty face with a damp towel. Seeing the boy lying motionless, Gong Ze’s heart sank.
While waiting for the ambulance, he changed into relatively clean clothes and wiped both his own and the child’s faces. There was no way he could give them a proper bath.
He ransacked the place, found both of their ID documents, and some cash.
Only to discover that the original owner’s entire net worth was just seven hundred yuan, and his phone still had a debt of one thousand yuan on Alipay’s BNPL service, Huabei. Gong Ze cursed under his breath.
“Fuck.”
Gong Ze took a deep breath to suppress his frustration, then hurried downstairs with the child in his arms to wait for the ambulance.
Soon, the ambulance arrived. Gong Ze had no choice but to pocket the seven hundred yuan and get on board with the little one.
The paramedics and nurses on the ambulance were momentarily stunned by Gong Ze’s looks. After asking for the child’s basic information, they quickly inserted an IV and hooked the little boy up to monitors.
Seeing this, Gong Ze breathed a sigh of relief and pulled out his phone.
But the Beta doctor and nurses, who had initially felt favorably toward Gong Ze because of his handsome face, were left completely speechless when they realized he wasn’t watching the child but playing on his phone instead.
This father was absolutely despicable.
Gong Ze could no longer care about how they looked at him.
Seven hundred yuan was definitely not going to be enough.
Gong Ze gritted his teeth. That stupid, brainless original owner was so damn broke. If he didn’t come up with something, this kid would burn up into a vegetable.
So on the way to the hospital, Gong Ze pulled out his phone to figure out how to scrape together the money.
If all else failed, he’d borrow some.
Unfortunately, the original owner’s phone was filled with either girls who added him because of his looks, or his ex-wife and parents who had already blocked him. He barely had any friends either.
Because the original owner wasn’t just a useless coward — he had high expectations but looked down on everyone else.
He thought his coworkers were all lowlifes and couldn’t be bothered to interact with them.
Gong Ze: ???
How dare you, you stupid piece of trash?
Gong Ze had no choice but to message the store manager where the original owner worked, explaining the situation and promising to pay back double in a month. The female store manager first scolded Gong Ze for how he’d taken care of the child. She sounded fierce, but she was tough on the outside and soft on the inside — she lent Gong Ze three thousand yuan.
She was the only person in the original owner’s entire contact list who was willing to reply and lend him money.
Gong Ze breathed a sigh of relief.
He sent back a grateful message, clearly stated the repayment date, and guaranteed the repayment amount.
“If it were for you, I wouldn’t lend a single cent. I’m doing this for the child’s sake. You don’t need to pay me back double. If you can just pay me back at all, I’ll be thanking my lucky stars.”
The store manager replied angrily.
What could Gong Ze say? Everything she said was right. He could only thank her again.
After paying for the ambulance at the hospital, Gong Ze followed the gurney all the way to the entrance of the emergency room. A nurse reminded him to go pay the fees. Gong Ze handed over the three thousand yuan.
Now he had barely over five hundred yuan left in his pocket.
After much commotion, when the boy was finally wheeled out, the doctor told him that the child had been burning up for too long — he now had both cerebral edema and pneumonia. On top of that, because he was malnourished and had low blood sugar and low blood pressure, many medications couldn’t be used.
“Hospitalization is definitely necessary, and he needs to stay in the ICU for at least a week.”
“Fortunately, the cerebral edema isn’t severe. It hasn’t reached the stage where surgery is needed — medication will suffice for now. Get the money ready and take care of the admission procedures.”
Gong Ze’s heart sank when he heard this.
He asked the doctor, “How much will it cost?”
The doctor did a rough estimate and replied, “With medical insurance reimbursement, about thirty thousand yuan. It depends on how the child’s condition progresses. If other symptoms appear, at least forty to fifty thousand.”
The doctor sighed and looked at Gong Ze with a condemning gaze. “Look at you — how have you been taking care of this child? He’s just a Beta. If he were an Alpha, he’d be tougher. Beta children are physically more fragile. If his brain gets damaged from the fever, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Could this guy be the type who values Alphas over Betas and Omegas?
The doctor eyed Gong Ze suspiciously.
Gong Ze: …
He lowered his head in frustration and silently endured the glare.
Taking the scolding in place of that stupid, brainless original owner.
“Doctor, I’m going to figure out a way to scrape together the money now. Could I trouble you and the nurses to keep an extra eye on the child?” — as hard as it was to say, Gong Ze forced himself to ask the doctor for help.
The doctor frowned. “With so many patients, we can’t keep an eye on him at all times. What if something happens? A parent definitely needs to be there. Where’s the child’s mother?”
Gong Ze said, “His mother divorced me, and now I can’t find her.”
“Don’t you have any relatives who can come help?”
“My family… I have no other relatives…”
After Gong Ze finished speaking, the doctor looked at him with surprise. The condemning gaze slowly turned complicated.
To win the doctor’s sympathy and help, Gong Ze smiled bitterly and confessed, “Actually, the child isn’t biologically mine. After his mother left, she abandoned him with me. And my life is very tight on money… To be honest with you, doctor, I need to go to work now and figure out how to pay for the child’s medical bills. Otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to leave the hospital.”
The doctor: …
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