Chapter 2: Day 2 of Transmigrating into an Object

What? Make Shen Wenyi kiss her?

Make the Shen Wenyi who she wanted to strangle, bury alive, then dance on her grave to stomp the dirt down so tight she could never fake her own resurrection—make that Shen Wenyi kiss her?!

Jiang Shiyang would rather choose to eat a cockroach alive.

Furthermore, even if she could stomach a task more revolting than eating a cockroach, pray tell, how was she… it, a ring that could neither move nor communicate, supposed to make Shen Wenyi willingly kiss it, and for a full ten seconds at that?

This wasn’t a mission system. This was an all-or-nothing gambling system, right?!

Jiang Shiyang was so enraged by this bullshit task that she almost ignored the fact that she had inexplicably bound a System. After ranting about the task, Jiang Shiyang finally turned to confront the System.

【You have two choices: either unbind me right now, or wait for the mission to fail so we both go down in flames!】

【Host, once the System is bound, only completion of the final mission can unbind it. Please, Host, endeavor to complete the mission!】

【Can’t complete it. I don’t have that ability!】

【Mission failure will result in the Host permanently becoming a ring, and I too will be formatted due to insufficient Points, which is death in the human sense. The cost is too great. Host, you must consider this carefully!】

The mental dialogue between the one human and one System was like an argument, both voices escalating louder and louder.

Jiang Shiyang used to be a rather shy and introverted girl. The reason she developed this short-fuse temper was entirely thanks to Shen Wenyi.

In elementary school, Shen Wenyi fought her for the Three-Bar Armband. In middle school, she fought her for Top of the Grade. In university, she even had to fight her for the title of School Flower?!

After Jiang Shiyang finally broke into the entertainment industry and clawed her way up, Shen Wenyi, who had a family fortune to inherit, actually jumped into the fray to compete with her for resources too??

Anyone oppressed like that for twenty years would go insane!

If anyone ever mentioned someone’s good upbringing to her now, she would definitely retort that it was only because they hadn’t met a psycho like Shen Wenyi who could make a person explode with rage on the spot!

Regardless, what the System said was roughly what Jiang Shiyang had guessed. She suspected from the start that once bound, it wouldn’t unbind easily, and that both she and the System would suffer if the mission failed.

She didn’t care if the System got formatted, but the thought of potentially turning into a ring forever—just thinking about it was terrifying. Unable to move, unable to speak, possibly even tossed into some dark corner never to see the light of day again. Metal doesn’t decompose easily, so she couldn’t even die. Truly a fate worse than death.

Surprisingly, Jiang Shiyang wasn’t actually afraid of death. What she feared was a fate worse than death!

This System really knew how to grab her by the throat. Had it been a more conventional system, where failure simply meant death, she would have just given up entirely.

But a fate worse than death… forget it. She had to think about how to complete the mission.

After only being forced to be a ring for an hour, Jiang Shiyang couldn’t stand the discomfort of not being able to move her body. She couldn’t imagine going insane after hundreds or thousands of years.

Why was she so unlucky to be bound to this kind of System?

She asked the System, and the System only said it was a program extraction, the algorithm unknown.

Jiang Shiyang was inside a dark paper ball, shoved into some corner or crevice, even upside down. Luckily, a ring didn’t need to breathe, or she would have suffocated eight hundred times already. And then how was she supposed to complete the mission?

The System gave a seven-day time limit. If Shen Wenyi didn’t kiss her within seven days, she would become a ring forever.

Jiang Shiyang could bend when necessary. But even if she did, she couldn’t move or speak. How could she take the initiative?

Before Jiang Shiyang could ask the System, a ding sounded in her Sea of Consciousness—the System notification tone.

【Novice experience 1-hour period has ended. Reward: Novice Experience Gift Pack ×1. Please go to Shop – My Account – Items to check.】

There’s even a Shop?

As soon as that thought surfaced, a Shop panel appeared in her Sea of Consciousness, lined up next to the Missions panel.

Jiang Shiyang opened the Shop. The top right corner displayed 0 Points. The merchandise bars were all grayed out and locked, with no way to tell what each item was. Jiang Shiyang clicked the first item. It prompted: Unlock requires 100 Points. She clicked the second: Unlock requires 1000 Points. She didn’t bother clicking the rest.

Jiang Shiyang navigated to 【My Account】, which displayed several status bars.

【Remaining Human Form Duration: 0】

【Remaining Item Duration: 6 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes, 02 seconds】

【To Be Unlocked】

【To Be Unlocked】

【To Be Unlocked】

Below the three “To Be Unlocked” bars was 【Items】.

Opening 【Items】 revealed a glittering gift box with yellow packaging and a red ribbon. When she focused her consciousness on it, the label 【Novice Experience Gift Pack】 appeared automatically.

Opening the gift pack, three items popped out: Points Exchange Coupon ×10, Human Duration Exchange Coupon ×5, Random Item Dice ×1.

The moment Jiang Shiyang saw the Human Duration Exchange Coupon, she immediately perked up. She hadn’t expected the System to be so generous. Shen Wenyi kissing her for ten seconds would only yield 8 hours, yet opening a novice gift pack rewarded her with 5 hours right away.

This was exactly how humans were domesticated. When oppressed to a certain degree, even a tiny bone thrown their way would make them grovel in gratitude.

Jiang Shiyang understood all these principles, but she couldn’t control her excitement seeing these 5 hours. With these 5 hours, she could drive overnight straight to the Film Crew and shove the ring directly onto Shen Wenyi’s mouth, holding it there for 10 seconds. Wouldn’t the mission be complete?!

Clank.

【Congratulations, exchange successful. Human Form Duration +5 minutes.】

Fi- Five minutes?!

Jiang Shiyang’s excited smile froze in the depths of her soul. A mouthful of old blood stuck in her throat nearly choked the life out of her!

Are you kidding me?! What could 5 minutes accomplish?! Not even enough for her to run downstairs from her apartment and get her car started!

Jiang Shiyang grabbed the System and unleashed a tirade of Zaun-level profanity, not even caring if the System responded. She then turned and clicked the Points Exchange Coupon. The Points in the Shop’s top right corner changed from 0 to 10.

Jiang Shiyang finally turned her attention to that dice.

【Random Item Dice: Can randomly transform this item into one of the objects in the current scene. The mission will also be replaced to match that item.】

So, if she used this dice, she would no longer be a ring, but she had no way of knowing what she’d become.

In this current situation, changing into anything else didn’t seem like it would improve things. She should save this dice for when she truly needed it.

Jiang Shiyang stared at the status bar showing Remaining Human Form Duration at 5 minutes, treating it like her last lifeline.

Whether she could snatch a slim chance of survival from this desperate situation depended entirely on these five minutes.

Jiang Shiyang was an actor. A fundamental quality of an actor was patience. She could lie motionless all day for a single shot of playing dead, but the prerequisite was that she knew she could move the moment the shot was done. As for being a ring, permanently unable to move, she’d respectfully decline that offer.

Jiang Shiyang patiently waited for Shen Wenyi to finish acting. Waiting and waiting, the exhaustion from her scheduled appearances washed over her, and unbeknownst to her, she fell asleep.

After filming late into the night, Shen Wenyi finally returned to her rest room, already past three in the morning. She rubbed her aching shoulder blades from the Wirework. It was only natural to feel uncomfortable after hanging for several hours straight.

Shen Wenyi rubbed her shoulders a couple of times, unfazed. With sharp perception, Little He quickly came over to help her change out of her costume. She put a coat on Shen Wenyi, slung her backpack over her shoulders, gathered all the belongings, and followed Shen Wenyi back to the Nanny Van, driving all the way back to the hotel.

After escorting Shen Wenyi into her hotel room, Little He turned to head to her own room when she suddenly remembered the ring in her pocket. She fished it out and handed it to Shen Wenyi.

“Teacher Shen, your ring. I didn’t have anything else to wrap it in, so I just used some tissue paper. I was afraid such a small thing might get lost.”

Shen Wenyi gave a slight nod, accepting the ring. “It doesn’t matter. I was bold enough to throw it on the ground, so losing it wouldn’t have been a big deal.”

Shen Wenyi had many rings like this. She had never lacked for luxury goods since childhood. This particular ring wasn’t even one she bought herself—a client of her father’s had bundled a heap of gifts and sent them to the Shen Family. Her mother had no interest in them, but Shen Wenyi thought the style was decent, so she wore it.

She peeled off the tissue paper wrapped around it, crumpled it into a ball, and casually tossed it into the trash can. Shen Wenyi went into the bathroom, placing the ring randomly on the sink counter. Today’s shoot had no special makeup or styling, and her hair was loose, so she could wash up directly.

Shen Wenyi took off her casual clothes and turned on the thermostatic shower. Steam rose gently, quickly shrouding the modest bathroom in a misty haze.

Jiang Shiyang was sleeping soundly when she felt warm splashes landing on her one after another, as if someone with nothing better to do kept throwing basins of hot water straight at her.

Jiang Shiyang yawned and opened her eyes, only to be met with a huge water droplet flying directly at her face!

What the hell?!

Unable to move, Jiang Shiyang could only instinctively shut her eyes. The water splashed against her face. It didn’t hurt, just felt hot and wet.

So, all those earlier sensations had been water splashing onto her. But where was the water coming from?

Jiang Shiyang felt a bit disoriented. Through her drowsy eyes, she gazed into the billowing mist.

The sound of rushing water echoed as steam filled the air. A graceful figure stood sideways at a 45-degree angle to her. The tendons in her neck stood out elegantly as she tilted her head back. Slender, fair fingers worked through hair full of foam. The long, jet-black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, strands of transparent pearls dripping from the ends, tap-tapping against the floor tiles. They merged with the white, creamy suds, winding their way into the metal drain.