The first rays of morning sunlight streamed through the window and landed warmly on the bed not far from it.
Nora turned over and sank back into sleep.
"Awu Mountain stretches beyond the outer hills, moonlight falls on Xiangshui Beach..." Nora irritably stretched out a hand from under the warm covers, fumbled for her phone, forced her eyes open to check the time, turned off the alarm, and rolled over to continue sleeping. She had gone to bed at 3:30 a.m. last night to finish the blueprint.
Just as she closed her eyes, she suddenly sat up and got out of bed reluctantly. With her eyes still closed, she staggered into the bathroom like a wandering ghost.
Only when cold water splashed on her hands did Nora slowly open her eyes. Looking at herself in the mirror, she let out a deep sigh. The woman in the reflection looked exhausted, and the heavy dark circles under her eyes made her appear lifeless.
Glancing at the time, Nora quickly washed up and applied her makeup carefully. She didn't even have time to eat breakfast before rushing out the door.
As a somewhat well-known jewelry designer running her own design company, Nora was currently designing wedding jewelry for the granddaughter-in-law of a third-rate family in the capital. Since it needed to match twelve different outfits, she had to design twelve sets. Her team had already finished them, but the awful client suddenly demanded revisions. Nora now felt like her frustration could scare off even a ghost.
Even ghosts would avoid her.
After a day of revisions with her team, Nora felt deeply satisfied seeing the final pieces. She handed the last set of jewelry to the young lady of the Fang family, checked the payment had arrived, and jumped up excitedly with her team. "Hahaha! We did it, everyone! Finance, quickly send everyone their pay and bonuses. You've all worked hard. Everyone gets three paid days off!"
"Wow! Boss is awesome!"
"Thank you, boss!"
Seeing the large bonus in their accounts, all the employees burst out in joyful laughter. The long days of hard work had finally paid off.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Nora drove away from the company.
Once the work stress eased, she felt completely drained. Her eyes were getting heavier, and she seemed like she could fall asleep at any moment. To avoid danger, she parked in an empty spot, locked the car, reclined the seat, and fell asleep as soon as she lay down.
When she opened her eyes again, it was pitch black around her. Nora picked up her phone and checked the time, surprised to find she had slept for an entire day.
Even more surprising, no traffic police had come by. After all, this was the capital. Though she had parked by the roadside, such long stops usually attracted police attention.
As she stretched lazily, Nora couldn't help but enjoy the feeling. After working so hard for so many days, finally getting a good rest was truly amazing.
"Grrr~" Suddenly, her stomach rumbled. She patted her flat belly with a smile. "I know you're hungry. I'm going home now to give you a proper meal." Then she started the car, ready to leave.
But no matter how many times she tried, the engine wouldn't start. Nora frowned and muttered irritably, "Don't tell me it broke down?"
After trying several more times with no success, she gave up and picked up her phone to call for help. But none of the calls went through. She began to panic.
Normally, even without internet, emergency numbers should work. Besides, the capital had full network coverage. There shouldn't be a situation where there's no service at all.
After hesitating for a while, Nora opened the door and, using her phone's flashlight, carefully looked around before getting out of the car. But no matter where she moved with her phone raised, she still couldn't get through to anyone.
Nora was completely panicking now. Horrifying scenes from scary movies flashed through her mind uncontrollably. Even though she knew they were fake, she still couldn't help but feel afraid.
Especially in this pitch-black environment, her senses felt amplified. She kept feeling like something terrifying was watching her in the dark. It felt like it would pounce on her at any moment.
"Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendliness." Nora quickly crawled into the car and wrapped herself tightly with a small blanket. She nervously muttered the core values of socialism over and over.
"Ding! System Vee.9 has been bound. The host can receive rewards by signing in every day."
In the quiet space, a sudden voice made Nora tremble uncontrollably. With a shaky voice, nearly in tears, she asked, "Are you a human or a ghost? Don't scare me, sob sob~"
As someone from Huaguo, Nora had heard plenty of ghost stories. Especially when she was younger, staying at her grandma's house in the countryside. She often listened to tales supposedly experienced by her grandma's generation.
But as a good young citizen of Huaguo, Nora always believed that if she hadn't seen it, then she shouldn't have an opinion. She never thought something like seeing a ghost would happen to her. Yet now it really did.
"Ding! Hello, host. I am System Vee.9, not a ghost. Please trust in science."
"Sys... system?" Nora raised her head in confusion. She tried her best to suppress her fear and asked cautiously, "Do you mean the kind of system from novels?"
As a hardcore novel fan, Nora of course knew what a system was. After all, who hadn't dreamed of being bound to a system and rising to the peak of life? But she never imagined that one day, she would actually be bound to one.
"Yes, host."
"Congratulations, host, you've received a starter gift package."
"It has been detected that the host hasn't signed in today. Would you like to sign in now?"
Now that she knew it was a system, Nora wasn't so scared anymore. A faint gleam appeared in her eyes, but she didn't answer right away. Instead, she cautiously asked, "What do you want me to do in return for binding me?"
"Or... what do you plan to get from me?"
She wasn't a naive teenage girl anymore. She no longer believed pies would fall from the sky for free. The world is bustling for profit.
People come and go for gain. There was no such thing as a free gift in this world.
The system was silent for a moment before the cold voice returned. "System Vee.9 will not harm the host in any way. Please rest assured."
Nora knew that pressing for answers wouldn't help, so she asked curiously, "Since you're System Vee.9, do you have any functions besides signing in?"
[System Vee.9 is for daily sign-ins, holiday sign-ins, and special sign-ins. Daily sign-ins give regular rewards. Holiday sign-ins provide richer rewards.]
[Special sign-ins have explosive rewards. Other than that, there are no other functions.]
"So you're just a pure sign-in system. I get the daily and holiday part. But what's this special sign-in about?"
[You'll know when you encounter it.]
Nora raised an eyebrow. "Acting all mysterious. But I heard other systems give out starter gift packages."
"Where's mine?"
"Ding! The starter gift package has been granted. Host, would you like to open it?"
"Open it." Nora nodded firmly, full of anticipation.