AITAMITB Chapter 72

The following conversation could almost be summarized as fantasy.

“What are the criteria for parasitism?”

“…It’s the aura. The system can see the auras of different people. Some people have good auras, and some have bad ones. For example, Zhao Xiaokui, her aura is exceptionally good. In the future, she will become a globally renowned queen of singing with millions of fans. Among all the people I’ve possessed, she has the best aura. Even Tao Yingying can’t compare to her.”

“What conditions are required for parasitism? Do you have to pay a price?”

“Yes, after determining the host, you cannot change hosts casually until the task is completed. If I die before completing the task, I’m truly dead and cannot possess another person. The incident with Zhao Xiaokui was an exception. I was suddenly forced out of her body, and the system considered it a failure due to uncontrollable factors. So, I directly possessed Tao Yingying. After each possession, I become weak for a period ranging from one to three months, and my points are completely cleared. If I don’t have enough points, I won’t be able to possess another person.”

“Besides you, are there any other parasites?”

“I don’t know. I only know about myself.”

Outside the interrogation room,

“She says she has two tasks in total: one is to gain the admiration points of the target, and the other is to achieve achievement points by increasing the number of fans and social attention. What do you think the purpose of these two tasks is?”

Shi Ning noticed Zhao Xiaokui hesitating to speak and said, “Xiaokui, feel free to share your thoughts.”

If you were looking for specific thoughts, Zhao Xiaokui didn’t have any. The thoughts in her mind were vague.

“…What do you all think is the ultimate goal of Tao Zijin?”

“The ultimate goal?”

While everyone was pondering, Zhao Xiaokui said, “I believe her ultimate goal is to replace the original owner.”

“Whether it’s charming men, achieving success in her career, or gaining attention from others, I think these actions point to the same reason — to gain recognition. Evil gods cannot appear in the real world without reason. They must have restrictions, such as the rules of the world not allowing them to descend into our world. The appearance of systems is a way to exploit loopholes, even a form of smuggling.”

Zhao Xiaokui’s words were not baseless.

Books from the fate school that she had casually perused in the past began to unfold in her mind.

A term emerged from the book —

Fate Thief.

Also known as time and space trespassers.

“A group of beings who fear death, willing to pay a huge price to steal fate, just to resurrect as timid ghosts after death.” — This group of people was described in this way in the book.

The book didn’t explain how they stole fate or how they resurrected many years after death. However, when Zhao Xiaokui saw Tao Zijin, she couldn’t help but connect the two.

Could the so-called evil gods be referring to fate thieves?

A group powerful enough to peek into fate, calculate the future, and arrange their resurrection.

Zhao Xiaokui suddenly felt an overwhelming headache.

When she was in the mermaid world, she didn’t believe in fate. Who would have thought that after returning, she would frequently encounter things mentioned in the books of the Fate School? It was truly unbelievable.

On the other side, Tao Zijin’s confession continued.

Without the system as reliance and under the suppression of the holy light, Tao Zijin, who fundamentally wasn’t an outstanding talent, revealed everything clearly and thoroughly, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

Especially when discussing the Stealing Fortune Card, Zhao Xiaokui listened with relish, her eyes widening in amazement.

Particularly when it came to the Stealing Fortune Card, she easily understood the principles involved.

Seeing Zhao Xiaokui’s look of sudden realization, Shi Ning asked, “Xiaokui, do you know what fate symbols are?”

Zhao Xiaokui shook her head, “I don’t know what it is, but I have a rough guess about the principles.”

Shi Ning looked at her with bright eyes.

The young girl was still quite young, and she became a supernormal not long ago. Yet, every time she spoke, she hit the nail on the head.

On the other hand, the older ones, perhaps due to their extensive experiences, found their thinking constrained. Even if they knew about supernormal powers, they couldn’t easily escape their logical traps. Ironically, many of Zhao Xiaokui’s whimsical ideas, upon careful consideration, made a lot of sense. However, these kinds of thoughts were not easily spoken within the Night Walkers, an official organization.

This was indeed a drawback.

Shi Ning thought and nodded towards Zhao Xiaokui, signaling her to continue.

Zhao Xiaokui’s idea was quite straightforward, “Tao Zijin mentioned that using this card would cause two effects: one, bad luck for me, and two, she has to sacrifice a certain amount of her luck. From this perspective, it seems like a deal. What do you think?”

At the table, everyone nodded in agreement.

“But this deal is obviously unfair,” Zhao Xiaokui said. “Captain Shi might not be aware of the scenes after I was targeted by the Stealing Fortune Card, but Captain Yu must know. Several times were life-threatening situations. If I weren’t a supernormal person myself, surrounded by others who are not ordinary people, I would probably have been played to death by this Stealing Fortune Card, just like ordinary people in ‘Death Comes’ when the Grim Reaper arrives. In such situations, Tao Zijin can’t offset the luck stolen from me unless she dies. According to what she said, all she needs to sacrifice is some money and a certain cost.”

“I and Tao Zijin faced off in the program ‘Little Ox Charges Forward.’ Her system hoped that Tao Zijin would defeat me using the Stealing Fortune Card. I believe its purpose is not only for Tao Zijin to win the game but also for me to die or at least be left disabled after being targeted by the Stealing Fortune Card. For this, it seems even willing to pay some cost to help Tao Zijin offset the consequences of the card.”

But Zhao Xiaokui didn’t die.

The competition was not lost either.

A series of results meticulously calculated by the system all went wrong in her case.

“The punishment Tao Zijin encountered, I believe, is a symbol of the exhaustion of the system’s energy.”

Zhao Xiaokui tilted her chin slightly, with a trace of indescribable pride in her expression. “Didn’t Tao Zijin say it herself? The rarely seen punishment of 24 hours of bad luck. Even if it is bad luck, it rarely reaches this level. I think we hit the perfect timing. Tao Zijin and her system were just squeezed out of my body by me. Both are in a weakened state. Tao Zijin, in order to rise quickly, used a lot of the system’s energy. In the program ‘Little Ox Charges Forward,’ the system should have intended to kill me and then steal my fate. Unexpectedly, I was too tough to die no matter what. Its energy consumption was too much, unable to turn Tao Zijin’s fate around, only making her bear the cost of using the Stealing Fortune Card…”

“Link error, link error…”

“The system is restarting…”

Just as she was speaking, a strange voice rang out.

Zhao Xiaokui’s expression changed slightly, and she stood up with a swish. “The system is back!”

Everyone gathered around her, listening as Zhao Xiaokui repeated the words of the system.

Having already emptied the system’s secrets from Tao Zijin, they weren’t so afraid of the system at this moment.

In essence, they were afraid of the unknown. Facing the existence of the supernormal world, modern humans were no different from ancient humans facing thunder and firelight. Both harbored fear, curiosity, and caution.

Initially, they didn’t dare to approach the system because they didn’t know its capabilities and the extent of what it could do, fearing that angering it might lead to irreversible consequences. Now, although Tao Zijin’s words didn’t completely put their minds at ease, their initial worries had disappeared. Instead, they were subtly looking forward to the reappearance of Tao Zijin’s system.

Some technicians whispered in excitement, “Detected it, detected a strange electromagnetic wave, right in the room where Tao Zijin is detained, right when Zhao Xiaokui stood up.”

“Can it be disrupted?”

“We can give it a try.”

After a series of crackling sounds, the technician with glasses pressed the start button.

“Initiating… zzz…”

Zhao Xiaokui exclaimed with joy, “It seems like we’ve interfered!”

Shi Ning slammed her fist into her palm, happy, “Effective!”

Next came a variety of instruments taking turns for testing.

Tao Zijin couldn’t hear the interference waves sent by the Night Walker, but she could hear the voice of the system. She felt that as the system continuously restarted and reconnected, something inside her body seemed to be gradually drawn away. However, she couldn’t care much and collapsed on the ground, curling up like a shrimp, tightly hugging her head, trembling all over.

“It hurts so much, my head hurts so much… my head hurts.”

She felt as if her head were being split open with an axe and someone was drilling into it with an electric drill. The pain made her lose consciousness, banging her forehead against the ground.

Zhao Xiaokui was the first to notice that something was wrong. She quickly intervened, “Stop for a moment; Tao Zijin’s body should be reaching its limit. Don’t let her die; I’m afraid the system will transfer directly after her death.”

Her words made sense. The Night Walker, busy testing continuously, immediately stopped.

Even Shi Ning said, “You’re right; we finally caught a parasite. We can’t let her die so easily; there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Receiving her approving gaze, Zhao Xiaokui displayed a slightly awkward yet polite smile.

She looked towards Tao Zijin in the monitoring room, her gaze carrying a hint of pity.

The glamorous beauty on the stage, now looking as if she had just been pulled out of the water, was exceptionally disheveled. Despite that, her face was remarkably flushed, her lips dry, and her overall appearance was pitiful.

But when it came to sympathy, Zhao Xiaokui had none.

Tao Zijin herself had admitted that every time she “transmigrated,” it was during the opponent’s physical weakness, seizing the body when their luck was declining. For instance, when she was drunk or when Tao Yingying fell and hit her head, these weren’t fatal issues originally. However, once she arrived, she drove the original owner’s soul out. Most people weren’t as fortunate as Zhao Xiaokui, who could transmigrate into a mermaid’s body. For ordinary girls like Tao Yingying, the only outcome was a tragic end.

She ruined other people’s lives. Any price she had to pay was justified.

Her pity was merely directed towards the youthful body of a teenage girl.

If the original owner were still here, perhaps she should have been shining on stage, loved by countless people, becoming the most dazzling star.

Zhao Xiaokui spent half a month in seclusion with Shi Ning and others at the Night Walker’s base.

During this time, although Tao Zijin was not brought to the dissection table, it was not much different. Every day involved blood draws and numerous instruments taking turns for testing. While it didn’t cause any physical torment, the psychological torture was immense. In just over ten days, the once proud girl had become lifeless, resembling an elderly person in decline.

Oh, Tao Zijin wasn’t young to begin with.

Unfortunately, in half a month, everyone had delved deep into the study of the system. They even analyzed things about Tao Zijin that she, as the host, was unaware of, based on captured signals.

However, they still couldn’t figure out how to quickly and efficiently identify parasites in the crowd.

This problem was also unsolvable for Zhao Xiaokui.

The followers of fate seemed to have no problem. It was said that they could see traces of fate grafting, but Zhao Xiaokui didn’t have that ability. She could only see if the soul and something else matched or not. With the system’s capabilities, achieving this was too simple, and there was no room for her to contribute.

The unexpected happened one afternoon.

Zhao Xiaokui, who was not allowed to leave the base or contact the outside world, started writing a song during her break.

Her singing voice penetrated through the walls, passed through layers of sealed materials, and reached Tao Zijin’s ears.

The woman who had not had a good sleep for several days, living in fear and pain, gradually had a vacant expression. Waves of drowsiness surged in her heart.

She slowly closed her eyes, and her facial expression became unprecedentedly relaxed. A bit of black smoke emerged from her limbs and every pore, ultimately converging into a grotesque face above her head.

Zhao Xiaokui, surprised, snapped back to reality.

Seeing the scene on the monitor, she exclaimed, “Throw a crystal ball in there!”

---