Chapter 398: June Snow
"Mommy, Mommy, look, it's snowing!" a little girl shouted, pointing at the sky outside the window, to her worried mother beside her.
Unlike the young woman, whose brows were furrowed with concern over the increasingly chaotic environment outside, the little girl, who looked to be only five or six years old, still had eyes full of carefree innocence.
This was an ordinary family, and the girl, at her innocent and carefree age, was still far from needing to worry about the future. For her, born in the south and having only heard of snow in storybooks, the sparse snowflakes falling from the sky were far more interesting than the boring news reports from the television anchor.
"Childish nonsense, you're not learning anything good. It's June, what snow could there be?" The woman, preoccupied with her worries, didn't look up. She thought her daughter was just fooling around.
Children always had strange fantasies; as a mother, she was already used to it.
Receiving no response, the girl tilted her head back even further, looking at the ceiling, and insisted, "No, I'm really not lying!"
"Stop messing around, can't you see I'm busy?" She was starting to get a little annoyed; she was trying to think about important things, but her daughter was incessant.
"Really! Mommy, look quickly, the snow is practically falling on our heads!"
At her daughter's repeated insistence, she lifted her head and, for the first time, turned her attention to the window. Then she saw an unforgettable sight.
At that moment, whether in the city or the countryside, whether walking on the streets or sitting at home, everyone involuntarily looked up at the sky.
A rain of light specks, like snow, slowly descended from thousands of meters above, and as far as the eye could see, its scope was simply boundless.
Some instinctively tried to dodge, but found there was nowhere to hide. These specks of light treated all obstructions as nothing; in the end, "snowflakes" still landed on them.
If one used Spirit Energy to try and crush the light specks, it was like poking a hornet's nest; all the surrounding light specks would immediately swarm in like a tide.
"Snow in June, a celestial dog devouring the sun... this scale is truly remarkable," a group of people who understood the true nature of the white specks of light thought, while most others simply marveled at the novelty.
"Every light speck is a system access point. As long as it touches the body, it will automatically install. The light specks also ignore all physical obstructions; there's nowhere to escape."
"To release this 'snow' that blankets the entire country, putting aside other considerations, it alone would require at least a hundred times the power within me. Perhaps every snowflake is actually a part of him." Chen Bo, located in Ziliu Sea, thought as he looked at the environment outside the window.
A "snowflake" also landed on his hand, but it seemed to have a life of its own, and after detecting that a system was already installed within its host, it dissolved on its own in his palm.
"Cutting-edge virtual reality technology, combined with an unknown method of transmitting information and energy, and that person's nearly endless power, ultimately created this massive net that envelops everything and will completely change humanity." Inside the Spirit Energy Research Institute, Liu Xiankai, the project director for spirit energy machinery and a Five Tiers Spirit Energy cultivator, murmured to himself.
"I've waited for over a decade, and finally, I've found it: the chance to completely change the world." Bai Mo, whose body was becoming increasingly transparent, paid no mind to his rapidly diminishing power. He merely gazed intently at the orb of light before him, as if it were an unparalleled treasure. As for the Jingshi Shengmie Jinlian, which he had already finished using, he didn't even spare it a glance.
"So next, it will be fifty years of truce..." Gaia, who was moving away nearby, left this final message.
According to Bai Mo's previous agreement with them, the three assisted Bai Mo in completing his plan, activating the Jingshi Shengmie Jinlian's backup earlier than planned, and then handed over the countless induced souls to him. Bai Mo personally refined them into the central management hub of the Destiny System—a massive thought-parallel network.
...
"Welcome to the Destiny System's permanent port. Your initial Survival Points are 100, initial Moral Points are 100, initial Contribution Points are 0, ID is..." A few seconds after the snowflakes landed on them, an emotionless mechanical voice resounded within everyone's minds.
"From this moment forward, the Destiny System will fulfill its previous promises, providing corresponding benefits to everyone. In exchange, you will need to complete tasks issued by the system to earn corresponding Survival Points, Moral Points, and Contribution Points..."
Upon hearing this, many people subconsciously opened the corresponding menu to check for tasks, only to find them all empty.
"The method for generating tasks will be through the following survey. Everyone must fill it out carefully and truthfully; this concerns a great many things for your future."
As the mechanical voice spoke these words, a long form appeared before each person.
To their surprise, the form did not, as usual, ask for personal information at the beginning.
Instead, there was a passage that went straight to the heart: "What are your dreams? You may list up to ten, but must list at least one. Please fill this out carefully; this question is extremely important."
Some scoffed, "What the heck, making such a big deal out of it just to ask a totally vague question? Sounds like an elementary school language arts teacher."
Others pondered deeply, "There must be a profound secret within this..."
Of course, there were also those who, grief-stricken, retorted to the system, "We just want to ask one thing: were the people who just vanished in the Spirit Energy flames killed by the system?!"
They were all relatives of the individuals concerned. Compared to whatever that damn system was, many cared more about the lives of their loved ones.
"These people are not dead. They were merely the first to undergo judgment. Their specific punishments can be queried by their respective relatives, and there will be an opportunity to visit once every three months during their sentence." The cold, synthesized voice made it impossible to tell whether the other end of the system was just a pre-programmed algorithm or a living person.
After learning that no one had actually died, most of the concerned relatives felt relieved. As for those who questioned the veracity of the system's reply, every single one of them received a notification: Moral Points reduced by one.
"Moral Points are responsible for managing everyone's daily conduct. From littering and disobeying traffic rules to murder and arson, all those who violate the regulations will have corresponding Moral Points deducted. Moral Points will be tallied once a month. Ninety points is the passing line. Those with eighty to eighty-nine points will undergo one month of labor reform; seventy to seventy-nine points will incur..." The system's prompt rang out at the opportune moment.
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