There were still over twenty minutes until the movie started. Seeing Gu Yue in low spirits, Lin Yu knew she was a little upset about not being able to watch the horror film.
After some thought, Lin Yu decided to make it up to her in a small way.
He walked over to a nearby plush toy store, tapped on the counter, and gave the girl inside a meaningful look.
The girl immediately understood. She hurried to the computer, tapped a few keys, then raised her hand and flashed Lin Yu an "OK" sign.
Satisfied, Lin Yu nodded, bought some game tokens, and returned to Gu Yue. Patting her shoulder, he said,
"Come on."
"The Claw Machine God will take you to win some plushies."
"Claw Machine God?"
Gu Yue blinked at Lin Yu, as if asking when he had given himself such a dorky title.
Lin Yu didn’t respond. Instead, he turned and walked toward the claw machines.
Gu Yue stood up and followed him.
When they reached the machine, Lin Yu suddenly felt playful. With a serious expression, he asked Gu Yue,
"Do you believe I’m the Claw Machine God?"
Gu Yue looked at him, the corners of her lips curling into a restrained smile as she nodded and said,
"I believe you!"
"…?"
Lin Yu was caught off guard by her answer.
Shouldn’t you be saying you don’t believe me?
Why aren’t you following the script?
To salvage his plan, Lin Yu asked again, this time with a less serious expression—more like a pleading just play along look.
Gu Yue pressed her lips together even tighter, her cheeks puffing up slightly as she shook her head and changed her answer in an adorable tone,
"I don’t believe you!"
"You don’t?"
Instantly, Lin Yu resumed his serious demeanor, now with a hint of disdain for the ignorant mortal before him.
"Then try it yourself. See if you can grab a plushie."
He pointed at the claw machine, urging Gu Yue to give it a shot.
At the same time, his other hand was hidden behind his back, gesturing wildly toward the counter.
Gu Yue stepped up to the machine, took the two coins Lin Yu handed her, inserted them, and started playing.
The mechanical claw moved under her control, descended, and grabbed—only to lift the red dinosaur plush halfway before losing its grip, returning empty-handed.
Gu Yue released the joystick and shrugged, completely unfazed by the expected outcome.
"Couldn’t do it, huh?"
Lin Yu asked smugly.
Gu Yue nodded matter-of-factly.
Without hesitation, Lin Yu reached out, pinched her soft cheeks, and tugged lightly—not exactly gentle, but not too rough either.
After letting go, he clasped his hands behind his back and said,
"Alright, now try again."
Confused but obedient, Gu Yue gave it another shot, aiming for the same red dinosaur plush.
As the claw descended, clamped down firmly, and lifted the plushie with ease, her eyes widened in shock.
She turned to Lin Yu, curiosity and amazement written all over her face.
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
Lin Yu swayed his head with an air of superiority, scoffing,
"Isn’t it obvious? For the Claw Machine God, something this trivial is child’s play."
"Why are you so surprised?"
Gu Yue’s lips parted slightly, her jaw practically dropping.
She kept glancing between the claw holding the plushie and Lin Yu’s smug face, torn between disbelief and the unexplainable scene before her.
Lin Yu was too busy basking in his triumph to notice the delicate girl who had quietly approached from behind.
She tugged lightly on the hem of his shirt.
Feeling the movement, Lin Yu turned—and his expression instantly became a masterpiece of shock.
Su Yuyao, the fourth heroine!
Even though this was their second meeting, his heartbeat still raced uncontrollably.
Was Su Yuyao beautiful?
Undoubtedly.
But was she the most beautiful among the four heroines?
Lin Yu thought so.
At least for now.
At sixteen, her figure was slender yet not fully developed, her striking beauty already evident—yet still softened by youthful innocence and a touch of shyness, making her all the more captivating.
Staring at the sixteen-year-old girl, Lin Yu couldn’t help but recall a line of poetry he had once misunderstood:
"At sweet sixteen, her form is pure, her waist so slender..."
As a naive child, he had assumed "sweet sixteen" was just an ancient term for an eighteen-year-old.
Only later did he realize—it literally meant sixteen.
So ancient people were all lolicons, huh?!
Not that he could blame them.
Aside from the legal concerns, their taste was impeccable.
Once Su Yuyao grew up, Lin Yu wasn’t sure if she could outshine Qing Mo.
After all, Qing Mo’s beauty was also unreal.
But right now, at sixteen, that youthful charm and purity were just too...
Ahem!
AHEM!!!
Sorry, I was briefly possessed by a lolicon.
Su Yuyao was actually quite plain—not even as pretty as Gu Yue!
Suppressing his strange thoughts, Lin Yu forced a cold expression and glared at the "mediocre-looking" Su Yuyao, his voice icy and impatient:
"What do you want?"
Su Yuyao seemed a little nervous, but she mustered her courage, tilting her face up as she asked in a soft voice:
"Claw Machine God, can you grant me the power to grab plushies too?"
"Cough!"
"COUGH!"
Lin Yu’s heart took a critical hit. He covered his faltering composure with coughs.
After regaining control, he scowled at her and snapped:
"What Claw Machine God?!"
"Didn’t your teachers teach you atheism?"
"Instead of studying, you’re spouting nonsense like this?"
With that, he yanked his shirt free from her grasp and growled:
"Scram!"
"Just looking at you annoys me!"
After harshly dismissing Su Yuyao, Lin Yu grabbed the still-stunned Gu Yue and walked away.
Since it was time for the movie, he dragged her straight to the ticket check.
"Wait!"
Gu Yue suddenly snapped out of it, pulling free to retrieve the red dinosaur plushie—and the paper bag she had been carrying all along.
After retrieving what she needed, Gu Yue glanced at the girl whose eyes were already reddening, momentarily puzzled as to why Lin Yu disliked her so much.
But Gu Yue also knew now wasn’t the time to meddle in others' affairs. Clutching the items she had come for, she turned and hurried after Lin Yu...
...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
