Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Host, Can You Find Me Some Clothes…

“Host, do we really have to do this?”

“I feel a bit awkward.”

“When did you even start planning this!”

The early morning weekend sun spilled into the bedroom, drawing a perfect golden square in front of the bathroom door. Lu Ning’s hesitant voice became clearer as she pulled the door open from the inside.

Dust motes danced in the shimmering gold light as a pair of long, well-proportioned legs stepped out from behind the ajar door. These legs were unadorned, the sunlight drawing a straight line down them until they met a bath towel that barely covered the tops of her thighs. The white towel draped over a tall, slender figure, cutting off what looked like a masterpiece meticulously crafted by the Creator. Above the white, short black hair brushed against her collarbones, revealing an unfamiliar face to Mu Qiuyu.

“Host, is this really okay?” Lu Ning awkwardly manipulated the human body Mu Qiuyu had exchanged for her in the System Store, one hand clutching the towel tightly.

Over the past few days, Mu Qiuyu had been relentlessly completing mini-missions, accumulating a significant amount of points. Having earned these points, she did nothing else but exchange them for a human body for Lu Ning. Early this morning, under the guise of fulfilling last week’s promise, Mu Qiuyu had coaxed the kitten into the bathtub.

The moment the cat touched the water, a strange, brilliant light radiated from her body. The feline limbs were magnified, becoming long, delicate, and refined. Finally, Lu Ning stood up from the tub to find her perspective had risen by more than a meter. Water droplets pitter-pattered onto the surface of the water. She looked down at her hands and feet, unable to believe she had transformed from a cat into a human.

Lu Ning, who had wondered why Mu Qiuyu wanted her to bathe, finally understood.

—She wanted her to become human.

But because of this, Lu Ning was even more confused. Why did Mu Qiuyu do this? Had she discovered she wasn’t actually a System? Keeping her habits from her time as a cat, Lu Ning almost rushed out to demand an explanation the moment she felt nervous.

However, as she passed the mirror, she realized a major problem. She wasn’t wearing a single thing; she was as naked as the day she was born! Lu Ning immediately looked down, averting her eyes from the mirror and searching the bathroom for clothes like a cornered cat. But after a full sweep, she couldn’t find a single garment.

Mu Qiuyu knew she was going to become human, yet she hadn’t prepared any clothes! If Lu Ning were still a cat, her fur would have been standing on end. After rummaging through every cabinet, she finally found a single bath towel. The narrow strip of white cloth barely covered the essentials.

Forget it. Better than nothing. She couldn’t exactly walk out like this!

Thus, the scene unfolded: Lu Ning awkwardly clutching the towel, standing before Mu Qiuyu. “Host, what exactly are you trying to do?”

“What?” Mu Qiuyu stood by the window with the curtains drawn, watching Lu Ning emerge. Her gaze trailed from Lu Ning’s lips down to her shoulders. The morning light cast a soft glow over her, highlighting her fair, delicate skin, which held a warm, translucent tone from the recent bath.

A fine piece of art, Mu Qiuyu thought, her eyes moving down the towel to Lu Ning’s feet. She hadn’t prepared anything for her; the woman was standing barefoot on the carpet. The grey fibers hugged her feet, which were covered in several black cat hairs left behind over the past few days. It was a different way for them to appear in the same frame.

Mu Qiuyu picked up the character background she had prepared earlier from the desk. “I want to join the school’s Shooting Club. A prerequisite for the Shooting Club is that a guardian must be present to acknowledge and sign the consent form. I need you to act as my guardian to get past the club’s entry rules.”

“Or…”

Mu Qiuyu paused, withdrawing the paper she was about to hand over and placing it back on the desk with an air of regret. “If you’re really that uncomfortable, I can just skip this mission.”

“Wait, wait! Don’t! I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it!” Lu Ning hurried to stop her. Mu Qiuyu was finally taking the initiative to do a mission; she couldn’t possibly hold her back.

Only…

In the morning light, Mu Qiuyu was dressed immaculately. Lu Ning, meanwhile, was barefoot on the carpet, covered only by a narrow towel. She looked at the person opposite her; the sun was behind Mu Qiuyu, outlining her figure with a pristine clarity. Her downcast eyes were deep and clear, looking like she belonged to another world.

In reality, Lu Ning was the one from another world. If not for the System, their paths would never have crossed. Faced with this disparity, Lu Ning felt extremely ill at ease. A sudden surge of emotion rose in her heart. She lowered her head and tried to negotiate: “It’s just… Host, can you find me some clothes to wear? This is so awkward.”

At this request, Mu Qiuyu seemed to hear something amusing. A hint of a smile appeared in her eyes. She walked right up to Lu Ning, her slender fingers brushing back a strand of hair from Lu Ning’s face and tucking it unhurriedly behind her ear.

Human ears weren’t as soft as a kitten’s. While fixing Lu Ning’s hair, Mu Qiuyu spoke slowly: “Lu Zero, did you know? An Artificial Intelligence with no concept of a body wouldn’t feel shame about nudity. That is a human emotion.”

They were so close that Lu Ning could hear Mu Qiuyu’s breathing. The girl’s fingers were soft yet icy, grazing Lu Ning’s ear like a sharp blade.

Lu Ning was stunned. She hadn’t expected Mu Qiuyu to notice that. Or rather, from the moment she was told to go to the bathroom, Mu Qiuyu had been testing her?

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

Lu Ning’s heart was like a polite guest, knocking against her chest. Then, seeing that its knocking wasn’t working, it became violent, as if trying to leap out of her throat, beating faster and faster.

Mu Qiuyu… no way…

“W-what do you mean?” Lu Ning forced herself to stay calm, looking at Mu Qiuyu with feigned nonchalance. “Last time you said I was like a person, but I’m just a System.”

“Is that so?”

Mu Qiuyu gave a flat sigh, followed by what sounded like an ambiguous chuckle. She glanced at Lu Ning once more, then turned to pick up the materials she had prepared, dropping the subject entirely. “This is the background I’ve set for you. Memorize it.”

Lu Ning was both surprised and shaken, hardly believing Mu Qiuyu had let her off the hook so easily. Fearing it was only temporary, she quickly said “Okay” and began reading the documents.

According to Mu Qiuyu’s setting, Lu Ning was “Lu Ling,” Mu Qiuyu’s distant cousin who currently worked at Mu Jingqin’s software company. Although they were distant cousins, she and Mu Qiuyu had been close since childhood and met often; Mu Jingqin trusted her deeply.

As she read, Lu Ning grew anxious. “What if the school mentions this to Mu Jingqin? She doesn’t even know I exist.”

“Theoretically, she does know you,” Mu Qiuyu told her calmly.

Lu Ning tilted her head in confusion. Then, she seemed to realize something. “The Plot Card?”

“Yes,” Mu Qiuyu nodded. “The Plot Card can only change future events, not the past. If the teacher mentions you, Mu Jingqin will have a vague impression of you, but you must avoid meeting her in person.”

Lu Ning nodded, but as she thought about it, something felt off. “But wasn’t this mission assigned after you used the Plot Card? How did you know you would need me one day?”

Mu Qiuyu never looked only at the present, but she didn’t want to explain that to Lu Ning. She simply asked softly, “Do you wish for me not to need you?”

“Of course not,” Lu Ning denied. She wanted nothing more than for Mu Qiuyu to need her—ideally to the point of being unable to live without her.

The sun slowly climbed higher in the sky. The light brushed the top of Mu Qiuyu’s head, shining on the dazed yet determined girl before her. Her voice was as faint as a breeze: “Because I felt that sooner or later, I would need you.”

Mu Qiuyu’s choice of the Shooting Club had been a deliberate one. She had thought about it carefully; if she ever encountered a situation like the previous one again, a gun would be her best option. Another issue was that in her previous life, her physical stamina hadn’t been great, and she wasn’t a fan of exercise. Sweat sticking to her skin made her feel as if she were covered in someone else’s blood.

Because the Shooting Club involved firearms, the application required a guardian to confirm and sign at the school. Mu Qiuyu knew Mu Jingqin wouldn’t make the trip for her, and she had her own plans anyway. With that in mind, her gaze fell on Lu Ning, who was still reading the settings.

The woman was still stubbornly clutching the towel, its short length failing to hide her long legs. Mu Qiuyu stared at this body—the cheapest one she could find in the System Store—and felt dissatisfied. As the sunlight blurred her vision, she looked at Lu Ning, and a vague figure suddenly appeared in her mind.

That shadow was similar to this body, about 168cm tall. The hair length was similar, too, brushing the jawline and resting on the neck. But the facial features were far more exquisite than the face before her.

But how exquisite, exactly?

Under the shadow of the sun, the girl frowned slightly. Mu Qiuyu didn’t know. She didn’t even know why she was seeing a phantom in Lu Ning.

“Host, it’s getting late. Shouldn’t we get ready for school?”

Suddenly, Lu Ning’s reminding voice broke through Mu Qiuyu’s thoughts. The tone seemed to overlap with her memory, like the ringing of wind chimes in the breeze.

“Host?” Lu Ning called again, seeing Mu Qiuyu dazed.

Seeing a pair of hands waving in front of her, Mu Qiuyu snapped back to reality. She nodded abruptly, looking weary. She pulled the clothes she had prepared earlier from the wardrobe. “Put these on.”

“Okay!” Seeing the clothes, Lu Ning finally got her wish. She grabbed them and hurried to the bathroom, her steps light. But then she stopped and turned back. “Host, if I go out like this, won’t Mu Jingqin see me?”

Mu Qiuyu nodded. “That’s why you need to leave the house invisible.”

“Then why don’t you head out first, Host? I’ll wait for you at the bus stop.” It happened so fast that Lu Ning hadn’t adjusted to her new body yet and wanted some space to get used to it. Fearing Mu Qiuyu would disagree, she added, “I’ll be quick.”

In the sunlight, Mu Qiuyu met Lu Ning’s certain and expectant eyes. It was strange—even though those eyes were no longer a highly saturated crystal blue, they were still excessively bright, as if all the light in the world was shining from within them.

For some reason, Mu Qiuyu had felt out of sorts since seeing that phantom figure. She felt as though she had forgotten something, but since she couldn’t remember it, she didn’t have the heart to make things difficult for Lu Ning. She agreed: “Hurry up.”

“Okay!” Lu Ning chirped happily.

The bus station in the morning wasn’t too crowded, but it wasn’t empty either. The long wind carried people commuting to school or work. Occasionally, pairs of people whispered among themselves, their voices low, not disturbing the quiet morning.

“Hey, did you see the news?” a girl whispered, poking her companion with her phone. “In the early hours of the day before yesterday, a man drove off a mountain road in the western suburbs. He was impaled through the chest and died on the spot. His companion was even worse—multiple compound fractures, couldn’t wait for help or call anyone, and slowly died there.”

The companion looked shocked. “God, that’s horrible!”

But then she seemed to remember something and added, “I saw on the economic news this morning that the chairman of the Lyde Hotel and his secretary were killed by a truck right after they left the police station this morning. Word is they were being hunted by enemies.”

The first girl shivered and pulled her coat tighter. “Why are there so many car accidents lately? It’s creepy.”

“Yeah,” her companion whispered back. “We should be careful too.”

The wind carried the girls’ discussion into Mu Qiuyu’s ears. Her calm features slowly relaxed into a pleasant mood. But before she could fully savor the feeling, she heard a call from afar.

“Mu Qiuyu!”

Mu Qiuyu looked up, peering through the crowd at the bus stop, and saw Lu Ning waving at her. The woman’s smile was a bit silly, yet inexplicably radiant. Then, the moment their eyes met, her fast walk turned into a jog.

Mu Qiuyu watched as Lu Ning darted quickly through the crowd, running toward her.

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