The Green Tea Omega Has Turned Bad - Chapter 13

“What’s going on?” Yan Xia felt a faint sense that something was wrong. “System, where did you put Jiang He?”

The air around her was silent; the System did not respond.

Yan Xia’s heart skipped a beat as she stood up from her seat.

The scene before her was the same as before, resembling the noisy static of an old television screen, presenting a world completely frozen in time.

Everyone was pinned in place, their expressions vivid yet motionless, like living statues.

After a moment of hesitation, Yan Xia moved through the static crowd toward the window.

Through the clear glass pane, she saw the pedestrians outside also fixed in place.

It was as if the entire fabric of time and space had been eternally halted at this very instant.

But what caught her attention even more were the numerous regular rectangular patterns floating in the sky.

Dense clusters of rectangles filled the entire heavens.

Yan Xia unconsciously bit her lip, her heart growing more uneasy.

She called out once more: “System? Are you there?”

No response.

Suppreing the unease in her heart, Yan Xia composed herself and looked at the rectangles. Soon, she discovered that every single pattern was inscribed with a line of identical, blood-red small characters.

“Warning: System program not responding…”

Yan Xia read them out word by word, her eyes gradually widening as her palms began to sweat.

Suddenly, the static screen before her eyes distorted and deformed like ripples in water.

“Beep——”

A sharp electronic tone exploded in her ear, ringing incessantly like a death knell.

Yan Xia’s face turned pale, and she clamped her hands over her ears, but that electronic tone continued to loop inside her mind without missing a beat.

“Warning, warning, self-repair program progress 98%…” “Self-repair program progress 99%…” “Progress 100%.”

The mosquito-like whine stopped abruptly.

The familiar System voice reappeared: “BUG removal complete, please use with confidence. System BH00001 is at your service.”

In the next second, the frozen world seemed as if a button had been pressed, flowing forward again without obstruction.

The classmate sitting by the window put down his breakfast and stared wide-eyed, looking at the girl who had appeared beside him out of nowhere.

“Yan Xia, when did you get over here?”

Yan Xia glanced at him and shook her head, her expression weary.

She turned around and saw that in the seat from before, Jiang He was sitting in her original spot safe and sound, propping her cheek with one hand and looking at her with a beaming smile.

“Why did you run off so far?”

Yan Xia hesitantly returned to her seat.

The suspicion in her heart rose rather than fell. She asked cautiously, “Do you remember what just happened?”

“Just now? We were chatting.” Jiang He scratched her head, her expression puzzled. “Where did we leave off?”

Yan Xia scrutinized her closely, feeling that Jiang He’s expression did not seem fake.

She opened her mouth; the words “Yunport” hesitated on the tip of her tongue, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to say them.

Yan Xia replied casually, “It’s nothing.”

Jiang He didn’t mind either. As if she had suffered spontaneous amnesia regarding the recent events, she began to imagine the fate between herself and Shang Wandong at length, speaking voluminously and becoming completely immersed in her own fantasies.

Yan Xia gave a few perfunctory hums, her attention no longer on her friend.

“System, care to explain what just happened?”

The System replied sheepishly, “What’s wrong, dear Host?”

“Stop pretending. Jiang He has amnesia, and you’ve followed suit?” Yan Xia sneered with her arms crossed.

The System sighed: “Host, the situation is not as serious as you imagine. It was truly just the repair of a minor BUG.”

It continued: “In the original book, Yunport is merely a place name. Because the original author did not provide a detailed setting for Yunport, the NPCs cannot describe specific information about it.”

“In other words, a deviation occurred in the NPC’s internal database, making them unable to answer the question, which resulted in a BUG.”

So NPCs cannot answer things that the original author didn’t set?

Yan Xia thought for a moment: “Then where did Jiang He go just now?”

“Apologies, that is a System secret and cannot be disclosed,” the System’s mechanical voice carried a hint of helplessness. “However, we merely removed her from this world temporarily and urgently cleared the memory data from just now.”

Yan Xia raised an eyebrow: “I see.”

She looked at Jiang He, who was still immersed in her non-stop fantasies, and suddenly reached out to poke the other girl’s cheek.

Her fingertip touched a patch of soft, warm skin.

Jiang He stopped abruptly and looked at her suspiciously: “Why are you touching me?”

Yan Xia made up a random excuse: “There was some dust on your face.”

Jiang He was startled and hurried to pull out a small mirror, using a book to block the view as she checked back and forth: “There isn’t any…”

Yan Xia stared at her fingertip, her expression dark.

Jiang He’s reaction and the skin she touched were fundamentally no different from a living human. It was hard to imagine that this was truly an NPC composed of data.

Inexplicably, Yan Xia suddenly thought of Shang Wandong she was also an NPC.

But unknowingly, she had gradually begun to treat Shang Wandong as a human being.

Assuming she finished her mission and returned to reality, what would happen to these NPCs? Would they continue to live their lives, or would they be… by the System…

Yan Xia shuddered, unwilling to think further.

She desperately comforted herself: Anyway, the entire world is fictional. I’ll just treat it like I’m playing a full-immersion Galgame.

“Host, do you have any other questions?” the System spoke up in a timely manner, interrupting her deep thoughts.

Yan Xia snapped back to her senses and asked, “If I go to the airport right now to buy a ticket to Yunport and fly over, what would happen?”

The System was silent for a moment before answering coldly: “Host, it is best that you do not do that.”

Whether it was her imagination or not, Yan Xia heard a few notes of warning in that sentence.

“Do not recklessly investigate Bugs outside the original author’s settings, and do not attempt to use Bugs to destroy NPCs,” the System said. “Doing so will place a significant load on the entire world.”

Yan Xia narrowed her eyes and asked tentatively: “What if I insist on doing it?”

“Then you may face the risk of the book world collapsing and being unable to return to reality.”

This was an overt threat.

Yan Xia immediately dropped the idea of causing trouble: “Forget it then, pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Class 11-A.

Shang Wandong was sitting by the window doing practice problems.

Her posture was upright, her thin back straight as she looked down slightly, like an unyielding cedar tree. The midsummer sunlight spilled over her, dyeing her curled eyelashes with a hazy golden glow.

People passing by her subconsciously lightened their steps, afraid of disturbing the school beauty’s studies.

However, Shang Wandong soon put down her pen.

Her phone vibrated in her desk drawer. She opened WeChat and saw a message from Yan Xia.

Yan Xia: “Sister, I’m not coming home for lunch; I’ll eat out.”

Shang Wandong pursed her lips and replied: “Why the sudden change?”

Perhaps because it was the long break, Yan Xia replied quickly.

“It’s been so hot lately. I want to take advantage of the lunch break to go to the nearby mall to get a haircut and change my contact lenses.”

“So I won’t be heading back! Tell the driver for me so he doesn’t have to wait!”

Okay.

Shang Wandong’s finger hovered over the send button. Just as she was about to press it, she saw a new message pop up.

Yan Xia: “Does Sister want to come with me?”

Shang Wandong paused and deleted the characters she had just typed.

She replied again: “I can.”

Hucheng No. 1 High School was well-located, flanked by a commercial street on the left and a food court on the right. With developed transportation, the nearby school district housing was worth its weight in gold.

At noon, the scorching sun hung high, making the asphalt road emit a strange smell. The air conditioning from the mall blew outward continuously. Yan Xia stood at the entrance, looking out expectantly, and finally saw Shang Wandong arrive.

“Sister!” She walked quickly toward the other, her tone naturally carrying a bit of a complaint, but since Yan Xia’s voice was soft and sweet, it sounded more like acting spoiled.

“Why were you so slow?”

Shang Wandong wiped the sweat from the tip of her nose and said in a low voice, “Sorry, the teacher ran over a bit.”

Yan Xia looked her up and down. Seeing the other girl’s face covered in sweat, she curled her eyes into a smile and said nothing more: “It’s okay, let’s go eat.”

Shang Wandong hummed in agreement, standing in place to steady her heartbeat from the hurried run just now. “What do you want to eat?”

Yan Xia: “Anything is fine with me.”

The two of them picked and chose, eventually settling on a clean restaurant.

Yan Xia scanned the QR code on the table and opened the mobile menu to order. The dishes in the pictures were a riot of colors, making one’s eyes wander.

She said casually, “The boiled fish here looks delicious.”

Shang Wandong: “Don’t you refrain from eating fish?”

Yan Xia said subconsciously, “How do you know I don’t like fish?” In the real world, she truly did not like fish.

Shang Wandong said calmly, “Didn’t you say before that you were allergic to fish?”

Oh, so it was because I mentioned it before.

Yan Xia nodded in realization and didn’t take it to heart.

The meal ended quickly, and the two arrived at the barbershop next door.

Since it was lunchtime, there weren’t many people in the shop. The hairstylist was playing with his phone.

Hearing footsteps, he immediately put down his phone to greet them: “Ladies, are we here for a haircut or a perm?”

Yan Xia said, “I’d like to get a haircut, a bit shorter.”

The hairstylist’s gaze fell on her, and he smiled: “Alright, shall we wash your hair first?”

Yan Xia followed him upstairs to wash her hair. Shang Wandong sat downstairs with nothing to do, so she picked up a fashion magazine and began to read.

Within ten minutes, Yan Xia came down with a towel wrapped around her head.

Her hair was very long, and a single towel was barely enough to wrap it all. The towel over her head even covered half of her eyes. Walking felt heavy and she wobbled.

The stairs were small and cramped. Yan Xia couldn’t see the path very clearly and took each step cautiously, but at the corner, her foot failed to find solid ground.

“!”

Her heart raced with panic as her whole body fell forward uncontrollably.

In the blink of an eye, Yan Xia grabbed the handrail in time, avoiding the tragedy of falling down the stairs.

She let out a long breath of relief, still shaken, but saw that her elbow had accidentally knocked a vase on the shelf. It swayed under the impact and plummeted straight toward Shang Wandong, who was sitting by the stairs!

Seeing it was about to hit her, Yan Xia was horrified and shouted loudly, “Watch out—”

The seated Shang Wandong looked up upon hearing the shout and, as if possessing foreknowledge, reached out her hand and steadily caught the vase.

She paused for a moment, set the vase aside casually, and asked, “Are you okay?”

Yan Xia: “…I should be the one asking you that.”

Why is your vase-catching motion so practiced?! Are you from the circus?!

Shang Wandong shook her head calmly.

Yan Xia walked to Shang Wandong’s side, grabbed her hand to inspect it, and exclaimed: “Sister, your reactions were really fast just now. That was almost a disaster.”

Shang Wandong looked completely composed: “…Just good luck, that’s all.”

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