"System," Feng Yongrui quickly called.
"You're sure that no one can see me, right?" Feng Yongrui whispered.
"I am 100% sure, Host," the System replied.
"T-then how come there's a ghost calling me?" Feng Yongrui yelled internally.
"Hey!" the voice spoke again. This time, it was louder and more pronounced. When Feng Yongrui heard it, though, he realized that this was a child's voice.
"I'm talking to you. If you can hear me, then listen to my instructions," the voice said.
Feng Yongrui froze, not daring to move to breath too loudly. But inside his head, he was talking to the System at lightning speed.
"This person can't see me, right? So is he talking to me or someone else?" Feng Yongrui asked.
"To you, I think, Host..."
"Then how does he know about my presence?" Feng Yongrui asked.
"Hmm... Perhaps it's because of the water spell that you used?" the System suggested.
"The water spell?" Feng Yongrui furrowed his brows.
"Ah! The one where I made the water particles turn into small blades! Are you talking about that?" Feng Yongrui asked.
"Correct, Host. While others cannot see you, if you use your magic and materialize the water into blades like that, people can still see those water blades..." the System explained.
Feng Yongrui sighed. "Why didn't you warn me about that earlier..."
System: You didn't ask.
"If you can hear me, start walking away from Lilith before she notices you. Just walk in the opposite direction," the voice instructed.
Feng Yongrui bit his lips and decided to obey this voice for now. Anyway, if this mysterious person had evil intentions... he would be able to escape with the help of the System.
Feng Yongrui walked away from Lilith and He Yi, waiting for the voice to continue. After walking for a few minutes, he heard the voice talking to him again.
"Are you already far away from Lilith? If you're pretty far already, then you should try to find a wall on your right side. Hold on to the wall and walk for another hundred steps."
Feng Yongrui obeyed the voice, stretched out his right hand, and felt the rough texture of a stone wall. After a hundred steps, he stopped and waited.
"Are you done?" the voice asked. "I can't see you, so I don't even know if you're still here. Tsk, now it seems like I'm talking to myself," the childish voice grumbled.
"Hey, if you're still here, listen up. Use your right hand and look for a groove in the wall. Once you find the groove, use a bit of magical prowess and push it as hard as you can."
Feng Yongrui could not see anything, so he relied on his sense of touch to look for the groove. When he felt a strange indentation in the rocks, Feng Yongrui pressed it as hard as he could.
Feng Yongrui felt the stone underneath him press downward and he heard a 'click' sound. Almost immediately, a door opened on his right side, the light spilling in through the crack.
"You're here!" Feng Yongrui heard the voice cry excitedly.
"Hurry up and come inside! Don't let Lilith find out that you're here!" the voice added.
Feng Yongrui took a deep breath and entered the room. Quickly, he turned around and shut the door behind him. Only when the door was closed properly did Feng Yongrui turn around and look at his surroundings.
This room was very bright, and Feng Yongrui had to blink a few times to adjust to the lighting. The room was actually rather spacious, with light blue walls and small white pearls hanging from the ceiling.
The first thing that Feng Yongrui saw was a young child sitting inside an opened seashell, right in the middle of the room. The child had a delicate, slightly chubby face. The most striking thing about this child was the fact that he had long, snow-white hair.
Upon closer inspection, Feng Yongrui saw that this child was actually tied up. There were two red electric rings that bound the child's hands together. Feng Yongrui walked two steps forward and stopped.
He didn't sense any malicious intentions from the child, but that didn't mean he would let down his guard and approach the child. What if this kid had some hidden weapons?
"Hey. You're here already, so why aren't you showing yourself?" the child spoke rather angrily.
"I've led you here and I helped you run away from Lilith, so why are you still so afraid?"
Feng Yongrui still did not reply. Instead, he looked at the child and began to talk with the System.
"Is there anyone in the original timeline who has white hair? He's a kid... But I don't know his real age," Feng Yongrui muttered. After all, people who were several hundred years old were still considered young in this world.
"Host, please wait," the System was silent for a while.
"Host, there is no information about this person," the System stated.
Feng Yongrui sighed. "Why do you always miss the important information that I need to know?" he muttered.
The System felt wronged. "Host, this world is relatively easy... So the higher-ups gave us the information that we might need only. In the information that we received, we only have the basic information about this world and the general direction of events... The information I have isn't that detailed..."
"Still, though..." Feng Yongrui groaned.
"Host, this can't be blamed on me," the System continued to defend itself. "If you had just stayed at home obediently and made your daily reports wholeheartedly, none of this would've happened."
Feng Yongrui felt his blood pressure rising. Was this his fault that he was running around in the middle of the night?
"If you want to blame someone, blame my Boss!" Feng Yongrui retorted. "Didn't you say my task in this world is just to be a spy, write my daily reports, and support my Boss to the throne?"
"W-well..."
"The one who asked me to find out Xu Chao's schedule was my Boss. I got into this situation because of him, you know. You can't blame me on this..." Feng Yongrui said.
The System was at a loss for words and could not come up with a retort.
***
Meanwhile, in the heart of the Phantom Realm, a young man in his twenties was looking through a bunch of reports when he sneezed. Immediately, Xiao Niao, who was by his side, looked concernedly at his master.
"Master! Are you alright?" Xiao Niao asked.
He had been serving his master for hundreds of years... Why was his master sneezing now?
"I'm fine," the man waved his hand quickly.
He looked to the side and sighed. He still had a lot of work to do.
"What day is it today?" the man asked.
"Today is the third day of the week," Xiao Niao replied almost immediately.
"Oh..." the man could not help feeling disappointed. Whenever he had lots of work like this, he would need a stress reliever...
And what better way to relief his stress than by reading those ridiculous reports from The Creative Writer? After all, being able to write something like that needed... talent...
The man tapped the table impatiently. It seemed he had to wait a few more days before he could get those reports...
***
"I know you're here," the child said. Sighing, the child looked blankly at the open space in front of him.
He could not see Feng Yongrui, but he knew that someone was here.
"You must be curious, right? Who am I? Why did I help you? How did I find you?" the child smirked.
"I saved you from Lilith, you know. When you were trapped inside the Illusion array, you shot out some water blades, right?" the child grinned.
Feng Yongrui pursed his lips. As expected. He was exposed because of those water blades...
"Do you know that your water blades almost hit Lilith? Think about it, if they really hit her, wouldn't she have found out about your existence? After all, He Yi doesn't have water-based magical prowess," the child said.
Feng Yongrui began to talk. He did not take off his Invisibility Spell, but he spoke out loud so that the child could hear him.
"So, how did you save me?" Feng Yongrui asked.
"Ah, you're finally talking," the child's face lit up with joy. "I almost thought you were a mute~"
Feng Yongrui felt his eyes twitching. The way this child spoke... was similar to the System!
"I destroyed your water blades before they could hit Lilith," the child replied.
"...Why did you help me?" Feng Yongrui asked.
"Wrong," the child shook his head. "You should be saying 'thank you, how can I repay you?'"
"You do know that I can't trust you, right?" Feng Yongrui retorted.
"Well. I didn't ask you to trust me, right?" the boy fired back.
Feng Yongrui rolled his eyes. "Who are you and what are you doing here? What's your relationship with Lilith?"
The boy was silent for a while, and Feng Yongrui observed the boy's expression. Why did he seem... a little bit sad...?
***