How come you're also my ex-girlfriend?

I felt like my soul was floating in mid-air, unable to feel the existence of my physical body, and unable to adjust my perspective.

Everything around me was blurry and indistinct, a strange feeling like sleep paralysis.

Perhaps the strangest thing is that Xu Yan clearly knows he is dreaming.

Soon, he felt the surrounding mist dissipate, and he gradually gained some perspective.

It seemed to be a coffee shop, with some customers who were only silhouettes but had no faces, and you could vaguely smell the aroma of coffee.

Strange, why would I have such a perception in a dream?

Finally, his perspective drifted to a fixed location: the back view of a man with short hair.

Even though I couldn't see his face clearly, I inexplicably felt that this man had a somewhat weathered and lonely air about him.

He was a down-on-his-luck middle-aged man.

What are you doing?

Suddenly, the sound of wind chimes jingling came from the entrance of the coffee shop.

Before Xu Yan could even see who it was, the man suddenly stood up, his voice trembling slightly.

"You...have arrived?"

The figure that entered appeared to be a slender woman, wearing a large trench coat that almost completely obscured her figure. Xu Yan could only see her long, black hair, but could not see her face.

Her face looked as if it were covered in a fog, then distorted beyond recognition.

Her voice also sounded muffled, like a strange voice processed by AI.

"If I'm not coming back, when are you going to tell me?"

He seemed very angry.

"I...it's not really important, since I'm already married."

Marriage? What kind of infamous scenes of middle-aged men having affairs because they can't control their lust? What does that have to do with me...?

"Xu Yan!"

...Okay, now it's related.

"Did I give you permission to get married? How could you get married secretly!"

Holy crap, you can get married secretly? Unbelievable.

"Listen to me...we have already..."

"I don't want to hear what you have to say. If you don't want me to appear in front of your current wife, then come with me."

"what?"

The woman, whose face was obscured, grabbed the man's hand, and they quickly left the coffee shop.

Xu Yan's perspective shifted rapidly.

We were moved to... a room that looked a lot like a hotel room.

The man said hesitantly, "Don't do this... I'm already married, this isn't fair to her..."

"Did you even think about me when you decided to get married? Is that fair to me?!"

"But...won't it be dangerous if I don't wear it?"

Holy crap. Is this some kind of shameless bastard?! Who on earth is using my name without permission?!

"What are you afraid of? You can just abort it!"

...What the hell did I do here?

The scene abruptly ended as the two were rolling onto the bed.

Xu Yan awoke from his daze.

What happens next? Wait, can't I just buy a membership?!

Okay, that's irrelevant. The important thing is that people don't dream about things that haven't happened for no reason. This man named Xu Yan in the dream... could he really be my future self?

Bad news: I think I'll really be a scumbag from now on.

The good news is that this is something he has never experienced before, and he still has the potential to change the future.

So here's the question.

Who is this woman who keeps pestering me even though she knows I'm already married? And who is this woman who's willing to marry someone who's accomplished nothing?

But even after all this, he hadn't been killed, and all he got was a car accident? Xu Yan wanted to become a staunch materialist, because retribution seemed to have disappeared.

An inexplicable anxiety and uncertainty about the future filled this morning.

How to resolve this situation? Xu Yan felt that the only solution was to make money.

Just as fear stems from insufficient firepower, inferiority stems from a lack of strength.

Xu Yan came out of the kitchen and looked at the Empress Dowager, who had just woken up and looked completely bewildered.

"Mom, call Lao Xu out for breakfast later, I've already made it."

Wang Hui: ?

"Why are you up making breakfast all of a sudden? Huh? Are you running away from home!"

"...I just got up early today and was bored, and luckily there were still ingredients in the kitchen."

Wang Hui looked at Xu Yan suspiciously, "Are you really my son? I heard there's some kind of fake person circulating online lately..."

Whose mom has such fast internet speed?!

Xu Yan yawned helplessly, "Eat it while it's hot, I've already eaten, I'm going to take a nap."

On a weekend morning when other children are sleeping in or staying up all night, you prepare a hearty breakfast for your parents.

[Unlock Achievement: Filial Piety Leads to Greatness.]

[Received 10 achievement points and 1000 yuan!]

Looking at the warm 6000 yuan in savings and 30 achievement points in my account, the cold anxiety was instantly dispelled.

Since things have come to this, I'll take a nap first, and then figure out a way to grind for achievement points.

Xu Yan, who didn't get up until almost noon, ate lunch. During lunch, his mother seemed a little hesitant to speak.

"Son, you don't need to get up so early to make us breakfast anymore. Studying is so tiring, so you should sleep a little longer when you finally get a break."

Xu Yan waved her hand, "Let's not talk about these things, just don't use alternate accounts to try and steal my inheritance."

"You silly child!" The couple laughed and scolded at the same time.

After finishing lunch, Xu Yan said goodbye and went out to see if there were any wild animals he could hunt.

Xu Yan also wanted to try to earn some achievement points on Jiang Yiyao to see what achievements he could unlock, but it seemed that the girl was not at home today and did not tell Xu Yan where she went.

Xu Yan didn't ask, thinking it was probably related to her parents' phone call yesterday.

Your family of origin is indeed a troublesome thing. What's scary is that sometimes it has nothing to do with whether you understand it or not. You may understand everything, but you can't completely break free from it.

If you are weak, those things will be like battering rams, easily shattering the door to your heart.

If you take a hard line, those things will become a slow poison, gradually corroding you until you can no longer bear them.

When I got downstairs in the apartment complex, I saw a few kids playing basketball; they were probably only in elementary school. They weren't playing with any particular strategy; they were basically just chasing after the ball.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Yan came onto the court and easily intercepted the basketball as it flew into the air.

When the children turned their curious gazes toward him, the boy pointed at them without blushing at all.

"I'm giving you a chance to challenge me."

"...Brother, who are you?"

"You know the basketball king of this neighborhood? I've got this court under my wing. Come on, I'll take on all of you one-on-one and see if you can earn my approval."

"But brother, you're so tall..."

"Enough talk. When a man faces a formidable enemy, what he fears is not defeat, but cowardly retreat. Come on, let's fight!"

"fighting!"

Thirty minutes later.

"Waaaah, give me the ball, I want to go home!"

[A strong, almost-adult teenager challenges a group of elementary school students to a basketball game, shattering their basketball dreams with his own hands.]

[Achievement unlocked: Killer of Elementary School Students.]

[Received 10 achievement points and 1000 yuan!]

Huh? A basketball dream? What's that?

What can be easily shattered is not a dream; it has become my achievement points and cash.

However, Xu Yan still treated these elementary school students to a delicious meal of ice cream and drinks, completely eliminating any possibility of them telling their parents.

It's a shame that inviting elementary school students to your home isn't much of an achievement, and neither is throwing trash in the bin? I feel like this system is trying to guide you in a well-intentioned way.

In the evening, Jiang Yiyao returned and set off with Xu Yan to evening self-study.

"Did you go back to your house that afternoon?"

On the way to school, the boy pushing his bicycle suddenly asked.

Jiang Yiyao, standing next to him, didn't have any special expression on her face. As usual, she was proud with a touch of coldness, yet she was full of youthful energy.

"Yeah, those two went to my grandparents' place again. I didn't want to go, but they insisted on having me eat with them, saying that there's no hurdle a family can't overcome..."

Xu Yan is not in a position to comment too much on other people's family affairs at the moment.

He nodded. "That's good. There's always something that can subdue something else."

"It's like we're all enemies in the family," Jiang Yiyao pouted.

Xu Yan grinned and said, "Whether it's there or not isn't for me to say, it has nothing to do with me."

"Stop being disgusting... What did you do this afternoon?"

"Nothing much, just studying hard at home."

"Really? You can study on your own?"

Studying is nothing, I can do it all...

Xu Yan sneered, "Don't forget my goal: to surpass your grades before graduation!"

Jiang Yiyao didn't hold back her sarcasm:

"Before graduation? Don't even think about it until you're reincarnated. You really think you're talented just because you got lucky and got into the experimental class, huh?"

Faced with the enemy's sarcasm, Xu Yan directly used the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger.

"In that case, how about we take another gamble? Let's bet on whether my grades can surpass yours before graduation."

Jiang Yiyao instantly recalled the humiliating incident where she was forced to sing a song for him face to face, and her face flushed slightly.

"Gambling again...Are you a gambling addict? If you can gamble so much, why don't you go to Macau?"

"Stop talking nonsense. If you're not going to dare, then don't use your grades to mock me in the future."

That won't do. That would be worse than killing Jiang Yiyao. If we can't outperform this boy academically, what else can we do? Compare who bleeds more each month?

She was really afraid that Xu Yan would undergo a ritual to cleanse himself.

The girl gritted her teeth and demanded, "How do we bet?"

"If it doesn't work out, you can make any request you want, except for breaking the law, self-harm, and my virginity."

"Don't try to add something worthless... and what if you succeed?"

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at Jiang Yiyao.

Jiang Yiyao immediately covered her chest warily, "What are you doing? Don't be so perverted! There's a bottom line to everything!"

"Mmm-hmm." Xu Yan nodded, then said, "Just let me lick it once."

"...You're a pervert!"

Jiang Yiyao's face immediately turned red. Damn it, how could she have thought Xu Yan was a normal person last night!

Dare to lower yourself any further?!

"Do you dare or not? If you don't dare, then forget it. Just don't bring up your grades again in the future."

Xu Yan was reckless. They knew each other well enough to know each other inside and out, so why would he care about saving face? Whoever benefited was the real deal. Did he really think she'd soften her stance by making him name a condition? Don't be a coward, kid!

"Fine, I'll take the gamble! But not before graduation, before the end of this semester!"

Driven by her passion, Jiang Yiyao disregarded everything and said that since she was already at a higher starting point than him and still had room for improvement, how could he possibly surpass her in this limited time?

He was dreaming! But in the end, he still kept a little shrewdness in mind.

As for what if... well, he didn't say where to lick it.

Xu Yan thought for a moment, "No problem, before the end of this semester."

[He made a bizarre bet with his childhood sweetheart, completely disregarding his image.]

[Achievement unlocked: Not everything that's licked is a dog.]

[Reward: 5 achievement points and 500 yuan.]

Huh? Why is it on sale? But something is better than nothing.

whee.

Seeing the boy pushing his bicycle and leering, Jiang Yiyao felt a pang of regret.

It shouldn't have been agreed to so hastily.

But soon, this emotion transformed into motivation.

It's okay, she'll show him what cruelty is when the semester ends!

……