The System.

Ring... ring... ring...

The sound of the alarm clock at six in the morning rings incessantly, Claude Young hastily reaches out to stop the alarm clock, yawns deeply, and then leaves the warmth of his bed. Today is the start of the week, close to the final exams, so Claude Young stayed up very late studying.

The sound of a long yawn still echoes in the room, and outside the door, the hurried voice of Mr. Young, Claude's father, calls out: "You lazy bum, what time do you think it is to still be sprawled out in bed, get up quickly, go wash your face and have breakfast, I still have to go to work!"

"Yes, I know!"

Hearing his father's voice, Claude quickly jumps out of bed, rushes to the toilet, then Mrs. Young, Claude's mother, shouts loudly: "What's with you two dragging your feet, breakfast is all ready, hurry up and eat before it gets cold!"

Mr. Young's voice: "Dear, what did you cook for the two of us today?"

"Shrimp noodle soup with egg!"

Mrs. Young's curt reply, followed by Mr. Young's grumbling voice: "Dear, it's been shrimp noodles all week, can't we have something different for a change?"

"Yes!"

Again, that blunt voice from Mrs. Young. Before Mr. Young could rejoice, he hears Mrs. Young calmly reply: "Egg shrimp noodles! Will you two eat it?"

"We will!"

Mr. Young's defeated voice responds. Then, hearing Mrs. Young's snorting as she goes into the kitchen. By this time, Claude has also finished his personal hygiene, hurriedly puts on his school clothes, and scurries to sit down at the dining table. As soon as Mr. Young sees Claude, he glares: "You little rascal! Is it because of your dawdling that your mother has been feeding me shrimp noodles all week?!"

Claude, eating his shrimp noodles, looks up slightly annoyed upon hearing this. He immediately sees a glare as sharp as bullets directed at him: "Am I wrong to look! Eat up quickly!"

Thump!

A sound so vivid it seems to travel centimeter by centimeter to Claude's ears. Claude can't help but cover his head with his hand and rub it.

"Dad, why did you hit me!"

"Your sight annoys me, so why can't I hit you? Eat up quickly, you little devil!"

Claude seems a bit aggrieved, he can only try to finish his bowl of noodles, then follows his father out. As they get on the bike, Mr. Young hands Claude the Twent dollar.

"You little devil, this is the money I secretly saved from your mom for smoking! Use it to find something nutritious to eat at school! Your mom has been tightening the budget lately, that's all I have left! Try hard in your studies and exams, you hear?"

Claude feels a sting in the corner of his eyes...

Thump!

"What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and get on the bike, I'm late for work now!"

Rubbing his head and feeling disgruntled, Claude climbs onto his father's old motorbike, quickly stuffing the  Twent dollar into his pocket.

Upon arriving at school, while his classmates are still frolicking outside the gate, he silently takes out his books to review for the exam and do some additional exercises in class. Just then, there's a slight rustling sound outside the window. Claude slightly lifts his head to look outside, but sees no one there. He bends down again to continue his exercises. But after writing a few words, that sound once again rings in his ear.

Claude looked up again, almost screaming in fear. Fortunately, he managed to calm down, his face slightly annoyed.

"Hey, don't you guys have anything better to do than to skulk around here trying to scare me? Do you think you can just approach me because I'm handsome?"

A girl in a school uniform stood outside the window, her eyes wide as she looked at him, seemingly familiar with his grandiose manner of speaking, only smiling and saying: "Do you want to go out and play? I just found this place, it's really cool!"

Claude, still pretending to be diligently taking notes, slightly lifted his head, feigning indifference: "Exams are coming, shouldn't you be studying instead of playing? I'm not going, you go by yourself!"

"Really, you're not going? You'll regret it!"

"Psh, what's with the mysterious act? You planning to trick handsome Claude here? Dream on!"

"Hehe, really not going? Then I'll go ask someone else to come with me!"

"…"

Seeing the girl about to leave, Claude immediately dropped his pretense and jumped up, dashing out the window.

The girl looked up at Claude with her big, round eyes, smiling joyfully.

"Hehe, I thought you didn't want to go? Weren't you busy studying for exams?"

Claude, shameless, patted his chest and said: "This is me worrying about you being taken advantage of by bad people, so I'm coming along to protect you! How about it, don't I look handsome now?"

"Hehehe, slightly!"

"Hey, what do you mean 'slightly'? You should say 'extremely handsome, incredibly charming, beyond…'"

Claude was about to go on another tirade, but the girl had already run off, and he could only tuck his legs in and chase after her, calling out: "Rosalie, wait for me! Wait up!"

This girl, named Rosalie Cooper, was a new friend Claude had made not long ago. Because Claude's school was undergoing renovations, his class had been moved to a building adjacent to an old apartment complex for over a week. Rosalie Cooper had also just moved to this apartment complex more than a week ago. Claude had only accidentally met Rosalie a few times, found her cute and lovely, and of similar age, so they started talking. But besides Claude, Rosalie hardly interacted with anyone else. It was always Rosalie who sought Claude out to talk first.

At this moment, the schoolyard was quite crowded with students. Some classmates of Claude, seeing him running and calling out like that, shook their heads.

"What's with Claude? Ever since our class moved to this building a week ago, I've seen him talking to himself like that?"

"Is it because he's stressed about the exams that he's losing his mind?"

"Who knows? This guy has always been quiet, only known for being good at studying!"

…

Claude did not hear the whispers of his classmates, as he was busy chasing after Rosalie. Not sure how, but they ended up running to a deserted road, surrounded by tall grass and old, time-stained walls.

Claude was curious and wanted to speak up, when Rosalie turned her head to look at Claude with a smile, an incredibly charming smile: "Master, come here quickly!"

Claude saw in Rosalie's eyes at that moment a deep, engulfing darkness. Inside it seemed to contain an entire vast galaxy, wanting to suck Claude's soul into it. He was startled and snapped back to reality, only to find Rosalie was nowhere to be seen. And the surroundings had completely changed. Gone were the old walls, stained and pitted with the marks of time. No longer were there tall weeds as high as a person. In front of Claude was a dense primeval forest, with trees so large that three or four people could not embrace them, some even larger than the classroom Claude sat in every day. The tree canopies rose high, casting shade, almost hiding the sky, with only a few rays of sunlight filtering through the leaves, shining down on Claude.

While he was dumbfounded, Rosalie's voice suddenly echoed in Claude's head.

"Welcome, master, to our world! Please confirm ownership so that I can complete the operation process!"

Claude's mind went blank. At this moment, Claude could feel a shiny golden book appearing in his mind, with Rosalie, only the size of a child's hand, standing on the book, floating, and speaking to him.

What was happening?

While Claude Young was still dazed and confused, Rosalie's voice echoed once again: "Since the master has not confirmed, the system will automatically activate, starting the activation process…"

"Beep… beep…"

"Activation process… ninety percent…"

"Beep… beep…"

"Activation successful! Welcome, master, to becoming the nine thousand nine hundred ninety-ninth member of the New Era Company!"

"Congratulations, master, on receiving a newcomer gift package and a profession gift package!"

"Would the master like to open the newcomer gift package?"

At this point, Claude Young was still very dazed. He saw Rosalie spinning in front of him, though now Rosalie was only as small as a little hand, but her face was completely indistinguishable from Rosalie's face that he had seen these past few days. Finally, Claude managed to speak dryly.

"What exactly is happening to me?"

"Dear master, we are members of the New Era Company, from a space more than nine million light-years away from Earth. Our company specializes in receiving orders from all dimensions across the entire galaxy, to transport main characters to places that require them. And you, master, are the nine thousand nine hundred ninety-ninth member selected by our company. On behalf of the New Era Company, I sincerely thank the master for cooperating with our company, to a completely new dimension."

"What's all this about New Era and Old Era, I don't want to be here, I don't want to be any main character! I just want to go home! Send me home right now!"

Claude was nearly shouting at Rosalie. Rosalie's face turned slightly embarrassed as she said: "I'm truly very sorry, master! This is the first time I've taken on a mission, so I forgot the coordinates to take you back home! Currently, I'm also unable to contact anyone from the company, so please, master, forgive me…"