Reborn As a System

Did time go in reverse?

Shi Qing was in a panicked state. He seriously examined the actions he had just performed in his memory. Although it was only about five or six minutes, he could confirm that Su Rui rushed in and found him with Qin Mo…his face showed how shocked he was before he slammed the door. After that, Shi Qing jumped out of bed and put on his clothes…He had not finished putting on his jacket, and yet he ended up back in bed!

Was it possible that it was a hallucination? Was he merely dreaming?

How could it feel so real? In addition, how could he even come up with such a senseless dream?

Shi Qing did not understand, so he turned around to look at Qin Mo. Qin Mo was not in the same playful mood he had just been in, and his eyes also displayed some misgivings, “Didn’t you put on clothes just a moment ago?” He spoke as if he was merely stating some general facts, while at the same time he reached forward to stroke the other’s waist and held on.

Shi Qing felt very ticklish, and exerted all of his strength to shrink away, then hurried to say, “Yes yes! I definitely left the bed and put on some clothes, got completely ready to go out, but now I’ve come back!”

Qin Mo had just started to talk, but at that time there came a sudden knock at the door.

They both looked at each other with surprise showing in each of their eyes. Just before, Su Rui had definitely rushed directly into their room.

Su Rui’s voice came from outside the door, “Shi Qing! Come quickly and eat breakfast or you’ll be late for your plane!”

Su Rui was talking about being late for the flight that would return them to their home country. Ever since their graduation, except for Shi Qing,they had become very busy people. It was Shi Qing’s birthday, so they had taken that hard to come by time off and spent several days simply relaxing by flying to a beautiful Island destination for a vacation.

After playing for two days, they had spent the last night drinking and got extremely intoxicated. At present, it was the morning they should make their return journey. Although Shi Qing was not very busy, Su Rui had an important meeting and Qin Mo had to go back and preside over a major project.

That was also the reason why Su Rui came and pounded on the door so early in the morning. Shi Qing was the least self-disciplined. He would sleep until he woke up naturally, and today it was estimated that would be when the sky was darkening.

Shi Qing instinctually answered, “Okay, okay.”

At the same time he complained in his heart, how could you think so wrong of me like that?

He jumped out of bed and got dressed. That time, he also specifically looked at the time, seven fifty-five. That point was not bad.

As he put on his clothes, he looked over at Qin Mo and scolded, “Get up! We only have so much time.”

Qin Mo no longer tarried and actually got up.

Shockingly, he directly exited the bed in the nude. Even the blanket just covering his most embarrassing parts had vanished!

He stood there so naturally, displaying his broad chest, strong abs, perfectly long and straight legs. Fuck me, that body, that’s the golden ratio!

Shi Qing told his eyes not to sweep around indiscriminately, but even so he could not help looking at a certain region he should not see.

His face went ‘囧’ with embarrassment…that thing, why is it standing up! Furthermore…it’s so big! What’s up with that completely unscientific size!

His pride as a man had taken a critical hit. Constantly comparing oneself to others would only make one angry. There are others who were much worse! Why is there such a difference? So annoying!

Oh! A thought suddenly dropped down on Shi Qing from heaven, and it was a very vulgar thought. Would the system store have something to improve that thing…………cough… too shameless!

Shi Qing stood up nearby and meticulously dressed himself, buttoning each button carefully, until everything was perfect and then looked up. Qin Mo was still standing there smoothly, with his big comrade standing with him!

Big brother! What are you doing! Is it possible you want to try out streaking?

Qin Mo saw Shi Qing looked at him, so he raised his chin and stated, “I have not learned how to wear these clothes.”

Shi Qing was shocked, but after his first reaction, he saw the sense in those words. Qin Mo was from authentic ancient times, so it was clear that he would not understand how modern-day clothes were worn.

“Come and help me.”

Hearing Qin Mo’s super-natural tone of voice, Shi Qing adopted a calm and collected manner, then walked over to complete his appointed job. He pick up the purple shirt and black pants that had been scattered on the floor began to dress that arrogant idler.

After Qin Mo was all dressed, Shi Qing stepped back to size him up. Ai, ​​the purple shirt and black pants truly make for a showy and enticing look, very handsome!

Once he was done, Shi Qing finally had a certain thought surface in the back of his mind.

Although Qin Mo was a man from ancient times, while they were here he had become a different Qin Mo. In that case, he would have received the memories of the original owner. Even though it was a trifling matter, how was it possible that the original owner had no memories of how to get dressed?

…I was played!

However, there was no sense in looking into it any further. Furthermore, if he was to pursue the matter, he would be the one to lose face in the end. At that time, Shi Qing finally walked out the door.

After he went out, he looked around and found that Su Rui was actually not in the house?

He was somewhat bewildered, but did not think about it any further. He then walked into the bathroom, washed his face with cool water, then rinsed out his mouth.

When he came out, Shi Qing saw that Su Rui was sitting at the table, and the table had been laid out with an excellent breakfast. Shi Qing looked at it with anticipation, he truly was hungry.

After he had sat down, he turned towards Su Rui and bid him good morning. Su Rui merely grunted ‘en’ in acknowledgement but did not raise his head to look at him.

By that time, Qin Mo had also tidied up and joined them. Su Rui just nodded in greeting, not even making any noise that time.

The atmosphere was somewhat awkward, but Shi Qing did not have much to say.

Although the two originally in that world had been friends with Su Rui since they were small children, they were, after all, not the original people. They were able to accept the bodies’ memories, but that was not the same as gaining the feelings—that type of familiarity took time to establish. They needed more time to properly adapt.

At once, Shi Qing started to eat earnestly. It was a typical Western breakfast, very delicate and beautiful, with a pretty good taste. The servings were on the smaller side, so when Shi Qing had finished his last few mouthfuls, he found that his stomach was not fully satisfied. For him, that was the one shortcoming of the meal.

He glanced around and saw a big bottle of milk. After pondering, he decided that he would fill his belly with the drink, since trying to get more food would be troublesome.

He got up with the intention of pouring himself some milk, but accidentally pulled the table-cloth at the same time. In a stroke of bad luck, this knocked over the ketchup and it just so happened to fall towards where Su Rui was seated. The ketchup crashed down and spilled all over him…

Su Rui’s entire face went black. Shi Qing could not help staring blankly, because in his memory……Su Rui could genuinely be considered a very eccentric person. He had many outlandish quirks, and mysophobia was one of them. (t/n: mysophobia is a pathological fear of contamination/germs)

His spotless white shirt was instantly painted red. Even though it mostly landed on his clothes, the unfortunate part was that because it was ketchup, it was sure to soak through to his skin. If one considered that, due to his illness, Su Rui would already bathe ten times on a regular day, then it was simple to imagine that he would likely have to spend the entire day in the bathroom.

Shi Qing hastily apologized, “Ah…Su Rui, I am sorry, I was really too careless.”

At that time, Su Rui did not turn hostile towards Shi Qing, but his complexion had almost turned the same colour of grey as a kitchen pot.

Just as Shi Qing was thinking about how to console that guy so that he would not be too angry, and would not squander all his time in the bathroom……

He felt that familiar dizziness come over him again.

That was no good for his heart!

The next second he felt a burning in his chest. He felt a sudden pressure on his waist, and it turned out that it was a large, misbehaving hand!

Well!

He had returned to the beginning and was laying naked together with Qin Mo, wrapped in the other’s embrace!

Who would dare tell him that it was an illusion, he would fight them! He still remembered the delicious taste of that sandwich just now!

Shi Qing swiftly raised his head and looked up at the clock. Sure enough, the time was really five minutes to eight.

He and Qin Mo did not teleport. As expected, time really had gone in reverse, because they had returned to that original point in time.

But why? Why was time going backwards?

Compared to Shi Qing, who was considering it from all angles, Qin Mo was much more relaxed. He gently caressed and stroked the other’s slender waist,  feeling the smooth skin as he followed the gentle curve. Shi Qing shrunk back at the tickling sensation of the touch, it was truly amusing.

Shi Qing could not handle the ambiguous atmosphere. He turned his head around and looked at Qin Mo, who was exploring his bare body, and asked, “Do you think this has something to do with our mission?”

A save point: one could save a file, then overwrite from that point onwards[1]?

Prior to arriving, Qin Mo was did not know what it meant by a save point. Fortunately, once he received the memory of that Qin Mo’s body, he was clearly able to understand what that meant.

So, they were now at the save point? If someone had a life-saving drive, then they could return and overwrite the file at any time?

Shi Qing followed along that line of thinking and felt that he had touched on the truth. At that time,  there was another knocking sound from outside the door.

Like the second week (Author’s Note 1), Su Rui did not rush into the room. Instead, he shouted from outside the door for the two people to get up.

Shi Qing once again felt that something was wrong. Just as he was thinking that, Qin Mo immediately pointed it out to him, “Su Rui’s words were different from last time.”

“Oh?” Shi Qing looked at him, “Where was the difference?”

“He missed the word quickly.”

Shi Qing stared blankly, remembering back, it seemed that was really the case? Last time Su Rui had said to get up quickly to eat breakfast, that time he just said to come eat breakfast?

He did not think that his memory was too bad, but who could possibly remember that type of insignificant detail?

After he finished thinking about it, he looked at Qin Mo thinking that guy was a monster. He could clearly remember and note the difference of a single word, what was with that ability to remember? Could he just copy and paste like a computer?

However, he did not doubt Qin Mo in any way. That person already had plenty of strange abilities, having a highly retentive memory was not a strange matter.

Since his words had differed, Shi Qing could not help but suspect that the problem was probably on Su Rui’s body.

He supposed that, although Su Rui was their close friend, he had no knowledge of the relationship between Qin Mo and Shi Qing. He had rushed straight in during the first week, saw the two rolling together, and must have been completely blindsided. He did not know how to react properly to that situation.

However, because those two people were his best friends, they could not really talk about it at that point. So, he might as well rewind time and pretend that he had not found out in the first place.

So, for the second week, he chose to knock on the door instead of recklessly walking in.

Originally they should have just continued on fine, but who was Su Rui? An ultra-mysophobic perfectionist that also suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Shi Qing had mentally provoked him early in the morning, followed closely by the ketchup falling all over him. How could bear it?

So, once again they went back…

Therefore, week three was born!

Convinced of that, Shi Qing determined that the focus of their task must be Su Rui. As for the goal of their mission? Shi Qing boldly conjectured, was it not to recover the life-saving drive from Su Rui’s person?

Of course, those were only speculations that required further confirmation.

Shi Qing and Qin Mo followed the same routine as last time. They left the room, went to wash their faces and rinse their mouths, then headed towards the table.

The only thing that made Shi Qing actually feel happy was that the sandwich that he had just eaten had been brought out again. That meant he could eat it again, hehe!

After he finished eating, Shi Qing noticed Su Rui’s expression. He seemed extremely nervous?

Shi Qing thought for a moment and caught on immediately. He suddenly thought he would try testing (teasing) Su Rui.

He got up again and, as expected, Su Rui had a look of great resistance on his face. He deliberately gave the tablecloth a light pull. It was unlikely that amount of strength could knock over the ketchup, but obviously Su Rui did not think so. He stood up and quickly took three large steps back in order to escape.

The tragedy was…because he had stood up too quickly, he caught himself on the tablecloth. With a loud crash, the ketchup was tipped over once again.

The mess that time was even more ruthless…the ketchup sprayed out in a huge arc. Not only did it get on his clothes, even his arms, neck, and face were speckled with red dots.

Su Rui’s face went green.

Shi Qing was dumbfounded. His heart thumped for just a moment, but then he felt that familiar dizziness wash over him.

In the next second, he and Qin Mo were once again in the blanket, wrapped in an embrace…

The author has something to say:

Note 1(straight MTL): Game terminology, the week refers to the game before the customs clearance, the first time to play again, called the second week, and so on. Here, Su Rui reads the file several times. Of course, it can be understood that Qin Mo and Shi Qing hugged several times.

Hey everyone, sorry that I am doing this again. I’m going back to the start of the arc to make one more tiny change. Since SQ for sure refers, in his thoughts, to the item by name that returns to a save point (hereby dubbed ‘life-saving drive’), I will be including it in the little intro they got before coming to this world. Otherwise how could they come up with the same name? See footnote number one for why this is causing me such difficulties. In the end, I hope that you all understand the premise, even if I cannot properly word it to save my life. Looks for my own life-saving drive.

My proofreading got lazy. Let me know if you see any whoopsies.

Merry Christmas!

1. So, once again, we’re back to this jumble. I’m sorry that it’s a bit hard to understand, since even with the help/opinion of others, it doesn’t seem to want to translate smoothly. I think it’s probably best in the original language. It’s something like ‘life-saving drive’, where drive is a hard drive. I have strayed a bit to make it better (according to my opinion). Think of it like a game, a save point is where you can return to once you die/rage quit, but nothing that happens after that remains. So only the portion of the file that was saved is retained. Reminders to all you university students, you should save your essays often. Like, every sentence.