Always Ending Up as an Animal Cub

In the evening, after finishing his part-time job, Yu Tong returned home as usual. As soon as he arrived at his rental apartment, he was stabbed multiple times by his roommate, Chen Ge.

Each stab was fatal, and Yu Tong didn’t even make a sound. He died quickly and painlessly.
The incident happened so suddenly that Yu Tong hadn’t even recovered from his confusion when his soul was pulled into the system space.
A glowing orb with bean-shaped eyes and a round mouth, claiming to be the system, was staring at Yu Tong’s soul with a cigarette in its mouth, looking melancholic.

【Tsk, how many times have you watched this damn death replay? Can we hurry up and sign the contract? I’m on a tight schedule.】
Yu Tong turned his head in confusion and looked at it. “Did I die?”
【Mhm.】

“Did Chen Ge kill me?”
【Mhm.】
“That doesn’t make sense. We’ve been best friends since childhood, and our relationship was so good. Why did he kill me?”

【How would I know? I’m just a ball.】
Seeing that his new host was re-watching his death replay, the system sighed deeply and blew a smoke ring.
【Here’s the deal. You sign the contract with me, become my host, complete tasks, and I’ll revive you. After that, you can figure out what happened, whether you confront that... whatever he is or just think it over yourself. The choice is yours. Let’s sign the contract first. I’m in a hurry.】

Having already died, Yu Tong had no other choice.
He closed the replay, lifted his head, and stared blankly at the system in front of him.
Yu Tong had read so many novels, but he had never seen a system ball that wore a big gold chain and had a tattoo of Guan Yu on its body.

The pure white orb had dressed itself up like a colorful glass bead. It looked awkward no matter how you looked at it.
Yu Tong had just started his first year of college. During the summer, he and Chen Ge went to the big city to work part-time to earn tuition fees. Chen Ge was a few years older, handsome, kind-hearted, and had always taken care of Yu Tong.
He just couldn’t understand why Chen Ge would stab him.

After signing the contract, Yu Tong crouched back into a corner, continuing to think things through.
Had his secret smoking, drinking, and tattooing been exposed? Or had Chen Ge found out when he went to a gay bar to dance?
Maybe Chen Ge had thought his pure and cute "little brother" persona had collapsed and, in a fit of rage, stabbed him?
But he hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t messed around. He just sang, danced, and went to clubs. That wasn’t enough of a crime to deserve death.

The system took the contract, smoked a cigarette, and sized up its new host.
The new host was barely an adult, still in college and hadn’t yet entered society. His eyes were clear and innocent.
In addition, Yu Tong was naturally cute, with a baby face, pale skin, and drooping eyes, making him look particularly pure and obedient.

The system was very satisfied.
It liked obedient ones who didn’t make trouble.
The system handed Yu Tong the main information, then ran off to register his information.

Yu Tong stayed behind, flipping through the file.
The file’s content could be divided into three parts.

The first part was the system's self-introduction.

System ID 8102 worked in the antagonist department of the fast-travel company. Before it upgraded, 8102 had managed six hosts.
Due to its strong work performance, it had been promoted to a "role model" system, and Yu Tong was its first host after its promotion.
The second part was the task introduction.

As a host, Yu Tong would be sent to different novel worlds.
He would need to find a way to get close to the target character, gain their trust, and turn the original villainous character into a kind-hearted "sunshine."
The third part was the outline of the novel world Yu Tong was going to and the introduction of the target character.

The basic tags for the novel were male-oriented, fast-paced action, urban cultivation, and revenge.
The male lead was originally an ordinary person but, after accidentally binding with the Immortal King system, his abilities exploded. He recruits subordinates, collects beauties, and crushes all geniuses along the way, eventually becoming a legendary figure.
Yu Tong's target character was one of the geniuses who had been repeatedly humiliated by the male lead, Yun Mingchen, the heir of the Yun family, a cultivation family.

When the system returned, Yu Tong had already snapped out of his confusion and was sulking with his head down.
His delivery had just arrived, but he hadn’t opened it yet. The fried chicken he had just bought, his favorite honey mustard flavor, was still untouched.
Damn it. He even brought Chen Ge some fried chicken.

Yu Tong, the victim, was trembling with anger. The system thought he was crying and handed him a tissue.
【Poor thing, don’t think too much. You died, but you're still alive, right? It's not a big deal. Look at me. I don't even look human. I was born as a ball, and I’m still doing fine.】
Yu Tong: …?

The system, holding its cigarette, patted his back with its little stick-figure hands while explaining the task.
【I will send you to the target’s side before he does anything bad. At that time, the °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° target’s only flaw was his character. He wasn’t a bad person yet.】
【You can check the target’s character deviation value here. The higher the deviation, the greater the gap between the villain and the original character, meaning the less likely he is to follow the original story's plot.】

‘I don’t understand. What affects the deviation value specifically?’
【Personality, values, understanding of right and wrong, etc. These all affect the value. The calculation is very complex, I can’t explain it clearly right now, but you’ll understand later.】
【I know you feel bad since you just died, but don’t be too sad. There’s nothing you can’t get over in this world. Think about something good, like what you’ll do after being revived.】

‘Stab Chen Ge.’
The system: ???
Huh?

At the Empire’s top cultivation academy, Yun Mingchen was holding an umbrella, walking quickly toward the teaching building.
It had just rained heavily, and lightning occasionally flashed between the dark clouds.
If it weren’t for the school rule that prohibited sword flying on rainy days, Yun Mingchen would have flown directly.

Recently, there had been a new student named Su, who had always had conflicts with him.
Before entering the academy, Su had been an ordinary person with no cultivation experience. Yet, within less than a year of attending, he had defeated Yun Mingchen in the sword contest.
Yun Mingchen had gone from the academy's number one to second place. Even his friends, who had always admired him, voluntarily ran to become Su’s underlings.

After the contest, he secluded himself to cultivate and improve.

This morning, he had just finished his closed-door training, and his strength had increased significantly. He felt great. His sister and friend were in the teaching building with Su, doing who knows what.
Yun Mingchen planned to challenge Su. As long as he displayed enough strength, his sister and friend would return to his side.

Thinking he hadn’t yet memorized his opponent’s name was somewhat impolite, Yun Mingchen stopped, took out his phone, and logged into the campus forum with a secondary account.
In an old post related to the sword contest, he found Su’s full name.
Oh, it’s Su Feng.

Just as he was about to put his phone away, a post caught his attention.
【Just a passerby, rational analysis, who is the true genius of the academy, Su Feng or Yun Mingchen.】
Yun Mingchen looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then lowered his umbrella and secretly opened the post. He liked all the comments supporting him.

After putting his phone down, Yun Mingchen turned to look at a flower bed not far away.
From the moment he entered this small path, he had felt someone watching him.
Glancing at the surveillance camera on the wall, Yun Mingchen adjusted his position and smiled gently.

“The rain is so heavy today, and the flower bed is muddy. It’s not a good place to hide. You’ve been watching me the whole way; you should come out now.”
The grass in the flower bed began to shake. After a while, a mud ball poked its head out from the bushes.
Yun Mingchen squinted his eyes and looked carefully but couldn’t tell whether it was a kitten, puppy, or a big rat.

As Yun Mingchen bent down to observe the mud ball, Yu Tong, now in his new form, also looked up at him.
He blinked in confusion. “System, the villain is handsome, but he’s really tall.”
The system, guilty, took a puff of its cigarette.

‘Are these plants and trees also this big because it’s a cultivation world, with abundant spiritual energy?’
【Sigh, at least it’s a living thing. Just make do with it.】
The system muttered to itself, ignoring him. Yu Tong turned his head and tried to greet the villain, “Meow?”

His sudden meow not only startled Yun Mingchen but also scared himself.
Yu Tong quickly rubbed the dirt off his body on the flower bed’s edge, then looked down at his hands.
Once slender and pale hands, now turned into blackened cat paws.

A lot of questions flashed through Yu Tong’s mind.
Where is he? Who is he? Is he still human?
The system, just having escaped reality, was busy reporting an error and had no time to talk to Yu Tong.

On the way, 8102 had told him that it would send him to a critical point in the early stages.
The villain, Yun Mingchen, would try to cause trouble for the male lead today, only to be humiliated and slapped in the face by him.
He would lose face in front of everyone, his character would twist completely, and he would fall down the path of self-destruction.

8102 had emphasized that this plot was crucial, and it had to stop the villain from confronting the male lead.
Seeing that Yun Mingchen had lost interest in him and was about to leave, Yu Tong didn’t hesitate to ignore his own confusion about being a human or a cat. He meowed and rushed out, pouncing on the villain’s boot and clinging to it.
Yun Mingchen lowered his head in confusion and met a pair of golden cat eyes.

A dirty, unidentifiable kitten seemed to like him. It meowed and frantically kneaded his boot.
Yun Mingchen’s smile froze.
His white shoes...

And for some reason, he felt like he read four words in the kitten's eyes.
‘Man, hug me.’