Chapter 1

On a hospital bed in the corridor, Xu Bin lay with his head wrapped in bandages and an IV drip attached, the bloodstains on his face and body still not cleaned off.

Beside him sat his mother-in-law, Shen Ruyu, her face livid with fury as she raged, “Are you blind? You dare provoke anyone you see.”

“You’re just a lowly security guard, yet you had the nerve to stop the boss’s wife’s car. You must have a death wish.”

Xu Bin kept his head down, enduring her scolding, his mind drifting back to how he ended up in the hospital.

Xu Bin was a security guard at the entrance of Xinhui Real Estate. At the time, a Ferrari had stopped at the gate, honking incessantly as if demanding immediate attention.

Xu Bin rushed out and said, “Miss, this is the employee parking lot. Visitors, please park in the underground garage.”

The window of the Ferrari rolled down, revealing a beautiful young woman with wavy hair and sunglasses. She exploded in anger at his words, ripping off her sunglasses and hurling them at him. “You stinking security guard, who are you calling ‘miss’? Who’s a miss?”

“No, I didn’t mean that.”

Xu Bin patiently explained, “This barrier is electronically controlled. Only vehicles with registered license plates can enter.”

“That old bastard didn’t even register my plate, did he!”

The woman in the Ferrari grew even more furious upon hearing this and stomped on the accelerator, crashing through the barrier.

As the red Ferrari sped into the company, the shattered barrier struck Xu Bin on the head, knocking him unconscious. When he woke up, he was already in the hospital.

His wife, Yao Nan, returned after paying the fees. Seeing her mother fuming, she cautiously said, “Mom, it wasn’t Xu Bin’s fault.”

“Not his fault? If he hadn’t been running his mouth, would this disaster have happened?”

Shen Ruyu grew even angrier at this, slapping the hospital bed as she ranted, “He finally found a job, and within two days, he’s already offended the boss’s wife. I told you back then, you were blind to fall for such a poor, useless good-for-nothing.”

Shen Ruyu, just forty, was in her prime, exuding a fierce, untamed energy. Her delicately styled curls gave her a seductive look, and though faint crow’s feet lined her eyes, her refined features and light makeup made her strikingly beautiful. It was no exaggeration to say she still possessed a lingering charm.

In her youth, she had been a renowned beauty in the neighborhood. Tall and slender, her figure had now become slightly fuller—not from weight gain but from maturity, a stunningly sensual allure.

With a voluptuous chest and hips, her curves were perfectly proportioned, a body of pure temptation. At that moment, she wore a low-cut top, and with every movement, her cleavage and the pale flesh of her breasts swayed, impossible to conceal even with a bra.

Xu Bin couldn’t help but steal a glance, swallowing unconsciously. His mother-in-law’s figure was practically a bombshell; no matter how conservatively she dressed, the imminent burst of her chest was unmistakable.

His wife, Yao Nan, didn’t notice her husband’s wandering eyes. Scolded by her mother, she hung her head in silence.

Shen Ruyu’s marriage had been unhappy, and her temper was notoriously fierce—a true tigress. Sharp-tongued and bitter, her menopausal phase only amplified her harshness. When she got angry, it was genuinely terrifying.

“What did the doctor say?”

After ranting for a while, Shen Ruyu finally demanded angrily, “If there’s no hope, just let him wait to die.”

Yao Nan cautiously replied, “Mom, the doctor said he has a concussion and needs to be observed overnight.”

“This loser already has a bad brain; what’s there to observe?”

Shen Ruyu stood up, grabbed her bag, and said, “You stay here. I don’t want to see this waste of space.”

With that, Shen Ruyu left. Yao Nan gave a bitter smile, sat down by the hospital bed, and softly asked, “Honey, are you okay?”

“A bit dizzy.”

Xu Bin felt dazed and wronged, sighing, “Wife, I really don’t know what Mom was thinking. A security guard job only pays four thousand a month, and she said it was through connections.”

“Xinhui Real Estate is a leading company, after all.”

Yao Nan comforted him, “Mom was just thinking of your best interests.”

Xu Bin didn’t want to complain further. His mother-in-law was vain, unwilling to support freelance work. It was all about saving face—when others asked, she could boast that he worked at Xinhui Real Estate.

“Rest easy. Your aunt will look into your work situation, and the medical expenses will definitely be compensated.”

A nurse came to administer the IV drip, and his wife, Yao Nan, sat gently by his side, sighing helplessly.

Xu Bin lay down, gazing hazily at his wife. From start to finish, she could only be described with one word: ordinary.

She was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, with a flat chest and equally unremarkable hips. Her features were plain—not beautiful, not ugly—and a birthmark on her face made her deeply self-conscious.

The Yao family had three daughters. The eldest, Yao Xin, was tall, stunning, and an ultimate seductress. The youngest, Yao Le’er, was a petite, baby-faced beauty with a voluptuous figure. And the mother-in-law was a mature, alluring enchantress.

Under their radiance, Yao Nan seemed like the ugly duckling by comparison. It was said that her father, Yao Baichuan, had even conducted a paternity test, suspecting this unattractive daughter wasn’t his.

Since marrying into the Yao family, Xu Bin had lived a stifling life. If there was one thing that kept him going, it was probably his wife’s gentleness.

“Sleep well, don’t overthink it.”

Yao Nan lowered her head self-consciously, holding her husband’s hand.

Xu Bin closed his eyes in a daze, feeling as if he were dreaming. Before him, a massive computer screen flickered with static.

“Signal connection successful…”

“Brainwave frequency stable, establishing network connection…”

“Gene database backup complete, data calculations verified, beginning host binding…”

Xu Bin’s eyes widened as his body convulsed. He opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a single word.

After the strange voice sounded, intense pain wracked his entire body. Xu Bin could distinctly feel every cell suffering an electric shock-like agony.

Under the excruciating pain, his physical body fainted again, but his consciousness snapped awake in an instant.

Xu Bin found himself in a four-dimensional space, surrounded by lines of code flashing rapidly past, accompanied by that hallucinatory, icy voice:

“Binding successful. Host: Xu Bin, human, male, 25 years old…”

“Analyzing various data, continuously collecting genetic data…”

Xu Bin shouted anxiously, “Wait, what are you?!”

The speeding code around him made Xu Bin dizzy. Then, a monitor appeared before him, a massive screen lighting up:

“Host, it is an honor to successfully pair with you.”

“Host, you, what are you?”

Xu Bin felt his mind spinning; this dream was exceptionally bizarre.

“I am a system, a system summoned by you!”

The monitor suddenly extended a USB interface, forcefully connecting to Xu Bin’s brain. Xu Bin watched in terror as the interface vanished into his forehead.

In a distant, advanced civilization, technology no longer required physical form. This technological system, stranded on Earth, had been gathering data on low-level creatures like humans, slowly taking shape but never able to activate.

Today, Xu Bin’s brain had suffered severe trauma, which should have resulted in brain death. But the sudden, intense fluctuation of his brainwaves perfectly matched its frequency. The genetic calculations aligned, and in an instant, he became its host.