The Discs That Appeared Out of Nowhere

"Qin Guan! Qin Guan! Open the door! Open up!"

Rapid knocks came from outside the room. Qin Guan opened his eyes, which were still heavy with sleep, and cast a glance at his phone—it was three thirty in the morning.

Qin Guan rolled off his bed, still dazed with sleep. He did not even bother to smooth out the wrinkles on his pajamas before going straight to the door. He opened it and said angrily, "Su Xiaoyu, do you have any idea what time it is now?"

Su Xiaoyu did not have any makeup on, but she usually did not bother with putting it on. However, her extraordinarily beautiful looks still made her very eye-catching.

Furthermore, by the age of sixteen, she could already be considered to have become a fully grown woman. If it was not because they had stayed together for around ten years, Qin Guan might not have been able to help himself and would have fallen for her.

Su Xiaoyu was also in her pajamas. There was a tiny hint of alarm on her face, making it easy to tell that she had been shocked awake by a dream.

"Did you… have a nightmare?" Qin Guan asked, a little puzzled.

Around ten years of living together gave Qin Guan a good understanding of this little sister of his who was younger than him by three years. That was why he knew that knocking on his door just because she was shocked awake by a nightmare was definitely not something Su Xuanyu would do.

After all, she was the model child since she was young.

Qin Guan was nineteen years old, and he was a sophomore in university, while Su Xiaoyu was sixteen years old and already a junior in university…

Yes, this was how cruel reality was. Su Xiaoyu had skipped grades during the nine years of compulsory education and had become Qin Guan's senior. When the two of them occasionally argued, she would often use this to embarrass him.

Every single time a person asked, "Xiaoyu, you both went through the same nine years of compulsory education, so why are you so smart? Did you secretly go to cram school or something?"

Su Xiaoyu would answer confidently and boldly, "No, it's naturally because I skipped grades!"

And the more frustrating fact was that not only did Su Xiaoyu win against him in terms of studies, she also won against him in other areas. 

In other people's eyes, Qin Guan was a person who scored high in exams, but had low abilities in other areas. If he was bad even at studying, it would have been impossible for him to be in the same university as Su Xiaoyu.

However, when it came to the other aspects, things were very awkward for him.

In other words, he could only do the basic chores in the apartment, such as sweeping the floor, washing the dishes, and other simple things. The other tasks such as cooking, cleaning the rooms, buying clothes, and everything else was done by Su Xiaoyu.

It was not that Qin Guan was lazy, but that he was not allowed to mess things up for Su Xiaoyu…

This meant that besides winning against Qin Guan in academics by a huge mile, Su Xiaoyu also completely obliterated him in every other aspect in life. It was to the point that he was not even worth a speck of dust on her clothes.

Perhaps the only thing about which Qin Guan could boast a little was his gaming skill; he was a better gamer than Su Xiaoyu. The problem with this though was that it was not included in the criteria for traditional assessments in life!

When the other families praised their children, they would always praise them for good academic results, that they were obedient, or talented in some sort of skill. No one would praise their children for being very good in games… unless they won second place worldwide in esports and they had their videos to Tucao [1], right?

Clearly, the two siblings who were not related by blood had a difference as great as night and day in terms of genes and intelligence…

That was why for a long period of time, Su Xiaoyu was the only one among the two who could look down on the other, and there was never an instance when the reverse happened.

In fact, Su Xiaoyu often considered herself as Qin Guan's senior. She always appeared to be relaxed and in control, so why was she suddenly acting so out of character and knocking on the door in the middle of the night?

It was illogical.

Yet Su Xiaoyu was clearly still panicking. Qin Guan could also tell that she was trying her hardest to make herself calm down. "Qin Guan, there's someone in my head, and it keeps talking to me!"

Qin Guan had not switched on the light in his room, but the light in the living room was on.

With its help, he suddenly noticed that Su Xiaoyu had a small disc on her right temple.

The disc was the size of a coin, and it was hollow in the center. It seemed to be made of some sort of metal and resembled an accessory. It was very pretty and did not seem out of place on her, but it was still very eye-catching.

Qin Guan remembered very clearly that the girl didn't have that thing on her temple when they ate dinner. She would also not have a sudden strike of idiocy and attach that sort of thing as an accessory to her face out of nowhere.

Qin Guan's drowsiness vanished in an instant. He switched on the light in his room and led Su Xiaoyu to the living room to sit down. He poured a glass of water for her.

"Calm down. Tell me what happened."

Qin Guan saw the disc even clearer now that he was under the light in the living room. It was a silvery-gray metallic disc which was clearly not an accessory. It looked like it had fused with Su Xiaoyu's skin.

In fact, Qin Guan had a feeling that this thing was the culprit behind why Su Xiaoyu said that someone kept talking in her head. There was even a possibility that it was connected to her brain, so he could not extract it recklessly.

Su Xiaoyu took two sips from her glass, and during that period of time, she recovered her rationality. She smoothed out her thoughts before saying, "I was sleeping when I suddenly heard a voice. It woke me up. I thought I was dreaming at first, but there seemed to be someone who kept talking to me…"

"Wait. You said this voice kept talking to you? Is it still talking?" Qin Guan asked.

Su Xiaoyu shook her head. "It's not talking to me now, because I told it to stop just now. The voice disappeared right after."

"How did that voice sound?" Qin Guan asked.

Su Xiaoyu recalled what had happened. "It was… an emotionless, electronic voice. And it said many things I didn't understand. It felt as if it was trying to explain something to me…"

Qin Guan frowned. He thought for a moment before he said, "Why don't you try asking it what is going on?"

...

Qin Guan no longer felt sleepy.

No matter what, this matter surpassed his understanding. In fact, this was not something that could be explained by science.

He took out a can of Coca-Cola from the fridge and turned on his computer in an attempt to search for information regarding this matter on the Internet.

Even though it sounded ridiculous, there was a possibility that someone online might have had a similar experience.

Once Qin Guan did a casual search online, he was dumbfounded.

Su Xiaoyu seemed to not be the only one who suddenly had a disc appear out of nowhere on their temples; it happened to every single person in the world.

It was past midnight, but all sorts of threads discussing the matter had exploded online. They were on Weibo, Tieba, and other forums as well as all sorts of chat rooms and even various WeChat Moments. Everyone seemed to be talking about this matter.

Some people might have tried to lock down this piece of news, but if every single person in the world knew about it, what was the point of locking down such information?

Of course, no one could be certain whether everyone in the world suddenly had that disc appear on their temples, but based on what the netizens discussed, it was impossible to find someone who did not have it.

Qin Guan had an ominous feeling.

'Why does it feel like I am the only person in the world who does not have this thing?'

When he thought about it, he felt a little dispirited... because based on what Su Xiaoyu and the netizens said, while this disc was a little terrifying, it was not something that was bad. In fact, it had many unimaginable uses.

Yet for some reason, he was cast aside. This was truly just…

While Qin Guan grumbled under his breath, he suddenly noticed two lines of words at the bottom left corner of his vision.

[Detected a vulnerability in the system. Currently generating recovery programme…]

[Unknown error appeared. Invoking Developer's Module…]

Before Qin Guan had time to register the words, he felt his right temple throb violently, as if he had just been shot by a bullet. He leaned to his left on instinct and fell off his computer chair, landing on the ground with a loud thud.

"This stupid…"

However, Qin Guan did get to fully voice how ridiculous he found the situation, for he fell unconscious right where he lay on the ground.

Translator's Note:

[1] Tucao: A website in which people upload videos from Youtube, Bilibili, Niconico, and other video uploading websites. They can upload original content as well. Viewers can then comment on the video and have their comment appear on the screen.