“Damn! If no one wants it, I’ll throw it away!” Lin Feng angrily tossed his phone into the nearby trash can, his neck stiffened, and he clapped his hands in a defiant gesture. The internet cafe manager initially thought this rich kid was trying to strike up a conversation with her, perhaps even trying to hit on her, and she was getting quite excited, thinking about where to take him tonight to fleece him. She stood there, waiting for a response with a touch of coyness, but to her surprise, this deadbeat was actually playing a prank on her. He backed out halfway, threw away the broken phone, and wanted to return to his seat to play games. The manager was instantly furious. “Hey, kid! Have some public decency, will you? Can you just throw electronic waste around like that? Be smart and pick it up for me!” “Shit, pick up your mom…” Lin Feng thought he shouldn’t be so unreasonable, stood up from his seat with a curse, ready to lash out, but quickly covered his mouth, swallowing the rest of his words. Because out of nowhere, two burly men appeared, standing menacingly behind the manager. “Pick it up!” “I… I’ll pick it up… But I’m warning you, I really found this phone! Don’t accuse me of stealing!” “Cut the crap! I’ll decide that the junk is yours!” “I…” Lin Feng wanted to explain further, but the manager had lost her patience, nodding to the two men. “Dare to bully my sister, kid, are you tired of living?” The two men cracked their knuckles, stepping forward to grab Lin Feng. “Uh, I was wrong, guys, don’t get physical!” Lin Feng was completely cowed now, quickly picking up the broken phone from the trash can, leaving a big bill at the counter, and then, like a beaten dog, he scurried out of the internet cafe. “Damn poor ghost, trying to pick up girls without money…” As Lin Feng quickly left the cafe, he could still hear the manager’s flirtatious curses and the bursts of laughter from behind.
Lin Feng was so angry his teeth itched, wishing he could punch a sandbag to vent his frustration. He skipped dinner, locked himself in his bedroom, and threw himself onto the bed. What a world, where doing a good deed gets you nothing but ridicule. He cursed everyone he thought deserved it, which somewhat relieved his anger. He grabbed the trouble-causing phone, thinking about how to fix it and maybe sell it in the second-hand market for some internet money. But the phone was in such bad shape – the case was broken, the screen shattered, and the buttons didn’t work at all. After a few moments of trying, he lost all motivation. “Screw you!” The phone drew a beautiful arc in the air, hit the wall, and then fell to the floor with a ‘snap’, bouncing a few times before settling down. “Lin Lin, what are you doing in there? Why all the noise?” Lin Feng quickly rolled out of bed, picked up the phone now in two pieces, and stuffed it into his pocket. Just as he finished, his mom had already opened the door. “Lin Lin, what are you doing all sweaty?” “Mom, nothing, I was doing push-ups! Go back to what you were doing!” Lin Feng was most afraid of his mother’s nagging. If she saw the extra phone and started questioning him about skipping school to hang out in internet cafes, he wouldn’t get any peace tonight. She’d nag him with a basket full of life lessons until dawn. “You child! Don’t go messing up your health!” Lin Feng’s mom warned, then glanced at his bed, which looked like a pigsty, and shook her head. “Lin Lin, the college entrance exam is coming up, you need to focus on studying. When you’re tired of reading, rest, don’t mess around. Your dad is working hard outside, you mustn’t go astray…” “Mom, I know, I’m going to sleep, goodnight!” Lin Feng half-pushed his mom out, quickly locked the door, and breathed a sigh of relief. His mom was great, but her nagging was unbearable. He was glad he reacted quickly enough to hide the phone. His mom was worried about him getting into trouble, especially after a TV report about how video games could corrupt kids. She not only cut his allowance to prevent him from playing games but also forbade him from anything related to online gaming. One reason: she feared he’d turn bad playing games!
Pulling out the shattered phone from his pocket, the case had a large piece missing. Lin Feng thought this was the end; no one would want a broken phone like this. “Huh, what’s this?” His eyes fell on the break, expecting to see the usual components, but instead, he saw a new, highly metallic-looking case. Lin Feng was astonished; he’d never heard of a phone with such a design – one shell inside another. Did the designer have water in his brain? He tried touching it; the old shell wasn’t very hard, its material unknown, but it peeled off easily like a cooked eggshell. The new shell was unusually bright, like the skin of a boiled egg after peeling, with a springy, almost baby-like skin texture. It was too exaggerated! Lin Feng was mesmerized, treating it like a treasure, unsure of what to do next. “Don’t scratch the new shell!” Lin Feng was extremely careful now, fearing he might damage the new casing. Such a unique item shouldn’t be wasted. He looked around for a suitable work surface, eventually deciding to work on his bed, clearing away all the mess of dirty socks, clothes, and underwear. He swept the bedsheet meticulously, never having been so careful before, just to avoid scratching the phone. “This must be some premium stuff, like those high-end phones made with gold, and the feel of this ‘big beauty’ is so good, could it be made of fine jade? Wow…” “Big Beauty, where did you come from, wow…” “If I bring this to class, those perverts would go wild! What material is this made of? How can it feel so good? It’s like a girl’s hand, hehe, so smooth, so real…” “I don’t know if the camera has a high pixel count, let’s take a selfie like Edison Chen…” Just as he was excitedly about to turn on the phone to test its capabilities, Lin Feng’s entire body froze the moment his finger touched the power button. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the phone in his hand—the thumb of his right hand had completely sunk into the phone’s screen. Damn! Did I break the screen by poking it? At the same moment, a voice suddenly sounded in his… no, it should be in his mind: “Congratulations, player ‘Merciless Ghost Hand’, you have successfully obtained a super-value smartphone from our system’s special gift pack. This device can be set for soul binding. Would you like to bind it?…”
Game Equipment
“Bind… bind… bind…”
“Congratulations, player ‘Merciless Ghost Hand’, you have chosen the soul binding state. The smartphone system is rebuilding…”
Just as he was about to turn on the phone, a game background sound unexpectedly appeared in his mind. Lin Feng was still in shock, his original intention was to curse “Bind your mom!” but due to his excitement, his tongue couldn’t form the words properly, and instead, he stuttered “Bind, bind, bind,” annoyingly, which was misinterpreted by that ghost system as agreeing to the soul binding.
Suddenly, everything started spinning, and Lin Feng felt as if his head was about to explode. Waves of information, invisible to the naked eye, surged towards him, all rushing into his mind.
“Damn it! I was just sleeping in my bed, how could there be a game system prompt? Could I be hallucinating from playing too many games?” Fearing his mother might come to check on him again, Lin Feng didn’t dare to shout loudly. Instead, he covered his head with the blanket, clutching his head tightly, worried it might actually burst from the pressure. After enduring for a while, the pain in his head gradually subsided. Lin Feng, covered in sweat, managed to crawl out of bed, his clothes soaked as if he had just come out of a sauna.
