Hearing the voice, Xia Yu’s heart skipped a beat, and the pen in his hand fell to the ground.
“Uh, did I scare you?” The female voice spoke again.
Looking around the room, Xia Yu confirmed there was no one else present; the voice had directly appeared in his mind.
He didn’t suffer from any mental illness, so the speaker must be—
The original owner of this body?
That’s right. He had chosen the single-player mode, taking over the girl’s body without offering his own body to her. Therefore, the girl’s consciousness was still lingering within this body.
In other words, the girl could only watch helplessly as he used her body however he pleased?
What a twisted game.
“Hey hey hey, can you hear me?” The female voice persisted. To Xia Yu’s surprise, there was no panic in her tone.
“I can hear you,” Xia Yu replied.
“Oh, so it really is another person. I thought maybe I was sleepwalking and scared myself,” the female voice said.
“What’s your name?” Xia Yu asked.
“My name is An Siyao,” the voice answered. “What’s your name, and why are you inside my body?”
“I won’t tell you,” Xia Yu responded.
Judging from the girl’s family background, revealing his name would be suicidal. Xia Yu didn’t want to lie either, so he straightforwardly refused to answer.
“How come?” An Siyao mumbled.
Her voice carried a hint of coquetry. If she had said it using the body Xia Yu now occupied, he might have felt a bit guilty. But merely as a voice, it had no effect on him.
Ignoring An Siyao, Xia Yu picked up the pencil, unfolded a piece of paper, and prepared to try something.
He wanted to test the recently system-announced “Painting Bonus Lv.1.”
What should he draw?
After thinking for two seconds, Xia Yu decided to draw the girl whose body he was currently possessing.
He picked up the pencil and started drawing.
Five minutes later, looking at the stick figure on the paper, Xia Yu fell into deep thought.
There were art classes at school, even teaching watercolor and oil painting, but drawing wasn’t Xia Yu’s strong suit. He often skipped those classes whenever possible.
So, what exactly was this “Painting Bonus Lv.1”? This must be his actual skill level.
Perhaps he had used it incorrectly.
Flipping the paper over, Xia Yu whispered, “Activate Painting Bonus.”
Five minutes later, looking at the drawing on the paper, Xia Yu fell into thought once again.
“A snowman with long hair?” An Siyao questioned.
“No, it’s you,” Xia Yu replied.
“But the waist and neck are missing!” The girl weakly complained.
“It’s okay. When I bury you in the snow, you’ll look exactly like this,” Xia Yu threatened, in a bad mood.
An Siyao immediately fell silent.
After a while, the girl tried to adjust the image of her snowman: “Um, you should start with the skeleton!”
“How do I do that?” Xia Yu didn’t think the “Painting Bonus Lv.1” was fake. There must be a way to use this bonus; he just hadn’t found it yet.
“You want to draw manga, right? Open the computer. There are many painting tutorials in the D drive, including one about manga,” the girl said.
Xia Yu’s eyes scanned around but found no computer.
“It’s in the drawer below.”
Following the girl’s instructions, Xia Yu found a notebook computer.
On the cover was a prominent pig’s head.
This was the best computer brand in this world—Pighead.
Xia Yu had been working part-time just to afford a notebook computer, but he never dreamed of owning a Pighead.
Resisting the urge to play games on the computer, Xia Yu opened the folder An Siyao mentioned. Inside were various painting tutorial videos.
“These are painting lessons my mom gave me when I was little. The videos are a bit outdated,” the girl seemed to be quite talkative, continuing to speak, “Later, when my dad heard I wanted to learn, he found me a painter as a teacher, so I never watched these videos.”
Xia Yu’s body stiffened slightly. Hiring a painting teacher wasn’t strange, but there was a significant difference between a painter and a regular art teacher.
“Just out of curiosity, how much is the most expensive painting by that painter worth?” Xia Yu wanted to understand exactly how significant a person he had possessed.
“The most expensive painting?” An Siyao thought for a moment. “About five million. My teacher said his paintings wouldn’t be valuable while he was alive, but they would appreciate after his death.”
The girl’s tone carried some embarrassment, as if a painting worth five million was something shameful.
Xia Yu wanted to smoke a cigarette.
Without seeking further discouragement, he opened the video and started watching.
After finishing, he confidently picked up the pencil again.
Half an hour later.
“…”
“Don’t lose heart. At least there’s progress. Now it’s a long-haired snowman with a weird posture.”
Xia Yu felt he needed to calmly analyze the situation.
What exactly was this “Painting Bonus Lv.1”?
“You’ve already improved. Keep it up!” An Siyao encouraged Xia Yu.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Xia Yu asked while picking up the pencil again.
“Why should I be afraid?” the girl replied.
“You think this is a dream?” Xia Yu asked.
“Isn’t it?” An Siyao tried to pinch herself, but she couldn’t control her own body.
Xia Yu extended his hand to help the girl.
“It hurts!” An Siyao’s voice sounded tearful.
“Now you understand. This is reality, and through something akin to witchcraft, I have taken control of your body. I can do whatever I want with your body,” Xia Yu tried to make her understand the seriousness of the situation.
His failed attempt left him in a bad mood, hoping to find happiness by making the girl unhappy too.
“Can’t you just avoid doing bad things?” An Siyao’s voice carried a plea.
“No.”
“Then please be careful not to get hurt. It really hurts.”
“What? ???”
Had she accepted this so quickly? No begging or yelling?
Were children from rich families always this calm?
That couldn’t be right.
Surely, he must have possessed a strange person.
Xia Yu continued drawing.
“This time, you can already tell it’s a person!” An Siyao’s voice was filled with excitement.
So, who exactly was possessing whom? Why could she be happier than him?
However, this time the drawing indeed looked like a person.
Was his talent really this good?
No one naturally dislikes something; it must be due to some past frustrating experiences. Xia Yu’s talent for drawing was genuinely not great.
So, was this so-called “Painting Bonus Lv.1” actually enhancing his talent?
Xia Yu picked up the pencil again.
At 2 a.m., a prompt appeared before Xia Yu:
[Eight hours of game time completed]
[Exiting game]
Xia Yu’s vision went black. When he opened his eyes again, he was back at home.
It was 2 a.m., and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
Turning on the light, Xia Yu picked up his phone and watched the recording.
After he entered An Siyao’s body, his original body lay in bed for a while, then got up, went to the desk, did homework, took a shower outside, and returned to sleep.
This system’s auto-pilot was quite intelligent.
Picking up the homework, Xia Yu checked it. The handwriting was even better than his own, and all the problems were solved.
Flipping through it briefly, he put the homework aside and began testing something serious.
Taking out a blank piece of paper and a pencil, Xia Yu started drawing.
One minute later, a figure drawing appeared before Xia Yu. Though the details were somewhat rough, the overall form was correct.
A line of text appeared before him:
[Skill acquired – Painting]
[Painting Lv.1: Basic drawing ability]
So, the bonus’s function was to practice hard while swapping bodies and then inherit the experience after the game ended?
How could he use this painting skill?
Draw a comic like “Mountain Bandit King” and submit it for profit?
However, painting and comics were not the same thing. Many comics were as exquisite as Naruto and One Piece, yet they failed to gain popularity.
Moreover, he could only draw with pencils now. It would take a long time before he could draw comics using ink pens.
Besides painting, An Siyao had two other bonuses: one was flower arrangement, which wasn’t very useful, and the other was a music bonus.
Xia Yu had already asked An Siyao about it. Her family had a piano.
Xia Yu remembered that the coffee shop at the street corner was hiring a pianist. Although he didn’t know the exact monthly salary, it should be three to four times higher than his current part-time cashier job, which only paid 1,000 per month.
The Pighead computer didn’t seem so unattainable anymore.
A pianist at a street corner should be easier than becoming a manga artist, right?
It’s decided. It’s you then.
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