[ Host, my readings on the target, Yuan Yu, suggest that he is in danger. His anxiety has been fluctuating in an abnormal matter and he even sustained damage to his– ]

“Su Jia, you look lovely as always.” Lao Yang interrupted 0181, who was trying to impart the seriousness of the task to his host, smiling with blissful ignorance and laughing as the woman in front of him glared daggers for a moment before coldly returning his greeting.

“Lao Yang, it’s nice to see you.” She forced out with a stiff smile, her eyes filled with disgust as he continued to grin stupidly in her direction. “Start your presentation before I change my mind.”

“Hey, can’t we catch up first? There’ll be plenty of time to talk business, I want to hear about what you’ve been up to recently!” Lao Yang, even after receiving the full brunt of Su Jia’s cold demeanor, didn’t lose his smile even a bit. “You and Zhang Li are getting divorced, right? How could such a thing happen, you really must have been neglecting that poor guy!”

“Don’t talk about Zhang Li with me. Besides business, the two of us have nothing to discuss.” She said simply, her eyes narrowing at his bubbly appearance.

“That’s no fun!” The handsome man laughed heartily. After seeing her expression turn even colder, he shrugged helplessly and pulled a small device from inside his space by making it appear to come from his pocket. “This is the thing I brought. Unfortunately, I have no ability to create hardware, so please ignore the ugly design.”

Su Jia carefully took the small box-like machine from him, bringing it close to her eyes and examining it with a blank expression.

“What does it do?”

“This is ‘Replay’.” Lao Yang’s face displayed a malicious smirk, but his expression had returned to his usual stupid smile after a half second. “It extracts a person’s memories and accurately replays them inside the user’s mind.”

[ Host, this is not the VR program that you showed me before! ]

0181 was unsettled when it saw the item from the system shop in the female lead’s hands. Lao Yang had purchased it a long time ago, back when he was still efficiently completing worlds. If a normal person were to use this item, especially in this world that contained numerous timelines, they would only learn things they were not meant to know.

It seemed that Lao Yang was only stirring up trouble again! The system wished it had a body to murder it’s host with, but instead it could only curse inwardly and pray that he wouldn’t go too far.

“Is this a joke?” Su Jia looked at his light expression with growing disgust. “Even you couldn’t have produced such a thing on your own, nevermind that such a technology is within the realm of science fiction!”

“If you don’t believe me, then shall we give it a try right now?”

After seeing his unconcerned appearance, Su Jia shivered unconsciously. If he was telling the truth, then what would this technology mean for her company? Naturally, the people responsible for this device would skyrocket to worldwide success!

“You’re not planning to say something like ‘let’s relive the old days with this’, are you?” She responded indifferently, attempting to keep her anticipation hidden from him.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Ah, I was found out.” Lao Yang chuckled and retrieved the box from her extended hand again. “Alright, then which memory do you want to see? Do you have any ideas?”

“I’ll humor you for now. If this device is what you say it is, then it should be possible to relive my sixth birthday, right?” She listed a time randomly, a day that she no longer had any recollection of.

“No problem! This can even allow you to relive the experience of being born, you know?”

“No need.” Su Jia put up a hand to stop the clown in front of her’s eyes filled with sparkling expectation. “My sixth birthday will do fine. If this even works, that is.”

Lao Yang held the device up to his eyes, tapping the display in the middle of it with a somewhat creepy laugh.

“Alright, all set. Just hold this and close your eyes.” Lao Yang stuffed the device into her palms, smiling even brighter than usual. “Once you’re ready, just say ‘start’ and you’ll be transported back into the world of your memories! Truly, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”

Su Jia had the distinct feeling that she was being pranked, but the temptation of this device being real was enough to overcome her unease. After she stared him down critically for a moment, she eventually closed her eyes with a sigh.

“Miss Su!” A knocking and Assistant Chi’s frantic calls interrupted her thoughts, so she reopened her eyes to call out to the person outside the door.

“What is it? Didn’t you know that I’m in a meeting?” She casually tossed the cube back into Lao Yang’s hands, not taking any notice of the fact that his smile had inexplicably disappeared.

“Miss Su, I’m so sorry for interrupting.” The assistant rushed into the room, glancing apologetically towards the man seated in front of her boss. “It’s about Zhang Li, he was in an accident!”

Su Jia felt a cold chill set over herself. Wronged or not, she had never wished physical harm to fall upon her ex-husband, and she’d even already mostly forgotten her anger towards his earlier actions.

“That… Zhang Li’s wellbeing is none of my concern.” She attempted to feign indifference, but her voice trembled as she spoke.

“Don’t you want to check on him?” Chi Yumeng instantly understood her boss’ feelings, approaching her and pulling her to her feet by the arm. “I’m also worried about his assistant, let’s go!”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous! I could care less about Zhang Li!” She scoffed and shook off the girl’s hold on her, but there was no denying that her feet were carrying her to the door. “However, we should go and see his condition. I won’t bother with attacking him anymore if he’s already been…”

Su Jia drifted off, her face turning pale at the implication in her words.

“Lao Yang, I’ll see you about your invention some other time. Make an appointment with the front desk!” She hurriedly glanced to her silent guest and waved him off before rushing out of the room with a clearly panicked Chi Yumeng following after her.

Lao Yang’s face darkened, his mouth set in a thin line in dissatisfaction. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the desk, his ever present smile long gone.

“Hm. The timing of this matter certainly is fortunate for Su Jia. Don’t you think so, 0181?”

Upon hearing his host’s sarcastic words, the system stayed silent. It wasn’t interested in confessing it’s deeds just yet.

“I wonder who alerted that assistant girl about Zhang Li’s accident and didn’t even mention that he was safe and uninjured.” Lao Yang’s frown persisted for a moment before his smile returned in full force along with a laugh lacking any humor. “That person sure is crafty, aren’t they? It’s almost as though they wanted to stop me from playing around with Su Jia.”

[ I do not know what Host is talking about. ]

0181 lied smoothly, checking on the status of the target without any regard for Lao Yang’s suspicions.

[ The target, Yuan Yu, is slowly recovering from his heightened state. If I had to guess, I would say that he may have been involved in Zhang Li’s incident because of the timing. ]

“Forget the target, we don’t even know what fate he’s supposed to suffer.” Lao Yang similarly dropped the matter and pulled himself to his feet. Producing another device from inside his space, he hurriedly inputted a few things into the small calculator-like object.

“Let’s go back home for now, we’ll deal with the leads on another day.”

Lao Yang smirked as he pressed another button, his figure promptly disappearing from the office in a blink.

The small box, Replay, lay sitting on the center of Su Jia’s desk, a small note attached.