Life Exchange Game - Chapter 5 - The Cat

In the morning, Xia Yu returned to his own body. He sat up and softly muttered, “Skill panel.”

In the next moment, a small panel appeared before him.

On the panel, there were two skills:

[Drawing Lv1, Music Lv1]

Lv1 was probably the entry level. To apply for a job, at least Lv3 or Lv4 would be required. According to An Siyao’s estimate, it would take at most a month to reach that level.

Xia Yu walked over to his desk and looked at his homework. The system that took over his body had completed the homework excellently. With this, he might become a dark horse in the college entrance examination.

However, body exchange was the fundamental skill, and body takeover was just a minor one. Even if he became the top scorer in the country, it wouldn’t be of much use if he didn’t have the ability to back it up.

Xia Yu didn’t like living in a castle in the air. Only by being down-to-earth could one feel at ease.

Returning to bed, he opened his phone and started searching for the wealthy individuals in District One. An Siyao’s family was not just ordinarily wealthy; he might even find her father’s name on the rich list. As for distinguishing which one was her father, he only needed to look at the surname. The surname “An” wasn’t as common as “Ma” or “Liu.”

After scanning the rich list, Xia Yu locked onto a target. It was An Tianfeng, the wealthiest man in District One and a real estate tycoon.

Rubbing his chin, Xia Yu searched for more information about An Tianfeng online. Most of it was about An Tianfeng’s business activities. Fortunately, this world also had a webpage similar to an encyclopedia, where Xia Yu found information about his family.

The data showed that he had only one wife and one son. Did he get it wrong? But there were no other people with the surname An on the rich list. Oh well, he was just satisfying his curiosity; it didn’t really matter.

Exiting the webpage, Xia Yu casually opened a mahjong game. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to play other games, but the development of mobile games in this world was very backward. However, PC single-player games and online games were quite prosperous.

It was Saturday, and there were no classes during the day. Xia Yu went out to eat the breakfast made by Youxue and then returned to his room, feeling bored.

Around nine o’clock, Youxue knocked on his door. The girl who entered said to Xia Yu, “Brother, can I borrow your Classical Chinese Translation?”

Xia Yu was slightly taken aback. Who checks books for homework nowadays? Everyone uses their phones. Then he remembered that his sister didn’t have a phone.

Taking the Classical Chinese Translation from the bookshelf, Xia Yu handed it to Youxue. After the girl left, Xia Yu fell into thought.

Youxue was already in the first year of middle school. Unlike the previous world, elementary school students in this world already used phones. The girl should have one too. However, expecting their father to buy one was wishful thinking. Xia Yu had bought his own phone by working part-time in his first year of high school.

Opening his messages, Xia Yu checked the balance in his bank account. Over the three years of high school, he had saved six thousand yuan. He had planned to save up to seven or eight thousand to buy a laptop capable of playing AAA games.

Which was more important, games or his sister? If he chose games, his sister would just be without a phone. If he chose his sister, the games would be gone entirely. Weighing the pros and cons, Xia Yu sighed.

In the afternoon, after lunch, he went to the convenience store where he worked part-time and started his shift. On Saturdays, his shift covered the entire afternoon, but he didn’t have to work on Sundays.

Although being a cashier was an easy job, it was far from as easy as in the previous world. In the previous world, payments could be completed with a swipe of Alipay, requiring almost no manual effort. But in this world, mobile payments hadn’t appeared yet, and people could only use paper currency.

Transactions with paper currency were prone to counterfeit money. However, Xia Yu had also experienced the days without mobile payments in his previous life and was very familiar with the tricks of those using counterfeit money. He hadn’t made a single mistake so far.

The sun slowly moved from the center of the sky to the west. Under the lazy orange light, the pedestrians hurrying along the road seemed to relax a bit.

Xia Yu’s shift was over. The person coming to take over was a female university student from a nearby college. She had an ordinary appearance but a good figure.

“Feng Lin said he has something to do tomorrow. Can you cover his shift?” the girl asked Xia Yu.

“I have something to do,” Xia Yu casually replied.

This surprised the girl. People often asked Xia Yu to cover their shifts, and he had never refused before. This was because Xia Yu, who had acquired the Body Exchange Game, no longer cared about this small amount of money. The fact that he continued to work at the convenience store showed his stability.

“Alright, I’ll let him know,” the girl said, hesitating before asking again, “Is something wrong? Maybe I can help.”

She had a bit of a crush on Xia Yu, who was somewhat handsome and not as immature as his peers.

“Thanks, but I just don’t need the money as much lately,” Xia Yu thanked the girl for her concern and entered the changing room.

In this world, even convenience store cashiers had special uniforms, just like those in cake shops. Xia Yu felt that these uniforms served no purpose other than providing more material for certain movies. He could only say: meticulous.

Changing into his own clothes, Xia Yu went to a phone store and selected a white phone that cost over nineteen hundred yuan after a discount. Without Alipay, online shopping was also very underdeveloped, so buying a phone in a physical store was the only viable option.

Back at his apartment complex, Xia Yu saw Xia Dongyang sitting by a flower bed near the stairs, smoking with a troubled expression. He was probably facing some issue and didn’t want Xia Yu and his sister to see him like this. However, this wasn’t out of concern for his children but rather his own fragile self-esteem.

Just like some people wouldn’t step on the grass, not because they cared for the plants, but because they didn’t want to dirty their shoes. Xia Yu didn’t bother with him. He still admired his father’s ability to struggle on the brink of survival. Despite getting into trouble with a group of thugs and accumulating a pile of gambling debts, he had managed to find ways to settle everything.

Avoiding the man, Xia Yu entered the building and returned home. The living room was empty. Opening his sister’s room, he found it empty as well. She was probably out buying groceries.

Placing the phone on her desk, Xia Yu returned to his own room. He lay on the bed and entered the game.

[Please select a character]

[1. An Siyao]

[2. Empty]

The game provided two character slots. An Siyao occupied one, and the other was available. Deleting An Siyao would also free up the slot. Even so, two slots felt a bit limited. He hoped more slots would be available later.

Clicking on the first slot, Xia Yu’s vision went black. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a giant trash can. It was truly gigantic, at least five or six times his height.

What was going on?

[An unknown bug has occurred. Please do not panic and wait for the eight-hour game time to finish.]

A bug? Xia Yu looked down at his hand. It was a black cat’s paw. Approaching a store’s glass window, he saw a black cat’s reflection.

He had turned into a cat? This game was too unreliable. It was only the third time he played, and there was already a bug.

[Body exchange completed]

[Generating bonus based on the target body…]

[Bonus generation complete]

[Bonus acquired: Night Vision Bonus Lv1, Intimidation Bonus Lv1, Agility Bonus Lv1]

[Wish you a pleasant game]

Intimidation? Agility? Those seemed like pretty good skills.