[Store your brain here, I Body_Slammer will take good care of it]
[Or Just shut it off, if you read Web novels you must have ample experience.]
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Luis had built his life on being invisible and honest.
For 6 month and 4 days, his world consisted of spreadsheets that never balanced on the first try, petty cash envelopes that always came up short, and the particular hell of chasing department heads for receipts they'd "definitely left on your desk yesterday."
The other junior accountants had a nickname for their workspace: "the Dungeon." No windows, bad air, and stacks of paperwork that never seemed to shrink.
Luis had developed a careful routine - at 5:58 PM, he'd save his files twice (just in case), straighten his desk, and watch the clock hands crawl toward 6:00.
Home wasn't entirely an escape either. It was just a little better than this office.
"Luis."
The sudden voice made him jerk, elbow bumping the little bamboo plant his wife had bought him for good luck. Director Liam stood over his desk, his sharp suit casting a shadow across his keyboard.
"You're... reliable." Liam said it like it wasn't quite a compliment.
He tapped the cubicle wall with well-groomed nails. "I have something to do outside. You're covering Finance today."
Hearing this Luis mouth went dry. The Finance desk. Real money. Real responsibility. The stamp that could approve six-figure payments with one thump of authority.
"Just me?" he asked, trying to sound calm.
Liam smirked, "Yes, Don't screw it up."
He walked off before Luis could reply.
-----
Two hours later
A woman in a bright red dress burst into the office, her high heels clicking sharply against the floor. Two tough-looking guys followed close behind - assistants, probably, but they might as well have been bodyguards.
Without even looking at him, she slapped a piece of paper down on his desk.
Luis picked it up. His eyes widened at the amount - enough money to pay his salary for years. It even had the "pre-approved" stamp.
Then he saw the name.
Enes.
His hands went cold. He remembered the email from Boss Qin that everyone had gotten last week, the one in all caps.
[DO NOT PROCESS ANY TRANSACTIONS FOR ENES WITHOUT CHECKING WITH ME FIRST.]
He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I can't approve this without proper authorization."
The woman's perfect smile disappeared instantly.
"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
"Yeah," Luis said, his voice surprisingly calm despite his pounding heart. "That's exactly why I can't do it."
Her face twisted in rage. Then,
SMACK!
The folder whipped across his cheek. Papers exploded everywhere. As Luis staggered back, his head banged against the wall.
Everything went dark.
------
On the hospital bed in the hospital corridor, Luis had a bandage on his head and was receiving an IV drip, and the blood on his face and body had not yet been wiped off.
His mother-in-law Ruth, who was sitting next to him, had a livid face and angrily scolded, "You idiot."
"One day. One day they let you near real work, and you piss off the boss's woman?"
Luis head throbbed. Blood crusted on his temple. The IV drip beside him swayed as Ruth stabbed a finger toward his face.
"You're a nobody. A replaceable clerk. And now you've made an enemy of someone who matters!"
His wife Lily, hovering behind her mother, whispered, "Mom, he was following rules—"
"Rules?" Ruth scoffed. "Men like him don't get to enforce rules. They obey."
Ruth got even angrier as she spoke. She slapped the bed and said, "I finally found this job, but he offended the boss's wife after just getting a proper desk job. I wonder why you were so blind to fall for such a poor, useless loser."
Ruth just turned forty, at the age of being as vigorous as a wolf. She looked very charming with her exquisite curly hair.
Although she had faint wrinkles beside the eye, her facial features were delicate and she looked very beautiful with light makeup. It was no exaggeration to say that she still had charm.
When she was young, she was a famous beauty in her family. She was tall and now she is slightly plump. She is not fat but mature, sexy and charming, which makes people feel amazing.
She has breasts and buttocks, and a perfect body with curves. She is wearing a low-cut top, and her cleavage and snow-white breast flesh sway when she moves. Even a bra cannot hide the shock.
Lily was so frightened by her mother's yelling that she lowered her head and remained silent.
Ruth's marriage was far from satisfactory, and her temper could be described as extremely violent. She was completely a shrew, sharp-tongued and mean-spirited, and when she hit menopause, it only got worse. When she got angry, it was truly terrifying.
"What did the doctor say!"
Ruth scolded for a long time before finally snapping, "If there's no cure, just let him wait for death."
Lily cautiously replied, "Mom, the doctor said he needs to be observed overnight for a concussion."
"This useless boy already has a bad brain, what's the point of observing him?"
Ruth stood up, picked up her bag, and said, "You stay here then. I don't want to see him."
With that, Ruth left. Lily gave a bitter smile and sat down by the hospital bed, speaking softly, "Husband, are you okay?"
"A little dizzy!"
Luis felt somewhat dazed and couldn't help but sigh in frustration. "Wife, I really don't understand what Mom is thinking. A Accountant Clerk job only pays 3,500 a month, and she even said she had to pull strings for it."
"Tiger Real Estate is a leading company after all."
Lily comforted him, "Mom just wants what's best for you."
Luis didn't want to complain anymore. His mother-in-law was just vain, unwilling to support his freelance career. It was all about saving face when others asked, so she could say he worked at Tiger Real Estate.
"Rest well. Auntie will look into your work situation, and they'll definitely have to compensate for the medical fees."
A nurse came to administer an IV drip. His wife, Lily, sat gently by his side, sighing helplessly.
Luis lay down, feeling somewhat disoriented as he looked at his wife. From head to toe, she could only be described with one word: Average.
She wasn't tall or short, fat or thin. Her chest was small, and so was her butt. Her features were plain—neither beautiful nor ugly—with a birthmark on her face that made her deeply insecure.
The Wood family had three sisters. The eldest, Nancy, was tall and stunning, a bombshell. The youngest, Leah, was a petite, big-breasted girl. Even the mother-in-law was a voluptuous and glamorous mature woman.
Under their aura, Lily seemed like the ugly duckling by comparison. It was said that her father, Arthur, had even taken a paternity test at one point, suspecting this daughter wasn't his.
After marrying into the Wood family, Luis lived a life of suffocating frustration. If there was one thing that kept him going, it might have been his wife's gentleness.
"Sleep well, don't overthink it."
Lily lowered her head shyly and held her husband's hand.
Luis closed his eyes dizzily, feeling as if he were dreaming. Before him, a massive computer screen flickered with static.
"Signal connection successful..."
"Brainwave frequency stabilized, establishing network link..."
"Gene database backup complete, data calculation qualified, initiating host binding..."
Luis eyes widened as his entire body convulsed. His mouth opened, but no words came out.
After the strange voice spoke, an excruciating pain surged through him. Luis could clearly feel every cell in his body suffering as if electrocuted.
Under the intense pain, his body passed out again, but his consciousness remained active.
Luis found himself in a four-dimensional space, surrounded by lines of code flying past rapidly, accompanied by that hallucinatory, cold voice:
"Binding successful. Host: Luis Zester. Species: Human. Gender: Male. Age: 25..."
"Analyzing data parameters, gene data collection in progress..."
Luis shouted anxiously, "Wait, what the hell are you?"
The rapidly flashing code around him made him dizzy. Then, a monitor appeared before him, lighting up with a massive display:
"Host, it is an honor to be successfully paired with you."
"Host, what... what are you?"
Luis felt his head spinning. This dream was especially bizarre.
"I am a system, a system you summoned."
The monitor suddenly extended a USB interface, which forcefully connected to his brain. Luis watched in horror as the interface disappeared into his forehead.
In a distant advanced civilization, technology no longer required physical forms. This technological system, stranded on Earth, had been collecting data on lowly creatures like humans, slowly taking shape but never activating.
Today, Luis brain suffered severe trauma. Logically, he should have been brain-dead. But the sudden, intense fluctuation in his brainwaves matched the system's frequency. With his genes deemed compatible, he instantly became its host.