Chapter 3: The Fortuneteller

All day, Yang Tao had felt that something was missing, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Only after hearing the system’s voice did he finally realize what it was.

The system!

As a transmigrator, if you didn’t come with the standard golden finger, how could you possibly face the vast population of fellow transmigrators?

But a Desire System? What the hell was that? Just from the name alone, he knew it wasn’t anything good.

"System! Are you there?" Yang Tao called cautiously in his mind.

He had just come, and was still lying on top of the woman. She was still savoring the afterglow of her orgasm and didn’t rush to shove him off.

Besides, the cock that had just finished was still buried in her pussy, giving her a very full, satisfied feeling she didn’t want to let go of.

"I’m here, Host!" a cold voice said.

"You just said the system would match me with one that suits my choices. What does that mean?"

He didn’t care whether the name was proper or not. The system was real, and having a system meant having a brilliant life.

"Having your lower body remain in a constant state of aroused erection is the system’s welcome gift. The system has already carried out an initial modification of your body, allowing it to remain in an optimal state at all times. You will never need to worry about the consequences of excess indulgence, nor about kidney weakness or depletion. At the same time, the system has shielded your body so you don’t need to worry about contracting a sexually transmitted disease, and it has already taken care of contraception for you. Before you meet the system’s requirements, you will not be able to get any woman pregnant."

"The system has given you an initial benefit. Although your lower body will stay erected, your life will not be endangered, and it will automatically soften after twenty-four hours."

"If you have nowhere to vent your energy, you will have many choices to solve the problem you’re facing. If you choose extreme sports to release your energy, the system will match you with abilities related to sports. If you choose to study, the system will match you with abilities related to learning."

"And you chose to hire a prostitute, so the system could only match the deepest thing in your heart: the Desire System."

Yang Tao was first delighted, then completely baffled. It even came with contraception?

But what exactly was the system’s task? A man not wanting to get a woman pregnant was one thing, but being unable to get a woman pregnant was another. That directly concerned male dignity.

And the system was this humane too, even matching the right ability based on his choice. He had never heard of anything like it before. Still, in a situation like that, nine out of ten men would choose sex to solve the problem.

"What are the requirements?" Yang Tao asked quickly. Right now, what he cared about most was how to meet the system’s requirements and recover his fertility.

"Task one: Become the owner of a villa within three days. Succeed and receive no reward. Fail and permanently lose your fertility."

What the hell? No reward even if he succeeded?

"Hey, what about some newbie gift pack or something?" Yang Tao fought for the last bit of benefit he could get.

"You have one lottery draw opportunity. Does the Host wish to draw now?"

Yang Tao was speechless. He had a feeling that if he hadn’t asked that extra question, he might not have gotten any lottery chance at all.

"Draw. Draw now." Yang Tao decided immediately.

A huge spinning wheel appeared in front of him, packed with countless squares, each one bearing an identity.

For example: painter, singing god, martial arts master, gourmet, fortuneteller, director, doctor, and so on. Densely packed, there had to be more than a hundred identities.

"Are these identities disguises?" Yang Tao didn’t quite understand.

But the system didn’t answer again. From the earlier conversation, it seemed this system only replied when asked; if you didn’t ask, it stayed silent.

Since he didn’t understand, he might as well experience it first.

At Yang Tao’s command, the wheel spun rapidly. He didn’t know which ability was best, but from the names alone, the richest-man identity was obviously the one most likely to satisfy his current need.

If he became the richest man, no matter where, becoming the owner of a villa for the first task should be more than enough, right?

The wheel slowly came to a stop, the pointer sweeping forward step by step, until it was almost at the richest-man position.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Yang Tao shouted in his mind, but reality didn’t bend to his will. The pointer firmly and slowly passed the richest-man identity.

In the end, it stopped on Fortuneteller.

Yang Tao froze. A fortuneteller? Why that identity? Was he supposed to go out and scam people? Stand by a bridge and perform tricks, telling everyone they had bloodshed ahead of them?

He really wanted to spin again, but the system wasn’t going to give him that chance.

It settled firmly in place.

"Ding! Fortuneteller identity obtained. Because the Host drew a high-level identity, the penalty for Task One is doubled: if the task cannot be completed, you will permanently lose your fertility, and the fortuneteller identity will be reclaimed, while your male symbol will also be stripped away!"

There was no forced kill-on-failure mechanism, but stripping away his male symbol? Wasn’t that just turning him into a eunuch?

For a man who had tasted the marrow and understood the wonder of sex, what difference was there between becoming a eunuch and dying on the spot?

No, there was no difference at all!

Before Yang Tao could protest, a massive wave of knowledge surged into him, like forcing a huge eggplant into a virgin pussy. This was more than simple swelling; it was practically trying to kill him.

Yang Tao groaned, and the woman beneath him, still enjoying the afterglow, jumped in fright. She thought he might be having some kind of seizure and hurriedly pushed at him, but got no response at all.

Yang Tao only felt as if his head had been clamped in a vise and crushed with all its force, as though even his brain matter was about to be squeezed out. He writhed and cried out in his mind.

As time passed, the pain slowly faded. The knowledge fused in his mind, becoming one with him, and Yang Tao’s eyes grew brighter and brighter until, in the end, they shone like a bulb in the middle of the night.

"So identities actually have this kind of miraculous function!" Yang Tao muttered to himself, looking at the remaining identities on the wheel, his eyes blazing.

At first he had thought these identities were just for disguise, or for showing off. He never would have imagined that once he drew one, he would gain everything that identity possessed.

And the skills were even beyond the capabilities of this era.

Take the fortuneteller identity he had just drawn, for example. Under normal circumstances, the skills would let Yang Tao read people and tell their fates, master the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams, and be well-versed in the I Ching. All of it would be grounded in some basis and real substance, though the accuracy would be debatable.

After all, even among the fortunetellers with real skill in 2021, while some of them did have strange and mysterious abilities and could roughly read a person’s fate, and if they knew your birth date and time they might even be able to tell whether your next few years would go smoothly, their accuracy was still not one hundred percent. They could be right, or they could be wrong.

But the identity ability Yang Tao got from the system was something else entirely. It was like seeing right through a person.

Yang Tao opened his eyes and looked at the woman beneath him.

A panel appeared before him.

Wealth luck: average. Will lose a sum of money within three days.

Fortune: lower-average. Life will rise and fall unpredictably, old age without anyone to rely on, and a bloodshed disaster will come soon.

Longevity: average. Just over sixty years.

Official luck: none.

Romance luck: excellent.

Then Yang Tao concentrated his mind on the words wealth luck, and a line of tiny text appeared after it.

"Trade body for money. At 3:36 a.m. tomorrow, an accident will cause a loss of twenty thousand yuan..."

Yang Tao then focused on fortune: "Whores may show affection, actors have no loyalty. Love is a dangerous thing. A daughter will be born, and life will end without illness. Lifespan: sixty-one years, three months, and eight days. At 3:36 a.m. tomorrow, an accident will occur, and someone will strike the head with a heavy object..."

Looking one by one, he realized this fortuneteller identity no longer deserved to be called a fortuneteller. It was more like a life-probing device.

For things happening in the near future or even farther ahead, it was absurdly clear.

And that wasn’t all. Yang Tao could even use his ability to slightly alter the future. It was just that for now, he could only see, not change.

Even that alone was already outrageous.

No wonder the system had classified the fortuneteller identity as a high-level identity and increased the penalty for the task.

Honestly, with this kind of ability, if he still couldn’t get a villa within three days, it would simply be an insult to the identity.

After retracting the panel from the woman, Yang Tao immediately felt a wave of exhaustion, like he hadn’t slept for a full day. His head was foggy and heavy.

"It should be a side effect of using the ability, but I don’t know how to improve my spirit." Yang Tao called out to the system once more, and once again, there was no reply.

"Boss, what’s wrong? Wake up!" The woman beneath him was now a little panicked. Yang Tao had just groaned in pain and then turned deathly pale. She thought something had happened.

She knew that some men, in order to play longer or enjoy themselves more, would take pills in advance, but because of heart problems they ended up dying on a woman’s body. She had only heard about that sort of thing, never experienced it.

If it happened to her today, she’d be haunted by it for the rest of her life.

Who the hell would want a man to die on her body? That wasn’t just someone dying in the room. There’d be a dead man at the doorstep too. That wasn’t even double happiness. That’s not how you play.

At that moment, Yang Tao came back to his senses. After using the fortuneteller ability just now, he was mentally drained. His body shifted, and he rolled off the woman. His cock had also gone soft by then, the condom still trapped inside her pussy, and the softening shaft slipped out with a wet pop.

Yang Tao had a feeling that although his cock was soft now, as long as he wanted it hard again, he could get hard immediately even after just coming. There was also a feeling that if he wanted to cum, he could do so at once, and if he wanted to hold back, even after making love for hours he still wouldn’t cum.

That should also be one of the benefits the system gave him.

Seeing that Yang Tao was fine, the woman also let out a breath of relief. Then she immediately plastered a smile on her face, reached down, pulled the condom full of semen out of her pussy, and tossed it into the trash can beside her.

She grabbed some wet wipes from the side and wiped herself clean underneath, then carefully cleaned Yang Tao as well.

Normally, cleaning a client was supposed to be done with a hot towel, but since she hadn’t prepared one in advance, paper would have to do.

Yang Tao let her clean him without resistance while he closed his eyes and rested.

After she finished, the woman crawled onto his body. "Boss, you’re amazing. You made me feel so good just now. I really like you."

Yang Tao opened his eyes and let a smile curve his lips. "You got your pleasure, but I’m the one paying. Since you like me so much, why don’t you pay for me instead?"

The woman laughed at that. "Sure. It’s only a few hundred yuan anyway. If you want, I can even keep you. As long as you can make me feel good, that’s enough."

"Forget it." Yang Tao shook his head immediately. "I’d feel weird about anything long-term. I just had a strong urge today, so I came once."

He said it plainly, without beating around the bush. He didn’t look down on prostitutes, but getting emotionally involved with one? Forget it.

And he had no intention of trying to save her from the life.

The woman’s face darkened for a moment, then she quickly smiled again. "Alright then, Boss, add me on WeChat. We can contact each other if you have time."

"No need." Yang Tao got up and started dressing. "I probably won’t need it anymore."

With the system, Yang Tao didn’t think he’d still be short on women. In the future, finding a respectable woman, or a virgin, would be better. Why get tangled up with a prostitute?

Rejected again, the woman’s expression turned a little ugly, but she still kept smiling. "Fine."

"Boss, why are you getting dressed? Didn’t you want to go twice? I haven’t even finished serving you yet."

"I don’t want to do it anymore. Once is enough." Yang Tao got dressed and prepared to leave. "I’m heading out. I’ll pay at the front desk directly, so you don’t need to worry about me."

"By the way, be careful when you go home tonight. Watch your safety." After saying that, without waiting for the woman to respond, Yang Tao opened the door and went out. Then he immediately came back and asked for the woman’s phone number.

The reminder had also been to see whether, if the woman managed to dodge this disaster, there would be any backlash on his side.

They said that revealing heaven’s secrets and helping others avoid their fate would bring backlash, and Yang Tao wanted to test it first. If he didn’t test it, then when the time came and he didn’t understand, helping someone dodge a life-threatening disaster only to have the backlash cost him half his life would be a terrible bargain.

Getting her number had just been a sudden thought, so that if she escaped the disaster, he’d at least know whether there had been any backlash.

After paying for a full package at the front desk, Yang Tao left satisfied.

After heading downstairs, he found a late-night snack shop, ordered some barbecue, ate a bowl of egg fried rice, took a taxi, and went home.

Back home, Yang Tao set an alarm for 3:30 a.m., lay on the bed, and started thinking about how he should complete the system’s first task, while also planning his life going forward.

After using the ability once, he felt mentally exhausted. Before long, he slowly fell asleep.

And so, the first day after transmigrating passed by little by little.