"Is he back? Is he back?"

"He's back, it just ended. I saw him come online in the Alliance."

"How is it?"

"How else could it be? Same old, that world collapsed."

The Alliance control room was filled with wailing and despair. Just now, another male-oriented small world had f*cking collapsed. And the one who collapsed was the core male lead of the world—Du Chengying fell directly from the leader of the righteous path into the demonic path. The controller had absolutely no choice but to lock the small world for now.

"This person..." Controller No. 562 pointed at a gentle smiling face on the photon screen, grief-stricken, "Why is it always him?!"

The person on the screen was called Lin Qi. He had a very ordinary, handsome face. The reason he was called handsome was that his facial features were indeed standard and good-looking. The reason he was called ordinary was that his handsomeness was very average, not enough to captivate the masses, but perfectly suitable for being a tool person lackey to highlight the male lead's handsomeness. From the inside out, his compatibility score with the roles he had to play was a full 100%.

Extremely furious, the controller went to check Lin Qi's task trajectory.

Every task was perfect as always. From minor nodes to major nodes, they were impeccably completed with 100% guaranteed quality and quantity.

But why on earth did the male lead blacken and destroy the world for this person every single time?!

He truly could not bear it anymore. The controller pressed the transmitter in his hand and sent the highest level of complaint and suggestion to the Alliance.

...

After the Alliance underwent a revolution a hundred years ago, all the small worlds were reshuffled, and they gained full freedom to develop on their own.

The infatuated playboy supporting male leads in romance worlds turned around and started their own harems; the bosses in supernatural worlds began doing micro-business; the major villains in criminal investigation worlds participated in talent shows and debuted. Many small worlds became extremely chaotic and disorderly, frequently experiencing energy explosions and world collapses.

To solve this problem, the Alliance had to recruit Moderators like Lin Qi to play various roles in different worlds, helping these worlds to avoid distorting the main plot as much as possible and smoothly achieve perfect endings.

Having successfully completed the task of yet another world, Lin Qi returned home in a good mood. He was a good young man who was extremely dedicated to his work. Every time he finished a task, he would take notes, and this time was no exception.

Recalling the various details of doing the task, Lin Qi seriously picked out the important parts, such as how he collapsed in Du Chengying's arms right before his death:

Expression sorrowful but not broken: Pass.

Eyes brimming with tears: Pass.

Bleeding from the corner of the mouth yet trying hard to force a comforting smile: Pass.

Vaguely giving clues about the murderer: Pass.

Hand slipping down without letting Du Chengying grasp it: Pass.

Perfect.

What is perfection? This is perfection.

The Star Employee of the Month was definitely his!

Lin Qi confidently gave himself a thumbs-up in front of the mirror. You can do it, Lin Qi, you are the best tool person!

At this moment, the optical computer sent a notification: [Hello, an email has been sent by the Alliance.]

Lin Qi: [Read.]

Optical Computer: [Respected Moderator of the male-oriented worlds, we regret to inform you that all the worlds you have participated in guiding since you started working a month ago have completely collapsed. To date, no one has ever achieved such an accomplishment in the Alliance. Congratulations.]

Lin Qi: [...Was this email sent to the wrong person? Are you sure it's for me?]

Optical Computer: [It is sent to you. The recipient is written as 'Jinx Lin Qi'.]

Lin Qi was shocked: [Impossible! I want to file a complaint to the Alliance!]

The Alliance's work efficiency was very high. They replied in seconds: they had indeed sent the wrong email.

Lin Qi breathed a sigh of relief. [I knew it couldn't possibly be me. Read the new email.]

Optical Computer: [The previous content is the same, adding: Hurry up and f*cking fix those collapsed worlds, I'm begging you (crying emoji). Attachment—Auxiliary System. Do you wish to extract the attachment?]

Lin Qi: ...

It wasn't until the System was implanted into his spiritual power that Lin Qi had to accept this cruel reality. He had heard that only the worst Moderators and those who had made mistakes would be bound to a System. He never expected this day would come for him.

During the pre-job training, the teacher had clearly said that he was simply born for this profession and would absolutely shine and become a blockbuster after stepping into his role.

System: "Hello. I heard that you became a male-oriented world killer right after starting work. For a newcomer, it truly is a blockbuster achievement."

Lin Qi: "..." The teacher indeed wasn't wrong.

Lin Qi hadn't expected to become a 'blockbuster' in this way. He humbly asked, "What should I do to fix those worlds?"

System: "Adjust all parameters and redo the world lines from the beginning. I will assist you in completing the tasks."

Lin Qi obediently agreed, but he still couldn't help saying to the System, "I don't understand. I completed every task perfectly, so how could I have made the worlds collapse?"

System: "If you don't understand, how would I? You're pretty funny."

Lin Qi: "..."

System: "Are you ready? If you're ready, let's go to work."

Lin Qi: "I just got off work."

System: "Heh, who didn't, godd*mn it."

Lin Qi: "..." No wonder only Moderators who made mistakes would be bound to a System. This System's temper was way too fiery.

Fortunately, although the System had a very bad temper, it didn't force Lin Qi. It allowed Lin Qi to rest enough before taking him back to the world he had ruined.

The first world was the cultivation world task that Lin Qi had just finished. In the System's words—"Even if you're eating sh*t, you have to catch it while it's hot."

In this cultivation world, the male lead, Du Chengying, came from a poor background and was extremely unlucky. He possessed an innate aggro-drawing buff. Right at his debut, his mother died. Before dying, she left him a token to go find his scumbag immortal cultivator father. As a result, Du Chengying went up Mount Yuelu to seek a master and learn skills, thereby starting his story of being bullied, then continuously growing and face-slapping others.

A standard male-oriented trope.

The role Lin Qi played was also a very standard tool person in this kind of male-oriented cultivation novel.

He and Du Chengying met during the apprenticeship. He was instantly blinded by Du Chengying's male lead halo on the spot and followed him with utter devotion. Back when Du Chengying was still a total piece of trash in the early stages, Lin Qi began throwing himself at him, and all the way until Du Chengying rose to power, Lin Qi stayed by his side the entire time.

Seeing that Du Chengying's growth curve had hit a bottleneck, Lin Qi opportunely sacrificed his life, dying in Du Chengying's arms. He could have clearly explained the crucial clues about the murderer in one sentence, but he absolutely refused to say it, stubbornly spouting nonsense instead.

Things like—"I'm leaving you, you must take good care of yourself." "Don't cry." "Ah, I see the Little Furong at the foot of the mountain blooming again."

Extremely tragic.

Lin Qi still couldn't figure out where exactly he went wrong. Why did the world just collapse like that? It really gave him a headache.

Lin Qi was very excited when he received the Alliance's recruitment letter, full of joy and hoping to build a successful career. Little did he expect that under his hard work, he hadn't achieved a career, but he had managed to make quite a few worlds collapse.

System: "Attention, the target character is about to appear."

Lin Qi's memories were pulled back by the System, and he looked toward the foot of the mountain.

Today was the day Mount Yuelu opened its gates to accept disciples. Disciples of the appropriate age from various factions across the cultivation continent all came to seek tutelage.

As a tool person, Lin Qi's identity was just like his looks—neither high nor low, just right. He was an illegitimate child of a collateral branch family. Because he had a slight talent for Daoist magic, he was sent to Mount Yuelu to try his luck. Among the many disciples seeking to learn, Lin Qi was extremely inconspicuous, practically equivalent to a background board.

The real protagonist was Du Chengying.

Right from his debut, he stood out from the crowd.

The disciples from various sects and factions coming to Mount Yuelu for apprenticeship, regardless of their talent, were almost all descendants of aristocratic families without exception. Ordinary people simply couldn't afford this whole cultivation business.

Because cultivation... burned too much f*cking money.

Talismans, medicinal pills, secret manuals—pulling out any random one of these would be enough to bankrupt an affluent merchant family.

There were also disciples from poor backgrounds, but that was merely their 'background'. Many extremely talented individuals who possessed extraordinary traits upon birth had long been recruited into the ranks of various cultivation families.

So... this was a gathering of rich people.

Du Chengying, as the protagonist, naturally differed from those rich, coquettish brats. He would make his debut very simply and unpretentiously in a set of tattered clothes. The Spirit Seed inside his body hadn't awakened yet, so he possessed zero spiritual power, and his face was covered in ugly scars.

Poor, ugly, and lacking spiritual power; if that wasn't 'standing out from the crowd', what was?

The moment he entered the world, Lin Qi received all the major and minor task nodes belonging to his tool person role. He didn't possess an omniscient perspective. Aside from the task nodes he had to complete on his timeline, he was completely ignorant of and uninvolved in the rest of the plot. For example, he had no idea who exactly the murderer that killed him was.

This practice of not providing the full script was also one of the Alliance's methods to prevent Moderators like them from going astray.

Lin Qi's first task node was to give a pulling hand to Du Chengying, who was coming to seek an apprenticeship.

With Lin Qi's cultivation and eyesight, he could only see up to a hundred meters. Moreover, Mount Yuelu itself was concealed by magic. Dense white mist wrapped around the lushly green foot of the mountain like a skirt ribbon, making it completely impossible to see whether anyone was coming up from below.

The gates of Mount Yuelu were about to open, yet there was still no sign of Du Chengying.

To be honest, Lin Qi had stayed in this world for over thirty years. He only had a vague memory of his first time node's task, and he had truly forgotten the exact details of how Du Chengying made his entrance.

In his memories before leaving this world, Du Chengying was already the chief disciple of Mount Yuelu, elegant and possessing an unearthly temperament. Accompanied by this dedicated tool person highlighting him, he captivated thousands of young men and women across the cultivation world. Lin Qi had long forgotten how miserable Du Chengying was when they first met.

"Open the mountain gates—"

Following the chant of a Sanskrit voice, the large gates of Mount Yuelu behind them crashed down, revealing a deep, dark entrance emitting the fragrance of vegetation, with seemingly countless stairs faintly stretching upward.

The many disciples here to seek apprenticeship had already turned around one after another and began to climb the stairs.

This was Mount Yuelu's Cultivation Ladder. The rules inside were extremely cruel. Each step represented a person's karma, love, and hatred. The path of cultivation required letting go of external things, which included all worldly attachments. The more open and clear a person's mind was, the further they could go, which also meant they could climb higher on the path of cultivation.

Seeing this Cultivation Ladder, Lin Qi's memories finally began to gradually return.

Du Chengying had a tragic past and had suffered greatly. What filled his heart most was his resentment and indignation towards the world. On the Cultivation Ladder, his feet were entangled as if by thousands of layers of mud, making it completely impossible to lift a single step. Yet he refused to give up, struggling bitterly, almost forcibly tearing both of his feet off.

It was on this Cultivation Ladder that Lin Qi had given Du Chengying a pulling hand.

Lin Qi didn't remember the exact scene back then too clearly. He just completed his task, timing it so that when Du Chengying's leg bones were on the verge of piercing through his skin due to the pulling, he immediately stepped forward and used a spell to pull him up.

"Close the mountain gates—"

Lin Qi stood at the mountain gate without the slightest bit of panic.

Protagonists, after all, always show up at the very last moment.

The System urged, "Hurry in, the gates are closing."

Lin Qi: "Ah? Are we not waiting for Du Chengying?"

System: "He's the protagonist, he'll definitely be able to go up the mountain. You aren't. Stop dawdling and hurry inside."

Lin Qi: "..." Makes sense.

Lin Qi didn't have a protagonist halo. He was just a tool person with a task to do, so he decisively slipped into the mountain gates.

Because Lin Qi had been deliberately waiting for Du Chengying, by the time he stepped onto the Cultivation Ladder, there was already no one else around him.

Boundless white mist obscured the path ahead and behind. Whether moving forward or backward, everything was a vast, unsupported void. Those climbing the ladder often didn't know how many steps they had ascended, nor how high the remaining path was.

As Lin Qi walked, he muttered to himself, "One little step, two little steps..."

System: "...What are you doing?"

Lin Qi: "Counting."

He had to turn around and pull Du Chengying when he reached the seventh step. He had to count perfectly clearly to wait for Du Chengying on the seventh step.

System: "I've never seen anyone as stubborn and inflexible as you when doing a task."

Lin Qi: "..." What else should I do then?

System: "That's close enough. Just sit down and wait. What difference does a few steps make?"

This was truly a far cry from the Auxiliary System Lin Qi had imagined. He thought that with the System, he would receive more precise guidance for his tasks. Why did it look more and more like this System... was teaching him how to slack off?

After all, he was someone who had made a mistake. Lin Qi obediently listened to the System's command and sat down on the third step.

After waiting for a long time, there was still no sight of Du Chengying.

Lin Qi was getting a little anxious but didn't dare mention it to the System, afraid that it would mock him again.

The System spoke first, "Are you getting a little anxious?"

Lin Qi immediately replied, "Yes."

The System drawled, "Wanna watch a video to relax?"

Lin Qi: "..."

System: "If you don't watch videos at work, your salary gets cut in half."

Lin Qi: "..." What kind of logic is that?

Under the System's 'forced' arrangement, Lin Qi and the System started watching a very popular variety show in the Alliance together—Super Rush Rush Rush, a reality adventure talent show.

Lin Qi used to love watching it before he started working, but after he started his job and got addicted to work, he had stopped following it entirely. Looking at it now, he didn't recognize anyone in it anymore, so he couldn't help asking, "Where is No. 017, was he eliminated?"

System: "Dead."

Lin Qi gasped in shock. People actually died in this show?!

System: "I quite like him too. Let's vote for him together, he can still enter the revival round later."

Lin Qi: "..." In just the short month since he started working, he had already become out of touch with society.

At first, Lin Qi felt very apprehensive about binge-watching variety shows during work hours, but as he gradually continued watching, he became thoroughly engrossed in the tense and exciting program flow.

Footsteps gradually approached on the Cultivation Ladder. The moment Lin Qi heard the sound of footsteps, he immediately turned his head.

Below was still a vast expanse of white; all creations in heaven and earth seemed blurred.

"Fellow Daoist, you sit motionless, are you tired?"

A deep and mellow voice drifted over, and those vague memories instantly took on a physical form. Following the voice, Lin Qi looked up.

A pair of profound eyes sliced through the dense mist.

Lin Qi saw Du Chengying.

The elegant, noble, and unearthly Du Chengying he was familiar with stood on the high steps ahead. His uniform long robes spread out, and his expression was lenient. He possessed the power and handsomeness of heaven's favorite. Even the dense mist seemed to intentionally avoid his sharp edge. With a hint of a gentle smile at the corner of his mouth, his profound eyes reflected Lin Qi's surprised face like the deep sea.

There was nothing more emotionally stirring than seeing the beloved person who had died tragically in one's arms again. Du Chengying desperately suppressed his impulse to tightly embrace the still ignorant Lin Qi before him into his arms. There was plenty of time in the future, he absolutely must not rush...

Lin Qi's eyes were practically bulging out. Where was the desolate, miserable, and scar-faced Du Chengying from his debut?

System: "Warning. Target character's favorability is 100, blackening value is 100."

Lin Qi was even more surprised, "Why? I haven't even done anything yet!"

System: "Detected that the target character possesses the rebirth factor."

Lin Qi: "What?"

System: "He was reborn, understand?"

Lin Qi: ...Not really.