GRMFBS CH5

Your own golden finger, what else can you do? Pamper it, of course.

Zhan Yan let it complain while estimating its speed.

Whoa! Is this almost at the level of a national athlete?

It turns out that people can indeed unleash potential when they’re emotionally hyped up!

Exiting the search and display panel, Zhan Yan opened the favorites section. This was where he had previously stored keywords with tags. Now, in addition to the tags, there was a special attention section, corresponding to the “Special Focus” tab in the display panel.

Zhan Yan studied it for a bit and discovered that the special attention section had a quantity limit. Currently, it was limited to five individuals, with himself fixed in the list. This meant he could add four more people.

Without hesitation, Zhan Yan added his dad, mom, brother, and sister. In the past, he felt it was important to respect his family’s privacy and would rarely search for their names. But after this incident, he realized the “Gossip System” could serve as an early warning tool for danger.

If not for the Gossip System’s alert, he wouldn’t have noticed he was being targeted by a hungry ghost—he wouldn’t even know how he died. With this special attention feature, if his family ever faced danger, he could know about it even without direct communication.

But the biggest change was to the information panel.

The deep universe had become the background, with six columns floating in front. Two columns were at the top, three in the middle, and one at the bottom.

The two top columns were labeled “Spirit” and “Domain.” The three middle columns were “Abilities,” “Organizations,” and “Objects,” while the bottom one was labeled “Anomalies.”

In the “Spirit” column, the topmost entries were two golden terms: “Tianshi” and “Chongming Demon King.” Below them were purple, blue, green, and white keywords—people, demons, and ghosts, all entities with souls.

In the “Domain” column, various location-related terms were listed. The remaining four columns also categorized the information terms accordingly.

It seemed that the upgrade had classified the previously jumbled information into distinct categories.

But Zhan Yan felt there was more to it.

After careful observation, he noticed a thin energy bar at the top of each category. The energy levels varied across them, with the “Spirit” bar having a lit-up little star above it, indicating a full energy bar, while the “Abilities” bar had a gray, unlit star.

Zhan Yan touched the lit-up star, and suddenly, a flood of information engulfed his vision again.

He covered his eyes as the chaotic stream of information persisted.

How did this information stream appear before?

At that time, he was worried his brother would be eaten by the hungry ghost, holding his phone with nothing but “Answer the call! Answer the call!” in his mind.

“Ring~~~~~”

Suddenly, in the information stream, a phone screen appeared, showing an outgoing call to Zhan Jinli.

In his room, Zhan Jinli stuffed the hungry ghost into an iron box, then hesitantly picked up the unknown call displayed on his phone. “…Hello?”

Zhan Yan snapped out of it. “It’s nothing, ge. I accidentally dialed you. You can hang up now.”

He hung up, blinked, and the information stream disappeared.

There was no record of him dialing Zhan Jinli on his phone, but he had indeed called his brother. Through… the Gossip System.

Under the little star, a line of text appeared:

[As times progress, so does technology. The Gossip Tool won’t fall behind! The system will never be weaker than others!]

Incredible!

Zhan Yan’s eyes sparkled as he began experimenting.

He found that this ability wasn’t limited to making calls. WeChat, web pages, even radio stations—he could connect to any platform in the world through sheer willpower.

Of course, the prerequisite was knowing the “contact information.” Just like how he thought of calling his brother to connect to Zhan Jinli’s phone, he needed to know a platform’s existence and locate it specifically. Otherwise, he would get lost in the endless stream of information.

And the platform he most wanted to connect to now was, of course, the “Chaofan Forum.”

But Zhan Yan didn’t attempt to connect directly. Instead, he went to Zhan Jinli’s room and borrowed his brother’s phone. Opening the call log, he found no record of the call he had just made through the system.

“Ge, did you just receive a call from me?” he typed on his phone to show his brother.

Zhan Jinli nodded, looking confused at his little brother’s strange behavior.

“It’s nothing. A classmate of mine is testing an encryption program and asked me to help.” Zhan Yan made up an excuse.

The former Ghost King, now socially anxious and clueless about human technology, didn’t realize his little brother had just learned to lie and was easily fooled.

Zhan Jinli nodded in understanding and typed back: [Feel free to test it.]

Zhan Yan felt a tiny pang of guilt.

This was the functionality of the gray little star:

[A qualified gossiper will never become the gossip! You’ve been encrypted!]

Now, he didn’t have to worry about being tracked.

He roughly figured it out. The key to this upgrade was the categorized information panel. Before the classification, he didn’t know how long it would take to accumulate enough keywords to unlock new abilities. But now, with the categories dividing the workload into six, he could unlock smaller abilities earlier without waiting for full accumulation. It was incredibly practical.

After Zhan Yan left, Zhan Jinli once again released the hungry ghost from the metal candy tin.

He snapped his fingers. The unconscious starving ghost woke up: “I’ll never eat sweets again! Salty food rules!”

Zhan Jinli: ?

Dragging his muscle-strained leg, Zhan Yan returned to his room, only to run into his sister, Zhan Suiru, who had just come home.

Zhan Suiru looked at him, surprised, as he grimaced in pain. “What happened to you?”

“I pulled a muscle while running,” Zhan Yan replied.

Zhan Suiru mercilessly burst into laughter at his expense.

Zhan Yan angrily retorted, “Next time I have juicy gossip, I’m not sharing it with you!”

Zhan Suiru handed him a bottle of medicinal oil. “Use this. It works better than the stuff at home.”

Zhan Yan hobbled back to his room, deciding to apply the oil before continuing his research on the gossip system. The medicinal oil had a faint herbal scent, and when applied to his leg, it felt warm. He gently moved his leg, still sore but surprisingly less painful. What kind of miracle medicine was this?

Now that he could connect to the Chaofan Forum using his new ability, he didn’t need to rush into revealing his identity to Zhen Hua. Regarding the existence of that garbled anomaly, he still had no clues or evidence. The gossip system’s information couldn’t be shown to others, and recounting it verbally would lack credibility.

While applying the medicinal oil, Zhan Yan glanced at the gossip system again. The label on the hungry ghost was still glowing, indicating it wasn’t dead—just previously knocked unconscious by his brother’s overly sweet cake.

[After waking up, the hungry ghost firmly declared to the “former Ghost King” that it would no longer be part of the Sweet Faction and was now a devout member of the Salty Faction.]

Zhan Yan: Is my brother’s cake really that powerful?

But why would the starving ghost declare its allegiance to the “former Ghost King”? Could it be that the “former Ghost King” is also part of the Salty Faction? Speaking of which, what even is a “former Ghost King”? This new purple keyword, like “Craftsman,” was something Zhan Yan dragged into the information panel, letting his imagination run wild. Was it a previous ghost king? Or was there a successor ghost king? And if there were a successor ghost king, would they belong to the Sweet Faction?

After finishing with the medicinal oil, Zhan Yan began attempting to connect to the Chaofan Forum. A direct connection was challenging, as he knew too little about the forum to pinpoint it precisely. But gaining knowledge about the forum wasn’t hard, was it?

Zhan Yan exited the information flow, opened the search bar, and typed “Chaofan Forum.”

[“White Hair is the Coolest” was muted for ten days for posting ten matchmaking ads in the forum’s mission section.]

[High-activity forum user “Craftsman” returned with a new account after being muted for three days, only to get muted again after arguing with “Tianshi’s” haters.]

[“No CP, No Happiness” was permanently banned by admin “Lingyu” for writing fanfiction about the “Tianshi” and the “Chongming Demon King” in the forum’s spam section.]

[“I Just Saved the World!” was forcibly logged off due to exceeding two hours on the Chaofan Forum in Teen Mode without real-name verification.]

…

Gu Jiancheng stared at his phone screen displaying Teen Mode and couldn’t help but curse out loud.

Since when did the Chaofan Forum implement Teen Mode? Who’s behind this nonsense?!

The forum often had posts for clearing anomalies, and with All-Knowing One proving unreliable, Gu Jiancheng had decided to take matters into his own hands. However, as someone wanted by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, he obviously wasn’t certified.

Fake-teenager Gu Jiancheng glared at the forum interface for a while before exiting. He opened WeChat:

[Yanyan, are you off work yet~]

Zhan Yan closed the gossip system, opened WeChat, and replied: [Just finished work.]

Gu Jiancheng stared at his phone, waiting for Zhan Yan to share his first-day-at-work experience.

One minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
Three minutes passed…

Gu Jiancheng furiously tapped at his still-quiet phone:

[How was your first day at work? Curious Cat Peeking emoji]

Zhan Yan thought back on the day: the job at Zhenke News Agency was relaxed, well-paid, and—most importantly—perfect for farming information keywords for his gossip system. It was the ideal experience booster. Thanks to work, he’d upgraded his system and gained the information-connection ability. After work, he’d also faced a near-death encounter with a starving ghost, a high-speed chase, and his golden finger leveling up.

Zhan Yan replied: [Very exciting.]

Gu Jiancheng: ?

[What kind of job is it?]

Zhan Yan thought for a moment and replied: [Guess.]

[If you guess right, you’ll be able to find me.]

Gu Jiancheng stared at the message, his hairs standing on end, his pupils contracting with excitement.

He had the ability to find Zhan Yan; it would be easy. But Zhan Yan had never told him his home address. While Zhan Yan appeared mild and even occasionally oblivious, he was, in fact, highly perceptive. If Gu Jiancheng tried to fake a coincidental meeting by tracking him, Zhan Yan would definitely see through it. So he’d always played the part of an ordinary friend.

But now, Zhan Yan had invited him to search for him.

It felt like… a hunting invitation.

Zhan Yan wasn’t prey, but Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help but feel a thrill.

Shadows writhed beneath him, spreading like a vast lake. The anomaly being devoured struggled desperately but only caused faint ripples. The hunter had lost interest in it. Gu Jiancheng sat cross-legged on the shadow, gripping his phone with pale, slender fingers, tapping the screen one deliberate press at a time:

“Is this an invitation?”

The screen’s light illuminated his face in the dim room, his narrowed pupils fixated on the reply.

Zhan Yan lounged lazily on his sofa, his freshly treated long leg propped on the armrest. The warm white light of the chandelier chased away the darkness outside, softening his features into a subtle glow.

[I’ll give you clues, and you can guess.]

Zhan Yan rested his chin on one hand, his thumb lightly tapping the screen: [No cheating allowed.]

Gu Jiancheng: [What’s today’s clue?]

[This job is severely understaffed.]

Zhan Yan smiled faintly. [You’ve got one month left of summer vacation. Good luck.]

Gu Jiancheng, ever composed and attentive around Zhan Yan, was only a fraction of his true self. He was like a multi-layered cake, with secrets hidden at its core, each layer offering a new surprise.

Zhan Yan liked secrets.

As if sensing his intention to end the conversation, another message quickly appeared in the chatbox.

Gu Jiancheng: [Wait, one more thing!]

Zhan Yan sighed.

Clingy boyfriend.

He dialed a voice call: 

[Good night.]

Smooch.