DEM Chapter 53: Machine Soul! Let Me See Your Limits!

“Mmm, the orange Nuoyi personally squeezed is just different… so delicious! After drinking it, I feel like my soul has been purified!”

Yin Qiyue inserted a straw into her fruit tea, sipping it delicately, her face beaming with happiness as she praised it repeatedly.

In reality, there was nothing special about it; it just had a bit more Calming Pill added to the tea.

Su Yuan silently grumbled to himself.

Standing behind the counter, he glanced around the shop and noticed there were hardly any customers.

This was normal, as most workers hadn’t gotten off work yet.

Happy to have some downtime, Su Yuan sneakily pulled out his phone.

Of course, he wasn’t playing around. He was scouring various work group chats to find a high-paying job to meet his goal of earning 30,000 a day.

Unfortunately, after searching for a while, he couldn’t find a single job that suited him.

With no other options, Su Yuan temporarily set aside his money-making plans and shifted his focus to winning over Yin Qiyue to complete the system task.

To increase her favorability, he needed to understand her better.

Su Yuan discreetly slipped an earbud into one ear and opened Yin Qiyue’s homepage on the Miaoyin short video platform.

After casually clicking on her latest video, the phone screen displayed a girl in ancient-style Han clothing sitting in front of a microphone.

The girl was, of course, Yin Qiyue. However, the video’s lighting and camera angles were practically disastrous, dragging her otherwise 95-point beauty down to an 80.

Though she still looked good in the video, it lacked the striking impact of seeing her in person.

Shouldn’t lighting and filming be basic skills for a Tianyin High School student?

Could it be that, despite her bold appearance, Yin Qiyue was secretly a slacker among arts students?

Su Yuan mentally roasted her as a melodious song began to play through his earbud.

In an instant, he felt his consciousness being drawn in by the beautiful voice, as if he were about to sink into the world woven by the song.

A dreamlike realm seemed to appear before his eyes, pulling him away from reality and leaving him entranced.

It was like eating a mushroom and gradually comprehending everything.

Fortunately, the Brahma Pure Demon Heart countered all sorts of negative mental effects, preventing Su Yuan from completely succumbing.

“This is the pre-study curriculum of Thousand Faces University? Just her voice alone can enchant people’s hearts?”

Su Yuan was amazed.

Works that could sway hearts and create illusions for viewers at the Qi Refining stage were rare.

To ensure a safe online experience for both ordinary people and cultivators, the spiritual energy network imposed many restrictions on students like Su Yuan.

One such restriction was that videos or texts containing high-level cultivators’ techniques or supernatural powers couldn’t be viewed by low-level cultivators or ordinary people.

If mishandled, the power transmitted through videos or texts by high-level cultivators could drag ordinary people into illusions, potentially causing brain death.

Low-level cultivators’ understanding of high-level cultivators was limited to journalist interviews and news reports.

Only after reaching a certain cultivation level could one unlock higher spiritual network privileges to access more thrilling content.

This explained why Su Yuan rarely encountered such dreamlike musical artistry.

No wonder Yin Qiyue could amass over 200,000 fans in such a short time, becoming a small internet celebrity.

Her professional skills were genuinely impressive.

Soon, the song ended. Just as Su Yuan was about to swipe to another video, he noticed the progress bar for the current one hadn’t finished.

Puzzled for a moment, he suddenly realized why.

Yin Qiyue’s voice stammered, “Dear viewers, are you frustrated by your phone lagging? Do you often miss work because of flying sword malfunctions?”

“Now, the Pinbaobao Trade-in Season is here! Click the link below the video to jump to the Pinbaobao shopping platform and upgrade your device with one click.”

“To thank my fans, I’ve secured an exclusive fan benefit. Search the secret code below on the Pinbaobao platform to access the Billion Subsidy Event.”

“Tonight at 10 p.m. sharp, the Billion Subsidy Event will offer ten free new phones!”

“As long as you’re fast enough, you can get a Qiankun phone worth 19,999 for free, first come, first served!”

As Yin Qiyue spoke, various shopping platform interfaces and information popped up in the video, leaving Su Yuan speechless.

So, even someone as upright-looking as you takes on advertisements?

Learning to be good is hard, but picking up bad habits is a slippery slope, huh?

That said, this video was posted today, and in just a few minutes, it would be 10 p.m.

Should he try his luck at the Billion Subsidy Event and see if he could snag a Qiankun phone?

Even if he didn’t use it himself, selling it online could net him over 10,000!

The thought made Su Yuan’s heart race.

But there was a problem: could he compete with Pinbaobao’s billions of users to grab one of the mere ten phones?

Events like this happened almost monthly, and Su Yuan had always camped out early, only to come up empty-handed.

Clearly, either the Pinbaobao platform was rigging things, or scalpers were using shady methods to snatch the free phones.

Competing against scalpers’ technology with human effort was like climbing to the heavens, practically impossible!

But the past was the past, and now was now!

Su Yuan wanted to give it a shot!

He wanted to face the scalpers’ onslaught and carve a path through the chaos!

His only reliance was the Demonic Technique · Weapon Finger and his phone, which had been with him for years like a family member!

Could the Machine Soul Ecstasy effect match the scalpers’ tech and the speed of expert hands?

Su Yuan didn’t know, but he wanted to try!

He called Chen Nuoyi to cover the counter, then went alone to the milk tea shop’s changing room. He opened the Pinbaobao Billion Subsidy Event page and navigated to the free phone grab activity with ease.

At that moment, the countdown to the event’s start had one minute left.

In that minute, Su Yuan quickly adjusted his breathing to ensure he was in peak condition.

Then, he activated the Demonic Technique · Weapon Finger!

In the next second, a familiar sensation of being spiritually connected to his phone surged within him.

Machine Soul Ecstasy effect, activated!

Both Su Yuan and his phone pushed their performance to the absolute limit, like two cannonballs about to explode, ready to unleash earth-shattering power!

“‘Machine Soul,’ let those tech-reliant scalpers see the power of our bond!”

Su Yuan murmured, his eyes locked on the large red button on the screen.

Countdown: five seconds!

Time seemed to slow in that moment.

Four… three… two… one!

As the countdown neared its end, a glint flashed in Su Yuan’s eyes, and he prepared to tap!

But at that exact moment—click—

The changing room door opened, and Chu Lanxi walked in!

Su Yuan’s focus wavered, missing the perfect moment to tap the purchase button, his finger frozen in midair.

“Slacking off, huh? I’ll report you for skipping work,” Chu Lanxi teased with a grin.

But soon, he noticed something was off.

A bone-chilling aura emanated from Su Yuan, making Chu Lanxi feel an eerie dread.

It was as if he weren’t facing his longtime friend but a sinister demon lord!

“What… what’s going on?” Chu Lanxi was bewildered.

“Lanxi, you owe me 19,999. Are you paying in installments or all at once?” Su Yuan asked with a dark expression.

Chu Lanxi blinked, then said with sudden realization, “19,999? Were you just trying to grab a free phone from the Pinbaobao Billion Subsidy Event?”

“So what if I was? If it weren’t for you, I would’ve definitely gotten that phone!” Su Yuan gritted his teeth.

“Uh, I didn’t mean to mock you. I just wanted to point out… you seem to have gotten it,” Chu Lanxi said cautiously, pointing at Su Yuan’s phone.

Su Yuan whipped his head around and saw that his phone screen had somehow jumped to a new page, displaying in bold text: “Congratulations, you are the 10th winner of this zero-yuan phone purchase event! You’ve won a Qiankun phone worth 19,999. Please fill in your delivery address as soon as possible!”

Su Yuan was stunned.

He clearly remembered that he hadn’t tapped the button at all!

Which meant… his phone had clicked the purchase button on its own?!

[NEXT CHAPTER]