March, with endless, drizzling rain.
Deep inside a deserted alleyway, Lin Zhuo put on his hoodie’s hood, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, drew one out, bit it between his lips, and cupped his hands around the flame to light it.
Nicotine drifted from his mouth into his lungs, and his tense body gradually relaxed.
White smoke rose from bottom to top. A hazy layer seemed to shroud his gaze, making everything look indistinct.
The cigarette was quickly finished. He casually tossed the butt away.
Lin Zhuo was not a person of this world; he had arrived here purely because something calling itself a “system” was being obnoxious.
In his own world, he was an ordinary corporate slave. Although he didn’t make a ton of money, his job was easy. Especially since the person he liked happened to have feelings for him too; the two of them were in that subtle ambiguous stage, and judging by her reactions, there was a high probability they could end up together.
Just as his happy life was about to begin, he was dragged into this world and turned into a penniless nobody.
Furthermore, that self-proclaimed system told him this world would be destroyed before long, and he needed to save it.
“Save your damn ass.”
Lin Zhuo shoved both hands into his pockets. Inside was a ten-centimeter fruit knife.
He had snatched it from a fruit stand ten minutes ago, intending to use it to kill the person who would destroy the world.
Originally, he wouldn’t have had to snatch it, but once the system learned of his intentions, it refused to provide him with any tools.
With no other choice, he had to stoop to that level.
Though calling it murder wasn’t entirely accurate either; according to the data provided by the system, the other party was an unidentified biological entity.
Since it wasn’t explicitly called a human, that meant the other party wasn’t human.
[Host, you really cannot kill Fu Baizhou anymore!] The system’s originally emotionless electronic voice carried a faint trace of crying.
Lin Zhuo ignored its plea, instead saying in a joking tone, “A character setting like his makes him the major villain in a novel. Calling him the major villain is much more fitting.”
[Host, you really cannot kill the major villain!] The system obediently changed its form of address.
Lin Zhuo clicked his tongue and dug into his ear. “Wasn’t it you who asked me to stop him from destroying the world?”
[The system wants the Host to use love to reform him, not kill him!] The system anxiously defended itself, yet no matter how many times it repeated this, it was futile. Lin Zhuo simply wouldn’t listen.
Relying on his memories from the previous two attempts, Lin Zhuo walked into a dim, deep alley. Raindrops the size of beans beat against the bluestone-paved road, pattering loudly.
[But even if you kill the major villain, you won’t be able to return to the real world!]
The system wanted to make one last struggle, hoping to snap its host out of it and make him abandon this dangerous idea.
Lin Zhuo shrugged, looking quite helpless. “How will I know if I don’t try?”
The system’s voice nearly cracked: [You’ve already tried twice! Did you go back?!]
Lin Zhuo’s voice dropped several degrees: “Perhaps the previous two times didn’t succeed because I didn’t chop him up finely enough.”
[The system is speechless.]
The system gave up struggling. It should have never chosen this host in the first place, as he was impervious to reason and entirely bent on violence.
As he neared his destination, Lin Zhuo slowed his pace.
Originally, when the system told Lin Zhuo the location where Fu Baizhou was injured, it wanted him to offer timely help so that Fu Baizhou would remember his kindness and make it easier to carry out the subsequent ideological work. Instead, Lin Zhuo directly took a knife and butchered Fu Baizhou, claiming he was doing it to eliminate a public hazard.
The system never imagined that when Lin Zhuo asked for a knife, it was to kill Fu Baizhou, and so the first attempt ended just like that.
By the second time, the system earnestly tried to persuade Lin Zhuo, but he remained obstinate. Even when the system threatened him with erasure, he didn’t care at all.
Turning into the deep alley, Lin Zhuo’s gaze instinctively swept toward the spot where the man had lain during the previous two times.
Yet this time, there was nothing there.
Just as Lin Zhuo was completely baffled, faint footsteps suddenly sounded behind him, and immediately, a deep and magnetic male voice fell into his ears: “Are you looking for me?”
Lin Zhuo had already completely frozen in place when he heard the footsteps, and when those words were spoken, he felt as though his very soul had been frightened right out of his body.
The major villain wasn’t injured this time?
A rich stench of blood drifted to his nostrils, and he frowned.
It was not that he was not injured.
Lin Zhuo remembered that in the previous two instances, Fu Baizhou had clearly been completely powerless to fight back; how had he managed to hide in advance this time?
Especially when he asked from behind whether Lin Zhuo was looking for him, it felt precisely as if he had known Lin Zhuo would come and was deliberately waiting for him here.
Lin Zhuo countered with a backhanded knife strike, but his arm was seized and twisted behind his back. An icy, snake-like aura made a layer of fine cold sweat break out across the back of his neck.
The man’s strength was immense, almost enough to shatter his bones.
“Damn it! It hurts, hurts, hurts! Let go!” Lin Zhuo’s strength instantly collapsed, and his other hand hurriedly moved to rescue his trapped arm, but both of his hands couldn’t overpower even one of the other man’s.
“Tell me who you are, and I’ll let you go.” The icy, sticky breath sniffed around Lin Zhuo’s neck. Fu Baizhou’s voice brushed across his skin like a snake’s tongue, and Lin Zhuo felt his blood freezing inch by inch, his brain completely unable to process it.
There is a good saying in China: those who adapt to circumstances are wise men. Lin Zhuo immediately deflated. “Lin Zhuo, my name is Lin Zhuo!”
“Such a good boy.” Fu Baizhou hooked the corner of his lips, his ambiguous tone sounding as though he were teasing a plaything.
Goosebumps broke out all over Lin Zhuo.
The force behind him gradually relaxed, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The sound of flesh tearing followed immediately after. Lin Zhuo felt a chill in his abdomen and looked down.
It was the fruit knife he had snatched.
Buried inside his body.
All the confinement on his body instantly vanished. Lin Zhuo staggered as he turned around, his back pressing against the wall as he slowly slid down, his eyes reflecting the tall man’s appearance before him.
He wore his hair past his shoulders, his bangs half-obscuring his eyes, and excessive blood loss veiled his ink-black pupils in a layer of gloom. His nasal bridge was prominent, and his thin, diamond-shaped lips curved into a sneer, making him look rather ruthless.
His facial features were exquisite, but his skin was overly pale, making him look like a butterfly specimen pinned inside a frame.
Beautiful, but devoid of life.
Clutching his abdomen, Lin Zhuo sank to his knees, and the moment he lost consciousness, tears of grievance fell.
Die, just die. Once dead, I’ll surely be able to return to reality.
He didn’t want to spend a lifetime in this fake world!
Yet when he opened his eyes once more, he had returned to half an hour before he was killed.
“System, get out here. Let’s duel; either you die or I perish.” The terror of death still lingered in his heart, and Lin Zhuo shouted with zero patience.
Until the moment he was killed, he had clearly realized just how massive the disparity was between himself and Fu Baizhou.
Even when severely injured, crushing him was as easy as crushing an ant.
[Host, please don’t be so violent. Let’s resolve things peacefully.]
“I’ll resolve your grandfather’s!” Lin Zhuo really wanted to drag this system out and crush it to pieces.
If not for it, he wouldn’t have ended up in this godforsaken place with nothing at all, forced to work for it without pay.
[The system does not have a grandfather.]
It felt like punching cotton.
Lin Zhuo, looking perplexed, muttered, “I just don’t understand. Since Fu Baizhou has the ability to destroy the world, why choose a powerless corporate slave like me to reform him? Could it be that I’m some immortal sent down to undergo a mortal tribulation?”