Chapter 78
Chapter 78
“Well, if it isn’t Young Master Qian.”
“It’s only been a few days. How did you fall this far?”
Inside the interrogation room, Qin Lan folded his arms and ruthlessly mocked the gray-faced Qian Youquan.
With his hands shackled, Qian Youquan felt as though life had truly become an absurd dream.
Only hours ago, he had been the lofty future heir to the Qian Group, living in a luxury mansion, driving luxury cars, wearing luxury watches, and petting luxury cats.
Now cold handcuffs bound his wrists. He sat on a hard chair beneath a blinding light, reduced to a prisoner.
Everything he had owned had vanished like a bubble.
And all because he had provoked someone he never should have touched.
Qian Youquan’s lips trembled as though he wanted to say something. The tremendous reversal had left his mind numb, and nausea rose in his throat.
He had not eaten, yet his stomach still churned violently.
“Qin Lan…”
Qian Youquan’s voice was hoarse. “I should’ve hired more people back then and killed you in one attempt…”
“Then none of this would’ve happened…”
Qin Lan merely curled his lips in mockery at the hatred in Qian Youquan’s voice.
“See, this is the most obvious problem with idiots like you who’ve spent their lives looking down on everyone else…”
“You never reflect on your own mistakes.”
Qin Lan’s gaze turned cold. “What you should regret is using your privilege to steal someone else’s examination results.”
“You should regret treating civilian lives like worthless grass even more.”
Qin Lan shook his head. “Forget it. There’s no point explaining this to you. Your brain is shaped like an intestine, and it’s filled with the same thing…”
“Expecting people like you to reflect is like expecting a professional gold digger to pay me a dowry. It’s pure fantasy.”
Qian Youquan said nothing. He only stared at Qin Lan with eyes filled with hatred.
To Qin Lan, that hatred exerted less pressure than the curse leaking from a 1-Star anomaly corpse.
He turned toward Yuan Risheng.
“Zone Governor, the evidence is conclusive. This man hired killers, stole someone else’s university entrance examination results, and attempted to murder an Anomaly Hunter.”
“Surely that’s enough to get him executed several times over?”
Yuan Risheng glanced at Qian Youquan as though looking at a corpse.
“Yes. Would you like to handle him personally?”
The Qian Group’s destruction was inevitable.
Under the pressure of this storm, everyone else would protect themselves by placing every crime on the group.
Even if Qin Lan did not demand their deaths, the others would still pray for the Qian Group to disappear.
When a wall collapsed, everyone pushed it down. When a tree fell, its monkeys scattered.
No one needed to consider whether to offend a 3-Star Anomaly Hunter personally backed by the Director of the Anomaly Hunter Bureau or a Qian Group that had only ever been cultivated as a convenient white glove.
“Leave him to me. I’m a humanitarian. Killing him outright would be too merciful–I mean, too cruel.”
Qin Lan grinned. He had already designed Young Master Qian’s fate.
An uneasy feeling suddenly rose in Qian Youquan’s heart when he saw that smile.
Even knowing his fate was sealed, he could sense intense malice.
“Qin Lan! I’m telling you, other people might fear you… but I don’t!”
His deathly pale face betrayed the boast.
Qin Lan gave him a friendly smile.
“Don’t worry, Young Master Qian… I’ll give you a chance to live. You’ll simply have to earn it yourself.”
“If you’re lucky enough, you might really survive.”
Qian Youquan froze. Hope reignited in his eyes. “You… You promise?”
“If… If I survive, you’ll let me go?”
Qin Lan nodded firmly, looking exceptionally friendly. “Of course!”
And so…
Half an hour later, Qian Youquan’s despairing roar echoed through an Anomaly Hunter Bureau detention chamber.
“Qin Lan!”
“You animal!”
“This is your idea of a chance to live?!”
Qin Lan’s teasing voice came over the speakers while he watched through the surveillance feed.
[How is this not a chance?]
[All you have to do is defeat these two anomalies, and I’ll let you go. What could be more sincere than that?]
[Maybe your hidden potential will suddenly erupt and make you stronger. Then you’ll survive, won’t you?]
Qin Lan had once dreamed of giving Young Master Qian a 4-Star anomaly as a surprise.
The gift had been downgraded by several levels, but it was the thought that counted.
On the surveillance feed, two muscular figures without faces emerged from the shadows. Each carried a black baton as they slowly approached Qian Youquan.
Inside the cramped room, Qian Youquan’s screams abruptly stopped.
Then came a series of dull thuds, like meat being tenderized by hand.
Everything was finally settled.
The Qian Group collapsed, and Qianshan Hospital and its numerous affiliated businesses were sealed.
Zone Governor Yuan also pulled several unfortunate officials without powerful backgrounds from the United Government and put them on trial, giving Qin Lan an acceptable answer.
Director Wang and the now-ball-less Secretary Lin were executed by firing squad amid widespread public anticipation.
Yuan Risheng hated losing such an obedient, clever, and capable secretary, but he could only grit his teeth and abandon the man.
The other participants in the illegal organ trade breathed sighs of relief, grateful to have survived.
What they did not know was that the gaze of a Backup Reaper had never left them.
Backup Reaper was a Unique Hidden Class born from an unsolvable instance.
It also possessed a class ability that had not come into play for some time: Writing Death.
[You can govern the life and death of mortals. You may wield Death’s power to curse enemies, weaken them, and even write their deaths.]
Against a powerful opponent like Dong Haoran, Qin Lan could only spend energy to cast curses.
Against weak people, however…
Qin Lan could manipulate death traces and weave their deaths.
He had said that not one of them would escape.
Weaving death worked like the true Death within Final Destination. Countless potential hazards could be intertwined to create a pure accident.
All Qin Lan needed to do was use his understanding of death traces to adjust a few small but critical factors.
First, a corporate director was mauled to death by the wolfhound he had raised.
Next, a United Government official was impaled by falling rebar at the site of a newly completed project.
Within one short month, multiple fatal accidents occurred. Almost every victim was a prominent figure in Safe Zone 088, causing an enormous uproar.
They all had one thing in common: their names appeared in Qianshan Hospital’s ledger.
Yuan Risheng was furious, but he also felt intense fear.
Every death had been an accident.
A pure accident, without the slightest sign of human interference.
It was as though they had been placed on Death’s list.