Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The biker had an impressive build. His height alone was intimidating, and neither his powerful arms nor his solid waist could be underestimated.

With his face hidden, he looked built for brute strength. Most of his previous attacks had been close-quarters combat.

He was clearly skilled in technique as well, but preferred to win through power, overwhelming finesse with sheer force.

This time, however, he didn’t approach. He raised a hand, fingers spread and palm down, then curled his fingers slightly as though gripping something at a distance and pressed downward.

The cocoon, the boss of this Horror Game instance, was crushed beneath an invisible weight.

With a loud, wet pop, like a juicy beef meatball bursting, it split into several irregular pieces.

Even that wasn’t enough. The scraps of flesh still twitched and struggled desperately. The unseen force continued compressing them until they were reduced to pulp.

Tendrils and repulsive pulp alike vanished, turning into power that surged into the biker’s body.

No one present except Zhao Xiuming could see it.

Like a big dog after a satisfying meal, the biker gathered Zhao Xiuming into his arms and nuzzled at his neck through mask and goggles.

Contentment and comfort almost overflowed from his body. Zhao Xiuming pushed several times without getting him off.

At the same time, Horror Game’s voice sounded in the minds of the four remaining players. There were no rewards and no announcement of a successful clear. Only a countdown to leave the instance.

Usually, Horror Game counted down from ten. The woman in red still wanted to say something to Zhao Xiuming.

But this time the countdown was unusually short. It had only said “ten” and “nine”…

Before jumping straight to “zero!”

If it wanted to count “three, two, one,” it could just say “three, two, one.” There was no shame in a three-second countdown. What the hell was “ten, nine, zero”?

Some players froze, some complained, and some hadn’t even reacted before all four vanished together.

At the last moment, the cocoon had tried to devour the instance’s remaining anomalies for power, but hadn’t finished. Only seven or eight doctors and nurses remained. Among them was an old acquaintance: Pu Yuanliang.

He lay on the floor playing dead, his back to Zhao Xiuming, not daring to move.

Sharp-eyed, Zhao Xiuming spotted him and deliberately poked him. “Hey, wake up. Are you asleep?”

Pu Yuanliang rolled onto his back and closed his eyes tightly. Folding his hands over his stomach, he tried to die in a dignified, peaceful pose.

“You know I’ve just lost my husband…” he said mournfully, sounding terribly aggrieved.

Zhao Xiuming laughed. He couldn’t be bothered to decide whether Pu Yuanliang was currying favor by playing pitiful or reminding him that he was useful.

“Zhao Xiuming, stop playing with the doctor.” Zhang Xueya called from the corner, her tone serious. “Come and look at this thing.”

He rubbed his hair, muttering, “That sounds awfully suggestive. What do you mean, playing with the doctor?”

Still, he went over to examine the “thing” she meant.

It was the part belonging to the romance world that he’d just torn out: the minced flesh of the bodyguards and driver, along with Li Zhehan’s head.

The cocoon was dead, but this thing wasn’t. It was still gathering around the head, larger pieces consuming smaller ones as it tried to assemble a new individual.

After sensing it for a while, Zhang Xueya’s expression grew strange. “There’s a faint male lead’s halo on it.”

“Well, I can’t really call it a male lead. Anyway, it has less protection from the romance world than even you, a cannon-fodder character.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

If it had only been flesh made from the driver and bodyguards, she wouldn’t care whether it lived. But with Li Zhehan’s head attached, it had to die.

Zhao Xiuming asked a different question. “How did you get acquainted with a Horror Game instance?”

Zhang Xueya looked around at the “poor, miserable” anomalies and the ruined building.

Apparently he’d blasted a hole through the outside too. She sighed. “I came here for treatment once and accidentally ran into Dr. Pu Yuanliang. Then I started talking directly to the instance consciousness.”

“The cocoon was crushed outright, but what it contained was the hospital director. The director was the center of the entire instance, its consciousness.”

“After Horror Game gained access, it kept plundering the instance. The director could only sustain itself by eating the hospital’s other anomalies.”

“It left only the doctors and nurses to keep up appearances. The director said this used to be a lively place. There were cleaners, technicians, pharmaceutical representatives, interns, and so on.”

The more kinds of anomalies there were, the more ways Horror Game could be played. The instance would naturally be more exciting, higher-level, and assigned more players.

Lively, certainly. And its fortune would be plundered all the more severely.

Zhao Xiuming looked thoughtful. Zhang Xueya merely felt he was plotting something wicked. She pressed him. “You still haven’t said what you’ll do with this thing.”

“I’m warning you, I don’t want to see Li Zhehan himself alive in the real world. Don’t you bring him back.”

Zhao Xiuming raised both hands in surrender and grinned. “Then we’ll let the real him rest in peace here.”
“But have you thought about how you’ll explain things once you get out?”

She gave an unconcerned laugh and started to lean closer to speak.

The biker brought Li Zhehan’s head over, forcing her to step back.

She retreated a step. He advanced a step.

Unable to stand it anymore, she snapped, “Enough! Zhao Xiuming, control him! Is he ever going to stop? We’re talking about something serious.”

Zhao Xiuming laughed and stepped forward to pat the biker’s shoulder.

Zhang Xueya’s tone was hostile. “I know the anomaly wanted to use me to invade the real world. I know the ghost infant wasn’t my son.”

“But to stay in the real world long-term, even if it was deceiving me, it would have to keep up the act properly. At least I’d get a child who looked just like my son.”

“As for whether the Li family would cause trouble, I’m a victim too. If they didn’t believe that, if my status as a victim didn’t hold up, the anomaly would help me wipe out the whole family anyway.”

Looking relaxed, Zhao Xiuming propped his chin on one hand. A faint smile curved his mouth. “Mm. Then we’re in trouble.”

His next words were devilish. “There’s nothing left to wipe out the Li family now.”

They weren’t speaking quietly. Zhou Qingyan and Assistant Li heard every word.

Zhou Qingyan wouldn’t do anything, but Assistant Li belonged to the Li family. “Could you two at least spare a thought for my feelings?”

Zhao Xiuming smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”

“What do you think of this idea?”

He took Li Zhehan’s head from the biker and held it up. “Take this back to the Li family.”

“Some people are dead, but still look alive.”

“This head, for example, occasionally makes meaningless sounds. Its eyes can keep turning, and it can even eat. How does that not count as biologically alive?”

Assistant Li really wanted to swear. He took a deep breath, only to hear Zhao Xiuming’s next outrageous suggestion. “Assistant Li, why don’t you become Li Zhehan?”

He had a bad feeling. “How am I supposed to become Li Zhehan? His family aren’t fools.”

His gaze swept over Li Zhehan’s pale face. A chill ran down his spine, and his throat went dry.

He heard his heartbeat growing louder and louder. He knew what he felt was panic, helplessness, fear.

But also a faint anticipation, and ambition swelling without limit.

He couldn’t help wondering: what if? What if he really could replace Li Zhehan?

It ought to be possible, shouldn’t it? Anomalies existed in this world, after all. The whole world was false.

Any law of common sense could be broken. Hadn’t he seen enough unbelievable things in the past few days?

Perhaps nothing was impossible in a world falling apart like this.

Everything around him seemed to fade. Only Zhao Xiuming grew vividly clear.

That almost-smiling face no longer looked human.

The pure black filling his eyes resembled black holes with a strange, irresistible pull.

Cold fangs, a knowing smile, skin gleaming white, tendrils wrapped around his limbs: every detail proclaimed his wickedness.

In the metallic room, the devil looked down at him, holding Li Zhehan’s head and extending an invitation.

All he had to do was take that step and reach for him. Then he would become part of hell forever.

Reason and madness began their contest. Desire tangled with conscience.

Smiling, Zhao Xiuming said, “Assistant Li, there’s something I’m very curious about. What… is your name?”

He turned his head. “Zhang Xueya, isn’t he the second male lead?”

“You must have known him well in your previous life. Do you know his name?”

She’d been enjoying the sight of this devil manipulating someone’s heart. At the question, she began, “His name is…”

She stopped. For a moment, she looked blank, then couldn’t help thinking it over.

At last, she said with certainty, “No. He doesn’t have one.”

Zhao Xiuming’s response was exaggerated. He wasn’t mocking, only fanning the flames. “How can Mr. Second Male Lead not even have a name?”

“Even a scumbag cannon-fodder character like me has one. Sure, it’s Xiaoming, but it’s a name.”

Assistant Li was deeply shaken. He found it absurd.

He was a living, breathing person. How could he have no name? Every person ought to have one.

Besides, he was over thirty. He’d handled countless matters for the Li family and counted as one of society’s elite: capable, resourceful, and skilled.

If he didn’t even have a name, how had he made it this far? How had he lived?

He was about to open his mouth and say his name when his mind froze.

Zhou Qingyan had no idea what was happening. She was trying hard to think through their words.

Then she saw Assistant Li’s expression shift from amusement to shock and disbelief after he was asked his name. Finally, he covered his face and broke down.
Only then did she realize she seemed to have always called him Assistant Li. She’d never used his name.

What was his name, anyway?

His shoulders began to shake. It was impossible to tell whether he was crying or laughing.

After everything that had happened, his worldview had been hanging by a thread.

Even knowing he was in a world of anomalies, he’d still been able to say that “some principles and rules are universal.” He hadn’t forgotten who he was or where he came from.

Even if he was a supporting character in a romance novel, so what?

He hadn’t felt particularly restricted. On the contrary, he’d lived a privileged life in reality.

His ending might not be good, but everything had a price.

Now, with just one question, Zhao Xiuming had shattered every dream before him.

He’d truly torn a bloody wound in Assistant Li’s heart, bending his spine and breaking his pride.

Only at that moment did being a supporting character feel real. He couldn’t escape the plot’s design after all.

No matter how capable, hardworking, or outstanding he was, he was a nameless supporting character.

Zhao Xiuming sounded surprised. “Are you crying? Really crying?”

“Don’t cry.”

“The author of this book is awful. Why not give a supporting character a name?”

“Because supporting characters don’t matter, so they don’t deserve names?”

“Or was it easier to deliberately avoid thinking of one?”

“An author who won’t name their supporting characters really is trash!”

Regaining control of himself, Assistant Li looked up and interrupted. “How do you want to do this?”

Zhao Xiuming beckoned to Zhang Xueya. “What do you think of my suggestion? This way, we can stabilize the romance world for now.”

She saw straight through him. “Mostly you want less trouble once we’re out. You want an easy life, right?”

“And you clearly find it interesting. You think this is an experiment well worth doing.”

He didn’t deny it. He shrugged. “Assistant Li can refuse.”

But would Assistant Li refuse?

Of course not.

So the remaining anomaly doctors and nurses were put to work, operating on Assistant Li in the dissection room to transform him.

Once he’d confirmed he wouldn’t die or lose his own consciousness, he accepted willingly.

He quickly weighed the pros and cons and decided it wasn’t a bad outcome.

In the most straightforward terms, he would gain Li Zhehan’s real-world identity, resources, connections, and more, as well as mysterious anomalous abilities.

Since he knew his world wasn’t real and contained all manner of dangerous, chaotic beings, having the power to protect himself was better than remaining an ordinary person who knew nothing.

And so Zhao Xiuming, Zhang Xueya, and Zhou Qingyan stayed a little longer in this world of anomalies.

To stay alive, the doctors and nurses were very obedient. They vaguely sensed that their immediate superior had changed.

The three crouched in the basement corridor, the emergency lights casting a green glow over their faces.

Zhang Xueya suggested, “Should we have Zhou Qingyan modified too?”

Zhou Qingyan hurriedly refused. “No, no, no. I don’t need that.”

Then she grew much quieter and added hesitantly, “I don’t want to become an anomaly.”

Zhang Xueya didn’t force her. Instead, she said to Zhao Xiuming, “I don’t know where you learned about my previous life.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’ve been reborn too.”

“But when I think about it, with the brains you had last time, you shouldn’t have this personality even after being reborn.”

“Mm,” he said, offering no explanation.

He was getting sleepy, yawning as he crouched beside the biker’s legs.

The biker lowered himself to sit in the corridor and stretched out one leg, indicating that Zhao Xiuming could rest his head on his thigh.

Zhang Xueya glanced sideways at them and sneered. Deliberately, she said, “Zhao Xiuming, I only spread rumors and slandered you. I never thought of killing you.”

She was actually having a heart-to-heart with him, though she soon revealed her purpose. “If you know the plot, you should know Zhou Qingyan betrays me later.”

Beside her, Zhou Qingyan looked up in surprise, not understanding.

“She’s a good girl,” Zhang Xueya continued. “Don’t hold it against her that she helped slander you. She really didn’t know.”

“In my previous life, she grew jealous of me later, became a villainous female supporting character, and even got involved with you.”

“So after being reborn this time, I originally planned to set the two of you up.”

“I’d already prepared myself to push you toward someone else. So I’m not jealous.”

“I just can’t stand…”

“How could you… Who the hell is this guy? Can’t you find someone better? Someone normal? Qingyan would be good. What does that man have to offer?”

Zhao Xiuming looked a little blank. “Huh?”