Chapter 1: The Arrogant and Domineering Fake Young Master 01 Part 2

Why was it so agonizingly difficult to find a Host who could play a proper villain?

009 had guided countless Hosts, and its string of failures had long since numbed it. If this cycle ended in another catastrophe, the entire Villain Division faced liquidation!

To keep its department from the chopping block, 009 had swallowed endless bitter pills in silence. After exhaustive screening, it had finally managed to secure Li Ye.

According to his records, Li Ye was notoriously cold, calculating, and impervious to emotional entanglement within the sub-worlds. He held a flawless one-hundred-percent completion rate across 176 consecutive missions, backed by formidable S-rank Mental Power. Such an elite operative was permanently in high demand.

009 had never dreamed its luck would strike gold like this. Yet in this moment, its emotions were a tangled knot of awe, anticipation, and dread.

No matter how stellar Li Ye’s track record was, playing the antagonist was an entirely different beast. To put it politely, he was playing a villain; to put it bluntly, he was nothing more than a stepping stone for the protagonist’s glory…

This was their first assignment together, and 009 could not shake its unease. Given Li Ye’s rank and sheer power, if he decided to rebel and play by his own rules…

The system would be entirely powerless to rein him in. T.T

After all, it was merely an overworked, entry-level system repeatedly battered by reality.

009 hesitated, frantically drafting another round of cautious persuasion, when Li Ye’s calm reply cut through: “All right.”

That single, simple phrase nearly brought 009 to tears. Its data surged in overwhelmed relief. No pushback, no probing, no demands—truly the gold-standard professional of legend!

Li Ye remained unfazed. He caught the system’s emotional turbulence but offered no comment.

009’s anxieties were utterly pointless.

Had he harbored any aversion to playing the villain, he would never have accepted the match in the first place. To him, stepping into any role was simply fulfilling a contract. There was no personal stake in it. Furthermore, just as a world required a Child of the Plane blessed with fortune, it equally required an adversary. Everything existed for a reason; someone had to play the crucible.

And was the villain’s path truly so demeaning? Li Ye certainly didn’t think so.

A protagonist who had never been tempered by adversity or ground down by hardship was, to predatory interlopers, nothing more than a defenseless vessel of ripe fortune waiting to be harvested.

The villain was both the trial and the staircase that forged greatness. Only by shattering every obstacle and withstanding relentless hammer blows could a candidate truly ascend as an indestructible Child of the Plane.

And Li Ye was more than happy to play that grinding wheel… His lips curled into a faint, dangerous smile.

While Li Ye communicated with the system, Shen Ji was quietly taking his measure.

The young man lounging at the center of the room radiated an effortless, aristocratic indolence. His features were striking—almost breathtakingly refined, like an exquisite porcelain heirloom displayed under glass. It was easy to see why sycophants clamored for his favor.

He had been born holding every card.

A person like him stood on the clouds, while Shen Ji crawled in the mud. Shen Ji had never wished to cross paths with Xu Zhaochen, but looking around the room, it was obvious that trouble had come looking for him.

Pausing to steady his voice, Shen Ji spoke with cautious restraint. “What do you want with me?”

The instant the words left his mouth, the room erupted in mocking laughter. The gang doubled over as if they had just heard the world’s most pathetic joke. Their unrestrained, naked malice stretched Shen Ji’s nerves to a razor’s edge. Keeping his eyes locked on Li Ye, he subtly mapped the room for any potential escape route…

Over the jeering din, Li Ye finally broke his silence.

The second he opened his mouth, the room fell dead silent.

“You don’t know?” Li Ye tilted his head slightly, his tone airy and deceptively sweet. “Wang Shao, enlighten him.”

Wang Shao sneered and shot a curt nod to the brute standing beside Shen Ji.

Without a word of warning, the thug cocked his fist and drove it straight at Shen Ji’s temple!

Shen Ji had anticipated it.

The moment the punch tore through the air, he ducked smoothly beneath the swing, driving a brutal front kick into the man’s solar plexus. Caught completely off guard, the thug slammed into the floor with a choked gasp!

Now!

Behind his dark bangs, Shen Ji’s eyes turned lethal. His lean frame coiled with explosive force as he lunged toward the exit like a hunting leopard!

Raised by an impoverished single mother, Shen Ji had been forced to fight for survival since childhood. He was no fragile bookworm who couldn’t hold his own. Back in middle school, he had already beaten off drunks and loan sharks who came harassing his mother. When he fought, he fought like a man with nothing left to lose—that was the only reason predators had learned to leave him alone. It was only after entering university that violence had faded from his daily life.

Now, confronted with cornered danger, survival instinct took the wheel. Compared to these dissipated, soft-bellied playboys, Shen Ji fought with ruthless, economical efficiency. Every pound of his lean muscle hit with devastating force; one-on-one, none of them stood a chance.

The first few who rushed to tackle him were sent crashing to the floor, clutching split lips and howling in pain. Alarmed by how badly the situation was slipping, the rest of the gang swarmed forward in a panic. None of them had imagined this penniless kid could scrap like a rabid hound!

In an open field, Shen Ji would have broken through their perimeter in seconds. But trapped inside this cramped, cluttered karaoke room, agility meant nothing. Seven or eight bodies converged on him at once, with two heavy thugs barring the door with their full weight. No matter how quick his reflexes, he couldn’t dodge every fist. Heavy blows hammered into his ribs and shoulders. Just as he gathered his breath to throw his weight into the doorway—

Crash!

A blinding explosion of agony tore through his skull, instantly followed by nauseating vertigo. His ears screamed with a deafening ring. A warm, thick liquid surged down his temple, blinding his left eye.

Wang Shao lowered his arm, casting an irritated, disgusted glare over his groaning henchmen. Useless trash—seven of them couldn’t even pin down one college student.

He tossed aside the jagged neck of the shattered beer bottle, his expression turning savage. Stepping behind Shen Ji, he drove a vicious kick directly into the back of his knee, then slammed his palm onto the wounded shoulder, forcing him down!

Shen Ji’s knees hit the carpeted floor with a sickening, heavy thud.

Warm blood mingled with stale alcohol trickled down his cheek and dripped from his chin, staining the floorboards crimson.

Through the haze, Shen Ji forced his head up.

His blurring vision focused on the sofa.

From start to finish, the young master had sat there in languid composure, watching him bleed with those exquisite, venomous eyes—observing his frantic struggle with the detached curiosity of someone watching an ant drown in a puddle.

Xu Zhaochen’s lackeys were pathetic fighters. An entire mob against a single student, and they had still come away bruised and battered. Humiliated and furious, they rubbed their sore jaws, their eyes burning with wounded spite. Now that the target was finally pinned, they cracked their knuckles, eager to teach the insolent bastard a lesson. So what if he knew how to throw a punch? He was down on his knees now!

Seeing them close in for retaliation, Li Ye uncrossed his long legs and stood up, sweeping an icy glare across the room.

Li Ye enjoyed watching a spirited resistance, but watching a pack of curs kick a bleeding dog held no entertainment value.

Pinned beneath that cold stare, the lackeys stiffened. Halting in their tracks, they hastily retreated toward the perimeter of the room, clearing the floor for their leader.

Only then did Li Ye withdraw his gaze, satisfied.

With slow, measured steps, he walked over to Shen Ji and stood looking down at him.

That clean, strikingly handsome face was now half-drenched in scarlet. Yet even the blood-soaked hair clinging to his forehead could not snuff out the ferocious, unyielding defiance in those dark eyes—he looked like a cornered wolf, snarling through its blood, ready to tear a throat out the second its jaws were freed.

Now that was the expression Li Ye had been waiting for. A faint thrill of satisfaction rippled down his spine.

An opponent with teeth was worth breaking.

And true to his status as the Child of the Plane, Shen Ji’s physical resilience and combat instincts exceeded all expectations. Yet no matter how fiercely he fought, the trap had been sprung the moment he stepped through that door. Raw physical strength could never bridge the chasm of power. In the end, his desperate struggle was merely that: desperate.

This was the very first lesson Li Ye intended to teach him today:

Never underestimate the malice of this world, and never offer your trust so cheaply.

Li Ye looked down at him with cool indifference. “Do you know what you did wrong?”

Shen Ji glared up at him with unbridled hatred. He strained to heave himself upward, but his skull pounded with violent vertigo, and Wang Shao’s grip clamped down on his shoulders like an iron vice. Fury burned across his bruised face. At his sides, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles popped audibly.

When no answer came, Li Ye let out a soft sigh, as if mildly disappointed. He lowered his gaze. “So you truly don’t know. Well…”

His eyes suddenly curved into a bright, venomous smile. “I’m in a generous mood today, so I’ll enlighten you.”

Reaching down, he tapped Shen Ji’s bloody cheek with the back of his fingers. The gesture carried almost no physical force, but the humiliation was searing. He let out a low, breathy laugh.

“Don’t let me ever see you near Gu Yu again.”

“Otherwise, next time, I won’t be nearly this gentle.”