‘How many days left for my mission again?’
【Three days.】
‘Do you think there’s still hope?’
【Maybe.】
‘Will you miss me if I die?’
【You have no ambition.】
‘.’
Is that something I can just have if I want it? What a joke.
Shen Qiuxun opened his eyes with a wooden expression. The storm continued. Data said that lower planets had frequent storms, with varying durations, and no one specialized in predicting them. Most people stayed home, unconcerned. The area around the rental house was unusually quiet.
Of course, there were also miserable workers forced to work overtime, risking death. Xu Zhiyuan was one of them.
‘What did he mean by what he said yesterday?’
【Literal meaning.】
‘I feel like war’s about to break out, and he’s weirdly excited about it.’
【He’s a fugitive. Being excited is normal.】
True. This kind of dangerous element was happier the more chaotic society became. Being unhappy would be the abnormal part. But…
Shen Qiuxun pondered the man’s attitude last night. He felt it wasn’t just a simple case of society descending into chaos, allowing him to cause trouble. Instead, there was a sense of… what to call it… a composed certainty that this day had finally arrived.
Did his mission really still have a chance?
With this doubt, Shen Qiuxun drifted back into a fitful sleep. When he woke, the sky was still pitch black. He got up to wash, then pulled a tube of nutrient fluid from under the cabinet, bit it open, and sat there in a daze, sucking on it.
Suddenly, his lightbrain vibrated violently. Shen Qiuxun answered. A weak female voice came through the line. Just a few words. Her voice trembled, carrying a desperate sob: “Save… save me. Save me.”
It was Ellie. The call hung up abruptly, leaving things unclear. Shen Qiuxun didn’t dare delay. He got up, put on his clothes, then wrapped his scarf tightly around twice. Finally, just before leaving, he turned back and took the dagger from under the cabinet.
【You’re going to a meeting alone and armed?】
‘What else?’
【You could seek Xu Zhiyuan’s help. Acting weak works wonders for missions.】
Shen Qiuxun locked the door, put on his hat, and charged into the sandstorm: ‘Sister Ellie hates Alphas.’
The pharmacy had already notified staff to stop work yesterday. Luckily, he knew Ellie’s address, on the other side of the residential area. Visibility on the main street was very low. The wind howled. Not a soul was in sight. It wasn’t until he left the alley of the rental house that the scene before him changed drastically:
Broken walls, rubble, flames of war raging. Extinguished black scorch marks clung to cement and steel. A post-battle landscape.
War had already started? Why hadn’t he felt anything?
Shen Qiuxun had no time to ponder, his heart even more worried for Ellie’s situation.
After a long run of about a dozen minutes, Shen Qiuxun finally arrived, panting, downstairs from Ellie’s apartment. This side had fewer traces of damage, not as severe, just some collapsed walls and scorch marks hinting at what had happened before.
Ellie’s apartment was on the third floor. Shen Qiuxun climbed up. The door was tightly shut, but screams and men’s laughter came from inside. The lock couldn’t be opened. Shen Qiuxun took out the wire from his pocket. His hand was very steady. In less than five seconds, he opened the door.
He looked straight up to see the man inside, maniacally grabbing Sister Ellie’s blonde hair and shoving her to the floor. Ellie screamed, falling right at his feet. She looked up at him, her lips opening and closing. Tears and blood mixed, smeared across her face. But in those eyes burned a torrential ferocity.
That mouth shape, was it… sorry?
Shen Qiuxun crouched, helped the person up from the floor, and reached out to brush the hair from Ellie’s face.
“Hey.” That man called out.
Shen Qiuxun looked up. Three men in the room. The one in the middle, the one who had just attacked, wore a black outfit resembling a military uniform. Fierce features, a head of yellow hair. The other two had similar clothing but clearly inferior equipment. One blond delinquent boss, two black-haired underlings.
【One B-Rank Alpha and two Betas.】
“Are you the next one Ellie found? A scrawny Beta?” The yellow-haired man wiped the blood from his face, looking down at the two of them with disdain.
His words rang like an alarm bell in Ellie’s ears. Her body, which had been leaning on Shen Qiuxun, instantly trembled like a sifting sieve. She suddenly began pushing him away, tears streaming down, her words barely coherent: “Go, leave quickly. Sorry, sorry… it’s okay… it’s fine…”
Seeing her like this, the three men burst into wild laughter again, mixed with unbearably vulgar curses, as if they were ants to be crushed with a single finger.
【He’s an Alpha. You can’t beat him.】
Shen Qiuxun lowered his eyes. He pulled Ellie firmly into his arms, chin resting near her ear. Ellie struggled, shrieking. The monstrous hatred and despair seemed about to crush her.
“I can only kill two. You take the other one.” A calm male voice sounded by her ear.
Ellie paused slightly. Her struggling suddenly stopped. She raised her bloodshot eyes to meet Shen Qiuxun’s gaze.
On the other side, in the three men’s blind spot, Shen Qiuxun quietly took out the dagger strapped to his waistband and slipped it into Ellie’s hand. He pressed down on her trembling hand, his fingers tightening, guiding hers to grip the dagger’s hilt firmly.
The two looked at each other. In the eyes of the others, it seemed like a tender, affectionate moment.
The blond spat viciously and cursed: “Bitch, should we get you a bed too!”
Shen Qiuxun helped her stand. He didn’t let go until Ellie was steady on her feet, then twisted his wrist and looked up at the man in the middle. His calm, abyss-like dark pupils sent a chill down one’s back.
One of the black-haired underlings couldn’t stand it and charged at him first. That fist raised high. The moment it rushed down, someone twisted his wrist and violently flipped it in another direction. A faint crack of bone, nearly imperceptible. Shen Qiuxun’s other fist had already reached his chin.
Then the abdomen. The abdomen was always vulnerable. The black-haired man felt the agony of his internal organs shifting, collapsing heavily to the ground. Another punch landed on his face, like a giant hammer smashing down. In the end, he coughed up two teeth with his blood.
Just two breaths.
Shen Qiuxun turned coldly towards the annoying blond in the middle, still having the presence of mind to explain to the System: ‘I’ve been fighting since I was six.’
【？？？】
The blond was stunned for a moment, cursed, and viciously charged at him. The two immediately started brawling.
The other black-haired underling was also stunned. But before he could react, he heard the sound of something sharp stabbing into flesh. His body trembled. He looked down to find that woman, who should have been cowering in a corner, had rushed over and stabbed him in the abdomen. He hatefully grabbed the woman’s neck and pinned her to the floor.
Ellie had snapped. One stab wasn’t enough to quell her hatred. She violently pulled the dagger out and stabbed down hard again. The blade twisted chaotically in the abuser’s abdomen, only stopping when the man collapsed powerlessly like a cockroach. Blood splattered onto her face, turning her vision red.
The shackles in her heart finally broke open: This wasn’t her blood. It was the blood debt of her enemy, paid in kind.
The Alpha was still very tough to deal with. Shen Qiuxun’s shoulder and back were hit hard twice, feeling like they might fall apart. His punches, of course, weren’t noble either—each aimed to kill. The blond’s eyes shifted from black to crimson.
Shen Qiuxun just looked at him coldly. A kick landed square on the man’s chest, sending him crashing to the ground. His hand grabbed some sharp object without thinking. The sharp edge cut his palm, allowing him to stab it fiercely into the man’s proud gland.
“Squelch—” The glass shard sliced a chunk of bloody flesh from the back of the blond’s neck. Something like a membrane was torn apart with it. The man screamed hoarsely, but was firmly stepped on. The bloodstained glass shard fell to the floor.
It wasn’t over. Noticing the blond’s struggle, Shen Qiuxun first took the handgun from the blond’s waist. His expression was terrifyingly calm. Dark pupils like whirlpools. He pressed the gun against the man’s shoulder and pulled the trigger. “Pfft—” The metal bullet mercilessly burrowed into the man’s flesh.
【You know how to use a gun too?!】
‘Freshman military training. I used one.’
Shen Qiuxun took a deep breath, threw the gun far away, closed his eyes briefly, then clenched his fist and drove it into the man’s face again, breaking his nose bridge outright.
【！！！】
The blond writhed on the ground like a maggot. The screams were endless. Shen Qiuxun’s face was also stained with a few drops of blood, making his features even more chilling. Irritated, he gave him another punch: “Shut up.”
Still screaming. The hoarse screams were like a broken bellows mixed with sharp metal scraping metal, deafening and grating.
Shen Qiuxun abruptly took a deep breath. He clenched his fist and hammered down, blow after blow meeting flesh, like a solid stone mallet pounding pork on a chopping board: “I told you to shut up!”
Only when the man was scared into submission did he finally fall quiet. Clothes tattered, a bloody mess, tears and blood mingled. Where was any trace of his earlier arrogance?
Shen Qiuxun’s brow didn’t even furrow. He tossed the man aside, wiped the blood from his hands, and turned to call towards Ellie: “Sister Ellie.”
Ellie was kneeling numbly in front of the dead underling’s body, holding the dagger, still maintaining the earlier posture. Only upon hearing his voice did she slowly come to, gasping and looking towards him.
Shen Qiuxun lifted his chin towards the blond, pursed his lips. Sweat plastered the bangs to his pale skin. Thick brows, deep pupils: “He’s still alive.”
Ellie’s gaze woodenly shifted to the man under his foot. The blond trembled, casting a pleading glance at her. His lips opened and closed, finally weakly spitting out a blood-soaked tooth.
It was ridiculous. Ellie suddenly laughed. As she laughed, tears welled up in her eyes again. She wiped her face and walked over, gripping the dagger.
Shen Qiuxun reached down, grabbing the man’s hair on the back of his head, holding him firmly in place.
Ellie met the blond’s pleading gaze. Her smile vanished. She turned her head to look at Shen Qiuxun. Then, under the watch of those calm, cold eyes, she plunged the dagger viciously into the flesh on the back of the man’s neck.
“Alphas are nothing but heartless, unrighteous beasts…” She gritted her teeth, as if wanting to crush them. The muscles in her face twitched, her eye sockets red. Slowly, the dagger carved out that piece of barely attached, rotten flesh.
The man screamed, his leaky mouth spewing venomous curses, incoherent.
Shen Qiuxun expressionlessly punched him again.
Silence.
The dagger fell to the floor. The crisp sound echoed through the house. Ellie suddenly lost all strength, wrapped her arms around Shen Qiuxun’s waist, and buried her head into his chest.
“Sorry… I dragged you into this. He was supposed to be coming for me…”
Shen Qiuxun patted her back comfortingly, the corner of his mouth twitching:
‘Damn, this hurts so much.’
【You can push her away.】
‘You have no sense of kindness or beauty.’
【…】
From the quiet stairwell suddenly came the sound of dense footsteps. Shen Qiuxun instinctively raised a hand to shield the back of Ellie’s head and looked up towards the door.
The half-open door was kicked in, revealing Xu Zhiyuan’s face, his brows tightly locked. He was panting heavily, wearing a black vest, black military pants, with a gun holstered at his waist. He had clearly rushed over in a hurry.
When a subordinate reported that Shen Qiuxun had run out of the rental house, Xu Zhiyuan’s heart felt like it was ensnared by thorns, aching until it bled. He dropped everything and rushed over frantically, terrified he might be a step too slow.
The room was a wreck. Blood of unknown owners pooled everywhere. Glass had shattered into web-like tiny fragments, mixed with blackening liquid.
He paused at the doorway, thin lips pressed tight, one hand braced on the doorframe. He just stood there, quietly watching them. His gaze swept down, taking in the other three men in the room. Slivers of killing intent gathered in the depths of his eyes.
A terrifying low pressure instantly enveloped the entire dilapidated residential building.
Shen Qiuxun breathed a sigh of relief. He patted Ellie’s back. His gaze drifted downwards:
‘Xu Zhiyuan’s clothes… why do they look a bit like his?’
【They do.】
