“NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT! I won’t agree to these ridiculous conditions, we already had a deal! How can you just change the demands to such an extent, this is just pure extortion, look, it’s an already beneficial deal for the both of us I can’t just change it, wait, don’t hang up hello? Hello?......DAMMIT.” Xia Jian threw his phone forcefully on the ground and heaved angrily as he stood there in his living room. He took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, took one out and lit it up and took deep puffs. Recently he had been very stressed and the only way to relax was through smoking. He had never liked smoking and he didn’t like it even now but he found out that this thing that slowly kills people was the only thing that could give him some mental relief these days.
His company was declining at a fast pace and he couldn’t do anything about it. He was losing deals, had to close branches in some cities due to lack of funds, his friends that he thought would have his back ruthlessly ignored him and stopped all cooperation with him, and every new business deal his company would get only had outrageous demands from the other party and would do their company more harm than good. It seemed like everyone was kicking down on him now that he was down on his luck.
The worth of his company was slowly declining with him being unable to do anything. Even the shares of the company were reducing in value at an unbelievable pace. He had already stored a lot of money from his many years of doing business and was currently able to make the company stay afloat because of that, but it would soon not be enough to keep up to the company’s fund demands. He was so busy with everything that he couldn’t even make time to go see his beloved daughter after she had such a terrible accident. He could only make some time to call her and ask her about her situation and just promised to visit her at a later date. When he thought about his daughter, someone else also came into his mind whom he had never treated with love despite being his own flesh and blood. He just shook his head and tried not think about it.
The police was also slowly catching up to his deeds. He had already given them the slip but he didn’t know how long it was going to last. He felt that he was living at the edge of an abyss and could fall any second. This had led to his health to deteriorate a lot and his face was gaunt and pale and he seemed to have aged many years in the span just a few months. The man sighed and fell on his sofa and continued smoking the cigarette. He had a weary expression as his thoughts consumed his mind.
Back at the hospital Zhang Fei was sleeping in his private room and was waiting to recover and get away from the hospital and continue on with his normal……… maybe not so normal life. The doctor had told him that he only needed a few days to recover and could soon leave the hospital but he still needed to rest properly for the following days he was going to spend at the hospital. Zhang Fei had only grumbled and didn’t say anything else.
Hence Zhang Fei was now sleeping peacefully and waiting for his tormenting day in this white hell to end. He just couldn’t stand it, everything was so white. It hurt his eyes looking at the same white color all the time for the past week. To this Coco only made a joke about how creatures of darkness obviously wouldn’t like the light and prefer the dark. The stay in the hospital was made much worse when he realized he couldn’t avoid Xia Ruo, who came there almost every day. He had to put with her every day, but although she was annoying, she was a much better company when compared to a rather particular cube who wouldn’t shut up.
While Zhang Fei was sleeping, someone slowly opened the door and entered the room after peering outside to see if anyone was nearby or was coming towards the room. Luckily for the intruder no one was and Zhang Fei himself told the the hospital’s director to get him a room where there wouldn’t be much disturbance outside. He didn’t want to be disturbed by random noises from the outside every now and then.
The person slowly closed the door for fear of waking Zhang Fei up. The man who was clothed in a doctor’s uniform slowly stood in front of Zhang Fei’s bed. He had a greedy glint in his eyes as he looked at Zhang Fei and slowly took out a knife and held it firmly in his hands. This man was Cheng Sua. The man who previously had everything wealth, fame, power but now was just someone who wasn’t any different from the common people you see walking down the streets. All this was because Zhang Fei decided to leave his room. The introverted kid decided to show his true colors and took everything away from him. He now had nothing.
“If it wasn’t for you I would have still had everything, hehe but I still can…” Yes, he still could get everything back. If this person died he had ways to get back his position and had people in the company who would still support him. Although he himself was scared to act against Zhang Fei because of his sudden change and by his resourcefulness and was sure that he would meet a miserable end if he acted against Zhang Fei. He had already heard stories of how some people had opposed him when he was expanding the business, and those people met with very tragic ends. In the beginning he was frightened by these stories and didn’t wasn’t to act against Zhang Fei, also because of the warning that Zhang Fei had given him. But this all changed when he learnt that someone had tried to kill Zhang Fei and almost succeeded.
He heard that Zhang Fei was gravely injured but was still alive. He was admitted into a hospital and his life and death unknown, but some sources leaked that his condition was critical. This was of course an exaggeration created by Zhang Fei himself, for making the enemy misinformed so he could catch them off guard later. Cheng Sua wasn’t going to act against Zhang Fei but when he found out about this news, greed made him think otherwise. He had tasted wealth and glory, how could he just be okay with living such a simple life by only being a manager of a small time shitty company. He wanted more, he wanted what he once had.
Hence greed for what once was brought Cheng Sua to the hospital for one purpose. To get rid of this man so he could get what hr had lost. He moved forward with a sinister glint in his eyes but stopped and stared with a dumbfounded expression when he saw that Zhang Fei had woken up and was looking at him with a ridiculing smile and was holding a gun with a silencer attached to it. Zhang Fei chuckled at Cheng Sua's futile attempt at killing him. “You should have just listened to me. Greed is indeed a sin, for it leads to even greater sins, but unfortunately for you, you won’t be able to get a chance to repent for this sin.”
Zhang Fei pulled the trigger and muffled shots sounded in the room as Cheng Sua’s body was riddle with bullets and fell to the ground all bloodied. Cheng Sua had a shocked expressions as he took his last breaths, unwilling to leave this world so soon, unwilling to have lost a chance to get everything back. His eyes slowly dimmed and he breathed his last and looked at Zhang Fei with an unwilling expression. Zhang Fei called out and a few of his men entered the room. “Clean off this filth and get rid of the body.” The men nodded and quickly went to work.
The gun in Zhang Fei’s hand had already vanished into thin air and Zhang Fei already dropped his head again to get some rest. The pistol he had in his hand was the same one the sniper at the rooftop had. Coco had once told Zhang Fei that he had a space where he could store anything brought form the shop. It was where the bazooka was currently at. Zhang Fei had asked Coco whether he could store anything from the worlds he was in. Surprisingly Coco told him that he could, and even those things could be transported to other worlds as long as they weren’t too heavenly defying object, but even then there could be some exceptions. Also Zhang Fei had a personal access to it and could take out things without the help of Coco.
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Zhang Fei had already faced one life and death situation in this world and had almost died. He had treated this world simply as a game where he could have had fun, but he was wrong to do so. He realized his first mistake was being too relaxed, but since every mistake comes with a lesson, he had definitely learned his. In case of Mo wenzi he was too negligent and thought that such a dumb person couldn’t find any way to hurt him since he was already in jail in addition to him being too relaxed. But this mistake led to him almost dying.
As long as Cheng Sua was concerned he already had his eyes on him from the moment he kicked him out of the Zhang Corporation. He knew that such a greedy and ambitious man would definitely not sit still and would try to get back his position. His men always monitored him and when they notified him that he had entered the hospital, Zhang fei knew he wasn’t up to any good so he told his men that were standing outside the room to leave it unattended and allow cheng sua to make his move. Once he did he could get rid of this pest. The reason he let him go in the beginning? Because he wanted to see his futile attempt at getting revenge and then enjoy as Cheng Sua realized he would never get what he had lost and could only die with regrets. What can he say, he enjoyed other’s misery.
While the men were moving the body Coco came through the wall and noticed how the men were disposing off the body. [Another victim?]
“Of stupidity? Then yes. I gave the idiot a chance to get away but he still tried to scheme against me.” Coco looked at his host thinking whether he deliberately didn’t understand. Victim of stupidity?Even victims of stupidity don’t die so pitifully, I was talking about victims of your wrath.
[Meh still not the worst way to go.] Coco thought that compared to the end which most of the characters in the host's stories had, Cheng Sua truly had it good.
“So where were you? Don’t tell me you were off causing trouble again.” Zhang Fei had spent a few months with Coco, so he already knew what his personality was like. Troublesome and forgetful. That was the only thing he could describe Coco as, and not even one them was a good description.
Coco had a guilty look when Zhang Fei mentioned what he was doing with pinpoint accuracy and gave a nervous laugh.[ hahaha what could you mean host, I was just touring the hospital, noting else, hahaha…]
Zhang Fei narrowed his eyes and smirked and looked at Coco and said, “oh really? Doesn’t sound like it.”
Coco buckled under Zhang Fei’s sharp and interrogating gaze and just sighed and decided to tell its host. [Okay I was messing around. You remember I was telling you how I could influence the world to a really small extent?]
“Yes. What about it?”
[hehe well I was making holograms of a grim reaper appear to scare off the patients. It was real fun.]
“Wow. Could you be anymore useless.” Zhang Fei looked at Coco with a gaze that expressed as if he was looking at a piece of trash. No, even trash could be more useful than him. If he could do such a thing, he should have used it for something that would help his host rather than have fun.
[Hey. What do you want me to do in my spare time. I can’t interfere in your work too much since the higher ups want the hosts to complete the tasks on their own with minimal help from the systems and I also can’t interfere too much because of the law of the world. Plus I’m also not like the other systems who will just stay quiet and give a few pointers every now and then and then afterwards disappearing or silent floating by their host’s side like an inanimate object, I want to have fun, it’ sooo boooooring, hence I refuse to so such a thing as those other inanimate cubes.]
“But if you can’t interfere in my work too much and help me, what is even the point of keeping you?” Zhang Fei was now really considering the pros and cons of keeping Coco by his side and asked in a tone that implied that he was going to get rid of him. Coco heard his host and immediately started acting like an abandoned wife who was complaining against her hateful husband who had ruthlessly decided to abandon her.
[*sob* *sob* host don’t abandon me, I can be useful, although you don’t know it yet there are many ways I can help you, well….. a few but still. Host please don’t abandon me, I don’t want to go into that box again for another million of years and watch those terrible 70s movies for the thousandth time. Please host, I can be useful, *sob* *sob*. What I meant by not interfering in your work too much was that I can’t affect the world directly too much to help you because the law of the world may detect my presence and then it would be a real pain in the ass not only for me but for you as well. Also if the law is too strong we could get obliterated directly. That’s why I can only help you a tiny bit. But it’s still help you know.]
Zhang Fei rolled his eyes at Coco’s dramatic act. “Fine, stop complaining like a woman, I was just joking. I can’t get rid of you anyways since we are soul bonded, remember?”
[oh hahaha right, I forgot about that]
“…..” At this moment Zhang Fei felt that he was really stuck with an idiot.
Suddenly Zhang Fei realized that Coco had not told him what happened to him if he failed missions, and since he didn’t picture himself as someone who could fail, he didn’t bother asking. But now he wanted to know because he did almost get close to failing the mission by dying early. “Coco, you ‘forgot’ to tell me. What happens if I fail in accomplishing a mission?”
[Hmm, nothing much, you lose your contribution and life points, although the loss of contribution points don’t matter much it’s the life points that matter.]
“Why? What happens when the life points are reduced?” I somehow have a feeling they don’t have respawns.
[Not much, if they become zero you will have to endure a thousand cuts, while simultaneously having heavenly lighting strike you and being submerged in acid for thousands of years simultane after which your soul would torn apart, and believe me the pain of which is much much worse compared to the thousand years of torture, after which you soul will dissipate and you will cease to exist.] Coco stated in a matter of fact tone.
Zhang Fei lips twitched as he heard Coco’s brutal description of his possible demise. “…” not much? NOT MUCH!? Wtf! Even his soul being only dissipated because of not accepting the offer by the voice sounded less torturous than this.
[Well other hosts don’t face such a thing, their souls just dissipate without much pain or in some cases they reincarnate with loss of memory, but since your accumulated karma is so big, this is the only way to get rid of it. Unless you do missions and slowly diminish it, a very bleak end awaits you.]
Zhang Fei became even more downcast when he heard the reason for such a vicious end, he just closed his eyes ignoring the reality that he just jumped into a pit without realizing how deep it truly was. He really wanted to go and kick his past self a couple of times. And I even thought that it would be fun T-T. First he wanted to do these missions for fun but now he wanted to do it because who would want to be subjected to such a torture, and worse he himself was the reason for such a special treatment because of his karma. Zhang Fei slept with a tearful expression while Coco being a good system he was tried to cheer up his host, though it felt more like a drunk driver consoling you after driving over your pet.
The men who were removing the body and cleaning up the room were really confused when they say Zhang Fei’s suddenly had a really gloomy aura and his surroundings felt really dark. They shivered thinking that their boss wasn’t in a good mood and decided to hurry up with the work and beat it out of here.
A/N: it sucks to say this but i wanted to finish the first arc in the last few days but couldn't make the time so now i have to leave it unfinished because i slept alot. Another thing is the updates are going to get really slow because i got kicked out of my house again,haha lol jk jk, but for real bear with the slow update speed,ty.