"I'm suffering..."
In the desolate backyard, Huai Shi sat on the steps of the garden, staring blankly at the ground as he heaved a long sigh to the sky.
At this moment, he deeply felt that he was a child of misfortune.
Deceived by an agent into an interview at a Cowherd establishment, encountering dead bodies on the way home, inexplicably stuffed into a cell because of a box, and then just after being released, he was shoved into another cell by Long Spears and short guns.
Now, in order to survive, he had no choice but to accept the help of a Raven, but the Raven's greatest Ability was to make him keep dying over and over again.
In the end, what was the point of all this hassle?
If he had to die, couldn't he just die once?
He had to die dozens of times...
He died so much that he almost became numb; his 'Death Perception' Skill was on the verge of taking shape!
Huai Shi felt that if he was a bit luckier and managed to hang on this time, he could reach Level 10 with this Skill by exploiting death throughout his life!
"Instead of complaining, you might as well die one more time. This meditation method could at least train your Source Substance. Maybe you will soon break through the 99% progress bar and become a Sublimator," the Raven, whose ink had run low and turned its feathers into a zebra-striped pattern, suggested from beside him.
"I'd have to be a fool to believe you!"
Huai Shi didn't seem to want to deal with her. Fixated on the desolate garden, he began pondering: Who am I? Where am I? School is starting in half a month, and what the hell am I doing other than courting death when I'm so broke I'm about to keel over?
Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow, an idea striking him.
"Say, do you have any way to make money?"
"Sure do." The Zebra Crow casually groomed its feathers, pointed to the road outside the door, and said, "Walk for ten minutes, take the bus, get off at the next stop, take a left, and there's a bank. Rob it and you've got everything."
"...Robbing a bank? Who doesn't know how to do that!" Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "Don't you have any sort of Magic for Turning Stone into Gold?"
"Ah, Magic, that's a long story. I do indeed know the technology to create Gold, but..."
"But what?" Huai Shi leaned in, his eyes sparkling.
"But the cost per gram is about 3,000 Dongxia Currency." She said calmly, "The Pure Gold produced is usually used as a material for the spirit foundation in various ceremonies and altars. If you want, I could get you a couple of pounds."
"If I had money, why the hell would I need Pure Gold!"
Huai Shi was left speechless. He just sat on the steps, continuing to stare into space until he was startled by the sound of something breaking. It sounded like a glass bottle had been kicked and shattered. In the scorching heat of the summer afternoon, the sound was exceptionally crisp.
Huai Shi turned his head in astonishment, looking in the direction of the front yard.
"Someone's coming?"
The Raven looked up thoughtfully and said with concern, "Could it be that the theft of electricity from your home's wires has been discovered?"
Huai Shi first froze, then quickly realized, his eyes widening in anger. "When the hell did you do this behind my back!"
"Actually, I also tapped into a network cable. The WIFI signal is not too bad." The Raven pulled out a smartphone from beneath its wings. "Need the password?"
Huai Shi glared at her, stood up, and sneaked to the back corner of the house to peek around. The Raven skillfully stepped on his head and peeked out too.
In a corner of the decrepit courtyard, near the wall, a figure stealthily looked left and right, then extended a hand to help another person climb over the wall. Both individuals landed on the ground, their arms bulging from what they carried, and masks covering their faces.
"Oh my..." the Raven asked quietly, "These days, do the people who come to collect electricity bills climb walls?"
"Probably burglars," Huai Shi gritted his teeth, bending over to pick up half an iron rod from the corner. "Anyway, this isn't the first or second time something like this has happened."
"Oh?" She looked at Huai Shi thoughtfully, then smiled slyly. "Hopefully."
Huai Shi paid her no mind, lowering his voice and stealthily observing the scene before him. The two muscular men put on gloves, looked around, whispered something to each other, then stealthily climbed through a broken window on the side of the house. Huai Shi carefully opened the back door of the house, hearing the old floorboards CREAKING incessantly.
Heavy footsteps roamed the living room for a while, then headed upstairs, accompanied by the continuous sound of doors opening.
Soon, he could hear voices from upstairs.
"No one's up here!"
"Start looking, see where he's hidden stuff!"
Then there was the sound of rummaging through drawers and cupboards, punctuated by the noise of things breaking. Huai Shi winced as he listened. His home was already bare-bones; the few valuables once there had been pawned by his parents long ago, leaving only worthless, shoddy furniture. These old things had barely survived for so long, only to meet disaster today. Fortunately, even though the house was bare, it was big enough, with plenty of empty rooms; even a thorough search would take a long time.
Huai Shi took a deep breath, grabbed the rod, and followed quietly upstairs, hearing the brutal noises coming from his own bedroom.
BANG.
The sound of a drawer hitting the ground.
Damn it, my desk!
CLANG. The contents of the cabinet spilled onto the floor.
CRASH. The desk lamp and other items from the desk also tumbled down.
"Look at this!"
It seemed they had found something. Huai Shi heard the ZIIIP of a zipper as the instrument case was opened, followed by the DULL THUMP of the instrument's body being knocked.
"Not inside this?"
"Could there be a secret compartment?" one of them guessed. "Shall we smash it open to check?"
Fuck your mother! Huai Shi was furious. You've been rummaging through my stuff all along, and I haven't said a word, but now you're going to smash the very bowl I eat from? This means war!
With no time for hesitation, he poked his head out. He saw the two men squatting on the ground with their backs to him; one of them had already picked up an Iron Hammer. Rage surged in his heart, and, driven by fury, he lifted the rod for a leaping chop.
His plan was crystal clear—knock one out cold with a surprise blow to the head, then, before the other could react, land another hit, and that would be that!
Things went exceptionally smoothly.
THUD.
The man holding the Iron Hammer fell to the ground. But right after, Huai Shi saw the rusted iron rod he held, which had been sitting around for who knows how many years, snap right in the middle and fly out of his hand.
He was stunned for a moment. The other man was also taken aback, then his eyes flashed viciously, and he lunged at Huai Shi.
Huai Shi instinctively kicked out, causing the man to stagger back, then picked up a nearby chair and slammed it down hard.
And so, the old chair that had been with him for so many years made its noble sacrifice.
The man, however, seemed unfazed. He finally got up from the ground, clenched his fists until they CRACKED, and his face under the mask twisted into a fierce snarl.
Huai Shi stepped back at first, but then he remembered: Things are different now; I'm no longer the weakling who couldn't even fight a chicken. Alright, time for these unmatched Martial Arts to make their debut on you!
With a cold sneer, he advanced with a series of military boxing moves!
Then another series of military boxing, and finally one more... The military boxing he had learned the hard way was indeed easy to use, moving from the first sequence to the third without pause, as fluid as clouds and as fierce as a tiger!
Except that not a single hair on the opponent's head was harmed, it was practically flawless.
Huai Shi was almost at the point of collapse from exhaustion, but he hadn't even touched the man. If this were a street performance under an overpass, I might have earned a hundred or so Dongxia Currency, but right now, it's useless.
The muscular man's movements were frighteningly agile. Although he didn't know any military boxing, the Power behind each of his punches and kicks was terrifying. Just one punch made Huai Shi's vision go dark as his face swelled up.
Damn it, this guy's tough... Situation's bad, time to bail!
Right as this thought popped into Huai Shi's mind, he got angry again. This is my damn house! If anyone should run, it shouldn't be me!
Suddenly, he felt a cold sensation at the back of his head and instinctively ducked down.
Then, he felt an Iron Hammer pass close to the back of his head, WHISTLING with force. The man he had knocked down with the rod had already gotten back up.
So much for relying on old steel pipes…
Before Huai Shi could reflect on this, he saw the man in front of him lunging at him, and with a forceful embrace, he was pinned to the ground. Then, a large hand was immediately on his throat.
"Kill this son of a bitch!"
Underneath the mask, those eyes were filled with venom. "Motherfucker, that was too damn close!"
The man clutching the Iron Hammer took a breath and stepped forward, raising the Iron Hammer towards Huai Shi's forehead. Talk about instant karma. Just moments ago, I was hitting others with a rod, and now it's my turn to have my skull cracked open.
As the Iron Hammer was lifted, he struggled with all his might but couldn't pry the hand off his neck. Amidst the chaos, all he could do was pull off the attacker's mask, revealing a face scarred by a knife.
"Fuck, help..." Huai Shi screamed.
"Quick, think of something sad!" the Raven yelled at the top of its lungs. "Think about how you died in your Dreamland... how many times you've died, how tragically!"
Huai Shi suddenly felt utterly drained. I'm about to die, what's the use of thinking about those things? Oh, right, to mentally prepare myself so I won't be afraid? To die more peacefully, what a great idea!
Remembering the tragic deaths in those Dreamland scenarios, Huai Shi felt a surge of grief and indignation. Having personally experienced countless illusion-like deaths, the accumulated weight of those memories was almost too much for him to bear.
The more he died, the more he feared death, for death was indeed a terrifying thing.
At that moment, he felt a warm current surge from his right hand, closely followed by the sensation of something extra within his clenched fist. It felt as fine as grains of sand, completely filling his hand.
Without time to think, Huai Shi scattered the substance on instinct. Dark dust flew from his fingertips, instantly covering the man's face.
The hand gripping his throat loosened from the unexpected assault. Huai Shi's eyes flew open, and he rolled away fiercely, just as a BOOM resounded by his ear.
The Iron Hammer smashed the floor where the back of his head had just been, pulverizing it.
The near-fatal sound made him break out in a cold sweat.
Yet before he could get up, he saw the man who had been choking him suddenly contort his face in agony, his face reddening as he began to breathe heavily, and then he burst into loud sobs.
The one with the Iron Hammer froze for a moment, and then his eyes, too, began to redden...
What the hell is this? Huai Shi wondered. Chili powder?
In his astonishment, Huai Shi accidentally inhaled some of the rapidly dispersing black dust in the air and immediately felt a potent sourness spread from the tip of his nose.
"Be careful, that seems to be 'Apocalypse'! You're in trouble if it gets on you!"
The Raven's warnings were always a step behind.
And Huai Shi finally realized that the piercing sourness at the tip of his nose wasn't due to an external stimulus, but rather... from the pain and Sorrow deep within his heart.
It was like being fired by a terrible supervisor and losing the job he depended on for a living. It was like having the Shiba Inu he'd raised from a puppy stolen. It was like living a grueling 996 work-life, only to come home early from overtime one day to find another man in his girlfriend's bed. It was like the sudden arrival of an obituary or a cancer diagnosis. It was like being a useless author who promised two updates a day but hadn't been able to write anything for days.
His guts spasmed, his eyes burned, and an acidic sourness filled his nose as uncontrollable Sorrow spread through his chest. Memories flooded back: falling on the steps when he was three; having his one yuan and fifty jiao savings stolen by a chubby kid at the arcade; his unreliable parents absconding with donated money and disappearing; encountering a Cowherd establishment during an interview; getting inexplicably dragged into this mess just by trying to go home...
"Oh heavens, my life is so bitter!"
Huai Shi let out a long howl to the sky, a mournful scream came from his throat, and he started crying uncontrollably, tears streaming wildly...