Translator: AnubisTL
"This..."
Li Hao suddenly seemed to understand the nature of the party. He swallowed hard, his gaze fixed on the scene before him. "Brother Jiang," he murmured, "is this really a place we can get into for free?"
"Normally, no," Scar Dog said, lifting his wine glass for a sip. "But with a few tricks, it's possible. Those damn aliens deserve to die, throwing us into the Ten Thousand Races Arena to fight to the death while they live it up here, almost wiping out our entire race."
"And they're just partying it up."
"Brother Jiang, when do we move?"
"Wait a bit."
Chen Jiang calmly swirled the wine in his glass, leaning back on the sofa. In the dim light, he surveyed the crowd with a languid gaze. "Let's observe a little longer. Acting too hastily could lead to a fatal mistake."
"Got it."
Meanwhile, in another corner of the hall, Wang Jili, chairman of Shark Company, sat alone at a table. After draining his wine glass, he leaned back, slightly tipsy, and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and exhaling a plume of smoke.
"It's been a while since I've had a drink like this."
He reached out to grab the pale blue smoke swirling in the air, but as his fingers closed, the smoke scattered in all directions as if startled.
Wang Jili, slightly annoyed, tilted his head back and waved away the remaining smoke above him. He then glanced absently at the noisy crowd nearby, their cheers and jeers echoing through the hall. "Actually, this feeling isn't so bad," he murmured.
"Wearing a mask, no one recognizes you. No need to worry about running into business partners or competitors. Just quietly enjoy a drink."
"Isn't life strange?"
"Finding tranquility in a noisy gathering, yet enduring the noise in a silent life."
"With a mask on, no one knows if you're human or dog. It's perfect. They should have recommended this place to me sooner."
The badge pinned to Wang Jili's chest clicked its tongue and spoke up, "The main event hasn't even started yet, and you're already getting drunk. Pace yourself. You weren't brought here just to drink."
"I didn't plan on drinking this much, but who can resist free alcohol?"
"...Do you really need to save on drinks?"
"No, but why pass up a good deal?"
Just then—
A sudden burst of excited applause erupted from the center of the hall. A white spotlight pierced through the crowd, illuminating a woman with cascading golden waves, wearing a slit-hemmed qipao and a cat mask. She rose with a coquettish laugh, waving to the crowd as she acknowledged their cheers.
Guided by a beam of white light, she ascended the high platform step by step.
"Alright!"
The host, dressed in a white suit, laughed excitedly. "Let's have our beautiful Cat Lady kick off tonight's Friday Eden Party at the Rose Club with a showstopper segment!"
He shook his head with a wry smile, self-deprecatingly adding, "Ever since this lady took the stage, all eyes have been on her, not me. It's quite disheartening, really."
"Well, then, let's leave the stage to our lovely Cat Lady."
The host glanced at the band in the dimly lit corner of the stage, brought the microphone to his lips, and shouted, "Music, hit it!"
In the next instant—
The arena lights suddenly went dark, focusing all beams on the woman with golden wavy hair, wearing a slit-hemmed qipao, standing on the high platform.
The host slowly retreated into the shadows.
The music exploded into a high-energy, club-like beat, erupting with explosive force!
As the music surged, the woman in the slit-hemmed qipao began her showstopper segment.
The lights began to flash wildly, adding to the frenzied atmosphere.
"How's it going? How's it going?"
As articles of clothing flew from the stage into the crowd, they triggered a chorus of excited male screams.
The badge on Wang Jili's chest chimed in, its voice buzzing with excitement: "The showstopper segment has begun! Look at that girl—wow, isn't she something? But wait a minute... doesn't she look familiar?"
"Even with the mask, I feel like I've seen her somewhere before. It's like..."
The badge suddenly fell silent, its voice abruptly cutting off.
"..."
Wang Jili pulled another cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and stared blankly through the pale blue smoke at the woman swaying on stage. He glanced at the men below, frantically grabbing for the discarded clothing. After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"After all these years of marriage, I never knew she could dance."
Yes, the woman on stage was his wife, Xu Fen.
Though she wore a mask, her figure and that cascade of golden waves were unmistakable.
He never imagined he would see his wife here.
"Um..." The badge, which had been pretending to be mute, forced itself to speak. "This is my fault. I shouldn't have brought you here. I honestly never expected to run into her here. This is such a mess."
"It's nothing," Wang Jili said after another moment of silence. He raised his wine glass, exhaled a puff of smoke into it, and drained the glass in one gulp before speaking again. "Just a dead man. I won't hold a grudge against the dead."
"I won't mind."
"Good," Wang Jili's chest badge sighed in relief. "Um, you wouldn't mind if I took another look, would you?"
"Well..."
Li Hao kept his eyes fixed on the stage, wiping his mouth as he spoke. "Is this what life is like for the upper class? It's suddenly reignited my ambition, which had been lying dormant for so long."
Scar Dog scoffed disdainfully. "Look at you, getting all ambitious now."
Just then, the dance ended.
The host produced a white bath towel, draped it gentlemanly over the woman in the cat mask, and escorted her off the high platform. "Now, let's move on to the second segment of tonight's show!"
After a series of formalities, Chen Jiang and the others found themselves holding plaques engraved with the character "主" (Master).
They glanced down at the three masked pets kneeling before them.
Scar Dog stared at the scene before him, momentarily at a loss. He tentatively placed his feet on one of the pets, expecting resistance, but instead, the creature began removing his shoes and socks.
"This kid..." Scar Dog gasped, shocked. "Doesn't he worry about getting athlete's foot?"
"Hey, you three, crawl under the table."
Almost immediately.
"Mm."
Scar Dog solemnly raised his wine glass, looking across the table at Chen Jiang. "Brother Jiang," he said, "how do I put this? I feel like I'm about to be corrupted by the upper class's sugar-coated bullets."
Beneath the table, three pets were diligently licking their masters.
"Huh? Ah? Oh, right." Li Hao, his expression dazed, held his wine glass with unfocused eyes and murmured, "I love the Rose Club. Please make me a permanent member."
Chen Jiang calmly poured himself another glass of wine. In the dim light, he glanced around, savoring the tingling warmth, and said softly, "We're enduring this humiliation for a bigger score. Keep your expressions normal—don't embarrass us."
"Of course, of course, we all understand."
Wang Jili, sitting in a corner, stared expressionlessly at the woman with the cat mask, who was currently fighting four opponents on the sofa beside him.
"Bro-brother," the badge pinned to his chest trembled slightly, its voice tinged with panic. "It's not worth it! It's really not worth it! You need to think this through!"
The badge was a three-star item—more precisely, a one-use three-star item.
It had gained self-awareness by sheer chance.
Its sole function was to explode with devastating force, capable of obliterating half a city without a trace.
The Black Invitation Card had been inherited from its previous owner, who had died too quickly to activate it.
Now, it had fallen into Wang Jili's hands.
Because Wang Jili often hid in corners, muttering to himself, the badge had inexplicably developed its own consciousness.
At that moment, it could sense the suppressed rage in Wang Jili's heart—a fury that threatened to destroy everything before him.
"It's not worth it, brother!" the badge nearly sobbed, its voice trembling with a tearful tremor. "I don't want to die! Please, don't do anything rash, okay? She's just a woman—there are plenty of others out there. Just listen to me, let's pretend we didn't see anything, alright?"
Wang Jili remained silent for a moment before speaking calmly, "Your ultimate fate is to explode. Why are you so afraid of death?"
"Bullshit!" the badge snapped, clearly agitated. "Isn't death your ultimate fate too? Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Just then—
The men in the adjacent booth noticed Wang Jili sitting alone on the sofa, brooding over his drink. They exchanged glances, grinned, and swaggered over, pulling him up and leading him back to their booth.
"Hey, rookie?"
"First time at the Rose Club? Loosen up! No one knows anyone here. Come join the fun."
As Wang Jili settled into their booth, the woman wearing a cat mask sidled up to him with a flirtatious giggle, rubbing against him like a purring kitten.
Wang Jili remained calm, cradling the woman's head in his arms and gently stroking her smooth, golden waves. He said nothing.
But then—
The woman wearing the cat mask suddenly noticed the black mark on Wang Jili's palm, left by the extinguished cigarette. Her body froze, completely still.
"Recognize it?" Wang Jili leaned close to her ear, his voice calm as he whispered, "Having fun, Xu Fen?"
"You succeeded in trampling my dignity as a man without restraint."
"You destroyed every last shred of my remaining tenderness toward you!"
The next moment—
Bang!
A deafening gunshot rang through the hall. The woman's terrified pupils dilated instantly, a thumb-sized bloody hole appearing in the back of her head. Her body stiffened abruptly before slowly collapsing against Wang Jili.
Simultaneously with the gunshot—
The hall doors burst open as a squad of heavily armed soldiers stormed in, their weapons trained on the source of the gunfire, fingers tightening on triggers.
The hall's white lights blazed to full intensity, flooding the hall with blinding light.
Here, anyone who dared to fire a weapon would be immediately suppressed by the Rose Club.
Wang Jili, of course, had dared to fire, and he couldn't possibly have been unaware of the consequences.
"Don't fucking move!"
Almost the instant the gunshot rang out, Wang Jili shoved the corpse off him, pulled two handguns crackling with blue electricity from his jacket, and pointed them at the four other men in the booth. His face twisted into a ferocious snarl as he roared, "Shut the fuck up! Anyone moves, I'll kill these bastards!"
At the same moment Wang Jili's gun fired—
Bang!
Another gunshot echoed from the center of the hall.
A man wearing a tiger mask had a woman in a rat mask pinned against his neck with one arm. With his other hand, he raised a long rifle and fired a shot into the ceiling, bellowing, "I've got nothing to lose! You decide if you want to die with me. Anyone moves, we all go down!"
In his booth, the remaining four men stood up, pulled holographic automatic rifles from their jackets, and cradled them against their chests. Back-to-back, they scanned the crowd warily, their index fingers twitching nervously, clearly ready to pull the trigger at any moment.
Bang!
Another gunshot rang out.
"All I want is to take this woman."
A burly man in a lion mask held a petite, terrified woman by the arm. With his other hand, he raised a space bracelet. "This bracelet contains eight thousand kilograms of TNT."
"Either let me leave, or we all die together!"
Clearly, something had gone wrong at the Rose Club's Friday Eden Party.
Clap, clap, clap!
A round of applause echoed through the hall.
The young man in the white suit stepped onto the stage again. After drawing all eyes with his clapping, he spoke: "Gentlemen, please remain calm. The guests here are either wealthy or influential. If anything happens to them, even if you get your money, you won't live to spend it."
"Let me first escort the irrelevant guests out. Then we can discuss this calmly, shall we?"
Wang Jili, the man in the lion mask, and the group wielding assault rifles exchanged glances before nodding in unison, indicating their agreement.
After all, their targets weren't all the guests.
Wang Jili's target was those four damned men. He couldn't control himself—those four who had defiled his wife today had to die!
The man in the lion mask was Wu Lengjing. His mission was to abduct the daughter of the Eugenia Corporation's chairman. The woman usually obeyed his every whim, but she had refused to help him enter Eugenia Star, a task so trivial. Fortunately, he had a backup plan.
As for the remaining men with assault rifles, they were simply here to rob the wealthy patrons.
(End of the Chapter)
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