This Sudden, Outrageous Move

Fang Zheng had always thought that the so-called "Protagonist Halo" was just a slightly exaggerated metaphor. But now, he helplessly discovered that this thing actually really existed!

What? You're asking why Fang Zheng was so certain?

Nonsense, he had used Psionic to go against Tom Cruise thirty times, with a success rate of zero. How could this still be chalked up to good luck?!

This Protagonist Halo couldn't be more obvious!

Damn it, those useless Alien Creatures could kill Tom Cruise in an instant, but when he just wanted to seriously injure the guy to get a blood transfusion, it was so hard? If there wasn't something fishy going on, Fang Zheng would never believe it. He finally understood how frustrated the Death in "Final Destination" must be—working so hard to quietly screw you over, only for you to escape. Anyone would be pissed off by that.

No choice, he had to do it himself.

After reloading the save twice more, Fang Zheng had to make this decision. He realized the plot was already developing toward the later stages. At this point, Tom Cruise knew that the dam illusion he had seen before was just a trap. The other party had lured him there to slowly bleed him out and strip him of his abilities.

Actually, Fang Zheng always thought this Boss was really stupid. Where couldn't you bleed him? On the battlefield, you had the advantage in numbers. You could just send hundreds of monsters to surround the protagonist and slowly drain his blood—no one would dare to bother you, right? Or just knock him out and drag him away, wasn't that also a method? But no, you had to go through all that trouble to lure him to some desolate dam. And in the end, he saw through it. The intelligence of these Alien Creatures... sigh, it was really worrying.

The stupid-as-pigs Alien Monsters couldn't be relied on, and sneaky tricks from behind were countered by the Protagonist Halo. With no other option, Fang Zheng had to go with Plan B—do it yourself, and you'll have enough.

In this cycle, with the help of Psionic, Fang Zheng had learned the general progress of the plot: Tom Cruise, following the illusion he saw when he died before, headed to the dam to take on the Boss alone. He found it was a trap, so he decisively killed himself and reloaded. In this cycle, after discussing with the Female Lead and others, her helper mentioned that he had built a Signal Generator that could enhance the signal between Tom Cruise and the Boss, revealing the Alien Boss's true location.

In this cycle, the two were heading to the command center in London to find the Commander who had previously sent Tom Cruise to the front lines, and get the generator that the Female Lead's helper had built from him... Thinking about it carefully, this story was full of holes. The Female Lead's helper had lost his position and become a Repairman because no one believed his claims, but the thing he built was carefully kept by the General. And the General didn't believe what they said. So if he didn't believe Tom Cruise and the others' experiences, why would he keep that generator in a safe? Normally, wouldn't you just smash it and throw it away?

Forget it, why bother with logic in a Hollywood movie? As long as there's explosions, action, and excitement, it's fine. Whether it makes sense or not, you've already bought the movie ticket, you can't just return it after watching.

Even those superheroes in American comics rarely had normal IQs, so there was no point in demanding too much from this popcorn movie.

"Waaah...!!"

Fang Zheng pulled his thoughts back, looking at the road ahead. Through Psionic, he could already see Tom Cruise and the Female Lead driving toward the command center. Luckily, when he saved last time, Fang Zheng had predicted their route in advance, or he wouldn't have been able to find them now.

Soon, the car the two were driving appeared before Fang Zheng's eyes. The Female Lead was as calm as ever, while Tom Cruise looked a bit nervous, constantly turning his head left and right. But Fang Zheng understood why he was acting like this. His previous attempts at causing trouble hadn't affected Tom Cruise much, but they had scared him badly. After all, Tom Cruise always thought that after reloading, everything would repeat in order, but Fang Zheng's "troublemaking" had no pattern and wasn't in Tom Cruise's memory. Although the results were always close calls, for Tom Cruise, it was still a worrying and tense situation.

But this time, Tom Cruise could rest easy, because Fang Zheng had given up on causing trouble and decided to do it himself.

"Remember, when we get to the command center, you have to... oh, damn it!!"

At that moment, Tom Cruise and the Female Lead were quietly discussing what they should do next. But just as they turned a corner, Tom Cruise immediately noticed a young man standing in the middle of the road ahead. He was dressed in casual clothes, standing there, watching the car turn toward him. Seeing this sudden figure, Tom Cruise let out a yell. He had never expected such an accident—last time he came here, there was no one on the road!

The Female Lead reacted quickly too. Seeing someone in front of her, she hastily turned the steering wheel, and the whole car swerved. But at that moment, they saw the young man suddenly raise his right hand.

The next second, their car was hit by something violent, and with a "boom," it flew out, crashing directly into the wall beside them and stopping.

"Whew... I don't believe I can't handle it this time."

Lowering his right hand, Fang Zheng let out a long breath. Then, without paying any attention to his surroundings, he walked straight to the car and looked inside. Through Psionic, he found that neither of them was dead; they were just unconscious. This made him nod in satisfaction. It seemed his Psionic manipulation, derived from Kerrigan, was quite handy. He really shouldn't have had that sudden idea to imitate Death and cause trouble earlier. Just going straight in with a heavy hit would have solved everything without any issues.

With that thought, Fang Zheng reached out. Soon, under the influence of Psionic power, the car began to disassemble. He then pulled the two out, tossed the Female Lead to the side of the road, and swaggered off with Tom Cruise.

This incident quickly caused an uproar throughout the city. Many people had witnessed what Fang Zheng did, especially the scene where he used Psionic to dismantle the car, which was seen by quite a few. Suddenly, this mysterious young man with immense power became a target of interest for many factions. The entire city was even placed under martial law, and many soldiers were mobilized to search for traces of Fang Zheng.

The Female Lead was also unlucky, getting captured and interrogated. But after waking up, she was equally desperate. How was she supposed to know who that young man who suddenly appeared in front of their car was? And he had even taken Tom Cruise away!

The Female Lead instantly felt that life had lost all meaning—Great Britain was probably doomed.

But while those people were busy, Fang Zheng had already brought Tom Cruise back to the Hive. It seemed that Tom Cruise's Protagonist Halo had a level limit. Fang Zheng couldn't secretly mess with him, but if he directly overpowered him in a head-on confrontation, it was purely a matter of strength, and the Protagonist Halo was useless.

"You've returned, Master."

When Fang Zheng stepped into the Hive, Milune quickly hopped over—it had to be said, this Zerg Queen was looking more and more like a Dryad.

"Yeah, I'm back."

Hearing Milune's greeting, Fang Zheng nodded to it—or rather, her—and then casually threw Tom Cruise to the ground.

"This is..."

Looking at Tom Cruise, Milune paused, then curiously leaned in.

"A human? Master, I sense the power of a Time Gene sequence within him."

"A lucky one."

Fang Zheng made a gesture to Milune.

"Is there a way to extract the gene sequence from his body without harming his life?"

"Of course, no problem, Master."

"Then do it."

"Yes."

Hearing Fang Zheng's command, Milune bowed and stepped back. Soon, a few Drones came over and dragged the unconscious Tom Cruise away. In terms of biological technology, nothing could surpass the Zerg. In less than half a day, Milune reported to Fang Zheng that the extraction of the gene sequence from Tom Cruise's body was complete. Tom Cruise had now become an ordinary person again. But besides that, there was an unexpected bonus.

"Master, the gene sequence extracted from that human is far more powerful than what we've devoured before. I..."

"If you want it, take it for yourself."

Before Milune could finish, Fang Zheng understood her meaning. The Zerg had an instinctive craving for powerful strength. The Alien Creature's blood in Tom Cruise's body was just a defective product. Fang Zheng didn't care about it at all. His target was the Alien Boss's energy core—that was the main prize. Compared to that, these appetizers weren't even worth his interest.

"Thank you, Master."

Hearing Fang Zheng's reply, Milune was clearly very happy. She thanked him, then hopped away. Fang Zheng looked at the unconscious Tom Cruise and helplessly shook his head. Then he reached out and slapped him a few times, finally waking him up.

"Ugh... where... who are you?"

Tom Cruise, true to his nature as someone who had reloaded countless times, immediately sensed something was wrong as soon as he woke up. He quickly jumped up, staring at Fang Zheng with suspicion and uncertainty. Seeing Tom Cruise's shocked expression, Fang Zheng smiled slightly.

"Don't worry. I brought you here with no ill intentions. In fact, I just want to tell you that the ability you have..."

Fang Zheng had been about to say, "The ability on you has already disappeared," but to his surprise, before he could even finish speaking, Tom Cruise seemed to trigger something and hastily pulled a pistol from his waist, firing a shot straight at his own head!

"Bang!"

"..."

Looking at Tom Cruise, who had fallen to the ground and was now thoroughly dead, Fang Zheng twitched the corner of his mouth, unsure of what to say.

"Master? What happened?"

At that moment, hearing the gunshot, Milune hurried over with a group of Zerglings, and upon seeing the scene, she too was stunned.

"This human... how did he die?"

"...A bit of an accident. Find a mine shaft and bury him."

What else could Fang Zheng say about this? Well, at least Tom Cruise had proven with his own life—his ability had indeed vanished.

But as for whether he died with his eyes open in regret... Fang Zheng didn't know.

Come to think of it... this should count as suicide, right?