Phantom Demon Seal (Part 1)

On the projection inside the car, the viewpoint was slowly moving forward, swaying slightly with each step as it drew closer and closer to Ronan.

Li Xuecheng became increasingly engrossed. His grip tightened, squeezing Lian Yu's hand painfully, while his mouth kept running.

"Jie Yu, you know, I've loved this kind of real-life game since I was little. Virtual Reality, immersive sensory experiences—compared to this, they're utterly pathetic.

"This is a real game that you control with your own hands. Here, there's absolutely no bullshit like 'within three steps, one man is the equal of a nation.' No matter how impressive the target is, at most he can touch my puppets. He can't touch the invisible strings woven from money, much less me. Watching their helpless, frustrated expressions until they fail completely and break down—there's nothing more entertaining than that!"

Lian Yu's legs had begun trembling faintly without her realizing it.

Li Xuecheng now looked far too unfamiliar. He had always been petty, but he used to maintain appearances well enough. He would never deliver this kind of "heartfelt" monologue—rolling around in the mud while wearing an intoxicated look on his face.

He had become completely twisted. It seemed the humiliation of being scared unconscious by Ronan yesterday had driven him mad.

Lian Yu knew full well that there was no communicating with a madman. But Li Xuecheng was looking at her with utter expectation, waiting for her response.

Her lips twitched slightly. After thinking for a long time, she finally forced out a sentence. "Wouldn't making a move here cause too much of a commotion? If everyone sees him being attacked, then that withdrawal period..."

Li Xuecheng turned gentle again and lightly stroked the back of Lian Yu's hand. "Jie Yu, you worry too much. I'm not that stupid. Right now, we're just getting into the atmosphere. A good game needs a solid plot. Simple brute force won't do. Come, let's watch together!"

As he spoke, Li Xuecheng applied a little more force with his hand. Lian Yu did not understand at first, but then her hand was tugged again. Only then did she realize what he meant. After a brief hesitation, she lifted her hips slightly as if to stand, only for the impatient Li Xuecheng to yank her forcefully into his arms the next instant.

Lian Yu let out a soft cry as Li Xuecheng wrapped her entirely in his embrace. Fortunately, the madman's attention was not focused on this right now. After hugging her tightly once, he rested his chin in the hollow of her shoulder, pressing his face to hers as he maintained the intimate posture and continued watching the game.

Since the two were now viewing from the same angle, the car's Smart Brain thoughtfully expanded the projection range. With First Perspective as a foundation and a slight adjustment through the immersive functions of their contact lenses, it was almost like being there in person.

The recording and playback equipment faithfully reproduced the ambient sounds of the locker room. The droning noise made Lian Yu increasingly agitated.

From seventh grade onward, Zhi Xing Institute followed a Western-style classroom rotation system, with no fixed classrooms. Students were like free-range pheasants, gathering and scattering at will. Of the few places where people congregated, the locker rooms were probably the noisiest. Every morning before class, hundreds or thousands of people streamed in and out. Countless rumors and salacious bits of gossip buzzed up and down like swarms of mosquitoes and flies, never seeming to cease.

Everyone near Ronan's locker was in the same grade as him, yet despite the crowd constantly passing back and forth, not one person greeted Ronan.

"A transparent man." Li Xuecheng observed Ronan's movements with the mentality of someone controlling everything, then giggled. "You'll be famous very soon!"

Just as he had said before, Li Xuecheng would not resort to electrocution and injections in broad daylight. That did not fit his expectations.

For someone like this, he had to prepare him properly!

Li Xuecheng had more than one "puppet enforcer" working for him. As a wealthy young man with extensive connections, the forces he could mobilize when no expense was spared were quite considerable.

Ronan had changed clothes and left carrying his old ones, presumably to take them to the laundry room. The moment he set off, four or five people from the chaotic crowd around him followed one after another.

In the upper-left corner of the projection, like a minimap in a classic game, a structural layout of the buildings near the locker rooms was brought up. Li Xuecheng eagerly selected the location and method.

"Tell me, should I shove his face into a urinal? Or use a showerhead to blow his ass apart? Or maybe stuff him into a rolling barrel?"

Lian Yu kept a cold face and said nothing. Ronan's life or death had nothing to do with her, but being inexplicably dragged into this mess, not only having to endure Li Xuecheng taking advantage of her but also possibly facing Xie Junping's anger afterward—it was a losing deal no matter how she looked at it.

The First Perspective carrier also accelerated, and the image shook ever more violently. Beside her, Li Xuecheng's breathing grew increasingly rapid as well.

Ronan turned around a corner, and several puppet enforcers turned after him. First Perspective received an environmental report: the crowd ahead was thinning out. It was the perfect time to strike!

"Then we'll go with A, the urinal... No, I want a bigger one!"

Li Xuecheng cackled strangely and impatiently ordered First Perspective to get to the scene as quickly as possible.

The viewpoint turned the corner, and the suddenly sparse crowd let Li Xuecheng see more clearly. His puppet enforcers had already gathered together and rushed into a restroom.

Li Xuecheng was somewhat dissatisfied. "Dock their pay afterward. Can't these rough bastards make it look more natural?"

Before he had finished speaking, hurried voices came through the communicator.

"That guy jumped out the window and ran!"

"Old Zuo slipped while chasing him and got stuck in the window..."

"We've got people outside!"

"We've got him blocked... Fuck!"

In the blink of an eye, the situation had become an uncontrollable mess.

Li Xuecheng's face first stiffened, but the next moment, a smile he could not suppress bloomed across it. "Exactly! What fun would it be if he weren't the troublesome sort? See? Now this plot is getting good, isn't it?"

He was neither hurried nor flustered. He ordered First Perspective to leave the building containing the locker rooms and pursue Ronan in the direction marked by the communicator.

Li Xuecheng was also someone skilled at spending money. The campus Black Gang he had hired specialized in blocking people off. Though no one knew how Ronan had noticed something was wrong, after two minutes of pursuit, the group of burly youths had still cornered him in a shadowed spot behind the building.

By the time Li Xuecheng arrived nearby, the matter was already nearing its end.

The campus Black Gang members wielding light weapons such as flexible batons, knives, and stun guns had lost another man, but they had managed to drive crackling electric fire straight into Ronan's side.

Ronan bent over, convulsing.

Li Xuecheng clapped and laughed loudly at the sight. But the next moment, he saw Ronan, who was about to be swallowed by the crowd, inexplicably raise his head. His gaze pointed directly at this location, so precise it was as though he were staring at Li Xuecheng across the distance.

Before Li Xuecheng could recover, a deafening roar sounded behind First Perspective's ear—equally exploding beside Li Xuecheng's own.

"What are you doing?!"

His body jolted, while First Perspective's view instantly became a rapidly enlarging patch of grass before everything went black.