She Still Has to Thank Us!(4k)

Midnight.

In a dim alley in Changkong City.

Klein groggily woke from unconsciousness. Her head throbbed unbearably, as if someone had struck her with a blunt object—or as if she had been hit by someone's exclusive Physical Deep Sleep Method...

"Mm... ah... awoo-mm..."

A strange sound rang out. Klein instinctively shifted her gaze toward its source, and her pupils suddenly contracted.

Because within her field of vision, aside from the dark, gloomy alley, there was only a green-haired beauty who had been tied up tightly and could not move.

Looking closely... wasn't this the "Professor Serpent" who had just been teaching her?!

Why was her face flushed like that? Had she been drinking? And why was she tied up?

For a moment, Klein's small head was filled with huge questions. She had just tried to stand up and look around when she suddenly discovered that her own body could not move either. An unidentified hemp rope had bound her tightly to a chair that had appeared inexplicably in the alley.

Had she and Professor Serpent... been kidnapped?

Klein wanted to calm down and think, but the agonizing pain in the back of her head, as if she had been struck by a blunt object, made it impossible for her to settle down.

Forcing herself to endure the pain, Klein scanned the area. Although she was tied to the unidentified chair beneath her, there did not seem to be anyone nearby, which eased her mind somewhat.

Using what little reason she had left, Klein examined the ropes binding her tightly once more and found herself filled with even more confusion.

She had been kidnapped, right...? But she was just an ordinary student, and her grades were nothing special. She might simply have been better at staying up late than other people. Surely she was not worth incurring a life sentence over... Her family had neither power nor influence. What benefit could anyone possibly gain from kidnapping her?

Klein truly could not understand it.

"Mm... mnh... ah... mm..."

The drunken, slurred muttering from Mobius, who had passed out beside her, pulled Klein's thoughts back once more. After taking a careful look at the "Professor Serpent," who was likewise tied to a chair beside her, Klein suddenly thought of a possibility.

Could the kidnappers' target not have been her, but Professor Serpent?

No, no... Klein, how could you slander someone for no reason? Besides, Professor Serpent had just been your teacher...

But aside from that possibility, there did not seem to be any other explanation.

Klein truly did not know what she had done to deserve having criminals risk spending the rest of their lives in prison just to kidnap her in this law-abiding era.

After looking around once more, Klein discovered that this dark and cheap alley contained only herself and Mobius. Assistant Xu, the golden-haired assistant who often accompanied Mobius, seemed to be absent.

Klein vaguely remembered seeing Assistant Xu together with Professor Serpent before she lost consciousness, but what exactly they had been doing... Just thinking about it gave Klein a splitting headache. She could not recall what had happened at all.

Could it be... that Assistant Xu had planned all this?

No... She could not suspect her teacher like that. Looking on the bright side, perhaps Assistant Xu had already escaped and was currently at the police station bringing reinforcements for them?

But if she looked on the dark side... Assistant Xu might have already met with disaster. That would explain why neither Assistant Xu nor the criminals were in the alley.

It was even possible that Assistant Xu, with her National Goddess-level baby face, had already been gang-...

"Ahem, ahem!"

The train of thought Klein had picked up from an accidentally read romance novel was abruptly interrupted. She immediately panicked, her azure eyes darting around the alley. Then her breathing suddenly stopped.

She swore that she had been distracted for no more than two seconds, but in that brief time, a pitch-black ghostly figure had appeared out of nowhere in the previously empty alley!

The figure was tall and thin, dressed in a suit as black as ink. Beneath its equally black short hair was a gray-white smiling mask that looked both particularly ridiculous and terrifyingly sinister.

On this pitch-black night, the old streetlamp beside the alley flickered weakly. Klein's glasses, which she used for studying, had been removed, so she could not see very far. Yet she could vaguely make out a thin, elongated, ghastly glint reflected from the weapon in the masked ghost's hand. The streetlamp's light struck it and reflected back in a distorted, gloomy halo, like a Blood-Seeping Katana that could kill without a sound!

"!!!"

The instant they saw this "Slender Ghost" and his "Blood-Seeping Katana," Klein's and Mobius's azure eyes flew wide open. Until now, Klein's understanding of criminals had been limited to television news and national safety manuals. But looking at this ghostly figure, who practically had the words "strange" and "evil" carved across his face, she felt her tiny heart leap straight into her throat.

In that instant, Klein thought of many things. She thought of the scenes in the novels and comics she secretly read during idle moments, where vicious uncles kidnapped beautiful female students. Then she glanced at the twisted, eerie masked figure opposite her. Even the wind passing through the air seemed to have acquired a bone-deep chill merely because of his presence.

Klein's body instinctively urged her to cry out or scream, but she was astonished to discover that, although nothing blocked her mouth, she was so thoroughly immersed in fear that she could not utter a single word.

It was not that Klein was timid... It was simply that she had never experienced anything like this. Before, everyone had acted as though such matters had nothing to do with them, and there had been no shortage of armchair strategists. But if disaster truly befell them, they would certainly be among the first to collapse.

That was right... Klein had never been a strong person. On the contrary, she was very timid—so timid that when faced with something like this, she could not even call for help. But no one could blame her. After all, she was only an ignorant girl who had just turned eighteen that year.

From beginning to end, the masked ghost did not say a word. Klein's face had already gone pale, her mouth hung open without producing a sound, her body trembled faintly, and her eyes kept rolling upward. If Mobius had been conscious, she would certainly have judged that Klein had suffered too great a shock in too short a time, triggering a physiological stress response. In plain terms, she was about to be frightened unconscious.

Seeing this, the masked ghost opposite Klein was slightly taken aback. He then coughed twice as a tactical measure, waved the "Blood-Seeping Katana" in his hand, and spoke:

"Ahem... Miss, are you sure you want to pass out in an environment like this? Consider it a little piece of personal advice: if you lose consciousness here, I can't guarantee what will happen next. After all... an unconscious girl in the prime of her youth is rather tempting. Don't you think?"

"Ah..."

Klein's consciousness had been on the verge of slipping away, but the masked ghost's words forcibly scared it back. She hurriedly swallowed, because she discovered that in her current state, she could not even breathe. She could only obtain oxygen temporarily by swallowing.

"Of course, you can choose to slowly calm yourself down... if you don't think that would be a waste of time."

The masked ghost toyed with the "Blood-Seeping Katana" in his hand and laughed in a frivolous, teasing tone.

"And my time is precious. I hate people who waste it... But, heh, I'm very interested in you, so spending a little time playing with you doesn't count as a waste in my eyes. Just don't wear away that bit of interest I have in you, and my tolerance for you can be reduced without limit... Want to guess how much of my patience remains?"

"N-no... no need!"

Klein, who was timid to begin with, felt her spine turn cold after hearing the masked ghost's words. Once she recovered, she hurriedly shook her head.

"You... I... I'm sorry! I'll forget everything that happened today. If you want money, I can give you all my savings. Please... please don't hurt me!"

Klein's response was undeniably sensible. After all, the sort of plot in novels where the protagonist was kidnapped, verbally provoked the criminals until they wished for death, then instantly broke free and single-handedly swept through an entire crime syndicate was exclusive to overpowered protagonists.

That kind of thing could not happen in reality. When facing criminals, the wisest course was to obey them and look for a chance to escape later. If you insisted on fighting them head-on, then you were simply an old man hanging himself—apparently convinced that you had lived too long.

Seeing Klein's reaction, Xu Ziling stood beneath the streetlamp with a mask he had casually picked up from the roadside on his face and the system-rewarded Mad King Pot Lid in his hand. Using reflected light to pretend it was a "Blood-Seeping Katana," he fell into a brief silence.

Xu Ziling used the back of the Mad King Pot Lid in his hand to lightly tap his right hand.

To be honest, Klein's reaction had been far beyond his expectations. Xu Ziling's original plan had been to use DNA Mimicry to impersonate a villain and frighten Klein a little, then make up some excuse—such as needing to use the restroom or make a phone call—and withdraw the DNA Mimicry. After that, he would return in his original appearance to "rescue" Mobius and Klein. With the bond of having "saved her life," it would be difficult for Klein not to follow him.

Perhaps this would have been a naïve and nearly impossible plan if used on someone else. After all, having the same person carry out both a kidnapping and a rescue was something that could not withstand scrutiny from the very beginning. Once investigated, it would inevitably fall apart due to certain details in the dialogue, the sequence of events, and the subsequent inquiries. By then, everything would truly collapse.

But as luck would have it, before transmigrating, Xu Ziling had experienced countless instances of his Dog Boss contacting the secretary and putting on a two-person act, all for the purpose of delaying wages through disgusting verbal tricks.

Over time, Xu Ziling had learned all of Dog Boss's self-directed performances, his good-cop-bad-cop routines, and his tricks of acting like a hero while offering dates, then turning into a villain who wielded a stick. In his previous life, without some talent and at least ten years of workplace experience, no one could have spotted the flaws. Xu Ziling had even personally witnessed how a colleague who once shut down the entire company building's power supply while fixing a tiny bug was sold out by Dog Boss afterward, then went on to help Dog Boss count the money.

In short, when it came to selling someone out while making them count the money for him, Xu Ziling was far too experienced. Deceiving a high school student like Klein, who had yet to experience the bitter blows of society, was practically effortless.

As for the official authorities of Changkong City... Although Serpent was currently down on her luck, her influence within Fire Moth remained beyond question. And if a world-class organization like Fire Moth insisted on sealing off a mere local authority in Changkong City, it truly would not be difficult.

After all, although the Far East Island where Changkong City was located belonged to Shenzhou's territory, Shenzhou implemented regional autonomy there... Or perhaps it simply could not be bothered to manage an island that was useless in both its people and its land. In any case, the people leading the Far East Island were still that same group. As for what that group looked like before a world-class giant like Fire Moth... Surely everyone knew, even without him explaining it.

With the right time, place, and people all aligned, it was hardly strange for Klein to surrender. Xu Ziling was merely surprised by how quickly she had done so. She had surrendered so cleanly that he almost felt embarrassed to frighten this senior schoolmate any further.

But embarrassment did not mean he could not do it. Looking at the panicked Klein, Xu Ziling smiled faintly beneath his mask. Under the flickering halo of the old streetlamp, he waved the Mad King Pot Lid a few times and laughed.

"Very good. It seems you know your place... But now that I think about it, I don't believe I've told you that I hate people who try to be clever. Those who once thought obeying me would make me lower my guard... are all gone now. You poor, helpless little thing, will you be the next?"

At those words, Klein felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, chilled from head to toe. The sensation of being seen through from every angle terrified her to the depths of her soul. Combined with the "Blood-Seeping Katana" flashing beneath the old light, she had no doubt that if she provoked the masked ghost even once more, that weapon would strike her without mercy.

But... if she could not conceal even the slightest thought, how was she supposed to escape from this masked ghost? She was only a high school student... She had just turned eighteen. She still had so much time ahead of her... Could her future truly be plunged into darkness?

Her gaze once again collided with the pale mask of the masked ghost. The mockery and amusement on that ridiculous mask seemed so real, like those of a demon that toyed with everything in the palm of its hand.

From waking up to despair... only ten minutes had truly passed. During that time, Klein's mind had raced, yet she could not conceal even the slightest thought from this masked ghost. Where, then, was her hope of escape?

Suddenly, Klein thought of something she had once happened to hear at Chiyu Academy—

"My female classmates! Congratulations on attending the same academy as me, Kevin! From today onward, I, Kevin, voluntarily undertake the responsibility of guaranteeing your safety. No matter where you are, as long as you shout my name and I can hear you, I guarantee that I can rush over and rescue you within ten seconds!"

Heh... Sure enough, she had already been driven insane by fear. At a moment like this, she was actually hoping that the offhand words of a flamboyant male classmate could come and save her.

Ah... The figure of that classmate, Kevin, seemed to have really appeared in her field of vision. It seemed she truly had lost her mind.

Oh... Kevin had even charged toward the masked ghost...

Huh... Kevin had actually knocked the masked ghost backward...

Mm... Mm?!!??!