Things were just that strange!
One second!
You were happily singing, preparing to find your friends and go out for barbecue!
The next second!
With a bang, you were hit and killed by some idiot who had been drinking and driving!
In an instant, Wang Xuan felt as if his entire body were about to shatter. At that moment, he felt as though the whole world had come to a standstill.
Is it starting...?
...After a long time, the expected sequence of memories still did not begin. Time seemed frozen, but his brain could still think.
"The target has died and has been successfully captured by the system."
"The host will enter a fictional world to complete a mission. Upon success, the host will receive a fixed reward of three years of life in the main world. Failure will result in complete death."
"Will the host accept the mission?"
"Yes or no."
"The host will die completely in three seconds."
"Countdown begins. Three... two... one..."
A voice rang out in Wang Xuan's mind. Before he could react, the countdown had already begun!
There was no time to think. Whether he lived or died no longer mattered... but his friends were still waiting for him to go out for skewers... skewers... he had to go eat skewers... Accept!
"Ah!!"
Wang Xuan suddenly sat up in bed and frantically felt his body. It was intact! It didn't hurt! He wasn't dead!
"Huff, huff, huff."
He panted heavily and shifted his dull eyes. A huge cockroach leisurely crawled across his leg, its movements utterly unhurried. Its two long antennae swayed from side to side, as if it didn't take him seriously at all!
Wang Xuan became furious!
He abruptly grabbed a magazine beside him and began smashing it down on the cockroach!
"You crawled onto me! You crawled onto me! Do you think I'm dead?! Ah! Ah! Ah!"
After smashing it more than a dozen times, and only after crushing the cockroach completely flat, did Wang Xuan lower the magazine with a savage expression and take a heavy breath.
After venting, his fear gradually faded. Only then did he raise his head and examine his surroundings.
It was a room of around thirty square meters. Little sunlight came through the narrow window, leaving the room somewhat dim. Miscellaneous items had been thrown everywhere.
Where was this?
I was definitely hit by a car!
But I wasn't dead!
Then... that voice just now?
As he came to his senses, a patch of bloody writing suddenly appeared on the wall before Wang Xuan. The letters were so crimson they seemed about to drip, and the air was filled with the smell of blood.
World: Young and Dangerous. Time: 1991 AD. Location: Sai Wan, latitude: 22°26′, longitude: 114°12′. In the 1990s, as Hong Kong's return was the inevitable trend, the Hong Kong British government relaxed its control. Triad activity ran rampant, with robberies, murders, widespread firearms, rampant drugs, and frequent crimes of every kind. Mission 1: Become a gang boss in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Mission 2: Extend your influence throughout Hong Kong. (Time limit: three years.) Fixed reward: Three years of life in the main world. Random reward: Unknown. Note 1: Death in the mission world will result in complete death. Note 2: Failure to complete the mission will result in death. Language memories have been adjusted. The host is to make use of them at his own discretion. The system reserves the right of final interpretation.
Watching the writing gradually disappear, Wang Xuan panicked for a moment.
"System... can we talk?"
"Big brother? Are you there?"
"Grandpa?"
"Ancestor?"
"Fuck!"
What could he do with a system that couldn't communicate?
He had died!
Then come back to life!
To be a Young and Dangerous gangster meant either hacking people or being hacked. One foot was in the coffin, and the other was in prison.
If he didn't become a gangster... he would die all the same three years later!
"Whew. Lu Xun once said: Life is like XX. If you can't resist, then lie down and quietly enjoy it!"
"Fine, I'll be a gangster... I just want to live... to live well... Nobody wants to die. Why think so much? Either wait for death or fight for your life! Let's do it!"
Wang Xuan's brows were tightly furrowed and his eyes were wide open, yet the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into a smile.
"Xuan Zai, you still not coming down to eat? We're going to hack people tonight. If you don't eat, you'll turn into a limp-legged shrimp!" Ah Wai's shout came from downstairs.
"Coming!"
Amid a series of thumping sounds, Wang Xuan quickly made his way downstairs.
"All you know is eating, eating, eating. Stay farther back when we hack people tonight. Don't let them shave off all that fat on you!"
Ah Wai, Wang Xuan's friend in this world, was a fat guy—the sort of character who was bound to appear beside every protagonist!
"Tch, I'm just following along to make up the numbers. Isn't it like this every time? Hundreds of people stand together and shout a few times, and it's over. They only pay a hundred dollars each time. Who'd be stupid enough to actually risk his life?" Ah Wai said indifferently.
"Are you kidding? The boss's boss's boss got hacked!" Wang Xuan shoveled a mouthful of barbecued-pork rice into his mouth and spoke indistinctly. "If we don't get serious about this, how will East Star survive in the future?"
Just last night, East Star's boss, Camel, had been ambushed by Yan Tze Tak of the "Hong Yi Society" and his men. After escaping safely, he had immediately ordered the destruction of the "Hong Yi Society." Thus, that morning, Wang Xuan's boss, Baki, had passed down the order to bring people that night to smash the Hong Yi Society's venue on Portland Street in Mong Kok, controlled by Jackals.
Hacking people was truly a distant thing to Wang Xuan. It went back to when he had still been in middle school. Influenced by the movie Young and Dangerous, he had carried a knife to school every day.
He had been in group fights before, but he had never actually used a knife to hack anyone. He had seen some of the school's bigger gangsters do it, though. Of course, none of those guys had ended up well.
Prison was their only destination.
"Is it really that exaggerated?!" Ah Wai slapped Wang Xuan uncertainly. "Then let's both stay at the back tonight. The red poles in the society are enough for hacking people. I absolutely am not getting involved!"
Seeing Ah Wai's timid expression, Wang Xuan put down his bowl and chopsticks and looked at him solemnly.
"If you want to be a good little boy, then go back and study properly. If you're going to enter this world, you have to be prepared. Being a gangster means having one foot in the coffin and the other in prison."
Ah Wai stared blankly at Wang Xuan as he turned and walked away. "Hey, I'm just a petty hoodlum, not a gangster. What are you going to do?"
"I'm full. I'm going upstairs to prepare. I can't really let someone hack me, can I? It hurts!" Wang Xuan waved his hand and went upstairs on his own.
It was called a building, but its conditions were even worse than those in mainland China's urban villages.
What was so good about Hong Kong, anyway? So many people liked coming here!
Looking at his surroundings, Wang Xuan complained inwardly. A thousand square feet could be called a luxury home here, which worked out to less than ninety square meters!
Most Hong Kong people lived in cramped, tiny places. A thirty-square-meter apartment like Wang Xuan's could house a family of four in Hong Kong. Five wasn't impossible either!
He rummaged through the cabinets, under the bed, and on top of the bed, looking for anything that might be useful when hacking people that night.
One intact one. Heh heh, keep it—it might be useful!
Another one. Fuck, used!
Wang Xuan swiftly threw away what he was holding and cursed inwardly. They had no sense of hygiene at all!
What kind of junk was all this?
Wang Xuan looked at the thing in his hand... his veins bulging with anger!
Something seemed wrong.
Wang Xuan suddenly sat up. He was going to hack people that night—hack people, did he hear that? It was exhausting!
Wang Xuan cursed inwardly.
Did they really think looking at these things would leave him full of energy when it was time to hack someone?
Still... he did feel a little less depressed and irritated.
Forget it!
He should think about how to protect himself that night!
As the saying went, before learning to hit people, one had to learn to take a hit. Before learning to hack people, one had to learn to be hacked!
The problem was, being hacked hurt!
So he had to make proper preparations for protection!
Fortunately, Confucius had plenty of life experience. Back when he had been in school, he had stuffed all kinds of textbooks against his chest before going out to fight people, and he had been as fierce as a tiger!
Looks like he could only use the old method!
Of course, he was no longer a student. Knives were used quite often now, so besides books, he had better prepare some harder objects as well!
Once he decided to do something, Wang Xuan ran to the piles of trash along the street. After looking around and making sure no one was there, he began rummaging through them.
This piece of sheet metal looks good!
"Hey, Xuan Zai, what are you doing?" a voice called out, startling Wang Xuan into quickly turning around and hiding the object behind his back.
"Your mother!" Seeing Ah Wai suddenly appear behind him, Wang Xuan let out a quiet breath. "So it's you, you damn loser!"
"Going out to have fun!"
"Fun my ass. I want to make a big splash tonight. Since we've entered this world, there's no turning back. If I die, I'll face the sky; if I don't, I'll live forever!"
Wang Xuan waved his hand as he spoke and walked away, leaving Ah Wai with a somewhat unfamiliar view of his back.
Before you continue