The Pain Life Couldn't Bear

"Cough, cough... Boss, there might be some misunderstanding between us. The two of us were just passing through. We're not with them."

The first to recover was the short one of the tall-and-short duo. He shamelessly raised both hands in surrender, wearing a sickeningly obsequious smile.

The trio of street punks glanced at the gun barrels, each thicker than their arms, and the densely packed missiles. After swallowing hard and exchanging looks, they shamelessly dropped to their knees. They even took the initiative to toss their pistols aside and kick them away. The tall-and-short duo followed their example.

Li Si glanced at them and ignored them completely.

"Don't you love going 'heh heh'? Go on, give me another heh."

The bespectacled man had been acting smug and laughing at him the whole time. Li Si fixed his gaze on him and gave a cold, mocking laugh, just as the man had done earlier.

"I wouldn't dare. I..."

The bespectacled man with the crew cut managed to force a faint smile onto his stiff face.

"You wouldn't dare? You seemed to enjoy it earlier!"

Li Si kicked the bespectacled man with the crew cut to the ground. With Bumblebee standing nearby, its six-barreled Gatling gun trained on them, none of them dared make a move.

This game had no player respawn mechanic. Every player had only one life; if they died, they had to create a new account, and they couldn't do that more than twice in a year.

"Don't..."

After being kicked down, the bespectacled man scrambled back to his feet and was about to say something, but all he saw was the sole of a shoe rapidly growing larger in his vision.

"That's for laughing at me!"

"That's for acting all high and mighty!"

"That's for putting on glasses and pretending to be Young Master Chu, you damn idiot!"

Li Si grabbed the bespectacled man and unleashed a satisfying flurry of kicks, berating him as he went. The five players watching couldn't bear to look and turned their heads away.

"That's too cruel..."

"Bro, what do glasses have to do with Young Master Chu? Who's Young Master Chu?"

"Shh, don't say any more. He's just making up an excuse to vent. Why do you care who Young Master Chu is?"

"Come to think of it, that four-eyed nerd really does look like he needs a good kicking when he smiles. He's always acting like he's so smart. I've wanted to kick him a couple of times myself..."

"Wait... shouldn't we be taking this chance to run? Why are we standing around chatting?"

"Don't be stupid. Can you outrun a missile? NPCs are restricted by the law, so they usually shouldn't kill anyone. Once he's beaten the four-eyed nerd and let off some steam, we'll be safe. If we run, we'll just get shot."

"Big bro, you're brilliant and wise. Way smarter than that four-eyed nerd."

Seeing that Li Si seemed to be targeting only the bespectacled man, the tall-and-short duo and the trio of street punks actually started whispering among themselves.

Li Si had gotten enough of a beating in. He gave the resentful-looking bespectacled man a mocking "heh," then finally had time to look at Max.

Then he stared in surprise. "What's with that look on your face...?"

"Ahem..."

Max awkwardly reined in his eager expression and said sheepishly, "I used to get mugged all the time when I was a kid, so..."

"...I'm guilty. I've corrupted another innocent kid."

Silently making the sign of the cross in his mind, Li Si took a long moment to find the words. "Go ahead and hit him, just don't kill him!"

"Okay!"

Max's eyes lit up. Excited and thrilled, he hurried over. He kept staring at the bespectacled man with a conflicted look, as if he couldn't decide where to strike.

The bespectacled man nervously shuffled back a few steps. But just then, Max happened to kick out.

Crack!

That was the sound of his balls breaking. That was a pain life couldn't bear.

The bespectacled man's face turned green in an instant, and all the other men instinctively clamped their legs shut in sympathy.

"I didn't teach him that!"

Unable to watch, Li Si turned away and silently prayed for the bespectacled man for one second.

"I didn't mean to..."

"I understand. Come on, we should go get something to eat!"

With a sigh, Li Si patted Max on the shoulder and started walking slowly down the dark asphalt road.

"But... aren't we taking the car?"

Max glanced anxiously at Bumblebee in robot form.

"Don't you get carsick? Let's walk for a while. It'll catch up on its own."

Li Si waved him over lazily. Max glanced at Bumblebee once more, then hurried after him.

As soon as the two of them left, the five survivors finally breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the ground.

"Phew! They're finally gone. That scared the hell out of me. I'd rather get blown up than experience what it's like to lose my balls."

The three street punks slumped on the ground. At some point, their backs had been drenched in cold sweat.

"But..." the short player said in a near-tearful voice. He pointed at Bumblebee. "But that guy's still here..."

"Boom!"

By now, Li Si and Max had walked a long way down the road, when a violent explosion and rumble sounded behind them.

"Take control of the surrounding surveillance cameras and replace all the video footage!"

Li Si gave the order expressionlessly into the wireless earpiece in his right ear.

"Li, they..."

Max looked back, hesitating. The explosion had clearly come from the place where they'd been. Considering Li Si's earlier decision not to get in the car, the truth was obvious.

"That's right. They're dead!"

Li Si knew what Max wanted to ask and made no attempt to deny it.

If they dared attack him, they had to be prepared to be killed in return. He wasn't some bleeding heart.

In fact, the opposite was true. The mental changes caused by his Hulk bloodline in his previous life had always affected him. He had a volatile temper deep down; he just kept it well under control.

"Oh!"

Max answered quietly. After a moment of silence, he said, "You don't have to hide things like this from me. I can understand."

"I just didn't want that scene to disgust you. I didn't mean anything else!"

Li Si smiled casually. "Those who understand me will understand. Those who don't don't need to. We're not on the same path anyway."

He knew Max's personality well. He might be timid and cowardly, insecure and lonely, but he wasn't the sort to play the saint. On the contrary, people like him often became extreme and unhinged once they gained power, their egos swelling.

He hadn't hidden the fact that he'd ordered Bumblebee to clean up after them because he wanted Max to get used to it in advance. He didn't want him to become Electro and turn into a madman who knew nothing but revenge and destruction.