Chapter 5

Zhou Jingcheng opened his eyes and smiled at the mirror.

Perfect.

He opened the door and met the gaze of a certain low-class individual.

That gaze lingered curiously on his face for a moment, then traveled downward, sweeping over his lower abdomen.

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

He clenched the doorknob, and the mindset he had just adjusted nearly collapsed again.

A dressed-up escort duck. Referring to himself.

Lip-Piercing Bro was surprised to see the two of them come out one after the other. "Brother Zhou? You two ran into each other? Perfect, come over together."

Lip-Piercing Bro walked ahead while Zhou Jingcheng lagged a few steps behind, walking alongside Shi Jihan. "I didn't ask earlier. If you wanted to talk, just talk. Why did you stand on a stool half a meter high?"

This little runt wanted to look down on him?

Shi Jihan's face instantly turned red.

Commonly known as getting wrecked.

"None of your business!"

The smile returned to Zhou Jingcheng's face as he walked around him.

A grudge had to be repaid on the spot. If he delayed even a little, he would be the one losing out.

Most of the people who had come out to play were idle rich second-generation kids. People like Zhou Jingcheng and Shi Jihan, who had skipped work to slack off, were rarer.

Lip-Piercing Bro looked after the newcomer and asked Shi Jihan, "How does Young Master Shi want to play?"

Shi Jihan asked 000, [How do I count as having Overwhelming Ball Skills?]

000 replied, [Whatever. Just wing it.]

Shi Jihan told Lip-Piercing Bro, "Whatever. Just wing it."

Anyway, he did not know how to do anything ovo

That made Zhou Jingcheng glance at him again.

Shi Jihan's tennis outfit had no idea who had given it to him. Its cut and design looked especially like a sailor uniform. Beneath the loose shorts were two slim, long legs, stark white in the sunlight and almost dazzling. His white socks pressed a ring-shaped indentation into his calves, giving them a slight softness.

He stood there with his hands on his hips, brimming with energy and vitality.

He looked like a fully automated troublemaking machine.

The moment he said "whatever," Lip-Piercing Bro did not know what to do. He instinctively looked at Zhou Jingcheng. "Brother Zhou, what do you think?"

Zhou Jingcheng had originally planned to go home after showering. He had only changed into the wrong clothes and come back out because he had been angered out of his mind. He wanted to leave, but the words changed course at his lips. "Let's just play something casual."

Someone teased, "That tone... you're not taking us seriously at all, huh?"

"You noticed?" Zhou Jingcheng glanced at his friend, and what he said made people itch to grind their teeth. "At your level, I could beat you even if I came in a wheelchair."

Shi Jihan clicked his tongue. What a mouth. It attacked indiscriminately.

His head was full of ideas. [000, can you evolve a clone and install it on him so it can harvest his Malice Points?]

[Develop subordinates, grow bigger and stronger, work hard for a hundred days, become the number one Brother Zero.]

000 replied, [...That service does not exist.]

[Tsk. Still not hardworking enough. Reflect on yourself.]

000: ?

In just a few days, the host had evolved the face of a capitalist.

After discussing it, everyone decided to split into two matches, four people per match, in teams of two.

Shi Jihan was eager to try, impatient to use his ball skills to thoroughly crush Zhou Jingcheng.

In the end, he drew lots and got placed on the same team as Zhou Jingcheng.

The other team was Su Yao, whom Zhou Jingcheng claimed he could beat from a wheelchair, and Lip-Piercing Bro.

Shi Jihan said, "No, how am I supposed to complete the r—"

[Host!]

"Leave behind a dazzling silhouette as I freely and gracefully sweat on the green field?" Shi Jihan said. "I request a redraw. I want a different teammate."

Lip-Piercing Bro said, "All right."

Zhou Jingcheng, who had first been thoroughly humiliated and then cruelly rejected, stopped him. He weighed the tennis racket in his hand and smiled. "No need. This is fine."

000 asked, [Guess what he's thinking?]

[What?]

[He wants to use your round little head as a ball.]

Shi Jihan shrank his neck. "Are you sure you don't want to switch?"

Zhou Jingcheng enunciated each word. "I'm sure."

But then he would not get the reward!

Shi Jihan met Zhou Jingcheng's chilly smile. Instinctively sensing danger, he obediently nodded under that gaze, surrendering quickly. "Then no, no switching."

You had to pay a high price to hire a male model, and Zhou Jingcheng was on that level.

He gritted his teeth. He would treat the 300 Malice Points as an appearance fee.

...QAQ

The most expensive man in the world.

The match officially began.

It had not even been long before Shi Jihan started panting heavily. He felt like a human being being dragged around wildly by an overexcited dog, while the tennis ball was an unleashed beagle.

In contrast, Zhou Jingcheng had not even broken a sweat, though his hair was slightly messy.

His expression was not very good, though.

The score quickly reached 5:1.

Shi Jihan panted. "Aren't you t-tired?"

Zhou Jingcheng jumped and returned the ball. His movements were nimble, steady, precise, and ruthless. He also casually hauled up the noodle-like person who had nearly dropped to his knees. "Hit it already. You won't get this tired if you stop bouncing back and forth so much."

He had never seen anyone on a court dart left and right at high speed, switching routes like a deflating inflatable greeter.

The most critical part was that when the ball went left, Shi Jihan had not yet run back from the right. When it flew in from the right, he panicked and smacked Zhou Jingcheng in the back with his racket.

"Why are you playing tennis?" Zhou Jingcheng dodged his teammate's devastating blow. "Come play with mine instead."

Yes, they were the ones who were losing.

They were far behind, and the opposing team only needed one more point to end the match.

Shi Jihan wiped the sweat beading at the tip of his nose, embarrassed. "Maybe tennis just isn't among my usual sports."

Zhou Jingcheng's surprise did not look fake. "You usually play sports?"

Shi Jihan smiled shyly. "Getting up, going out to pick up deliveries and takeout."

Zhou Jingcheng's expression was cursing him filthy things.

He gave it everything he had, fighting one against three, and forcefully pulled the score back. The first set ended 6:4.

Su Yao whistled. "Oh? Didn't you say you could beat me even in a wheelchair?"

Lip-Piercing Bro was secretly delighted but did not dare say anything. Only the corners of his mouth were hard to keep down.

Zhou Jingcheng was expressionless.

The dictionary's definition of exercise was still far too broad.

He should get Shi Bochuan to revise it.

[ Ding. The "Overwhelming Ball Skills" mission has been completed. Mission reward received: +15. ]

[This counts??]

Shi Jihan and 000 said it in unison.

Shi Jihan held his Malice Points, now at -154.67, and squeezed out a tear of joy.

Wonderful. Those fifteen points were like the beef in a cup of instant noodles—its presence mostly depended on imagination.

Someone patted his shoulder. He looked up, nearly blinded by an overly brilliant smile. "What is it?"

Su Yao's lips curled high. "Thanks, bro. You know, this is the first time in over a decade that I've beaten him."

A towel came flying at him head-on, landing over Su Yao's face with a smack and shutting him up.

Zhou Jingcheng sat in the stands with one leg propped up, drinking water. Seeing the two turn to look at him at the same time, he mocked, "That sure wasn't easy. If you hadn't won this time, I would've thought I'd been playing against bots all these years."

"...Can you install 360 antivirus in your mouth and disinfect it?" Su Yao went crazy.

[What a vicious mouth. What a perfect host,] even 000 praised him this time. [I'll submit a report to the Main System. Maybe we really can develop him into a subordinate.]

Shi Jihan's eyes instantly lit up. He looked at Zhou Jingcheng as though he were walking money. [Brother Zero, go!]

Noticing his gaze, Zhou Jingcheng shifted his eyes slightly and met those round eyes. He opened his mouth, about to mock the little runt.

But Shi Jihan cut him off. "So you're actually this amazing."

Zhou Jingcheng froze.

Shi Jihan smiled ingratiatingly, sweetness flowing from the corners of his eyes to his cheeks and filling his dimples. "Your ball skills are really good. You definitely could've turned things around without me. Sorry, I affected your performance."

Dianjia Bro, now that I praised you, you can't send me off to eat white people food anymore.

Zhou Jingcheng slowly pressed his lips together and shut his mouth.

Chapter 5

After being friends for years, Su Yao knew Zhou Jingcheng's temperament all too well. Especially after being dragged down and losing a match, if Zhou Jingcheng did not mock someone a few times and spit venom, he would not be Zhou.

He had already prepared to defend Shi Jihan, who had helped him win.

Instead, he saw Zhou Jingcheng silently tighten the bottle cap, stand up, and leave.

Su Yao: ?

He shouted at his back, "Where are you going?"

He had not even used his ultimate move yet.

Without turning around, Zhou Jingcheng said, "Shower. Home."

"I'm coming too!" Shi Jihan hurried after him.

The mission target was leaving. There was no way he wanted to stay behind and play tennis.

"Hello? Hello! You're just leaving like that?" Su Yao turned and asked Lip-Piercing Bro, "Was I deaf just now? Or did Zhou Jingcheng curse at me and I didn't hear it?"

Lip-Piercing Bro looked moved. "It's the male ghost version of Silent Bride. Wonderful, I won't get sprayed along with you."

Su Yao: ?

What a lunatic.

-

As they neared the changing rooms, Zhou Jingcheng stopped.

Shi Jihan was intensely discussing with 000 how to create countless clones, grow the Malice business bigger and stronger, enslave parasitic hosts to sell themselves and pay off their debts. He had not noticed the person in front of him stopping and crashed right into him.

"What?" He covered his aching nose, his voice muffled. "Why did you suddenly stop?"

Zhou Jingcheng placed both hands on his shoulders.

The distance between them closed infinitely. Shi Jihan stared blankly at the handsome face enlarging before his eyes.

He had thought Dianjia Bro was in such good shape that he had not even sweated, but up close, he realized the ends of his hair were all wet... Huh?

Zhou Jingcheng gripped his shoulders and directly spun him around one hundred and eighty degrees. His vision whirled rapidly.

Dizzy, Shi Jihan slowly formed a question mark in his mind: ?

"Find your own room number. Don't walk into the wrong room again," Zhou Jingcheng said. "Otherwise, I'll have reason to suspect you just want to sneak a look at me changing."

"...Who wants to sneak a look? Don't talk nonsense!" Shi Jihan froze, then flushed bright red. "What do you have that I don't? We're exactly the same!"

"Exactly the same? Not necessarily." Zhou Jingcheng gave him a meaningful look, his gaze sliding down to sweep over his crotch. From his expression, he seemed to be assessing the size.

Ahhh, you bastard who looks down on me!