The villain, Wei Yunmo

The scrawny brat only came up to his shoulder and looked thirteen or fourteen. He wore an ill-fitting white lab coat and walked barefoot, looking utterly bedraggled. Bruises marked the corners of his mouth, his black eyes stared numbly at Xie De, and his yellowish hair betrayed his malnutrition.

Xie De pressed the gun against his head. He neither resisted nor screamed. He simply closed his eyes in despair, like a lamb to the slaughter, accepting his predetermined fate.

What the hell?

Uh... It had been so long since I talked to anyone that I actually forgot how to start a conversation.

Xie De withdrew the gun and studied the child before him. A kid suddenly appearing in such a remote place, looking this bedraggled-could there be a mountain village nearby? Had he been trafficked and then escaped?

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

"Come here," Xie De said, then headed toward the tent.

A flicker of surprise crossed the boy's eyes. He obediently followed and stood outside the tent, his small, skinny frame looking more and more like a lonely street child.

Seeing Xie De return unharmed, 455 breathed a sigh of relief and asked cheerfully, "What was it? A wild animal? That'd be great! I can teach you how to butcher it!"

Xie De sneered. "You say you'll teach me, but you really just play a video and make me learn by myself."

"Oh, come on, don't put it like that..."

"I found a kid. I think we need to head back to the city now," Xie De said as he dug out some ready-to-eat canned food and water.

"A kid? How could there be a kid out here in the middle of nowhere?"

455's gaze followed Xie De outside, and the Xiaodu speaker glowed red.

Xie De stepped outside and casually tossed the food to the boy. He threw his baseball cap aside, letting his long silver hair spill down, then lazily lit a cigarette and leaned against a tree, puffing out smoke.

"What's your name?"

The boy scrambled to catch the food, his expression almost frozen. Only after a few seconds did he hurriedly open the can and shovel food into his mouth, mumbling, "Wei Yunmo."

Wei Yunmo?

That name sounds familiar.

The Xiaodu speaker let out a piercing shriek.

The Bluetooth earpiece clipped to his ear chimed as 455 came online, yelling, "Aaaaah... The villain! He's the villain, host!"

Now he remembered. He remembered everything. When he and 455 first met, the villain Wei Yunmo had been one of the people 455 used to scare him-human experimentation, depraved madness, severed hands and feet, and all that.

His smoking hand jerked.

Xie De carefully studied the boy before him.

Bedraggled and frail, pitiful and helpless-how did he remotely resemble the person 455 had described?

"Uh, 455, could he just have the same name?"

"Absolutely not," 455 said gravely. "I remember what the plot said. The villain Wei Yunmo was the product of a mysterious laboratory and possessed the ability to regenerate flesh. He grew up in the laboratory, undergoing all sorts of horrifying experiments, and became increasingly devoid of emotion."

"Eventually, he became a researcher himself and accidentally entered an Instance. Then he went completely insane. He actually dreamed of researching Instances and went around capturing players in the real world who had entered them. Single-handedly, he experimented so many veteran players to death that he practically rivaled the Instance System."

"Even the protagonist almost died at his hands. They fought over a dozen rounds before the protagonist finally killed him."

"Host, look at the guy in front of you. He's even wearing a lab coat. Isn't his identity obvious?"

Xie De swallowed. His expression shifted as he looked at the brat again. Taking a hard drag on his cigarette, he rapidly said in his mind, "Holy shit, so this guy escaped from the laboratory? And I happened to run into him? Then all we have to do is keep this kid out of their hands, right? Cut off his path to villainy."

At that, the system's voice grew even more serious. "But host, have you considered how powerful the laboratory is? The villain ran all the way out here, and they still managed to capture him. Later, they even helped him commit his atrocities and kill all those veteran players."

"So we can't take the villain with us because there's no way we can stop him from turning evil?"

"Not exactly. I just mean that if you don't act now, you're dead."

"Huh?"

455 said cryptically, "That's a secret laboratory. The villain escaped on his own, and you just happened to run into him. Even if you say you don't know anything, can you be sure that deranged laboratory won't kill you to silence you?"

Shit. Good point.

Alarm shot through Xie De. Even without instructions from 455, he knew what he had to do-run for it!

He stubbed out his cigarette and packed at lightning speed, dismantling the tent he had only just pitched.

Wei Yunmo was still chewing, staring blankly as he packed.

Xie De had no time for him yet. As he gathered his gear, he asked, "455, should I take the villain with me or not? He probably won't tell them he met me, right?"

455 gritted its teeth. "What do you think?"

As he packed, Xie De felt increasingly unlucky and blurted out in frustration, "Me? How should I know? If I leave him behind and he tells them what I look like and where I went, I'm a hundred percent screwed. If I take him, I'm pretty sure that laboratory will be even less likely to let me off. And I don't know how to raise a kid! Either choice gets me killed! I can't bring myself to hurt a child. I had no choice in the Instance, but I've never killed anyone in real life."

"Then... we can't leave your fate in someone else's hands. Take him?"

"Fine."

The man and the system immediately agreed. Xie De carefully concealed the traces of his presence. He never asked whether Wei Yunmo wanted to go with him; he simply told the villain to follow him down the mountain, his face cold.

Looking at the guitar case on the man's back, Wei Yunmo knew exactly what was inside. He didn't dare object and obediently followed.

As he walked, he heard movement behind him and looked back.

That single glance gave him a fright.

He saw a fist-sized House Centipede directing a dense, countless swarm of insects, thoroughly concealing every remaining trace the man had failed to clean up-including their scent.

House Centipede stretched out his long, jointed legs and darted past Wei Yunmo, climbing onto the man's shoulder before quietly becoming an ornament again.

The silver-haired man gave this terrifying creature a practiced, reassuring pat.

Wei Yunmo grew even quieter.

Who exactly was this man? Wasn't he from the laboratory?

This was Wei Yunmo's seventh day since escaping the laboratory. He knew those people were still relentlessly pursuing him. He couldn't go anywhere in a big city with surveillance cameras, so he could only flee into the remote mountains and forests.

He was hungry and exhausted.

But he couldn't go back. He had finally clawed his way out of hell. He would rather die outside.

His head spun. When he emerged from the bushes, he sensed terrifying killing intent, then found himself staring into a pair of dangerous dark green eyes. At some point, a gun had already been aimed at his head.

The moment Wei Yunmo saw the man, his mind automatically supplied the following scenario.

This was an executioner specially trained by the laboratory, dispatched to eliminate the escaped test subject and ensure the laboratory's secrets never leaked.

Yet the man hadn't killed him. Instead, he gave him food and took him out of the mountains, helping him escape the laboratory's pursuit.

Who was this man, really?

Honestly, Wei Yunmo wasn't surprised by the man's silver hair and green eyes. People of all sorts of races frequently appeared in the organization-Black people, white people, Native Americans. Their eyes and hair, even their skin, came in all sorts of colors, and their temperaments were just as varied.

But that was all there was to them.

They came nowhere near the air of mystery this man gave off. Involuntarily, Wei Yunmo developed an intense, gnawing curiosity about him.

After they came down the mountain.

The man drove him at breakneck speed to a small house in the old district of some unknown small city.

It probably had only two bedrooms and a living room. Barely renovated and very basic, it didn't even have a full set of furniture. It was likely just one of the man's safe houses.

He was settled into one of the rooms.

Before Xie De left.

Wei Yunmo lowered his eyes and timidly asked, looking perfectly obedient, "What should I call you?"

"39."