Useless

"455! If you want to kill me, just say so."

He'd known it!! A 100% chance of getting caught in the crossfire! When the current pierced Li Luohan's heart, Xie De had also taken a nasty shock. If he hadn't already grown used to that electrical stimulation, he would 100% have been screaming bloody murder.

That unreliable bastard 455 had even asked why people couldn't trust each other a little more. Had it ever considered whether he dared trust it?!

Holy shit, it had nearly shocked him numb!

And more importantly, didn't that edgelord 455 realize it was a useless system?

It had actually electrocuted itself into shutting down!! And fried his earpiece, too!

(┙＞∧＜)┙乀┻┻

Fuck.

Talk about dealing a thousand damage to the enemy and taking eight hundred yourself.

The piercing noise in his earpiece was more than Xie De could stand. He took it off and stuffed it into his pocket. When it came to 455, he had nothing left to say. Resigned, he took out his phone and manually powered it on. A circle appeared on the screen, spinning endlessly. It would take at least five minutes to boot up.

But he couldn't wait here.

Li Luohan's corpse was still staring at him with its eyes wide open.

At the end of the corridor, the Headless Ghost was desperately slamming into the cafeteria doors. The glass doors shook, looking as though they wouldn't hold much longer.

Xie De strode off toward another part of the building.

Beiwei glanced at him, then deftly crouched down to loot the corpse before immediately following him.

A light rain seemed to have started outside again. Dark clouds covered the sky, making daytime look like night.

Machines rumbled nonstop through the factory, devoid of human voices. It was busy and noisy, with only the supervisors pacing back and forth, rubbing their hands, their faces vicious and cruel.

Xie De didn't have the guts to get close to those Ghosts. Without 455, he really didn't feel confident.

So he could only turn left and right, hurrying back to the room they'd stayed in last night. He considered it a relatively safe place.

They had just reached the corridor when Beiwei hesitantly called out to stop him. "Sir, won't it be too dangerous up ahead?"

Huh?

Dangerous?

Wasn't this the way back to their room? How was it dangerous?

Although Xie De couldn't wrap his head around it, he still remembered 455's advice: the young woman before him was a powerhouse in the early stages. She must have noticed something he didn't know about.

He hurriedly asked, "What do you think is dangerous?"

Under the incandescent light, his dark green eyes flashed coldly. The slight curve of his lips seemed almost mocking.

He was mocking her weakness and her failure to know her place.

Beiwei froze, uncertainty flickering across her face. "I'm sorry, Mr. 39. I shouldn't have questioned your decision."

She clumsily tried to please him. "I shouldn't judge your strength by my own. These are the items and valuables Li Luohan had on him. They work against supernatural entities, too. I know you don't need them, Mr. 39, but perhaps they'll be of some help to you. Besides, they should have been yours in the first place."

Beiwei took out the old revolver and thirty-gram gold bar she'd just looted and offered them to Xie De.

This time, it was Xie De's turn to freeze.

Girl, what are you talking about?

Just then, 455 finally finished booting up. A [Weakly leaning against the wall (＿＿)ノ｜] emoticon appeared on his phone screen, which vibrated with every new message.

Feeling his phone vibrate, Xie De looked over.

He saw 455 saying, "Ugh, Host, I'm still alive. Thank goodness."

You have the nerve to say that?

This time, Xie De was so angry he actually laughed.

"Heh."

[455, get a grip on your own abilities. You're going to drag me down with you at this rate.]

Having fried the earpiece itself, 455 could now only cower inside his phone and meekly send messages.

"You can't blame me. It was my first time, too. Host, listen, this instance system can help me upgrade and fix my missing and broken functions. The price is clearing the instances-all of them-and reaching the very top! Host, I agreed to it, so could you become a supreme powerhouse for my sake?"

Xie De's face was expressionless. "You really are all dreams and no ability."

455 shamelessly said, "Nothing we can do about it now. You're already bound to me. It's too late for regrets. (๑⁼д⁼๑) Let's reach the top together!"

"Heh." Xie De gave another cold laugh.

Beiwei watched him timidly.

Xie De realized Beiwei was still holding out the gun and gold bar. Refusing them now didn't seem appropriate, so he hurriedly accepted them, feeling a little awkward. So awkward, in fact, that he forgot about the danger she'd mentioned and instinctively walked straight ahead.

455 was still sending messages. Xie De lowered his head to look.

"Nice, Host. The gun you're holding is a Smith & Wesson M500, known as the most powerful revolver in the world. It's a little old, but it's still pretty good."

"So what? I don't know how to use it."

"...How can you not know how to use this? That gun is already loaded. Just raise it, pull back the hammer, and squeeze the trigger!"

Pull back the hammer, squeeze the trigger?

Holding his phone was inconvenient, so he put it away and fiddled briefly with the gun in his hand, pulling back the hammer...

He looked up and saw the same rotting face he'd seen that morning curl into an eerie smile at him.

!

The corpse had come alive! It was only half a meter away!

Squeeze the trigger!

Xie De hadn't even known he could react like this. He aimed the revolver in his hand at the corpse and fired five shots in rapid succession. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, the final shot blowing its head apart.

He emptied the gun in one go, and the corpse fell back into the corner with a thud.

Fuck. What a rush.

The gun's recoil left his hand aching. Xie De closed his eyes briefly, despairing as he finally understood one fact: there was nowhere safe in this instance!

Behind him, Beiwei's mouth fell slightly open.

To anyone watching, the man had been casually fiddling with his gun while reading messages on his phone, paying no attention whatsoever to the supernatural entity approaching him step by step.

Beiwei's heart beat faster as she stared unblinkingly at him.

Then the man slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at precisely the right moment. Calmly raising his gun, he fired five rounds like the most finely calibrated machine, annihilating the entity before him.

Beiwei finally understood the gap between herself and Mr. 39. This was the power of someone truly strong.

But then Beiwei narrowed her eyes, her gaze shifting to the corner of the phone sticking out of Mr. 39's pocket. Curiosity stirred within her. Why had the messages on his phone upset him?

Did even someone as important as him have things that troubled him?

And most importantly, how could his phone receive messages inside an instance? Wasn't Mr. 39 a newcomer? What exactly was going on? His identity was truly mysterious...

Applause came from the darkness on the other side.

Clap, clap, clap...

Wei Yanchi emerged from the darkness with a gentle smile. Dressed in a white shirt, he seemed to bring his own light with him.

"We meet again."

His gaze passed over Beiwei and settled directly on Xie De, his smile sweet and obedient. "Thank goodness you subdued it, Mr. 39. I just checked the clues and discovered that this corpse is the key to clearing the instance. Had you already figured that out?"

It's the protagonist. Figured it out, my ass.

Xie De wanted to smile at him, too, but couldn't manage it at all. He silently moved aside to light a cigarette, leaving the corpse behind him accessible.

Wei Yanchi took a few steps forward to examine the corpse. Not to be outdone, Beiwei went over as well.

Xie De didn't want to look at that corpse at all. With the cigarette between his lips, he took his phone out again to chat with 455.

"It's all your fault, 455. If I hadn't been chatting with you, would I have missed that corpse? And couldn't you have warned me earlier? If you'd warned me sooner, I'd have run!"

Refusing to back down, 455 stubbornly put on a brave front. "What are you making such a fuss for? You're not dead, are you? Besides, if you'd run, what would Beiwei have done?"

"What else? Run with me, obviously. 455, you useless piece of crap! You electrocuted yourself into shutting down while killing someone, and you fried my Bluetooth earpiece, too. You're so damn useless. Other little systems aren't like you."

455 gave him the middle finger, the two of them trading venomous barbs.

"Don't call me useless. If you can't complete the mission, you're the useless one, you loser."

Beiwei elbowed Wei Yanchi, signaling with her eyes for him to look at Mr. 39.

Wei Yanchi openly looked up, only to find Mr. 39 frowning deeply, his silky silver hair falling to his waist. He was truly beautiful and dangerous. His phone was being put away.

The glowing screen flashed past.

With his excellent eyesight, Wei Yanchi caught the words displayed on it: mission failed, useless, loser.

His expression briefly froze.

Useless? Loser?

Did that mean Mr. 39?

Who was insulting him like that? Why wasn't Mr. 39 saying anything? Why was he letting this person act so arrogantly?

Wei Yanchi withdrew his gaze, silently thinking that the leader of this organization was a real bastard.