"I'm suffering..."
In the desolate backyard, Huai Shi sat on the steps of the garden, staring blankly at the ground as he heaved a long sigh to the sky.
At this moment, he deeply felt that he was a child of misfortune.
Deceived by an agent into an interview at a Cowherd shop, encountering dead bodies on the way home, inexplicably stuffed into a cell because of a box, and then just after being released, he was shoved into another cell by Long Spears and short guns.
Now, in order to survive, he had no choice but to accept the help of a Raven, but the Raven's greatest Ability was to make him keep dying over and over again.
In the end, what was the point of all this hassle?
If he had to die, couldn't he just die once?
He had to die dozens of times...
He died so much that he almost became numb, his 'Death Perception' skill was on the verge of taking shape!
Huai Shi felt that if he was a bit luckier and managed to hang on this time, he could reach Level 10 with this skill by exploiting death throughout his life!
"Instead of complaining, you might as well die one more time, this meditation method could at least train your Source Substance, maybe you will soon break through the 99% progress bar and become a Sublimator."
Next to him, the Raven, whose ink had run low and turned its feathers into a zebra-striped pattern, suggested.
"I'd have to be a fool to believe you!"
Huai Shi didn't look like he wanted to deal with her, fixated on the desolate garden, he began pondering: Who am I, where am I, school is starting in half a month, and what the hell am I doing other than courting death when I'm so broke I'm about to keel over?
Suddenly, his brow raised, an idea struck him:
"Say, do you have any method that could make money?"
"Sure do."
The Zebra Crow spoke casually as it groomed its feathers, pointing to the road outside the door: "Walk for ten minutes, take the bus, get off at the next stop, take a left, and there's a bank. Rob it and you've got everything."
"...Robbing a bank? Who doesn't know how to do that!" Huai Shi rolled his eyes: "Don't you have any sort of Magic for Turning Stone into Gold?"
"Ah, Magic, that's a long story. I do indeed know the technology to create Gold, but..."
"But what?"
Huai Shi leaned in, his eyes sparkling.
"But the cost per gram is about 3000 Dongxia Currency."
She said calmly: "The Pure Gold produced is usually used as a material for the spirit foundation in various ceremonies and altars. If you want, I could get you a couple of pounds."
"If I had money, why the hell would I need Pure Gold!"
Huai Shi was left speechless.
He just sat on the steps, continuing to stare into space until he was startled by the sound of something breaking.
It sounded like a glass bottle had been kicked and shattered.
In the scorching heat of the summer afternoon, the sound was exceptionally crisp.
Huai Shi turned his head in astonishment, looking in the direction of the front yard.
"Someone's coming?"
The Raven looked up thoughtfully and said with concern, "Could it be that the theft of electricity from your home's wires has been discovered?"
Huai Shi first froze, then quickly realized, his eyes widening in anger: "When the hell did you do this behind my back!"
"Actually, I also tapped into a network cable; the WIFI signal is not too bad." The Raven pulled out a smartphone from beneath its wings, "Need the password?"
Huai Shi glared at her, stood up, and sneaked to the back corner of the house to peek around. The Raven skillfully stepped on his head and peeked out too.
In a corner of the decrepit courtyard, near the wall, a figure stealthily looked left and right, then extended a hand to help another person climb over the wall.
Both individuals landed on the ground, their arms bulging from what they carried, and masks covering their faces.
"Oh my..."
The Raven asked quietly, "These days, do the people who come to collect electricity bills climb walls?"
"Probably burglars," Huai Shi gritted his teeth, bending over to pick up a half-piece of an Iron Hammer from the corner: "Anyway, this isn't the first or second time something like this has happened."
"Oh?"
She looked at Huai Shi thoughtfully, then smiled slyly: "Hopefully."
Huai Shi paid her no mind, lowering his voice and stealthily observing the scene before him. The two muscular men put on gloves, looked around, whispered something to each other, then stealthily climbed through a broken window on the side of the house. Huai Shi carefully opened the back door of the house, hearing the old floorboards creaking incessantly.
Heavy footsteps roamed around the living room for a while, then headed upstairs, and the sound of doors being opened could be heard continually.
Soon, he could hear voices from upstairs.
"No one's up here!"
"Start looking, see where he's hidden stuff!"
Then there was the sound of rummaging through drawers and cupboards, punctuated by the noise of things breaking. As Huai Shi listened, his face winced: his home was already bare bones, the few valuables that were once there had been pawned by his parents long ago, leaving only a pair of worthless shoddy furniture.
These ruffians, after so much struggle to survive this long, did not expect disaster to strike today.
Fortunately, even though the house was bare, it was big enough, and there were plenty of empty rooms, even a thorough search would take a long time.
Huai Shi took a deep breath, grabbed the stick, and followed quietly upstairs, hearing the brutal noises coming from his own bedroom.
With a loud bang.
The sound of a drawer hitting the ground.
God damn it, that's my desk.
Then came another clang, and the contents of the cabinet spilled onto the floor.
A crash followed.
The desk lamp and other items from the desk also tumbled down.
"Look at this!"
```
It seemed like they had found something. Huai Shi heard the sound of a zipper being pulled, as the violin case was opened, followed by the dull echo of the violin's body being knocked.
"Not inside this?"
"Could there be a secret compartment?" one of them guessed, "Shall we smash it open to check?"
Fuck your mother!
Huai Shi was furious.
You've been rummaging through my stuff all along, and I haven't said a word, but now you're going to smash the very bowl I eat from? This feud is getting serious!
With no time for hesitation, he poked his head out and saw the two people turned away from him, squatting on the ground; one of them had already picked up a hammer. Rage surged in his heart, and, driven by fury, he lifted his stick for a leaping chop.
His plan sounded crystal clear in his mind—knock one out cold with a surprise blow to the head, then, before the other could react, land another hit, and that would be that!
Things went exceptionally smoothly.
With a "Thud,"
the man holding the hammer fell to the ground in response, but right after, Huai Shi saw the rusted iron pipe he held, which had been sitting around for who knows how many years, snap right in the middle and fly out of his hand.
He was stunned for a moment.
The other guy was also taken aback, then his eyes flashed viciously, and he lunged at Huai Shi.
Huai Shi instinctively kicked out, causing the man to stagger back, then picked up a nearby chair and slammed it down hard.
And so, the old chair that had been with him for so many years made its noble sacrifice.
The man, however, seemed unfazed and finally got up from the ground, clenched his fists, making cracking noises, and his face under the mask twisted into a fierce snarl.
Huai Shi stepped back at first, but then he remembered that these days were different; he was no longer the weakling who couldn't even fight a chicken.
Alright, this unmatched martial arts skills, it's time to debut on you!
With a cold sneer, he advanced with a series of military boxing moves!
Then another series of military boxing, and finally one more... The military boxing he had learned the hard way was indeed easy to pick up, moving from the first sequence to the third without pause, as fluid as clouds and as fierce as a tiger!
Except that not a single hair on the opponent's head was harmed, it was practically flawless.
Huai Shi was almost at the point of collapse from exhaustion, but he hadn't even touched the guy... If this were under an overpass, he might have earned a good hundred and eighty Dongxia Currency as a reward, but right now, it was useless.
The muscular guy's movements were frighteningly agile, and although he didn't know any military boxing, the power behind each of his punches and kicks was terrifying; just one punch made Huai Shi's vision go dark as his face swelled up.
Damn it, my luck is really shit... when the wind is strong, it's time to flee...
Right as this thought popped into Huai Shi's mind, he got angry again: This is my damn house, and if anyone should run, it shouldn't be me!
Suddenly, he felt a cold sensation at the back of his head and instinctively ducked down.
Then, he felt an iron hammer passing close to the back of his head, whistling with force; the man he had knocked down with a stick had already gotten back up.
This goes to show you can't rely on old steel pipes…
Before Huai Shi could reflect on this, he saw the man in front of him lunging at him, and with a forceful embrace, he was pinned to the ground. Then, a large hand was immediately on his throat.
```
"Kill this son of a bitch!"
Underneath the mask, those eyes were filled with venom: "Motherfucker, that was too damn close!"
The person clutching the iron hammer took a breath and stepped forward, raising the iron hammer towards Huai Shi's forehead. What goes around comes around, indeed. Just moments ago, it was Huai Shi hitting others with a mallet, and now it was his turn to have his skull cracked open.
As the hammer was lifted, he struggled with all his might, but couldn't pry the hand off his neck. Amidst the chaos, all he could do was pull off his own mask, revealing a face still scarred from a knife wound.
"Fuck, help..."
Huai Shi screamed.
"Quick, think of something sad!" Raven yelled at the top of his lungs. "Think about how you died in your dreams... how many times you've died, how tragically!"
Suddenly, Huai Shi felt utterly drained; he was about to die, what use was there in thinking about those things, oh, to prepare himself mentally so he wouldn't be afraid?
To die more peacefully, what a great idea!
Remembering the tragic deaths in those dreamland scenarios, Huai Shi felt a surge of grief and anger. Having personally experienced countless illusion-like deaths, the accumulated weight of those memories was almost too much to bear.
The more he died, the more he feared death, for death was indeed a terrifying thing.
At that moment, he felt a warm current surge from his right hand, closely followed by the sensation of something extra within his clenched fist.
It felt as fine as grains of sand, filling his hand completely.
Without time to think, Huai Shi scattered the substance on instinct. Dark dust flew from his fingertips, instantly covering the man's face.
The grip on him loosened in the unexpected assault, Huai Shi's eyes flew open, and he rolled away fiercely, only to hear a thunderous noise by his ear.
The floor that had been supporting the back of his head was smashed by the iron hammer into oblivion.
The near-fatal sound made him break out in a cold sweat.
Yet before he could get up, he saw the man who had been choking him suddenly contort his face in agony, his face reddening as he began to breathe heavily, and then he burst into loud sobs.
The one with the iron hammer froze for a moment and then his eyes, too, began to redden...
Fuck, what the hell is this?
Chili powder?
In his astonishment, Huai Shi accidentally inhaled some of the rapidly dispersing black dust in the air and immediately felt a potent sourness spread from the tip of his nose.
"Be careful, that seems to be 'Apocalypse'! You're in trouble if it gets on you!"
Raven's warnings were always a step behind.
And Huai Shi finally realized that the piercing sourness at the tip of his nose wasn't due to an external stimulus, but rather... from the pain and sorrow deep within his heart.
It was like being fired by a trash supervisor, losing the job that one depended on for a living, like having the Shiba Inu you raised from puppyhood stolen, living a 996 work life only to end overtime early one day to find another man in your girlfriend's bed, like suddenly receiving a death notice or cancer alert, like being an author who can't write anything even though he's supposed to update twice a day.
His guts spasmed, his eyes heated, his nose was filled with sourness, and uncontrollable sorrow spread through his chest. Memories of being three years old, falling on the steps, of having his one-dollar-and-fifty-cent savings stolen by a chubby kid in an arcade, unreliable parents running away with donated money, and simply returning home one day to unexpectedly get dragged into this mess...
"Oh heavens, my life is so bitter!"
Huai Shi let out a long howl to the sky, a mournful scream came from his throat, and he started crying uncontrollably, tears streaming wildly...