Fu Songcheng narrowed his eyes.
The secretary was drenched in sweat. “Because you said earlier that entering the instance was rather urgent and rushed, the current technology can only do this much…”
“It’s fine. Have the tech department keep optimizing.”
Fu Songcheng tossed out a cold remark and lay down in the hibernation pod.
Cold gel patches attached to his temples.
The pod lid slowly closed, his vision sinking into darkness.
Fu Songcheng returned to the bar using Quan Heng’s virtual avatar in Death Party.
He was going to personally deal with Quan Heng—the one wearing his appearance, deceiving an innocent puppy.
“Connecting to the Death Party system…”
“Coordinates confirmed: system tavern.”
“Loading…”
Inside the tavern.
The performing NPC was humming a low blues tune on stage.
Yu Huaiting had already emptied his third bottle of hard liquor, yet his eyes weren’t glazed at all—instead they grew more startlingly bright.
“Not going to drink with me?”
Yu Huaiting pushed his glass forward.
“Fu Songcheng” raised the peach fruit wine before him and took a light sip, his gaze passing over Yu Huaiting’s shoulder, watching the tavern entrance.
Suddenly, he heard Shen Ning’s connection message.
Shen Ning’s voice came through the internal channel, her tone incredulous: “Quan Heng! What are you doing?!”
“Fu Songcheng” showed nothing on his face, even his eyes curving slightly, as he responded on the channel: “I’m drinking. Yu Huaiting’s treating—a rare occasion.”
“Don’t play dumb with me!”
Shen Ning’s voice sharpened. “You cut off Fu Songcheng’s livestream the moment he entered the dream! But I checked the internal network data—he’s exploring Source Star inside your dream! Have you gone mad? This is the first time Source Star has been observed by a Child Star person!”
Quan Heng watched Yu Huaiting tip his head back for another glass and even had the leisure to chuckle on the communicator: “Just kill him, that’s all. As long as he dies in the dream and his spirit body is severely damaged, and I replace him entering the subsequent instances—then this whole ‘Source Star observed’ matter won’t exist.”
“Besides, everyone’s consuming Child Stars. How can you be sure I’m the first? Maybe other Child Star people learned of our existence but were promptly silenced.”
“What makes a stir is the truth, and I’ll make this matter go silent from now on.”
Shen Ning’s tone instantly turned extremely wary: “What are you going to do? Quan Heng, do you know how many viewers are watching them as popular players!”
“Just wait.”
Quan Heng’s gaze fixed dead on the tavern door. “Since I dared share this dream with him and deliberately let him see those files, I’m fully prepared.”
“The moment Fu Songcheng enters an instance, I’ll kill him.”
His fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, carrying a victor’s composure. “Speaking of which, I really should thank you, Miss Shen. If you hadn’t demanded I enter the instance to prove I couldn’t do it, it would’ve been really hard for me to pull off so many tricks under your tech team’s nose.”
“You…!”
Shen Ning was clearly furious on the other end.
How could she have thought a mere investment threat could snuff out Quan Heng’s urge to make trouble? This man was a madman—she shouldn’t have communicated with him using normal business logic.
“You know what?”
Quan Heng’s voice continued. “I really do like Yu Huaiting. On Source Star, I have everything, yet feel like I have nothing—treachery everywhere, constrained at every turn. I want to possess him, to do whatever I want with him. But Fu Songcheng has Yu Huaiting’s hands and feet tied within the instances.”
His words came fast and dense, like delivering a grand verdict: “After these fifty-three instances with him, I’ve finally understood—he could never fall for me as ‘Quan Heng.’”
“But so what?”
Quan Heng chuckled, his voice carrying a bone-chilling obsession. “To keep him, I’m willing to play Fu Songcheng for a lifetime. If he’s destined to never be free, then the rope that binds him must be mine!”
“I’ve already signed the agreement to be the first permanent Source Star test subject in the Death Party metaverse long-term plan.”
The communicator fell into a deathly silence.
A few seconds later, Shen Ning’s voice came through gritted teeth: “You’ve completely lost your mind.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Quan Heng didn’t care. “This metaverse plan was my initiative in the first place. I trust my tech team. As long as I kill the real Fu Songcheng here, I have the means to take over him. From now on, I am Fu Songcheng—Yu Huaiting’s Bitter Couple.”
“Trust my ass!”
The always lofty, elegant, and composed Shen Ning finally lost it and cursed aloud, showing a bit of the shadow of her early days stumbling her way out of Ya’nan Village.
Shen Ning was truly panicked.
The original metaverse plan was to gradually add Source Star testers.
Starting with insignificant NPCs, slowly transitioning to marginal players.
Through this frog-boiling-in-warm-water approach, letting Child Star people unknowingly merge with Source Star people, ultimately turning this game into a playground for Source Star.
But now, the early NPC trials hadn’t even finished, and Quan Heng was actually going to forcibly replace an existing popular player for the sake of one player.
And he was going to do it in full view, in the system tavern, killing the Fu Songcheng who already knew the whole truth!
Shen Ning still wanted to persuade him.
Beep—
Quan Heng unilaterally cut off the communication.
The second the communication was severed.
Ding-dong.
The bell on the tavern door gave a crisp ring.
The door was pushed open.
A woman in red walked in.
Striding in high heels, her skirt hem carving sharp arcs with her movements.
She looked at no one else in the tavern; her gaze passed through the crowd, locking with utter precision onto Yu Huaiting and “Fu Songcheng” in the corner booth.
The woman in red walked toward them step by step, her right hand unconsciously hanging at her side, fingers slightly curled.
Sitting in the booth, Quan Heng’s eyes sharpened instantly the moment he saw the woman in red.
This was the “interference avatar” the system had prepared for him.
He’d once used this avatar to interfere with Yu Huaiting and Fu Songcheng’s date, yet they hadn’t quarreled or grown distant because of it. Now he’d use this avatar, with near-zero attributes, to trap and kill the real Fu Songcheng.
You can’t make bricks without straw—trapped in a shell with no attributes at all, Quan Heng couldn’t imagine how he, now possessing Fu Songcheng’s attributes and items, could lose.
“Fu Songcheng,” sitting beside Yu Huaiting, rose almost instantly. His right hand grabbed at the void, and a cold-glinting dagger appeared in his palm.
“What’s wrong?”
Yu Huaiting was startled by his sudden movement, his glass frozen in midair, his face full of astonishment.
“Fu Songcheng” didn’t answer. His body, like a leopard poised to strike, lunged forward.
He gave the woman in red not the slightest chance to speak!
“Die!”
Killing intent blazed in “Fu Songcheng’s” eyes. The dagger sliced through the air with a sharp whine, its edge driving straight at the woman in red’s throat!
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