Fu Songcheng’s right hand, still gripping the dagger, was pinned beneath Li Guoping and couldn’t move—but his left hand was still free.
He summoned Yu Huaiting’s Sympathy Doll.
Sorry about this, old lover.
[System Notification: Interaction successful! Mental Strength +5, temporary Strength boost 10%.]
[System Notification: Interaction successful! Agility +3.]
[System Notification: Interaction successful! Love +2.]
[System Notification: Interaction successful! Constitution +5%, Pain reduced by 50%.]
A string of system notifications exploded in his mind like rousing war drums.
Scorching power surged through his body in an instant. His limbs, which had gone limp from oxygen deprivation, were refilled with explosive force.
The reduced pain let him ignore the searing agony of the hand crushing his throat, and the strength boost gave him the capital to contend with Li Guoping.
“Get off!”
Fu Songcheng arched his waist abruptly, using his core strength to drive a vicious kick straight into Li Guoping’s groin!
That kick gathered all the fury and will to live of both him and “Zhang Xinci.”
Precise, ruthless, merciless.
“Ugh!” Li Guoping’s eyes bulged, a muffled grunt escaping him. The hand choking Fu Songcheng’s neck involuntarily loosened, and his whole body arched in pain.
Now!
Fu Songcheng gave the man no chance to catch his breath whatsoever.
He rolled up, gripping the dagger tight once more.
This time, his target was the throat.
Though wounded, Li Guoping reacted with extreme speed. Sensing the killing intent, he desperately jerked his head aside.
The dagger grazed past his cheek, trailing a string of blood beads.
“You bitch!” Li Guoping flew into a complete rage. He no longer entertained any lecherous thoughts—he just wanted to kill this woman before him.
He grabbed a broken table leg beside him and swung it at Fu Songcheng with a whistle of air. “Die!”
The table leg slammed heavily into Fu Songcheng’s shoulder. Even with the pain reduction, the massive impact numbed half his body.
But he didn’t even grunt. Using the force of the impact, he lunged forward, crashing straight into Li Guoping’s chest.
Up close, the dagger ruled.
Li Guoping needed space to swing the table leg—Fu Songcheng didn’t.
The two tangled and fell to the ground. Li Guoping ended up on top, both hands clamped dead on Fu Songcheng’s throat, roaring hideously: “Die! Die!”
Fu Songcheng’s face turned purple, his vision beginning to blur.
But the right hand gripping the dagger was steady as a rock.
Zhang Xinci, watch.
This is how you drive the blade into his chest.
Cut away the pointless kindness, the hesitation, the weakness.
He recited silently in his mind, then, with the last of his strength, twisted his wrist at a strange angle, evaded Li Guoping’s arm, and aimed the dagger at the carotid artery exposed by the man’s roaring.
Pfft.
The sound of a blade entering flesh was especially distinct in the cramped room.
Li Guoping’s roar stopped dead.
His eyes went wide, staring in disbelief at the blood gushing from his chest, then down at “Zhang Xinci” beneath him—face streaked with tears, yet eyes cold as an Asura’s.
“You…”
Li Guoping opened his mouth. Blood poured out, choking off all words.
Fu Songcheng didn’t let go. Instead, he gripped the hilt and twisted viciously, then yanked it out with force!
Warm blood poured over him, carrying a heavy stench of rust.
Li Guoping’s body convulsed violently a few times, the light in his eyes rapidly scattering, and finally he lost all signs of life, collapsing limp onto Fu Songcheng.
[System Notification: Instance mini-boss “Li Guoping” killed.]
[System Notification: 500 points obtained.]
[System Notification: Key item “The Principal’s Diary” obtained.]
[System Notification: Character “Zhang Xinci” SAN value decreased; host’s mental compatibility increased. Current body control: 90%.]
Fu Songcheng pushed the heavy corpse off him and gulped in air thick with the smell of blood.
He sat up and wiped the blood off his face.
The tears had already dried. What he wiped away was the undried blood.
“Was it satisfying?”
What answered him was the trembling of his body and his pounding heartbeat.
He stood up, kicked aside the broken wood at his feet, and walked to the door.
Fu Songcheng picked up the table leg from the floor, his gaze cold as he stared at the door lock.
“The one walking out of this room is me.”
He raised the table leg and smashed it viciously against the lock.
…
Meanwhile, outside the game—Yu Huaiting.
By his usual habits, he should have chosen to enter an instance and fight, but right now he was still lingering in the rest area.
There were still five days until forced matching, but he wanted to wait for Fu Songcheng to come out of the instance.
He could feel Fu Songcheng in close-quarters combat with something.
The near-death sensation of suffocation, the rough caresses of his “lover” under the Sympathy Doll’s effect, the skyrocketing adrenaline… all of it left Yu Huaiting in an abnormally excited state.
This feeling was novel and strange.
Yu Huaiting was a wild, unrestrained person who craved adventure and thrill in instances.
To feel another person’s life-and-death moment under unknown circumstances, to stake his own life on Fu Songcheng’s shoulders.
This high-stakes gamble gave him an almost self-torturing pleasure—so much so that even after Fu Songcheng’s battle ended, he was still savoring it, replaying the details of the fight.
This is insane.
He actually felt it wasn’t enough.
For the first time, he hoped Fu Songcheng wouldn’t stop touching the Sympathy Doll.
…
Outside the screen, Quan Heng watched Yu Huaiting’s expression—clearly reveling in it—and frowned.
“When are the unbinding items going to be released?!”
The assistant beside him hurriedly bowed, apologizing repeatedly. “I’m sorry, President Quan. The identity system is a newly added 3.0 function—we can only modify it in 4.0…”
The next second, the tablet was hurled at the assistant’s head, hitting him so hard his vision went black and he collapsed to the floor.
After recovering, the assistant hurriedly apologized: “I’m sorry, President Quan. The technical department is already expediting the process…”
Quan Heng was still furious, but faced with the assistant’s groveling attitude, he couldn’t vent further. He barked, “Get out.”
The assistant, as if granted amnesty, picked up the tablet and hurried away.
“It was clearly me who had my eye on him…”
Quan Heng opened a projection playing a compilation of Yu Huaiting’s battles. After Death Party launched on Blue Star, many viewers edited videos of their favorite players—and among them, the montages of the number-one-ranked Yu Huaiting were the most numerous, practically filling Quan Heng’s entire favorites folder.
He watched the projection—the white-haired young man in battle, NPCs screaming and falling under the swing of his greatsword—his eyes obsessed.
A person like that shone wherever he went.
Yu Huaiting shouldn’t stop for anyone.
He couldn’t tolerate Yu Huaiting being different toward anyone else.
Once Death Party 4.0 launched and the identity system was updated, he would personally sever Yu Huaiting’s unwarranted attention toward Fu Songcheng.
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