Lin Zhiji froze the moment he saw it.
Severely injured?
Xie Yi?
How was that possible!
He quickly tried to reassure himself—Xie Yi had everything planned. He never made mistakes.
But the mission text was right there.
What if…
His fingers curled unconsciously.
03, however, asked in confusion: 【047, why aren’t you accepting the mission?】
Lin Zhiji came back to his senses and steadied himself before asking, 【Xie Yi… how did he get injured?】
03 replied suspiciously: 【Why are you asking this?】
Lin Zhiji was anxious inside, but kept his expression calm: 【Isn’t it about rescuing the villain? I don’t even know what happened—how am I supposed to go rescue him?】
03 hesitated, then decided there was no harm in telling him: 【Fine. He was injured by mechanisms inside a secret chamber.】
Lin Zhiji deliberately said: 【Impossible. He’s so skilled in martial arts. How could he be hurt by mere mechanisms in a secret chamber?】
Piqued by the doubt, 03 immediately responded: 【Under normal circumstances, of course not—but this chamber was specifically designed as a trap for him. No matter how careful he is, he would still fall into it!】
Lin Zhiji’s heart turned cold: 【A trap? So the chamber is fake? Then the Kou family’s chamber is the real one?】
Was Xie Yi wrong?
But 03 said: 【No, that’s not it. The Kou family chamber is also fake.】
【Two fake chambers?】 Lin Zhiji froze, then shook his head. 【That makes no sense. It’s completely illogical.】
But at that moment, he suddenly recalled 03’s words—“a trap specifically designed for him”—and realized something.
The Kou family acting like this indeed made no sense.
Unless the one who designed the trap was not the Kou family at all—
but the system itself.
Or rather… the plot.
It had nothing to do with Xie Yi’s ability. It was pure narrative “forced injury.”
Lin Zhiji stood frozen, as if struck hard in the head. His mind went blank.
—
Lin Zhiji quietly slipped out of the wedding banquet.
03 was still rambling: 【It can’t be helped. The villain isn’t following the script, and once he deviates from the original plot point, the story will shift in unpredictable directions and affect the stability of the world…】
Lin Zhiji ignored it completely and used points to exchange for a real-time map.
03 was baffled: 【What are you doing getting a map now? The plot point hasn’t even started yet. Even if you go now, it’s useless.】
Lin Zhiji said urgently: 【What if he’s unconscious? What if I’m too late and he gets captured by the Kou family? What if he’s more seriously injured than you think…】
03 interrupted him: 【What are you worried about? He’s not going to die.】
That sentence felt like a bucket of ice water poured over Lin Zhiji’s head.
He froze.
He had already vaguely sensed that 03—and the system—did not truly care whether Xie Yi lived or died.
But hearing it stated so casually still ignited anger in him.
It only strengthened his resolve.
He was going to find Xie Yi.
Using the real-time map, Lin Zhiji avoided patrols and moved toward Xie Yi’s location.
The Xu and Kou families had made the wedding banquet extremely extravagant, lanterns hung everywhere along the main roads, lighting the night like daylight.
Even with the map, he still had to move carefully.
But the Xu residence was too large.
Anxious and breathless, Lin Zhiji quickened his pace, terrified he might be too late.
03 gradually sensed something was wrong: 【047, what are you doing?】
Lin Zhiji was too focused to respond.
03 panicked: 【Stop it! Do you even know what you’re doing?! Accept the mission now—】
Its voice drilled into his skull until it became unbearable. Lin Zhiji abruptly opened the mission panel and slammed “Reject.”
The panel flickered.
His body staggered at the same time.
Then 03’s voice exploded: 【Are you insane?! You actually rejected the mission—do you know what that means—】
Its voice cut off abruptly, as if strangled mid-sentence.
But Lin Zhiji had no time to care.
The closer he got to Xie Yi, the denser the patrols became. He narrowly dodged several groups, each time escaping by a thread.
His lungs burned. Every breath tasted faintly of blood.
Then—bad luck piled upon bad luck—the real-time map expired.
03 pleaded: 【Give up. He’s just a character in a book. Is he really worth this?】
Lin Zhiji gasped for breath, sweat and wind mixing across his face.
But his eyes remained bright, unwavering.
He opened the system shop again and, under 03’s disbelieving scream, chose to overdraw his points.
A warning red glow filled the interface, but it still couldn’t stop him.
The map reappeared.
He wiped sweat from his eyes and kept moving.
Soon, as he rounded a rockery, 03’s noise suddenly vanished.
Lin Zhiji felt a strange relief.
He had never properly measured the range of his telepathic link with Xie Yi, but estimated it was within five hundred meters. Since 03 cut off, it meant—
he was close enough to connect.
—
Xie Yi was lying in ambush near the Xu family’s secret chamber.
Earlier, he had deliberately released false trails and even “accidentally exposed” himself to mislead others into thinking he would target the Kou family chamber.
Tonight, he had even disguised himself and followed the Xu Fifth Young Master to the Kou residence, confirming that the Kou family’s defenses were indeed unusually tight.
Everything was proceeding according to plan.
Yet an uneasy feeling lingered in his chest.
He closed his eyes and reviewed the entire scheme again.
No flaws.
Unless… the problem was Lin Zhiji.
Impossible.
The banquet was the safest place in Qingzhou tonight—crowded with every influential figure in the city. No matter how powerful the Xu and Kou families were, they would not dare offend all of them at once.
And Luo Zhitang was there. Nothing should go wrong.
A subordinate said softly, “Master, it’s almost time.”
Xie Yi lowered his gaze, forcing himself to suppress that unease.
Then—
A voice suddenly rang in his mind:
【Host, run. The chamber is a fa—】
Xie Yi’s pupils contracted. 【Zhiji!】
Silence.
Nothing followed.
As if the voice had never existed.
But Xie Yi knew he had not misheard.
In an instant, countless threads connected in his mind.
He stood up immediately. “It’s a trap. Retreat!”
The subordinates froze, but obeyed without hesitation.
Only Xie Yi did not move with them.
He was going to find Lin Zhiji.
Something was wrong.
The abrupt break in the mental link made his heart sink violently.
He did not know how Lin Zhiji had crossed the vast Xu estate and heavy patrols just to warn him.
But he knew one thing for certain—
Lin Zhiji was in danger.
Red lanterns filled the courtyard, staining everything in a deep crimson that seemed to bleed into Xie Yi’s lone gray eye.
—
Lin Zhiji pushed forward again, barely avoiding another patrol.
His body was reaching its limit. Vision blurred. Legs weakened.
Yet he refused to stop.
03 reappeared, furious: 【Do you know what you’ve done?! Changing a plot point causes unpredictable consequences—do you understand how serious this is?!】
Lin Zhiji actually smiled.
If the plot changed, it meant Xie Yi would not be injured.
He had succeeded.
03 snapped: 【You’re still smiling?! You’re insane!!】
Dizziness struck him.
He stepped on something unseen—his footing vanished.
His body fell.
Pain exploded through him as he hit the ground.
At the same time, his remaining points reached zero.
Then turned red: -1.
Lin Zhiji coughed up blood.
He forced himself upright.
03 was gone again.
The world was silent.
Darkness surrounded him, broken only by faint moonlight from above.
It was fine.
Just a little dark. A little quiet.
He was used to it.
He tried to comfort himself.
But when he lifted his hand—
the moonlight passed straight through it.
His body was becoming transparent.
Lin Zhiji steadied his breathing.
Not because of rejecting the mission.
So it was because of overdrawing points.
He checked the system panel.
Daily missions were still there.
But they required Xie Yi’s presence.
It was fine.
Xie Yi would come.
He would come… right?
The pain dulled his thoughts.
The moonlight above widened.
And Lin Zhiji saw it.
Someone was coming.
He saw a figure leap down in that field of silver-white light.
A burning, trembling embrace pulled him in.
Xie Yi looked at Lin Zhiji’s gradually fading, translucent hand and, for the first time, understood what it meant for one’s heart and soul to shatter.
Carefully, he gathered Lin Zhiji into his arms, as though holding the most precious and fragile treasure in the world.
Lin Zhiji slowly opened his eyes, unfocused.
【It hurts so much, Xie Yi.】
Xie Yi’s heart twisted violently again. All his usual schemes and composure vanished, leaving only clumsy, repeated reassurance.
【It doesn’t hurt anymore… it doesn’t hurt anymore…】
Lin Zhiji struggled to lift his hand, cold fingertips looping around Xie Yi’s neck.
【Hold me. If I complete the task, it won’t hurt anymore.】
Xie Yi knelt on the ground, pulling him into an airtight embrace.
Lin Zhiji pressed his face against his chest, like a young beast finally finding its nest, and fell into a peaceful sleep.