Chapter 1: Cowardice and Pretending Are Not In Conflict
Inside the noisy gambling den, smoke curled and lingered.
The collision of gambling chips issued a rustling sound, but the sound of human conversation could drown out this sound of money.
Lamplight was lit indoors, the boss in a Tang suit leaned against his chair, two fingers holding a long tobacco pipe, his narrow eyes swept over the clamor within the shop.
This was his shop, and also his territory.
As long as he sat here, this place was the most impregnable fortress.
In this world, low-rank ability users were numerous, mid-rank ability users, however, were extremely few, high-rank ones could be counted on two hands.
As long as an ability user reached mid-rank, they could run amok tyrannically, becoming superior to others.
And the boss here was a mid-rank ability user, the strongest expert in this area.
The next second, the boss's movements, however, froze.
“Boom!”
The casino's wooden door was kicked open, dust and smoke filled the air, the clamor in the shop quieted down in an instant, so quiet one could hear a pin drop.
Both customers and employees alike turned their heads, subconsciously looking towards the source.
They saw a dark silhouette, appearing from behind the smoke and slowly advancing, neither hurried nor slow, as if strolling in their own backyard garden.
Someone let out a shocked gasp.
These people were all old customers, they had seen people who dared to cause trouble here before.
The boss's casino was the safest and most trustworthy in this area, often, outsiders unaware of the truth came to challenge the establishment but those people, without exception, after committing an offensive act, would be instantly killed by the boss's ability.
The boss's ability was unknown, but it was confirmed to be a domain-type, in his territory, he was king, able to control the lives of humans within the domain at will.
It should have originally been like this.
But that person still stood there, still strolling leisurely!
The door on the ground was like the boss's face, stepped on by Martin boots, crushed underfoot, emitting a harsh creaking sound as if about to shatter.
“Heard Hua Yizhi is here?” the newcomer said, what was surprising was that this voice was unexpectedly extremely young.
In the smoke, that person revealed their appearance.
That was a youth with shoulder-length black hair worn loose, wearing a smart, black, long trench coat.
The long and thin belt fluttered with the wind around him, the youth wore black sunglasses large enough to cover half his face, his fringe was disheveled, his entire face only revealed the upturned corners of his lips.
Around the youth's neck, a black choker, two fingers wide, covered the position of his Adam's apple.
Although asking where the person was, the youth, however, casually turned his head, his gaze seemed to pierce through from under the sunglasses, aiming straight at the boss.
His objective was very clear.
The boss, that is, Hua Yizhi, slowly stood up, the long tobacco pipe in his slender fingertips twirled once, and was placed by him on the table.
A brilliant smile appeared on his face.
“I wonder which esteemed guest this is, with such a temper.”
He made a "please" gesture, signaling the visitor to follow him into the adjacent room.
The youth was not worried about trickery, and followed him in.
Perhaps he indeed did not need to be afraid, after all, the fact that he could survive in the boss's domain already proved one point: he was an ability user stronger than the boss!
No one dared to provoke these powerful ability users, nor did anyone dare to test the bottom line of the strong with their lives.
In this world, ability users did not have to pay a price for killing people.
The door to the room was closed, concealing the secret and inside the casino, after a moment of silence, the clamor resumed.
Only one or two employees carried away the broken door and installed a new one.
Looking again, it was as if nothing had ever happened.
...
In this dim room, only a kerosene lamp was lit.
The boss turned around, sat behind the table, and invited the guest to sit opposite him.
This was the secret of the gambling den, the place where the boss conducted his second business.
The boss here was ostensibly a casino owner, but secretly, he also moonlighted as an information seller.
And the code related to his second profession was that name, ‘Hua Yizhi’.
“Esteemed guest, please sit.” The boss served tea, but the youth raised his hand and refused it.
The black-haired youth glanced imperceptibly at the air, then said: “I want the location of ‘Tang’.”
Where the youth's gaze fell, there was a countdown timer that only he could see.
[Item 【Ability Immunity (3min)】 Countdown 01:12]
The youth, no, actually ‘he’ was not the strong person others guessed him to be, just as she was not a man at all.
Different from the feigned arrogance and leisureliness, in reality, Li Li felt all the hairs on her body stand on end.
The boss before her had a smile on his lips, revealing no emotion, it was unclear whether she had bluffed him or not.
The boss was a confirmed mid-rank ability user in the manga 《Extreme Black and White》, a troublesome domain-type, the entire gambling den was within his domain.
And Li Li, very unfortunately, had just arrived in this world, and was currently a rookie without even an ability.
An hour ago, Li Li was not in this magnificent world, but in the ordinary and scientific three-dimensional world.
She had been working on her thesis for three all-nighters, and then died suddenly.
Fortunately, a system found her, allowing her to temporarily and soberly feel her gradually cooling body.
[Hello, this system can grant you a second life.]
“What are the conditions?” Li Li asked consciously.
She did not believe there was such a thing as a free lunch in the world; to get something, one would definitely have to pay a price.
The system did not hide anything in this regard, stating it plainly.
[This system only serves the manga 《Extreme Black and White》, the transaction is an equivalent exchange.]
[You may need to transmigrate once a day, entering the manga 《Extreme Black and White》, and exchange your popularity in the manga for your survival value.]
[For the initial week, the system will provide you with assistance. After one week, you will need to rely on yourself to continue exploring.]
[Gaining high popularity can be exchanged for survival value, extending the duration of your resurrection.]
Li Li had read the manga the system mentioned, her roommate was a loyal fan of this manga, and often pulled her to write short essays.
It was a manga set in an empire, with strong individuals protecting the royal family, nobles capable of passing down abilities for generations, an ability user guild that claimed to protect low-rank ability users but was actually backed by nobles, and uncontrollable, unattached strong individuals; they were all at the top of this world.
In the manga, the strong exploited the weak, power was in the hands of the upper class, and strength being respected was their only law.
Ability users engaged in internal strife, high-rank exploited low-rank, and the lives of low-rank ability users were even worse than those of ordinary people without abilities.
The protagonist struggled and crawled in this cruel world, growing, and searching for traces of his adoptive father.
Where he passed, there might be sunlight illuminating, yet in the darkness, bones still piled up like mountains.
At this moment, Li Li suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
If the system could find her, it could also find others.
Then, how many people in that manga were actually people from reality?
That manga was not some make-believe funny comic, but a manga where people would die with real guns and bullets.
Before her, had someone already died in that world?
“Are there others besides me?” Thinking this, Li Li also asked.
[You can explore on your own.]
Li Li subconsciously wanted to move her index finger to tap something, then realized she was already cold.
To be honest, this feeling was really bad.
Li Li knew she had no other choice.
The price of refusal was that her roommate, waking up tomorrow morning, would find her dead in bed, and then the campus forum or a tabloid newspaper would have a headline like "A Student from XX University Dies Suddenly", perhaps some people would use this to criticize the sleep schedule of contemporary university students or perhaps she wouldn't even make it to the tabloids, only earning the description of ‘a student who died suddenly’.
No one knew Li Li's ideals, what she wanted to do, what kind of person she would become.
Although she wouldn't be conscious then, she didn't want to die just like that.
She agreed to this trap-like transaction: “I agree.”
She was unclear about the future, but it wouldn't be worse than dying right now.
No matter what, she had to take a gamble.
The system's voice, with its inorganic indifference, announced the result of this transaction.
[Transaction established, first transmigration preparing.]
[Passage opened, wishing you to become a highly popular character, bringing new inspiration to the manga.]
...
Time returned to the present, Li Li calmly looked at the boss in front of her, relaxed her posture, crossed her legs, and sat on the seat, appearing extremely presumptuous.
In reality, her heart was accelerating, adrenaline surging.
In the past nineteen years, she had never lied to someone's face like this, moreover, the target of her deception was a mid-rank ability user in a manga, with several lives on his hands.
But she knew, she couldn't be tense, that would make it too easy to be exposed.
She couldn't show her fear.
“‘Tang’?” The boss thought for a moment, then smiled, “It seems the esteemed guest knows a lot.”
The boss liked to drawl when he spoke, carrying a sense of ancient laziness.
However, this slowness became Li Li’s death knell.
The slower he was, the less time Li Li had left.
The item she currently possessed was equivalent to her only bargaining chip.
The so-called assistance from the system was a shop, and while the shop indeed had many things, they needed to be exchanged for survival value.
This item had cost all her initial funds, which meant she couldn't produce a second item.
If she failed here, she would die, and there would be no second chance. She was betting her life.
No matter how calm she was, this was the first time Li Li had experienced such a black market transaction-like atmosphere.
Before this, she was just a student.
“You don’t know?” Li Li’s tone rose slightly.
She knew the boss knew, because the manga protagonist had gotten the information from this boss.
But the boss still said slowly: “In my line of work, integrity is paramount. I have already sold this piece of information to someone.”
“Where is that person?” Li Li continued to ask.
Under the stimulation of hormones, her brain was spinning wildly.
The sunglasses covered half her face, making the almost frozen smile seem impeccable.
However
“The esteemed guest seems to be in a hurry,” the boss said suddenly.
Li Li was startled.
She knew very well the consequences of being exposed; she had seen it in the manga before.
She would shatter like glass on the ground, into pieces, becoming a temporary splash of crimson on the dark floor of this shop.
A mid-rank ability user, an information broker in this region, the boss was not a pushover.
He would kill anyone who offended him.
Only forty-three seconds remained. To naturally exit here and leave the gambling den would take thirty seconds, meaning she only had thirteen seconds left.
Now it was twelve seconds.
She sat up straight, put down her crossed legs, and the Martin boots made a heavy sound as they hit the ground.
“Are you very interested in my movements?” Her words carried a mocking tone, “Or do you simply not want to say?”
Li Li felt like she was staking all her life's acting skills on this moment.
Was she afraid? She was indeed afraid, but she had no way out.
Time was passing by, minute by minute, second by second. The smile on the boss's face was like a mask.
She couldn't see through him, nor could she fathom him. It seemed there was a drum beating wildly in her heart.
And that sound echoed the item's countdown.
Eight seconds of usable time left.
Seven seconds.
Six seconds.
...
One second.
It was too late.
The only way to possibly survive was to kill the boss within the thirty seconds of ability immunity and then immediately escape!
A hint of madness seemed to dye Li Li’s dark eyes.
At the same time, the boss spoke.
“Don’t be angry, esteemed guest.”
The suffocating atmosphere seemed to dissipate.
The boss in the Tang suit stood up, a bewitching smile on his face.
He pulled out a white sheet of paper from the side, leaned over, and wrote an address on it.
“Consider this my apology.”
He handed over the paper, and then added, “And then please listen to my advice.
This city has many old monsters. You are still young, perhaps you should restrain your killing intent.”
Li Li took the note and immediately walked out, as if unwilling to talk further.
She still had twenty seconds to leave this casino to be considered safe.
Fifteen seconds, she pushed open the room door.
And behind her, the boss was still saying: “Too many people have been buried in this city.”
Five seconds, she turned a corner, heading towards the repaired casino main door.
“And...” The boss’s voice came from behind.
One second, she crossed the threshold.
“Welcome to ‘Jiao Huang’.”
When Li Li stepped out of the casino, the system notification sounded on time.
[Item 【Ability Immunity (3min)】 Countdown 00:00]
Li Li left without lingering, disappearing into the darkness.
...
[Opening passage for you... Welcome back to reality.