Yue Shi’s fingers curled slightly. He didn’t need a weapon; with a single thought, he could wipe out everyone here.
But just then, the cold, dark muzzle of a gun pressed against his temple.
Feeling the icy touch of metal against his skin, Yue Shi froze. He saw everyone else in the lobby continuing their business as if nothing was happening. The person holding the gun was...
Ling Xun.
Yue Shi’s pupils constricted. This was truly unexpected. The section chief who used to shelter and indulge him without limit was now pointing a gun at his head.
He stared at that familiar face. Ling Xun's medium-length hair was slightly messy, his eyes were sharp, and his expression remained one of gentle concern.
"You..." Yue Shi began.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ling Xun pulled the trigger.
Bang.
The gunshot exploded in his ear.
Everything went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the familiar scene.
The lobby of the Amber City Investigation Bureau. 9:30.
"Yue Shi, why are you just standing there?" Ling Xun’s voice came from behind him again. It was neither loud nor soft, slightly raspy, with a slight upward lilt at the end.
Yue Shi spun around and lunged, seizing Ling Xun by the throat.
Ling Xun’s eyes widened in shock. The cigarette fell from his mouth, the ember bouncing once before rolling under the service counter. His hand instinctively reached for his waist, but Yue Shi’s grip tightened.
"You... you've gone mad!" Ling Xun’s voice squeezed out of his throat.
Yue Shi’s fingers clamped down hard. He had always been one to settle scores; he’d even repay a favor with betrayal, and he certainly wouldn’t go soft just because someone was an acquaintance.
In the previous loop, Ling Xun had pointed a gun at him. Not killing him instantly this time was already the greatest mercy Yue Shi could show.
Ling Xun’s face turned from red to purple, then from purple to a sickly blue. He clawed at Yue Shi’s wrists, his nails leaving white scratch marks.
Seeing this, the others in the lobby began to scream and shout.
"What's going on?"
"Stop it, now!"
"Please, stop fighting!~"
Yue Shi simply snapped Ling Xun’s neck. With a sickening crack, Ling Xun’s body went limp, and he died an ugly death.
Yue Shi released his grip, letting the corpse slide to the floor.
Having personally killed his old colleague, he felt no guilt or lingering emotion. He immediately began an indiscriminate slaughter.
Seconds later, the lobby fell silent. Everyone lay on the floor in various positions, all of them dead.
Standing amidst the carnage, Yue Shi calmly tucked his hands into his pockets, stepped over Ling Xun’s body, and walked out of the Investigation Bureau’s main entrance.
The sunlight was pleasant, and pigeons were foraging outside. Everything appeared perfectly normal.
Yue Shi intended to leave the area first and find a quiet place to figure out exactly what was going on with this loop.
A passerby brushed past him—a man in a grey jacket and black trousers, wearing a mask, head down, walking at a brisk pace.
Yue Shi paid no mind to this random extra.
However, just two steps after passing him, the man suddenly stopped, pulled a handgun from his coat, and aimed it at Yue Shi’s chest.
Bang.
Yue Shi sidestepped. The bullet grazed his clothes and struck the pavement behind him, kicking up a small cloud of stone dust.
His reaction was lightning-fast. Before the passerby could even track his movement, Yue Shi had already seized his wrist.
Crack. The wrist bone snapped, and the handgun clattered to the ground.
Yue Shi’s other hand clamped onto the man’s neck and gave it a sharp twist.
The man slumped over, his mask slipping to reveal a strange, unfamiliar face.
Yue Shi didn't recognize him at all.
"Ah! Murder!"
"Call the police!"
The surrounding area erupted into chaotic screams.
Yue Shi calmly brushed the dust off his hands. Before he could leave the scene, another passerby—a middle-aged woman in a floral dress—rushed toward him, holding something aloft.
It was a grenade, its safety pin already pulled. She threw it at Yue Shi with practiced form.
With a flick of his finger, Yue Shi altered the grenade's trajectory mid-air. It flew back toward the woman, carrying her with it to the other side.
Boom.
The explosion was deafening. Smoke and dust filled the air, pedestrians shrieked, and pigeons fluttered away in a panic.
Yue Shi’s coat billowed in the shockwave. The person who had thrown the grenade had been tossed into the center of the blast and blown to pieces.
A second later, a whistle pierced the sky. A missile was streaking toward him. It wasn't a large military missile, but a compact, precision micro-missile. It trailed a white plume of smoke, moving at high speed, its warhead glinting in the sun as it drew a line through the air.
Yue Shi frowned slightly, completely unable to comprehend the current situation.
What on earth was happening? Why was everyone attacking him?
The missile posed no threat to him. He took a single step, space folding beneath his feet. His figure vanished from the spot and reappeared on another street.
This was a quiet residential street lined with old multi-story apartment buildings. A dull boom echoed from the distance as the missile struck the ground and detonated.
Everything went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the familiar scene.
He clearly hadn't been hit by the bullet or the missile last time. Why had the loop restarted again?
"Yue Shi, why are you just standing—"
Yue Shi didn't wait for Ling Xun to finish. He went straight for the kill. Within two seconds, everyone in the lobby was dead, Ling Xun included.
He then immediately teleported away from the Investigation Bureau, appearing at the base of the Happiness Apartments.
This was where Yue Shi used to rent a room. It was an old residential building with a few rose bushes planted in the flowerbeds below. The roses had just begun to bloom, swaying gently in the spring breeze.
Beside a flowerbed stood an old woman who looked quite robust. She was carrying a vegetable basket, seemingly just back from the market, filled with fresh greens.
This was Mrs. Bai, Yue Shi’s former landlady. She was a shrewd woman who always knew how to seek profit and avoid harm.
After Yue Shi joined the Investigation Bureau and moved out, he hadn't seen her again.
When Mrs. Bai saw Yue Shi suddenly appear before her, her grey eyebrows twitched in a brief flash of shock. But it was only for a moment. She had lived a long life; what strange things hadn't she seen?
Yue Shi had short hair when he lived here, and now it was long and flowing, yet Mrs. Bai recognized him instantly. She immediately adopted a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, it's you."
"The room you rented was trashed, and you said you'd reimburse me. This old woman has been waiting forever, and I haven't heard a peep from you."
"What? Have you finally remembered to pay for my losses?"
Yue Shi thought about it; there did seem to have been such an incident, but he had long since forgotten. After all, he wasn't exactly a man of his word.
He was about to offer a greeting. Mrs. Bai seemed like a normal person he could actually communicate with, and he wanted to ask her what had been happening in Amber City lately.
Mrs. Bai smiled warmly, but then she nonchalantly reached into her vegetable basket, pulled out a gun, and aimed it at Yue Shi, pulling the trigger.
Although her movements were quick and unexpected, in Yue Shi’s eyes, they were no different from a snail’s—painfully slow.
Yue Shi dodged the bullet with ease. He was just about to seize Mrs. Bai and crush her throat.
Everything went black again.
Rate on N.U.
