Chapter 9 – It is Simply a Great Merit
The bald man was stunned.
Was he being… robbed?
It wasn’t until his left hand was brutally stomped on again, causing him to see stars from the pain, that he snapped back to reality and repeatedly begged for mercy. “Big brother, I was wrong, I was wrong,” he whimpered. “I’ll hand everything over right now, th-thank you.”
His two legs were crushed by the car, and his left hand was being stepped on by Yu Zhi, leaving only his right hand barely able to move.
The bald man gritted his teeth against the excruciating pain and trembled as he fumbled to pull out his belongings.
A small fruit knife he had just stolen from Lu Liming.
Another bag of Wang Zhong Wang sausages.
Yu Zhi handed the fruit knife and sausages to Lu Liming. Seeing the bald man freeze, he jabbed the gun’s muzzle forcefully against his forehead. “What else?”
The bald man looked at the gun in terror and hurriedly explained, “There’s nothing else, really nothing else. I just came to this store; there’s nothing left here. I found this bag of sausages under the shelf.”
“What about the money?” Yu Zhi asked.
The bald man was taken aback. Did people still rob for money these days?
He immediately replied, “I didn’t take any money from this store; it should all be at the cash register. I don’t have any on me either; I just got out of prison yesterday and didn’t even have time to go home—”
“I mean universal currency,” Yu Zhi interrupted.
“Ah?” The bald man was even more confused. Could universal currency still be robbed? The system hadn’t mentioned that.
He wanted to cry but had no tears. “Big brother, it’s not that I don’t want to give it to you; I just don’t know how to give it to you. Can you, can you teach me?”
Yu Zhi wanted to teach him, but unfortunately, he didn’t know either. “Why should I teach you how to repay a favor? Can’t you just ask the system?”
Hearing this, the bald man became even more frightened. “C-can I?”
Yu Zhi relaxed his lips and cheerfully threw him a second option. “Then go ask King Yan?”
“I’ll ask the system!” The bald man shouted hurriedly. “I’ll ask right now.”
Fearing Yu Zhi wouldn’t hear him, he raised his voice and shouted into the air, “System, how can I give all my universal currency to this big brother?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the system showed no response.
The warehouse was very quiet, with only the bald man’s nervous swallowing and painful gasps echoing in the large room. He was being held at gunpoint, terrified of Yu Zhi pulling the trigger, afraid of the gun misfiring, and even more afraid that the system would be angered by his question and kill him. It felt like every second was an eternity.
As time passed, cold sweat streamed down his face, and he anxiously said, “B-b-big brother, the system isn’t responding to me.”
Yu Zhi raised an eyebrow, speaking with conviction. “If it won’t talk, can’t you threaten it?”
Hearing this, the bald man felt dizzy. “???”
Threaten the system, what the hell!
He never expected this seemingly harmless guy to be a lunatic, daring to provoke even the system.
Seeing the bald man hesitate to speak, Yu Zhi tapped his shiny bald head with the gun barrel. “Hurry up, stop dawdling.”
Feeling the coldness of the gun barrel, the bald man gritted his teeth. If he didn’t comply, he would definitely be shot, but threatening the system might not necessarily lead to death.
“Then how should I threaten it?” he asked cautiously.
“Just say you want to file a complaint against it, just report it,” Yu Zhi suggested.
At this point, the bald man’s mind was in a fog. He hadn’t even considered whether it was feasible to complain about or report the system. He simply repeated Yu Zhi’s words over and over.
The system, perhaps annoyed by his questioning or worried about being reported, eventually responded after a while.
[Transaction function not yet activated.]
[You can entrust the system to transfer on your behalf, which will deduct fifty percent of the universal currency as a handling fee.]
[Would you like to entrust?]
“Yes, yes, yes!” At this moment, the bald man didn’t care about the handling fee; he hurriedly asked the system to transfer.
Yu Zhi saw his universal currency balance jump from fifty to one hundred and looked down at the bald man. “Just fifty?”
The bald man quickly explained, “That’s just the hundred bucks I earned from completing the task. The system said the transaction isn’t open yet, and if I entrust it to transfer to you, it’ll take fifty percent as a fee.” He said with a pale face, “The system took my fifty bucks; I really can’t help it…”
“What do you mean, your fifty bucks?” Yu Zhi asked.
“It’s just the handling fee…” the bald man began.
“That’s my fifty bucks,” Yu Zhi interrupted.
The bald man: “…”
Yu Zhi slowly stood up, thinking, fine, fifty is fifty. At least it filled the hole from the previous bet on upgrading my physique.
He retracted the off-road vehicle that was pressing down on the bald man. Without the vehicle’s cover, he saw the bald man’s legs twisted at an unnatural angle.
Yu Zhi turned to Lu Liming. “Xiao Ming, come over and treat his legs.”
Lu Liming stepped forward, hesitating as he asked, “Do we really need to treat him? This bald guy just robbed us.”
Yu Zhi nodded. “We haven’t seen anyone else on the way here; we might not find anyone else to treat you.”
Lu Liming paused, then realized that having him treat the bald man was a way to complete his task! He immediately walked over to the bald man and reached out to start the treatment.
To prevent the bald man from making any sudden moves, Yu Zhi kept the gun pressed against his forehead.
The bald man didn’t dare to move at all. At first, he thought “treating legs” was some kind of torture code between Yu Zhi and Lu Liming, but as the pain in his legs began to lessen, he realized that “treating legs” meant literal treatment.
Both of them had abilities.
The bald man wished he could strangle his past self from half an hour ago. Why did I have to rob anyone, let alone two ability users!
Feeling his broken legs gradually healing, the bald man tearfully said to Yu Zhi, “Big brother, I was blind and didn’t recognize a great person. I shouldn’t have scolded you or robbed you; you’re truly a good person. I will definitely turn over a new leaf and become a better person…”
Yu Zhi ignored him, casually glancing at the live stream.
The comments were almost all negative:
[User “Velvet Latte” hates this kind of scene.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” questions your actions.]
[User “Gaze of the Black Eye” thinks your live content is terrible but decides to endure a little longer.]
Yu Zhi looked through the panel at the bald man, whose complexion was gradually improving. “What about the people in this store?” he asked.
“There wasn’t a single person when I came,” the bald man replied honestly.
Yu Zhi stared at him for a while, and seeing he was telling the truth, asked again, “Where did you get the gun?”
The bald man’s gaze drifted, wanting to say he found it, but when he met Yu Zhi’s eyes, his heart skipped a beat.
Yu Zhi’s eyes were strikingly clear, with large pupils, dark and seemingly capable of swallowing all light. When he quietly stared at him, it felt as if he could see through all his inner thoughts. It was a clean, handsome face with a strong sense of approachability, yet it inexplicably gave off a sense of oppression.
The bald man licked his cracked lips and stammered, “I, I stole it from a cop. I just got out of prison, and then the system, the task… I took the chance to kill him when he wasn’t paying attention.” He anxiously looked at Yu Zhi, but Yu Zhi averted his gaze, showing no particular emotion.
The bald man felt slightly relieved, thinking this pretty boy wasn’t a good person either, so there was no need to bother with a dead cop.
“Is he healed?” Yu Zhi asked Lu Liming.
“He’s healed,” Lu Liming nodded, “but the task isn’t completed.”
Yu Zhi looked at him a couple more times. Lu Liming’s face was slightly pale, but not as severe as when he was in the hospital yesterday.
“Alright, take two steps back,” he said.
“Where are we going now?” Lu Liming walked beside him, cheerfully saying, “I feel like I’m a bit stronger than yesterday; I think I can heal a few more.”
“Where are we going?” Yu Zhi countered.
Lu Liming was puzzled. “Aren’t we going to treat the next one?”
Yu Zhi raised his chin, indicating the bald man. “This one is enough.”
The bald man didn’t hear what they were saying; he was trying to stretch his legs, immersed in the joy of having them healed.
Lu Liming was confused. “He’s already healed,” he said.
“He can break again,” Yu Zhi replied.
“Bang—”
The black off-road vehicle slammed down on the bald man’s head.
“Ah, ah, ah—” The bald man’s screams drowned out the sound of bones breaking; he was in so much pain that his eyes rolled back, and his body convulsed uncontrollably.
Yu Zhi retracted the off-road vehicle. “Continue treating,” he told Lu Liming.
This time, Lu Liming was more familiar with using his abilities, and the treatment speed was faster.
The bald man also realized that these two were saving him just to torture him; they were lunatics among lunatics.
He trembled and grabbed Yu Zhi’s pant leg, tears and snot streaming down his face as he begged for mercy. “Big brother, I was wrong, I really was wrong, I won’t dare again…”
Yu Zhi still ignored him. “Task?” he asked Lu Liming.
Lu Liming shook his head. “None.”
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
The off-road vehicle repeatedly crushed the bald man’s legs.
Crush, treat, crush, and then treat… repeated several times.
The bald man endured multiple psychological and mental torments, finally unable to take it anymore. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
Lu Liming’s abilities were completely drained, his face pale and covered in cold sweat.
[You have completed Main Task Two. Reward: 100 universal currency.]
The task completion notification was only visible to the person and the live stream audience. Since Lu Liming didn’t speak, Yu Zhi assumed the task wasn’t completed and continued to crush the bald man with the vehicle.
The feeling of having exhausted his abilities was unpleasant; Lu Liming’s head throbbed painfully, and it took him a while to recover. When he looked at the bald man again, the man was already convulsing from being crushed by the vehicle, his legs twisted beyond recognition.
Only then did Lu Liming remember he hadn’t told Yu Zhi that the task was completed. “Brother Yu,” he said hurriedly, “I, I completed the task.”
“Alright.”
Yu Zhi retracted the off-road vehicle and kicked the bald man twice to confirm he had truly fainted. Then, he put away his gun and looked around the warehouse. It was empty, with only a few broken boxes left.
Lu Liming sat on the ground to catch his breath, glancing at the unconscious, convulsing bald man, then at Yu Zhi. “Brother Yu,” he asked tentatively, “are we going to kill him?”
Yu Zhi pulled out two ropes from the corner. “Have you ever killed anyone?” he countered.
Lu Liming shook his head. “No.”
“Neither have I,” Yu Zhi said.
“Then what about us?” Lu Liming asked hesitantly.
“We are law-abiding citizens,” Yu Zhi replied firmly.
Lu Liming: “…”
Yu Zhi walked up to the bald man and tied his hands and feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lu Liming was still staring at the bald man, so he simply handed him the gun. “Do you want to kill him?”
Lu Liming curled his fingers but didn’t take the gun. The bald man deserved to die, but he really didn’t dare.
“I don’t dare…” he whispered.
“Oh,” Yu Zhi responded, putting the gun into [My Props]. He had never killed anyone and didn’t really want to.
“Then let’s go.”
Lu Liming followed him, unable to help but ask, “Can we leave him here?”
“He’ll die on his own,” Yu Zhi replied.
He walked straight out, noticing the wasted ice cream, his steps pausing slightly. The ice cream had long melted, leaving only a puddle of white, viscous liquid, yet no ants had gathered around it.
As they exited the warehouse, he used the stainless steel rod he had used to kill the cockroaches to block the door, saying to Lu Liming, “He’s injured and can’t get out. He’ll either starve to death or die of thirst.” Yu Zhi took out another identical vanilla ice cream from the freezer and thought for a moment. “His legs are pretty badly crushed; he should die after three days without food or water. If he crawls over to lick that ice cream that fell on the ground, he might last another day.”
“Then he could live for several more days,” Lu Liming observed.
“Yeah,” Yu Zhi nodded, unable to help but sigh. “There aren’t many good people like us left. Not only did we not kill anyone, but we also saved the bald guy several times. Simply put,” Yu Zhi paused, slowly uttering four words, “meritorious deeds without measure.”
[User “Rebirth in a Different Universe’s Absolute Love” appreciates your ruthlessness.]
[User “Bronze Player” is satisfied with your brutal actions.]
[User “Electrolyte Water” praises your madness.]
Lu Liming dazedly put on his helmet, following Yu Zhi out of the convenience store, his mind filled with the phrase “meritorious deeds without measure.”
Thinking carefully, it didn’t seem wrong?
As they exited the convenience store, the dead street showed no signs of life. The climbing plants on the old building walls had somehow fallen to the ground. It was already noon, the sun shining brightly, which should have been warm weather, yet the desolation of the street gave off an inexplicable chill.
“Brother Yu, how are you going to resolve your task?” Lu Liming asked.
Yu Zhi swallowed the ice cream in his mouth, and before he could answer, a rumbling sound approached from afar.
“Damn, that sounds like an Arch 1s,” Lu Liming exclaimed.
Yu Zhi knew nothing about cars. “What car?”
“A motorcycle,” Lu Liming paused, then continued excitedly, “It’s a celebrity’s bike, pretty cool. I wanted to buy one back then, but my parents said it was too dangerous and wouldn’t let me. This bike is hard to get; there probably aren’t many in the country…”
The motorcycle was fast; in the time it took to say those two sentences, the sound of the bike reached the street ahead, seemingly coming in their direction.
Not knowing whether the person was friend or foe, Yu Zhi pulled Lu Liming into the shadows of a nearby alley.
The roaring sound grew closer, and Yu Zhi’s heartbeat quickened. He took a big bite of ice cream, staring intently at the alley entrance.
Soon, the motorcycle’s owner appeared. It was a man in a black jacket wearing a pure black helmet, obscuring his features.
Just as he was about to leave the alley, the man seemed to sense someone hiding there and suddenly drifted, turning the bike around to face them.
“Screech—” The piercing sound of brakes echoed through the air.
The man lifted his helmet, revealing sharp, dark features, with narrow phoenix eyes that locked onto Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi’s pupils constricted, his fingers trembled, and the ice cream fell to the ground with a thud.
Thank you for the chapter 😀