Ning Yu carefully pondered this question.
After quite a while, she answered sincerely and directly:
"I would be sad."
She didn't hide her feelings, because that sensation had been very clear in the dream.
Shen Yiyue hadn't expected Ning Yu to be so straightforward; she had thought Ning Yu would beat around the bush.
"So... am I an important person to you too?"
She tentatively asked a question she had always wanted to ask but never dared to.
"Of course."
This time Ning Yu didn't hesitate, but nodded directly.
Shen Yiyue, as if she had been waiting for this answer for a long time, suddenly covered her mouth, looking like she was about to cry.
"Did I say something wrong? Why are you suddenly..."
Ning Yu, seeing her like this, thought she had made her sad.
"No, no, I just... I'm just really happy..."
Shen Yiyue quickly shook her head.
"I just received an answer I didn't dare hope for, so I'm very happy."
She showed a genuine smile and said to Ning Yu:
"So I won't disappear, and you can't disappear from my side either."
She wrapped both hands around Ning Yu's arm, acting coquettishly, making a sort of promise with Ning Yu.
"Alright."
Ning Yu agreed and turned to look at her, noticing Shen Yiyue's black hair was somewhat messy from sleep, and reached out to gently tuck it behind her ear.
This revealed her cute ear, which was already slightly red at the base.
Shen Yiyue seemed to realize her shy reaction had been noticed, so she turned her head away again, feeling too shy to look at Ning Yu.
However, seeing how gently Ning Yu helped arrange her hair made her heart feel warm.
Although Ning Yu usually appeared cold, now she could occasionally see emotions flowing from her heart.
She didn't want to be greedy; Ning Yu was already changing, and that was enough. She could and was willing to wait.
The night was still long, and Ning Yu didn't return to her own room to rest.
They chatted casually until the sky began to lighten, when Ning Yu realized Shen Yiyue had accidentally fallen asleep while listening.
She looked at Shen Yiyue's cute appearance as she slept sitting up and shook her head with a smile.
This silly girl didn't say anything even when she was tired, just forcing herself to stay awake to talk with her.
Ning Yu gently helped her lie down, covered her with a blanket, and then left her room.
Now she no longer had any doubts.
Because she had an unprecedented sense of existence.
......
Several days later.
Ning Yu sat in an empty apartment, waiting for Lin Hao.
He had contacted her again today, seemingly having made new discoveries. Ning Yu guessed it was about the virus metadata information.
Ning Yu had arrived at the agreed apartment early in the morning, waiting for Lin Hao.
Today was also Ji Mengyao's birthday. Last time, Shen Yiyue said Ji Mengyao had invited them over for drinks and dinner, so they would be going to Ji Mengyao's place tonight.
She and Shen Yiyue had both prepared simple birthday gifts for her.
Ning Yu was wearing the black baseball cap that Ji Mengyao had given her last time, though this time she hadn't tied her hair in twin tails. Ning Yu thought it was too troublesome, so she simply let her silver hair fall loose from behind the cap.
However, this did nothing to hide her beauty; in fact, her charm had been increasing lately.
After waiting a while longer, Ning Yu checked the time and noticed it was about 30 minutes past the agreed time, which seemed a bit odd.
Lin Hao was never late, and she usually arrived about 15 minutes early.
Such a long delay today was quite unusual.
Ning Yu narrowed her eyes in thought and waited another 10 minutes. By now, she had a thoroughly bad feeling.
Could it be... he had discovered something extraordinary?
This strong intuition made Ning Yu absolutely certain that something might have happened to Lin Hao.
She didn't hesitate any longer, left a note on the table in their special code that only the two of them could understand, and then climbed out through the window.
......
In a dark room, Lin Hao groggily woke up.
He felt a splitting pain in the back of his head, and his whole body felt dizzy with a strong sense of vertigo.
Where was he?
He touched the back of his head, and immediately felt something wet and warm, which alarmed him.
Looking at his hand, it was covered in blood.
His head must have been struck by some heavy object and was now bleeding, which was a very dangerous situation.
He struggled to stand up, having just pulled in his outstretched legs and trying to use his core muscles to rise.
"Bang!"
Intense light suddenly blazed on, making his eyes blur, forcing him to shield them with his hand.
"You're awake?"
A man's cold voice rang out.
Lin Hao's eyes hadn't adjusted yet, making it impossible to see who was there, but hearing that voice felt incredibly familiar.
"Yan Xing?"
Lin Hao spoke the person's name, and his eyes finally slowly adjusted, revealing a man wearing the same research team clothes as him.
He had short hair and slightly chubby cheeks, looking honest and simple, but his eyes now held cruelty and playfulness.
"What did you do to me? Wasn't I supposed to be in the team..."
Yan Xing was his colleague from the same research team, and like him, one of Zhuang Wugou's right-hand men.
However, Lin Hao's knowledge and talent far exceeded Yan Xing's, so Zhuang Wugou often favored Lin Hao, giving him many privileges and important tasks.
"I never thought you would do such a stupid thing."
Yan Xing said with a gloomy smile.
"Wh...what?!"
Lin Hao was shocked, not understanding what stupid thing he was referring to.
But he had indeed been keeping secrets from the Ark Organization, researching the virus serum's secrets, and had left a backdoor in the system database machine.
"You thought no one knew what you were doing, but old Zhuang discovered you long ago."
"I thought I had no hope of being valued and would have to work under you, following your orders."
"You, you, you just handed over this great opportunity to me? Hahaha!"
Yan Xing blurted out everything, seeming delighted at Lin Hao's misfortune.
"What... what are you talking about? What do you mean working under me, what opportunity?"
Lin Hao felt a chill in his heart, knowing he had been exposed. He hadn't expected Zhuang Wugou to have discovered him so early, so why act against him only now?
But he really didn't understand what Yan Xing was talking about, what opportunity, what about being above or below.
"You're still pretending?!"
Yan Xing seemed triggered by Lin Hao's questions, gritting his teeth and saying viciously:
"All your hard work and research, trying to curry favor, wasn't it just to gain old Zhuang's trust and become the second-in-command of the base! Stop acting like a good person!"
Lin Hao looked at him and finally seemed to understand what he was talking about.
Unfortunately, he had never thought about any of these things. Everything he had done was for his wife, Lin Xiaolu.
He just wanted to avenge her with his own hands.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
