Hearing Xia Yueshan's vigorous shouting, Lin Yu's tense nerves instantly relaxed.
He hadn't noticed when his face had become wet with cold tears. Lowering his head, Lin Yu rubbed his crumpled face hard, trying desperately not to let out any humiliating sobs.
It was so good.
Truly, so good...
"Hey?"
"Lin Yu."
"Are you still there?"
Xia Yueshan's panting voice came through the phone speaker.
"I'm here."
Lin Yu choked back a sob, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed the lump in his throat. After steadying himself, he asked,
"Yueshan, are you okay? What happened over there?"
"Nothing serious."
Xia Yueshan, clearly having just gone through some intense exertion, cursed between heavy breaths:
"It's just that bastard who tried to mess with my sister before—no idea how he got out again."
"But don’t worry, I’ve already knocked him flat."
"Lin Yu, I swear, this piece of trash won’t be getting up again."
"I kicked him in the crotch over a hundred times—knocked him out, woke him up, then knocked him out again."
"If he even tries to stand up after this, I’ll just put him right back down!"
There was a hint of pride in Xia Yueshan's rushed tone.
Huh?
The guy who bullied Xia Yueshan’s sister?
That beggar?
Lin Yu frowned, utterly bewildered.
How was this possible?
Shouldn’t he be in prison right now?
How did he suddenly show up near Xia Yueshan?
On the other end of the line, Xia Yueshan caught his breath before adding with a shudder:
"Whew, that was way too close."
"Lin Yu, you wouldn’t believe it—right when you called my sister, that bastard snuck up behind us with a knife, trying to ambush us."
"If I hadn’t been sharp enough to hear his footsteps in the snow and sensed something was off, he might’ve actually gotten us!"
"Luckily, I’m just that good..."
Xia Yueshan’s bragging continued to echo in Lin Yu’s ears, but he couldn’t process another word.
Because of one simple phone call, he had almost doomed Xia Muzhu and her brother again?
How had things come to this?
Lin Yu replayed Xia Yueshan’s words in his mind, his body trembling uncontrollably.
While the attacker had been closing in on them with a knife, it was his call that had distracted them?
If Xia Yueshan hadn’t been so quick-witted, would they already be...?
He couldn’t bear to finish the thought.
For the first time in two months, that bone-deep helplessness surged through Lin Yu again, gnawing at him until he nearly broke.
"Yueshan!"
"Hurry!"
"Let’s bandage this and get to the hospital!"
Xia Muzhu’s tearful voice crackled through the phone. Hearing her choked words, Lin Yu’s heart clenched, and he urgently asked:
"Yueshan, you’re hurt? How bad is it?"
"Not a big deal."
Xia Yueshan’s carefree voice came through the speaker.
"Just noticed him a bit late—by the time he swung the knife at me, dodging wasn’t an option."
"So I went full-on ‘empty-handed blade catch’!"
"Caught the blade, sure, but my hand took a hit."
He even chuckled, sounding far from pained or weakened.
Hearing Xia Yueshan’s energetic tone, Lin Yu exhaled in relief.
Thank goodness.
Just a minor injury.
"Not a big deal?!"
"Your hand is covered in blood!"
Xia Muzhu’s voice trembled with tears, her worry far exceeding Xia Yueshan’s own concern for his wound.
"Lin Yu."
"We’ll talk later."
"I need to take Yueshan to the hospital now."
Her voice grew louder, as if she’d snatched the phone and pressed it close to her lips.
"Right, of course. Get him treated quickly—"
The call ended abruptly.
Lin Yu lowered the phone, releasing a long, exhausted breath.
At least nothing worse had happened to Xia Yueshan and his sister—otherwise, he’d never be able to face them again.
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!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
