Only after the luxury car drove away did Fang Zhiyi slowly rise to his feet. "Alright, target confirmed. Let's go."
The woman sitting in the car furrowed her brow. "System, what's the mission progress now?"
"Host, progress is only at twenty percent. Please keep up the good work!" The system's voice carried a hint of playfulness.
But the woman showed no other reaction, only deepening her frown.
Standing before the door, Fang Zhiyi took a deep breath and pushed it open.
The room was a mess—photos of monsters plastered all over the walls, and a few men who seemed a bit off were locked in an intense discussion. One of them noticed Fang Zhiyi’s entrance.
"Are you the one who called and said you wanted to join?" A chubby man with glasses walked over, his face lit up with excitement.
Fang Zhiyi nodded. He had found some weird cult recruitment methods online, and this was one of them.
"Great! On behalf of our Alien Research Association, I welcome you!"
Fang Zhiyi turned and left without a word.
"Hey? Don’t go! Our association has plenty of activities! Tonight we’re heading to the tallest building to summon aliens! You’ll be in charge of distracting the security guards. Hey?"
Fang Zhiyi walked out the door, pulled out a piece of paper, and silently crossed off the address.
"Sigh... this isn’t working," Fang Zhiyi said, a little frustrated. He had already checked five suspicious locations, and all of them turned out to be bizarre gatherings—like the Vegetarian Society, the Homosexual Lovers Group... The most ridiculous was one called the Water God Society. Fang Zhiyi thought he had finally found the right place, but when he pushed the door open, all he saw were fishhooks lining the walls. It was a fishing fanatics' hangout.
"Fishing is fine, but what’s with the terrible name!"
"You don’t get it, kid. Worship the Water God, and you’ll never go home empty-handed."
"When will you realize that coming up empty has nothing to do with the Water God?"
Fang Zhiyi slipped away before the guy could blow a fuse.
"Maybe I should go look instead," Xiao Hei said.
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "No, too risky. I’m afraid you’ll cause trouble if you act alone." He muttered to himself, looking at the original body’s memories: "Can’t find this 'church' anywhere online. They must be isolated from the internet and don’t use it for recruitment... Pretty traditional."
Once he figured things out, he didn’t bother looking for a place to stay. Instead, he went straight to the park and stretched out on a bench to rest.
Xiao Hei was confused. "Didn’t you pocket some cash when you left? No need to sleep in a park."
Fang Zhiyi smirked. "You don’t get it. From now on, I need to look broke." He glanced at his own reflection and went on, "Even though I haven’t run into this kind of group before, every world has some version of these things lurking around."
"If they avoid online channels, it means they’re cautious. Cults usually scout targets—people with chronic illnesses, family issues, the elderly, lost young folks. They recruit through acquaintances, offering remedies, introducing 'masters,' or using the guise of mutual help."
"So I have to act lost enough."
For the next two days, Fang Zhiyi hung around the park, occasionally pestering an old fortune-teller who set up shop with a little stool, acting completely anxious.
Finally, on the third day, someone tapped his shoulder. Fang Zhiyi turned around warily.
The moment he saw that smiling face, his instincts told him he had found the right people.
The man introduced himself as Li Lie. Noticing Fang Zhiyi seemed homeless, he asked if he needed any help.
That question lit a fire under Fang Zhiyi.
"I can’t go home," Fang Zhiyi launched into a sob story. "You don’t know my family situation. My dad’s a gambler, my mom’s always gaslighting me, my brother runs with the wrong crowd, and my sister hangs out with thugs. My life’s a mess."
Li Lie looked sympathetic, but the flicker of glee in his eyes didn’t escape Fang Zhiyi’s notice.
Looks like he’d found the right mark.
What Li Lie didn’t expect was how much this young man could talk.
"Where was I? Oh, when I was seven... eight..."
Li Lie’s smile was starting to crack. He cut in, "You’ve had it rough. Let me help you, okay?"
Fang Zhiyi was a little reluctant to stop. No wonder the original body’s mom loved complaining—there was something satisfying about unloading negativity on someone without restraint.
But remembering his goal, he forced himself to stop and followed Li Lie out of the park.
Li Lie took him out for a meal. During the meal, two more people showed up, introduced as Li Lie’s friends.
And just like that, Fang Zhiyi’s audience grew from one to three.
It wasn’t until all three of them looked visibly fed up that Li Lie hurriedly said goodbye to Fang Zhiyi.
"You’re leaving? Will you come back tomorrow?"
Li Lie paused to think. "Sure! We’re friends now. I’ll help you out to the end!"
"That didn’t go well," Xiao Hei said, watching the three leave. "Should I follow them?"
"No need. They’ve already taken the bait." Fang Zhiyi’s pitiful expression vanished in an instant. "They must be very careful—scouting targets, testing them repeatedly, buying them meals, giving them money or job referrals to build a sense of gratitude and obligation. Then they’ll pull them in."
"I made sure to mention in my sob story that I have four family members, money, and a house. I bet they’re interested."
Everything unfolded as Fang Zhiyi had predicted. Over the next few days, Li Lie showed up every day, even paying for a small hotel room for him. Their bond seemed to deepen.
"You’re my best buddy! From now on, I’ll go through fire and water for you!" Fang Zhiyi said with exaggerated gratitude after another meal.
Li Lie smiled faintly. His ears were practically numb from all the complaining, and he wasn’t sure if this lamb was genuine or not. But it seemed convincing enough.
"Well then, since that’s settled—we’re going to the Gulf tomorrow for a hangout. It’s a friend’s gathering. Wanna come?"
"The Gulf?" Fang Zhiyi pondered for a moment. The Gulf was a villa neighborhood on the outskirts. Seeing the eager look in Li Lie’s eyes, he nodded. "Of course! I can’t wait!"
They agreed on a time before Li Lie left. Fang Zhiyi watched him go and noticed a familiar figure.
Yin Tingting walked down the street with a scowl, muttering under her breath.
"That old hag! She got diarrhea from my drink and had the nerve to call me out! I lost so much face because of her!"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
