The system wanted to show off the intelligence it had gathered, but Fang Zhiyi clearly wasn’t the least bit interested.
He was thinking about when to have Dace pry open his skull to dig out this annoying system.
With the help of the scent-enhanced poison prepared by Mingmei, the leader of this branch was quickly subdued. They were completely unprepared, never expecting anyone to attack them at such a time.
What followed was a methodical takedown. The group who had obtained the information each moved into action. Fang Zhiyi assigned tasks to every one of them and stayed behind to wait, accompanied only by Mia and the dozen or so bound leaders.
The scoundrels who had participated in that brutal incident were all brought before Fang Zhiyi under control. Wang Meng looked apologetic—two of his targets had already been killed by the Jackals Syndicate.
Fang Zhiyi simply patted his shoulder. The man was the same age as him, yet he looked incredibly burly.
“You must be wondering why. There is no why. The people you killed have come back for revenge,” Fang Zhiyi said, staring at the men before him. Then, one by one, he pointed them out. “You—you gave the orders. You—you carried them out. And you…”
He recited their crimes unhurriedly, as if presiding over a formal trial. Their mouths were gagged, muffling their desperate “mmph” sounds.
“Well then, I believe the sentence is death.” He struck a match.
A device at Mia’s waist beeped urgently. “Hurry,” she said. The detectors she had set up earlier had picked up the approach of a large armed force.
In an instant, flames engulfed everything.
The Jackals Syndicate operatives who stormed in from outside were baffled. Were the Nightshade members really this weak? Setting their own base on fire the moment they realized they couldn’t hold it?
No one noticed the group slipping away under the cover of the blaze.
As the war escalated, the already loose order in the Lower City completely collapsed.
Perhaps due to Ye Xiao’s formidable strength, or perhaps because of his protagonist status, he swiftly swallowed up most of the Lower City. Many factions either joined the Jackals Syndicate or fled to distant places to scrape by.
During Ye Xiao’s expansion, Fang Zhiyi and his group remained busy, with hardly a moment to rest. The chaos in the Lower City gave rise to even darker deeds.
Mia’s invention—the call devices—found their way into many hands.
The system asked, “So, host, are you trying to be a superhero this time?”
Fang Zhiyi was silent for a moment. “No. Superheroes don’t kill.”
“What impact does this have on the male lead?” The system didn’t understand. “If you just cooperate with me, you could replace him and become the true King of the Wasteland!”
Fang Zhiyi chuckled but said nothing more.
The reputation of the Underground Tribunal spread throughout the Lower City. Among the common folk, legends circulated—whenever injustice occurred, they would appear. Their identities remained shrouded in mystery.
The Jackals Syndicate, now controlling most of the Lower City, took notice of them again. Under the Syndicate’s rule, all smuggling, human trafficking, illegal trades, and other criminal activities required their approval. Yet someone dared to kill on their turf—and in brutal fashion.
Most crucially, the lowly citizens were beginning to show signs of rebellion.
This infuriated Ye Xiao. His inherently domineering nature couldn’t tolerate such audacity in his domain.
After his subordinates’ investigation, one of the call devices was brought before him.
Meanwhile, Fang Zhiyi was in the Upper City. Mia had already distributed the devices there. Before them now was the son of a councilman, stripped naked and bound, while Dace scribbled on his body with a marker.
“Given what you’ve done, your organs alone are far from adequate compensation,” Dace said, his face hidden behind a mask.
The gagged young aristocrat wet himself in terror.
“The judge declared you innocent, but we don’t accept that verdict.” Dace tapped the man’s cheek with a sharp scalpel.
The call device rang. Fang Zhiyi stepped aside and answered.
“Who are you?”
The moment he heard those words, countless images flashed through Fang Zhiyi’s mind.
“Who are we? We are the keepers of order. Ye Xiao, you will face judgment.” He ended the call.
Ye Xiao froze, then seethed with killing intent. It had been a long time since anyone dared speak to him like that!
The punishment for the perpetrator had already begun. Fang Zhiyi walked over to a man sitting rigidly and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do you see the corruption of this city now?”
The man, his eyes red, glared at the one who had harmed his daughter and nodded through gritted teeth.
Fang Zhiyi smiled and said no more.
News of the councilman’s son’s death threw the Wasteland police into chaos. The clues they uncovered amounted to nothing.
Over the next year, the Upper City continued to see murders—merchants, spoiled heirs, even officials. Each crime scene bore different traces, some clean, others drenched in blood.
There were no witnesses. Or rather, many chose to keep their mouths shut.
“It’s those maggots from the Lower City!” A burly councilman slammed his fist on the table, his mind clouded by his daughter’s rebellion. That insect Ye Xiao even had the gall to threaten him? Then let the Lower City be purged! Did they think wearing fancy clothes and having money made them nobility? No! They would always be nothing but maggots!
The Upper City Council passed the resolution. The reason? The Jackals Syndicate’s growing influence had begun to rival their own—an unacceptable development for the rulers. Especially since Ye Xiao was now leveraging the Lower City’s mineral resources to negotiate terms.
Ye Xiao was still pondering the identity of the person behind the call device when his subordinate rushed in with panicked news—the Upper City had deployed a massive military force.
He wavered briefly but quickly steadied himself, ordering his private troops to hold the line.
This war between Upper and Lower City had arrived earlier than expected.
In an abandoned building, Fang Zhiyi watched from afar through Mia’s exaggeratedly designed binoculars.
The system asked, “Host, what exactly are you trying to achieve? You’ve forced them into war prematurely. Many will die.”
Fang Zhiyi ignored it as usual.
The system sneered. “Surely you don’t think training a few assassins is enough to deal with the male lead, do you? Right? You still need me. It’s not too late—”
“Shut up.”
The system actually let out a cold laugh. “I can’t sense any hatred in you. You’re a strange one, passing up opportunities like this.”
Amid the war, assassinations continued. The victims weren’t key figures, but each had intricate ties to those driving the conflict.
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!
] [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!"
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?!
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
