In the shopping mall.
The morning crowd was mixed with members of the Falcon Wing Boxing Gym.
Zhou Kai used a slight ruse to make the tail mistake someone else for him.
The sound-activated lights in the fire escape had long been broken. For Zhou Kai, who moved with light footsteps, hiding his tracks was as easy as turning over his palm.
The tail clearly didn't take a university student seriously. His consecutive oversights made him step into the trap Zhou Kai had meticulously laid.
…
The man was locked in a death grip from behind by Zhou Kai's arm, his face turning the livid purple-red of a pig's liver.
He desperately beat at Zhou Kai's arm.
Zhou Kai's gaze swept over the security camera in the corner, his voice steady and without the slightest ripple: "Security can arrive in five minutes at the fastest. And your brain will suffer irreversible damage from asphyxiation in fifteen seconds."
"Speak. Who exactly are you, and why are you following me?"
The man let out a hoarse, leaking sound from his throat. Before Zhou Kai, who possessed Level 2 mixed martial arts, all his struggles were futile.
He forced out a few words with difficulty: "We… mean no harm… just… want to talk…"
Zhou Kai's gaze was cold, and the muscles in his arm actually tensed even tighter.
The man's struggles instantly weakened, his body going soft like a puddle of mud.
Only after confirming that he posed no threat for the time being did Zhou Kai release him like he was throwing away garbage.
Breathe…
*Cough! Cough!*
The man lay on his back, greedily sucking in the turbid air of the corridor. His purplish-red face finally regained some color amidst violent coughing.
He saw stars, feeling as if he had been stuffed into a front-loading washing machine and spun at high speed for ten minutes; the entire world was spinning.
Zhou Kai squatted down, expressionlessly plucking the miniature earpiece from the man's ear and putting it on his own. Anxious calls were coming through from inside.
He then asked, "Speak. Your objective."
The man was dressed in simple casual clothes, his beard neatly trimmed. In his thirties, he was precisely the age and type that could make girls who liked the "older man" style unable to walk away.
Unfortunately, he was all looks and no substance; not strong, and clearly hadn't received professional training.
His voice trembled as he uttered a name that made Zhou Kai's pupils contract slightly: "We've contacted you before… we are…"
"Wu Meng."
Hearing these two words, Zhou Kai turned and left.
As if getting involved with this organization would bring some dreadful misfortune.
"I've also told you before, I'm not the person you're looking for. Get lost."
"Next time you follow me, it won't be your breath that gets cut off—it'll be your neck."
He removed the earpiece, listening to the futile shouts from within. He crushed it between his fingers with a crisp cracking sound from the plastic shell, then casually tossed the remains into a trash can in the corner.
Zhou Kai pulled open the fire exit door and strode away.
Behind him came the shouts of security guards, but he had already merged into the flow of people in the shopping mall, like a drop of water merging into the sea, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
The man also knew the situation wasn't good. Dragging his weak legs, he tremblingly climbed to the second floor to rendezvous with his teammates.
"Old Huang!"
A youth with quick eyes and fast hands supported Huang Zhang, his face full of shock: "Who did this to you?"
"That university student?"
"Aren't you a private detective?"
"What about your family's inherited kung fu?"
Huang Zhang smiled wryly again and again, waving his hand: "Damn, don't mention it. The target is tough. Let's pull out first."
…
In the boxing gym.
Lu Yan watched as a young man stood beside Zhou Kai and smiled with satisfaction.
"My brother has a friend now, not bad. I won't disturb him today."
The young man beside Zhou Kai was similar to him in height and build, just looking a bit more mature, with a slightly protruding lower jaw.
His name was Ma Yifan.
"Dude, that was awesome. Did that guy run into some trouble?"
Ma Yifan looked at Zhou Kai with a face full of amazement, his eyes filled with gossip.
He naturally hadn't run to the fire escape to wait for someone for no reason. He went there purely because Zhou Kai had tricked him.
Zhou Kai's explanation had been simple and crude.
"My ex-girlfriend's brother is forcing me to pay a two-hundred-thousand-yuan bride price. I just graduated—how could I have that much? Bro, can you help me hold the fort while I find a chance to run?"
Ma Yifan was a warm-hearted person. Hearing this, and after a moment's thought that there was no danger, he patted his chest and agreed.
Facing his questioning, Zhou Kai just shook his head, his face solemn: "You can never truly know what's in a person's heart. Who knows?"
"Right, thanks for today. I'll treat you to a meal another day."
Ma Yifan grinned: "Ah, it's nothing…"
Soon, today's training began, still taught by Chen Ping.
During the rest between sets, Chen Ping suddenly walked up to Zhou Kai, his face stern, but his voice carried a few degrees of approval: "Not bad."
"Since you've persisted for five days already, keep it up from now on."
"Training in martial arts is a lifelong affair. Excellence in work is due to diligence and ruined by idleness. Those who fish for three days and dry nets for two will never amount to anything."
Zhou Kai thought to himself, if I didn't have the panel, that would really be the truth.
He didn't argue, only nodding seriously.
"I understand, Coach Chen."
Chen Ping nodded: "Before the noon break, I'll personally take you through the movements a few times."
"Thank you, Coach!"
Under the envious and jealous gazes of the surrounding members, Zhou Kai gave Chen Ping a slight bow.
…
Setting aside the proficiency of combat routines, for beginners, the improvement in strength is always the most obvious effect.
After three sets of bench presses, Zhou Kai looked at the hook hanging on the eighty-kilogram weight plate, his gaze somewhat dazed.
He was 184 cm tall and weighed 73 kg. On his first day here, his maximum bench press had been no more than sixty kilograms. It had only been a few days, yet it had directly increased by a third?
Zhou Kai understood that this rocket-like progress was indispensable from both the rise in his combat skill level and the baptism of the hearth fire's glow.
After resting a few minutes, Zhou Kai continued.
As sweat soaked through his tank top, information about the "charitable organization" Wu Meng surfaced in his mind like dregs rising to the surface.
Things don't happen more than three times. After dying three times in his dreams and his body growing weaker and weaker, Zhou Kai finally took this matter seriously and began searching online for entries about nightmares.
In the end, he found a website with detailed descriptions of "Nightmare Syndrome."
Continuously dying in the same dream, with one's physical body in reality weakening simultaneously. Ultimately, within five to nine days, they would die from multiple organ failure, cardiac arrest, or brain death.
Although the medical community had yet to recognize it, for those who watched their family and friends die from Nightmare Syndrome with their own eyes, that soul-chasing, life-reaping illness like the god of death truly existed.
And the Wu Meng organization was a charitable organization active on this website, claiming to help Nightmare Syndrome patients handle their final affairs free of charge.
Based on this philosophy alone, Zhou Kai had quite a favorable impression of them.
Until after the fourth time he entered the dream and woke up, Zhou Kai suddenly received a series of messages—the sender was Wu Meng.
These bastards had actually traced his IP address through the network and doxxed his identity information.
How the hell could these people be good?
Zhou Kai immediately stated that he had only come across it by chance and had nothing whatsoever to do with Nightmare Syndrome.
But they… still refused to let it go, and today they even directly came to his door, tracking him!
Zhou Kai's eyes turned cold, almost exactly the same as when he faced that mutated monster.
Clang!
The equipment was returned to its place.
Zhou Kai panted heavily, his chest heaving violently more than ten times before he slowly sat up and left the bench press chair.
For the matter of the Wu Meng organization, for the time being, he could only respond to all changes with constancy.
As long as he survived nine days, or longer, he should be able to make them back off.
Now, there were only two important things…
To live, and to live better—earn money, and grow stronger!