The half-hour cooldown period quickly passed.
【Welcome, player Wang Zixu. We wish you an enjoyable game.】
Wang Zixu put on the virtual helmet, and the familiar electronic prompt sounded by his ear. The scene before his eyes rapidly shifted.
The moment he logged in, he noticed an option icon he had never seen before in the corner of the interface.
Face customization.
Good lord, it was actually a real-time update without taking the servers down?
Awesome!
With a thought, he opened the face customization interface.
The next second, the visual space abruptly changed, and a holographic modeling interface unfolded before him.
There was no need for manual operation. With just the slightest movement of his thoughts, he could freely adjust facial details.
From bone structure to skin texture, from the curve of the hairline to the thickness of the lips—even freckles could be added to the cheeks at will.
The functions were extremely comprehensive, and operating them was very simple.
Wang Zixu had no particular fetishes, so he directly pulled up the popular “golden facial-proportion template” from the internet.
Looking at this face shape that was almost perfect,
he nodded slightly, then confirmed and saved it.
Just then,
a striking prompt popped up on the interface:
【The new model will generate a new life trajectory. Continue?】
Wang Zixu was slightly startled. A new life trajectory?
Changing his appearance meant changing his identity?
The character background would also reset?
Reasonable. Absolutely reasonable.
“Confirm!”
【Generating character…】
【Character generated!】
【Entering game shortly!】
The screen flashed.
……
……
The scene changed,
and Wang Zixu returned to that pitch-black room.
The difference was,
the character’s experiences had changed.
【You met your girlfriend at a billiards hall.】
【Your girlfriend told you that her parents came from a family of officials and had business in the Mian State. She hoped you would go with her to the Mian State to develop your career.】
【At first, you were unwilling, but after you began living together, your girlfriend often whispered persuasion to you in bed.】
【Your relationship was stable. On top of that, you had some conflicts with your parents and also wanted to go out to clear your head, so you agreed.】
【After arriving at the border between Tailande and the Mian State, your girlfriend left on the pretext that she “needed to pick someone up.”】
【Soon after, several armed men appeared, restrained you, and confiscated your passport and phone.】
【At this point, you finally realized something was wrong, but you could no longer escape.】
【……】
After reading the recap, Wang Zixu could more or less guess the ins and outs of what had happened, and the corner of his mouth couldn’t help twitching slightly.
Last time, his older cousin had taken a big order and asked him to come help.
Who would have thought that the so-called big order was himself?
This time was even more outrageous.
He had thought he was charging forward for love,
but it turned out to be a love transaction—real-life version.
Heh.
He wondered how much he had been sold for.
Damn it!
“Creak—”
The sound of the door hinge turning broke the silence.
The tattoo-sleeved man walked in with his two flunkies.
Familiar people, familiar plot.
But this time, Wang Zixu did not resist fiercely.
He slowly stood up and followed the three of them out of the cabin door.
This time,
he finally had a chance to properly observe the surrounding environment.
His gaze swept quickly around.
This dilapidated boat was traveling along a narrow riverway. Dense jungle crowded both banks, and the river water was muddy and yellowish.
Based on the intelligence and clues he had obtained in the previous playthrough,
he guessed
that beyond this river should be the Mian State.
Why were all the people who had been deceived ultimately sent there?
Wang Zixu was somewhat confused.
“Get down!”
Because Wang Zixu was very well-behaved this time, cooperating the whole way—squatting when told to squat, holding his head when told to hold his head—
he was lucky enough not to get beaten.
When they reached the deck,
there were already two NPCs on the boat who had suffered the same fate.
Including him, there were three in total.
The three of them squatted together with both hands on their heads. They were not allowed to speak or move.
They silently glanced at one another,
and Wang Zixu saw despair in their eyes.
The wooden boat slowly approached the shore.
Wang Zixu stole a glance. On the riverbank stood several dozen people in camouflage uniforms, each of them armed, lined up along the shore.
Seeing this scene,
he immediately realized things were bad. If he did not escape now,
then once he got ashore and had that many guns pointed at him, even if he grew three heads and six arms, he would have no chance of getting away.
But right now, how was he supposed to escape?
Jumping into the river definitely wouldn’t work.
The kidnappers around him all had weapons tucked on them, and there were also green-uniformed soldiers on the bank.
If he jumped off the boat now, he would absolutely be shot into a sieve.
What should he do?
The wooden boat slowly came to a stop,
and the kidnappers shoved the three of them, urging them to get off.
In that split second,
Wang Zixu steeled his heart and made up his mind.
Only by turning the tables, taking a hostage, and negotiating with the other side might he have a slim chance of survival!
Once he thought it, he acted!
The man who came over to grab him was not particularly burly—he was even thinner and smaller than Wang Zixu.
These people were only relying on their numbers and the guns in their hands.
In reality, he was a taekwondo black belt, and he had perfectly inherited that into the game.
If they were really dragged out for a one-on-one fight, these people might not necessarily be able to beat him.
Of course, the other party was clearly not stupid enough to have guns and not use them, then fight him one-on-one.
Wang Zixu’s mind raced. He remembered where this man kept his gun: tucked into the back of his waistband.
The instant the man reached out to shove him, Wang Zixu suddenly seized his arm in a reverse grip and, in a flash, locked the kidnapper in front of him.
At the same time, his right hand shot out like lightning, drawing the pistol and pressing it firmly against the man’s temple.
“Don’t come ashore! Turn the boat around! Otherwise, I’ll shoot!”
The kidnapper, who had been arrogant just moments ago, now had a gun pointed at his head by the “piglet” he had looked down on.
Wang Zixu could feel his tense body and his heavy breathing.
“Let go of me! Are you fucking looking for death?!”
He struggled hoarsely, but Wang Zixu’s arm tightened violently, and the muzzle pressed down hard.
He immediately did not dare move.
“Fuck! Rebellion! A goddamn rebellion!”
Behind cover,
Brother Biao’s face flushed crimson, veins bulging on his neck as he glared fixedly at Wang Zixu.
Several of his accomplices nearby were also somewhat stunned. For a moment, they did not know whether to raise their guns or not.
This was the first time something like this had happened.
Who could have imagined that a piglet who was about to be cashed in would actually turn the tables and threaten them instead?
Brother Biao swept a glance at the riverbank, his expression terrifyingly gloomy.
He was not the boss, merely a middleman earning some hard-earned fees.
It would not matter much if this deal fell through,
but if he angered the boss on the bank, or left a bad impression,
then his time in this line of work would be over.
Thinking of this,
his face gradually twisted, and he roared:
“What the fuck are you all standing around for? Shoot! Kill him for me!”
The henchman beside him wavered with his gun and said in a low voice,
“Brother Biao, Dongzi’s in his hands…”
“If he’s stupid, then he deserves it!”
Brother Biao spat, his gaze vicious. “I’ve been in this business for so many years and never stumbled. You think I’m going to be controlled by a piglet? Kill him! He has to die!”
Gunshots suddenly exploded, and bullets whistled out.
In that instant,
Wang Zixu’s mind went blank. He had never expected the other side to completely disregard whether one of their own lived or died.
As for Dongzi, whose neck he had locked, his face was ashen, his eyes filled with despair.
For people in their line of work, what friendship or loyalty was there to speak of?
In the face of profit, even lives could be thrown away.
If Brother Biao were the one being held hostage today, he, Dongzi, would also pull the trigger without the slightest hesitation.
Bang, bang, bang!
Gunshots tore through the air, shaking his eardrums until they buzzed.
Bloody flowers burst open one after another. There was no time to react at all as a string of bullets struck Dongzi and Wang Zixu.