Chapter 4: A False Alarm

Chapter 4: A False Alarm

The Mute's series of actions made Ning Fu Yi raise an eyebrow.

"I found this while looking for food. Use it for self-defense."

The pistol spun around his fingertips before he gripped it by the barrel, offering the handle toward the Mute.

Yi Chuan breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and lowered his arms, taking the pistol from Ning Fu Yi's hand.

Even though Ning Fu Yi's words had automatically translated in his mind as: 'Useless trash, don't die before we reach the base.'

At least Ning Fu Yi didn't want to blow his brains out right now.

The pistol's grip was wrapped in old tape, its factory serial number worn beyond recognition, and the trigger was slightly loose. There were three bullets left in the magazine. It was a civilian-accessible model, circulated on the black market after being half-retired by the military.

It wasn't very powerful. If it were a fresh military-grade weapon, a single shot could pierce a common zombie. But with this semi-scrapped defective product, if one's aim was poor and hit the torso, it would at most break the skin of a common zombie without penetrating through.

Even so, for most civilian Core Hunting Squads without Ability Users, this was a rare high-grade item. At the very least, in his previous squad, only the captain and vice-captain had one.

Before he could even feel happy about touching a real gun, Yi Chuan's hand holding the grip trembled, and the pistol nearly slipped to the floor.

He suddenly remembered that this gun was very likely the fuse that led to Ning Fu Yi's firm decision to kill him later.

In the original novel, before entering Beichuan Base, they would encounter another zombie horde. To save himself, the Mute pointed this gun at Ning Fu Yi's head, forcing him to draw the horde away.

Yi Chuan didn't know if the other things the Mute did to Ning Fu Yi would drive him to kill, but it was clear that using the gun Ning Fu Yi had given him against its donor crossed a major line. After all, what the current Ning Fu Yi hated most was betrayal.

While there was still time, for the sake of his own life, Yi Chuan could never do something so depraved.

Although the compressed biscuits tasted terrible, they were very filling. Once full, Yi Chuan began to feel drowsy.

Ning Fu Yi had already sat back down on the wooden stool. The cold wind ruffled the silver-haired man's bangs, revealing a fair and full forehead. He kept his eyes lowered, lost in thought, clearly with no intention of sleeping.

Yi Chuan knew that Ning Fu Yi's physical constitution as an SS-rank Esper was no joke; he could go days and nights without sleep. Furthermore, given Ning Fu Yi's cautious nature, he only trusted himself to keep watch.

Lying back on the sofa with a clear conscience, Yi Chuan draped Ning Fu Yi's coat over himself. After spending so many days in the ruins, the coat didn't smell great, but its warmth was top-tier—truly the equipment of a former base successor.

Sigh, he felt bad for this brother. A perfectly good power-fantasy start had been broken by the Author to the point of turning him into a fugitive.

He wondered if the Author had been provoked by something and was taking it out on the characters.

Yi Chuan closed his eyes but wasn't in a hurry to sleep; he needed to organize a few things first.

"System, are you there?"

"Please speak, host."

The response was so quick that Yi Chuan strongly suspected the system's previous silence had been intentional.

"Why do I always feel like some of my actions are out of my control?"

Rolling his eyes could be explained as a subconscious reaction to hearing system tasks, but the subsequent trembling, snatching the coat, and the sudden outburst of anger toward the Male Protagonist... none of that seemed like the logic of a proper 21st-century university student.

"host, you are very perceptive. Some of your abnormal behaviors are indeed influenced by the original character's habits."

"What do you mean? Is the Mute still in this body?" Yi Chuan shuddered.

"Not exactly. It is just that the body still retains some muscle memory, and your soul still needs a period of adaptation and fusion with this vessel."

"Please rest assured, host. Only your soul is currently in this body."

Yi Chuan felt relieved, but there was one more thing he had to know.

"If I die in this world, will I return to the real world?"

"host, you are too humorous. If you die in this world, your original body will also die. Please strive to stay alive and complete your goals."

...Who exactly is being humorous here?

"Then what about my 'Golden Finger'? Did you forget to give it to me?" There should be one, right? That's a classic trope in transmigration novels.

"None."

"...Transfer me to a human operator."

System, do you have a grudge against me?!

But the system ignored him again, so Yi Chuan had to analyze the current information himself.

The good news was that he had read novels for ten years, including plenty of system-based transmigration stories, and knew the tropes well.

The bad news was that he had transmigrated into a 'Danmei' novel, which was clearly different from the male-oriented power fantasies on Qidian.

According to the tropes he knew, he should use the 'bug-like' advantage of knowing the original plot to snatch the Male Protagonist's opportunities and dominate the world. But he had only dabbled in this one Danmei novel, and he was truly lost as to what the tropes for this type of transmigration were.

Furthermore, only a hundred thousand words of this novel had been written. He was nearly thirty thousand words away from the end of his 'God's eye view,' and only twenty thousand words away from the date of his death.

No Golden Finger, no Supernatural Ability, and he was a Mute. A disastrous start.

Most importantly, the system seemed to think he wasn't dying fast enough, subtly warning him not to cling to the Male Protagonist's leg and setting a death-defying goal of reaching 100 disgust value to go home.

Setting aside whether increasing disgust value brought him closer to home or closer to his death date, he had essentially watched the Male Protagonist grow up in the story. How could he bring himself to sabotage him?

Yi Chuan raised a hand to cover his eyes and sighed, his heart a mess of emotions. He really missed home and the snack street at the school gates.

After weighing his situation repeatedly, Yi Chuan decided to follow his heart—by abandoning unrealistic fantasies and his impulse to help others.

Based on his knowledge of the original book, the Male Protagonist needed to rely on him to enter Beichuan Base. Therefore, before entering the base, he was basically in no mortal danger. During this time, he had to earn disgust value as quickly as possible.

Thinking it over, Yi Chuan felt he needed to add one more rule: maintain the Mute's persona. Although the system hadn't required it, judging by Ning Fu Yi's motive for keeping such a fool around, if the Mute suddenly became shrewd, Ning Fu Yi wouldn't keep such an unstable factor by his side, even if finding another fool took some time.

In other words, he might turn into an angel before even reaching Beichuan Base.

He had to fit the Mute's persona by not appearing shrewd while also earning disgust value. It seemed difficult, but fortunately, the Mute was already an unpleasant character. Doing a few more nasty things in this guise probably wouldn't break character too much.

As for what Ning Fu Yi would suffer, Yi Chuan could only say'sorry, brother' for now. Although he sympathized with and admired this Male Protagonist, Ning Fu Yi was ultimately just a book character. Returning to the real world was the top priority. At worst, he would just continue following the updates after going back, accompanying the Male Protagonist as he dominated the world from behind a screen.

...

Mom, Dad, little sister, wait for me to come back.

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