22:00.
Siao Yang was in his home gym, practicing the Body Strengthening Technique and Dragon Swim Steps.
He moved with extraordinary agility, easily weaving through the obstacles in the gym.
"Ha!"
Each time he passed the Power Test Instrument, Siao Yang would throw a punch at it.
Shocking numbers flashed on the Power Test Instrument.
"180KG"
"215KG"
"200KG"
"195KG"
Suddenly.
The lights overhead flickered once, and seconds later, the room plunged into complete darkness.
"Damn it! What the hell is this?!"
Siao Yang was first stunned, then couldn't help but curse aloud, stopping his training and groping his way toward the fuse box.
Just then.
In the darkness, Siao Yang's probing steps came to an abrupt halt.
Because in front of him, a row of strange text suddenly appeared.
...
[Do you believe in gods?]
[YES/NO?]
...
The eerie line of text emitted a sinister grey aura.
But at this moment, it seemed to Siao Yang that a voice in his head, like the whispering of a demon, urged him to make a choice.
"YES."
The instant Siao Yang made his choice, his body abruptly vanished from the spot.
...
One minute later.
Siao Yang, who had eerily disappeared from the room, reappeared just as silently as he had vanished.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Back in the darkness, Siao Yang suddenly fell to his knees, gasping for air.
Unseen by anyone, large beads of cold sweat covered his forehead, dripping steadily onto the floor.
Seconds later, the still-shaken Siao Yang let out a series of strange laughs: "I survived... heh, haha, hahaha, I actually survived! I really am a genius!"
Drip-drop.
"From today on, I, Siao Yang, am no longer a mere mortal! Hahaha..."
Drip-drop, drip-drop.
Siao Yang suddenly sensed something odd.
The sound of his sweat hitting the floor echoed unusually clearly within the room.
Was he sweating that much?
"..."
A hand silently emerged from behind Siao Yang, with a cold gleam flickering like a serpent's tongue, and elegantly slashed across Siao Yang's neck.
Pssh.
It took several seconds for Siao Yang to sense something amiss.
"Why is my neck... wet... huff... huff..."
Siao Yang found it strange at first and instinctively reached for his neck.
Sticky and wet, it didn't feel like sweat.
He wanted to mutter to himself, but when he opened his mouth, Siao Yang realized, inexplicably, that the breath that should have escaped from his mouth and nostrils was instead leaking from his neck, making a deflating tire's hissing sound.
After several more seconds, Siao Yang collapsed powerlessly to the floor, eyes filled with terror.
Who am I?
Where is this?
What's happened to me?
Siao Yang could vividly feel his life rapidly ebbing away, every inch of his skin turning from warm to cold at a frightening speed...
"You know..."
Yi Lin emerged from the darkness behind Siao Yang, then slowly crouched in front of him.
Her tone was calm, as if discussing the old times with an old friend.
"I spent 832 days getting to be seen as a good friend by our classmates."
"I pictured 26 different poses and angles of you returning to the real world."
"In these three years, I recalled your house's layout in my mind 2,542 times while helping you with homework."
"I practiced throat-slitting 41,600 times with a dummy of your height."
"I even prepared 18 backup plans in case the throat-slitting failed."
Siao Yang tried to reach his hand out towards the shadow in front of him, his eyes wide with fear.
His consciousness was fading, but in the darkness, he could still vaguely make out that this was his "good friend" Yi Lin's voice.
If Siao Yang could speak at that moment, what he would have wanted to say the most was something like, Are you flipping kidding me with your detailed memory? Do you have OCD or something???
"All the preparations I did were for this day."
"To be 100 percent certain, without a single bit of doubt, to kill you who have just become an [Angel Envoy]."
"Who hadn't yet had the chance to become the foremost of the [Eight Shadows] under the [Death Knight]."
"You should also thank those who made brochures out of your personal information, right? According to the data, the last time you wet the bed was in the sixth grade of elementary school? Hehe..."
"Few people know that there are two ways to become an omnipotent [Angel Envoy]..."
"One is for geniuses like you, with a total attribute score over 10, who might have a certain chance of being [Summoned]..."
"The other is to kill an [Angel Envoy] with the frail strength of a human."
Yi Lin suddenly chuckled, "Ah, sorry about that, some words have been bottled up for too long. It indeed feels uncomfortable not to say them out loud, but now I feel much better, thank you, my good friend."
My ass, thank you!
Just then, a Grey Card, emanating faint traces of eerie grey light, quietly floated up from above Siao Yang's head.
"Oh? Dead."
Yi Lin's expression remained as still as stagnant water.
"Your death pose is just as I envisioned," Yi Lin said with a slight smile, not hesitating to reach for the Grey Card floating in mid-air.
...
[Do you believe in gods?]
[YES/NO]
"YES."
...
[Unregistered individual has killed a "First Stage Angel Envoy", qualification transfer in progress...]
[Registration successful!]
[Registration Zone: Tower of Death.]
[Registration ID:1010.]
[Detected "Prospective Angel Envoy 1010" owns an "Unknown Module", do you wish to load it?]
[YES/NO]
...
"Unknown Module?"
Yi Lin's heart stirred, she took out the White Card that she always carried inside her clothes.