Chapter 005: Fellow Failures!

North Ridge City was drenched in heavy rain again.

The fish-man, wearing a raincoat, walked in the rain, weaving through the bustling streets. "It's raining... I used to hate rainy days, but now it's the opposite..."

Wang Haonan, holding an umbrella, walked beside him. "002, what were you like before?"

The fish-man looked at Wang Haonan. "What time are you referring to?"

"Before becoming a fish-man."

"Before becoming a fish-man, I was just an ordinary college student. I've never been good at academics, so getting into a third-rate university was already an achievement."

"Since elementary school, teachers, parents, classmates, none of them looked up to me."

"But it's okay, I got used to it. Life has been pretty bad since my parents divorced."

"After my father remarried and had another child, my brother, his grades were good, and he was better than me in every aspect."

"In front of him, I was worthless."

"But luckily, I had Da Huang, a dog I adopted when I was eleven. It stayed with me for eight years."

"It lived a life as bad as mine because my brother hated dogs."

"Looking at Da Huang, I always had this illusion that we were the same. We huddled together for warmth, licked each other's wounds, and accompanied each other to this point."

"Even though life was not satisfactory, it was still bearable."

"Until one day, when I was airing my blanket at school, it ended up next to a girl's bedsheet."

"The girl threw away my blanket and cursed me out on the school's confession wall. It was a public clothesline, but I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to argue with her, but she was unreasonable."

"She said my blanket being next to her bedsheet disgusted her."

"I... was angry, very angry. I didn't think much and slapped her."

"After that, the girl exaggerated the story online, and then, I was cyberbullied."

"I tried to clarify, but no one listened to me. Everyone was accusing me, all the voices were cursing me."

"After that, the school, unable to withstand the pressure, talked to me, asking me to apologize and pay compensation."

"I felt I was not wrong, so I refused to apologize and compensate, and the school expelled me..."

"When I got home, my parents also blamed me. The whole world was denying me. At that moment, I almost couldn't breathe, so I took Da Huang out for a walk."

"It started to rain that day, and I thought of taking Da Huang home, but we were blocked by a group of people before we got there."

"They were people found by that girl's boyfriend. They beat me... which was fine, but they killed my dog."

"I fought back desperately, then was beaten to a pulp. I lay there in the pouring rain, at that moment, I wanted to die... yet didn't want to die, it was agonizing and painful..."

"It was then, someone approached me and said..."

"Kid, do you want to live?"

"Who that person was, I won't say, but you can probably guess."

"Afterward, I killed all those who killed Da Huang, not sparing a single one."

Wang Haonan stopped, "You... killed people?"

The fish-man turned his head, "Yes, I cried as I dismembered them, but I felt no disgust or regret."

"I didn't feel guilty at all. I don't know why I was crying, I just couldn't stop my tears."

"That day's memory is somewhat blurry now. I only remember I kept apologizing, but I think... the one I apologized to wasn't them."

Wang Haonan was silent.

"Maybe... you're right."

"If I had your courage back then... huh."

"Do you know why the first color I thought of when Master Os asked me to think of a color was green?"

"Because my wife cheated on me with my cousin."

"That day, I came home and saw my cousin and my wife naked together. No wonder he always came over..."

"I have several cousins, but he was the closest to me. People call me 'Honest Wang'; I seldom have close relationships."

"He was the only one who regularly kept in touch with me, and I was touched by that."

"However, I had already sensed something before that but... I didn't want to face it, I was afraid, so I kept avoiding it."

"Until that day when I saw them together, I knew I couldn't deceive myself anymore..."

"But in the end, I still chose to escape. I neither dared to hit anyone nor confront my wife."

"She didn't mention divorce, and neither did I. We just continued like that, tacitly..."

"My silence made them even more brazen. Sometimes they didn't even avoid me. That was the first time..."

"I wanted to kill someone."

"I went to the kitchen, picked up a knife, then put it down. I was scared, I didn't dare, because I was a coward."

"I wanted a divorce, but I didn't know what I'd have left after it. The down payment for the house was made by my father-in-law, and it was in my wife's name."

"I had saved money all my life, half went to the dowry, and the other half to the mortgage."

"If I divorced, I would leave with nothing."

"I'm already in my forties, spent my life fixing air conditioners, and my health isn't good. I didn't have many years left anyway..."

"At that time, I thought, let this be my life..."

Both fell into silence.

"Every first instance of bullying towards you is a test; the second time is their choice; the third time, you've brought it upon yourself," the crow said, sneering coldly.

"Isn't it what you humans always say? If you don't burst out in silence, you perish in it."

"The laws of the world have never changed. When you are weak, even breathing is a mistake."

"Conversely, now, you are immensely powerful."

"Isn't the answer already clear?"

Hearing the crow's words, Wang Haonan and the fish-man's gaze suddenly became sharp.

"Yes..."

"We have undergone a complete transformation now."

"The first thing to do after being reborn is to settle some scores."

...

Inside an apartment.

A man and a woman were entangled with each other, "Wang Lao Shi has been pretty obedient these days, not coming home and giving us space."

"Darling, whether he's here or not, you're still moaning just the same~"

Click.

Just then, the room's door was suddenly opened.

"Hm?"

The man turned around, but there was no one behind him.

"Who's that, Wang Haonan?"

No response; the door closed again.

The man frowned, "If it's not Old Wang, then who?"

"Ah, forget it, let's continue," the woman cooed seductively.

But at that moment, a kitchen knife suddenly floated up!

Pfft!

"Ah!!"

The man's eyes widened as he saw the knife chop down on his neck!

"Ah... Ah!!"

Blood spurted out like a fountain, splashing the woman's face. The man quickly fell down due to excessive blood loss.

The woman sat frozen on the bed, her face splattered with blood, and an outline faintly visible in the bloody mist.

"Who, who's there?!"

"A ghost!"

The knife floated up again, then chopped down towards the woman's forehead!

...

Boom!

Inside a university.

In the girls' dormitory, the sound of rain outside and occasional lightning illuminated the sky.

Pitter-patter.

Pitter-patter.

A strange set of footsteps echoed through the hallway, sounding like some wet marine creature.

"Wuu wuu wuu, wuu wuu... wuu wuu ahh..."

A bizarre and hoarse crying sound resonated in the hallway.

"What... is that sound?"

One of the girls sat up, rubbing her eyes, "Which idiot is making ghostly wails in the middle of the night?"

"Wuu, wuu ah!"

"You heard it, you heard..."

"It!"

Boom!

Lightning struck, and a fish-man unexpectedly appeared on the ceiling of the girls' dormitory!

That night, a female student mysteriously died in her dorm room.

...