A blinding light engulfed everything, and Han Yanyan closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she found herself in a familiar pure white space. Qiao Wenxing, Qiao Chengyu, wealthy fathers, and well-dressed guests of high society... all had vanished. A world had ended, and those people seemed to have popped like bubbles with its demise. They slipped away like sand through fingers, impossible to grasp.
Leo referred to this place as the “Quick Travel World.”
Han Yanyan quietly stood there, her fist clenched.
“Oh ho, I knew my instincts were right. You wrapped up this world so quickly. Was it easy for you?” Leo's grating electronic voice sounded cheerful.
What on earth was he so happy about?
“Alright, alright, your current status is very stable, so let’s hurry and start the next world,” he said.
So that's it.
“I picked a simple one for you, just to help you relax. You did well in this world, and the post-apocalyptic one was quite good too. Don’t be so tense; you have great talent...”
“Leo, what do you gain from this?” Han Yanyan suddenly asked.
“Ah?” Leo’s rambling promptly halted, as if his mind had momentarily frozen.
Han Yanyan was a storyteller by profession, her imagination and ability to create vivid scenes were strong. In that moment of Leo’s hesitation, an image formed in her mind—a shadowy room with a figure hiding behind a monitor and microphone, mouth agape, brain glitched.
How amusing.
Too bad she couldn't laugh.
“I completed the task in the ‘Quick Travel World.’ What do you gain from it?” Han Yanyan pressed on.
After a few seconds, Leo spoke with a displeased tone, “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“You’ve been treating me like a laborer; I should at least understand my pay and benefits, right?” Han Yanyan replied, “Even if there’s nothing, I want to know when I can leave here.”
“Leave?” Leo couldn’t help but scoff, “What makes you think you can discuss that with me? Let me tell you, don’t even think about it. Enough talk, you’ve rested enough; let’s get to work.”
Suddenly, Leo’s voice lost all emotion and turned cold: “Mark.”
From the very beginning, Leo had masked himself as something like a ‘system’ with that tone. After some probing, Han Yanyan easily guessed that this “mark” was probably the command from a computer system, hence the icy, emotionless tone.
A cold smile crept across Han Yanyan's lips.
After the command “mark,” a familiar sense of disorientation washed over her, as if something had been forgotten, a piece missing. But she wasn’t confused or anxious, for she had already formed an idea before the marking.
“What is the task this time?” she asked.
Initially, Leo had said to make the target fall in love with her, and in the end, she ended up as a scapegoat for Ding Yao, who said she did well. This time, the task was to make Qiao Wenxing regret. Though simple and straightforward, it lacked unity. After all, her understanding of “Quick Travel” was one of clear, unified goals.
That’s why she brought up the question.
“Um….”
This time, it was Leo who hesitated. After a moment he said, “How about the same approach you took with Ding Yao? You did quite well that time.”
“But I failed with Ding Yao.” Han Yanyan had spent two years in the last world, and now she could calmly talk about her failure, “He didn’t fall in love with me.”
“Well… that’s hard to say.” Leo replied, his tone hinting at a strong desire to gossip, but he seemed to hold back, finally only saying something vague.
Han Yanyan’s previously calm heart tightened.
It wasn’t that she still had feelings for Ding Yao. After two years with Qiao Chengyu, she had experienced being cherished, loved, trusted, relied upon, and respected. She wasn’t the kind of person who would obsess over Ding Yao.
It was just a lingering frustration that wouldn’t subside.
“Alright, alright, let’s get to work!”
Leo switched his tone to that of an actual system, his electronic voice cold and impersonal: “World generation.”
A cold smile returned to Han Yanyan’s lips as she entered the next world.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a cramped room, holding a bottle of red wine, with a small cart in front of her. Looking down, she saw she was dressed in a white shirt, black waistcoat, and a form-fitting skirt. The skirt was tight and narrow, hugging her waist and hips, with a bow tie hanging from the shirt’s collar—a proper server’s outfit.
“Yanyan, Yanyan, are you ready?” a voice came from the hidden earpiece in her ear.
The informational prompt activated.
This world’s ‘Han Yanyan’ was actually a police officer, infiltrating a club disguised as a server. She was now to push this food cart to room 812 to serve wine to a client there. And unsurprisingly, that client was her target in this world, the underground boss of City K, Yao Chen.
This boss straddled both the legal and illegal sides of business, with legitimate enterprises on the surface but also engaging in drugs, sex work, and gambling—industries that were more hidden. Those underground businesses were his major source of income, while the legitimate ventures mostly served to launder money.
Having browsed the provided information, Han Yanyan could clearly define Yao Chen.
A bad person.
Yes, a truly bad person.
No matter his past troubles, how kind he was to family or friends, or how loyal he acted, what he did was heinous enough to land him in the deepest hell.
The characterization of her target was simply fantastic!
Han Yanyan's mood brightened as she slightly bowed her head and said to the concealed microphone in her collar, “I’m on my way.”
With a playful smile on her lips, humming a little tune and swaying her delicate waist, she pushed the cart out from the preparation room toward room 812. At that moment, she felt splendid, even giving a charming glance to the more handsome of the two bodyguards standing at the door.
That flirtation skill was something Han Yanyan had inherited from the “Young Miss Han.”
Though both bodyguards were neatly dressed in black suits, they were clearly not the scholarly types. One glance from her had them opening the private room door for her.
Once the door swung open, Han Yanyan halted her little tune and charming looks, donning a professional smile as she pushed the cart inside.
The dimly lit room had no signs of indulgence or extravagance; there were only about ten men inside, not a single woman. The men displayed clear divides, with some standing rigidly while others sat casually, even as their sharp gazes scrutinized each other.
Only Yao Chen and his business partner appeared relaxed. The latter, a dark-skinned man with pronounced features, looked foreign. With such a stark contrast, Han Yanyan didn’t even need to look at the other person to know he was Yao Chen.
As she entered the room, she already recognized him as her target. He was another man whose powerful aura couldn’t be ignored. When she pushed the cart in, he glanced up at her, a chill running down her spine like a blade sliding along her back.
Han Yanyan played her role diligently, her eyes cast down, avoiding looking directly at Yao Chen. She stopped the cart and skillfully took a bottle of red wine from the ice bucket, lifting the napkin beside it with a smile, casually as if she were picking up a corkscrew, she took hold of the gun laid on the tray.
With a swift motion, she aimed and shot Yao Chen.
Ah, the sheer joy of portraying a thoroughly bad person!
No burden of conscience whatsoever. Unlike with Qiao Chengyu, where she knew she would inevitably disappoint, racing against time and fate.
As she killed Yao Chen, Han Yanyan maintained her smile.
Murder was no challenge if you had weathered the end of the world. At this moment, Han Yanyan possessed the decisiveness honed in that harsh reality, as well as the skilled marksmanship of “Officer Han Yanyan” from this world. The bullet raced directly toward Yao Chen's forehead—an assured kill.
No one could react. The time in the private room seemed to freeze, caught in a cinematic “bullet time.”
Han Yanyan watched as the bullet flew from the barrel, slowly ripping through the air, parting the currents as it sped toward Yao Chen’s forehead. Everyone stood frozen, serving as a backdrop to this "bullet time."
Her mood soared along with the bullet’s flight, filling her with joy.
Thrown into this “Quick Travel World,” she had felt powerless. Forced apart from Qiao Chengyu, she could do nothing.
Now, she finally took action; she could effect some rebellion against that sicko Leo! How could she not be happy?
As her gaze followed the bullet towards Yao Chen, she hadn’t even had time to examine his features, nor did she care. Her focus slid from the gun’s muzzle to Yao Chen’s forehead—the spot where the bullet was aimed. At such close range, Yao Chen’s head would likely explode.
Well, even if it didn’t burst entirely, it would at least be blown apart halfway. Real gunshot wounds were far more horrifying than the little holes depicted in movies.
The more she thought about it, the more elated Han Yanyan felt.
And in this joyful mood, she noticed Yao Chen lift his eyelids.
In all-encompassing “bullet time,” the target, Yao Chen, raised his eyes. His gaze first fell upon the incoming bullet; it seemed to encounter an invisible barrier, and suddenly the air ahead softened, a pliant yet resilient shield surrounding the bullet so that it could go no further!
Han Yanyan’s breath caught in her throat.
At that moment, Yao Chen’s gaze carried on, rising above the bullet, locking onto Han Yanyan.