© WebNovel
He Ao, male, eighteen years old, unmarried, good-natured, honest and simple, not good with words, a good person.
Life goal: Make money.
Click—
A falling ballpoint pen landed next to He Ao's seat, interrupting his thoughts. He glanced at the pen, pressed one hand on the desktop and reached down with the other, bending over.
In an instant, the noisy environment around him halted for a moment, until his slender hand picked up the black ballpoint pen from the ground and handed it to its owner who had rushed over to stand up.
"Thank... thank you."
He Ao seemed to hear a deep intake of breath and a heart beating rapidly.
"No need," He Ao said as he passed the ballpoint pen to the pale trembling hand, showing a smile to the girl in front of him wearing a loose long dress, "after all, I am a law-abiding good person."
"Good...," the girl gripped the ballpoint pen tightly, took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "thank you… you."
Then, without waiting for He Ao to reply, she scurried to the front row and sat down.
He Ao straightened up slightly, his gaze sweeping over the people around him who had been watching him. In an instant, everyone turned their heads away, and the awkward noise started up again. They didn't know what to talk about, but as long as they avoided He Ao's gaze, it was fine.
He Ao smiled faintly, opened his book, and continued to ponder his life goal. This was the corner of the classroom near the windows at the back row, a spot usually most popular among college students. However, a large vacuum space had formed around He Ao.
Everyone only dared to look at him from a distance.
—
After class, on the streets outside school.
"Nannan, did you hear that He Ao from Class 2 helped you pick up your pen during class?"
A short-haired girl excitedly crossed the street and ran over, hugging the girl's waist in an instant.
"Mm."
Liu Nan shook off her hand.
"How did it feel?"
The short-haired girl immediately followed up with a question.
"Very strange, a bit scared, but also a bit excited... My mind went blank," Liu Nan pondered for a moment, then hoisted her shoulder bag up, "but now that I think about it, he doesn't seem as scary as the rumors say."
"Really?" The short-haired girl leaned in, sticking her head out, "But I heard... Let me tell you, I just overheard from over there... "
The short-haired girl moved closer in a secretive manner, signaling Liu Nan to lower her head, and then whispered into Liu Nan's ear, "He might have... before... "
She surreptitiously made a throat-slitting gesture.
"What?!" Liu Nan was startled, her voice rising significantly, then she laughed in resignation, "Where did you hear such gossip? It's clearly a case of rumors getting distorted."
"I'm just gossiping a bit,"
The short-haired girl pouted her lips.
"You..."
While Liu Nan was distracted talking to the short-haired girl, she suddenly felt a strong pull on her shoulder. Before she could react, the shoulder bag was yanked away by a tremendous force.
A man brushed past her, snatched her bag with a fierce tug, and ran off into the distance.
"Robbery! There's a robbery!"
The short-haired girl snapped to attention and shouted loudly, but as she turned around, she realized that Liu Nan had already taken off in pursuit, so she hastily followed suit.
The streets were sparsely populated at this moment, allowing the bag-snatching culprit to run madly ahead unimpeded.
Liu Nan was closely trailing behind him, while the short-haired girl, some distance back, took out her phone and began to call the police as she ran.
But a distracted person can easily slow down, and by the time she had finished her call, Liu Nan had turned so many corners that she was out of sight.
She was taken aback and exclaimed, "Damn it!"
----
Chasing into a deserted alley, Liu Nan too started to sense that something was amiss. The thief she was pursuing could definitely have widened the gap between them, but instead, he seemed to maintain just enough speed to keep her at bay, luring her deeper into the alley.
Behind her were only two 'good Samaritans' who had come to help, and just as she was about to turn around and cry for help, she suddenly realized that both of these 'good Samaritans' were adult men who had yet to overtake her, lagging far behind.
Her pace gradually slowed, and as the thief ahead and the 'good Samaritans' behind also began slowing, a sudden panic rose in her mind when she noticed that both her escape routes were now blocked, and people from both sides were slowly closing in on her.
This wasn't robbery—it was kidnapping!
These people had plenty of experience, effectively cutting off all her escape paths.
As the people from both sides drew closer, countless thoughts raced through her mind, and just as she prepared to seize a gap and desperately try to break through the encirclement, a youth wearing black clothes and long hair, sporting plain glasses and a large black backpack, suddenly turned into the alley from the other end.
"He Ao... Brother He?"
The two 'good Samaritans' behind Liu Nan quivered and shouted out as they saw the youth appear, then turned to run.
"What the hell, Brother He—these guys are just so unreliable."
The ringleader who had stolen the bag saw his two accomplices flee and knew someone had come from behind; he cursed as he slowly pulled out a folding knife from his pocket, waiting for the footsteps drawing near from behind to approach.
"Watch out!"
Liu Nan instinctively shouted a warning.
By now, the youth had reached the thief's rear, seemingly not hearing Liu Nan's warning and calmly continuing towards the thief.
The thief heard Liu Nan's shout, using the moment she raised her voice to wield his knife, spinning around to stab.
People tend to get distracted when someone calls out to them, and he was banking on that moment of distraction.
However, the youth behind wasn't distracted by Liu Nan's voice and deftly dodged the thrust of the knife, countering with a slap to the side of the thief's face.
With a loud smack, the man went limp and fell to the ground, knocked out.
Everything unfolded so swiftly that Liu Nan hadn't even had the chance to react.
"You just... you knocked him out?"
"The area below the earlobe is close to the medulla oblongata's respiratory center. A heavy blow to this spot can cause the respiratory center to be suppressed, leading to temporary unconsciousness," the young man calmly explained as he crouched down, turning the unconscious man over and speaking in a soothing tone. "However, I wouldn't recommend you try this move. Someone untrained is likely to misjudge the force needed, and if you don't knock your opponent out right away, you might end up getting caught.
My advice is to run to a crowded place and call the police if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future."
After flipping the man over, the youth then leisurely took out a pink pair of handcuffs from the backpack behind him and lifted the man's hands, cuffing them behind his back.
"Ah, okay," Liu Nan watched his somewhat familiar face, at a loss for words momentarily, so she looked at the small handcuffs and tentatively sought a topic. "He Ao... are you a cop?"
"No," He Ao shook his head as he secured the handcuffs, "I bought these handcuffs from the adult store near the north gate of our school. They've got good quality there."
Liu Nan: "Huh?"
"Liu Nan, are you a student?" He Ao picked up the bag and handed it to her, "Have you eaten yet?"
"Not, not yet."
Liu Nan subconsciously replied.
"Me neither."
He Ao smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Liu Nan, as a student caught in such a situation, was bound to panic, so he had been chatting with her to ease her nerves. However, it seemed that Liu Nan was quite brave herself and wasn't much frightened.
Just as he finished speaking, a rush of hurried footsteps came. A small squad of police officers burst into the alley, ushering in the two 'good Samaritans' who had just run away, and upon raising their eyes, they saw He Ao talking to Liu Nan and the thug lying unconscious on the ground.
"Captain Liu," He Ao greeted the middle-aged police officer leading the team excitedly, and before the officer could speak, He Ao quickly added, "Class C wanted criminal, Zhang Shi'an, ten thousand yuan."
"Got it, got it," Captain Liu laughed and waved his hand, directing his officers to handcuff the lying Zhang Shi'an, "I knew you wouldn't be so proactive without being tight on money. Don't do something so dangerous again next time."
"Hehe, got it." He Ao showed an innocuous smile.
"He Ao, are you a student?" Just then, the somewhat dazed Liu Nan finally reacted, looking at He Ao who was talking with the police, "Do you know me?"
"Yeah, yeah, you're the class leader, right? I even helped you pick up your pen this morning. That's included as an extra service, so no extra charge." He Ao nodded and then took out a black notebook from the side pocket of his backpack, flipped to a middle page, and handed it to Liu Nan, "Liu Nan, sign here and leave your number."
Liu Nan bewilderedly took the notebook, seeing it was filled with a variety of names and phone numbers, some she recognized, some she didn't. Some names were checked off, while others weren't marked at all.
After hesitating for a moment, she still wrote down her own name and phone number.
"What use is this, He Ao?"
She handed back the notebook, asking with some puzzlement.
"No real use," He Ao said with a smile as he took back the notebook, "See, I saved you once, and neither of us has eaten yet. It's not too much to ask you to buy me a meal, right?"
"Not too much…" Although Liu Nan thought the request was a bit strange, she still nodded lightly, "Shall we go eat in a bit?"
"No rush," He Ao counted the names in the notebook, "You're not up yet. When it's your turn, I'll give you a call."
"Is this book filled with people you've saved before?" Liu Nan found He Ao seemingly not too difficult to get along with, and feeling a bit bolder, she asked.
"Some are, some aren't."
He Ao closed the notebook and casually slipped it back into the side pocket of his backpack.
"Then…" Although Liu Nan didn't mind the idea of buying him a meal, since she often treated people to meals, she inquired, "You saved me, and just a meal is enough for you?"
"Hmm?" He Ao frowned slightly, looking Liu Nan up and down carefully, "Are you thinking of offering yourself in gratitude or something, Liu? That's not called being grateful, that's seeking revenge!"
Liu Nan: ???
"He Ao," However, before Liu Nan could speak, the team-leading officer called out, "Where is this fugitive from?"
"Here it comes," He Ao was always very eager when it came to his benefactor. As he walked over, he said, "Fugitive ID C121574024, came over from Liangzhou, a human trafficker."
Liangzhou was located in the northwest of the Central Earth Republic, more than a thousand kilometers from Xidu, where He Ao currently was.
"You really have a good memory, kid," Captain Liu patted his shoulder, then looked toward an officer who was taking notes, "Did you get all that?"
"Got it."
The officer nodded slightly, as He Ao had read the number carefully, pausing after each digit to make it easier to write down.
"Liu Nan, there you are," the shout of a short-haired girl came from behind, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Liu Nan startled, turned around in confusion, touched her delicate cheek, and asked softly, "Nannan, am I ugly?"
At that moment, having finished talking with Captain Liu, He Ao, seeing Liu Nan now accompanied by someone else, quietly left.
He was not good at dealing with such social interactions, which he found time-consuming and meaningless.
He Ao's home was not far, just next to the university. After circling around a small alley, he arrived at the entrance to the residential complex.
At this moment, a delivery boy was pacing at the entrance, glancing into the complex now and then. He had been waiting for several minutes already.
"Thank you."
He Ao stood in front of the delivery boy, thanked him, and took the cake from his hands. The slightly cold sensation traveled from the paper box to his fingertips as he slowly walked into the depths of the complex.
The delivery boy got on his electric scooter, ready to leave, but just as he started to move, he was stopped by a figure wearing a sharp suit.
"Excuse me, did you just see this person?"
——
Climbing the old staircase step by step, to apartment 502 of building three, He Ao took out his keys and opened the door to his empty home.
He entered, closed the door, and put on the security chain.
Today was his birthday.
He placed the cake on the old table and glanced at the quartz watch on his wrist.
Eighteen years ago today, in one more hour he would come into this world.
Few people can remember the exact moment they were born, but He Ao was an exception, though he didn't particularly enjoy being one.
7:32:56 PM, the time of his birth.
He Ao shifted his gaze, and everything in his line of sight moved with it, but in the bottom right corner of his vision, there was a spot where the scenery remained unchanged, no matter how he moved his eyes, it was still there.
It was a string of gray translucent jumping numbers.
A countdown composed of hours, minutes, and seconds, which had ticked away from the second he was born until now.
157,799 hours, without a moment's pause.
At this moment, the countdown reached 01:00:00, the final hour.
For a long time, He Ao thought it was a countdown to his death, living each day in fear, but now he had grown accustomed to the presence of this countdown.
He cut the cake into many pieces with a knife, then calmly ate every piece, tranquilly watching the numbers jump.
00:00:01
Survival or death, there would be an outcome.
Bang bang bang——
The urgent knocking suddenly resounded, followed by the crisp turning of the lock core and the squeaking noise, the old security door was slowly pushed open.
00:00:00
In that instant, time reset to zero, and everything went dark before He Ao's eyes.
[Do you find life boring?]
[Do you want to experience a different life in another world?]
[We have tycoons, assassins, hunters, beggars, countless random identities for you to experience.]
[Would you like to start the game now?]
[Yes][No]
A page similar to a computer pop-up advertisement appeared in his field of vision.
So, the thing that had followed me for eighteen years was this game?
Ridiculous, how could I, a law-abiding good citizen, find life boring?
He Ao let out a cold laugh and chose [Yes]
[Initializing system···]
[Loading game.]
[Welcome to the Life Copy World game]
[New player mission loading, now matching you with a random life role.]
[Matching successful]
[Your role is: Evil God Priest Yezola]
——
(New book uploaded, please collect and follow)