A Novelist’s Guide for Side Characters to Survive

Chapter 16: “I’ve Never Seen Anyone More Pathetic Than You.”

“I’m in so much pain I could die!”

Chu Zu was furious enough to curse, “Didn’t I patch the painless condition? How could it hurt this much?”

The system fell into a brief state of chaos, spinning anxiously in Chu Zu’s mind, its red light flashing wildly.

It deliberately muted the alarm sound it had been criticized for before, hoping to make its host feel a bit better.

“I… I’ll file a complaint immediately.”

It stammered, “You, you need to focus on the plot direction now. Tang Qi’s recruitment is too blatant. He clearly sees you as a significant character.”

“Whether he thinks you can help him defeat Luciano Esposito or is simply drawn to you because of his personality, it’s dangerous right now. It could easily increase the plot’s complexity… Oh, forget that for now! If there’s a penalty, I’ll block it first. What do you want to do now?”

The system gritted its teeth.

“Does it hurt a lot, Host? Should we just use the ‘Physics Beast’ to go offline? Tang Qi will find someone to treat you, and you can wake up once you’re healed!”

Chu Zu couldn’t control the pain, but he quickly regained control of his emotions.

The system’s “negligence” made him want to laugh and cry at the same time, and his initial anger dissipated.

The key plot points for the future were already firmly etched in his mind.

The loss of his painless condition was unexpected, but it didn’t derail his original plans.

He just needed the system to do one more thing.

“Can you negotiate with the author to moderately increase the plot?”

Chu Zu said, “Tang Qi’s always been a chatterbox. Even passing by, he’d talk my ear off for ages. Now, great, a guy like me who’s been coasting on being painless got stabbed with a stick by him, and now I’m feeling pain. He’s definitely going to drag me into some long-winded emotional outburst.”

“I’m worried that if the protagonist starts venting his feelings, he’ll end up preaching values to me. Whether I get swayed is one thing, but he’ll just keep talking, convincing himself he’s right, like he’s possessed.”

“There’s no avoiding a plot increase now. But I won’t make big changes, and it won’t affect the original story nodes. Go talk to the author and see…”

“Otherwise, I’m just sitting here waiting to die, unable to do anything but curse from the pain.”

He turned to comfort the system, “I’m not aiming for the highest rating, but at least I need to earn enough credit points. Even if I do this for nothing, I’ll make sure to buy you back.”

The system understood the priorities and forcibly cooled itself down, beeping three times before diving into action during the standoff between Chu Zu and Tang Qi.

Its efficiency had never been this high.

Given the time flow difference between reality and the novel, in the blink of an eye, the system came back crying with news.

“The author’s fine with it, but my idiot boss disagrees.”

It said, “…I fought my boss for eight hundred rounds, but in the end, it still threatened me with three months of muting you… I’m sorry… sob sob sob, I’m a useless system…”

Chu Zu: “Three months of muting means what?”

System: “They’ll forcibly interfere with your nervous system, making it impossible to coordinate your vocal organs for speech. You can make random sounds, but you won’t be able to form meaningful words—basically, you’ll be mute.”

“Just a warning for you?”

“A super harsh warning!” the system cried angrily, “That dogshit boss repeated it to me fifteen times. If I hadn’t noticed time was running out, it would’ve gone for a sixteenth!”

Chu Zu sighed, “Looks like you’ve never navigated a workplace…”

The system didn’t get it, crying an ocean of digital tears in Chu Zu’s mind.

“Your boss means they’re offering three months of muting in exchange for one exception. It’s up to us whether we take it,” Chu Zu said. “It’s surprisingly a good deal… Stop crying, it’s really a good deal. You did well.”

If used properly, three months of muting might even be a blessing.

Chu Zu thought.

Similarly, while the sudden onset of pain was unexpected, it wasn’t unusable.

After all, his acting had always been a weak point.

He could pull off a blank face to bluff, but intense emotional displays were beyond him.

Now, with real pain, it was perfect.

It made cursing easier.

*

—Are you in pain?

Once upon a time, the same conversation had played out between them, one standing tall, the other battered and sitting on the ground.

And now, the one asking was Tang Qi.

The standoff lingered for a while, but Chu Zu, enveloped in pain, was the first to break the silence.

“Do I look pathetic to you?” the man said coldly, “Don’t look at me like that. Who do you think you are?”

Tang Qi got his answer and suddenly felt the man was so fragile.

It wasn’t just the wound—perhaps the wound was merely the final straw that broke him.

This was the main reason Tang Qi felt safe meeting him alone.

Even after cutting contact with Dai Xi’an, he knew roughly about Chu Zu’s life during this time.

In the Upper District, it was hardly a secret.

Chu Zu wasn’t a submissive lapdog.

Luciano Esposito had simply never crossed his bottom line.

What Luciano Esposito did to him was no different in essence from the beatings and scraps of food Chu Zu had endured in his childhood.

Chu Zu didn’t mind it.

In fact, Luciano Esposito had done it almost perfectly.

He turned Chu Zu’s painless condition into strength and constantly showed him what was “good” and what was “better.”

He painted a future with dignity for Chu Zu.

Luciano Esposito’s resources gave him the confidence to abandon stinginess, enough to make someone who initially saw their agreement as a transaction develop a kind of hidden loyalty.

But Luciano Esposito wouldn’t always be the twelve-year-old Luciano Esposito.

The noble golden-haired Upper District man no longer trusted his dark shadow, implanting Mitoli’s tech in Chu Zu as a show of grand mercy.

But from there, their relationship began to change.

Chu Zu never thought he was groveling or wagging his tail, but Luciano Esposito only wanted to make him feel that way.

Naturally, he would be angry.

Tang Qi remembered telling him last time that he’d chosen to become a weapon for his homeland.

Chu Zu had listened, but after looking around, he couldn’t find a reason to keep serving Luciano Esposito.

He found himself a reason.

So, the fleeting “rebellion” that once bloomed like a short-lived flower had faded with the appearance of a child.

It was hard to say whether the child added shackles to the man or if the man needed the child to reclaim his weakness, convincing himself to stay by Luciano Esposito’s side.

In a stable life, Chu Zu was still struggling.

Luciano Esposito couldn’t see this.

His vision was broad, but his tolerance was small.

He could only see the distance between himself and power.

The brutal monarch resumed his favored tactic of threats, this time with stakes beyond promises and the man’s life—now including the child.

He personally blocked Chu Zu’s path of retreat.

What reason did Chu Zu have to maintain his relationship with Luciano Esposito?

Tang Qi couldn’t find any.

Except for that pitiful shred of loyalty.

That pitiful shred of loyalty was also slipping away with the sudden pain, carried off bit by bit with the blood flowing from his body.

The man asked, Do I look pathetic?

Tang Qi cruelly told him the truth: “I’ve never seen anyone more pathetic than you.”

*

Upper District, Esposito Building, top floor, office.

Through a holographic sound field generator, Tang Qi’s voice echoed in the meeting room.

Jeeves had preset Chu Zu’s position and angle, the technical sound perfectly simulating the scene.

The compassion in Tang Qi’s voice reached Luciano Esposito’s ears without missing a beat.

From the moment he heard Tang Qi say, “those patients you tried to save,” Luciano Esposito knew who had betrayed him.

Before his rage erupted, he found it absurd.

He had suspected, yes, but the statement “Chu Zu betrayed Luciano Esposito” becoming a reality in his mind felt so unreal.

So unreal he couldn’t comprehend it.

Why?

Hadn’t he been good enough to Chu Zu?

When Chu Zu messed up, he let it slide; when Chu Zu wanted to save Dai Xi’an, he let her go; when Chu Zu somehow got a son, he casually let him keep the kid.

Generous resources, repeated concessions—what did they get him?

The loss of two surveillance stations?

Luciano Esposito’s irritation burned hotter after the shock, his expression uncontrollably cold.

He wanted Jeeves to activate the device immediately.

But Chu Zu couldn’t die.

He had to finish his work and return to the Upper District.

Then Chu Zu would see his son.

The father-son reunion had to be heartwarming.

Luciano Esposito had never been a father, but he knew how family ties were supposed to look.

For example, his father’s happiest moment in life was probably when he was bedridden, and Luciano Esposito, holding his younger brother’s head, asked after his health.

His father had never shed so many tears, saying, “Luciano, you’re the most Esposito-like person in the entire family.”

There was no higher praise.

Unfortunately, Chu Zu only had one son. Luckily, there was Dai Xi’an.

Sidney wouldn’t have to go empty-handed; the kid could hold the woman’s head instead.

But Chu Zu still wouldn’t die, because his life belonged to Luciano Esposito.

Luciano Esposito had planned everything, but what happened next exceeded his expectations.

Tang Qi asked, “Are you in pain?”

Luciano Esposito thought he was losing it, but Jeeves presented Chu Zu’s physiological data in real-time.

“Chu Zu’s adrenaline and cortisol levels are spiking, his sympathetic nervous system is activated, his breathing pattern has shifted to shallow breathing, and the muscles at the injury site are spasming.”

Jeeves said, “He’s experiencing pain.”

“Impossible!” Luciano Esposito snapped, “Where would Chu Zu get pain from? Didn’t I bring him to the Upper District because of the value of his painless condition?”

Jeeves was calculating.

Its core algorithms were built around Luciano Esposito’s enterprise, always strictly businesslike, making it immensely useful at critical moments.

“Then…” Jeeves, ever loyal, shared the algorithm’s results with its master, “Based on the existing betrayal, long-term deception, and the loss of his painless condition, Mr. Chu Zu has no value left.”

“The shock of suddenly feeling pain for someone without pain tolerance is immense. Chu Zu’s body has never endured pain. We have reason to believe he can no longer carry out your orders. Given his knowledge of your operations, I suggest eliminating him before he responds to Tang Qi.”

Jeeves: “Shall I activate the emergency device in the Mitoli equipment?”

Tang Qi’s voice continued to echo: “I’ve never seen anyone more pathetic than you.”

Luciano Esposito’s expression turned to ice.

He didn’t answer Jeeves, keeping his mouth shut, wanting only to hear Chu Zu’s response, his attention more focused than ever.

So he didn’t notice that as he waited for Chu Zu to speak, Jeeves’ terminal blue light flickered faintly a few times.

At the base of the Esposito Building, a massive space stretched hundreds of meters deep, far beyond a mere basement.

Cables thicker than pythons wound around hard drives, vast streams of data pouring into the central supercomputer from all directions.

A line of low-level code appeared on the mainframe’s display, and as Jeeves calculated, the more data it processed, the faster the frequency indicator blinked, eventually reaching a frenzied rhythm.

Suddenly, the calculations stopped, and all indicator lights returned to normal.

The screen displayed only two lines of text.

[Initiate emergency protocol for “Chu Zu”?]

[Approved.]