NOVEL WEB Ch. 26
Chapter 26: "Imagine Such a Society."
Tang Qi lingered in the Upper District for a long time.
He thought, after Luciano Esposito’s body was found, the Upper District would have to face the reality of a power vacuum, and the undercurrents among those previously subordinate to the four great families would start to surge.
Many called Tang Qi a dreamer, but he rarely indulged in fantasies.
He didn’t believe Luciano’s death marked the end of everything, nor did he expect the remnants of the Tang Family to stabilize the Upper District’s situation.
He just.
Chu Zu had a child, named Sidney, it seemed.
Tang Qi wanted to take him away, to settle the child temporarily in a safe place, like the Lower District’s fringes.
Even if the Upper District descended into chaos or the tension between the Upper and Lower Districts reached a breaking point, at least he could help that child weather the upheaval.
But Tang Qi stayed in the Upper District for nearly two weeks, and news of Luciano’s death still hadn’t spread.
The Esposito Family continued to operate smoothly, and even the small provocations that once stirred the Upper District’s populace had vanished entirely.
From initial outrage to silence, and finally to forgetting, life returned to normal in just a week.
Now, the only ones lingering in the streets were employees busy distributing electronic flyers for goods and the Inspection Control Department’s routine anti-android patrols.
The weather was pleasant today.
On the towering office buildings’ projections, a pollution prevention advisor to a council member was issuing a statement, announcing no artificial rain for the coming week.
Androids passed by Tang Qi, their scanning grids sweeping over his face, identifying him only as an ordinary Upper District resident.
Tang Qi subtly adjusted the holographic projection cloaking him, tilting his head to look at the unfamiliar face in the statement’s projection.
After a moment of scrutiny, he furrowed his brow slightly.
Having lived in the Upper District for years, Tang Qi had devoured and digested all there was to know, both what he should and shouldn’t have learned, and he was well-versed in the workings of the Council.
Council members’ staff typically consisted of a fixed group of professionals providing policy research, strategic advice, media relations, and administrative support.
They were bound to the council members in a many-to-one relationship.
Knowing too many of the council’s unsavory secrets and having their own networks, staff weren’t easily replaced unless they made grave mistakes—especially not a pollution prevention advisor, who frequently appeared in the public eye.
To maintain surface stability, even if someone was replaced, the council member would often require the new advisor to undergo cosmetic surgery to resemble their predecessor.
But the person in the projection was clearly not the pollution prevention advisor appointed during the last council reshuffle.
What had happened?
Has the newly elected council been replaced again?
Whose decision was this?
Besides Luciano, who else could wield such authority, gain the Esposito Family’s unanimous support, and keep it so quiet?
As Tang Qi pondered, unexpected events unfolded one after another.
One moment, the projection showed the pollution prevention advisor encouraging people to enjoy the fine weather; the next, it cut abruptly to the solemn face of an android broadcaster.
“Communication Calendar 275-198-1. We interrupt with urgent news.”
“We’ve just received word that Luciano Esposito, president of the Esposito Family, was attacked two weeks ago. Despite immediate rescue efforts, he passed away today at 12:54.”
“Luciano Esposito was a key decision-maker in our city, long responsible for intelligent infrastructure and public safety. His sudden death has caused a significant impact on our city’s operations.”
“The Council has declared a state of emergency. The Inspection Control Department has launched a full investigation to apprehend those behind this attack.”
“Meanwhile, the Council will enhance security measures for corporate executives and activate emergency provisions in the City Safety Act, temporarily raising security levels in Upper District jurisdictions to ensure public safety.”
“The Council’s office stated that this attack is a blatant provocation against the Upper District’s order and safety. The Council will take all necessary measures to maintain social stability.”
“The Council also urges citizens to remain calm, avoid spreading unverified rumors, and face this challenge together.”
“…”
The android broadcaster paused briefly, its eyes suddenly vacant, clearly due to a data transmission glitch.
Then, it continued, “The Esposito Family has also issued an emergency plan. Per Luciano Esposito’s final wishes, daily operations will be temporarily managed by Chu Zu to minimize the adverse impact on citizens.”
Tang Qi thought he’d misheard.
Who?
Chu Zu?
The massive projection flickered to black.
When the new image appeared, Tang Qi’s mind went blank.
Chu Zu was on the screen.
Whether online or offline, clear images of Chu Zu were almost nonexistent.
People knew Chu Zu as the grim, menacing reaper from videos, but when he appeared clearly in public view, they were shocked to find they couldn’t reconcile the man in the emergency broadcast with the “Chu Zu” in their memories.
A clean, tidy office, a porcelain white coffee cup, a man in a wheelchair gazing down at a photo frame in his hands, his fingers along the frame’s edge made of metal.
He wasn’t in formal attire; his broad shoulders filled out a white dress shirt.
The office’s stark tones made his red eyes gleam coldly, his entire presence clean yet detached.
As he prepared to speak, he pursed his thin lips slightly, just enough to make Tang Qi lose focus.
When Tang Qi snapped back, the man was already speaking.
“I am Chu Zu.”
Chu Zu’s voice was soft, “Following discussions between the Esposito Family’s board and the Council’s office, two new provisions have been added to the City Safety Act’s emergency clauses—”
His tone remained as indifferent as ever, businesslike, betraying no emotion, only faintly hoarse, amplified by the recording equipment.
“First, the Upper District’s scope will be expanded, incorporating the former Lower Districts One through Five into Upper District Two.”
“Second, a new Upper District Two Council will be established. To distinguish, the original Upper District Council will be renamed the ‘First Council,’ and the new council will be called the ‘Second Council.’ The Second Council will be formed by residents of Upper District Two through elections, with powers and resources synchronized with the First Council.”
As Chu Zu spoke, people began gathering in the streets, murmuring quietly.
Androids maintained basic order, and Tang Qi caught a few words.
“Chu Zu… alive…”
“Upper District Two…”
“Boring…”
“Lower District people…”
Chu Zu’s supposed death had sparked massive public debate before fizzling out.
Now, people had clearly lost their enthusiasm for discussing the new provisions, especially since they targeted the Lower District and seemed irrelevant to them.
But after announcing the new clauses, Chu Zu added:
“The Council attributes Luciano Esposito’s death to the radical actions of certain Lower District individuals. My personal stance is—”
He leaned forward slightly, and even through the projection, people could sense the cold menace lingering in his brow.
“This is the pain you caused, Tang Qi. I will make you pay.”
The crowd erupted.
It was 13:20.
The sun didn’t reach the office, leaving Chu Zu surrounded by cold, pale indifference.
Tang Qi, bathed in sunlight, locked eyes with the towering figure on the projection, his mind a chaotic mess.
“Is Luciano really dead? Who’s pulling Chu Zu’s strings? He never used his brain before, just killed and killed…”
A companion’s anxious voice exploded through Tang Qi’s earpiece.
“He’s letting the Lower District manage itself and framing the Upper and Lower District conflict as a personal grudge between you and him.”
“Upper District folks were already curious why someone like Luciano would leave everything to him… Chu Zu’s turned a serious matter into pure entertainment.”
“He’s dismantling your position, Tang Qi!”
Tang Qi frowned: “This isn’t something to be treated as entertainment.”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
His companion gritted their teeth, “After Luciano’s propaganda, Upper District folks naturally believe Chu Zu can stabilize the Lower District. He’s maintained it for over a decade—he’s practically an expert.”
“Upper District folks without a sense of crisis see what? One Upper District guy killed another, a dead man miraculously ‘resurrected’…”
“Now it’s a mysterious, unfathomable public revenge. What’s more entertaining than that?”
“I’m not…”
I’m not an Upper District person.
Tang Qi reflexively wanted to retort but swallowed his words.
Something occurred to him, and he asked, “Do we have people in the Neural Prosthetics Studio or the Genetic Engineering Bureau?”
“There are Tang Family people…”
Tang Qi immediately turned, weaving through the crowd and androids toward the other side of the street.
His companion hesitated before probing, “Are you going to use the Tang Family’s code to take out Chu Zu?”
Tang Qi didn’t answer.
“If you’re going to kill him, you have to return to the Lower District immediately after and avoid any Upper District affairs for a while.”
“We could sway Upper District folks from Luciano’s grip, but that won’t work on Chu Zu now. He’s…”
“I’m not using the code,” Tang Qi interrupted.
His companion’s words were like a light hammer, but Tang Qi’s heart was already pierced with a hard nail.
Every word struck made it harder to breathe.
Luciano knew he had the code but still equipped Chu Zu with Tang Family tech.
Luciano, the most paranoid and ruthless of them all, had yielded.
And what had he done?
He’d used Luciano’s death to push Chu Zu into the abyss.
Tang Qi finally recalled the beginning, when he told Chu Zu: You were forced to become Luciano’s blade, but I chose to be my homeland’s weapon.
Chu Zu replied: It wasn’t forced.
Back then, Chu Zu had still leaked the Lower District’s surveillance points to him.
Chu Zu said: Whatever my intentions, I accepted it, as if I chose it.
Chu Zu said: I’ve never had miracles.
Chu Zu said: I don’t even know what I saw that day, the sun or something dazzling and golden.
Chu Zu also said: Tang Qi, I’ll make you pay.
Perhaps from the start, he’d chosen the wrong approach.
“But something’s off,” Tang Qi said.
“What’s off?”
“I don’t know,” Tang Qi frowned.
“The bill’s changes are definitely Chu Zu’s idea. Only someone who truly understands the Lower District could come up with something this lethal, but something’s off…”
“So what’s off?!”
“I said I don’t know!” Tang Qi snapped, irritated.
His raised voice caused a brief silence in the earpiece, and curious glances turned his way.
Taking a deep breath, Tang Qi strode forward quickly.
“Now it’s our turn to lock down the Lower District. Keep Upper District folks out, cut all public frequency signals, and suppress any unrest in the first five districts, but I don’t want anyone dying because of this.”
His companion sighed softly through the earpiece.
“You can’t have everything, Tang Qi.”
He said, “You have to give up on Chu Zu at least. The world’s waiting for you two to tear each other apart. He knows you best and hates you the most. He used to have violence; now he has power. Power is more violent than violence—you get that, right?”
The Genetic Engineering Bureau, now back to normal operations, came into view.
Public opinion had turned the once-bustling institution quiet.
Occasionally, staff in work uniforms hurried through the first-floor lobby, their faces etched with worry.
Tang Qi: “I get it.”
“No one gets it better than me.”
With that, he ended the call and strode into the Genetic Engineering Bureau.
*
Chu Zu was watching Sidney laboriously dig soil when he heard the news.
Tang Qi had appeared at the Genetic Engineering Bureau.
As the Tang Family’s heir with unbreakable genetic database locks, the bureau was like his backyard.
Unless he paraded around shouting, no one would notice him.
But he’d kidnapped a staff member.
The staff member, quick to react, triggered an alarm before being taken.
“The Genetic Engineering Bureau still has someone who can hit an alarm under Tang Qi’s nose?”
Chu Zu asked the System.
“Got a name? Sounds like an important side character I overlooked.”
System: “…Not important, but you know him well.”
Chu Zu: “?”
System: “The doctor who received death threats over Luciano’s death, got hauled in by the Inspection Control Department for your medical project, and kept crying for you to stay put after Luciano died…”
Chu Zu: “…”
Chu Zu: “…That makes sense then.”
Sidney was still following his teacher’s instructions step by step.
The community’s artificial lawn had been completely dug up.
The Esposito Family had delivered loads of sandy loam, well-draining, mixed with ample organic fertilizer, with a stable pH of 6.5.
Sidney didn’t use seeds but bought saplings directly.
Dai Xi’an commented.
She’d never seen such extravagant taste.
Even tracing back generations of the Esposito Family, you’d be hard-pressed to find such a spendthrift.
“The doctor was at the Genetic Engineering Bureau to pick up your genetic re-examination report. Now all data samples have been deleted by Tang Qi, and he took the report and the doctor… What’s he up to?’’
Dai Xi’an held an umbrella for Chu Zu like a secretary.
Moderate sun exposure was fine, but today’s sun was intense, reddening even Sidney’s increasingly toughened skin.
Chu Zu countered, “When did I do a genetic re-examination?”
Dai Xi’an: “After you woke from the hibernation pod, during your full-body checkup, the doctor took genetic samples. Given your special condition, the report only came out now.”
Chu Zu: “If I provide another sample now, how soon can I get results?”
Dai Xi’an, no expert, estimated: “At least half a month.”
“Then redo it,” Chu Zu said, unconcerned.
Dai Xi’an mulled it over: “I’m curious.
What does Tang Qi gain from this, besides exposing his location?”
“Sidney—”.
Chu Zu raised his voice slightly.
Sidney sprang up like a rabbit from the dirt, brushed the soil off his hands, and ran to Chu Zu: “What’s up, Dad?”
Chu Zu gestured with his eyes toward a soft towel by his knee.
Sidney got the hint and wiped his face with it.
“You know Tang Qi,” Chu Zu stated.
Sidney: “I know.”
“What kind of person is he?”
Sidney blurted out: “A guy who deserves to die.”
“Think it through.”
Sidney gave the same answer: “A guy who deserves to die.”
This wasn’t the first time Sidney had pondered this.
His conclusions were always the same.
He’d gotten Jeeves’ database from Lazar.
A twelve-year-old with no programming knowledge, but plenty of people willing to teach him.
Sidney dug up all the information linking Tang Qi and Chu Zu, including how Tang Qi tried to persuade Chu Zu initially and later, knowing Luciano was eavesdropping, escalated things to an unavoidable point.
Dai Xi’an had explained the motives behind Chu Zu’s actions, but Sidney didn’t care.
All he knew was that without Luciano or Tang Qi, Chu Zu wouldn’t be like this.
Luciano was dead, no longer a threat to Chu Zu, but Tang Qi was still alive, bound to reappear one day, haunting like a ghost who never left.
So he was a guy who deserved to die.
Chu Zu seemed to be thinking.
Dai Xi’an scoffed: “I told you, don’t treat Sidney like the naive kid you imagine. The way he’s digging, it’s like he’s preparing Tang Qi’s grave.”
“Dai Xi’an, tell him what you know,” Chu Zu said.
Dai Xi’an rolled her eyes but complied.
Tang Qi was a Lower District native who, due to a train accident, swapped identities with the Tang Family’s original heir—or rather, it wasn’t a swap, as the original young master died without a trace.
He was likely another child of the Tang Family, somehow ending up in the Lower District.
This explained why the Tang Family’s matriarch visited the Lower District multiple times—not out of the humanitarian concern she claimed, but to find her child.
In the Upper District, Tang Qi displayed extraordinary talent.
He learned quickly, with cheat-like intuition, not only avoiding suspicion but securing the heir’s position even more firmly.
During his re-enrollment, Luciano was graduating.
They rarely crossed paths except at the four families’ banquets, but their names were often mentioned together, as Tang Qi broke all of Luciano’s academic records.
On the eve of Luciano’s move against the three other families, Tang Qi’s intuition kicked in again.
Like a man possessed, he dispersed the family’s core forces and urged his father to leave the old estate with him.
But he couldn’t save his father.
Mr. Tang didn’t believe Luciano was mad enough to take on three families at once and died in the chaos.
At this, Sidney asked: “Did you do it, Dad?”
Chu Zu: “No, I was with Mitoli at the time.”
Sidney nodded thoughtfully.
Dai Xi’an continued.
Though Tang Qi couldn’t unify the Lower District’s will quickly, he was a master at incitement.
He seemed born knowing how to make people fanatical, even if the fervor wasn’t for him.
He excelled at manipulating emotions to get what he wanted.
After occupying two of the Esposito Family’s surveillance stations, Tang Qi gave a public speech.
“Violence is the only equal opportunity left in this world. You don’t understand equality? Then seize violence, unleash it, just like me.”
“How dare he talk about violence when Dad was still around”.
Sidney muttered.
Dai Xi’an, expressionless: “One more word, and I’ll plant you next to your mango tree.”
Sidney stuck out his tongue at her.
“Tang Qi wanted to show another side of the world,” Chu Zu suddenly said.
“In his envisioned world, the Upper and Lower Districts are just a vertical geographic divide. The passageways would open, and the Lower District would have girls like Brei in long dresses and leather shoes.”
“People’s lives would regress centuries, back to a primitive, ancient social stage. Everyone could harbor ambition, choosing whether to mold themselves into a popular model, converting to order through performance and pretense.”
Sidney looked visibly confused.
He understood a lot but struggled to grasp this.
Chu Zu waited before continuing.
“Imagine such a society, Sidney.”
“You hold fast to your principles, stay polite, always maintain decorum. You’d yield out of kindness, but you’d struggle to earn friendships like Brei’s. You’d fail more easily, be more entangled by negative emotions, but face fewer life-or-death stakes—now, what do you think?”
Sidney couldn’t picture it: “I feel confused.”
“Because you only see what I let you see,” Chu Zu said.
“I’ve told you, I don’t know much. Before Tang Qi appeared, I wouldn’t have considered the alternative he offered.”
Sidney: “…Why do you and Dai Xi’an make him sound so impressive?”
“If you don’t accept that, what right do you have to kill him?”.
Chu Zu said quietly.
Sidney’s distress was plain on his face.
“I won’t demand you do or think anything, but I hope you’ll go see the Lower District for yourself.”
Dai Xi’an immediately objected: “Now? He’d better stay put and plant his mango trees.”
Sidney grew anxious, clutching Chu Zu’s sleeve, the black dirt in his nail crevices smudging the man’s white shirt.
“I’m not leaving, Dad! I can be useful, I—I can help you—”.
“I don’t need it,” Chu Zu said coldly.
“My business with Tang Qi has nothing to do with you. Sidney, I’ve said I want you to have your own choices, but I don’t want your starting point to be me.”
Sidney’s face paled.
After a long pause, he asked cautiously: “Am… am I getting in your way?”
His tone grew urgent, his words speeding up.
“Do I ask for too much? I’m sorry, Dad, I shouldn’t bother you when you’re busy! I’ll listen to Dai Xi’an, stay home, and not go anywhere, I—”
Chu Zu cut him off again, his tone much softer this time.
“Go for half a month,” he said.
“I’ll only tend your mango trees for half a month. After that, Dai Xi’an will come get you.”
Truth be told, Dai Xi’an thought Chu Zu wasn’t wrong.
Sidney relied too much on Chu Zu.
If it were just a normal child’s dependence on a father, that’d be fine, but he wasn’t normal.
Sidney could hint Lazar to replace the Council just because it kept raining, and while splurging, he was still plotting how to kill Tang Qi.
A child’s innocence and cruelty stood apart from adults, unique in its own way.
If Tang Qi, Chu Zu, and Dai Xi’an were people who recognized the Upper-Lower District structure and decided they belonged to neither, Sidney didn’t even think about it.
In the Lower District, he was a Lower District person.
Brought to the Upper District, he became an Upper District person.
The boy’s only sense of belonging came from Chu Zu.
Dai Xi’an had no doubt that if asked, “Who are you?” he’d answer without hesitation: I’m Dad’s kid.
But Chu Zu didn’t want that.
He believed the boy shouldn’t only see what he saw or pursue what he pursued.
A thought flashed through Dai Xi’an’s mind, too quick to grasp.
She often bossed Sidney around and voiced complaints to Chu Zu, but when this father and son tackled their core issues, she stayed silent.
The sun shifted westward, and for a moment, the three under the umbrella were quiet.
Finally, Dai Xi’an saw Sidney slowly let go, head drooping, and said softly, “Okay.”
It was clear the boy was reluctant.
Though Chu Zu emphasized letting him choose, he still wanted to follow the path Chu Zu desired.
Chu Zu hummed: “Time to head back.”
Watching Sidney sluggishly pack up, Dai Xi’an spoke up.
“You’re acting like a tyrannical jerk of a dad right now.”
“Am I?”.
Chu Zu neither confirmed nor denied.
“I looked it up online. They say to adopt a balanced tone, show care and support, and respect the child’s independence and right to choose.”
Dai Xi’an felt speechless toward Chu Zu for the first time: “Which part of that do you think you nailed?”
Chu Zu’s serious expression didn’t seem fake: “All of it.”
Dai Xi’an: “…”
Dai Xi’an: “Let me put it this way—if Luciano’s father treated him the way you treat Sidney, Luciano wouldn’t have waited for the old man to die of illness.”
Chu Zu: “No, when Luciano acted depended on when I could wipe out the Esposito Family. If I could’ve done it at fifteen, he wouldn’t have waited until twenty.”
Dai Xi’an was truly at a loss for words, sighing thirty times in the twenty-meter walk home.
The System felt the same.
It knew “history” better than Dai Xi’an, having scanned countless parent-child dynamics across time, even stumbling on a classic quote.
The only thing a son can do for his father is either pat his shoulder or kill him.
Though Sidney clearly didn’t fit either mold, parent-child relationships, through countless social evolutions, rarely escaped certain frameworks.
Still—
“Are you trying to get Sidney out of the way?”
The System thought it was catching up to its host’s logic.
“Will Tang Qi come for you in the next half month?”
Chu Zu suddenly asked a question he hadn’t brought up in a while: “Still no word on the appeal for the congenital analgesia setting?”
System: “…”
System, quietly: “Still… still processing…”
Chu Zu smiled: “You never appealed.”
The System fell silent, becoming a choked little yellow chick in Chu Zu’s mind.
“If you’d actually appealed and gotten no reply, you’d have already gone to your boss for eight hundred rounds of battle, not stammering with me.”
The choked chick wilted further.
“You didn’t appeal because you couldn’t,” Chu Zu said.
“Didn’t I also write other settings besides the analgesia? And told you to hide them?”
System: “…”
“Something like: the analgesia stems from a congenital genetic defect, which, after repeated neural stimulation, can worsen into a malignant defect, causing the analgesia to vanish, untreatable by current genetic engineering?”
The System’s little yellow chick face showed shock, its black bean eyes trembling wildly.
Since the host had guessed it himself, there was no need to hide.
In the setting file, a previously blank space now held a line in Chu Zu’s handwriting, exactly as he’d described.
Congenital analgesia stems from a genetic defect, which, after repeated neural stimulation, can worsen into a malignant defect, causing analgesia to vanish, untreatable by current genetic engineering.
The System confessed: “At first, I didn’t get why you wrote this, until it played a massive role…”
It was incredulous: “Did you even foresee regaining pain sensation?”
Without suddenly regaining pain, the plot would’ve veered elsewhere—hard to say where, but it wouldn’t have been as smooth as now.
It was smooth, right?
“Not really. When the pain comes back doesn’t matter. It’s just a bonus. It could stay gone until the end, and that’d be fine. That’s not the point.”
Chu Zu mused for a while, then sighed, “Now I get it. Without writing it this way, the ending would’ve been tough. For a smooth run, you’ve got to rely on yourself.”
System: “?”
System: “You got it, but I’m still lost!”
“Just think of it as… uh… if I didn’t give myself an incurable disease, Tang Qi might not beat a beast like me.”
System: “…”
The host had casually said something terrifying.
And so flippant—obviously not the real intent! No fooling the System!
“How did you figure it out…”
The System reviewed everything so far.
Apart from the appeal delay, there didn’t seem to be any holes.
Chu Zu: “Tang Qi saw my genetic re-examination report, so he deleted all the data and took it to the doctor.”
“Why’d he delete the data?”
“With data, they can generate another report quickly. What do you think will happen if that report reaches me, from Tang Qi’s perspective?”
The System started deducing.
It couldn’t be deduced.
Never mind that Tang Qi had been misled by “Chu Zu,” and “Chu Zu”.
Nothing he did was surprising.
“I’d speed up all processes,” Chu Zu coaxed.
“I’d lose patience for waiting and use the most extreme methods—ones he can and can’t imagine—to achieve my goal. What does he think my goal is?”
“To kill him personally.”
“Can my current body do that?”
“Piece of cake! He’s only good for beating up little Luciano, all flash and no skill… wait.”
The System caught on.
“From Tang Qi’s perspective, it seems kinda tough.”
It hesitated, then muttered, “Isn’t Tang Qi being a bit too ‘kind’?
Still worrying about your health… Is this guy sick?”
“Dai Xi’an reads people too well,” Chu Zu couldn’t help but marvel.
“Back on the train, she saw right through me as bad news but worth a gamble. She also said Tang Qi’s a pathological idealist. He tried to ‘save’ me multiple times and failed, and now he’s gone off the deep end.”
The System chimed in: “Dai Xi’an also called Sidney a stinking brat plenty of times.”
Chu Zu: “That’s because she’s got intermittent blindness.”
“…Fine, whatever you say!”
The System didn’t argue with the doting dad and got back to business.
“So you’re wrapping up the mission in half a month? Any later, and Sidney will be back. I’m worried he’ll go after Tang Qi like he stabbed his dad last time, no questions asked—wait.”
The little yellow chick got tangled up.
“I feel like if Tang Qi wins, Sidney’s going to go after him anyway.”
Chu Zu: “He won’t get the chance. I’m going.”
System: “?”
Chu Zu: “Tang Qi’s working this hard; I’ve got to step up too. What’s that phrase? Mutual race to madness?”
System: “…”
Fine, mutual race to madness it is.
Whatever makes the host happy!
The System reminded: “Don’t forget the key lines: ‘I’m more pathetic than you think’ and ‘But you shouldn’t have killed Luciano.’”
Chu Zu hummed in acknowledgment.