NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Eliminating the Leaks
"Brother Shen!" Shen Zeming's gaze snapped towards Luo Chen, who was eyeing him with a deep furrow in his brow and eyes brimming with contempt.
"What's gotten into you today? You're acting so bizarre - seriously, what's going on?" Luo Chen's words dripped with feigned concern as he took a step closer, invading Shen Zeming's personal space.
Shen Zeming silently appraised the boy sitting beside him, lips pressed into a thin line.
'Trying to play the part of a friend, yet you're the one orchestrating this scheme against me,' he thought.
It was all based on the lingering memories of this body's original owner.
From the moment Shen Zeming had foolishly ended his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, to the wasted years pursuing Wei Feng's affections fruitlessly, it all stemmed from his fateful encounter with this duplicitous fool.
"Get your hands off me." Shen Zeming's voice was low, laced with a steely edge as he swatted Luo Chen's hand away from his cheek, refusing to be treated like some coddled simpleton.
Luo Chen immediately backed off, palms raised in mock surrender. "Relax, relax, no need for the hostility." As far as Shen Zeming could recall, the affluent Luo family paled in comparison to the immense wealth and power of the Shen family.
There was simply no contest.
With this false friend dismissed, Shen Zeming's piercing gaze swept across the room. Most were little more than Luo Chen's mindless lackeys.
'How utterly bizarre,' he mused, smirking faintly as the twisted scheme unraveled before his eyes.
No wonder they dared treat the heir of the Shen family like a fool to be mocked. The Shen family was a behemoth, but as long as someone could manipulate him as their puppet, they could openly deride even the family heir with impunity.
Of course, it's you pulling the strings, Shen Zeming's eyes narrowed as they settled on Luo Chen, who was now indulging his baser appetites amidst the company of two scantily-clad women draped over him.
But for now, more pressing matters demanded his attention as his gaze flickered back towards the transparent screen hovering before him.
'System, what constitutes a 'villain point' exactly?' Shen Zeming inwardly queried.
Though he grasped the general concept from the novels he had read, he sought explicit confirmation to avoid any potential misunderstandings.
[DING!] Villain points are earned through missions assigned by the system, such as sabotaging the protagonist's fortunes, thwarting fateful encounters, or corrupting the heroines' virtuous personas!
[DING!] They are precious, so use them wisely!
'So it aligns with my initial theories,' Shen Zeming's lips curled into a faint smirk as his assumptions were validated. But one more critical piece remained. 'Is there any feature similar to a shop in your system?' he inwardly inquired.
[DING!] Negative! However, the mission rewards dispensed by the system are not limited to mere material wealth or monetary gains. They can also encompass acquisition of worldly skills and even enhancements to innate attributes.
Nodding thoughtfully, Shen Zeming sipped his wine, swirling the rich crimson liquid idly.
But then...
"Brother Shen..." A sultry feminine voice abruptly invaded his thoughts. Shen Zeming's gaze settled upon a young woman sashaying towards him, clad in a scandalously cropped black halter top that revealed her taut midriff and slender waistline.
The skimpy top contrasted with the flowing dark skirt cascading to her ankles, while a azure shawl was artfully draped around her hips, accentuating her curves.
Her facial features were undeniably beautiful, though marred slightly by the heavy makeup caked upon her delicate features.
6 out of 10.
"Shall we have a bit of...fun?" She purred seductively, invading his personal space as her hands trailed down to caress his chest brazenly.
Of course, Shen Zeming was not so easily ensnared by such transparent machinations. His eyes subtly flicked towards Luo Chen, that conniving snake still ensconced amidst the fawning embraces of two buxom beauties, watching him like a predator through the curtain of their tresses.
"Shall we?" Shen Zeming crooned smoothly in response, setting aside his wine glass. With one hand, he delicately grasped her chin, tilting her face up as his other arm snaked around her waist, pulling her form flush against him as she instinctively melted into his embrace.
"Don't you know, you are actually quite the beauty?" he murmured huskily against the shell of her ear, maintaining simmering eye contact as he trailed featherlight caresses along the curve of her hip before deftly undoing her raven tresses from their severe ponytail.
"But tell me, are you truly worthy? Being used as a mere tool, a plaything by that man?" Shen Zeming continued in a low purr, his lips brushing against hers fleetingly in the barest ghost of a kiss before he abruptly pulled back, rising fluidly from his seat.
"Find me when you've freed yourself from his grasp," he murmured, gaze flickering over her stunned features briefly before turning on his heel and striding towards the exit without a backwards glance.
"Brother Shen, where are you going?" Luo Chen's voice rang out sharply, having noticed the shift in dynamics. He quickly extricated himself from the simpering women still draped over him like gaudy ornamentation.
Shen Zeming's lips quirked faintly as he felt the weight of countless curious stares pressing in on him from the assembled crowd.
But...
"Do you really take me for such a witless fool?" He scoffed derisively.
A stunned silence blanketed the room in the wake of his stinging rebuke. No sooner had the door shut behind Shen Zeming's retreating figure than it burst open once more with a thunderous bang.
However, rather than Luo Chen giving chase as expected, a stern-faced security guard strode in flanked by several grim-visaged colleagues.
"Everyone, we've received reports that this party is merely a front for illicit drug trafficking activities," the lead guard barked authoritatively as his razor-sharp gaze swept over the roomful of slack-jawed, horrified youths.
"What? Drugs? What utter nonsense is this?" Luo Chen was the first to recover, outrage flashing across his features as his brows knitted into an indignant scowl.
But as he registered the implacable resolve in the guards' unflinching stares and the mocking curl of their lips, realization dawned that something was dreadfully amiss.
"A fake report, you say? I'm afraid we have incontrovertible proof right here," one of the guards intoned grimly, procuring a plastic-wrapped bundle containing a disturbingly familiar white powder with a contemptuous flourish.