Right on Target (TARGET)
The cat remained blissfully unaware that its tail kept splashing water all over the floor. By the time it had dried off, Xie Zhenshu was already fully dressed.
It was exactly five in the morning.
"Bye," Su Heting picked up his freshly washed hoodie and waved at Xie Zhenshu. "I'm going back to sleep, so I won't see you out."
Xie Zhenshu nodded. Just as he was about to leave, he seemed to remember something and turned back. The hallway was empty of guests at this hour, the warm orange light softly falling on his shoulders.
"Good luck with the match," he said.
The scene felt eerily familiar.
A flicker of emotion stirred in Su Heting's heart. "Thanks for the well-wishes," he replied.
Xie Zhenshu closed the door and left.
Su Heting pulled on his hoodie before deliberately lifting the collar to sniff it—the crisp scent of laundry detergent lingered.
He froze in that position, lost in thought.
Could it really be such a coincidence?
When he first met the Hermit, nothing had felt familiar.
But Xie Zhenshu couldn’t have spoken to him while opening the door—
A stormy night suddenly flashed through his mind, vivid as yesterday. In that bizarre Punishment Zone, someone had spoken to him just like that.
That person had stood tall, with equally broad shoulders and coldly saying to him:
Welcome.
—Inspector!
A chill ran down Su Heting’s spine. He grabbed his pants and yanked them on before buttoning them up in a hurry. Not even bothering to change his shoes, he dashed out the door in slippers.
"Guest!"
The small service robots scurrying through the hallway shrieked, dodging to either side. Their trays wobbled as their red lights blinked frantically.
"Guests are not permitted to run in the hallway… Calling the manager… Suspected intoxicated guest…"
Su Heting saw no sign of Xie Zhenshu. His heart pounded wildly in his chest—not from fear, but an inexplicable excitement.
He was just suspicious.
Was Xie Zhenshu the Inspector?
No.
Was Xie Zhenshu even human?
Su Heting sprinted down the hallway in his slippers, with the little robots hot on his heels. Unable to keep up, they continued shouting "Guest!" while cheerfully swarming forward. The narrow space caused them to bump into each other, sending trays clattering to the ground.
"Mr. Kitten!" The lead robot suddenly appeared, blocking the doorway with an "X" gesture. "Please stop running for your own safety—"
Su Heting didn’t slow down. Instead, he leaped up at the last second and grabbed the horizontal beam where wish tags hung overhead. With a nimble flip, he sailed over the robot and landed gracefully.
He flung the door curtain aside and peered out.
"Amitabha!" The monk jumped at the sudden movement, his nerves still frayed since Viper’s departure. Only when he recognized Su Heting did his tense shoulders relax slightly. "What are you doing?"
Su Heting scanned the rain-drenched street, shrouded in mist.
Xie Zhenshu was gone.
"Pre-match warm-up," he said before turning back with a scowl. "What, stalking me now, you old creep?"
"Protection," the monk emphasized. "We’re protecting you. Why did you run off earlier? It took some effort to track you down."
"I was afraid you’d get trigger-happy." Su Heting ducked slightly as he stepped out from under the curtain. He jerked his thumb toward a poster on the wall, reminding the monk: "This place only serves Hybrids."
The owner of Jade Pool was friends with the beauties and had connections to the trading floor. This bathhouse was specifically opened to serve Hybrids, which was also why Su Heting frequented the place.
"Oh, didn't see it." The Monk didn’t force his way in. He withdrew his hand and stood still while stroking his chin as he studied the poster. "You like soaking in baths?"
Su Heting replied bluntly, "None of your damn business."
"Just making conversation. Could you at least—" The Monk rubbed his temples. "I’m here to protect you, you know."
"Cut the crap." Su Heting dug into his pocket and pulled out Viper’s modified eye, pinching it between two fingers. "Wanna buy it?"
The Monk took a closer look before his expression shifted slightly. "You gouged out Viper’s eye!"
"He didn’t need it anyway." Su Heting tossed the eye lightly upward before catching it again with a snap. "If you don’t want it, I’ll just list it on the trading floor."
The Monk watched the eye bounce up and down like a juggled walnut, his emotions complicated. "...You’re not keeping it? Could be a spare."
Su Heting wrinkled his nose, looking disgusted. "That’s gross to think about."
This was standard practice in the Colosseum.
Retired fighters could hand over their implants to the Colosseum, which would appraise them before reselling them as replacement parts.
"Viper used high-end stuff." The Monk hitched up his pants and sat on the bench outside Jade Pool. "But after you took his eye, he’s definitely out for your blood."
The Monk was secretly pleased, but he couldn’t show it.
He schooled his expression. "They’ll come after you again."
Su Heting noticed the Monk was in civilian clothes tonight.
In the Black Market, nothing was more useful than being part of the Armed Response Team—they could openly carry guns. But the Monk had deliberately changed into plainclothes, meaning this protection detail wasn’t something to flaunt.
"You caught Viper," Su Heting said, "then let him go."
The Monk gazed beyond the eaves, suddenly craving a cigarette, though he resisted. His hands on his knees clenched and unclenched, his tone calm. "Some things are just out of our control."
Raindrops rippled across puddles, but the puddles couldn’t leap up and slap the rain.
It was infuriating, but these big shots didn’t give a damn about the Main God System or the people still trapped in the Light Rail District.
The stability of the survival zones had diminished external threats. News from the Light Rail District no longer drew widespread attention, and the AI’s doomsday had faded into history.
No matter what the Main God System wanted—
They haven’t invaded the survival zones in years, have they?
That was the big shots’ mindset.
The Monk asked, "Can you lose tonight?"
"Sure," Su Heting said agreeably while pulling out a lollipop. "Just wire me three million first."
The Monk: "..."
"You guys really act like you’re some tragic, torn-between-two-lovers housewife." Su Heting bit down on the lollipop, only then realizing he hadn’t changed out of his slippers. He lifted a foot, letting rainwater rinse the sole. "Wei Zhixin—that guy’s name is Wei Zhixin, right? I just want to tell him one thing."
His voice was quiet.
"Matches have winners and losers. If you can’t handle losing, don’t play."
Viper’s vision was pitch black. The scar tissue near his brain computer interface was too degraded for a direct connection, so his head was instead covered in circular electrodes.
"Boss," Viper gasped, his voice trembling under the electric pulses. His eyes remained shut. "I’m sorry. Boss, I’m sorry..."
The boss lifted the viper's tail through his glove, where it had been shattered by a bullet.
"He was so fast..." The viper's head twitched. "I was pinned down... his hand... damn it!" It was as if the viper was reliving the moment in his mind. He screamed in agony, "He gouged out my eyes with his hand! I'll fucking kill him—! It hurts, it hurts so much! Boss, I'm sorry..."
The viper convulsed violently, veins bulging at his temples. His voice cracked: "Stop repeating it..."
The boss mercifully stroked the severed end of the viper's tail, where the residual venom had already been cleaned. His voice was gentle, as if oblivious to the viper's pain: "I know, I know... Don't keep repeating yourself, Viper. Think about the details again. He had a modified eye—what was it for?"
The viper clenched his teeth: "I'm sorry, I don't know!"
"Again." The boss pressed down on the viper's chest. "He tore off the billboard and charged at you, moving fast. Then he knocked off your scales before choking you."
The viper seemed to return to that moment once more.
The back of his skull slammed against the ground. The kitten pinned him down, and he could barely breathe. Then the kitten's fingers loomed before his eyes—he didn’t even have time to react, his scream lagging behind.
"No..." The viper's head throbbed with excruciating pain as he howled, "Don't gouge them..."
The boss asked, "What was his modified eye doing?"
Tears streamed down the viper's face as he writhed in pain. Forcing himself to open his eyes wide amidst the endless agony, as if bracing for Su Heting's fingers, he stared intently at the kitten's modified eye—
A tranquil, misty blue.
……..
The monk gazed at the serene sky and asked Su Heting, "Are you going back to catch up on sleep?"
Su Heting shuffled inside in his slippers, sneezed lightly, and replied with a simple "Hmm," as if that was answer enough.
Arms crossed, the monk sat guard by the entrance like a father waiting to catch a runaway son.
"Hey," Su Heting poked his head back out from behind the curtain and asked the monk a question, "Is Inspector really a system?"
The monk, caught off guard by the sudden topic shift, nodded first. "Yeah. He lives in the Punishment Zone—can't be human, right?"
"Oh..." Su Heting sounded half-convinced.
"Our human detection is foolproof," the monk said. "No mistakes."
Su Heting stuffed his hands back into his pockets and went inside. He sidestepped the enthusiastic lead robot and grabbed a bottle of water from the shorty's tray.
Guess I was wrong.
Twisting open the cap, Su Heting drank while rubbing the back of his neck, giving up on thinking.
—Whatever.
He thought indifferently.
We’ll meet again anyway. If it’s real, there’s no running.
5 PM, the rain had just stopped.
The hype for the Colosseum’s live broadcast swept in, with countless ads playing everywhere.
Jiali arrived punctually to set up her stall at the arena’s entrance. Lighting a cigarette, she watched her small screen through the smoke—there was a message from the Hermit.
Hermit: The betting’s open. Wei Zhixin’s placing his wager.
Jiali clenched the cigarette between her teeth and swiped to another page. She tapped with her pinky, placing her bet.
Hermit: I put down a buck on the kitten!
Jiali: Stingy as ever. I’m in for a thousand.
Hermit: I’ve got a family to feed.
Hermit: ???
Hermit: You seriously only bet a thousand?
Jiali: Only?
Hermit: What’s going on???
The Hermit: Someone invested a million in the kitten!!!
His exclamation marks were practically leaping off the screen.
When Jiali saw "a hundred", she was still calmly smoking her cigarette. But when she saw the word "million", her cigarette dropped. She frantically tried to brush off the ash, nearly toppling off her stool in the process.
A few seconds later, Su Heting's phone buzzed with two messages at the same time.
The Hermit & Jiali: You've got a boss now?!
Su Heting: ?
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