Chapter 53: Chapter Fifty-Three: The Bond of Servitude

Lu Mingfei had a very long dream.

In the dream, his self followed the original trajectory of his life.

No reincarnation, no chat group, no cultivation.

That little devil, Lu Mingze.

Nailed to a cross, pale-faced, gazing at him, weakly spoke those words:

"Brother, you've come."

When he came to his senses, Lu Mingfei stood in a snow-white, unblemished polar wasteland, dried blood on his face hardened into dark red scabs.

The howling cold wind swept past, like a baby wailing, like an animal screaming.

On the vast white expanse, not a soul in sight.

Bone-chilling cold transmitted from every nerve ending in his skin straight to his brain.

Lu Mingfei struggled to lift his eyelids, lost in the snow.

"Lu Mingze?"

"Brother, are you calling me?" A fixed reply seemed to echo beside his ear—unfortunately, just an auditory hallucination.

That elegantly dressed, refined little boy did not appear.

"Why am I here?" Lu Mingfei thought for a long time; he had forgotten why he had appeared here.

The biting, howling wind began to mix with snowflakes—the harbinger of another blizzard.

He pulled his down jacket tighter; his pale lips were cracked, and with his tongue he licked them—a metallic, rust-like taste came from his tongue.

Lu Mingfei knew he had to move his feet and leave this place quickly.

While he could still see the sun, Lu Mingfei walked toward where the sun was setting.

In the inner pocket of his down jacket was a phone, issued by the academy for communication.

"Where's the promised global signal coverage?"

The phone's screen showed no signal bars at all—not one.

The time displayed: 05:23.

A sense of disorientation took root in Lu Mingfei's heart.

Wasn't the sun supposed to be setting?

It had just risen.

Then why did I think the sun was setting?

Lu Mingfei looked up at the sky; here, sunlight brought little warmth.

He walked for a long, long time.

Besides the downy white snow, Lu Mingfei finally saw objects with other colors.

It was a Western-style curved blade, stained with blood; the blade was now half-buried by wind and snow.

Around it were crimson bloodstains.

Following the bloodstains forward, Lu Mingfei gradually saw familiar figures.

Caesar Gassot knelt in the snow, a blood trail across his neck.

Chu Zihang held a strange, petite alien creature; a silver-white spear had pierced both of them through.

"President… Senior Brother…"

Why were there no other emotions? Lu Mingfei watched this scene calmly, as if he had seen it many times before.

His calmness was terrifying.

Lu Mingfei continued walking forward; more and more familiar and unfamiliar faces appeared before him.

"Nuo Nuo…"

The red-haired girl lay beside the wreckage of an airplane, snow resting on her hair, her pale skin now tinged gray.

After watching for a few seconds, Lu Mingfei continued forward.

The scene was washed away like water; now even the white was gone.

Slowly opening his eyes from the darkness, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

"You're awake. The surgery was successful." A familiar voice came from beside his ear.

Shhh—

Lu Mingfei jolted awake, reaching for his private parts.

Huh—

Still there.

Pili-pala.

Only then did Lu Mingfei look around; two men sat on a sofa nearby, frantically pressing game controllers—their finger speed was too fast for human eyes to follow.

"Hao You Gen!"

"O Duo Ken!"

Classic game voiceovers blared from the TV.

Su Lin had a spicy strip between his teeth; he glanced at Lu Mingfei, while Kleen seized the moment, executing a combo that drained Su Lin's character's health bar.

"Ah…"

Su Lin sighed in disappointment; he had lost another jin of Qingyuan fruit again.

He had no idea what Kleen had been doing all month—how had his gaming skill become so strong?

One jin of Qingyuan fruit, two Huosang fruit, half a jin of Wu Shu honey—he lost at everything he played…

Next time, I won't play this with him.

Kleine saw Lu Mingfei wake up and felt a pang of disappointment; couldn't he have slept a little longer?

Su Lin took a scroll from his system space and rose to walk toward Lu Mingfei nearby.

"Awake?"

"Awake." Lu Mingfei pulled his neck back.

"Got invincible yet?" Su Lin smiled warmly, like an older brother from next door.

"No." Lu Mingfei shook his head like a rattle.

"Remember what happened before you passed out?"

"Remember." Lu Mingfei nodded earnestly, like a chick pecking rice.

"Oh~ Still remember? Then no need to jog your memory." Su Lin pulled a wad of toilet paper from his system space.

Lu Mingfei shrank further into the corner, as if facing judgment.

The toilet paper unwrapped, revealing a pile of shattered chip fragments.

"Do you know this cost me a quarter of my entire fortune?"

"I'm sorry…"

Lu Mingfei truly had no idea what was going on; since using the Great Expansion Pearl, everything had unfolded inexplicably.

"When I'm idle, I like to use this Great Expansion Pearl to reflect other Parallel Worlds—it's become a habit of mine."

"I'm sorry…"

Lu Mingfei felt guilty, but he still didn't understand what had happened to him: a bunch of strange versions of himself had rushed into a ball and vanished, then he'd fallen asleep and had a nightmare.

"The future Xiao Yan specifically enhanced this artifact—do you understand the weight of the Lord of the Infinite Fire Domain?"

"I'm sorry…" Lu Mingfei buried his head even lower.

"Besides saying 'I'm sorry,' can't you offer any real action?" Su Lin shook his head in disappointment.

"…"

"Can I pay in installments…?"

"Please, give me a chance—I'll do anything!"

Plop—

A small knife landed before Lu Mingfei.

"You're not asking me to commit suicide to atone, are you?!" Lu Mingfei's eyes widened.

Su Lin said nothing, then unrolled the scroll in his hand.

It bore a string of characters Lu Mingfei had never seen before.

"Sign this indenture," Su Lin said coolly.

Two minutes later.

Lu Mingfei felt he needed a blood transfusion; signing a name took this much blood.

Sure enough, this wasn't any ordinary contract…

Su Lin neatly tucked away the contract and submitted it to the system.

A virtual template of Lu Mingfei appeared on the system interface.

【Contract: I Have a Share】: After signing, twenty percent of the signatory's karmic consequences can be converted into system points. Limit: 1—By signing, one-fifth of everything you do from now on counts as mine.

Status: Used

Subject: Lu Mingfei

Current Points Provided: 0

Contract Terms:

1. From the date of signing, the signatory voluntarily transfers twenty percent of future karmic consequences.

2. The signatory may not unilaterally void the contract; breach results in loss of one-fifth of all possessions.

3. The contract provider has the right to demand the signatory generate karmic consequences; the signatory is forbidden from withdrawing from the world.

…

99. Appeal provisions are valid and must be strictly enforced.