Chapter 103: Blackening Value Skyrockets

Chapter 103: Corruption Value Soars

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 2!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 3!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 4!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 5!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 6!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 7!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 8!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 9!"

"Alert! The male lead's corruption value is rising! The male lead's corruption value has upgraded! Current corruption value: Level 10!"

"Aaaaaah!!!! It's over! Over! Over! Host is toast! It's gonna blow! Blow! Blow!!"

Su Zheng shook his head, feeling that before the corruption value exploded, his head might explode first.

Telling the system to calm down first, Su Zheng asked, "Is the corruption value still rising?"

The system answered, voice trembling: "The male lead's emotions were probably suppressed before. I didn't detect any changes in his mood. Just now, it was as if they were released, and the corruption value skyrocketed like a volcanic eruption, rocketing straight to ninety-nine percent! Thankfully it stopped! But it's still super dangerous now!"

Su Zheng was only slightly surprised. Compared to the system, Su Zheng was much calmer and comforted the system: "It's okay, it's not maxed out yet. I've dealt with ninety-nine percent corruption before. At worst, we can start over. Speaking of which, didn't you say earlier that once the corruption value goes down, there wouldn't be a situation where it skyrockets to near full in an instant?"

"Uh, well, probably because the male lead was too stimulated..." At this point, the system understood, "Right! The data shows that most of the male lead's mood swings are caused by the host's actions. It's obviously the host's fake death that made his corruption value skyrocket. It has nothing to do with the throne!"

"I won't deny it, but you've seen it yourself—the corruption value hasn't budged in over a year. If I didn't do something, it would just stay the same."

"Then why did you fake your death and leave? Now the corruption value went up instead of down. Isn't that contrary to our goal of eliminating the corruption value?"

Su Zheng silently disagreed in his head: His goal was not to eliminate the corruption value; he just wanted his young man to embrace the happiness that belonged to him again.

Calmly answering the system in his mind: "No destruction, no construction. If I don't break the shackles in his heart and let him fully unleash his inner malice, his corruption value will never be eliminated."

He'd said it long ago—his young man was released from the abyss of hell with a demon's memories. The malice in him hadn't faded; it was just buried deep in his heart, carefully and desperately held down by his boy.

Afraid that showing it would scare him away, but sometimes he couldn't help letting it slip as a warning to himself.

Don't get too comfortable in this happiness and beauty!

Don't trust anyone!

Use any means necessary to hold onto what you want!

Otherwise, when you're betrayed, abandoned, and thrown back into hell, the pain will be unbearable—you'll wish you were dead.

With a demon like that hidden in his heart, how could his boy ever live peacefully and happily if it wasn't let out?

The system was horrified: "Host, your plan is way too risky! One wrong move and the corruption value hits max, the mission fails, the world falls apart, and you, the male lead, and everyone else dies!"

Su Zheng paused, then raised an eyebrow slightly. "Dying with him? At least I won't be alone. Not bad at all."

The system's data trembled: "Host, snap out of it! If you two die, what happens to everyone else? They'll be your tombs!"

Su Zheng didn't reply, just thought to himself: Since when did that kid become more important to me than the mission?

As the system breathed a sigh of relief that the corruption value had stabilized, it asked Su Zheng what he planned to do next.

Su Zheng asked, "System, tell me what the male lead is up to. Why did he suddenly snap?"

"Well, he went back and forth between crying and laughing for a while. Then he calmed down, stayed silent, and had no expression. He got off your bed, called the Shadow Guard, and grilled them about your movements while he was away. He also interrogated the palace servants inside and out, and had them search your personal treasury."

After reporting, the system asked weakly: "Host, could he already suspect you faked your death and left? Did he figure out that the replica wasn't really you? That can't be right!"

Su Zheng was a little stunned, then smirked and said to the system: "Find a pawnshop and show me the way. Those things I brought from the palace will be useful. Let's pawn them, get some silver, go shopping, and head back to the inn when it gets dark to sleep."

Over the next few days, Su Zheng just got up, went out, ate and wandered around, came back to the inn to sleep, and hit the pawnshop whenever he ran out of money.

Until that afternoon, the system informed Su Zheng: "The male lead found you."

Su Zheng stopped walking and murmured, "Finally here, huh?"

The system told him the Shadow Guards had found his location two days ago.

But Luo Yunchen, after knowing, didn't let the Shadow Guards take any action. He only ordered them to follow him secretly. He didn't come himself. No one knew why he waited until today. Was he hesitating?

Su Zheng pushed aside his tangled feelings—partly hopeful and happy, partly low and gloomy—and kept eating and wandering like nothing was wrong.

Luo Yunchen followed him at a moderate distance, a sinister smile on his lips, staring intently at Su Zheng.

He watched him stop in front of a sugar figurine vendor, watched him order a small human-shaped sugar figurine. The figurine's features were indistinguishable; upon closer look, one could only make out two strands of hair in front of the temples.

Luo Yunchen subconsciously twisted his own hair strands. That wasn't Su Zheng's hairstyle, but it bore some resemblance to his own.

Luo Yunchen's shoulders trembled, and he let out a demented low chuckle. His voice was slightly hoarse as he murmured to himself: "Brother is so cruel, always making me happy so easily, yet deceiving me to the point of immense pain! I have to punish my brother a bit..."

Whether intentionally or not, Su Zheng wandered to increasingly remote areas with fewer and fewer people.

Luo Yunchen followed Su Zheng openly, gradually closing the distance between them.

Just as Su Zheng was wondering if Luo Yunchen was about to make a move, a volley of arrows flew diagonally straight toward Su Zheng.

At the moment the arrow rain broke through the air, Luo Yunchen's gaze turned fierce. In an instant, he flew in front of Su Zheng, pulling him tightly into his arms to protect him. While turning his back to the direction of the arrows, he drew his sword with his other hand, swung it in a flourish, and deflected the incoming arrows.