Chapter 201: The Cost of Rebellion
To get back to the story.
Lin Feng received a mysterious phone call. Hearing a mature woman’s voice, he hung up and blacklisted the number without giving it much thought, feeling an urgent need for a day’s enjoyment.
After spending a full four hours dealing with company affairs, Lin Feng felt fulfilled for a week. He went out to have fun until dawn and returned home alone at two in the morning, taking a bath and lying on his bed.
This time, he didn’t bring back the female companion from yesterday, instead lying alone in the cool room, the beautiful view of the river outside lulling him into a dream.
A female voice called his name: “Lin Feng, Lin Feng.”
Lin Feng opened his eyes to find the room was blurry, filled with gray mist. In front of his bed, behind layers of fog, a vague silhouette was suspended, with an alluring figure that could be female, eyes glowing like stars in a nebula.
“Who?”
Lin Feng was startled, trying to stand or sit up but found his limbs powerless.
Sleep paralysis?
His first thought was that he was dreaming.
The mysterious being said, “You can understand your situation in a few minutes.”
Lin Feng realized his consciousness was clear. He shook his head and even stuck out his tongue, biting it lightly with his teeth; a slight pain confirmed he wasn’t trapped in a dream and felt no fatigue.
“I’m not dreaming?”
“I did not permit you to ask me questions.”
“What should I call you?”
“An affluent life has made you lose your reverence.”
As soon as the words fell, Lin Feng felt a tingling sensation climbing up his spine, his neck losing control, his face unable to show any expression besides blinking and moving his mouth.
“You can call me the Demon King.” The mysterious being—also known as Ji Ma—continued, “I have chosen you. You may call yourself the Chosen One or the unluckiest person in the world. I will bestow upon you some magical power to fulfill your inner desires.”
Lin Feng’s scalp tingled; he had denied all mystical phenomena in his life, yet here it was, truly seeking him out. His heart raced with excitement, though his face reflected little emotion as he said:
“I’m really lucky.”
“There is a price.”
Lin Feng held his breath, silently estimating the value. As long as he could have a thrilling extraordinary experience, he could transfer the company and provide her with whatever unique items she desired, even something underground.
Ji Ma then stated: “Three million as an entry fee.”
Lin Feng blinked and couldn’t help but ask, “Three million?”
“Yes.”
Lin Feng shifted his gaze away from Ji Ma, looking around to see if there were any smoke machines or scientific methods behind this realistic effect.
After confirming there was nothing, he felt a wave of disappointment.
Just money, only three million.
He seemed to perceive that beneath this mysterious facade was just a worker troubled by mortgage payments, akin to those lamenting their poverty in group chats.
The mysterious mystique suddenly felt vulgar.
Ji Ma sensed Lin Feng’s deep-seated disappointment. She had checked a bank card of his and found three million to be a manageable amount. She was worried that someone like Lin Feng, a rich man, might have some mysterious forces protecting him, so she didn’t plan to go hard on him.
But Ji Ma didn’t know that Lin Feng had stashed his large sums in other bank cards, with regular savings accounts that didn’t use his ID for opening.
“Ten million; I prefer round numbers.” Lin Feng stated, “But with an additional condition: can we meet? Or what can you offer me?”
“I didn’t come here to negotiate with you.” The seductive woman in the gray mist raised her hand: “Now, I bestow upon you the ‘Gift of Profanity,’ which is closely tied to your future.”
A mysterious force, like an eel jumping from a refrigerator, drilled into Lin Feng’s forehead and into his body. The sensation was so clear that Lin Feng was sure she had truly granted him the so-called “Gift of Profanity.”
Ji Ma tossed out, “By ten o’clock tomorrow evening, transfer three million to the designated bank card.”
Then her figure vanished, and the gray mist dissipated.
Lin Feng’s body regained sensation; he sat up abruptly from the bed and jumped off.
The gray mist vanished before him.
Outside, the river reflected the city’s dazzling lights, the air conditioning wafted a refreshing breeze. He picked up the remote and turned it up a notch, then stepped out, walking around the house a few times before returning to the bedroom, his heart racing with excitement.
On the bedside table lay a white paper with a crooked scrawl of numbers.
Lin Feng picked it up, inspecting it from all angles before lying back down.
Eventually, sleep overtook him, and he would wake, glance at the slip, and then drift off again. The night felt extraordinarily long until dawn began to break.
Unable to hold back any longer, Lin Feng picked up his phone and blindly dialed a familiar number.
It was his right-hand man.
Lin Feng knew that calling at his level wasn’t particularly safe; face-to-face communication would be better, but he simply couldn’t wait.
The call connected.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” Lin Feng replied. “Get things ready. Deliver them to my home by the Huangpu River before six o’clock tomorrow evening. Six hundred.”
“Got it.”
The call ended.
Lin Feng felt a sense of relief.
The next day, Lin Feng went about his “ordinary” day, the only difference being that he canceled all his appointments and gatherings.
When he returned home and opened the door, he found a small black package next to the shoe rack.
He closed the door and unzipped it. Inside lay fewer than twenty gold bars; the so-called gold bars measured 116mm long, 52mm wide, and 8mm thick. He held one in his hand, finding it narrow, fine, and thin but heavy.
The gold bar reflected Lin Feng’s face, devoid of any markings because the gold bars were made by him.
Gold is a global hard currency and also a great tool for bribery, even more useful than cash, which he used frequently.
Lin Feng tossed the gold bar into the black bag and grabbed it. Such a small amount of gold could serve as a stepping stone into the mysterious world, but Lin Feng still felt quite disappointed.
All the windows were already drawn with curtains, which had been prepared long ago. Lin Feng sat on the couch and arranged the dozen or so gold bars on the coffee table.
He didn’t transfer a single cent to the bank card left by the mysterious being.
Lin Feng wasn’t someone who could easily be intimidated; since the other party wanted money, that was fine; he had plenty of it. If they wanted three million, he would give six million, just not in the way they wanted.
If they wanted money, they could come before him to take the gold bars, and they could discuss the future.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes, ten minutes.
It was already past ten o’clock, and the mysterious entity still hadn’t appeared.
But Lin Feng wasn’t anxious; he was quite patient, with his phone being quite helpful in passing the time.
By eleven o’clock, with no sign of the mysterious being, Lin Feng took a shower, finishing up by eleven-thirty, and realized the gold bars were still there.
He calmed himself down; he planned to sleep early tonight. Before heading to bed, he subconsciously checked his phone and opened QQ.
Someone had sent a series of loli-themed pictures in a QQ group, @ing everyone: “Which one do you want to be?”
Lin Feng chuckled, selecting a picture of a long-legged, white-stockinged loli with an extremely revealing outfit, replying, “This one is me.”
The next second, Lin Feng felt darkness envelop him, his body went limp on the ground, and a mature woman’s voice echoed in his ears: “…its performance is closely tied to your future…”
It felt like a thousand years had passed or perhaps just a second.
Lin Feng awoke on the cold ceramic tiles, feeling very cold. How did he end up on the floor?
He felt weak and struggled to turn over and get up. He worked out his legs almost daily, and his body was fairly strong.
With his hands pressed against the floor, he slowly got up. His hair had grown long, the dark gray tips brushing against his cheek and dangling onto the ground. He straightened up and looked around.
The space around him was a small room, very similar to his bathroom but not quite, as there was no bathtub. The door in front of him was closed, with a sign hanging on it that Lin Feng could read quite clearly in the dim light.
It read: “Look in the mirror behind you.”
Lin Feng turned to look; the little beauty in the mirror also turned to face him. Lin Feng raised his hand, and the beauty in the mirror raised hers as well. He realized that the beauty in the mirror was actually himself, his eyes widening in surprise, while the little beauty in the mirror widened her bright golden eyes in astonishment.
The little beauty in the mirror, her beauty did not exist in reality, and it was precisely this that made Lin Feng’s heart quiver.
Her hair was light gray-brown overall, but the closer it got to the tips, the color faded to black, with the inner side being golden. It seemed to be highlights; Lin Feng had seen highlights in reality but never liked them, as hair strands are messy with mixed colors.
Her skin color resembled that of wheat, considered dark-skinned, and the most striking feature was her slender legs that occupied nearly two-thirds of her height, wrapped in pure white stockings. Though her legs were excessively long, they were well-proportioned with her body, lacking any imperfections.
Lin Feng had seen many tall beauties in reality, but they always had flaws—either their legs were too long, squeezing their upper body and making them appear waistless, or their face wasn’t good, or their breasts were unattractive…
But the little beauty before him seemed perfectly designed; she had a distinct waistline beneath her chest, while still being slender enough, even with her upper body taking up only one-third, she didn’t look bulky.
Such a figure could never exist in reality; it was crafted, transcending reality, existing only in fantasy.
Now, Lin Feng had acquired a body conceived in fantasy. His hand, gloved in black, trembled in excitement as he cupped his face, filled with uncontainable joy.
A strong sense of novelty stimulated his nerves, which had grown numb from boredom. She leaned close to the mirror, realizing her pupils were cat-like, with vertical slits.
While gazing at the beauty in the mirror, Lin Feng drew closer, unable to resist sticking out his tongue to lick the mirror surface, tasting its coldness. The sensation of the mirror’s taste embedded itself in her memory.
But the mirror was foggy, and Lin Feng, frightened, quickly wiped it clean, revealing clarity once more; it turned out he had fogged it up with his excited breath.
After ten minutes, Lin Feng finally moved his gaze away from the mirror, noticing a white crisscross dress hanging nearby, its design mysterious and unlike anything in reality. Without another word, he put it on and, after donning it, turned to admire himself in the mirror.
The more he looked, the more familiar it became, until he suddenly remembered.
Wasn’t this the loli-themed image he had responded to in the QQ group before blacking out?
A line of blood-red text appeared in the mirror, as if written in lipstick:
“….wait until I become a loli, then drain my group friends…”
It had once been a joke between Lin Feng and his group friends.
What kind of joke is this?
Lin Feng’s expression changed, and he stepped back. Even granting a hypothetical scenario, why would he drain his friends if they hadn’t lent him any money?
And even if he went a hundred million steps back, what he had become… didn’t count as a loli either.
More like a young lady.
The door behind him swung open on its own, causing Lin Feng to lose his balance, stepping back a few paces in his high-heeled boots.
In the soft pink light, a greasy otaku, standing about 1.8 meters tall, bare-chested with an obvious belly, patted the bed beside him and chuckled, “The rich loli is all cleaned up; come on over.”
“Bang!”
The door behind him slammed shut on its own.
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Supplement update 4/6
Due to someone making a substantial donation, I had to add more content; I owe you even more now, sob sob.
