“Little Huang, do you know? Habit is a very scary thing.”
It was Thursday at the Administrative Department Building, just another day at work. The Deputy Director, Zhuang Hu, had not been sitting in his office for long before he could no longer resist coming outside to catch a middle-management staff member to chat with.
He had no specific target; he would simply pester whoever he happened to run into. This time, the “Falling Dew Snake” was a girl in her twenties.
Zhuang Hu took a deep breath. It was inconvenient to smoke a cigar in the workplace, so he had to settle for a phantom puff. Then, he opened his mouth and spoke with a tone of heavy significance.
“Habit is truly terrifying. If a person is accustomed to things being a certain way for many years, they will become restless and anxious the moment the status quo changes. In their eyes, the original state of things was natural and right, making any change unacceptable. Do you understand?”
The female clerk, Little Huang, shook her head blankly.
“Gosh,” Zhuang Hu sighed, feeling lonely at the top.
He took the water cup from the girl’s desk without asking, unscrewed the lid to take a sip, and continued.
“Take me, for example. I have grown accustomed to speaking with you all every day, passing down a bit of life experience. But you young people have hearts higher than the sky and are always aiming for things beyond your reach. You always think the advice of us elders is outdated and not worth listening to. Sigh, without the experience of your elders, how do you expect to climb upward?”
The young girl secretly rolled her eyes. ‘What use is your experience? If I were your age, I could be a Deputy Director too.’
Regardless, once Zhuang Hu had said his piece, he turned around and went back to his office to relax.
Little Huang looked at the water cup he had returned, her eyes filling with disgust as she pushed it aside.
‘When it’s time for the lunch break, I’ll go out and buy a new one.’
Just then, her Supervisor walked over from the side and quietly patted her shoulder. “Xiao Huang, pay attention to the messages in the work group in a moment. Once a notice appears, leave immediately.”
“Leave?”
“Yes, leave the building. The faster, the better. If you’re physically fit enough, jumping out the window is fine too. I won’t say more; I have to notify the next person. Have you seen your colleagues?”
The atmosphere in the building began to shift subtly, but Zhuang Hu, who had just returned to his office, remained completely unaware.
As a self-proclaimed transmitter of wisdom, he was certainly not popular in daily life, but he did spend a lot of time thinking. He thought about heaven and earth, about this and that; he thought about others, and he thought about himself.
The last time he met Chu Cang, the man’s inadvertent remarks had left a deep impression on him.
‘Habit, ah, habit.’
That day, Chu Cang had mentioned that Wen Shengqing had stood in the sunlight for his entire life, becoming accustomed to receiving all the applause and flowers. This had become the key to Wen Shengqing being manipulated.
There were four other people in the room at the time. When Chu Cang said it, the others just listened, but only Zhuang Hu took it to heart.
Habit made it impossible for them to adapt to life after the Ghost Resolution Cult. Habit made them constantly yearn for the days when they could do as they pleased. That was why they had established the Supreme Society under Chu Cang’s leadership.
Habit was the sculpture carved by the years.
‘Let’s just pass the time. I’m quite comfortable anyway.’
Zhuang Hu subconsciously reached for his pocket but failed to find his favorite brand of cigar. His eyes dazed for a moment before he realized he was at work.
The Leader had once said that one’s public identity must be kept separate from one’s true self. Small gestures and habits had to be hidden; otherwise, flaws would be discovered.
Therefore, he never brought cigars during working hours, only indulging during his afternoon relaxation at the cafe.
But it was still early for the cafe. Zhuang Hu took out his phone and saw it was only 11:00 AM. He would have to ponder the meaning of life for another half an hour before lunch.
However, at that moment, he noticed new messages in the work group. As a Deputy Director, he usually couldn’t be bothered to look at the work group — what leader spends their whole day checking that? Except—
**[Broadcaster Xiao Liu: Everyone in position, the exercise begins!]**
Zhuang Hu frowned.
“Exercise? What exercise?”
He sent a message in the group to ask, but no one responded. After waiting a moment, he left his office to see what was happening, only to realize that the situation outside was wrong.
It was too quiet. The entire building was silent. Not a single figure could be seen at the workstations. The young girl he had been lecturing just moments ago was gone, with only the familiar water cup sitting nearby.
“Where did everyone go?”
No one answered him. There was only the sound of the wind whistling outside the window… Wait. The sound of wind outside the window?
In an instant, Zhuang Hu discovered the biggest problem — he usually kept the windows closed. How could there be wind blowing in?
The second this thought rose in his mind, he rolled across the floor. A blade of wind as sharp as a knife slashed through the spot where he had just been standing, splitting the girl’s workstation in two.
As one of the team’s mortal enemies, he recognized the visitor immediately. “Shen Ning? Why are you here…”
“Because I want your life!”
The one who answered him was not the murderous girl, but another beautiful and crisp voice that made Zhuang Hu’s face pale with shock.
“Zhuang Hu!” Xu Chuyao charged out from the corner of the hallway. “Your time has come!”
She did not come alone. Flickering lightning surrounded her exquisite figure, with purple and gold interlacing within it, revealing an extraordinary aura.
“You are also Level 4.” A drop of sweat trickled down Zhuang Hu’s forehead. More than sarcasm, he felt curiosity. “But why were you able to come here to find me, and…”
And how did they get everyone else in the department to leave without making a sound?
“Oh, that,” Xu Chuyao said as she clearly showed a medal. “It was because of the orders I gave them. Your Director received the orders and deployed them himself.”
“Impossible… how could…”
Before Zhuang Hu could finish, he saw the medal Xu Chuyao held out. It was a Six-Silver-Star Medal. His eyes widened instantly. Seizing the opportunity, several more invisible blades of wind slashed toward him through the desks and chairs.
These wind blades were different from usual; they were completely transparent and invisible. In the blink of an eye, the upper half of Zhuang Hu’s body Misted. He was shredded into several pieces by the wind, but in a short time, he condensed again, restoring his human form.
This was his life-saving skill, very effective against physical damage. But after restoring himself, his expression was hideous as his gaze fell upon the medal in Xu Chuyao’s hand.
“You…”
He wasn’t envious that Li Yao held such a high rank at such a young age, but rather what it represented.
Had that Marshal, who was so accustomed to flowers and applause, finally decided to clean up the filth he had hidden away?
Just then, a bolt of golden lightning struck. Zhuang Hu instinctively Misted to dodge. A few breaths later, he restored his human body, only to feel a sudden numbness in his left shoulder. He let out a piercing scream.
“Aaaagh! Hrrgh! Argh!”
The scream was distorted because it carried an electronic tone, making it sound inhuman.
Xu Chuyao silently looked at her small hand. Was the Spear of Gungnir this weak? Previously, when she hit people, they died instantly; she hadn’t given them a chance to wail.
Zhuang Hu’s level was half a step higher than hers, so Divine Punishment had not completed the kill. However, the high amount of damage left him screaming and twitching in pain.
Misting could dodge the invisible wind blades, but it could not escape the lethal lightning spear. The power was too strong; he couldn’t take many hits. But if he focused all his energy on fighting the Thunder Girl, the wind-blowing girl nearby certainly wouldn’t just stand and watch.
He had to run!
Zhuang Hu made a split-second decision. He chose to flee, transforming his entire body into a cloud of mist to escape toward the window, only to slam headfirst into a blazing wall of fire.
“Aaargh! It burns! Help! It hurts!”
This time it was truly painful, even more so than being struck by lightning. The violent elemental damage completely countered his physical immunity skill, forcing him to condense from his mist form. If he stayed as mist for a moment longer, he would have evaporated entirely.
Level 4! A third Level 4!
Being hunted by three enemies of the same level, Zhuang Hu felt a moment of despair. “Xu Chuyao! Why me? I didn’t even do anything!”
Saying he had done nothing was a bit of a lie, but he felt that no matter what, he had at least done less than the others. Why was it him instead of them?
“Don’t worry,” the girl’s cold voice drifted over. “You are just the first. It won’t be long before I send the others to find you in the underworld.”
A hand lifted him from the ground, and the aura of raging fire suddenly drew near. He raised his head and met a pair of eyes filled with hatred.
“I remember you. You were there that day,” Yu Yan said.
Then, the flames erupted from her entire body.
***