NOVEL NEXT chapter 22 - The First World (22)
From the emotions conveyed by the tool linked to their connection, it was clear that Yun Mingchen absolutely harbored murderous intentions toward his parents.
Just as Yu Tong poked his head out and was preparing to leap like a cat, claws outstretched, Yun Mingchen suddenly raised his hand to press against his chest and, with a single finger, shoved him back.
Yu Tong covered his head in confusion for a moment, considering two possible scenarios.
One was that there were too many people around, and Yun Mingchen felt that now was not the right time and planned to wait for a more opportune moment to act.
The other was that Yun Mingchen had been PUA'd for too long, and lacked the courage to oppose his parents, intending to continue enduring.
After all, not everyone is skilled at handling family conflicts or capable of harming their biological parents.
Yu Tong couldn’t figure out what the antagonist was really thinking, and he felt a bit panicked.
The system was even more anxious. Since Yun Mingchen had gripped the sword hilt, it had been frantically bouncing around.
【What should we do, what should we do? Although these two old folks are really annoying, they’re his parents. If the antagonist really hurts them, it would violate both the laws and public morals! If he breaks these two hard requirements, then I’ll have failed the task in one go!】
Seeing how nervous it was, Yu Tong asked curiously: ‘What will happen if he breaks the rules? Does the task fail directly?’
【That won’t happen. He’ll be judged by the main system as an ultra-bad scumbag, a villain who’s beyond redemption. His character deviation value will turn negative, and that’s when the antagonist will go dark. The difficulty of the task will shoot up.】
The elite system, whose memory wasn’t great, flipped through the task description while explaining, 【At the same time, he’ll also face some punishment, like illness, disability, and so on. The most important thing is that if it’s our fault for letting the deviation value fall into the negatives, I’ll lose my bonus.】
‘But if Yun Mingchen is killing bad people, will that also be considered a violation?’
【Of course, humans can’t just break the law in the name of justice. Unless their profession justifies it, and they need to kill people in certain situations, otherwise the world would descend into chaos.】
‘Really?’
【Yes, really. Before our world upgraded to a higher plane, such things happened. You wouldn’t know, but for a while, the government came up with these "new entertainment punishments" and "moral punishments," and it caused total chaos, killing many people.】
Yu Tong didn’t quite agree with the system’s view.
The ones enforcing the law weren’t always there on time. The law wasn’t an all-knowing deity, it couldn’t hear the cries of the small dogs.
If Yu Tong had waited for the law to save him, he would have died long ago.
Just like those small dogs in the yard, whose intestines were ripped out by his parents.
Humans and systems don’t share the same joys and sorrows. The system didn’t care if the villain would become disabled, and Yu Tong didn’t particularly care if the system lost its bonus.
After all, it wasn’t his money being deducted.
He was just worried that the villain becoming disabled would make him even more extreme, and that would be a real loss.
There was a heart-to-heart connection between Yu Tong and the villain, and their emotional fluctuations could affect each other, even if only a little.
When Yun Mingchen was anxious, Yu Tong also felt uncomfortable.
When the little cat experienced some happiness from kneading milk, the villain’s tense mood would also slightly ease.
Now, Yu Tong wasn’t solely focused on how to bite off the old couple from the Yun family. With Yun Mingchen’s killing intent slowly subsiding, he furrowed his brows and lowered his head, falling into deep thought.
He grabbed Yun Mingchen’s wrist and coldly asked, “What do you intend to do with the sword? Want to kill us, avenge your dear friend?”
Yun Mingchen reflexively pulled his hand back, his eyes reddening in fright, and he pressed his lips together, not daring to speak.
Everyone present saw him as a fragile punching bag.
Only Yu Tong knew that he was brewing something sinister.
Yu Tong let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed the villain truly intended to get rid of these two troublemakers, just waiting for the right opportunity.
The more weak and anxious Yun Mingchen acted, the more savage Old Master Yun’s expression became.
The look in Old Master Yun’s eyes didn’t resemble that of a father looking at his son, but more like that of a person looking at livestock, giving Yu Tong a strong sense of déjà vu.
He stared at Old Master Yun for a ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ while, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind.
Every time it neared the New Year, his parents would look at the pigs in the pigsty with the same expression.
To make the pigs fat and plump, they fed them a lot of delicious food. They cared about their health and would spend a lot of money treating them when they were sick.
It was just like how Yun Mingchen’s parents treated him.
Yu Tong froze, his tail instantly bristling.
Since Yun Mingchen’s birth, his parents had been exploiting his physical issues, subjecting him to constant manipulation.
If it was just to climb the Wen family’s ladder, they wouldn’t have tortured little Mingchen from such a young age.
His earlier guess was correct. Yun Mingchen’s birth was part of a plan by his parents. In their eyes, he wasn’t their child, but a carefully cultivated tool.
Yu Tong even suspected that Yun Mingchen’s frailty was also the result of his parents’ manipulation.
No. Even if it meant risking the villain’s disability, these two people couldn’t be left alive.
While Yu Tong was thinking, Yun Mingchen started arguing with Old Master Yun again.
Old Master Yun hit him with a ruler dozens of times, while Madam Yun gently comforted her husband.
Then the two of them forcibly dragged Yun Mingchen out of the hall.
The busy servants and guards in the mansion seemed to have long been accustomed to this scene. They continued with their work, though some sympathy would show in their eyes when they looked at Yun Mingchen.
The system, watching for a while, also felt that the villain was pitiful.
It took a leave for tomorrow and planned to go to the shopping street to buy some useful little props, hoping to help the villain.
In order to not seem cold-hearted, Yu Tong pretended to shed a few tears of sympathy.
Old Master Yun dragged Yun Mingchen through the back door and into a carefully tended garden, walking deeper inside.
They finally arrived at a secluded, unkempt forest.
Yun Mingchen seemed to have a shadow here, his fear no longer just on the surface.
The anxiety and oppressive feeling, which were so strong that they made it hard to breathe, were conveyed to Yu Tong through their connection.
His fur bristled, and his body began to shake uncontrollably.
Noticing the little cat’s unease, Yun Mingchen broke free from Madam Yun’s hand and raised his hand to hold Yu Tong’s head, rubbing his little cat face with his fingers.
For some reason, despite the system having installed the ‘human-cat separation’ tool, Yu Tong couldn’t help but tilt his head up, gently rubbing against the villain’s palm.
At that moment, he suddenly felt that Yun Mingchen’s hand was big and warm.
No wonder the little cat liked having its head rubbed. He liked it too.
After entering the forest and reaching their destination, Yu Tong finally understood why the villain had such a strong reaction.
In the depths of the dense forest, there was an open area with six tombstones.
The tombstone closest to Yu Tong had a small inscription.
【Mingchen’s secret friend, 8 years old, crushed to death by a large truck.】
Below it was a black-and-white photo of a round-faced boy smiling brightly at the camera.
The tombstone next to it had the same inscription, but the photo showed another boy.
Yu Tong stared at the tombstones in front of him, unable to speak for a moment.
【Mingchen’s rescued disabled puppy, 6 months old, scalded to death after falling into boiling water.】
【Mingchen’s help-seeking police officer, 29 years old, died suddenly due to obsession.】
【Mingchen’s privately hired psychologist, 67 years old, died in a fire.】
【Mingchen’s teacher who wanted to understand his family situation, 22 years old, jumped to his death.】
The system, which had been silent, couldn’t help but curse, 【What the hell, this is truly monstrous... Looking at this, the Yun family’s influence is really huge...】
Since entering the forest, Yun Mingchen had been panting heavily.
The system, worried that the villain might faint, suggested that Yu Tong step on the milk a bit to help relieve some of the pressure.
Just as it was about to speak, it saw Yu Tong shaking even more than Yun Mingchen.
The system was startled, 【Little Yu, little Yu, are you alright? Why are you on vibration mode? Don’t scare me, what happened?!】
The cold joke didn’t ease the tension.
After confirming that there were no cameras in the forest, and no one from the Yun family around, Yu Tong, as if triggered, leapt from Yun Mingchen’s clothes with a “meow” and flew straight at Old Master Yun’s face, sinking his teeth into his eye.
The cat leap was a 100% hit teleportation skill. Old Master Yun, caught off guard, had his eye torn out.
He howled in anger and grabbed Yu Tong’s tail, slamming him to the ground.
Before hitting the ground, Yu Tong used his skill again. His body froze momentarily in the air before swiftly darting toward Madam Yun.
Madam Yun, who had been prepared, still couldn’t avoid the 100% hit skill.
Yu Tong hung onto Madam Yun’s face, then turned to meow at Yun Mingchen, who was still standing in place.
“Dog man! Don’t just stand there, help me take them down! Let’s kill these two bastards! Kill them, kill them!”
Yun Mingchen: !