Chapter 500: That is Poor Fate
Chapter 500: That is Poor Fate
The scene before Wang Xiaokai’s eyes resembled movie special effects, leaving him momentarily stunned.
“It can’t be! How could this be my fate?!”
A terrified scream came from the far end of the corridor. Wang Xiaokai turned to see a girl in a short skirt crawling desperately on the floor, as if fleeing something invisible. With each movement, fresh wounds split open across her body, blood pooling beneath her. The rancid smell of iron filled the air, confirming this nightmare was real.
Wang Xiaokai’s pupils shrank. Frozen in terror, his mind blanked – what office worker ever witnessed such horrors?
A hand suddenly clamped onto his skull, slamming him face-first into the ground before he could blink.
“Tired of living?!”
The voice in his ear jolted Wang Xiaokai back to awareness.
“You’re that homeless man!”
Wang Xiaokai recognized the stranger pinning him down – the same eccentric homeless man who’d caught the black cat on their street two weeks prior.
Homeless man?
The term made the three who’d fled inside pause. The other two shot odd looks at the so-called ‘homeless man’, their expressions twisting strangely.
“Nonsense! You’re the homeless one.”
The trench-coated man smacked Wang Xiaokai’s head.
“Call me Wang Feng!”
Rubbing his sore scalp, Wang Xiaokai couldn’t fathom their calmness. A life was ending outside – this was his workplace! If the police sealed it off, would he even get paid?
“Er… Old Man Wang, what’s happening out there?”
Old Man Wang?
Wang Feng dismissed correcting this idiot.
“That’s Fate!”
His expression hardened as he produced a pitch-black book covered in bizarre symbols. The others drew similar tomes, each bearing different markings.
“Fate? What fate?”
Wang Xiaokai eyed them warily. Shouldn’t they be helping? He might be a frail office drone, but these men had shattered reinforced glass doors! Normal people couldn’t do that.
As the girl’s whimpers faded, Wang Xiaokai blurted: “Why read books instead of saving her?”
“Shut it!”
A bald man glared with murderous eyes. Wang Xiaokai shrank back – that gaze spoke of killers and dark compromises.
“Found it! Sequence 97 – Fateful Death!”
The final speaker’s feminine voice surprised him. He’d mistaken her for a man due to her outfit.
“Top hundred Fates? Hell’s teeth!”
Wang Feng’s expression darkened as the outside world fell completely silent. The three of them noticed this and moved even more carefully, as if guarding against something. Yet Wang Xiaokai peered outside repeatedly – there was clearly nothing there.
“The noise stopped. Rona’s resigned to her fate,” the bald man said grimly. The Rona he mentioned was presumably the woman outside.
“What now? You can’t escape Fateful Death by hiding.”
The last woman also showed fear. Both their gazes settled on Wang Feng. Their expressions made it clear he was the leader of their group.
“So… what’s Fateful Death? And what’s this ‘top hundred’ thing?”
Wang Xiaokai finally blurted out after holding back for ages.
The bald man looked ready to explode at the interruption, but Wang Feng cut in first. Standing up, Wang Feng produced a black mahjong tile from his robe and placed it by the doorway. The ‘Wealth’ tile appeared ordinary, but its placement made all three visibly relax.
“This tile buys us twenty minutes. After that, we’re at fate’s mercy.”
Having done this, Wang Feng found a spot to lie down and lit a cigarette.
“Old Man Wang…”
“I’m fucking twenty-seven!”
Wang Feng choked on his smoke, coughing violently before shooting a glare at the approaching Wang Xiaokai.
Twenty-seven?
Wang Xiaokai flushed with embarrassment. The chain-smoking man looked decades older. But street-smart people adapt quickly – noticing Wang Feng’s irritation, he smoothly switched tactics. Producing a cigarette with practiced ease, he offered it like he used to butter up office superiors.
“Brother Wang, could you explain about Fate?”
Tonight’s events had shattered Wang Xiaokai’s perception of reality. He needed basic survival knowledge for whatever came next.
“Heh!”
Wang Feng accepted the cigarette, eyeing the nerdy man.
“You’re unlucky. This makes two Fate encounters for you.”
“That cat incident counts?”
Wang Xiaokai looked bewildered, sensing his mundane life crumbling before a hidden world.
“Cat? That was Poor Fate.”
Wang Feng snorted with contempt, then relented when realizing the man’s genuine ignorance. With twenty minutes to kill, explaining might ease the tension anyway.
“Our world’s not what it seems.”
Wang Xiaokai straightened up, sensing important revelations.
“Know fortune-telling?”
“Sure! Some Zhang fortune-teller said I’d feast on meat daily and ride private cars at thirty!” Wang Xiaokai grimaced. Now he just vomited takeout in company shuttles.
“That’s scams. Real fortune-telling…” Wang Feng finished speaking and pointed upwards.
“See that?”