Almighty Genius

"Alright, I'll give it a try!"

After much deliberation, Qin Fang still felt it was the only way to gather his tuition, so with Sun Ping's assistance, he moved a second-hand computer of uncertain origins out of the Gold-Farming Studio and into his temporarily rented apartment.

"Brother Long, see that kid? Beat him to a pulp, it doesn't matter if you break his hands or legs, just don't kill him..."

Just outside the studio, not far away, a black Mercedes was parked next to a van occupied by several shady-looking individuals. Inside the Mercedes sat Li Feng, who had just successfully driven Qin Fang away, along with a menacing muscular man whose arm bore a tattoo of an Azure Dragon and whose face was covered with aggressive features.

Watching Qin Fang move away with the old computer, Li Feng's eyes flashed with malice, and he turned to the fearsome muscular man beside him, Brother Long, and said,

"Don't worry, Young Master Feng, I, A Long, will handle the task you gave me perfectly..."

The robust man revealed a grin that distorted his fierce features, but this brought a sense of satisfaction to Li Feng's eyes.

"Qin Fang, let's see how you compete with me..."

As Brother Long led his underlings, creeping up behind Qin Fang who was carrying the outdated computer, Li Feng instructed his driver to follow slowly, deliberately maintaining a certain distance.

Qin Fang had no clue about any of this; though he was not in a good mood, the thought that he had not yet reached a dead end lightened his heart. Passing by an alleyway, which offered a shortcut to his place, he unhesitatingly entered it.

The muscular man and his group had been looking for an opportunity. Although they were used to fighting, being too ostentatious on the main street was not ideal, especially when they intended to break Qin Fang's limbs. An alley like this was the perfect spot for their deed.

While they had originally planned to forcibly drag Qin Fang into the alley to do the deed, they didn't expect him to walk in there on his own. Brother Long made a subtle sign to his underlings, and they immediately surrounded the area.

Qin Fang wasn't in a hurry, the computer case wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't light either, and the long walk had was somewhat draining. However, he didn't anticipate that the path ahead of him would be blocked by two men in plaid shirts with dyed green hair, clearly troublemakers. Despite their breathlessness, their gaze towards Qin Fang was hostile.

Almost instinctively, Qin Fang pinched the envelope in his pocket, which contained all the wages he had earned over the past month. The thought of it being stolen by these thugs was too much to bear, and he edged closer to the corner of the wall, hoping to slip by unnoticed.

However, after the two thugs caught their breath and regained some composure, they saw Qin Fang hugging the wall and purposely leaned against it themselves. Then, smiling craftily at Qin Fang, one drew a wooden stick from the side and swung it a couple of times, creating an ominous whistling sound.

This is bad!

A sense of dread hit Qin Fang.

Reacting almost reflexively, he turned to head back, only to see a burly man with a mean look, flanked by two thugs, approaching him. The burly man was empty-handed, but the thugs accompanying him were not.

"What...what do you want to do?"

Qin Fang, having just graduated from high school with excellent grades and no exposure to such elements, was terrified at the sight of them and his voice quavered as he spoke, his face full of fear.

"What do we want to do?"

The burly man let out a cold sneer, then gestured with a large hand and commanded softly, "Go on, do it!"

Thwack~~

Qin Fang didn't even have the chance to react before a stick smashed into his back, sending an intense searing pain through him. The computer case he was holding tumbled to the ground as his shoulder twisted in an attempt to mitigate the blow from the stick.

Thwack~~~

Unfortunately, the thugs didn't intend to stop there. Another stick came crashing down, causing Qin Fang even more agonizing pain. Led by the burly Brother Long, several thugs began to punch and kick Qin Fang relentlessly.

"I'm fighting back!"

Even a clay Buddha has three points of anger. In such a moment, Qin Fang could not just passively take the beating. He immediately shouted loudly, picked up the computer case, and swung it at Brother Long's head, who was closest to him. If it connected, Brother Long's fat head would surely burst open on impact.

"Brother Long..."

One of the thugs, with keen eyes, raised an alarm. At the same time, he swung his stick recklessly at Qin Fang's body. The force behind it was no longer controlled as before.

Thwack~~

Just as Qin Fang was about to strike with the computer case, his body jerked, and the stick from behind harshly struck the back of his head. Suddenly, the world spun around him, then everything went black as he fell to the ground, the computer case slipping weakly from his grip. His head hit it on the way down, and blood poured out profusely...

"We've got a dead body here!"

Such a scene stunned the thugs. One braver than the rest checked Qin Fang's breathing—there was none—and instantly turned pale as he spoke.

"Dead?"

Brother Long was also frightened. Although he acted like a boss, he was just a thug at heart. He dared to fight, but murder? That really took more courage than he had!

He glanced around the alley. Apart from those left to watch at the entrance, no one noticed what was happening inside. Without any further concern for whether their beating had been lethal to Qin Fang, Brother Long gave a low command, "Let's go... and take all the stuff with us!"

The other thugs had no objections. Murder was not petty theft—if they got caught, they might never see the outside of a prison again. In the blink of an eye, they scattered, leaving Qin Fang's "corpse" alone in the silent, deserted alley.

Although Brother Long and the others were gone, Li Feng in the Mercedes at the alley's entrance watched Qin Fang lying there with a smile. He didn't come over but judged from the bloodstains beneath Qin Fang and the hurried escape of Brother Long and his gang that the situation had escalated—so much so that even a thug like Brother Long didn't dare to stay.

The blood was still flowing.

It seeped through the thin shell of the computer case, quickly soaking the motherboard, hard drive, graphics card, and so on...

A gentle azure light flashed in an instant, emanating from a component inside the computer case. It then moved as if it were a living creature, following the trail of blood into Qin Fang's head, and vanished without a trace.

At the same time, Qin Fang's previously still breath was faintly recovering...