Chen Ge's heart pounded violently, stirred by an unprecedented feeling.
Neither before nor after his transmigration had anyone cared about him like this, aside from his family.
Even if the person Lin Xiyue cared about was the original "Chen Ge," not him!
He pulled a cigarette from his pack, lit it, and took several deep drags. Calmed by the rush of nicotine, the surging emotions inside him gradually settled, and he raised his fingers to type a reply.
C: *Haha, turns out someone in this world actually cares about me. It's pretty touching.*
C: *You don't need to agonize over my fate anymore. I swear to heaven, becoming a mercenary was my own choice, not something I was forced into. Maybe I'm just a psycho too! I enjoy the thrill of killing!*
L: *Uh... that kink of yours really is psycho, even more twisted than mine. But different paths lead to the same destination—we're both abnormal weirdos, hahaha.*
L: *Woohoo~ Happy, so happy I could fly! The guy I was mourning over is just as much of a freak as I am! Awesome!*
Chen Ge leaned back against the headboard and fell into deep thought, because he really was a bona fide anomaly.
*Having fused with wolf spider genes, do I even count as human anymore?*
*Probably, maybe, perhaps, most likely not, right?*
He didn't know if he counted as human.
Yet he knew all too well that while the wolf spider genes granted him superhuman abilities, they had also etched bestial ferocity into his DNA. During last night's battle, he had discovered with shock that the sweet, metallic tang of blood ignited his predatory instincts, sending him into a state of intense, agitated hyper-excitement. It gave him immense satisfaction, leaving him desperately craving more prey to hunt down.
This was rather awkward. Calling someone "feral" was an exaggeration when used to insult others, but applied to him, it was an exact description.
Whatever. Even if he didn't count as human biologically, he would still choose to act like one. There were far too many people in this world who failed to act human—greed, betrayal, trampling on their own kind... If a "human" was defined by conscience and a moral baseline, then he was more worthy of the title than many so-called people.
Having analyzed and summarized his feelings, Chen Ge's state of mind instantly cleared.
C: *Xiyue, your life shouldn't be wasted like this either. Is your depression cured? If it is, go home and be a wealthy heiress. The outside world is dangerous.*
L: *I wouldn't say cured, but it's not depression either. You've probably noticed that I have a split personality. Usually, I'm pretty normal. To my family, relatives, and friends, I'm a sweet, adorably quiet girl. But once I close my bedroom door, I'm a queen who does whatever she wants!*
L: *As for going home to be a rich heiress? Heh, I'm doing everything I can to escape my toxic family, big brother. Let me tell you a joke: my mom already set me up on a blind date last year with some second-generation rich kid she thought was top-tier. She wants to keep controlling my entire life. Ridiculous, isn't it?*
Chen Ge sighed and shook his head, finally understanding why Lin Xiyue had developed a split personality.
The psychological trauma she suffered in childhood had been too severe, giving rise to a second persona. The better-behaved and sensible she appeared on the outside, the crazier she was on the inside.
Having integrated all of the original "Chen Ge's" memories, he had a general sense of the Lin family's situation, the wealthiest household in their village.
Lin Xiyue's father, Lin Dahai, was upright, honest, and generous, enjoying a stellar reputation.
Her mother, Zhang Caixia, was a far more complicated story. You couldn't call her an evil person; whenever a villager fell on hard times and came begging the Lin family for help, Zhang Caixia would do whatever she could, never looking down on anyone.
However, she was overbearing, obsessed with saving face, intensely controlling, and quick-tempered. Whether dealing with villagers or her own husband, she would never yield an inch if she thought she was in the right, her tongue practically dripping with venom.
She practiced crushing, disparaging parenting on her children, never believing she was at fault and firmly convinced that everything she did was for their own good to groom them for success.
That Lin Xiyue hadn't been completely broken by Zhang Caixia and had merely developed a split personality was practically a miracle.
Her older brother was relatively normal too, if a bit of a mama's boy.
C: *So you planned to finish grad school at Moscow State University, get your doctorate at Peking University, and settle in Shanghai after graduating, all just to hide from your mother?*
L: *Yep. I don't want to be her puppet on strings. But now I've changed my mind. I want to be your business partner.*
C: *???*
L: *Natasha just told me your contract with Wagner expired and you want to start a PMC and be your own boss, right?*
Chen Ge frowned, his thoughts turning tangled.
What did Lin Xiyue mean by that?
C: *Don't tell me you want to be a mercenary? Forget it. With that tiny frame of yours, I doubt you can even lift a rifle.*
L: *Bro, I can invest technical equity! What can I do? Heh, I can be head of intelligence, director of cybersecurity, CFO, head of logistics, HR director, and chief business officer. If we're short-handed, I can also grab a rifle and hit the field. Don't underestimate me—my marksmanship is awesome! I go to the shooting ranges around Moscow all the time, and I once scored 801 rings out of 90 rounds with an HK416D rifle!*
Chen Ge froze for a few seconds, then slapped his forehead, cursing himself for being an idiot.
If Lin Xiyue's computer skills were put toward gathering intelligence, hacking enemy communications, disabling drone video feeds, infiltrating surveillance networks to track targets, and intercepting encrypted intel to trace physical coordinates... She wouldn't even need to pull a trigger herself to stop the enemy from pulling theirs.
In this information age, strictly speaking, the destructive potential of an elite hacker exceeded that of an entire special forces unit.
His interest surged wildly. Just imagine: his raw combat prowess paired with an elite hacker like Lin Xiyue. Dealing with gangs, insurgents, and terrorists—wouldn't that be an absolute curb-stomp from a higher dimension?
Yet as tempting as it was, he didn't want Lin Xiyue getting involved!
What was a PMC?
A Private Military Company or Contractor.
Mind you, not just any outfit had the right to call itself a PMC.
In essence, a PMC was a state instrument wrapped in commercial clothing. It had a registered corporation, formal contracts, and legal provisions, backed from behind by state financing, intelligence, weaponry, and diplomatic immunity.
The jobs it performed were the filthy, exhausting, gray-zone tasks the state could not conveniently handle in broad daylight.
Blackwater's aircraft could take off from US military bases; Wagner's weapons and equipment were requisitioned directly from Russian military depots. That was not commercial procurement; it was an extension of national will.
A PMC without state backing was nothing more than a band of mercenaries—wild dogs of the battlefield. Their equipment relied on black-market arms dealers and salvage; their clients were warlords, drug lords, and mine owners, not sovereign nations.
After a battle, there was nowhere to repair equipment. If wounded, no military hospital would admit them. If killed, there were no pension payouts for their families.
And if captured... congratulations. If you were lucky, you took a bullet to the head. If unlucky, you would be torn apart—literally split to pieces—to live on in this world in another form.
Your kidneys in Europe, heart in the Americas, liver in Asia, and corneas in Oceania.
For female mercenaries, capture was infinitely worse!
Especially for a fair-skinned, beautiful girl like Lin Xiyue, what awaited her was a fate far worse than death.
C: *Go to the battlefield? Did your head get slammed in a door, or did you drink too much tainted Sanlu milk to be acting this crazy? Have you ever seen hell?*
L: *Who are you looking down on? Of course I have. There are tons of horrifying, slaughterhouse-level videos on the foreign web—I watch them all the time.*
C: *What you've watched is child's play. Let me tell you about something I witnessed with my own eyes. This past March, IS attacked and seized a small town, committing horrifying, barbaric atrocities against the local civilians. The scene was utterly gruesome... I can't even dwell on it, or I'll have nightmares!*
C: *If this is just an impulsive whim to chase cheap thrills, drop this dangerous, idiotic idea immediately. There's an old saying: people only love war because they've never experienced it!*
Chapter 29