High atop a building, confidence gleamed in the eyes of the man in the black trench coat.
"After this shot, even a god would die."
As a sniper retained by the family of Count Black Crystal, the man in the black trench coat was brimming with confidence.
His marksmanship was beyond question. Most importantly, the distance was not very far.
A single shot like this was more than enough to claim the target's life.
Beside him stood an ordinary-looking young woman, her face wearing an overbearing, disdainful confidence as if she looked down upon the entire world.
"Good that he's dead. Trash like that isn't even qualified to be my partner. Better to just kill him."
The ordinary woman was named Wang Wei, merely an average company employee.
In the future, possessing no special skills, she would lose her job and ultimately end up as a nanny out of desperation.
Mired in online debt, she grew foul-tempered. Employed by an affluent family specifically to take care of an infant, she grew annoyed by the baby's crying, frequently drugging and abusing the child, until one careless mistake resulted in the infant's death.
She was arrested and thrown into prison.
Originally, such a life was utterly dark and hopeless, but fate played a trick on her—the world reset, and she returned to ten years in the past.
Having returned to ten years ago, she considered herself the chosen darling of the world.
Armed with memories of the past, she did not rush to fulfill cooperation with the families of the Seven Martial Stars, choosing instead to partner with a local power first.
The one she partnered with was the family of Count Black Crystal.
Using her memories from her previous life, she successfully gained the Black Crystal family's trust.
She also knew that in Tianyue City, there was another Resetter.
Because this Resetter was also from Tianyue City, she knew quite a bit about him.
She knew that he would die one year in the future.
In other words, he likely had no memories of the world reset at all.
Naturally selfish, she believed that Tianyue City should have only one Resetter—herself. Only she was the true chosen one of destiny.
Facing Qi Yuan, murderous intent had taken root in her heart.
The fewer special individuals like her existed, the better.
Besides, Qi Yuan would die a year from now and lacked a decade's worth of memories, earning Wang Wei's absolute contempt.
"Follow me, and in the future, you may well earn the right to enter the Seven Martial Stars," Wang Wei promised grandly to the sniper.
Just then, the black-clad sniper's expression suddenly froze. "What's going on? He's not dead!"
Through his scope, he was astonished to see Qi Yuan stepping out of the car.
This completely defied his expectations.
That was the king of sniper rifles. He had seen the bullet punch clean through the car window with his own eyes. Even if Qi Yuan had been wearing body armor, he should have died without a shadow of a doubt.
Wang Wei was also taken aback for a moment, then forced a smile into her eyes. "Looks like he's about to run into some 'luck.'"
An unexpected hitch meant nothing to her.
To hunt Qi Yuan, she had prepared multiple backup plans.
As for running into luck... it was literally running into a Dayun truck.
Down on the road, a Dayun-brand heavy truck accelerated abruptly, howling deafeningly as it violently barreled straight toward Qi Yuan.
The heavy truck looked completely out of control, its speed surging wildly.
Such terrifying impact force could flatten a sedan, to say nothing of a mortal human.
Inside the truck, the ordinarily dressed driver wore a frenzied look, a trace of pity lingering in his eyes as he stared at Qi Yuan.
In a sedan nearby, a male driver slammed hard on his brakes, horror surfacing in his eyes. "Look out!"
Seeing the massive truck charging straight to crush Qi Yuan, he could not help shutting his eyes.
Yet when he opened them, the scene he had anticipated had not occurred.
As if slamming into an invisible wall, the heavy truck flipped clean over in mid-air and crashed right where it stood.
The young man ahead had vanished without a trace in that very instant.
"What happened?"
"Call the police, quick!"
Without hesitation, the driver dialed the police.
He also hurriedly climbed out of his car to see what on earth had taken place.
Not far away, Carnival stared with wide eyes at the wrecked truck that had flipped to a halt. "This... a humanoid tank!"
Though he had not clearly seen Qi Yuan make a move, for an accelerating heavy truck to crash and flip on the spot defied all science.
If Qi Yuan had caused this, then in Carnival's eyes, he was nothing short of a humanoid tank.
Strength of this caliber, even if deployed to the frontiers, was enough to wipe out a gene vanguard squad.
Provided they did not run into high-precision heavy ordnance, of course.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop, the smile on Wang Wei's face froze solid. "What happened? The truck flipped?"
The distance was too great; she could not tell what had happened either.
She tried to reach the driver through the communicator, but the line remained dead silent, without a single sound.
"Did he shove it over? Did he take high-grade gene medicine?" A trace of panic flashed across Wang Wei's face.
"Impossible. Advanced gene medicine is under strict regulation; he isn't qualified to obtain it. There must have been an accident—the truck rolled over!" the black-clad sniper concluded.
Hearing this, Wang Wei breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, she chided herself; her reaction just now had been unbecoming.
As the chosen one of destiny, she ought to possess the psychological composure to watch mountains collapse before her without batting an eye.
"Where is he?" Wang Wei lifted her binoculars and peered at the overturned truck, but could find no sign of Qi Yuan at all.
"He... probably fled in the confusion. No matter, I'll report to higher-ups. In Tianyue City, he won't be able to run!"
The black-clad sniper picked up his communicator to coordinate with the rest of the Black Crystal family.
Wang Wei looked down at the truck, a smile surfacing in her eyes once more. "Count him lucky."
Yet she vaguely suspected that perhaps, like her, he was a Resetter favored by the world's destiny, which was why he proved so difficult to kill.
At that thought, she felt both smug and slightly annoyed.
"He's merely half a Resetter; how could he possibly slip through my fingers?" Reassured by the thought, Wang Wei regained her confidence.
After about a dozen breaths, the black-clad sniper spoke up, an unlucky scowl on his face. "Miss Wang Wei, Zhao Shiqi has ordered us to return immediately and give him an explanation."
Count Black Crystal's family was not monolithic, and not everyone supported cooperating with Wang Wei.
Zhao Shiqi was part of another faction, consistently wary of Wang Wei.
This assassination had been carried out behind Zhao Shiqi's back.
Now that the operation had begun, Zhao Shiqi had found out and unleashed a torrent of curses at the sniper over the phone.
"Hmph, seems he's gone senile with age." A glint of murderous intent flashed in Wang Wei's eyes. "Ignore him. He isn't the one running the Black Crystal family right now."
She had long been dissatisfied with Zhao Shiqi.
She had already planned that once she used the Black Crystal family's resources to achieve her aims, she would eliminate Zhao Shiqi.
Receiving Wang Wei's order, the black-clad sniper nodded.
"I'll issue instructions right now to order the police station to summon Qi Yuan."
The law was merely an instrument of the ruling class, while those keeping order... were nothing more than lapdogs of the nobility.
This world had not eliminated class divides as technology advanced; on the contrary, it had grown even more rigid.
Hearing the sniper's words, Wang Wei felt even smugger.
Once upon a time, the nobles and police guards she had feared like tigers and scorpions were now mere chess pieces in her hands.
This feeling of holding another person's destiny felt wonderful.
"Alright, we should head back too. We'll just wait for—" Wang Wei's voice cut off abruptly, for right in front of her, a familiar figure suddenly entered her sight.
Her heart gave an involuntary lurch before steadying once more. She clapped her hands, as though applauding his arrival. "Fascinating. You actually found your way here. Could it be that there's a traitor on my side who leaked word to Zhao Shiqi, and Zhao Shiqi told you?"
Numerous thoughts raced through Wang Wei's mind, and in an instant she deduced the most probable explanation.
Otherwise, how could an ordinary loser like Qi Yuan, merely half a Resetter, find this place and have such confidence?
"Looks like you contacted Zhao Shiqi long ago and obtained advanced gene medicine."
Wang Wei looked at Qi Yuan calmly, as if everything remained firmly under her control.
At this moment, Qi Yuan looked at Wang Wei with an odd expression. "Are you sick in the head? Sending people to kill me?"
"Why would I need a reason to kill you?" Facing Qi Yuan, Wang Wei was brimming with composure.
"Holy crap, a pretentious poser?" Qi Yuan was dumbfounded.
The woman before him was not only utterly plain yet absurdly self-confident, but she also loved acting superior.
Wang Wei did not show much emotion at Qi Yuan's words, merely saying, "As half a fellow kind of mine, I'll let you die knowing why. I'm killing you... because I am a... Resetter!"
"Being a Resetter means you can kill people? Being a Resetter puts you above the law?" Qi Yuan was furious.
Why were there always these chaotic evil people in this world?
If everyone in the world were lawful good like him, the world would surely be a wonderful place.
Things like sniper assassinations certainly wouldn't exist.
Even if people held a grudge, at most they would wipe out the enemy's entire household—they wouldn't drag in innocent bystanders.
"It seems you truly have only one year of memories and have no idea... what the future looks like!" Yearning and longing filled Wang Wei's eyes, accompanied by a trace of ferocity.
"What the future looks like has nothing to do with you, because... you don't have a future anymore." Qi Yuan resolved to wipe out crime and evil.
This trend of murdering people in broad daylight in the streets could not be tolerated.
Moreover, targeting an innocent, naive, lawful good, upstanding citizen like him was utterly wrong.
"Did taking advanced gene medicine turn you into a frog at the bottom of a well, filling you with confidence? You have no idea what you're facing!" Wang Wei's expression twisted into a sneer.
"Then do you know... what you are facing?" Qi Yuan's expression suddenly turned solemn, his entire demeanor radiating an extraordinary aura.
Wang Wei was taken aback and reflexively asked, "What?"
"Naturally, me—someone who holds a psychiatric certificate and pretends to be mentally ill!"
With that, Qi Yuan pulled out his psychiatric certificate, showing it off proudly to Wang Wei.
"Holding this certificate, even if I kill you, I won't bear any legal responsibility." Qi Yuan puffed out his chest, brimming with confidence, murder gleaming in his eyes. "Now... I can kill you however I please."
"You... haha, you're actually sick in the head." Looking at Qi Yuan, Wang Wei could not help bursting into laughter. "You truly have no idea what kind of world the future will bring! Dying at my hands will be the greatest honor of your life!"
In Wang Wei's hand, a blood-red bead abruptly materialized.
The moment the bead appeared, fascination filled Wang Wei's eyes.
Beside her, a flicker of terror surfaced in the sniper's eyes; he seemed deeply afraid of this bead.
"This will be your nightmare!" Wang Wei laughed triumphantly.
Over the next ten years, Arch Star would undergo a tremendous transformation.
The greatest shift would occur five years from now, when several spatial rifts would tear open across Arch Star.
Inside those spatial rifts lay connections to the legendary Immortal Realm!
Rumor had it those immortals were matchlessly powerful, capable of cleaving a tank in two with a single sword slash. Even the strongest gene warriors could hardly last a few rounds against them.
And an immortal's most formidable means were various Dharma artifacts, bizarre and unfathomable, impossible to defend against!
This red bead was a relic left behind by the Immortal Path.
Using her memories to seize the initiative, Wang Wei had obtained this immortal treasure and activated it.
Aside from her memories of ten years later, this was her greatest trump card.
Holding the red bead, she felt as if she had transformed into an immortal herself, standing high above, looking down upon all mortals.
"Pity. A frog at the bottom of a well has no idea what he faces!"
She looked at Qi Yuan with disdain and pity.
"This is what you're relying on?" Qi Yuan looked at Wang Wei, thoroughly helpless. "A mid-stage Qi Refinement... Dharma artifact, and you treat it like a treasure?"
Looking at Wang Wei, he waved his hand casually.
The seemingly indestructible red bead suddenly shattered into mist.
A wisp of spiritual energy drifted into the air. Qi Yuan took a deep breath. "The spiritual energy inside isn't even as much as I let out with a burp. Wait, no, I don't burp!"
The expression on Wang Wei's face froze solid.
She could not believe that the Xunluo Curse Bead... had actually shattered just like that!
"You... how do you know about spiritual energy? Weren't you supposed to die in a year?" Wang Wei was shaken to her core.
The spatial rifts would only appear in five years, after which the legends of the Immortal Path would begin to gradually descend upon this world.
Because of Can Star's obstruction, the descent of the Immortal Path was extraordinarily difficult and slow.
Yet Wang Wei distinctly remembered that one year from now, there was no Immortal Path in this world whatsoever!
How could Qi Yuan know about spiritual energy, and how could he have shattered her Dharma artifact?
One had to understand that even ten years later, those peerless geniuses on Arch Star who embraced the Immortal Path could not easily deal with that Dharma artifact of hers.
"Want to know? Too bad I have a psychiatric certificate, so I don't have to explain anything to a dead person!" Qi Yuan looked at Wang Wei and struck without hesitation.
Right then, a gunshot rang out beside them.
The sniper, who had kept silent all this time, finally found an opportunity to fire.
Unfortunately, his effort was doomed to be futile.
"Oops, your aim was off. You blew this conceited woman's head right off."
Wang Wei, who had been arrogant and haughty just moments before, could laugh no longer.
Her head had exploded completely, like a smashed watermelon.
Such a sight would cause any ordinary person physiological revulsion and nausea.
Yet a brilliant smile surfaced in Qi Yuan's eyes as his gaze landed on the black-clad sniper.
The sniper's eyes bulged, completely unable to comprehend what had just happened.
He had clearly... aimed at Qi Yuan.
At such close range, how could he possibly have missed?
He felt as though all his years of training and education had gone completely down the drain.
Just then, a snap of fingers echoed.
The sniper's consciousness blurred in that instant, his body going limp as he dropped dead on the spot.
"Good thing I have a psychiatric certificate. Otherwise, killing three people would have violated the law," Qi Yuan murmured.
Looking at Wang Wei's corpse, his gaze grew profound.
He noticed that after killing Wang Wei, an imperceptible change seemed to occur deep within his body.
His connection to this world appeared to have deepened once more.
"Is this... raising Gu?"
In an instant, Qi Yuan imagined a Gu-raising scenario.
Nurture a group of Resetters, make them slaughter one another, and the sole survivor would reap an immense reward.
And after killing Wang Wei, Qi Yuan felt that in the unseen realm, his karmic fortune had grown slightly stronger.
"Engineered by someone... or just a coincidence?"
Chapter 289