CH 2

Huo Wuling.

The moment he saw the name, Ji Ning’s fingers trembled. Unable to restrain the horror in his heart, he threw the newspaper away as if he had been scalded. 

This wasn’t part of his acting but a genuine reaction. He knew that this wasn’t a holographic projection created by the film crew, but a warning that something was coming. That Huo Wuling was coming.

He was one of Ji Ning’s previous capture targets, the male protagonist of the extremely popular novel ‘God Killing’. Within that world, Ji Ning spent three whole years raised as a ghost by Huo Wuling.

As a result, Ji Ning was intimately familiar with Huo Wuling’s character. He knew that beneath his affectionate appearance, he hid extreme ruthlessness and cruelty. He also knew how much Huo Wuling hated betrayal.

Yet Ji Ning died in that world betraying Huo Wuling. If he fell into Huo Wuling’s hands, what awaited him was a more terrifying ending than death… 

These thoughts occured in an instant. Ji Ning was not mentally prepared and could not think of a way to escape. This was a novel set in the entertainment industry with a very low risk factor. All the abilities he had previously acquired were sealed. He had no defence against Huo Wuling and escape was nothing more than a distant hope.

But how had Huo Wuling found him? Although Huo Wuling had the power bestowed by the Lord God to travel to and from multiple horror worlds. ‘God Killing’ and ‘Rebirth of the Interstellar Actor’ were on two different planes that should be completely separate.

Whoosh.

The newspaper fell softly, as the dazzling crimson colour from the black and white photo continued to spread, the liquid spreading across the floor carrying the strong stench of blood.

Only Ji Ning understood how terrifying this was. Everyone else thought it was the director’s choice so although they appeared panicked, it was only for the filming.

Gu Chen frowned slightly, looking at the newspaper, he suddenly felt a little strange. As if something very sinister lay dormant in the newspaper.

They all stared at the newspaper as they hurriedly stepped back. The man in the photo laughed softly, glancing around before his eyes fell back on Ji Ning.

The next moment, he had vanished from the obituary. 

“Zi…ka-”

The headsets made a harsh noise, so sharp it seemed to pierce their eardrums. It was so painful that no one cared they were still filming and hurried to remove their headsets.

Crack.

Crack. 

Objects fell, one after another, and hit the ground. Someone leaned over to look at one and found it was one of the hidden cameras, thrown from the air.

“What’s wrong?”

Even their terminal signals were blocked, leaving them no way to communicate with the outside world. The actors finally felt scared, giving up on their acting in a panic.

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It was the man from the obituary. 

Only this thought flashed in her mind, then her eyes darkened and she passed out, falling to the floor.

The others similarly fell quickly into a coma. Gu Chen clutched his forehead, as if trying to resist the dizziness, looking at the dark haired man a few more times until he couldn’t endure it any longer and closed his eyes.

Inside the old mansion, only Ji Ning and the dark haired man were left standing.

The man’s eyes curved, as if very happy. He said softly, “Long time no see, Ningning.” 

Huo Wuling. He had really appeared.

The real person had appeared in front of his eyes, causing a stronger reaction than the photo. Ji Ning’s heart pounded, sweat oozing from his palms as he was unable to restrain his instinctive fear.

Even if he pretended to be dizzy, or that he didn’t know Huo Wuling, it was too late. Huo Wuling had seen all of his previous reactions which were so obviously different from the others.

This was enough of a danger that he could fail the mission and die. Ji Ning didn’t want to die like this so easily. He forced himself to calm down and look at Huo Wuling and soon found that Huo Wuling’s figure was faintly transparent. It couldn’t be his real body. 

It was just a projection of Huo Wuling, he himself was not in this world.

Knowing this, Ji Ning relaxed a little, he knew Huo Wuling’s abilities, this projection couldn’t last long. Soon it would dissipate and as long as he managed not to be killed by Huo Wuling, he would survive.

“…Long time no see. How did you find me?”

Ji Ning tried to keep his tone calm so as not to irritate Huo Wuling. 

“It’s a secret, but you can guess.”

Huo Wuling’s projection became a little transparent but he wasn’t hurried. He didn’t seem to have any plans to kill Ji Ning immediately. Instead he smiled, looked at Ji Ning carefully and said, “It seems you have been having a good time, but…”

Contrasting with his gentle smile, his eyes were dark and deep, like the night’s ocean tide.

“I’ve been having a bad time, a very bad time,” he said softly. 

Ji Ning was horrified as the illusory figure stretched out towards him with cold, pale fingers and ran them across his cheeks.

“I know you’re not dead, you just ran away from me and left me again… After you gouged out half my heart. Are you happy Ningning?”

Huo Wuling’s hand slowly slipped, taking Ji Ning’s hand and pressing it boldly to his chest.

The coldness quickly soaked into Ji Ning’s body from his fingertips. He couldn’t feel any heartbeat that belonged to Huo Wuling, as if Huo Wuling had already died and what appeared now was just a walking corpse. 

“…”

Ji Ning didn’t answer. Huo Wuling held his hand, still smiling, savouring his body temperature. When only a thin after image remained, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Ji Ning’s forehead.

“Our time is up. I’ll come to you again Ningning. See you next time.”

Crash- 

A gust of wind snaked through the house, snatching up the blood-stained newspaper and ripping it into thin shreds of paper which scattered across the ground like snow.

Huo Wuling’s projection had completely disappeared. Ji Ning lowered his hand to see a clear black fingerprint appear on his wrist, in the place where Huo Wuling had been holding him.

“…”

He stood with his head lowered for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and crumpling to the floor. Holding his forehead, he murmured with lingering fear, 

“What can I do…”

Even after going through so many worlds, Huo Wuling was definitely ranked among the top three protagonists that Ji Ning didn’t want to interact with. His personality was so warped that he wouldn’t immediately kill the toys he liked but preferred to gradually make the other party fall into the deepest despair, torturing them to death little by little.

And now Huo Wuling’s target appeared to be him…

Ji Ning pulled at his hair with a slightly bitter expression. 

It was too late to regret it now, and it wasn’t like he wanted to betray Huo Wuling, it was just that his authority level wasn’t high enough at the time and he had no other choice. He had to complete the plot of the original book, so he could only betray Huo Wuling according to the novel’s plot, before vanishing into ashes.

Even if they meet again now, he can’t explain the reason for his betrayal to Huo Wuling because of the law that the transmigrator can’t reveal anything about the system to the characters in the original book.

To be betrayed by the person you love and have half of your heart gouged out, Ji Ning couldn’t imagine the desperation and hatred Huo Wuling would have felt at the time.

If he could have predicted today, then he could have made up an explanation in advance, but now it was too late – who would have expected Huo Wuling to find him in another world? This should have been a completely impossible situation. 

The more Ji Ning thought about it, the more strange it seemed. Even though Huo Wuling was a powerful protagonist with the ability to travel across worlds, under normal circumstances he should still be constricted to within his own novel – but now he was chasing Ji Ning here. How could he do that?

This time, it was just a projection to determine his position. Next time, Huo Wuling might appear in his own body. Even if he could escape Huo Wuling’s pursuit in this world, what about next time? Could Huo Wuling still find him?

Thinking of this, Ji Ning’s face turned pale and he decided to communicate what happened with his system, so that the system could confirm exactly what went wrong.

But right then, the people who had passed out on the ground showed signs of awakening. Ji Ning adjusted his position and adopted a look of shock on his face, pretending that he’d just woken up. 

Gu Chen, who had opened his eyes first, sat up from the ground, frowning slightly from the discomfort. He cast a look around and saw that Ji Ning was also awake, so spoke to him in a hoarse voice, “Just now…what happened?”

Ji Ning pretended not to know, screwing up his nose and shaking his head. The other actors who were conscious also looked blank, they only remembered that the signal had been bad before they suddenly lost consciousness.

Now that the signal was restored they checked their terminals and found that they hadn’t been out for long, only seven or eight minutes. The signal from the crew’s side had also been cut off. The director had constantly been shouting from their headsets to ask what was happening inside.

“Something very weird just happened…” 

An actor picked up a headset from the ground and briefly reported to the director when a sudden noise interrupted them, coming from their terminals.

“It’s an earthquake warning!”

When they heard the sound, the actors’ expressions changed and they rushed out of the house, momentarily forgetting the previous strangeness.

Just a few seconds after the optical brain issued a warning to their terminals, the ground and walls began to violently vibrate. 

Boom-boom!

The furniture pieces fell one after another, the glassware shattered, and the old crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling made a creaking sound. Its rusty iron chain snapped and fell towards Gu Chen who stood beneath it.

“Be careful!”

Just as Gu Chen realised there was a heavy object falling from above, he felt a force from behind him push him out from underneath the chandeliers’ shadow. 

Gu Chen turned his head back in surprise to see the crystal chandelier scratching across Ji Ning’s side, slamming against the floor with a ‘bang’ as the iron lamp pole pierced his arm, causing a stream of blood to spurt out.