**Darkness.**
Then—
A sudden *jolt*—as if something ancient and cold had cracked open.
He fell.
Through space? Through time? Through something deeper?
No tunnel. No judgment. No gods waiting on the other side.
The first thing he noticed was the cold.
Not the chill of wind or stone, but something deeper — something in the marrow. A death-cold, still and creeping.
Then came pressure. Heavy. Like a mountain resting on his chest.
He tried to breathe.
Nothing.
He wasn't in a bed. He was buried in his own flesh.
The world came back in fragments.
He tried to open his eyes, but they remained shut—like the veins had forgotten what it meant to move, to live.
Pain followed next — not sharp, but rotted, dull, soaked into joints and lungs. His muscles didn't respond. His pulse didn't just drag — it had already stopped.
He was inside a body. Not his.
And it had died.
Not hours ago. Minutes, maybe. Cold still lingered in the veins.
Dead… until now.
Suddenly, something flickered.
A pulse — not in his chest, but in his mind. A cold ping.
Then—
**************
[ SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE ]
› Host Body Identified: Lin Wusheng
› Vital Status: Critical [ ☠️ | Breath Ratio: 6% | Neural Sync: 31% ]
› Soul Integration: Partial Match (Foreign Entity)
› Emergency Override Protocol: ACTIVATED
☰ Manual Control Unlocked: 5% Movement Function Available
» Skill modules locked
» Memory fragments sealed
» Detox sequence pending
************************
His breath returned all at once — ragged and dry.
His fingers twitched, spasming like rusted joints creaking open.
The body was broken. Weak. But alive — barely.
And he was inside it.
"System?…
This isn't possible.
This isn't science. Or law. Or reason.
And yet here I am. In a body they all expected to rot in peace.
I've faced prosecutors who thought they were gods. Buried scandals so deep even their ghosts forgot them. Defended monsters in tailored suits.
But this... this is new."
As the thought settled, something shifted behind his eyes.
A flicker.
A crack in the dark.
Not a vision. Not a hallucination.
A memory.
But not his.
Just one at first — faint, blurred, like it had been buried beneath ash:
A blade glinting in the sun. The splash of cold river water over skin.
Then another: a young man kneeling in heavy armor before a grave, jaw clenched, refusing to cry.
This… isn't mine, he thought, coldly.
The memories came in stutters and flashes, each one cutting deeper than the last. And though brief, they carried weight.
Lin Yanzhen exhaled, low and slow.
Repeated words in his mind " Lin Wusheng… "
Then—
He forced his eyes to open.
Just light. Soft. Yellow fire in the corner lamp. Quiet shadows. A ceiling painted with the Lin family crest — swords beneath mountains.
It wasn't a battlefield. It wasn't hell.
It was a room in the Lin Clan estate.
Clean. Still. Untouched.
The kind of room you let someone die in peacefully.
His limbs didn't respond. Not really. His right hand jerked once. A tremor, nothing more. The system had said 5%. He believed it.
"No wonder they thought I was gone.
With this body, I might as well have been.
But… I'm not."
He lay still, letting sweat bead across his temple.
Even that exhausted him.
But in his mind, the system interface hovered, faint and gray — just enough to confirm it wasn't a dream.
And with that came the only thought that mattered:
"Someone tried to kill Lin Wusheng.
And they succeeded.
But now… they've brought back someone much worse.
Still… things shouldn't be this simple."
The system flickered again.
A slow pulse. Then—
**********************
[ DETOXIFICATION SEQUENCE: INITIATED ]
› Target: Hybrid Compound (Status: Active)
› Progress: 3%... 6%... 9%...
WARNING: Host Body Integrity—CRITICAL
› Vital Channels Blocked
› Muscular Degradation Present
› Neural Lag Detected
Commencing Recovery Protocol Tier 1...
→ Circulatory Boost: 12%
→ Muscle Activation: 4%
→ Nerve Stabilization: 3%
Estimated Time Until Basic Mobility: 00:05:47
********************************
A wave of something cold crept through his spine.
Like ice water poured directly into his veins. He clenched his jaw on instinct—and finally felt it. Pain. Not phantom, not distant, but real.
It was unbearable.
I'm not dead after all.
His fingers curled slightly. Toes twitched. The burn was immense, like forcing motion into a dead limb. But it worked. Just enough.
After long, grinding effort, he moved one arm. Then the other. And then—
He sat up.
Only slightly.
Only to lean himself—barely—against the wooden headboard.
But it felt like lifting a mountain.
His lungs scraped with the effort. His vision blurred. A tremor rippled down his spine. Sweat stung his eyes. Every bone screamed protest.
This body… still falling apart. Still poisoned.
Still dying.
But it listens now.
That's enough.
He lay there, half-slumped, back pressed to cool wood.
Thoughts churned.
"Capital. Banquet. Wine. Symptoms.
But I can't prove it.
Too many pieces missing.
If I was poisoned, why wait? Why now? Why not just kill me on the road home?
Why not send a knife instead of silk robes and false smiles?"
His mind circled it, but the pattern wouldn't form.
"Things shouldn't be this simple...
So who's hiding what?"
Then, without warning, the system screen blinked again—sharper this time, clearer than before.
****************************
[ WELCOME, HOST. ]
System: ★ VILLAIN-ASCENSION ENGINE ★
Version: [ RESTRICTED ]
Access Level: LOW-CLEARANCE
This interface has been granted to the Host following premature death in the Origin World.
Integration successful with local entity: Lin Wusheng
Synchronization Progress: 31%
Host is now bound to the Villain Role within current timeline thread.
Support Level: ACTIVE
System Objective: Assist Host in fulfilling assigned narrative function until… [ UNAUTHORIZED DATA | CLASSIFIED ACCESS LOCKED ]
************************
"Villain?"
He didn't speak it aloud. Didn't need to. The system answered anyway.
******************
This world follows the trajectory of high-order narrative convergence.
Current realm: **The Xun Empire**, Continent of Baishang.
[ WORLD SEED: SECURED BY CHOSEN ENTITY ]
Host Role: Adversary-Class Counterweight
Designation: VILLAIN (Root-Assigned)
Primary Task: Collect World Seeds to fulfill...
[ UNAUTHORIZED — ACCESS LOCKED ]
***********************************
He let the screen fade slowly, digesting each word like a blade into the ribs.
Villain.
Narrative convergence.
World seed.
He didn't know what it all meant—not yet. But he understood what mattered:
There's a chosen one in this world.
And I'm not him.
I'm what the world pits against him.
A villain. A stepping stone. A test.
...Or so it thinks.
As the screen faded, a rush of static heat slid behind his eyes.
Then—like a stone dropped into still water—memories began to stir— again… Not his.
A different life. A different name. A different war.
Images flooded in flashes:
Sword forms beneath waterfall mist.
A boy standing in his grandfather's shadow, fists clenched with silent pride.
Crimson armor.
Victory bought with blood.
The heavy silence of the Lin ancestral hall, where even the wind didn't dare interrupt.
Lin Yanzhen exhaled slowly.
His expression didn't change much. But his eyes… sharpened.
"This man… this Lin Wusheng…
He wasn't made to be a villain.
The weight he carried, the oaths he bore — they belonged to a hero.
A protagonist, even.
So then…"
He let the thought hang in the air like smoke from a gun barrel.
"Did this system choose based on the body… or the soul inside it?"
His hand dropped back to the quilted brocade, trembling.
He closed his eyes again. Let the dark settle over him like a second skin.
The empire wanted Lin Wusheng dead.
The world wanted him defeated.
But neither of them had planned for someone like Lin Yanzhen to take his place.
A faint smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.
A quiet, wicked little grin.
One that didn't belong to a general.
Or a hero.
Interesting…
Let's see how far we can twist the script.
---
**\[End of Chapter 2]**
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