Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The abandoned auto repair shop was filled with the pungent smell of engine oil.

Chen Xiao gritted his teeth, cold sweat dripping down his face and splashing into the black grease at his feet.

"System! Activate Potential Burst! Activate Spatial Warp!"

He was screaming wildly in his mind, hysterically slapping the back of his head, trying to wake up the system that was pretending to be dead.

But all that answered him was Zhao Tiezhu's rough laughter and the sound of approaching heavy footsteps.

"Stop banging! The junk in your brain has already been physically exterminated by our boss!"

Zhao Tiezhu flung open the old engine hood blocking his way, his wide, bell-like eyes filled with the excitement of a hunter eyeing his prey.

"You used to rely on your teleportation ability to kill three of your rivals. Did you think our Chinese police couldn't do anything to you?"

Driven to the brink, Chen Xiao's eyes turned bloodshot, and he leaped up like a wild beast cornered in a dead end.

He grabbed the heavy, rust-covered wrench from the ground.

"Even without the system, I was a top mercenary back overseas! Killing you, you fatso, would be a piece of cake!"

Chen Xiao roared arrogantly and swung the wrench at Zhao Tiezhu’s head.

However, ideals are often grand, while reality is often harsh.

They lost the "perfect muscle definition" and "strength attribute bonus" bestowed by the system.

His current body is nothing more than that of a middle-aged man who has been drinking heavily and staying up late for a long time, and whose body has been hollowed out by alcohol and women.

When he swung the wrench down, it was not only as slow as an old lady doing tai chi, but even his own lower body staggered.

"That's it? You call yourself a mercenary king? Even the stray dogs fighting for food at the entrance of my village have more ferocity than you!"

Zhao Tiezhu curled his lip in disdain.

He didn't even bother using the Gatling gun; he simply tossed the heavy weapon onto a pile of old tires nearby.

A muffled "bang" was heard.

Zhao Tiezhu did not back down at all, relying solely on the hardcore combat muscle memory he had developed through special training in the Armed Police, and executed a precise side slide step.

He suddenly raised his thick left arm and directly pried open Chen Xiao's limp wrench.

Immediately afterwards, his right hand transformed into a powerful uppercut, slamming hard into Chen Xiao's fat belly.

"vomit--"

Chen Xiao even vomited up the bile from the previous night, and curled up in pain like a boiled shrimp.

Zhao Tiezhu gave him no chance to catch his breath.

A powerful right leg delivered a perfect high roundhouse kick, slamming it heavily into Chen Xiao's cheek.

Accompanied by a sickeningly loud "crack" sound of bone breaking.

The once invincible urban soldier king flew three meters away like a broken log, crashing heavily into a pile of scrap metal.

He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with a few broken teeth, and his iconic cold face, typical of a top soldier, swelled up like an over-fermented pig's head.

"Get up! Keep acting tough! Weren't you trying to kill me?!"

Zhao Tiezhu strode over and stepped on his chest.

He pulled out gleaming insulated handcuffs from his lower back and, with two clicks, tightly handcuffed him behind his back.

"Without the cheat code, a piece of trash like you who can't even meet basic physical fitness standards isn't even worthy of carrying my shoes!"

Just as Zhao Tiezhu was dragging Chen Xiao out like a dead dog.

Su Xiaoxiao's excited voice came through the tactical walkie-talkie on his shoulder.

"Brother Tiezhu! Well done! The other teams' raids were also a complete success!"

The scene quickly flashes back to various corners of Jinghai City.

Downtown, Royal One underground casino.

Ko Chun, who used to win every bet and was known as the "God of Gamblers with X-ray vision," is now being held down at the baccarat table by several burly casino security guards.

He lost the advantage of the X-ray vision system, and after playing ten consecutive bad hands, he got desperate and even tried to cheat by hiding the cards in his sleeve.

"Dare to cheat in our establishment? We'll chop off two of his fingers!" the casino manager roared viciously.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the door was kicked open by fully armed special police officers.

"Police are checking rooms! Everyone, put your hands on your heads and squat down!"

Gao Jin was so moved by the sight of the special police officers rushing in that he burst into tears and scrambled forward to greet them.

"Officer! Arrest me! I confess to fraud! I want to go to jail! I don't want my fingers chopped off!"

The East District houses the largest national bank vault in Jinghai City.

Li Fei, the "invisible thief" who used to treat the vault like his own backyard, is now standing naked in the middle of a dense array of infrared security bars.

He had just taken off his clothes and was about to use the system to become invisible and pass through walls when a system crash notification sounded in his mind.

"Beep beep beep beep—!"

The piercing burglar alarm instantly resounded throughout the entire building.

A dozen heavily armed bank security guards and local police officers who arrived at the scene shone powerful flashlights on the naked man.

"My God! What kind of pervert is this? Robbing a bank naked?!"

Li Fei desperately covered his lower body, feeling ashamed and indignant under the bright light, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into on the spot.

Without the protection of cheat codes, they are not even as good as the most ordinary petty thieves.

Their foolishness, greed, and utter lack of moral boundaries are laid bare under the harsh reality of physical force.

Inside the provincial department's first command center.

Lu Jingyan stood with his hands behind his back in front of the giant holographic screen.

The files that were originally piled up like mountains and classified as "supernatural unsolved cases" are now being frantically stamped with the red seal of "case closed" at an alarming speed.

Wherever the police went, they swept away everything in their path with the force of autumn winds.

This arrest has brought about an unprecedented and thorough reshuffling of the public security environment in Jinghai City.

"Boss, we've already apprehended 80% of the serious criminal hosts marked on the list."

Su Xiaoxiao typed the final data summary on the keyboard, pushing up her black-rimmed glasses.

"The remaining 20% ​​are mostly novice hosts who have the desire but not the courage. They're probably hiding at home trembling with fear right now."

Lu Jingyan turned around, picked up the now-cold black coffee on the table, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.

"Trembling is just right. That's the kind of fear I want that will break every last thread of their spine."

His deep gaze pierced through the window, looking into the unfathomable darkness of Jinghai City.

"This merciless storm of reckoning is enough to completely destroy their last psychological defenses."

"Without the system, they don't even have a legal survival skill. Their enemies outside and the victims they've cheated can take their lives at any time."

Lu Jingyan slammed the coffee cup down on the table, making a crisp clanging sound.

"Just wait and see. When the sun rises, these once arrogant protagonists will learn what their only way to survive is."

The long and agonizing night has finally passed.

The dawn slowly tore away the gloom over Jinghai City.

The next morning, the sunlight had just fallen on the solemn national emblem of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Lu Jingyan, wearing a brand-new white shirt and holding a steaming cup of Americano, slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of the second-floor office.

His slender fingers gently parted the slats of the blinds, and his gaze naturally fell on the gate of the Municipal Bureau.

Even Team Leader Lu, who was already used to all kinds of big events.

When I saw the spectacular yet absurd scene downstairs, my eyes twitched slightly.

That was an unprecedented security spectacle in Jinghai City since the founding of the People's Republic of China.