Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

Viper turned his head following his gaze and saw Bai Ye. The calm coldness on his face relaxed slightly, and he casually threw the iron pipe on the ground, the sound of metal hitting the ground crisp and short.

He waved to Bai Ye, his tone much gentler than before, as if he were calling out to one of his own children.

"Lin Mo, come here."

Bai Ye walked over. He walked to Viper's side, glanced down at 037 lying on the ground, his gaze lingered on his wound, on the bruise on the back of his head, on his twisted left arm, and then looked away.

Viper pointed at 037 on the ground: "Do you know who this person is?"

"Drug enforcement officer. Scorpion said it a couple of days ago." Bai Ye's voice wasn't loud, but it was steady. He stood in the morning light, his back straight, his posture respectful but not humble.

"Yes. A narcotics officer. He's been infiltrating for six months, uncovered two of my networks, and almost got him to hand over information about my supplier." Viper's tone wasn't angry, but rather carried a calmness born of confirmation, as if he were reviewing a matter that was already over.

"You see, look at him now. No matter how tough a person is, they're all the same here. Whether they hold on for three days or thirty, it's all the same; in the end, they'll all end up like this."

He tilted his head to look at Bai Ye, his gaze sweeping from the top of his head to his toes before settling on his face. His tone wasn't harsh, but every word seemed weighted: "If you ever lie to me again, your fate will be worse than his. I won't let you hold out for three days; I'll make you hold out for three months. By then, your bones will be more shattered than his, and you'll bleed more than he did. Understand?"

Bai Ye looked up at Viper, his expression unchanged, meeting his gaze, and said in a calm and firm tone, "Understood. Big brother, I won't lie to you."

037 lay on the ground, his consciousness rising and falling repeatedly in the vortex of drugs. He heard Viper's words, heard the boy's reply, and something inside his chest was struggling violently.

He strained to lift his head towards Bai Ye, his voice hoarse as if squeezed from a crushed trachea: "Child...don't...don't listen to him..."

Bai Ye looked down at him without saying a word.

037's fingers dug a shallow mark into the ground. His nails were split, and his fingertips were covered in blood, but he kept digging, as if he were grasping at something unseen.

His eyelids were twitching incessantly, and his pupils were dilating and contracting repeatedly. He needed immense strength to stay awake, but he kept talking, each word sounding as if it were being pulled from the deepest part of his body.

"How old are you... sixteen? Seventeen? You still have a chance to turn back... It's not too late for you to leave now... Don't associate with this kind of person... You have a long road ahead of you..."

His voice began to tremble, breaking into broken words, as if he were struggling with his own consciousness. Each word seemed to be shuffling along a precarious tightrope: "I've seen too many kids like you... tricked into coming here, thinking they could make it big... thinking that following the big boss would bring them wealth and power... In the end, they either die in an alley or in a drug rehabilitation center... You can still turn back... You haven't touched those things yet... You haven't killed anyone... You can still live again..."

Bai Ye watched him quietly. His young face was devoid of emotion. No pity, no wavering, no anger, no emotion. His expression was cold and calm, like a frosty window in the morning light, separating the inside from the outside into two worlds.

"Go...go now...don't worry about missions or orders...your life is your own...after you leave, find a place to live a good life..." 037's voice grew weaker and weaker, his speech slower and slower, as if a battery was running out of power. "I have a younger brother...about your age...he's sixteen this year too...he's still in school...I haven't seen him in a long time..."

His lips were still moving, but his voice was so soft it was almost inaudible: "Don't let them turn you into someone like me..."

"I have no family." Bai Ye finally spoke, his voice cold. He glanced at the bloody mess on the ground with disgust, as if it were an eyesore of trash. "Save your energy. Saying more won't help."

037's lips were still moving, as if he wanted to say something more, to tell Bai Ye not to go down this path, to tell Bai Ye to look back and see if he still had any other choices.

But in that instant, his mind went completely blank. His pupils dilated abruptly, as if someone had turned off the lights from the inside, his body convulsed violently, and then he collapsed to the ground, only his breathing remaining weak and undulating.

Viper looked at Bai Ye with satisfaction. The corners of his eyes curved slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled up in an appreciative smile, as if to say, "I knew I hadn't misjudged you."

He stood there for a moment, then turned and walked back into the warehouse. The iron gate was half-closed behind him, letting in the dim light inside.

A moment later he emerged, holding a syringe. The syringe contained a dark red liquid that shimmered almost unreal in the morning light, like diluted blood, or something deeper, brought from a chemistry lab.

He handed the syringe to Bai Ye, twirled the needle between his fingers, and held it less than a foot in front of Bai Ye's eyes with the needle tip pointing outwards.

"This syringe contains a new type of product, extremely pure, and several times more potent than the highest grade available on the market." Viper's voice carried an almost satiated pleasure, as if he were showing his most prized creation to an apprentice.

He shook the syringe, and a thin film of dark red liquid formed on the tube wall.

"After this injection, he will first experience extreme pleasure—a pleasure that will make him feel like he's in heaven, with all the nerve endings in his body simultaneously firing, overshadowing any pain. Then, his body will begin to dissolve from the inside out. First the blood vessel walls, then the surface of the internal organs, and finally the nerve endings."

He leaned forward slightly, as if sharing a wonderful secret known only to himself: "His consciousness would switch back and forth between pleasure and excruciating pain. Every time he thought he was going to die, he would be pulled back to consciousness and go through it all again. This process would last for several hours, and by the time he died, the area of ​​his brain responsible for memory would be etched with pain he would never forget for the rest of his life."

Viper pushed the syringe forward again, the needle almost touching the back of Bai Ye's hand: "You take it."