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

Bai Ye reached out and took the syringe. He squatted down in front of 037, the distance between them reduced to less than an arm's length.

037 lay on the ground, his consciousness switching back and forth between drug addiction and excruciating pain.

His eyelids were twitching violently, his pupils dilated and contracted intermittently, dried blood clung to the corners of his mouth, and several cracks appeared on his lips, each oozing a little blood. But when he saw Bai Ye squat down, a glimmer of light returned to his cloudy eyes.

It took him a while to focus on Bai Ye's face. His lips moved, and his voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible: "...Kid...what are you holding...what are you holding..."

Bai Ye did not answer.

He placed the syringe next to his knee and used his other hand to pull 037's left arm out from under his body. The arm was limp and had been bent at an abnormal angle since the joint was dislocated. When Bai Ye pulled it out, 037's body tensed up suddenly, and he let out a short, muffled groan.

"Don't...don't do anything foolish..." 037's voice became urgent, her speech faster than before, as if she were racing against her fading consciousness to speak. "Put that thing down...you can still walk...you can still leave now..."

Bai Ye looked down at his arm, his fingers pressing against the inside of his elbow, finding the vein that was slightly sunken due to blood loss and dehydration. His movements were practiced and calm, as if he had done it countless times before.

037 felt the pressure on the inside of his elbow. He tried desperately to pull his arm back, but he had exhausted all his strength and his dislocated arm was completely unresponsive.

"Kid... listen to me..." His voice trembled. "I've been a policeman for twelve years... I've seen too many kids like you ruined by them... You're so young... You have a whole life ahead of you... Don't let this stuff get on your hands... Once you get it on, you can't wash it off..."

Bai Ye pressed the needle tip against the surface of his skin. The cold metal touched the warm skin, and 037's body shuddered violently, as if he had been electrocuted, his pupils constricting sharply.

He used the last of his strength to lift his head and stare intently at Bai Ye's face, as if trying to etch that young face into his shattering memories.

"Look at me..." His voice suddenly became very soft, as if he were talking to a lost child, "Look at me... You're not like that... I can see it... You're different from them... You still have a conscience... You still know what's good and what's bad..."

Bai Ye paused for a moment.

037 captured this pause.

His eyes lit up in the chaos, like a drowning man grabbing a piece of driftwood. His speech quickened, as if he wanted to pour out everything he had left in the remaining time: "You hesitated... Your hesitation means you still have something in your heart... You can still turn back... Listen to me... Put down the syringe now... Walk out... No one will stop you..."

His voice suddenly became tearful, dry and broken, as if squeezed from the depths of a torn throat: "I beg you... you're only sixteen... you have a lifetime... don't become like me..."

Bai Ye inserted the needle tip.

037's body suddenly arched up, like a fish thrown ashore, its back lifted off the ground and then slammed back down, the back of its head hitting the ground again with a dull thud.

The medication entered the bloodstream at a moderate pace, but its effects were extremely rapid. 037's pupils suddenly dilated and then contracted, repeatedly dilating and shrinking, as if they had lost their self-regulating function under some kind of violent electric shock.

He first laughed, his mouth stretching open to reveal teeth stained with blood. His laughter was hoarse and broken, like a cat being choked.

Then that expression shattered.

His body suddenly curled up, he hugged his chest with both hands, his back arched into an extreme arc, and his fingers dug into the flesh below his ribs.

His mouth opened, emitting a hiss that sounded inhuman, like a scream forced out from his burned vocal cords. The sound exploded in the morning light, startling the last few chickens huddled in the corner of the yard, too afraid to move.

His body rolled on the concrete ground, each roll causing him to hit the courtyard wall or the gravel on the ground, but he could no longer feel the pain from those bumps, because what was happening inside his body was far more intense than any external injury.

His consciousness switched back and forth between pleasure and excruciating pain.

For a fleeting moment, his expression relaxed, his eyes glazed over, and a near-serene smile played on his lips, as if he had entered a painless, dreamlike world. But it was only for a moment. The next instant, his features contorted, his teeth clenched, veins bulged on his forehead, and he curled up into a ball, emitting incoherent whimpers.

He couldn't utter complete words anymore. Those phrases like "you can still turn back" and "you still have a lifetime" were all broken into monosyllabic breaths, rolling around in his mouth, as if his last bit of strength was being consumed in the most primal way.

His back was scraped raw on the concrete, leaving bloody welts. His dislocated left arm was pinned under his body, his posture even more contorted than before. His face was turned toward the ground, his forehead pressed against a pebble, which had embedded itself in his forehead flesh during the violent spasms, but he could no longer feel it.

After an unknown amount of time, his body finally stopped rolling around and just curled up on the ground, twitching slightly.

The courtyard fell silent, save for 037's increasingly weak breathing and the rustling of the wind through the treetops on the distant mountains.

Viper stood at the warehouse entrance, the morning light shining from behind him, enveloping him in a backlit shadow.

He looked at the lifeless body on the ground, then glanced at Bai Ye squatting beside him, still holding an empty syringe, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Alright." He waved his hand at the still slightly twitching body on the ground, his tone nonchalant, as if dealing with a used utilities. "Let him stay here. We'll deal with him when he's completely dead."

He turned and walked back into the warehouse. The iron gate closed halfway behind him, and his footsteps gradually faded away, disappearing into the depths of the warehouse.

Only Bai Ye and the lifeless body on the ground remained in the courtyard.

Bai Ye squatted on the spot, still holding the empty syringe in his hand. He looked at the body on the ground, which was no longer rolling and was only twitching weakly, with a blank expression, as if he had just completed a routine task that had been assigned to him.

But his fingers gripped the syringe tightly, his knuckles turning white.