7: Idol drama male lead

"Lin Chuan? Was that fireball you just used to burn the corpse your Talent?"

The captain who had just explained to Lei Ming that the drop rate of crystal cores from Dimensional Bugs was only 1% suddenly walked toward Lin Chuan.

Behind him were his team members.

One of them, a cute girl with twin tails and a youthful face, asked the boy beside her in a low voice:

"Who is that guy? Not only did he manage to cling to the thigh of the world's number one big shot, Yuan Feng, but he even caught our president's attention?"

The boy whispered, "His name is Lin Chuan. He's actually just a despicable person who held a grudge against our president over a small misunderstanding back in the day..."

Lin Chuan looked at the man walking toward him and smiled faintly: "Yeah, F-Level Incineration Talent."

Looking at Lin Chuan's completely calm, unruffled eyes, Qi Feng felt faintly uncomfortable inside.

He felt a strange sense of losing control.

He clearly remembered that ever since the incident three years ago, he and Lin Chuan had gradually drifted apart.

On the rare occasions they bumped into each other on the street, Lin Chuan's gaze toward him had been cold.

Yet the way Lin Chuan looked at him now was very calm.

Coldness and calmness represented two completely different attitudes.

Coldness sometimes symbolized a helpless hatred.

Calmness, on the other hand, felt more like an arrogant disregard.

It was precisely this disregard that made Qi Feng feel extremely annoyed inside.

Lin Chuan was indeed very calm.

After all, his vengeance against Qi Feng had already been exacted in his previous life.

Getting revenge again in this life would be quite a simple matter.

And the grudge between him and Qi Feng originated three years ago.

Three years ago, Lin Chuan passed the entrance exam and got into Jing University, the top university in the country, coming from an eighteenth-tier small town!

He was the only student from his high school to get into Jing University since its founding, and the school was immensely proud of him.

But as a newcomer, he was in unfamiliar territory at Jing University, with no family and no friends.

Qi Feng was the first friend who didn't look down on his poverty and showed him goodwill.

Lin Chuan had initially accepted him as a friend.

However—

In his freshman year, because of his poor family background, Lin Chuan proactively applied for the university's financial aid for impoverished students.

To save students' dignity, the university usually did not disclose information about who applied for financial aid.

However, not just anyone could easily get financial aid; the school had designated staff to conduct background checks.

Given Lin Chuan's rural background, passing the check should have been no problem at all.

But Qi Feng took it upon himself to buy a large number of brand-name smartphones and clothes online using Lin Chuan's name.

When Lin Chuan signed for those packages, he was completely in the dark and utterly bewildered.

Later, because of those luxury goods of unknown origin, he lost his eligibility for financial aid!

What was even more laughable was that somehow, this matter was exposed to the public.

Before Lin Chuan's college entrance exams, his father, with whom he depended on for life, died in a car accident.

To avoid affecting his entrance exams, his father left last words asking his uncle to keep his death a secret from Lin Chuan.

The large sum of compensation paid by the driver at fault was originally intended by his father for Lin Chuan's university tuition, but it was embezzled by his uncle.

His classmates knew nothing about this and only assumed Lin Chuan was the kind of person who didn't even care about his own father's death for the sake of money.

Little did they know, he only learned about the bolt-from-the-blue news of his father's death after the college entrance exams were over.

Lin Chuan didn't receive a single penny of the compensation paid by the perpetrator!

All the money for his university education was earned through his work-study job during the summer vacation!

Yet, those fabricated rumors described Lin Chuan as a heartless, despicable villain who profited off his own father's death and even tried to scam the financial aid fund!

That sudden influx of malice caught Lin Chuan, who was looking forward to college life, completely off guard.

He didn't know why this was happening; after all, as a newcomer, he had never offended anyone.

The death of his father, the treacherous oppression from his uncle, and the misunderstanding and malice from his classmates left Lin Chuan feeling utterly demoralized throughout his three years of university.

Until the Killing Game descended!

In his previous life, on the very first day the Killing Game descended, Qi Feng extended an olive branch to Lin Chuan, but Lin Chuan firmly rejected it.

After refusing Qi Feng, Lin Chuan's apocalyptic life fell into a series of relentless pursuits and manhunts!

It was precisely because he was being hunted and betrayed, constantly running for his life, that Lin Chuan had no time to properly study his Talent, only discovering the true usage of his fireball on the fifth day of the apocalypse!

And by the time he actually exacted his revenge on Qi Feng, several months had already passed.

Only before Qi Feng died did Lin Chuan finally learn how he had offended him in the first place.

During their freshman orientation, there was a month-long military training.

The drill instructor back then taught a modified version of military martial arts. Because Lin Chuan executed the moves accurately and performed brilliantly, he was lavishly praised by the instructor.

What's more, after learning about Lin Chuan's poor family background, the instructor even faintly harbored the thought of sponsoring his education.

That instructor was Qi Feng's youngest uncle and also a martial arts master.

He was someone Qi Feng had always wanted to take on as his master!

As it turned out, the instructor looked down on Qi Feng and instead showered Lin Chuan with praise.

Merely out of jealousy, Qi Feng launched a scheme to frame Lin Chuan!

Lin Chuan's reputation was ruined.

The instructor also assumed Lin Chuan was a beast who took money from the perpetrator and didn't even care to pursue his own father's death, so he no longer held any appreciation for his Talent.

After this incident passed, Qi Feng relied on his slick, smooth-talking ways to become a prominent figure at the university.

Meanwhile, Lin Chuan became demoralized and gradually turned into an obscure, invisible nobody in the school.

Qi Feng gradually stopped caring about a nobody without background like Lin Chuan.

However, when the Killing Game descended, what Qi Feng awakened was the A-Level Talent Intuition!

This Talent gave him a mysterious, special perception.

He could obtain opportunities more easily than others, and he could evade danger more easily as well.

When he encountered Lin Chuan, he vaguely sensed that Lin Chuan possessed extraordinary potential in the future.

Thus, he first extended an olive branch to Lin Chuan, and after being rejected, he decisively used his family to launch a frantic hunt against Lin Chuan!

Attempting to nip a hugely potential enemy in the bud.

And clearly, the situation in this life was no different from his previous one.

Upon learning that Lin Chuan's Talent was merely the F-Level Incineration, Qi Feng didn't show any contempt or disdain; instead, he apologized with a friendly attitude and tried to recruit him—

"I've always been very sorry about causing you to lose the financial aid three years ago. But times have changed now, and no one will dwell on your past anymore. Lin Chuan, are you willing to follow me and work for the Qi Family?"

As he spoke, he handed a business card toward Lin Chuan.

Instantly, people around whispered to each other:

"The Qi Family? Is it the Qi Family I'm thinking of?"

"Holy crap! President Qi Feng is actually from the Qi Family??! That's way too overpowered! Handsome, top grades, and from such a wealthy background! A male lead from an idol drama actually exists in reality!"

Someone else said with a slightly sour tone, "No way? Everything is globally digitized now! Does anyone still think this world belongs to prominent families?!"

However, Lin Chuan could answer that person.

Having experienced it personally, even after the apocalypse descended, those prominent families still possessed far greater advantages than ordinary people.

The most obvious point was that today, while social order had not yet collapsed, various big families had already begun frantically hoarding supplies and recruiting Talent.

This allowed many families to accumulate a significant advantage in the early stages of the apocalypse.

Later, behind most of the super factions formed in the apocalypse were the shadows of these families.

For instance, Qi Feng used his Talent and family support to recruit a large number of Talents early in the apocalypse, later even establishing a massive organization named the "Intelligence Pavilion."

The Intelligence Pavilion provided many valuable guides to players at large, earning high praise among apocalyptic players.

And in his previous life, after Lin Chuan grew powerful, he directly wiped out the Intelligence Pavilion organization to seek revenge on Qi Feng.

This move once made him public enemy number one.

And in this life...