15: Chapter 15 The bone fragments can talk, but I refuse to believe in fate!

Every time Chen Fan's injured leg touched the ground, it felt like a piece of flesh was being gouged out by a dull knife.

He leaned against the subway entrance advertisement board to stand straight, salty blood dripping from his forehead into his collar—the wound he sustained from the red light in the tunnel was still seeping blood, but what sent a chill down his neck right now was the dull gray sky above his head.

The system interface had materialized in the sky above the city at some unknown time. The usually light blue mission bar was scorched and wrinkled with a blood-red border. A large line of text in the very center stabbed at his pupils until they contracted: [Player [Chen Fan] is suspected of disrupting the core mission chain and has been upgraded to a [S-Class Anomaly]. All New Players may pursue across regions. First kill reward unlocks the [Skill Selection Scroll]].

"Ha." He wiped the blood from his face, a cold sneer rumbling from his throat.

The system always loved these kinds of bluffing tricks, but when his fingertips touched the bone fragment in his embrace, the object suddenly trembled like a living thing, striking his palm again and again, actually synchronizing with his heartbeat.

Even stranger, the old scar scraped by the rebar on the inside of his left arm was now glowing with faint golden markings.

Chen Fan pulled up his sleeve. In the dim light, the markings outlined a small fox curled up with its tail tucked, perfectly matching the faint golden glimmer at Su Shuang's eye corner.

"She really didn't tell me the whole truth." He clenched the bone fragment tightly; the pain from the wound being constricted was sharp, but he didn't loosen his grip in the slightest.

The lantern at the Frost Moon Teahouse swayed at the alley entrance, its warm yellow light reflecting dampness off the bluestone slabs.

Just as Chen Fan reached the doorway, the wooden door creaked open. Xiao Tao, holding a teacup, let it drop with a clatter, ceramic shards splashing near his feet: "Chen... Brother Chen? How... how are you...?"

"Where is the proprietress?" He interrupted Xiao Tao, his gaze sweeping across the Teahouse's inner hall.

Xiao Tao's face instantly turned pale, her fingers gripping the doorframe tightly: "The proprietress... she hasn't been right since this afternoon. When I brought her ginseng tea, I saw her collapsed in front of the screen, clutching something that looked like a bone in her hand. She wouldn't wake up no matter how I called!"

Chen Fan's temples throbbed violently.

He strode past Xiao Tao into the inner hall. Amidst the thick, heavy scent of agarwood, Su Shuang was slumped beneath the Xiangfei bamboo screen, her dark green qipao stained with tea marks. In her pale palm lay half a bone fragment emitting a faint glow—its cracks matched the one in his embrace perfectly.

"Su Shuang!" He knelt on one knee. The moment his fingertips touched her wrist, both bone fragments suddenly became scalding hot simultaneously.

The bone fragment in Chen Fan's embrace buzzed and sprang out, colliding with the one in Su Shuang's palm, causing a cluster of golden light to float between them.

An afterimage unfolded within the golden light.

Chen Fan saw a woman in a moon-white dress, fluffy fox ears perched on her ear tips, her ankles entangled by red light.

Her body was dissolving like crushed paper, fragment by fragment vanishing into the air, yet she kept reaching out toward a direction outside the lens—her lips moved silently—"Little sister, run quickly."

"Sis... Sister!" Su Shuang suddenly gripped Chen Fan's wrist so tightly her nails almost dug into his flesh.

She sat up abruptly, large tears splashing onto her qipao. "She disappeared twenty years ago... The clan said she went to the mortal realm for tribulation, but it turns out... it turns out..."

Chen Fan said nothing, merely letting her hold him.

He could feel her trembling transmitted through his palm, like a lotus leaf swaying in a downpour.

Only when Su Shuang's sobs subsided did he speak softly: "I saw Master Shi in the tunnel. He said all players are just 'batteries,' and the system is collecting souls."

Su Shuang's fingers tightened abruptly.

She wiped her face, and when she looked up, the fox tattoo at her eye corner glowed red: "My clan's bloodline can sense the system's lies. The elders discovered this during the first wave of gamification a hundred years ago—the missions and rewards given by the system were all designed to make us willingly offer up our souls. That's why they wanted to exterminate the clan."

Her gaze fell upon Chen Fan's chest, and her voice suddenly trembled: "You think critical hits are good luck? That's the system's backlash program. It needs loopholes to maintain balance, so it chooses the most tenacious souls to be vessels. But every time a critical hit is triggered, a rift is torn in your soul... If this continues, you will become a lingering bell like Master Shi."

Chen Fan looked down at his own palm.

The heat from the bone fragment seeped through his shirt, branding an imprint on his chest.

He suddenly grinned, revealing blood-stained canine teeth: "That works out perfectly. It tears a hole in me, I smash a brick back at it."

He pulled out the bronze bell shard from his pocket—when Su Shuang told him last night that it was a Fox Clan artifact, he had just thought it was ordinary decoration.

This time, he pressed the shard onto the crack of the bone fragment. The two pieces sucked together like magnets, forming a bronze bell missing a quarter of its edge.

Chen Fan gently shook the bronze bell. With a soft 'ding,' the air in the Teahouse rippled like water.

He looked up. The system interface floating above his head suddenly distorted. Beneath the blood-red text of the wanted poster, a line of text so faint it was almost invisible appeared: [Warning: Anomaly has contacted the core bloodline. Data camouflage has failed].

"It can see through the system's disguise?" Su Shuang's eyes brightened.

Just as she was about to speak, a dull 'thud' came from the backyard, sounding like agitated well water.

Chen Fan gripped the bronze bell and walked toward the backyard.

The well's rim was covered in green moss. As he leaned over, a hoarse whisper came from the bottom of the well: "...Don't trust the prompts... It's lying to you..."

It was Master Shi!

"I know it's lying," Chen Fan pressed close to the well wall, his voice very low. "But I won't rely on it to live."

As soon as his words fell, the system prompt sounded with a piercing shriek: [Emergency Mission Triggered: Repair the data rift in Black Ridge Path. Time limit: 30 minutes. Completion reward: Gold-tier Equipment x 2, Experience x 5000].

Chen Fan sneered: "Trying to make me go back and fill the hole? Not a chance." He turned to leave, but a sudden heat surged in his chest—the lingering bell was so hot it almost slipped from his grasp. The critical hit system's prompt sounded in his mind: [High concentration of Truth Resonance detected. Passive warning function unlocked: Can perceive danger 0.5 seconds in advance].

The next instant, the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

Chen Fan looked up sharply. A crack split open on the roof tiles with a 'crack.' Three black shadows descended like night owls. The monitor in the leader's hand emitted a faint blue light: "S-Class Anomaly... Execute on-site cleanup."

Su Shuang had appeared beside him at some unknown time, faint golden Fox Fire coalescing at her fingertips.

She glanced at the lingering bell in Chen Fan's palm, then at the fox tattoo on his arm, and suddenly laughed: "Chen Fan, you said you wanted to flip the chessboard."

"Let's flip it now." Chen Fan tightened his grip on the lingering bell; the fox tattoo on his arm glowed faintly.

He stepped onto the window ledge and leaped onto the roof, the lingering bell vibrating numbly in his palm.

Under the oppressive gray sky, he looked at the flickering system interface in the distance and suddenly roared at the top of his lungs: "System, listen up—"

"I refuse to believe fate!"

The sound of the wind carried his roar into the alleyway.

The aftershock of the lingering bell surged from his fingertips into his heart. Chen Fan looked down at the sounds of fighting rising below and suddenly felt that fox tattoo burning like a fire destined to incinerate fate.