Chapter 5#
The Vicious Villain Makes His Move#
He Xu first contacted Song Yaya to investigate the mole, then gave thorough instructions to his trusted subordinates, left a message for his vacationing confidant, and turned around to squeeze a hefty compensation from Admiral Sen’s faction.
After settling that, he called the rescue team, deliberately dragging his feet on the timing, and quietly withheld the fast-acting trauma medication the female lead had prepared.
After doing all this, He Xu—the man who had been a goody-two-shoes for two lifetimes—found his heart rate already unconsciously quickening.
Noticing his face burning with heat and his guilt running deep, he helplessly put a portion of the medicine back. Only then did the unease settle slightly.
Ideals were full-bodied, but reality was stark.
No matter how solid the mental preparation, only when actually executing did he realize that not just anyone could be a villain.
He was already this nervous just from the preliminary preparations. Whether he could truly carry out the villain’s misdeeds later on was highly doubtful.
He Xu worried the whole way to the light civilian flier.
This tourist-model flier had a spacious interior, and the seats weren’t even reinforced. Many wealthy people used it to hold aerial cocktail parties—the bar was fully equipped, and the outer walls were made of special transparent material. With the projection effect activated, one could see the scenery outside the cabin.
Pale blue light spilled in through the outer walls, softening the warm glow inside the cabin.
He Xu hastily reinforced three seats. Before they entered the energy field, he suggested that Ruan Mian and Yin Feiyang treat it like a real vacation and enjoy the flier’s entertainment facilities to their hearts’ content, while the third person stayed on standby in the spare rescue pod so no one would disturb anyone.
The bar was fully stocked with drinkware. The rental company never dreamed they weren’t here for sightseeing but to enter a dangerous, unknown planet. To curry favor with Yin Feiyang, the shelves were lined entirely with top-tier galactic vintage liquors.
Yin Feiyang was somewhat tempted by He Xu’s suggestion. He had just walked up to the liquor shelf when his girlfriend’s stern voice reached his ears: “No drinking.”
Yin Feiyang quickly explained, “I’m just mixing some drinks. We still have a ways to go on this trip.”
Ruan Mian directly took the bottle he was about to touch. Beside the juice label, in tiny print, it read: Contains alcohol.
Yin Feiyang: “…”
Yin Feiyang: “Alright, I’m wrong.”
He Xu was at the front controlling their direction. This vessel had no conventional cockpit for the sake of visibility—the pilot stood at the very front of the cabin, steering a spherical control wheel, while other passengers could also come to the front and gaze at the galactic scenery through the wide screen.
In reality, this vessel also had full autopilot capability. That was exactly why the assessment difficulty was extremely low, and why Yin Feiyang never expected anyone to actually pilot it through the energy field.
He Xu was able to divide his attention and observe the surrounding situation.
Real operations were far more complex than what the book described. In the original story, He Xu had schemed carefully to make the female lead crash directly into the only massive spare container in the cabin.
Inside the container were emergency survival supplies. Due to safety concerns, the material was extremely sturdy. When the female lead collided head-on with it, even with the protective airbag cushioning the impact, she was severely injured, leaving permanent damage to her wrist that made it impossible for her to perform precision surgeries again.
With her talent, she should have become a top-tier doctor, not a medic running around behind the male lead.
He Xu: “…”
Suddenly feeling guilty. No no no.
The spare container was mounted high on the wall. To make the female lead crash directly into it, a simple emergency brake was nowhere near enough.
The sheer malice required—He Xu knew without even thinking deeply that he couldn’t do it.
So the question became: how could he injure the female lead without breaking character and triggering a system warning?
With this question in mind, before he realized it, they had already neared the energy field.
Inside the energy field, not only were there debris fragments to dodge, but there were also violent energy currents that caused the vessel to jolt violently, like a ship caught in a storm at sea.
The turbulence from the energy field was far more dangerous than towering ocean waves.
He Xu gradually focused his mind back on piloting, while sounds came from behind him in rapid succession.
The liquor cabinet had already been closed, but the cups on the bar still clattered to the floor amid the vibrations. Fortunately, they were made of special materials and didn’t shatter.
Along with the sound of falling objects came the female lead’s urgent cries and Yin Feiyang’s muffled groans.
“If the cups fell, don’t pick them up! Steady yourself first!” That was the female lead.
“There are fixed seats on the flier—use the fixed seats.” That was Yin Feiyang.
“Hey! Watch your step, steady yourself!” That was the female lead.
“You sit first, let me strap you in… Hiss.” That was Yin Feiyang.
“You go sit in the fixed seat instead. I’ll strap you in. Don’t worry, my balance is way better than yours.” That was the female lead.
“But… alright.”
He Xu didn’t need to turn around. Just from the fragmented conversation, he could tell Yin Feiyang’s instability had caused quite a few small problems.
The fixed seats required straps to be buckled—theoretically, two people strapped each other in together. But their relationship wasn’t that intimate yet. On top of that, He Xu hadn’t anticipated that Yin Feiyang’s balance would be so poor that he completely lost mobility the moment they entered the energy field.
In comparison, the female lead Ruan Mian’s voice was remarkably steady—clearly she’d found something to hold onto and stabilized herself.
Perhaps in the original story, only Yin Feiyang had been strapped into the seat.
No wonder the villain had dared to make his move and seriously injure the female lead.
Now, as the vicious villain, He Xu’s palms were sweating from anxiety.
The energy field was way harder than he’d imagined!!
Before coming, He Xu, who knew the plot, had chosen the strictest mode for his training and done a grueling round of practice. He’d arrived full of confidence, but only when he got his hands on it did he realize being a villain wasn’t so easy.
He even suspected that the original vicious villain might have only wanted to target the female lead a little, and the accident had caused the severe outcome.
The tourist vessel didn’t even have a pilot’s seat—just a single safety strap for protection. He needed to maintain his balance amid the turbulence, while also making sure he didn’t accidentally turn the wheel if he fell.
Controlling the energy level demanded intense concentration. Too little drive and the currents would sweep them away; too much kinetic energy and he couldn’t maintain agility.
He Xu managed to pilot with great effort. He didn’t dare let the turbulence run wild, and controlling the female lead’s injury was even harder.
He’d passed through two of the three energy layers before he barely remembered his mission.
Just as he was distracted, about to pull some trick, not far ahead in the energy field, an aircraft suddenly burst outward.
It was a heavy military vessel. Rather than being piloted outward, it seemed more like it had been blasted by an internal impact and sent tumbling into the energy field.
It couldn’t change direction and came flying straight at them.
He Xu could only watch as it slammed into a massive object. The heat wave from the explosion instantly churned a massive vortex through the energy field.
If he did anything at this critical moment, the female lead would be hurt far worse than just an arm injury!
He Xu gritted his teeth, shoved the throttle forward, and risked escaping the explosion’s reach at maximum speed.
This was the final stretch of the energy field. Once they left it, he could no longer pull any tricks according to the plot.
That thought flashed through his mind briefly, but before it could fully form, He Xu quickly cast it aside.
He grabbed the pilot’s support bar to steady himself, using the fastest reflexes of his life to adjust their position according to the gravity markers on the sensors.
Sweat had already beaded on his forehead from the strain.
“What’s happening?!”
He Xu had no time to distinguish who asked, only managing a sharp shout in between: “Hold on tight!!”
The flier shot forward under sudden acceleration, bursting out of the explosion’s affected area—but the debris spinning and accelerating around them remained perilous.
Watching the rocks hurtling toward them, He Xu found bitter amusement in comparing the scene to the obstacle-dodging games he’d played before transmigrating.
Was this a full-holographic version, then?
But his lighthearted mood didn’t last long.
[Warning: Executor, release the control wheel immediately. Awaiting system takeover of the vessel.]
[Warning: Take action immediately. You have violated mission requirements!]
The instant the cold system voice exploded in his mind, his stomach suddenly cramped. A twisting pain swept through him, and his chest ached with a dull, suffocating pressure.
He Xu instinctively bent over, his hand losing strength for a moment. Seeing a massive rock flying straight at them, he barely managed to grit his teeth, steady the wheel, and adjust their trajectory.
After that, he stopped hesitating. Enduring the pain, he gripped firmly and focused entirely on evasion.
[Warning: Severe violation detected. If the host does not take reasonable action, execution will be carried out.]
Everything in his sight began to glow red. The deafening warning blared like demonic noise drilling into his ears, causing ringing and dizziness. His temples throbbed painfully, and the abdominal pain was so severe he could barely stand upright.
Even so, He Xu executed maneuvers so precise he surprised even himself, perfectly avoiding all the dangerous debris and gradually entering calmer waters.
It was only when the system warning was on the verge of its limit that He Xu finally, obediently, yanked the wheel hard, sending the cabin lurching.
The sound, the pain—all vanished instantly.
He Xu was drenched in cold sweat. His free hand unconsciously went to his stomach. He had just been about to check on the male and female leads when he suddenly spotted a piece of warship wreckage in the distance, propelled straight toward them by the combined force of the explosion and the energy field’s currents!
Seeing the female lead lose her balance and about to crash into the wall—if that hit connected, it would be extremely dangerous!
He Xu didn’t have time to think. He hurriedly maneuvered to dodge.
The light flier’s piloting mode relied on the pilot using their own sense of gravity to adjust direction. After the turbulence and the confrontation with the system had drained most of his stamina, He Xu couldn’t replicate his earlier virtuoso control. He barely managed to evade, but the hull still inevitably collided with the wreckage.
After exiting the energy field, the autopilot took over. He Xu also shed the weakness and exhaustion and unbuckled his pilot strap.
Yin Feiyang: “Untie me first!”
He Xu abandoned the thought of checking on the female lead and unbuckled Yin Feiyang, then followed the hurried man to inspect the situation.
The scene had been chaotic earlier. He didn’t know how badly the female lead was hurt. He even started entertaining conspiracy theories about whether the final piece of wreckage had been the system’s doing.
If the plot would forcibly be restored anyway, then wasn’t his struggle futile—wasted effort…
He Xu wasn’t the type to run from reality. Watching Yin Feiyang rush over in concern, he just stood behind and observed quietly.
The female lead had been thrown to the ground by the impact. She was sitting there with her head lowered, clutching her arm—the severity of her injuries unclear.
But He Xu saw some blood, and his heart lurched.
Just as his mood turned heavy, Ruan Mian suddenly looked up and gave him a smile.
Ruan Mian: “Thank you for earlier.”
He Xu: “?”
On that delicate, beautiful face, a long, narrow wound ran across half her cheek, still seeping blood. That was the source of the blood He Xu had seen.
A wound on the face—not the lifelong hand injury from the original plot, but hardly better!
He Xu: Thank me? Thank me for what? What’s going on?