C64 Murder on the Street

Mouse clutched his mouth, his eyes wide with terror.

He recognized the burly man before him as Chang Shun, a notorious thug well-known in the area.

Mouse was just an average Joe, but Chang Shun was a martial artist of the second level of the Genuine Force Stage, capable of snuffing out his life as easily as one would an ant.

The Spirit Money had been freshly earned by Mouse, but before it even had a chance to warm in his pocket, Chang Shun, who just happened to be passing by, spotted it.

And so, the situation had escalated to this: Mouse found himself slapped to the ground, his Spirit Money seized, and to add insult to injury, he was falsely accused of stealing Chang Shun's Spirit Money.

"Shun, Brother Shun..." Mouse watched in agony as Chang Shun deliberately crushed his brand-new sketchbook underfoot, his heart bleeding, yet overshadowed by an even greater fear that rendered his material loss insignificant. "I... I didn't know, Brother Shun... What... what do you want from me?"

Denying the theft of Chang Shun's Spirit Money wasn't even an option.

To do so would invite a beating far more vicious than any he had previously endured.

Mouse vividly remembered how last year, someone else had been falsely accused by Chang Shun. Refusing to confess to the fabricated crime, the man was brutally beaten to death in the street.

Witnesses claimed the corpse was so mangled and broken that it had to be shoveled up.

In this lawless relic of an old town, death was inconsequential. Without any connections, there was no hope for justice.

Determined not to become the next casualty, Mouse had no choice but to yield.

"What to do? The solution is quite simple," Chang Shun said as he approached the quivering Mouse, bending down with a mocking sneer.

He reveled in his sense of triumph, like a robust cat toying with a tiny mouse.

As Mouse's complexion turned ashen, Chang Shun's satisfaction swelled. He let out a menacing laugh and said, "The resolution is straightforward: repay ten times the amount of Spirit Money you 'stole' from me. That means you now owe me ten Spirit Money."

"Ten... ten Spirit Money?" Mouse shrieked, his eyes bulging with sheer terror and panic.

In all his life, he probably had never witnessed such a scene where ten Spirit Money appeared all at once.

"Yeah, that's right, you better pay up this month, or else—" Chang Shun said, patting Mouse's face with a menacing casualness. Suddenly, he twisted Mouse's cheek viciously and barked, "I'll flay that mouse hide of yours!"

Mouse was petrified.

He cast a helpless glance around him.

But the passersby didn't even spare them a look, as if nothing at all was happening.

That was the harsh reality in this old town, a place where the law of the jungle was brutally upheld and no one cared about another's life or death.

Mouse's gaze reluctantly swung back to Chang Shun.

Yet, in that moment, he noticed a shift in Chang Shun's demeanor.

The wicked grin was gone, replaced by a pained grimace as if he was suddenly in excruciating pain.

The next thing Mouse saw was a large hand gripping Chang Shun's hair, yanking his head back.

Who would dare to mess with Chang Shun in this place?

While Mouse was still reeling in disbelief, a voice that had only recently faded returned from behind Chang Shun.

"Your Spirit Money? Well then, your life belongs to me today."

The voice that had once dripped with impatience now oozed a chilling coldness.

With a swift motion, Chu Yan grabbed Chang Shun by the hair and hoisted him up.

The pain tearing through his scalp was enough to bring tears to Chang Shun's eyes.

But in a heartbeat, the pain morphed into overwhelming shame and fury.

"I'll kill you!" Chang Shun bellowed, lunging for Chu Yan's arm.

As a second-level practitioner of the Genuine Force Stage, he was confident he could snap the arm of his adversary!

Once he broke the arm, he'd make sure the other man paid dearly for his audacity.

But in the next instant, Chang Shun realized what he had grabbed wasn't an arm at all, but rather something as unyielding as steel.

Suddenly, Chang Shun felt his blood run cold, his limbs freezing as if the circulation had been cut off.

The opponent was a martial artist too, and vastly more powerful than he was. Fear crackled up his spine in an instant.

"Huh? You think you can resist?" Chu Yan scoffed, glancing at Mouse. "Is it legal to kill someone in the street here?"

Mouse, who had been dumbstruck by Chang Shun's immobility, instinctively shook his head upon hearing Chu Yan's question.

"Good." Chu Yan nodded, then his other hand came down like thunder, striking Chang Shun's chest with a resounding boom, echoing like a war drum.

The sound of bones shattering followed. Mouse watched as a geyser of blood erupted from Chang Shun's mouth and nose, spraying high into the air and raining down in a gruesome shower of red.

Chang Shun's chest was now a deep crater; it was nearly flattened. His grip on Chu Yan's hand went limp.

Chu Yan let go, and Chang Shun's eyes, wide and unseeing, stared up as he slowly collapsed to the ground, his body quickly becoming spattered with his own blood.

Chu Yan picked up the Spirit Money and tossed it back to Mouse, who was still frozen in shock. Throughout the ordeal, few bystanders even cast a glance their way.

In the old town ruins, such scenes were a daily occurrence. People had grown accustomed to the violence.

Chu Yan moved on, and soon an elderly woman with white hair approached him. Without a word, she knelt before him, her eyes brimming with tears as she bowed her head three times before walking away.

Chu Yan had an inkling of her reasons and sighed inwardly. Moments later, he vanished into the crowd.

The incident hadn't dampened Chu Yan's spirits. He simply reflected on the harsh reality that in this world, power was the ultimate truth.

Following Mouse's directions, Chu Yan navigated the labyrinthine streets of the old town ruins. After nearly half an hour, he paused between two modest buildings.

Between the two buildings, there was supposed to be an expanse of open space, but now, by design, the narrow gap between them had been transformed into an inconspicuous little door.

Dangling above the door was a grime-covered sign, bearing three bold characters that stood out clearly: Langya Pavilion.

The name carried a certain grandeur, yet who would have guessed its location was tucked away in such an obscure nook? Without Mouse's directions, it would have been quite the challenge to locate.

"Here we are," Chu Yan remarked, casting a quick look around before striding confidently through the entrance.