Chapter 1

Doubing City, located in the southwestern region of Huaxia, is one of the three major central cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Surrounded by two rivers, it is known as the "City of Bridges." Due to its location in a hilly river valley, it also has many slopes, earning it the nickname "Mountain City." The people of Doubing City have always been simple, hardworking, kind, and brave, embodying various virtues! However, these virtues have nothing to do with Lin Bai. Lin Bai, currently 23 years old, is a poor **s. His parents are deceased, he has a high school diploma, and he cannot find a decent job, let alone a girlfriend. The only thing he owns is a dilapidated house inherited from his grandfather, which is located on a street. The house has two floors, with the first floor being a storefront for business and the second floor having two rooms and a shared bathroom for living. Although the house is quite old, its location is not too remote, and it has a street-front storefront, so it could be sold for one to two million yuan. Lin Bai, of course, would not sell this only property. If he spent all the money from selling the house, he would have to beg for food in a few years. Although he is not ambitious, lazy, and content with the status quo, when it comes to the survival of the rest of his life, he needs to be cautious. Therefore, he opened a "Little Bai Computer Repair" shop on the first floor, relying on fixing computers to make a living. In recent years, more and more people have home computers, and naturally, more computers are breaking down. Fixing a computer can earn him anywhere from several dozen to a hundred yuan, which, although not enough to make him rich, is enough to barely put food on the table. By now, it was already late, and the weather in April was neither hot nor cold. Lin Bai, wearing a bathrobe, sat in his small repair shop, where broken computer parts were scattered everywhere. There were few pedestrians outside, and it seemed there would be no customers tonight. He felt in his pocket and found 13.5 yuan, just enough for a boxed meal. If there were no customers tomorrow, he would start to go hungry. As for this month's water and electricity bills, he could only hope that business would improve in the coming days. Reality was so cruel, and perhaps escaping into the internet would bring a bit of happiness. He casually turned on a computer a customer had brought in for repair and connected to the internet... It was April 1st, April Fool's Day, and the internet was filled with a large number of silly jokes. Blizzard's official website posted an announcement saying they would turn World of Warcraft into a shooting game like Call of Duty. Riot Games' League of Legends homepage also posted an announcement saying that to use the ultimate skill of the Wuji Sword Saint, one must input "up up down down left right left right B A B A" instead of just pressing R... Lin Bai felt a bit bored. Every April Fool's Day, the same old tricks were used. He thought, "I'm not even moved by these boring jokes; not even a hint of a smile. Come on, can't you come up with something new for April Fool's Day? Be creative, do you understand creativity?" Lin Bai decided to be creative! Unfortunately... trying to challenge the creativity of all humanity with one person's intelligence is a difficult task. No matter how hard Lin Bai racked his brain, he couldn't think of any new April Fool's ideas, as all the ideas had been used by billions of people. No, maybe not all of them, but he just couldn't think of any. Lin Bai casually clicked on a forum with a high number of visits and posted a thread: "Listen up, you foolish humans. I am the new successor of the Devil. Starting tomorrow, I will begin my evil plan to destroy the world. Humans, tremble under my evil aura, hahaha..." After posting, he found it quite boring. This old April Fool's joke would soon be drowned out by a flood of similar posts, causing no ripples, and no one would be interested in such a post. "Huh? Someone actually replied?" Lin Bai refreshed the page and saw the first reply. The ID of the replier was "New Generation Superman." Lin Bai couldn't help but sneer, "What a俗气 (vulgar) ID. Can it be any more unpleasant to hear?" He opened the reply and saw it read: "So you are the successor of the Devil. I've finally caught the tail of evil. Do you know how long I've been looking for you? Since you've finally shown yourself, prepare to face the fist of justice... I'm tracking your IP address. If you have any backbone, don't log off..." "Ha!" Lin Bai couldn't help but laugh. "This person is quite interesting, actually responding to my boring joke. He could be a good partner for telling jokes." His fingers danced on the keyboard: "New Generation Superman, well done! Let's have a decisive battle and see if my evil magic is stronger or your superpowers are better. If justice fails, the world will be destroyed." "New Generation Superman" quickly replied: "Justice will not allow evil to run rampant. If you want to destroy the world, you must step over my dead body. Your IP address is locked, and your location is clear... I will come to find you tomorrow morning..." "Alright, see you then!" Lin Bai decided to end this boring joke, turned off the computer, turned off the lights, and went to bed... April 2nd, morning! The first rays of sunlight shone through the window, casting mottled shadows in the room. The bed was a mess of rumpled sheets, and Lin Bai was no longer in it. He had already finished washing up and was preparing to open his shop. Although he was lazy, he still had to make a living. He stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth, holding it with his teeth, freeing his hands to unlock the metal gate and push it up with force. With a "clatter," the gate rolled up, revealing a crooked sign that read "Little Bai Computer Repair." The morning sunlight slanted onto the already crooked sign, casting an even more crooked shadow on the ground. Across the street was a hot pot restaurant that hadn't opened yet... Directly opposite was a "Jiajia Beauty and Hair Salon." Yes! It was the kind of place that would turn on pink lights in the evening, waiting for men to come in, but it hadn't opened yet... Lin Bai gave the two shops the middle finger: "Tsk! Not as diligent as me, you'll go out of business and lose money." In fact, the two shops had always done well, while "Little Bai Computer Repair" didn't do so well. If the storefront wasn't his own and he had to pay rent, he would have gone bankrupt long ago. Lin Bai often thought about whether he should switch to running a hot pot restaurant or a "beauty and hair salon," but unfortunately, he didn't have the expertise and didn't know how to start. Especially in the "beauty and hair salon" industry, it would be quite stressful for a virgin to be a "pimp." A new day, or rather, every day for Lin Bai, began like this... Huh? A woman suddenly appeared at the door, no, a girl, about 18 or 19 years old, with skin as white as snow, pure and beautiful, with large, luminous eyes that seemed to speak. She wore a white top, tight white pants, and a red cape, with a unique symbol on her chest, like a large letter S in a frame. Her appearance was so beautiful and pure... but... outside the white pants, she wore a red **, yes! A red ** with lace, making it very noticeable. If... if she hadn't worn the ** outside, her beauty would have made her a candidate for Miss Asia, no, Miss World. Unfortunately, the peculiar ** revealed her unreliability. Now, she would be more likely to become a comedian than Miss World. Lin Bai rubbed his eyes, suspecting he had seen wrong, but after rubbing and looking again, the girl was still there, wearing a white top, white pants, a red cape, and a red ** with lace, so eye-catching and so shocking. The scene was too beautiful for Lin Bai to bear. He covered his face and turned away, wanting to avoid it. The girl then spoke: "Are you Lin Bai? The computer repair guy?" Lin Bai immediately stopped. This woman knew him? Oh, perhaps she was here to have him repair her computer? That would be great. Whether she was Miss World, a comedian, or a patient from a mental hospital, as long as she came to have him repair her computer, he couldn't refuse. Money is money. He spun around and faced the girl again. Since she was a customer, no matter how strange she looked, Lin Bai would ignore it and pretend not to notice: "I am Lin Bai, the well-known computer expert in the area, specializing in all kinds of computer problems. Just give me your computer..." He noticed she had empty hands, not carrying a computer, so he added: "But if I go to your place to repair the computer, there will be an additional 50 yuan service fee." The girl sneered: "Stop pretending. I know that repairing computers is just your surface identity. You have another secret identity; you are the successor of a great person." Lin Bai laughed: "Don't joke. What other identity do I have? Why don't I know? Could it be... some overseas grandfather, uncle, or something, who couldn't find an heir and decided to give me all his property? Haha, that would be embarrassing... I don't need much, just ten or twenty billion, and I'd be satisfied." The girl snorted: "Stop pretending. Do I have to be blunt?" She glanced around, noticing it was still early and there were no pedestrians on the street, so she didn't worry about being overheard. She said coldly: "You can't fool me. You are the successor of the Devil, the new Devil, and you are about to begin your evil plan to destroy the world..." "Hold on!" Lin Bai urgently stopped her: "Hey, girl, although your ** outside has already revealed your mental state, this is not a mental hospital, and I am not a psychologist. If you want to talk nonsense, please turn around and take three steps. There's a large yellow locust tree there. You can pour out your fantasies to it. I guarantee it will be a good listener." "Stop pretending!" The girl's face flashed with anger: "You posted a declaration to destroy the world on the internet last night, don't you remember? I am the one who replied to you—New Generation Superman." "What?" Lin Bai's mind suddenly cleared. Right, last night he posted an April Fool's joke, saying he was the successor of the Devil and would destroy the world. A guy called "New Generation Superman" played along with him. It turned out... the person playing along was a mentally ill girl. What bad luck. He turned to leave again. The girl shouted behind him: "Successor of the Devil, take this—Fist of Justice!" "Tsk!" Lin Bai decided to ignore her and walked forward three steps. Suddenly, he felt something was wrong. A huge roar came from behind, like a mountain collapsing, a tsunami, or a typhoon. The pressure was overwhelming, and the whole world seemed to become more solemn. Lin Bai didn't know what was happening behind him, but his instinct to avoid danger made him fall to the ground. Then, a delicate, white fist whizzed past his head, clearly aiming for the back of his head. But because Lin Bai fell, the fist missed and hit his house with an unstoppable force... Then! With a loud "boom," Lin Bai saw his only property, the old house inherited from his grandfather, deform, collapse, and shatter into a pile of rubble...