Ita Era

Chapter 1 Settlement of Accounts
In front of an apartment building, a man crouched down and used a safety pin to pick the lock, then pushed the door open. Another man, armed with two guns, entered. The man who picked the door quickly closed it and drew his gun. The two men then rushed through the entryway and into the living room.

A man sat at the living room table, his upper body bare, his abdomen wrapped in layers of gauze. Even so, blood continued to seep from the gauze with each cough, forming an irregular circle on the floor. He was listless and weak, clearly nearing the end of his life.

The man who broke down the door pointed his gun at the injured man and laughed, "Ding Shi, what happened to you? Where did your arrogance go when you killed my whole family? Where did it go?" He then poked the injured man's head twice with the barrel of his gun.

Ding Shi smiled indifferently and said, "You're all here? Since you're all here, let's sit down and settle the accounts, let's settle the accounts of the past six years. Wang Meng, please sit down."

The man called Wang Meng was 1.9 meters tall, strong and burly. After confirming that Ding Shi wasn't hiding any weapons, Wang Meng pulled out a chair, sat down opposite Ding Shi, looked him in the eye, and asked, "Second brother, how do you want to settle this?"

Ding Shi didn't answer, but looked at the man picking the lock: "Silly Bone, you sit down too."

The lock-picking man was 1.7 meters tall and thin. As he sat down, he corrected the man, saying, "My nickname is Short Dagger." He didn't care about wasting a little time watching his enemy slowly die.

Ding Shi said, "The first debt is between me and Wang Meng. I followed you when I was 18, through thick and thin, and how did you treat me?"

Ding Shi pointed to his abdomen and held up two fingers: "Two bullets, are you even human? Are you even human?"

Wang Meng remained unmoved and said, "You are an undercover agent."

Ding Shi asked, "Yes, I'm an undercover agent, but did I touch you?"

Wang Meng said, "You'll definitely try to get back at me in the future."

Ding Shi asked incredulously, "You want to kill me now because of something that might happen in the future?"

Wang Meng was stunned. How was he supposed to answer that?

Short Dagger sneered: "Don't think I don't know. Your undercover mission is to help Wang Meng eliminate all the criminal gangs in City A. Finally, eliminate Wang Meng and complete the purification operation."

Ding Shi looked at the short dagger: "Your turn, huh? You wiped out all my undercover electronic data, killed my superior, and stole the only paper file. How did I offend you?"

Dagger: "What have you done to offend me? Haha! Five years ago you killed my whole family. My parents, my sister, my brother, four lives—do you think I'd let you get away with this?"

Ding Shi shook his finger and said, "It wasn't me who killed your whole family. Our leader is called Wang Meng, and he's sitting right next to you."

Ding Shi looked at Wang Meng: "He threatened me with the paper file. If I don't get rid of you, he'll give you the file so you can get rid of me."

Wang Meng paused for a moment, then simultaneously raised his gun and pointed it at the other man's head, along with his short dagger.

The man with the short dagger grinned maliciously: "The hatred of wiping out your entire family is irreconcilable. Wang Meng, what do you say?"

Wang Meng explained, "He instigated me to eliminate all the criminal gangs in City A."

The man with the dagger retorted, "You'll do whatever he says?"

Wang Meng replied, "He is my brother."

Ding Shi questioned, "Then why did you shoot me?"

Wang Meng: "But you're an undercover agent."

Ding Shi was exasperated: "Your enemy stirred up trouble and said a few words, and you came to kill me? Do you even have a brain?"

Wang Meng admitted that he was not as smart as Ding Shi, and that Ding Shi had been the one giving him advice for the past six years. But Wang Meng was not stupid. He pressed his pistol down on the short knife and put down his own pistol. He looked at Ding Shi and said, "Second brother, I know you too well. If anyone among the three of us is trying to sow discord, it will definitely be you. So I won't listen to a single word you say."

Ding Shi asked, "Are you running away from the facts?"

He drew his dagger first and asked, "Ding Shi, are you really an undercover agent?"

Ding Shi spread his hands: "When a person is about to die, his words are good. I am indeed an undercover agent."

Short Dagger asked, "How can you prove it? You've been a bandit for six years. Did you ever attend a police academy? Did you ever work as a constable? Is there anyone who can prove you were a constable? No one. Whether you want to believe it or not, you're not a soldier. You're just a bandit, a scoundrel, a scoundrel even worse than me." Ding Shi was speechless for a moment.

Duanbi admired Ding Shi's astonished expression and smiled, tilting his head to say, "Wang Meng, if we join forces, City A will be our backyard from now on."

Wang Meng: "Okay."

Ding Shi: "No."

The man with the short dagger chuckled and asked, "Oh? Why?"

Ding Shi replied, "Because my left foot is on the bomb remote control. Wang Meng, kill Duan Bi, and I'll let you go. Duan Bi, kill Wang Meng, and I'll let you go. You'd better make a decision quickly, or I'll lose my footing."

Short Dagger's expression changed slightly, and he raised his pistol. Wang Meng, however, remained unmoved and said, "I don't believe it."

Short Dagger said, "You can believe that. He's full of bad intentions, otherwise he wouldn't have guessed that we've joined forces and tricked us into coming here. He's beyond saving now, and he'll definitely drag us down with him before he dies."

Wang Meng: "I don't believe he will let us go. He just wants to watch us kill each other before he dies, to have some fun for himself." No one knows Ding Shi better than himself. That kid is rotten to the core. If it weren't for that paper file and Ding Shi's own confession, Wang Meng would never have believed that Ding Shi was an undercover agent.

Ding Shi said helplessly, "This is boring, goodbye." Then he raised his left foot.

……

Ding Shi died.

Not all of them died during the Ding period.

A white room, a white table, a white chair, and a white tablet computer on the table.

Ding Shi first touched his abdomen; there were no wounds, and his body showed no abnormalities. He was certain this wasn't Earth, because the white world was boundless and endless, with no visible boundaries. He leaned forward to look at the tablet, where he saw a multiple-choice question.

Ding Shi tentatively asked into the space, "God? Demon? Yama? Lucifer? Impermanence? Ferryman? Is anyone home?" His voice grew louder and louder.

Suddenly, an angel baby appeared in the space. It was pink and tender, wearing a green vest and shorts, with a pair of small white feather wings on its back. It was holding a stick in its hand and had a halo above its head.

Ding Shi's eyes lit up with surprise and delight. "An angel?" he exclaimed. "What does this mean? It means that God has his own records and knows that I am a good person."

The angel baby has chubby cheeks, and her exposed arms and legs are like lotus root segments, making people want to reach out and pinch them. However, she messed up as soon as she opened her mouth.

Tian tapped the tablet with the stick in his hand and said, "Fill it in." His tone was full of impatience.

Ding Shi wasn't in a hurry and asked, "Where is this?"

With a wave of his angel staff, Ding Shi saw subtitles appear in front of him, and the staff tapped on them: "Look."

The screen displayed a few words, roughly saying: This is the world of Ita. Now, stop talking nonsense and answer the multiple-choice questions first.

Seeing that the other party didn't like to communicate, Ding Shi wisely took a seat and then presented the following options: valley villa, island villa, mountain villa, sea villa, and sky villa.

Ding Shixuan Island Villa.

A sudden change in environment led Ding Shi and the angel to the summit of an island. It was a typical island: a mountaintop meadow, a rocky beach, coconut palms on the sand, and dense forests in the mountains. The area was estimated to be around one square kilometer.

There is a bamboo and thatched house on the top of the mountain. The roof is made of palm leaves, and the walls are made of wood and bamboo. It is drafty and very airy.

The angel waved his staff, leading Ding Shi into the thatched hut. Inside the hut was a stone bed covered with palm leaves, a chair, a table, a toilet, a shower head, a set of sportswear, and a vending machine.

(End of this chapter)