Sequence Beyond: My Wife is a Mysterious Boss

The distorted vision and intense feeling of weightlessness made my stomach churn.

When Lin Bai opened his eyes again, he smelled a stench mixed with rotting garbage, cheap tobacco, and excrement.

He stood in a dark, damp alley.

Outside the alleyway, the sky above the outer city of Blackrock City is perpetually gray.

Several ragged drunkards were sprawled in the mud, wriggling like maggots;

Not far away, several burly men with gang tattoos were surrounding a thin woman, making lewd noises.

This is reality.

Cruel, cold, and unfiltered reality.

Lin Bai tightened the new trench coat he was wearing; its subtle metallic texture gave him a sense of security.

But this sense of security was quickly dispelled by the cold wind.

He walked out of the alley and merged into the bustling yet lifeless crowd.

The comfort I felt in the safe house just now felt like an unreal dream.

"call......"

Lin Bai exhaled a breath of stale air, his eyes gradually turning cold.

Things have been going too smoothly lately.

The smooth sailing gave him the illusion that he had already established himself in this world.

But today, that madman Yan Qingzhou taught him a harsh lesson.

A Sequence 7 can turn the world into a black and white canvas with just a glance, crushing people like ants.

Without the information from the Omniscient Parchment, and if it weren't for his unique nature, which even he himself couldn't explain.

He is now just a blob of paint smeared on the canvas.

Faced with absolute power, his cleverness and deception were as fragile as a piece of paper.

He's a con artist, but he can't actually fool himself.

"If you don't want to die... you have to climb higher, and climb faster."

Lin Bai's hands were in his trench coat pockets, his nails digging into his palms.

Sequence 9 is merely an entry ticket; it's barely enough to protect oneself.

I must get promoted as soon as possible!

In his mind, Lin Bai awakened his own bean bun... oh, it's parchment.

[Question: Tell me, what is the potion recipe for advancing to Sequence 8?]

After a few seconds of deathly silence.

The familiar blood-red handwriting slowly emerged.

[Driving simulation in progress...]

[Estimated simulation time: three days]

......

Blackrock Outer City, on the edge of the Ghost Market.

Gu Canglan's dilapidated general store has now been completely destroyed.

A group of menacing figures in dark red uniforms surrounded the ruins.

Outside the police line, an elderly man leaning on a snake-head cane was casually tossing coins.

"Zheng—"

The coin tumbles, lands in your palm, and comes up tails.

"Tsk, you're quick on your feet."

The old man put away the coins and glanced at the few elite soldiers who had just emerged from the ruins.

The middle-aged captain, who was in charge, looked grim and shook his head at the old man.

"It's empty, not even a hair is left. There's a very high concentration of spatial spiritual energy residue at the scene, at least a level three or higher phase shift. This is definitely Gu Canglan's doing."

"Normal." The old man's wrinkles smoothed out, even showing a hint of expected smile:

"If that old bastard Gu Canglan were so easy to block, he would have been made into a specimen and hung on top of the Spiral Tower ten years ago."

"Sir, what should we do now?" The middle-aged captain was a bit of a headache.

"We mobilized three special response teams this time, which is too much of a commotion. The city defense army has already sent two letters to 'greet us,' and now that we haven't found the people, it's going to be difficult to explain."

"Explain? Explain to whom?"

The old man sneered, "Right now, the whole city's eyes are on those newly emerged strange domains in the Cloud City ruins. The city defense army is busy seizing territory and developing new land there; they don't have time to concern themselves with our affairs."

As he spoke, he took out a neatly folded sheet of oil painting paper from his pocket and handed it over.

"Send the order to search the entire city."

"Also, expedite this thing back to the Spiral Tower so those mystical fortune tellers can take a good look and see if they can figure out anything."

The middle-aged captain took it with both hands and carefully unfolded it.

On the canvas is a masterpiece of oil painting.

The dimly lit underground workshop perfectly captured Gu Canglan's languidness, the mechanical girl's aloofness and world-weariness, and the deformed giant's brutal repression.

however.

When his gaze shifted to the very center of the image—the position that should have belonged to the "key figure"—it was as if...

His lips twitched violently.

At the heart of that artistically powerful composition, a circle is abruptly drawn...

A stick stands upright below the circle, and four matchsticks are casually propped up next to it.

A stick figure so ugly it's outrageous, even kindergarten teachers would want to slap its hand.

It's like placing a steaming hot bowl of "Oli Gei" (a type of spicy snack) in the very center of a Manchu Han Imperial Feast – the incongruity is suffocating.

"Sir..." The middle-aged captain pointed at the stick figure.

"I can understand everything else, but... what kind of tactical code name is this? Or some kind of high-dimensional curse rune? It's too profound!"

The old man's face darkened; he was clearly baffled by the abstract style of the painting.

"How would I know? This is the intelligence that Yan Qingzhou, that madman, sent out!"

The old man scolded in an annoyed tone:

"Investigate! Find out who handled this painting! Yan Qingzhou may be a madman, but he's absolutely fastidious when it comes to art."

"This elementary school-level doodle could never have been drawn by him!"

"I strongly suspect that someone has tampered with the intelligence; this is a blatant provocation against us! This is a naked insult!"

......

The world spun around.

Lin Bai felt the world before him was distorting, finally settling into a warm, almost blindingly bright yellow.

He opened his eyes in a daze.

The first thing I saw was the familiar beige wallpaper, and on the wall hung the wedding photo that triggered my PTSD.

In the photo, he and Su Wan are leaning their heads together, smiling so sweetly that the air is thick with their affection.

"Um?"

Lin Bai suddenly sat up straight.

What's going on?

Did I reload the save file again?

Wait a minute, I was just in my apartment in the outer city, waiting for the parchment to deduce the potion recipe. How did I end up back in this nightmare starting village in the blink of an eye?

Was it a dream?

A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly shot through my abdomen.

It felt like a cold hand had reached in and stirred it around, but the pain was fleeting.

Lin Bai subconsciously touched his stomach.

Flat, warm, and without any wounds.

"This touch...it feels so real, it doesn't feel like a dream."

Lin Bai frowned and got out of bed.

This is his love nest with his "wife" Su Wan, and also the execution ground where he died in various ways more than a hundred times.

A faint yet clear sound came from the living room.

"Do, do, do..."

That was the sound of a cleaver cutting into a cutting board.

The rhythm was steady, neither too fast nor too slow.

A rich aroma of meat filled the air, mixed with a sweet and indescribable scent that wafted straight into my nostrils.

Lin Bai swallowed hard, suppressing the chill in his heart, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.

......