Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

In just a few seconds, the viper's face went from calm to ashen.

"Scorpion." Viper's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, each word like crushed bone. "He helped you. Didn't he? That kid still has feelings for you after all. I told him to deal with you, and he agreed verbally, but behind your back he changed your bandages, changed your clothes, unlocked your chains, and even opened the door for you. He stayed with you for three months and developed feelings for you. I really raised a good dog."

He jumped up, his sleeve flipping over the small table beside him, scattering its contents across the floor with a crash: "I raised him for so many years, and he turned around and betrayed me for you, an undercover agent. Do you know how much I gave him? My life, money, status—I gave him whatever he wanted. And what did I get in return? A kid I'd known for three months stole him away from me. You're really something."

Bai Ye didn't let him finish speaking. The instant he rushed forward, the blade drew a cold arc in the afternoon sunlight, aiming straight for the viper's throat.

Viper reacted quickly, dodging to the side, the tip of his blade grazing his neck and tearing a gash in his collar. He stumbled backward, his body crashing into the bookshelf behind him, several books falling from the shelf and landing on the carpet with a dull thud.

He knew, of course, that he couldn't defeat Bai Ye—he was never one to fight personally; his weapons were poison, syringes, and those he controlled. Now, facing a madman whose strength had been temporarily restored by Scorpion's drug and who still held a knife, his mind raced.

"Do you know who wrote that whistleblower letter?" Viper shouted as he backed away.

"A man named Xuanxiao. You know him, right? He's the one who sent the letter. He sold you out."

Bai Ye stopped. His hand holding the knife hovered in mid-air, blood dripping from the blade and making soft thuds on the carpet.

"...What did you say?"

"I'm telling you, your good partner, that young master of the Xuan family who eats and sleeps with you, personally wrote a letter of denunciation and sent it to me." Viper slowly straightened up, a slight smile appearing on his lips. "You think everyone behind you is a good person? Po Kong and his gang of lunatics, they sent you here to die anyway. What loss would it be for them if you died? They could just replace you with someone else. Only Xuan Xiao is smart; he knew you would be exposed sooner or later, so he might as well sell you out in advance to gain favor."

Bai Ye's lips trembled. His gaze was fixed on Viper's face, each word seeming to be bitten out from between his teeth: "...This is impossible."

"Impossible?" Viper chuckled, slowly circling to the side of the sofa, maintaining a distance from Bai Ye. "You think they're treating you well, don't you? Have you ever thought about why they specifically chose you for this mission? Out of all the people in the entire Breaking Void, why was it a sixteen-year-old kid like you who was thrown into a place like this? Because they don't care whether you live or die. If you die, they can just replace you with another one. You're just a knife that they use a couple more days because it's easy to use, and they can replace you whenever you get dull."

"Shut up," Bai Ye's voice was squeezed out through clenched teeth.

Bai Ye took a step forward, the tip of his knife pointing directly at Viper's chest. Viper instinctively dodged behind the sofa.

"007".

Bai Ye's body suddenly stiffened. His knife tip stopped in mid-air, as if those three words had nailed him to the spot.

"...What did you call me?"

The viper leaned back against the sofa and took a breath during the brief respite.

"When you were delirious from withdrawal, I asked you who you really were. You answered with three words—007. Then you said nothing more. I searched for a long time but couldn't find any information about that code name. But I know one thing: you're not an ordinary kid. You carry far more than you show. How much does your good partner, Xuan Xiao, really know about you? Does he know that the person he reported is actually someone called 007?"

"Stop talking—" Bai Ye's voice seemed to be squeezed out from a crushed throat, every word trembling.

"If he knew your true colors, would he still wait for you to come back? Would he still cling to you?" A smile crept onto Viper's lips. "Do you think he'd know you're not the Bai Ye he knows—"

"I told you to shut up—!"

The viper moved.

In the instant Bai Ye was in a daze, he suddenly rushed out from behind the sofa, the tip of the syringe in his hand flashing a cold light in the sunlight, and precisely pierced the skin on the side of Bai Ye's neck.

Bai Ye grunted and took half a step back, bumping into the bookshelf behind him.

Then he moved too.

He completely lost his mind; all his mission, disguise, and plans shattered into dust in that instant.

He didn't look down at the needle in his neck, nor did he care about the deadly poison flowing into his veins. He simply raised his hand, brought the knife down, and plunged the tip straight into the viper's abdomen.

Viper's smile froze on his face. He looked down at the dagger that was already embedded in his abdomen, then looked up at Bai Ye's face, as if to confirm that this was not real—he had clearly pushed the needle in, and this person should have collapsed within three seconds.

But the White Night did not fall.

He pulled the knife out, then plunged it in again. The second, the third, the fourth stab—it was as if his entire being had been switched to a completely irrational operating mode. Each stab landed on the viper's belly, the blade churning and tearing through muscle and organs, blood splattering onto his face, hands, and body.

The viper's mouth was open, and it made incoherent gurgling sounds in its throat. Its body slid down the bookshelf, leaving a wide, dark red trail on the carpet.

Bai Ye didn't stop. He kept stabbing until the viper's body was completely still, and even his fingers stopped twitching, before he released his grip on the knife and took a few steps back.

He was breathing heavily, like a machine that had just been forcibly shut down but still retained its spinning momentum.

His gaze fell on the bloody mess on the carpet—the viper's abdomen had been ripped open, its intestines and blood mixed together and spread out on the carpet, glistening with a moist sheen that made one's stomach clench in the afternoon sun.

Bai Ye looked at the chaos, but his mind was constantly replaying something completely different—the scorpion's lowered eyelashes when it injected him with the medicine, the sunlight falling on Xuan Xiao's shoulder when he turned around to introduce himself on his first day in basic training, and Viper's words, "Your good partner Xuan Xiao reported you."

Those images swirled together in his mind, forming a thick, chaotic mess that he couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, making it hard for him to breathe.

Just then, a hand patted his shoulder.