Then, Let Them Offer Their Loyalty! Chapter 1: Crisis Sense

Yellowed by age, the white curtains hung limply, while mold spots marred the walls of the cramped, dim chamber.

The air was thick with the mingled scents of a woman's body and blooming heather.

A rhythmic dripping sound, emanating from the toilet's old faucet, accompanied Qiu Tu as he slowly regained consciousness.

With weary eyes, he opened them, his head throbbing, and took in his surroundings.

Within the confines of the small, seven-square-meter room, cluttered with various items, stood an old wooden bed.

Upon it lay a slender woman, her skin as white as snow, sleeping soundly and completely unclothed.

Gazing at the woman, Qiu Tu's mind instantly recognized her.

She was the mistress of Director Yan Chen, who headed the Xinjie City Investigation Bureau.

And himself...

Qiu Tu once again shook his aching head...

A Second-Class Investigator at the Xinjie City Investigation Bureau... a trusted aide to Director Yan Chen.

His main responsibility was...

To keep this mistress safe!

Qiu Tu abruptly sat up, his gaze falling upon his own bare body, his face etched with disbelief.

Wait a moment.

Hadn't he been caught in an explosion at the company? How did he become an investigator?

Had he... transmigrated?

...

Half an hour later.

The toilet.

Leaning against a grimy sink, Qiu Tu, his face damp, stared at his reflection in the cracked mirror and pieced together the current situation.

He had, in fact, transmigrated.

He had arrived in this tumultuous, blood-soaked world.

An unforeseen cataclysm had devastated most nations, leading to species mutations, abandoned cities, food shortages, and the collapse of civilization, replaced by perpetual chaos, the rule of the jungle, and the triumph of the fittest...

Following the cataclysm, the world languished in chaos for decades before civilization began its slow regrowth.

Through the combined efforts of several formidable individuals, humanity gradually established the Eight Great Shelters, painstakingly restoring pre-disaster order and instilling new hope.

Unfortunately...

Xinjie City, Qiu Tu's current location, was not one of the Eight Great Shelters but was designated as a Planning Area.

These were territories situated between the Sanctuaries and the Disaster Zone, earmarked for future reconstruction endeavors.

Here, comprehensive laws and strict regulations were absent; only the most primal laws of the wild prevailed.

While middle and high-level management from various shelters were appointed to oversee these regions, their mandate was limited to preventing widespread turmoil. They refrained from interfering in other matters.

Consequently, each high-level manager wielded immense autocratic power within their respective Planning Area, dispensing life and death decrees as they saw fit...

Qiu Tu's direct superior, Yan Chen, the Chief of the Xinjie City Investigation Bureau, was one such high-level manager dispatched from a sanctuary. He was among the Three Giants of Xinjie City, commanding the entirety of the Investigation Bureau's power.

As for Qiu Tu, he served as Yan Chen's subordinate, a mid-level investigator in Xinjie City, specifically assigned to handle Yan Chen's unsavory tasks.

These included assassination, tax collection, and... ensuring the safety of mistresses.

Indeed... that protection extended all the way to the bedroom...

Wiping his face, Qiu Tu accessed the lingering memories of his predecessor.

The memory depicted the predecessor falling asleep after an intense encounter with Yan Chen's mistress. While asleep, he experienced a sudden, sharp pain in his chest. His past life's consciousness struggled to surface, met with ringing ears and disorienting vertigo. His strength waned until his consciousness finally faded, at which point Qiu Tu took over.

'Was it a sudden illness?'

Recalling the previous occupant's demise, Qiu Tu felt a pang of confusion.

However, he didn't dwell on it. After all, sleeping with the Investigation Bureau Chief's woman, a swift end seemed inevitable.

In an era where daily fatalities were a grim uncertainty, having offended such a powerful figure, Qiu Tu considered himself fortunate to have merely been dismissed and left to languish in the sewers rather than facing a far worse fate.

If the figure in question harbored a vengeful or twisted nature, Qiu Tu might have been permanently maimed, forever haunted.

'This is quite exhilarating...'

With this thought, Qiu Tu lifted his head to confront the source of his current predicament—the handsome visage in the mirror. A broad smile suddenly stretched across his face,

'But... it's considerably better than my previous life.'

In his former existence, Qiu Tu had been betrayed by his friends and trafficked to northern Myanmar. There, he endured daily beatings and humiliation, too terrified to sleepsoundly, fearing he'd be buried alive or have his organs harvested before dawn.

In such a grim setting, he chose to embrace the darkness, willingly becoming part of a tele-scamming operation, transforming himself into a phantom.

Through deceit, extortion, and even murder, he ascended the hierarchy steadily. Subsequently, he ensured that every individual who had once wronged and scorned him met a grim fate.

His ascent continued, leading him to a management position within the organization. Then, during the group's celebratory banquet, he detonated explosives he had concealed, annihilating the entire syndicate, including its ultimate leader, in a fiery inferno.

Reflecting on his final years in his previous existence, from the moment he was swindled into traveling to Northern Myanmar, his path was paved with death. Submission meant demise, defiance led to death, scheming resulted in death, and solitary vengeance also ended in death.

Now, while fraught with peril, there existed at least a glimmer of hope for survival!

After all, based on the memories of his former self, Bureau Chief Yan Chen did place considerable trust in his predecessor.

As long as Qiu Tu maintained his composure and didn't betray himself from this point onward, he should remain out of harm's way... theoretically?

And in this very moment, while Qiu Tu was lost in contemplation.

Abruptly, the distinct vibration of the Communicator, emitting a "buzz buzz..." sound, disrupted the stillness of the confined restroom.

Upon hearing the vibration, Qiu Tu's gaze shifted towards the antiquated Communicator, complete with physical buttons, positioned above the washbasin.

The Communicator's low-resolution, yellow-green display clearly showed three characters: Director Yan.

Despite having mentally prepared himself for any eventuality, Qiu Tu's heart rate still accelerated upon seeing that name.

He drew a deep breath, suppressed the surge of astonishment within his chest, and silently urged himself to stay calm. The Bureau Chief remained unaware, and if he could just project an image of composure, there should be no significant issue.

However, just as this thought crossed his mind, his vision suddenly flickered.

In the subsequent second, a cascade of system prompts appeared before his eyes.

'Crisis Intuition activated! Generating Crisis Report!'

'Your direct superior, Xinjie City Investigation Bureau Chief Yan Chen, is initiating contact with you.'

'His nature is suspicious and exceedingly brutal.'

'Prior to contacting you, he had already conferred with other trusted individuals and ascertained that you and his mistress, Qin Shuman, deliberately dismissed all attendants, spending 4.5 hours alone together outside without any third party present, and have yet to return.'

'Qin Shuman's personal maid has also covertly informed him that over the past two days, you and Qin Shuman have been engaging in relentless flirtatious behavior.'

'He is currently consumed by extreme anger and has begun to harbor doubts about your allegiance.'

'However, his cunning and calculating demeanor leads him to avoid alarming you prematurely; instead, he intends to subtly probe your reactions.'

'You have a mere two minutes.'

'Should you fail to regain his trust within this two-minute window, by tomorrow, your and Qin Shuman's lifeless bodies will be discovered discarded in the sewers of Xinjie City. You are acutely aware that with his influence, escape is an impossibility.'

'Commencing the 2-minute countdown now.'

As the system prompts concluded, an hourglass-shaped countdown icon materialized slowly in the upper-left quadrant of his visual field....

Qiu Tu: ???