At first, these assassins all worked as freelance writers for publishing houses. Later, when physical books were bombarded by e-books and publishers went bankrupt en masse, they collectively switched careers to become online authors, and all did quite well, excelling at writing formulaic commercial novels.

Russell believed that none of them were honest about their real identities, for obvious reasons—if this group was being serious, then eighty percent of online authors on a certain site would be worth investigating. Especially those who habitually abandon their works or suddenly stop updating and then reappear out of nowhere—almost every time you check, it turns out to be true, no exceptions.

Through these guys’ daily bragging, Russell gradually learned about the real lives of his parents and ex-girlfriend. It wasn’t as glamorous as in the movies, and they all felt disgust and aversion toward their identities as assassins.

Unfortunately, once you’re in this line of work, you can’t just cash out and leave whenever you want. They hated their identities, but couldn’t escape. Unless the group leader—the one who knows everyone’s true identity—dies, they’re stuck with this fate for life!

Take Russell’s father, The Harrison Hall, for example. He was originally a retired soldier, dirt poor, and only got pulled into this mess by his old squad leader to raise money to marry Mrs. HarrisonGrace Bennett. By the time Russell was born, it was too late for him to quit, and even Mrs. Harrison got dragged in, handling things like booking train tickets, gathering intel, drafting assassination plans, and even doubling as the accountant.

From then on, Russell lurked in the assassin group, watching them brag. To be fair, these people came from all over the country, and their favorite pastime was arguing. Russell picked up quite a bit of obscure knowledge from them.

……

The innermost room on the third floor of the apartment, where The Harrison Hall and Grace Bennett had lived the longest, was also where Russell found the codebook. There were many secrets in this room; those that could be found had already been cleared out by Russell. He worried there might still be some secrets hidden, so he kept living there.

Russell first checked the phone he’d fished out from the gap in the nightstand. Seeing no missed calls or messages, he casually set it aside to charge, turned on the computer, logged into his account skillfully, and began his daily lurking.

Just then, a mechanical, synthesized electronic voice sounded in the room—or more precisely, in Russell’s mind. No one but him could hear it.

[Attention, host: The third mission world is about to begin. Ten-minute countdown starting now. Please prepare yourself!]

The voice repeated the message three times. Russell didn’t respond, just picked up a cigarette from the computer desk, lit it, and sat quietly. He didn’t smoke, but sometimes he’d light one to help him relax.

Russell, male, twenty-five years old, single, no bad habits… has a system!

Chapter 2: I Hate Assassins

Russell is someone with a system, and he’s even a “veteran” who has traveled through two worlds. But he knows very little about his system—its name, purpose, and function are all a mystery, and he doesn’t even know why he was chosen by the system.

Brushing his teeth, washing his face, going to bed—when he woke up, a cold electronic voice appeared in Russell’s mind.

No computer short-circuit, no phone explosion, no meteorite falling from the sky, no old beggar, no lucky finds at a secondhand market—very suddenly, he just became the lucky one the system spoke of.

Russell had asked the system about it before. He was quite resistant to having something unknown in his head, but the system never explained. It only told him that he was still in the probationary stage, with insufficient permissions, and only after passing three mission world assessments could he become a true host, at which point everything would fall into place.

There was one more thing Russell couldn’t stand: the timing of the system’s mission worlds was completely irregular. The first two were “Subway Surfers” and “Temple Run,” with an interval of a month and a half between them. This time, not even two weeks had passed—there was no pattern at all.

Russell hated this feeling of being controlled, like a puppet on strings, but until he became a true host, he could only endure it.

Fortunately, he had already completed two mission worlds. Once the third was over, the truth would finally be revealed.

Russell took a deep drag on his cigarette, opened the system interface, and a control panel automatically appeared before his eyes. The character attributes section showed his current stats.

[Host: Russell]

[Strength: 10 (7+3)]

[Constitution: 8 (6+2)]

[Intelligence: 9 (8+1)]

[Level: 2]

[Experience: 150/500]

[Wealth: 400]

The next set of attributes was grayed out. According to the system, only when Russell became a true host would the following information be unlocked. Besides that, the famous system shop was also grayed out—insufficient permissions, unable to open—so the wealth in Russell’s hands was basically useless.

As for the three basic attributes—Strength, Constitution, and Intelligence—they seemed simple, but each covered a wide range.

First, Strength: it’s not just arm strength or bench press numbers, but a combination of power, speed, agility, and more.

Next, Constitution: not just physical fitness, but also the five senses, poison resistance, adaptability, health bar, physical defense, and so on. Investing more points here could even prolong life.

Finally, Intelligence: similar to the “intelligence” stat in games, not the IQ people talk about every day. It could also be seen as mental power, including coordination, sixth sense, mana bar, magic resistance, etc.