Chapter 2: Blackmail?

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Li Xiaonian woke up dazedly from the virtual game “Star Wind”.

As soon as he took off the virtual helmet, a familiar and unfamiliar cry came into his ear.

“Brother, how are you?”

What caught his eyes was a little girl about ten years old. The little girl had a chubby face and a bob haircut. At this time, tears were all over her face.

His sister Li Xiaoyue?

Seeing his sister, Li Xiaonian was stunned and secretly squeezed his face. A tingling pain made him realize this was reality.

“Ouch… Am I dreaming?”

“I had a rebirth! I returned to the Internet cafe where I first logged in to the Star Wind five years ago!”

After making sure that everything was not an illusion, Li Xiaonian laughed happily, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably, which were tears of excitement.

The feeling of rebirth was good, so good.

Since God has given me a chance to be born again, I must make up for my regrets in this life. In his last life, although he made a lot of money, he had a lot of regrets and often woke up from nightmares at midnight.

His weird reaction made his sister Li Xiaoyue turn pale.

The onlookers looked at him sympathetically and were talking abuzz.

“I thought the Internet cafe had a power failure, but it turned out to be a power leakage. Fortunately, the Internet cafe’s leakage switch tripped. Otherwise, someone might have been electrocuted.”

“Was this guy’s brain hurt by the electric shock? After being electrocuted, he laughed and cried oddly. There must be something wrong with his brain.”

“Damn, it’s so scary. I just came to the Internet cafe to play a game and there was actually a power leakage.”

…

After Li Xiaonian was sure that he had a rebirth, he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and pinched his sister Li Xiaoyue’s chubby cheek, saying with a smile, “Okay, okay, stop crying. I just wanted to play a joke on you. I didn’t expect you to be so scared.”

The feel of his sister’s chubby cheek made him sure that he was really reborn.

“Are… are you really okay?” Li Xiaoyue was a little suspicious and looked worried.

Li Xiaonian stood up from the lounge chair of the Internet cafe, rubbing his sister’s hair with his palm. “This low-voltage current can’t hurt me.”

Li Xiaonian remembered clearly what happened five years ago today.

It was the power leakage of the Internet cafe that caused a bug in the virtual helmet linked to the “Star Wind”, allowing him to obtain the space battleship that others had dreamed of—-the Shadow.

At this time.

A plump woman with black nail polish on her hands and red lips appeared.

She was Xiao Li, the proprietress of the Internet cafe.

Looking at the leaky socket, the burnt virtual helmet, and then at Li Xiaonian, Xiao Li scowled and pointed at Li Xiaonian, saying angrily, “I knew it! How dare you try to blackmail me? You won’t be able to leave unless you compensate for my loss.”

What a familiar plot.

In his previous life, he was very angry at the slander and almost couldn’t help but beat this woman. Now he was also very angry, but he looked indifferent. “Why did you say we tried to blackmail you?”

Blackmail?

The onlookers were stunned, looking at each other in puzzlement.

Xiao Li sneered. “Don’t even think of denying it! The clothes you are wearing are worn and old. At first glance, I knew you were paupers. I guess you don’t even have enough money to buy food, do you? How do you have spare money to spend in an Internet cafe? You must have heard that the surveillance camera in my Internet cafe failed, so you took the chance to come here and pretend to get an electric shock, trying to blackmail me.”

Hearing the explanation from the proprietress, the young onlookers looked up and down Li Xiaonian and his sister.

At this time, Li Xiaonian, dark-skinned, was wearing a sports T-shirt yellowish from the wash and rough canvas shoes, looking like a typical representative of the poor. Although Li Xiaoyue was better dressed, her clothes were also cheap.

“Well, it might really be a new type of blackmail.”

“It’s really suspicious. They look so poor but still came to the Internet cafe? You know, the charge for temporary members is 12 yuan an hour, so the two of them need to pay at least 24 yuan, which is enough for a family to live on for a day. Judging by their appearance, they really don’t seem to be able to afford this.”

“Alas… Life is not easy these days.”

…

Being talked about and stared at by the onlookers, Li Xiaoyu felt her head went blank. She cried and tried to defend herself and her brother. “No… we are not liars. Today is my birthday. I haven’t played “Star Wind” yet, so I asked my brother to bring me here to play it.”

Her excuse was weak.

Li Xiaonian hugged his sister slightly and comforted her gently, “It’s okay.”

With that said, Li Xiaonian let go of his sister, took out an old cell phone from his pocket, turned on the camera function of the cell phone, and began to videotape the power leakage scene from all angles.

He was too inexperienced in his previous life and didn’t leave any evidence of the scene. As a result, Xiao Li tampered with the scene of the accident to make it look like a man-made one, and in the end, he was framed as a blackmailer. Although he wasn’t thrown into jail, he was forced to pay a sum of compensation.

Seeing his actions, Xiao Li frowned. She didn’t expect Li Xiaonian, a young man, to be so sophisticated. She rushed forward and tried to snatch Li Xiaonian’s cell phone.

Li Xiaonian twisted his body and easily dodged her. At the same time, he gave an unobtrusive nudge with his hip

Flop!

Xiao Li lost her balance and fell on her face, leaving a clear ‘face mark on the floor.

“Help!” she cried.

Xiao Li clutched her head and rolled about on the ground, making a scene.

Li Xiaonian took a photo of the onlookers and said calmly, “As you can plainly see, this aunt fell on her own. It has nothing to do with me. And I believe you’ve also witnessed how she slandered me for blackmailing her. I will be informing the police of the issue. Please testify for me. Thank you.”

The onlookers were certainly not fools, and they had figured out who was the liar.

“Shit, this internet cafe owner is so shameless. She even slandered the victim for blackmailing her when there was an electrical accident.”

“Bah, I won’t come to the “Gorilla Internet Cafe” ever again,” another onlooker muttered.

…

Being called “aunt” infuriated Xiao Li, but when she heard that Li Xiaonian was going to call the police, she immediately calmed down.

Knowing that her plan of framing Li Xiaonian failed, Xiao Li scowled at Li Xiaonian with a fierce gaze. “What do you want?”

Li Xiaonian shrugged. “What do I want? Nothing you can offer. Let the police solve this matter.”

Xiao Li suppressed her anger and said, “Anyway, you’re fine. I’ll give you three times the compensation. Let’s just forget about this.”

Titter…

Li Xiaonian sneered.

Did the woman think he was stupid? He spent 24 yuan in the Internet cafe, and three times the compensation would only be 72 yuan.

“Let’s wait for the police to deal with it,” Li Xiaonian said with an indifferent attitude.

Finding out that the other party was not easy to fool, Xiao Li gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll give you 10,000 yuan. Just let it go.”

Li Xiaonian never really planned on calling the police. In addition to the trouble, it would delay him from returning to the “Star Wind” to make money and change his fate, so he stretched out two fingers, saying, “20,000 yuan, plus three virtual helmets. Of course, I don’t need new virtual helmets, just the second-hand virtual helmets in the Internet cafe.”

“Impossible! First you are blackmailing me, and now you’re robbing me.” Xiao Li flew into a rage.

Li Xiaonian ignored her roars and clutched his head with a hand. “I’m a little dizzy. It might be from the electrocution. Xiaoyue, help me.”

Li Xiaoyue was frightened by his words and nervously said, “Brother, let’s go to the hospital.”

“Ten thousand yuan, plus three virtual helmets.” Xiao Li had an urge to vomit blood.

It was always she who duped others and no one could dupe her! However, she was blackmailed today and couldn’t even take revenge.

“Xiaoyue, call 120 for me and call the police by the way.” Li Xiaonian quickly handed the phone to his sister.

“Okay, okay.” Li Xiaoyue nervously took the phone and started to dial the ambulance.

Xiao Li clenched her fists, gnashing her teeth. “Okay, 20,000 yuan, plus three virtual helmets.”

If the police came, what awaited her would be inspections by various departments, and she would have to suspend operations for rectification. The losses incurred by this would far exceed the compensation.

As soon as Xiao Li agreed to the compensation, Li Xiaonian quickly grabbed the phone back from his sister. “Deal.”

The young onlookers were stunned again.

“Is… is he really blackmailing the proprietress?”

“Awesome, with such poor acting skills, he can actually make the proprietress pay up so much money. Why do I feel that this guy is unworthy of our sympathy?”

“Damn, 20,000 yuan, plus three virtual helmets, it’s enough for me to buy some great equipment in the ‘Star Wind’.”

…

Li Xiaonian ignored the crowd’s discussions, happily opened the mobile wallet, collected the 20,000 yuan, and took three virtual helmets from the Internet cafe.

Of course, the proprietress was no pushover. She made Li Xiaonian sign a disclaimer on the spot. Li Xiaonian signed it without hesitation because nothing happened to him after he was electrocuted in his previous life, and he believed nothing would change this time.

…

On the way home.

Returning to his home, Li Xiaonian became nervous.

It had been five years since he last saw his father and mother.

In his previous life, he made a lot of money, but his only family was his sister. His mother, Mo Lanhu, and father, Li Zhong, both died trying to save him two months later.

According to the time trajectory, if there was no surprise, two months later, Xinyue Community would become a battleground for a group of gangsters. Those gangsters were inhumane. In order to threaten the police, they took the residents of Xinyue Community as hostages and cruelly killed a hostage every once in a while.

Li Xiaonian was chosen by the gangsters to be their next victim. To be honest, he was stupefied with terror, and his body was so stiff that he couldn’t move. In despair, his parents used their own bodies to block the gangsters. In the end, his father was stabbed thirteen times and his mother’s body was mangled with five bullets.

The bloody scene still lingered in Xiaonian’s mind.

…

Li Xiaoyue didn’t know what Li Xiaonian was thinking at all. Holding the virtual helmet in one hand and carrying a birthday cake in the other, she cheerfully said, “Li Xiaonian, you are so amazing.”

The corner of Li Xiaonian’s mouth twitched slightly.

His pragmatic sister always changed her face so quickly. When she needed his help, she would sweetly call him”Brother”, but when she didn’t, she would just call him”Li Xiaonian”.