Saving the Heartthrob Frenemy-Chapter 136: ...Challenge accepted."

"Here, I will be the bigger person and like God, I will say let there be light," he said and the darkness surrounding Qie Xieling vanished in an instant.

"What do you think? Stunning right?... You know what. I believe in you. I believe you can save your friends and get out of this mess because your dad did it. He even came out of it with a rich husband who loves him to death. You should thank me, kid. I will help you deepen your feelings with Princess Ya."

Qie Xieling rubbed his temples to ease the high pitch ringing in his brain. He couldn’t think straight for a minute thus everything Leong Jinn said entered one ear and left in the other.

"Remember if you die, you all die. I am rooting for you. Jiayou!" he said and Qie Xieling who had so many questions shouted,

"Wait wait wait," but it was useless. His body was sucked into a vortex and was tossed around for what felt like an eternity. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

All of a sudden his body slammed hard into something with a sickening thud. The impact was jarring, sending his senses reeling. Qie Xieling felt like he was drowning, his body sinking into something thick and viscous. His chest was compressed, his lungs screaming for air but unable to expand against the dense, unforgiving blanket of matter that trapped him.

The sensation was overwhelming, his mind frantically trying to process the information as his body struggled to break free. Qie Xieling kicked and thrashed, his hands clawing desperately at the tar-like substance surrounding him. His mouth opened wide in a silent scream as he felt his head submerge beneath the surface, cutting off any chance of air.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Qie Xieling’s body went into panic mode, the instinct to survive taking over as he fought with every fibre of his being to break free.

The sensation of drowning was suffocating, his body screaming for air as he was physically pulled under.

Finally, Qie Xieling found a small opening and a burst of air filled his lungs. He gasped and sputtered, coughing and gagging as he crawled his way out of the thick tar pool. He lay there on the ground, face down in agony, his body convulsing as he struggled to come to grips with what had just happened.

"Leong... Jinn... you bastard," he spoke in between breaths. His entire body was aching from head to toe like he had endured immense trauma.

Qie Xieling collapsed on his side, still coughing and hacking as he tried to catch his breath again. His body was racked with pain.

A flushing light before his eyes drew his attention but he didn’t immediately address it. He ignored it his breathing slowly returning to normal.

A familiar annoying voice broke his trance making him irritable. "Hey, start the mission. The sooner you start the earlier you finish. I have been waiting for this very moment for aeons."

Qie Xieling couldn’t take it anymore. He wiped away the tar on his face while asking, "Are you always going to be here? You are so distracting."

Leong Jinn tossed a handful of multi-coloured candy shaped like lentils into his mouth before answering, "Maybe... Now hurry up. I kind of wish I gave you a deadline. That would be even more fun. Uh... I will reprogram it tonight."

Qie Xieling, "..."

What did he do to deserve this? He shut his eyes tightly before opening them again having prepared himself for the worst.

The fact that his starting point was being drowned in a pool of tar wasn’t a good sign at all. Just like in his dad’s game, he envisioned himself pressing the flickering light and a floating screen appeared in front of him.

An AI system far inferior to Jolie began to speak welcoming him to Prodigy, a game one of its kind and designed for player satisfaction. After that, it began to praise the developer referring to him as god or the creator.

Qie Xieling rolled his eyes. He wanted to skip through this segment of endless rainbow farts but Leong Jinn purposefully didn’t provide such a feature.

"Wow, it feels good being praised for once. The

world’s future saviour... it has a nice ring to it," said Leong Jinn and Qie Xieling almost gagged.

"You taught it to say that so... It’s not real praise if you made it say it," he said only for the docile AI to show its fangs.

Qie Xieling was suddenly struck by a shock so powerful he curled in himself almost biting his tongue. It was such an agonising pain that Qie Xieling felt like he was going to die. Coupled with the state of his current body it made the pain ten times worse.

Soon the torture ended but his body twitched uncontrollably his forehead covered in sweat. In his trance, he heard Leong Jinn’s voice saying, "That was just level one. You insult me and my precious baby won’t hesitate to punish you. Break the rules or operate beyond the scope of your mission, this will be the consequence at a higher level than the previous punishment. Now that we have an understanding you may continue... shit."

He swore after his domineering speech because Qie Xieling passed out cold... again. He was starting to think that maybe, just maybe he should have picked Luo Muchen. He seemed like the type who could endure, unlike this spoilt brat.

He heaved a sigh with his head resting on his clenched fist. When he turned his head slightly he saw that on another screen a notice had been issued.

There was a bounty out on him in the underground hacker forums. They were looking for his actual IP address for a very handsome reward.

Leong Jinn chuckled softly showing his tiger tooth. "Wow, I am flattered. Very flattered," he said while clicking on the notice. He was so confident that they would never find him and to pass the time he began to mess with every single person who had picked up the job to find him.

Since he couldn’t mess with Qie Xieling for the time being he turned to screw with everyone in the forum. That day a lot of computers crashed right before showcasing the black hackers’ dirty little secrets. So in addition to losing their expensive equipment, they were also arrested as their crimes had been showcased to the world.

"Since you want to play dirty then let’s play. Challenge accepted

," he said his words intended for Wen Qinxi.