QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

"You've been working extra hard to avoid me." Du Jian said once he managed to corner 888 in a hallway.

"You've been working extra hard to annoy me." 888 deadpanned as he tried to walk past the man. Like many other times, he did not have time to deal with Du Jian's perverted bullshit.

He'd been searching for his host for almost two years and at this point, his heart had been encased in a glass case made of pure, numbing, terror.

The last few months had been spent travelling in between bases but there were no results. In the end, he had to return to the military base because he knew He Yuan would somehow make his way over here to complete his task.

Was it even possible to complete the task at this point? 888 wasn't so sure anymore. He'd spent all of his existence in the soul realm and having to maneuver his way through inhabitants of a task realm was difficult.

He Yuan was right. He never used to place any importance on the lives of the inhabitants because, like a lot of other taskers and systems, he saw them as dolls in a doll house.

Having to spend so much time fighting with a lot of inhabitants in order to survive in this realm had tweaked his view a little bit -just a tiny bit.

There was still a lot of them he thoroughly disliked and wouldn't mind seeing dead. Du Jian and Lu Ming topped that list with no competition whatsoever.

Du Jian held 888's arm. He'd been trying so hard to get the man before him and all his efforts had been proven futile. Months ago, Ren had suddenly disappeared from the base and returned only two days ago.

At this point, he no longer wanted to feel the thrill of catching a prey. He just wanted this man and anything he wanted, he must have at all costs. Du Jian stared straight into 888's eyes and slowly trickled his energy into the alluring man's brain.

[Come with me~] He projected through hypnosis.

888 quirked a brow at the clown before him. He could practically smell the desperation wafting off of Du Jian -and it did not smell good. He smiled slowly and then,

CRACK!

888 held Du Jian by his collar and headbutted his nose.

"OW!" Du Jian exclaimed in shock as he let go of 888 and held his bleeding nose.

888 tugged on his black shirt to remove some nonexistent dust. "You may as well cut all that hypnosis crap. It doesn't work on me." And then he sidestepped Du Jian and walked away.

Du Jian glared daggers at 888's back. He liked to give his lovers the illusion that he was gentle but it looked like his efforts were not appreciated with Ren. He furrowed his brows as he pondered on the reason why 888 did not fall for his hypnosis.

888 was one of the remaining few in the base that had yet to awaken an ability so generally, he should be weaker than most so why did his hypnosis not work in the man?

Du Jian smiled. The more he found out about Ren, the more he wanted to tear off that mask of indifference and lay bare the passion that lay underneath that nonchalant facade.

Lu Ming watched the exchange from behind a door and grit his teeth in hate. That Ren was a disgusting seductress! This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

He, Lu Ming, was supposed to be Du Jian's beloved and was supposed to be admired by everyone alongside Du Jian. Lately not a lot of people had been giving him the kind of attention he deserved and that was because they'd noticed Du Jian's change of interest!

Without Du Jian, he was just another squad leader. The only difference was that he was squad leader of the best team in the base. If Du Jian turned away from him, he was pretty sure he wouldn't even be able to keep that position.

It was all Ren's fault!

It got better when Ren suddenly left the base months ago. Du Jian came back to Lu Ming and they resumed their relationship full of mind blowing sex and sugar sweet words.

Now that Ren was back, things were going to change once more. Lu Ming knew it.

He'd tried all sorts of methods to get rid of Ren but all his efforts were futile. He even used the method he'd used to trap Du Ling but Ren did not lift a muscle. The man did not give a damn about anything. It was infuriating!

Lu Ming walked out of the room once Du Jian walked away and used a different route to go after and intercept 888.

888 had just reached the end of the staircase when Lu Ming suddenly walked out of the other end. "Fuck. Clown number two," He muttered under his breath before moving on like Lu Ming was nonexistent.

Before 888 could walk into the ground hall, Lu Ming activated his ability and a wall of ice appeared in front of him. He turned around slowly and quirked a questioning brow at Lu Ming.

Lu Ming folded his arms across his chest and smiled smugly at 888. Ren was one of the few without an ability, so taking him out would be a piece of cake. The only reason he didn't do it all this time was because he cared about his reputation in the base, but now, he was willing to dirty his hands.

He'd been practicing for months and had finally learnt how to disintegrate things with his ice ability. With this upgrade, he could completely destroy Ren's body without leaving a trace.

The residential area was almost empty as this was meal time. The ones that remained were the scouts that just returned and they were up in their room resting.

"Do you think you-" Before Lu Ming could complete his sentence, 888 pulled out his gun from his waistband and fired two shots straight at Lu Ming's head.

BANG!

BANG!

The bullets were embedded in the wall where Lu Ming had been standing and 888 tsked. He could practically feel the killing intent wafting off of Lu Ming so he wasn't going to stand around and listen to whatever bullshit the man had to spew out of that little shithole at the bottom of his face.

Lu Ming grit his teeth. "Coward! You even had to sneak attack me!"

BANG!

BANG!

Two more shots. 888 wasn't having any of Lu Ming's bullshit. The bullets were dodged and he tsked again. It was to be expected. Lu Ming was the squad leader of the best team in the base.

Even if he'd gotten the position due to Du Jian's influence, he still had to have some skills in order to keep it.

Lu Ming activated his ability and sent sharp bullets of ice shards at 888. 888 dodged to the side and the ice shards were imbedded in the wall. Multiple cracks were beginning to appear in the walls of the narrow hallway.

The two men faced off each other with strong intent to kill but suddenly had to stop when the sound of footsteps came from the staircases on both ends of the hall.

Fighting was prohibited in the base with the punishment being ejection. Lu Ming's entire life was practically tied to this base -he thrived on fame and glory.

As for 888, he needed to remain in this base to wait for He Yuan. This base was his only hope at being reunited with his host.

The footsteps came to a stop and a total of three men and one woman appeared in the destroyed hallway.

"What the-" The woman whispered as they all took in the cracks in the walls and broken floor. There were a couple of holes in the ceiling and walls too and the entire hallway felt like it barely survived an ice storm.

Lu Ming forced a smile. "Nothing to see here. Just practicing."

888 rolled his eyes and walked out of the hallway. His cold glare was enough to freeze an entire volcano full of boiling hot lava.

He let his legs carry him to the base gates and then his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. There were rows upon rows of trucks with the flags of different bases arriving at the military base.

A lot of the inhabitants of the military base were also outside, watching the show. News going around was that a very important meeting had been called for all the bases in the country and the military base was the location of this important meeting.

888 was about to turn around and leave the bustling environment when the last truck came into view and someone stepped out. His eyes widened and his heart leapt to his throat.

He Yuan.

"SQUAD LEADER LING!" A figure dashed past 888, running straight at He Yuan and launching himself into the man's arms. It was Xiao Yu.

888 only perused his host with his eyes. He Yuan looked fine, He Yuan was not missing any limbs, He Yuan had managed to hide his zombie status somehow.

888's fists clenched at his sides as pure rage filled his heart. Two years. For almost two years. He'd been living on eggshells, searching everywhere for this host of his and the man had been okay?!

He Yuan didn't even bother to send any form of signal or indication that he was remotely okay. They were bound by contract! They were partners!

888 suddenly scoffed at himself bitterly. No they weren't.

He was a system and He Yuan was his host. His life was at He Yuan's mercy so why would He Yuan bother to inform him of anything when the final decision would always be He Yuan's to make?

888 slowly turned around and walked away.