The Villain Slaps The Protagonist’s Halo - Chapter 153 - The END (Patreon)

Chapter 153: Final Chapter - The END

Nie Jia felt a sharp pain in his heart. He tried to break free from Shi Chen's embrace, but his strength failed him.

"I'm no longer the person you love. Can't you see? Look around you, you saved the wrong person. I'm just a murderer. Everyone you've been with all this time isn't me!" Nie Jia gestured helplessly at the numerous corpses on the ground, his voice hoarse with despair.

He had always avoided letting Shi Chen see his bloody heart, but now he had to prove to him that everything between them was just his past disguise.

"It's all fake, don't you understand? Every minute we spent together in the virtual world wasn't me. I was just trying my best to be the person you once loved," Nie Jia's words were disjointed, interrupted by sobs, "I'm so tired of pretending!"

Shi Chen silently watched Nie Jia's tear-filled eyes and gradually released his grip.

Nie Jia's heart tightened. He hoped that Shi Chen could understand his thoughts, hoped that he would turn around and leave immediately, and also selfishly hoped that Shi Chen wouldn't leave him.

Shi Chen took a deep, heavy breath, then turned away from Nie Jia. Nie Jia saw him kick away a nearby cannon arm with force.

With his back to Nie Jia, Shi Chen kicked another mech blade viciously to vent his anger. Through clenched teeth, he uttered cold breaths, "Do you know who I am? I'm in charge of the entire empire's information security. I know exactly what kind of person you are. Why do you assume my thoughts and torture me? Why do you think I would abandon you? It only took me ten years to rise from graduating military academy to my current position. I've killed more people than you've saved. Do you think I'm a good person?"

Nie Jia watched him silently, his hands clenching and unclenching, nervously gripping his clothes.

Shi Chen's throat trembled slightly, and he said, "I couldn't reconcile with my own changes before. I didn't dare to pursue you, afraid of your rejection. I'm a coward like you, now also a villain like you." He reached out to Nie Jia, "Since we're both villains, can't you... stay with me?"

Nie Jia looked distressed, avoiding Shi Chen's gaze and remaining silent.

Shi Chen didn't wait for his hesitation. He stepped forward and pulled Nie Jia into his bloody arms, softly pleading in his ear, "Please, Jia Jia, don't leave me."

"But... it's too late," Nie Jia cried sorrowfully. They stood in a pool of blood, surrounded by a mist of blood that gradually coalesced into tiny droplets on their skin.

"It's never too late. I'll sort everything out. Just know that I'll face everything with you. You don't have to bear anything alone. Whatever happens, you must tell me first, okay?" Shi Chen wiped away the tears from Nie Jia's eyes, his tone returning to its usual tenderness.

Nie Jia's breath gradually calmed, and he looked at Shi Chen for a long time. Like the decision he couldn't make to end himself, the emotions that burst forth in front of Shi Chen shook his previous resolve.

"Will I drag you down?" Nie Jia asked softly. He had massacred the Tribunal and the military district. Shi Chen, with his high position, had appeared twice to protect him. Perhaps even dismissal was a light punishment...

"What can I do?" Shi Chen held Nie Jia's hand and rested his head on his shoulder, blowing gently into his ear, smiling, "If one day I make a mistake and it might involve you, will you abandon me immediately?"

"Of course not!" Nie Jia immediately replied.

Shi Chen chuckled, "Then of course I won't either. If my wife makes a mistake, I'll just bring her home and give her a good scolding. How could I abandon her?"

The tension in Nie Jia's heart suddenly dissipated. He had never thought that if one day he found that Shi Chen was different from what he remembered, he would immediately abandon him. Of course not... Shi Chen wouldn't either. His actions were indeed torturing Shi Chen.

"Will you really scold me?" Nie Jia asked.

Shi Chen smirked, "How could I bear to? But I'm still angry. If I hadn't come to find you, would you really have rejected me? You have to say something nice to comfort me."

Nie Jia's eyes wandered, a bit at a loss, as he hugged Shi Chen's waist and buried himself in his embrace, his voice tinged with tears, "I love you, I won't leave you."

Shi Chen's eyes softened, overflowing with boundless tenderness. He didn't respond, just hugged Nie Jia tightly and rubbed his head against his shoulder.

"What a touching reunion," came Sekharo's arrogant voice from behind.

Nie Jia raised his head, looking past Shi Chen's shoulder to Sekharo, with Ye Geng standing behind him like a shadow.

"My dear son, I guess you've changed your mind, haven't you?" Sekharo raised an eyebrow at Nie Jia.

Nie Jia didn't like Sekharo, immediately frowning. Before he could say anything, Shi Chen spoke first, asking, "What did you promise him?"

Nie Jia shook his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "He said he's my father... but I don't know him, I don't believe him, I haven't talked to him much, and I haven't promised him anything."

Shi Chen turned to look at Sekharo, a smug smile playing on his lips. "What he said is true. He really is your father, and you two look quite alike." He glanced down at Nie Jia, who remained unmoved, his smile softening. Indeed, his Jia Jia didn't seem to care about this person at all.

"You seem to have investigated me," Sekharo's eyes turned cold.

"If you return Jia Jia's original eyes to me now, I can spare your life for the time being," Shi Chen said.

Sekharo's brow immediately twitched, then he smirked darkly. "Impressive, coming from someone in the Information Security Department. You have some skills, being able to dig that up."

Nie Jia couldn't understand what they were talking about at all. He looked at Sekharo with confusion, then up at Shi Chen.

A huge black shadow crashed down from the sky, splattering blood everywhere, followed by a nimble figure. Shi Su squatted on a soldier's corpse, looked up at Sekharo, and smiled. "Investigating a weakling like you is easy. After all, you were one of the Empire's top figures in the last generation. Your information may be SSS-class top secret, but both Big Brother and I have the authority to access it. How convenient, isn't it? Haha."

Sekharo's composed smile disappeared as he stared at the soldier's bullet-riddled body, his brow twitching.

Ye Geng growled, "Where's Lilinia?"

"The little flower goddess?" Shi Su smiled maliciously. "Guess, guess right, and I'll let you breathe a little longer!"

Before anyone could react, Shi Su lunged like a hawk. No one could see how she swung her knife, but Ye Geng's leg was already flying off. Shi Su then grabbed both of Ye Geng's wrists, kicked him in the chest, instantly disabling his two arms, and kicked him away, blood spraying everywhere.

Ye Geng collapsed to the ground, coughing loudly, his once tidy and bright golden hair now messy and blood-soaked. His severed leg quickly regenerated at a visible speed, and his two broken arms also healed with a cracking sound.

Shi Su casually raised an eyebrow. "Gigants, Flower Tribe, and now you, the Undead Tribe..." She tilted her head, looking at Sekharo. "Where did you collect all these peculiarities that have long been extinct? General MacLeod?"

"MacLeod? So he really exists." Nie Jia was surprised. He had heard this name before. MacLeod was a hero of the previous era, one of the first generation of Empire's top figures, who once commanded the Deep Nest forces on the border and was a legendary military leader. It was rumored that he was killed in battle after losing his powers to the enemy, and as for the other of the Empire's top figures, Nie Jia hadn't even heard of him.

But all of this was just hearsay. For those outside the power center, there was no information about MacLeod at all. Even now, some people doubted whether the first generation of Empire's top figures really existed. After all, MacLeod had left a name behind, but no one knew anything about the other person.

"He does exist, the first generation of Empire's top figures who once made enemies tremble in fear. He and your mother, Nie Huang," Shi Chen rubbed Nie Jia's head, observing his reaction. Seeing his pupils dilate and widen, he gently and affectionately explained, "Your mother isn't Anna, and you don't have a grandfather. Everything in your memory was created by him, all for the sake of these eyes of yours."

Nie Jia furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"Your mother, Nie Huang, is a pure-blooded member of the Ghost Tribe, with 100% Ghost bloodline. Although the Ghost Tribe has been eliminated by the Great Era for hundreds of years, no one knows where Nie Huang came from. She had a close relationship with the Empire's government and possessed unparalleled power, even without opening her eyes. You may have heard that once a Ghost Tribe member opens their eyes, they can obtain the power to annihilate star systems, but no one knows how to open their eyes, including the Ghost Tribe themselves," Shi Chen said quietly.

Suddenly, Nie Jia said, "Pain."

Shi Chen rubbed his fingertips, looking at Nie Jia's completely opened eyes with extreme heartache. "Exactly, pain can make a Ghost Tribe member open their eyes. Nie Huang discovered that Sekharo was plotting against her eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to harm her lover, so she understood herself without opening her eyes, wanting to break Sekharo's delusions. But Sekharo dug out Nie Huang's eyes and transplanted them into you. You have a certain Ghost Tribe gene, making you the perfect vessel for these eyes."

He spoke with a gentle tone about cruel and ruthless content, and Shi Su felt that with Nie Jia's current mental state, it was really inappropriate to tell him these things. But Shi Chen didn't stop, instead, he summarized everything briefly and succinctly.

He knew that Nie Jia wouldn't care about these things.

"They don't exist," Nie Jia murmured sadly after listening.

Sekharo, in order to cause him pain, had let his "relatives" leave one after another since he was young, so Nie Jia didn't have much attachment to them, especially after experiencing all this.

"I exist," Shi Chen pinched Nie Jia's cheek.

Nie Jia's eyes moistened with tears as he smiled. "I know."

"I thought all the information about me had been erased by the Empire. It feels strange to hear these things from someone else," Sekharo said indifferently.

"It has been erased, but my big brother is the head of the Information Security Department. All the data is filtered through the Security Department. Whatever he wants to know, he can dig it up," Shi Su chuckled.

Sekharo became annoyed and threw a punch.

Shi Su jumped back a step, avoiding it. "Can't hit me!"

Sekharo followed with two consecutive punches, but Shi Su agilely hopped around in the blood pool. "Can't hit me, can't hit me!"

A thick green vine suddenly burst through the ground, about to break through the soil, but Shi Su remained calm. With a punch, the earth trembled, and something underground exploded, and the vine ultimately failed to emerge.

Sekharo looked at Shi Su's eyes with some vigilance.

Shi Su whistled, and dozens of fighter jets hovered above them, their guns aimed at Sekharo.

"With these toys, you think you can touch me?" Sekharo remained unmoved.

"These toys?" Shi Su laughed heartily. "Old man, do you think the current Deep Nest forces are still the same as the one you once led? What kind of power can match the title of the new generation of Empire's top figures, you should know best."

"The new generation of Empire's top figures," Sekharo sneered, his lips curling. "In that case, let me see."

He blinked his eyes slowly, and then green grass sprouted from under his feet, towering trees shot up from the ground, thick green vines like pythons, and all kinds of vibrant plants spread crazily around him.

Shi Chen carried Nie Jia and jumped onto a nearby thick branch, while Shi Su hopped onto a higher place in two or three steps. She glanced at the boundary, then taunted Sekharo madly, "If you can envelop the whole planet, then maybe I'll look up to you. But you can't even break through the encirclement of Deep Nest. Tsk, you're getting old, it's time to bow out!"

Nie Jia frowned. "Is this the ability of the Flower Tribe? Is he a member of the Flower Tribe?"

Shi Chen shook his head. "No, he implanted the heart of the Flower Tribe's White King."

"In other words, did he destroy the Flower Tribe?" 

"It's possible. I didn't have much time to investigate, but based on the timing, it should be about right."

Nie Jia's breath grew heavier. "Did the Hunters organization also die at his hands?"

Shi Chen comforted him, rubbing his cheek gently. "The Hunters were massacred by the Hurricane troops. You didn't kill the wrong person, but everything, including what you suffered, was all part of Sekharo's plan. I swear I'll make him pay, close your eyes and count dozens."

"Huh?" Nie Jia looked at him.

"I want to finish him off quickly and go home with you. I miss you a lot." Shi Chen leaned in, planting a kiss on Nie Jia's lips before swiftly leaping down from the branch.

Nie Jia stayed put, obediently closing his eyes and starting to count quietly.

Sekharo lashed out with vines towards Shi Chen, but in the blink of an eye, Shi Chen unleashed a million glowing bats, their high-frequency screeches piercing the air around Sekharo. Immediately, Sekharo fell to his knees, clutching his head in agony.

Shi Chen pressed his fist against Sekharo's neck, driving his entire head into the tree roots. Through gritted teeth, he muttered, "I won't kill you for now, because there are more tortures waiting for you. Everything you've done to Jia Jia will be met with corresponding punishment."

"Master!" Ye Geng shouted.

Shi Su immediately appeared before him, a menacing grin on her face. "Your opponent is me. Undead, do you know what this general's ability is?"

With a snap of her fingers, pitch-black flames erupted from beneath her feet. "My ability is 'Life-Extinguish,' burning away all life forms. Once ignited, it can't be extinguished. It's perfect for dealing with you!"

She conjured a fireball in her hand, laughing maniacally as she launched it towards Sekharo.

As Shi Su had said, Sekharo was past his prime. His era had come to an end.

Sekharo had greatly underestimated the power of the new generation. He had waited for over twenty years, finally witnessing the opening of the eyes he longed for, only to fail at the last moment.

He never expected Shi Chen to intervene at this critical juncture.

Just as Nie Jia reached ten in his count and opened his eyes, Shi Chen appeared before him. His face splattered with a few drops of blood, he smiled at Nie Jia. "Let's go home."

Nie Jia glanced down and saw only a person lying in a pool of blood.

Shi Chen chuckled, "He's not dead. It would be too easy to let him off like that."

He took Nie Jia's hand and stood up, waving to the aircraft in the sky.

Nie Jia asked, "What about the Sea of Nescience?"

"I've already sent someone over. Everything's fine."

Shi Chen whisked Nie Jia away in the aircraft, leaving Nie Jia still dazed.

When they arrived home and pushed open the door, a furious voice came flying out. "You two brats really want to drive me to an early grave, don't you?! You smashed the Tribunal yesterday, and today you're surrounding the military area with troops. What are you trying to do?!"

Shi Chen frowned at Marshal Rosen. "Why are you here bothering me?"

Nie Jia stepped out from behind Shi Chen, his expression blank as he looked at Rosen. He said blandly, "Long time no see, Marshal."

Marshal Rosen thought the siblings had returned together, but he didn't expect Shi Chen to bring Nie Jia. He could only swallow back his anger for now, nearly choking on it.

Shi Chen ignored his father's annoyance, gently guiding Nie Jia inside. "Let me take you for a bath first. Have you eaten, honey? I'll cook for you."

Marshal Rosen was so angry his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets. After venting his frustration for a while, with no one paying him any attention in the living room, Shi Chen finally emerged during Nie Jia's bath time. He approached Marshal Rosen and said, "Why haven't you left yet?"

"Is everything settled?" Marshal Rosen asked, trying to sound authoritative.

"Settled," Shi Chen replied with a smug grin, heading to the kitchen to see what ingredients they had for a late-night snack.

"Both you and Su are going to face the military tribunal!" Marshal Rosen seethed, then lowered his voice, "This kid seems different from before. When you go to court, don't let him attend, lest he blames himself."

"I know. Are you staying for dinner?" Shi Chen asked.

"I'm not eating!" Marshal Rosen snapped, standing up. "And where's Su?"

Having a quarrel with his son wasn't working out well. Right now, he needed his daughter.

"She's cleaning up the battlefield. If you're not eating, you better leave now. It's late, and don't disturb Jia Jia and me while we sleep." Shi Chen sounded impatient.

The Marshal stormed off, leaving Shi Chen behind.

When Shi Chen returned to the bathroom, Nie Jia was still sitting in the tub, hugging his knees and staring into space.

"Did your dad leave?" he asked absently.

"Are you done? Do you want to keep him for dinner?" Shi Chen crouched by the edge of the bathtub, carefully using his fingertips to wipe away the traces of blood at the corner of Nie Jia's eyes.

The two locked eyes at close range. Nie Jia felt a bit uneasy, lips pressed together slightly. Once the calm settled, he didn't know what to say to Shi Chen.

"When should we get married?" Shi Chen suddenly asked.

Nie Jia remembered the virtual ring left behind and smiled, saying, "You didn't give me a ring this time."

"How could I forget?" Shi Chen reached out, and in an instant, a silver plain ring appeared at his fingertips. He carefully slid it onto Nie Jia's finger.

Nie Jia's eyes suddenly welled up with tears. He looked at the ring for a long time, then climbed out of the water and hugged Shi Chen's neck, emitting a faint sob.

"There, there, don't cry. We'll be together for a long, long time. If you like, I can give you a ring every day." Shi Chen went to nibble on Nie Jia's ear, casually grabbing a robe to wrap Nie Jia up and carry him back to the room.

Nie Jia glanced around casually and chuckled, "Your room really has a lot of my photos."

"Was it Shi Su who told you? I wanted to give you a surprise, let you know how much I miss you. When she comes back, I'll give her a good scolding." Shi Chen lovingly hugged Nie Jia, rubbing against him.

The two lay there, exchanging words casually. Nie Jia was too tired and gradually fell asleep unknowingly. Shi Chen listened to his steady and long breaths, finally exhaling deeply, feeling relieved only at this moment.

Afterward, both Shi Chen and Shi Su were suspended and investigated. Nie Jia was somewhat worried, but Shi Chen was rather leisurely, taking Nie Jia out for strolls. Shi Su came over to their house every day to mooch off their meals.

Until the day they went to court for trial, Shi Chen didn't let Nie Jia come along, only asking him to wait at home. They agreed to go to a new restaurant for dinner that evening, with Shi Chen promising to come home on time.

Nie Jia anxiously waited at home for half the day until Shi Chen returned in the afternoon.

"Everything's clear now. How long could a trial possibly take?" Shi Chen tossed aside his uniform cap, scooping Nie Jia up into his arms. "I'll charge up, change clothes later, and then we'll go out for dinner."

"Are you okay?" Nie Jia asked uneasily.

Shi Chen released him and held Nie Jia's shoulders, saying earnestly, "I don't need to go to the security office anymore. I'll stay home with you. How about we travel and get married?"

Nie Jia's heart tightened. "Did you get fired?"

"No, getting me fired and then trying to rehire me would be too difficult. It's just a suspension. I've taken a five-year extended leave. Happy?" Shi Chen smiled.

"Just a suspension?" Nie Jia asked skeptically. "What about Shi Su?"

"She's in a tough spot. Immediate reinstatement but no salary for two years. She'll probably come over to ask us for pocket money during these two years." Shi Chen sighed.

"Is that all the punishment for such a serious matter? Are you lying to me?" Nie Jia asked anxiously.

Shi Chen pinched his cheeks affectionately, smiling. "It's not that serious. I submitted evidence of data tampering to the Tribunal. Everything originated from Sekharo. The Tribunal and the responsible major at the military district have bigger problems. They have no face to legally judge me, let alone drag you into court."

"What about Sekharo?" Nie Jia felt relieved only after Shi Chen patiently explained.

Shi Chen took off his coat and threw it on the sofa before heading to the closet. "He's been taken back to the border by Shi Su, under the custody of the Deep Nest troops. Don't worry, from now on, if you're feeling bad, you can remotely order Shi Su to go beat him up to vent."

"I want to kill him," Nie Jia said indifferently.

"Anytime you want. If you want to do it yourself, we'll go together to the border." Shi Chen smiled. "Oh, and one more thing, Jia Jia. I found your eyes in the Sea of Nescience. Do you want them back?"

Nie Jia touched his lower eyelids blankly, silent for a moment before saying, "Sure, these eyes are too troublesome."

Shi Chen changed his clothes and came out of the closet, reaching out to pat Nie Jia's head before gently leading him out. "I'll arrange the time. Let's eat first."

Nie Jia looked at Shi Chen's clear and handsome eyebrows, a long-lost smile appearing on his face. "Let's eat."

The END.