Before Fang Senyan entered the bar, he had already anticipated this kind of situation. His eyes narrowed slightly, a chill running down his spine, yet a cold smile touched the corner of his lips, and he remained silent.

Bloody Jack took this for fear, roaring with laughter:

“Scared, are you? Then leave all the money you have!”

Saying this, Bloody Jack coughed violently, grabbed the half-finished drink beside him, and spat a thick glob of phlegm into it. With a loud smack, he slammed the glass onto the gaming table, sliding it in front of Fang Senyan, then said with a forced smile:

“Of course, you also have to drink this glass of wine to apologize to me, and then you can scram.”

The two burly men standing behind Fang Senyan had already pressed their hairy hands onto his shoulders with cold sneers, clearly seeing him as a trapped turtle they needed to prevent from escaping. This was not the first time they had done such a thing. But just then, Fang Senyan, keeping his eyes lowered, gave a cold smile and spat two contemptuous words through his gritted teeth:

“Asking for death!”

Before the words even faded, his arm flexed, and both elbows shot out, slamming violently backward. This impact was both utterly natural and jarringly sudden. Most of Bloody Jack's men were focused on preventing him from flipping the table and running, so a large portion of them failed to anticipate Fang Senyan’s explosion of violence!

Fang Senyan was seated on a stool, flanked by the two towering thugs. As Fang Senyan’s elbows whistled out with sudden force, the sturdy hardwood backrest of his chair immediately snapped with a crack, slamming heavily into the groin area of the two men behind him. Two dull thuds echoed, impossibly reminiscent of eggs dropped onto the floor, their yolks and whites splashing everywhere. The agonizing shrieks uttered by those two unlucky souls made every man nearby instinctively flinch.

Bloody Jack was a villain who practiced every depravity, and seeing his target dare to resist instantly ignited a malevolent fire in his chest. He swiftly reached out, snatched the dagger lying on the table, and lunged forward to stab. Fang Senyan was still seated, limiting his space for evasion. His eyes turned cold, and he grabbed out, aiming for Bloody Jack’s wrist, but misjudged slightly, catching the sharp blade precisely on his hand!

A chill ran through Fang Senyan. Logically, he should have been completely confident in that grab, but in executing it, he overlooked one factor: this world granted a 50% boost to the abilities of all Contractors. This directly caused him to misjudge his own speed, leading to this potentially fatal error. Bloody Jack revealed a cruel grin and violently wrenched the knife! He could already visualize several of his enemy’s fingers being sliced clean off!

Yet, despite the gleaming blade now bearing a grim, dark red stain, Fang Senyan only felt sharp pain transmitted through his hand. For the moment, he ignored the injury, sprang upright, seized Bloody Jack’s hair, and slammed his head down hard!

With a deafening bang, the bar table instantly tilted, causing the bottles and glasses upon it to leap into the air. Bloody Jack immediately bled profusely, stars bursting behind his eyes, but before he could recover, he was violently punched away—his heavy frame executed a difficult, mid-air horizontal rotation of seven hundred and twenty degrees before crashing down, scattering who knew how many tables and chairs in a chaotic clatter.

In Bloody Jack’s perception, it felt as if he had been struck squarely by a heavy sledgehammer. For a moment, he couldn't even feel the pain, only a dizzying world spinning and a roar in his head. After finally catching his breath, he opened his mouth to speak, only to feel his teeth raining down like hail…

Although Fang Senyan held the absolute advantage in raw strength, his agility wasn't exceptionally high, which dictated his evasion capabilities. As he sent Bloody Jack flying with one punch, he already felt forceful gusts of air coming from behind him, to his left, and to his right, naturally accompanied by enraged curses—Bloody Jack’s subordinates were furiously swarming him.

Crack… Crack… two crisp snapping sounds echoed as two beer bottles smashed open over Fang Senyan’s head, sending shards of glass flying. A chair, snatched up at random, was brought down hard onto Fang Senyan’s back. However, Fang Senyan did not fall as expected; instead, he spun around abruptly, ferocious like a wounded wolf, wildly scanning his surroundings, then charged forward engulfed in a heavy scent of blood!

Two minutes later, none of Bloody Jack’s men were left standing. They were all writhing on the floor, their agonized moans echoing continuously throughout the bar. It must be remembered that Fang Senyan was already highly experienced in these kinds of brawls, and his Strength, boosted by the World's enhancement, reached twelve points—nearly double that of a normal adult male. A single punch or kick delivered to these men naturally caused excruciating pain; even if bones weren't broken, internal bleeding was the likely outcome.

Clearly, the patrons of this bar were accustomed to this level of fighting. As soon as the brawl started, they had consciously stepped aside, clearing space for the combatants. However, the result left everyone slightly slack-jawed. This newcomer had managed to take down six hulking brutes in such a short time, and he only appeared moderately battered! Despite the visible injuries coating his body, he looked as if he could take down six more without issue.

Looking down at his opponents groaning in disarray before him, Fang Senyan let out a disdainful snort, straightened his collar, and casually picked up a bottle of brandy to disinfect and clean the wound on his hand. At this moment, he was surprised to find that the knife wound on his hand was far less deep than he had imagined; it hadn't even reached the bone and already showed signs of healing.

“What… what is this?” Fang Senyan was indeed puzzled. He firmly clenched the hand that had fiercely wrenched the knife, certain the cut couldn't have been minor. He casually touched his forehead; the spot where the beer bottle had struck only throbbed faintly, with none of the expected bruising or swelling appearing. Doubtfully, he queried the Nightmare Imprint again and received a notification:

“Based on your perception, you will receive detailed statistical data of the combat.” “Battle information playback initiating.” “Your elbow strike inflicted 28 plus 20 physical damage (vital area attack to lower body) on Bloody Jack’s subordinate (subordinate entered severe injury status, temporarily lost combat capability).” “Your elbow strike inflicted 26 plus 17 physical damage (vital area attack to lower body) on Bloody Jack’s subordinate (subordinate entered severe injury status, temporarily lost combat capability).” “Bloody Jack’s beer bottle inflicted 40 damage upon you (vital area attack to the back of the head); after deducting defense mitigation weighting (9 damage reduction), it should have caused 31 damage. Your innate talent: Toughness (Passive) activated, forcibly mitigating 25 damage. You sustained actual damage of 6 points.” “Bloody Jack’s subordinate’s beer bottle inflicted 33 damage upon you (vital area attack to the back of the head); after deducting defense mitigation weighting (6 damage absorption), it should have caused 27 damage. Your innate talent: Toughness (Passive) activated, forcibly mitigating 25 damage. You sustained actual damage of 2 points.” “The chair inflicted 10 damage upon your back from Bloody Jack’s subordinate; after deducting defense mitigation weighting (2 damage absorption), it should have caused 8 damage. Your innate talent: Toughness (Passive) activated, forcibly mitigating 25 damage. You sustained actual damage of 1 point.”

Reading this string of prompts, a cold smile played on Fang Senyan’s lips:

“It seems my innate talent is quite useful after all.”

He had no intention of lingering and had already raised sufficient funds. He started walking toward the bar’s exit, but halfway there, Fang Senyan turned back. He walked to the panting Bloody Jack, knelt down, patted his face, and stated calmly:

“You wanted two fingers from me earlier, didn't you?”

Bloody Jack’s pupils contracted instantly, and fear flooded his eyes. Just as he was about to speak, Fang Senyan snatched the gleaming dagger from the table and, with an almost careless flick, chopped! Amidst a piercing scream, two severed fingers flew askew. One of them bounced up and landed with a plink into a nearby stemmed glass, instantly dyeing the liquid inside a deep crimson. Whether by coincidence or not, this was precisely the same glass of dregs into which Bloody Jack had spat his phlegm earlier.

“, we are even now,” Fang Senyan said lightly, then swept up all the banknotes from the gaming table and left without a backward glance.

It was only then that Fang Senyan realized: in fact, for a Contractor, the moment their body underwent data visualization upon entering the Nightmare World, it constituted an extremely significant process of reinforcement.

To take a simple example: Liu Xiang’s best recorded time was 12.91 seconds, but he absolutely could not guarantee running 12.91 seconds in every race. However, if his body was digitized after becoming a Contractor, he could run that exact time in ten consecutive races!

This was the principal reason why Fang Senyan, despite seemingly minor attribute increases, had been so miserably overwhelmed by ordinary thugs before entering the Space, yet could now slaughter his way through this bar as a Contractor. Because in every move he made—whether attack power, reaction speed, or evasion—he was operating at his absolute peak performance, supplemented by excellent tactics and practiced combat skills. Facing these local thugs, achieving overwhelming advantage was natural!

After striding several blocks, Fang Senyan began searching for a public telephone booth. Public phones in America at that time were usually installed beside the road, housed in fully enclosed booths that offered shelter from wind and rain, eliminated the risk of conversations being overheard, and often included amenities like umbrellas, telephone directories, and cooling balm for heatstroke—a truly comprehensive provision.

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Ah Tu suddenly noticed something: I’m ranked 18th on the Weekly Recommendation List—but that’s meaningless unless I can break into the top fifteen to hit the front page! So, I earnestly request all friends to give me your recommendation votes. I promise to deliver even more spectacular stories for everyone! Comrades, let’s charge forward together!

(To be continued, please visit for the latest chapters:.)