System Notification: Daily Quest Completed. ▸ Reconstruct Tactical Memory Progress: 42% ▸ Upgrade Weapon Handling Lv.3 → Lv.4 ▸ Affection with Yanyu: +3 (Conflicted Trust)
Wu Residence – Morning
Yanyu stood by the kitchen window, watching the fog lift from the street. The air was still. Too still.
She couldn't stop thinking about what she heard the night before.
Zhao Lang. The name had echoed in her skull like a warning bell. A man whose presence was like poison in water—silent, deadly, and impossible to trace once consumed.
She didn't know who her husband was anymore.
The man who once forgot anniversaries and burned toast now walked like a soldier and talked like a ghost. And the way he'd stared Captain Zhan down yesterday…
Her phone buzzed.
A single message from an unknown number.
["You're being watched. The Dragon never forgets."]
Her hands trembled.
"Li Tian…" she whispered, "What the hell have you done?"
Underground Market – Sector 9
Fox didn't like being here. Too many cameras. Too many ghosts in alleyways.
Li Tian, however, moved like he belonged here. Like he owned the shadows. He wore a hooded jacket, weapons hidden under the fabric, and his gaze sharp with purpose.
"Are you sure this contact is real?" Fox muttered.
"I'm not paying ten grand for fake data," Li Tian said coldly. "She said she has footage from the Southern Siege."
Fox cursed under his breath. "Why the hell do you want to see that again? It nearly broke you the first time."
Li Tian didn't answer. He didn't need to. He had to know who betrayed his unit. Who gave the order that wiped them out. Who left himburied alive.
They entered the bar. It smelled like blood and old cigars.
A woman waited in the back booth, sunglasses covering one eye, the other scarred.
"Name's Mirage," she said. "You the dead man come back to life?"
"Show me the footage," Li Tian said.
She slid a data chip across the table.
He plugged it into his comm-band.
[Memory Playback: Southern Siege – Mission Timestamp 03:17:54] ▸ Squad Alpha, Location Bravo 6 ▸ Visual ID Match: Lt. Li Tian ▸ Commander Orders: "Burn the evidence. No survivors." ▸ Voice Match: Zhao Lang ▸ Secondary Confirmation: Betrayal Code Red activated by Captain Zhan.
Li Tian's hands turned to stone.
It was real.
Zhao Lang had ordered the wipeout. Zhan had pressed the trigger.
He wasn't just remembering now.
He knew.
Meanwhile, back at the Wu residence…
Yanyu followed a tip. She met her private investigator at a quiet teahouse downtown.
"What did you find?" she asked.
The man hesitated. "I shouldn't have looked, Mrs. Wu. Your husband… he's not who you think."
"Tell me."
The man slid a folder toward her.
Photos. Documents. A surveillance shot of Li Tian standing in full military uniform. Black-ops division insignia on his shoulder.
A death report. Signed two years ago.
"KIA – Southern Siege Massacre."
Yanyu's blood ran cold.
"He's supposed to be dead," the investigator whispered. "And if he's back, someone's going to want to bury him again."
Nightfall. Outskirts of Hu City.
The ambush began without warning.
Li Tian and Fox were en route to an old bunker—one that held backup files on the Southern Siege. But before they got within a mile, the road exploded beneath them.
Fox barely rolled out of the wrecked car before a sniper round tore through the passenger seat.
"Sniper! East ridge!" he shouted.
Li Tian was already moving.
System Boost Activated: Tactical Perception Lv.1 ▸ Sniper Detected: 172 meters, wind direction NE, slight elevation ▸ Weak Point: exposed neck angle after shot recoil ▸ Time to Impact: 1.8 seconds
He dropped to the ground and fired through the smoke.
One shot. Silence.
Target Neutralized. +300 EXP
But it wasn't over.
Drones swarmed overhead. Four black vans pulled up. Mercenaries. Jinlong's elite clean-up crew.
"Of course Zhao Lang would send these bastards," Fox grunted, pulling out a knife.
Li Tian's voice was steady. Cold. Focused.
"We don't run."
System Command: Activate Skill – Ghost Combat Lv.2"Kill without leaving echoes."
He vanished into the smoke like a wraith.
They never stood a chance.
Thirty minutes later.
Bodies littered the roadside.
Li Tian wiped blood from his face as Fox limped behind him.
"You okay?" Fox asked.
"No," Li Tian muttered. "But I'm awake now."
System Alert: Memory Recovery Progress – 59%Next Flashback in 12 hours.Emotion Surge Warning: Rage nearing threshold.
Fox opened the van's glove compartment and handed Li Tian a small black box.
"Picked this off one of the mercs."
Li Tian opened it.
Inside: A coin. Black. With a red dragon etched into its surface.
His jaw tightened.
"It's not just Zhao Lang," he muttered. "It's the Council of Blood Serpents. They want the truth buried."
Back at the Wu Residence – Midnight
Yanyu sat at her desk, staring at her husband's military file. She didn't cry.
She didn't panic.
She just closed the folder.
"He's not the man I married…"
Then she looked up, eyes hardening.
"…But I want to know who he really is."
System Summary – Day 6 Countdown ▸ Tactical Skill Tree Progress: 18% ▸ Ghost Combat Skill Tree Progress: 22% ▸ Rage Threshold: 71% ▸ New Passive: "Sleepless Focus" – Allows 48-hour function without fatigue ▸ Title Growth: "The Sleeper Shadow" → "Whisper of the Dead"