Chapter 8: The Honeymoon in Hell
The concept of time died the moment the door to the White Room hissed shut.
There were no windows to mark the passing of the sun. There were no shadows to stretch across the floor. There was only the blinding, sterile whiteness of reinforced steel walls and the hum of an air filtration system that smelled faintly of synthetic lavender and ozone.
Lin Feng sat in the center of the room, his legs crossed, his breathing steady. To an outside observer, he might have looked like a monk in deep meditation. Internally, however, his mind was a battlefield of high-speed calculations.
[**SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC: SENSORY DEPRIVATION DETECTED.**]
[**TIME ELAPSED: UNKNOWN.**]
[**MENTAL STATE: CRITICAL.**]
[**VILLAINY LEVEL: DEGRADING... 88%... 87%...**]
"She's starving the System," Lin Feng whispered, his voice sounding thin and alien in the sound-dampened void. "She knows that a Villain needs a target. Without an audience, without a Protagonist to torment, I'm just a man in a box. She's trying to delete my persona by giving it nothing to react to."
He closed his eyes, trying to summon the interface of his "1,000 Lives" database. He needed a blueprint for escaping a Level 5 Containment Unit. He had escaped the Infinite Prison of the Void Sect in his 300th life. He had clawed his way out of a Digital Black Hole in his 800th life. He had even talked his way out of a Divine Judgement Court in life 950.
But those prisons had locks. They had guards. They had structural flaws.
The White Room had nothing. It was a void designed by a woman who had memorized every single one of his escapes. It was a perfect vacuum.
*Hiss.*
The sound of hydraulic pumps shattered the silence. The floor in front of him split open with mechanical precision, and a sleek, white table rose from the depths. On it sat two delicate porcelain cups, a steaming pot of tea, and a single, red velvet box.
The wall opposite him dematerialized—a holographic projection fading away to reveal a heavy blast door.
Su Qingxue walked in.
She wasn't wearing the sharp business suit of a CEO, nor the combat armor of a Commander. She was wearing a soft, white silk robe that trailed behind her like a bridal train. Her hair was loose, cascading down her back in a dark, lustrous wave. She looked terrifyingly domestic.
Behind her, the massive frame of Ye Chen, the God of War, stood guard. But something was fundamentally wrong with him. His eyes, usually burning with the fiery spirit of a Protagonist, were dull and glazed. A silver collar, identical to the one tracking Lin Feng, was clamped around his thick neck, pulsing with a rhythmic violet light.
"You broke him," Lin Feng said, not bothering to stand up. "You put a collar on the Chosen One. That violates the primary laws of this world."
"I didn't break him, Feng'er," Su Qingxue said softly, gliding across the room to sit opposite him. She poured the tea. The sound of the liquid hitting the cup was deafening in the absolute silence. "I gave him a purpose. He realized that protecting the world meant protecting *us*. He is happy. Now, drink. It's Jasmine. Your favorite from the 12th life."
"I'm not thirsty."
"Drink," she commanded. Her voice didn't rise, but the air pressure in the room seemed to drop instantly.
Lin Feng picked up the cup. His hand didn't tremble. He took a sip. It was perfect. It was the exact taste of a memory he had tried to bury for centuries.
"What is this place, Qingxue?" Lin Feng asked, setting the cup down with a sharp clink. "Is this the honeymoon suite? Are we going to play house until I develop Stockholm Syndrome and forget I tried to kill you?"
Su Qingxue smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. It was the smile of a surgeon about to make the first incision.
"We are going to play a game," she said, resting her pale hand on the red velvet box. "It's called 'Synchronization'."
She opened the box.
Inside lay two thin, translucent patches made of a material that pulsed with a faint, violet light. They looked like skin, but they moved like living organisms, writhing slightly in the padded interior.
"These are Neuro-Link Patches," she explained, her eyes locking onto his with an intensity that burned. "My R&D department spent three trillion credits developing them. They don't just track location. They bridge the nervous system. They synchronize pain, pleasure, and adrenaline."
She picked one up and placed it on her own wrist. It dissolved instantly, merging with her veins, turning the blood vessels beneath her skin a faint, glowing violet.
"Put yours on," she said.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then Ye Chen will break your legs, and I will put it on you while you scream. I would prefer we do this with dignity, my love."
Lin Feng looked at Ye Chen. The God of War stared back, his face a mask of tragic obedience. The System flashed a warning.
[**WARNING: THREAT LEVEL - GOD TIER.**]
[**CHANCE OF VICTORY IN COMBAT: 0.00%**]
[**ADVISORY: COMPLY TO SURVIVE.**]
Lin Feng let out a cold, sharp laugh. He reached into the box, took the patch, and slapped it onto his wrist. It burned like acid for a second, a searing heat that shot up his arm, then vanished as if it had never been there.
"Good," Su Qingxue whispered. "Now, the physiological event begins."
She tapped the table.
Suddenly, Lin Feng's chest seized.
It wasn't a heart attack. It was a *mirror*.
He gasped, clutching his chest. He could feel a heart beating in his ribcage, but it wasn't his rhythm. It was faster, lighter, fluttering with a mix of anxiety and manic excitement.
"Do you feel that?" Su Qingxue asked, her cheeks flushing a deep, aroused pink. "That's my heart, Feng'er."
She didn't wait for an answer. She stood up, the white silk of her robe rustling like the wings of a descending angel, and moved around the small table until she was standing directly over him. She straddled his lap, ignoring his flinch, trapping him against the cold steel of the chair.
"You look so tense," she whispered, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw. "Let me help you relax."
She leaned down and pressed her lips to his.
It wasn't just a kiss. Because of the Neuro-Link, it was a sensory explosion.
Lin Feng felt the soft pressure of her lips on his, but he also felt the *intent* behind them. He could feel the desperate, jagged spikes of her dopamine levels crashing into his own nervous system. It tasted sweet, but underneath the sweetness was the metallic tang of obsession.
He didn't kiss her back. He sat there, stone-faced, forcing himself to "eat" the affection she was force-feeding him.
"I love you," she murmured against his mouth, her voice trembling—faltering under the weight of her own delusion. "I have loved you for a thousand years. I love you more than the world. More than logic. Please, Feng'er... just let go."
*Lies,* Lin Feng analyzed, dissecting every syllable as it hit his ear.
He could feel the tremor in her lips. That wasn't love; it was fear. She was kissing him like a drowning woman breathing from an oxygen tank. Her words were faltering not because of passion, but because deep down, in the darkest part of her Regressor soul, she knew this was all a stage play. She knew she was kissing a monster she had chained up, not a lover.
"You don't love me," Lin Feng managed to say, turning his head slightly so her next kiss landed on his neck. The sensation sent a jolt of borrowed pleasure-pain down his spine. "You love the script you wrote for me. These kisses... they taste like code. They taste like desperation."
"Be quiet," she hissed, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at her. Her eyes were swimming with tears, but her grip was iron. "Don't analyze me, Feng'er. Just *feel* me."
She kissed him again, harder this time, devouring him. She bit his lower lip, and the Neuro-Link amplified the sting into a blinding flash of white-hot connectivity. She was trying to overwrite his reality with physical sensation, trying to drown his logic in a flood of her own manufactured romance.
Lin Feng swallowed the fake words she poured into his mouth. He let them slide down his throat like poison. He didn't fight. He didn't push her away. He simply stared into her eyes with the cold, dead gaze of a man watching a bad actor forget their lines.
"Are you done performing?" Lin Feng asked coldly when she finally pulled back for air. "Or is there a sex scene in this chapter too?"
Su Qingxue froze. The flushed pink on her cheeks vanished, replaced by a pale, dangerous porcelain white. The faltering tenderness evaporated instantly, leaving something much colder in its wake.
"You think this is a performance?" she whispered, her voice dropping to that terrifying, guttural register.
She slowly climbed off his lap and picked up the silver table knife next to the tea set.
"I tried to give you the honey," she said, her eyes dead. "I tried to give you the kisses. But you only have a taste for blood, don't you?"
Without hesitating, she sliced a thin line across her own palm.
"Gah!" Lin Feng hissed, recoiling as a phantom blade slashed across his own hand. He looked down. There was no wound, no blood, but the pain was 100% real. The nerves were firing as if he had been cut to the bone.
"Why?" Lin Feng roared, slamming his hand on the table. "What is the point of this torture?"
"To ensure you never leave me," Su Qingxue said, wrapping a napkin around her bleeding hand. "Because now, Feng'er, if you try to kill me... you commit suicide. And if you run away, the distance creates a 'Signal Lag' that results in excruciating migraines. You *must* stay close to me to feel normal. You *must* keep my heart rate steady to keep your own steady."
Lin Feng stared at her. This wasn't Yandere. This was biological warfare.
"You're insane," he whispered. "You've turned love into a parasitic infection."
"I turned it into a guarantee," she corrected. "Now, for the final test."
She stood up and walked around the table. She stood behind him, her hands resting on his shoulders. The warmth of her skin transferred instantly to him, magnified by the link.
"In the 999th life," she whispered into his ear, "You jumped off the Star Tower to escape me. You chose death over my hand. I have spent every night since then dreaming of how to fix that flaw in your code."
"You can't fix me," Lin Feng spat. "I am a Villain. My ending is always tragedy. That is the rule of the genre. I will find a way to die, Qingxue. I always do."
"Is that so?"
She leaned down, her lips brushing his ear. "System. Initiate Protocol: Role Reversal."
Lin Feng's Villain System screamed.
[**CRITICAL ALERT! EXTERNAL OVERRIDE DETECTED!**]
[**SOURCE: HEROINE'S REGRET SYSTEM.**]
[**DATA PACKETS INCOMING: 'THE HERO'S HALO'.**]
[**ERROR: PERMISSION DENIED... PERMISSION OVERRIDDEN.**]
"What are you doing?" Lin Feng tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't move. The Neuro-Link was paralyzing his motor functions, locking him into the chair.
"I am tired of being the Heroine who cries while you die," Su Qingxue said. "So, I am trading places."
The room began to flash red.
"I am taking your Karma," she announced.
Lin Feng felt a ripping sensation in his soul. It felt like hooks were being dragged through his mind. He saw memories—memories of him burning villages in his 50th life, of him betraying kings in his 200th life, of him poisoning worlds in his 900th life—being ripped out of his consciousness and flowing into *her*.
"No!" Lin Feng shouted, his vision going white. "That is my burden! Those are my sins! You can't take them!"
"Not anymore," she said, her eyes beginning to glow with a dark, violet energy. "I accept the burden of the Villain. I accept the hatred of the world. I will be the Demon Lord. I will be the Tyrant who threatens the peace."
She stood up, and the air around her cracked with dark lightning. She looked magnificent and terrifying, a Goddess of Ruin born from twisted love.
"And you..." She pointed a finger at him.
A beam of golden light shot from the ceiling, slamming into Lin Feng.
It didn't hurt. It felt... warm. It felt disgusting. It felt like righteousness.
[**SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE.**]
[**NEW CLASS ASSIGNED: THE TRAGIC HERO.**]
[**PASSIVE SKILL ADDED: 'PLOT ARMOR'.**]
[**PASSIVE SKILL ADDED: 'INDESTRUCTIBLE BODY'.**]
[**PASSIVE SKILL ADDED: 'RIGHTEOUS LUCK'.**]
Lin Feng stared at his hands. They were glowing with a soft, golden aura. The aura of a Protagonist.
"I gave you the 'Hero's Halo'," Su Qingxue said, her voice now echoing with the distortion of a true Villain. "Do you know what that means, Feng'er?"
Lin Feng scrambled back, his back hitting the cold steel wall. He knew exactly what it meant. He had fought a thousand Heroes. He knew their curse better than anyone.
"It means you can't die," he whispered, horror dawning on him.
"Correct," she smiled, and this time, it was a predator's smile. "Heroes survive explosions. Heroes survive falls. Heroes survive poison. As long as I am the Villain threatening the world, the 'World Logic' will keep you alive to stop me. You are now the chosen savior of humanity."
She walked to the door, the God of War bowing as she passed.
"You wanted to retire? You wanted to die?" She laughed, and the sound shattered the remaining tea cups on the table. "Too bad. You are the Hero now, Lin Feng. And the Hero has to suffer through the entire story until he saves the Princess. Except... I am not the Princess anymore."
She stepped out of the room, the heavy blast door beginning to slide shut.
"Wait!" Lin Feng screamed, scrambling toward the door. "Qingxue! Undo it! Let me be the bad guy! Let me die!"
"Save me, Hero," she whispered as the door sealed with a final, tomb-like thud.
Lin Feng stood alone in the white room.
He looked at the broken porcelain on the floor. He picked up a jagged shard.
"I decide when I exit," he snarled. "I don't care about your Halo. I don't care about the script."
He drove the shard into his own neck with all the force of a desperate man.
*CLANG.*
The shard shattered against his skin.
His skin didn't even bruise. A golden ripple of energy—the Plot Armor—protected his throat.
[**SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:**]
[**ATTACK NULLIFIED.**]
[**REASON: THE HERO CANNOT DIE UNTIL THE FINAL CHAPTER.**]
[**CURRENT CHAPTER: 8.**]
[**ESTIMATED CHAPTERS REMAINING: 1,400.**]
Lin Feng dropped the dust that used to be a weapon. He sank to his knees, the golden light of the 'Hero' mocking him in the sterile silence.
He wasn't just in a prison. He was trapped in a genre he couldn't escape.
He let out a scream that shook the walls, but outside, in the control room, the Villainess only adjusted her headset and smiled.
"Let the show begin."
**[Word Count: 2,500]**
---
**Author's Note:**
> **"THE ULTIMATE CURSE"**
> You asked for a twist? Lin Feng just lost the only thing he cared about: his mortality.
> By swapping the Roles, Su Qingxue has essentially "Hacked" the laws of literature. She has forced him into `God Mode` against his will. Now, he literally *cannot* kill himself. He has to play her game.
> **Support the Book:**
> If this twist shocked you, please leave a **Review** and drop a **Power Stone**! Let's get Lin Feng to the top of the rankings so he can find a way to break this Plot.....