Chapter 40 Toast in Charge

"Someone is here!"

"No way, the surveillance team clearly said they saw her go back."

"Then it must be someone else. Why is this coffee still warm? It's freshly brewed!" one of them pointed at the coffee cup, his finger still trembling.

"That's impossible. The people watching outside didn't mention her receiving anyone today, and no one else entered this agency..."

"Could it be that we didn't see clearly because the fog was too thick?"

"It... it's possible."

Having found a plausible explanation, they eagerly comforted themselves.

"Whoever is hiding in there, come out!" Cheng Fei stepped forward and shouted.

"Get out here, we know you're in there!"

They yelled loudly, trying to frighten the person inside out while also boosting their own courage.

Swish—

A faint rustling sound suddenly flashed past. They instantly scanned their surroundings, but failed to catch any moving figure.

This agency was feeling more and more bizarre...

"Ah!" One of them suddenly cried out, startling everyone.

"Damn it! What are you doing! Scared the hell out of me!"

"No, something just crawled past my feet, it seemed to run under the sofa." The one who screamed pointed at the sofa.

They followed his direction: "...It must be some cat or dog that bitch kept."

"That's not right, she never kept anything..." someone said faintly.

Everyone fell silent.

"Then it must have slipped in from somewhere outside as a wild animal, don't make a fuss and scare yourselves. It ran under the sofa, right? I'll drag it out for you!" Cheng Fei let out a muffled snort and boldly stepped forward.

He lowered his body and looked under the sofa.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

Unbelievable!

There was actually a perfectly shaped piece of toast under the sofa!

Why would there be toast under the sofa? Did that bitch waste food like this? This toast looked so appetizing, what a pity! Could it still be eaten? Why would there be such a perfect piece of toast...

Cheng Fei's mind fell into a bizarre loop of distracting thoughts.

"Brother Fei! Brother Fei!"

It wasn't until his underling shook him back to his senses that he belatedly stood up: "What is it!?"

"What's... under the sofa? You've been staring blankly for three full minutes..." They were genuinely a bit scared now; ever since they stepped inside, weird things had been happening repeatedly!

"What is there to be afraid of!" Cheng Fei said loudly. "It's just a piece of toast!"

"Toast?"

A house full of question marks appeared over everyone's heads.

Oh~, so it was toast.

No, wait!

Why is there toast under the sofa? And why on earth could Brother Fei lie on the ground and stare at toast under the sofa for three whole minutes!?

"Don't believe it? See for yourselves if you don't believe me." Cheng Fei pointed under the sofa.

His closest underling took the lead, dropped to the ground, and then froze as well.

Seeing this, the others urged each other on, all dropping to the ground, and all froze.

A group of people lay flat by the edge of the sofa, peeking inward through the gap, maintaining this pose with their rear ends sticking out in the air as they fell into a daze for no apparent reason.

"What are you dazing off for! Disgraceful! Get up!" After waiting for a long time and seeing this group acting like fools—which was somewhat too painful to watch—Cheng Fei called them to their feet.

Everyone stood up, looked at each other in dismay, wanted to say something but stopped themselves, and ultimately decided to keep quiet.

"This toast isn't right. How could we possibly stare at it for so long?"

"That's right, could it be... an illusory object?"

This guess made their eyes light up.

Illusory objects were great; illusory objects were valuable. Even the trashiest illusory object could fetch a decent price on the black market.

"If it really is an illusory object... that's just too stupid, a piece of toast that makes people stare at it? Hahaha."

Confirming that it was just toast and might even make them a tidy profit, the atmosphere instantly livened up.

Cheng Fei let out a couple of muffled grunts and crawled down again, preparing to fish the toast out.

However, when he poked his head forward to look, that perfect piece of toast was gone.

Cheng Fei was startled and quickly checked carefully: "It's gone!"

"What?"

They scrambled to search everywhere, but found nothing.

Cheng Fei frowned, reached his hand under the sofa and groped around...

Snap!

"Ah!" A miserable scream escaped his lips.

Everyone looked over in terror and saw Cheng Fei struggling with all his might to pull his hand back out from under the sofa, but it seemed to be gripped tightly by something, completely unable to break free.

The sound of bones being crushed echoed, making one's hair stand on end.

"Save me! Pull me out!" Cheng Fei's voice was extremely wretched, and a more cowardly underling simply turned tail and ran.

But some reliable ones stepped forward and grabbed him, pulling outward.

Crack!

Finally, through united effort, they managed to pull him out.

However, the forearm of the hand Cheng Fei had thrust under the sofa was completely gone.

Cold sweat poured down him. Clutching his severed arm, he screamed continuously as blood gushed like a waterfall. Everyone looked at his state and then back under the sofa, whence blood was now seeping out, accompanied by the faint sound of chewing.

There was a monster under the sofa!

"Run! Run!"

Beep, beep—

A bizarre sound rang out. Someone looked toward the source in response and found that a black-and-gold coffee machine inside the agency had its red indicator light flashing, its structure shifting as a machine gun barrel extended from within.

Rat-tat-tat!

Several people were hit and fell to the ground on the spot, unable to get up. The rest cared about nothing else, scrambling and crawling as they fled the Zero-One Agency in a panic.

Cheng Fei was left behind as the last person on the scene. He couldn't move; his consciousness was blurred by agonizing pain, and blood loss made his vision turn black.

Under these circumstances, he heard footsteps.

He saw a pair of legs emerge from the shadow nearby and stop beside him.

With incredulous effort, he looked up and saw a hazy figure emanating a heavy black aura, its face nothing more than a pitch-black vortex from which black fluid trickled outward.

This figure was holding the cup of coffee seen earlier on the coffee table, savoring it slowly. Even though Cheng Fei couldn't see its face, he could sense the mockery emanating from that vortex.

This... this is...

A hallucination.

"Oh?" A severely distorted voice, like that of an old, fuzzy radio, sounded somewhat surprised. "You can see me?"

I can't.

Cheng Fei desperately wanted to say this, but he no longer had the mental strength to do so.

He could only stare in terror at that bottomless black vortex. Whether due to his injuries or sheer terror, he was powerless to make any response. On a night of thick fog, nothing awaited him but soul-crushing despair.

The hallucination had locked onto him.

"It seems you do have some 'talent' after all, though a bit shabby. Whatever, it'll do."

With those words falling silent.

Cheng Fei's body went limp and he collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness entirely.

The toast dragged the severed arm out from under the sofa, wriggling its backside. Finishing the final gulp of its swallow, the limp palm still hung outside, and after a few more chews, it swallowed it whole.

"Awooo!" Daring to call Lord Perfect Toast stupid—truly tired of living!

"Awooo?"

Wait, where is Anti-Boss?

The toast looked around, temporarily failing to find Zheng Fan's figure.

Suddenly, Cheng Fei's body moved.

The toast turned alert.

He can still move after that?

Under the light shining from the streetlamp outside, a shadow gradually lengthened. There was only one, yet its silhouette was completely different from Cheng Fei's. On that face stained with a mixture of sweat and tears, tear-stain-like black patterns spread, and finally, a pair of grayish-white eyes snapped open.

"A body completely belonging to me..." "Cheng Fei" smiled, the voice emerging from his mouth likewise singular—it was Zheng Fan's voice.

The toast watched this scene in shock.

Watching "Cheng Fan" slowly crawl up from the ground, like some terrifying entity completely breaking free from its cage to gain liberation, about to bring endless...

Thud!

The "Demon King's" body suddenly went limp and slipped, crashing flat onto the floor with a solid thud.

"Crap! What kind of trashy body is this! I can't muster any strength at all! You're the absolute worst host I've ever possessed!"

And then came the sound of Zheng Fan, flush against the floor with his face buried in the wood, cursing furiously in utter exasperation.

The toast: "..."

Fine, it was still the same old Anti-Boss it knew.