Hey! The Criminal Assistance System Can Even Be Used Like This? 40

Xu Zhizhi got up in the morning and casually opened the Criminal Assistance System interface, only to discover that it had undergone an upgrade since early yesterday morning.

According to the pop-up notification on the interface, the upgrade would take twelve hours, updating the intelligent assistance along with some criminal skills. Xu Zhizhi had previously noted that there were only fourteen types of criminal skills; she wondered what new skills might be added this time.

Xu Zhizhi felt a little excited, but not too much, because this thing was bound to bring continuous trouble. The intelligent assistance too—was it somehow related to the mechanical voice that had been chirping in her mind before? It seemed that the connection didn’t last long, and the entity vanished without a trace, leaving Xu Zhizhi puzzled for several days. Now she thought it might have been a trial feature.

Besides acting, she was just watching this system, her eyes filled with curiosity. Of course, it was merely curiosity; even if there were updates, she couldn’t afford to redeem them. Furthermore, after the last incident, she had a bit of PTSD. The trouble caused by counterfeiting was considerable, so she needed to learn to be cautious.

For some reason, as she sat on the small horse (a type of children’s rocking horse), she noticed several seniors casting her teasing glances. Xu Zhizhi looked over, about to ask, when Lin Yu rushed over, phone in hand.

“Zhizhi, you’ve made the trending searches again!” Lin Yu pointed to the trending entry #Post-00s Actor Xu Zhizhi# on her phone.

Xu Zhizhi was stunned, tilting her head to look at Lin Yu. “This entry? There are so many post-00s actors, why am I on it?”

“Take a closer look!” Lin Yu opened the entry, where the analysis was displayed, and the related video was glaringly from “Legal Online.”

Xu Zhizhi stared at her blurred-out image, and her eyes widened in shock as she pointed at the video. “They can recognize me like this?”

So much for the anonymity her blurring was supposed to provide.

She didn’t want this matter to become known, but it seemed that her blurring only piqued the audience’s curiosity, pushing the issue’s heat even higher. Xu Zhizhi was speechless, feeling overwhelmed.

“And there are more details! This is actually a good thing—being criticized for playing a villain connects easily with the real world. My sister Yun and I were worried you might also get attacked online for no reason. But now, thanks to ‘Legal Online’ backing you, you don’t have to worry about being bullied in the three-dimensional world!” Lin Yu said, smiling.

This was a concern many actors faced when playing antagonists; characters like scumbags or scheming mistresses often attracted backlash, and it even reflected poorly on the actors. Some people publicly lashed out on Weibo, and there were even instances that escalated offline.

They portrayed villains so convincingly that some believed the actors were like that in reality, which troubled many of them. Yun Ziwei was particularly worried about this point. When “Black Crow” was released, Xu Zhizhi could easily incur public criticism. Being a serial killer, such characters were the most terrifying, and the fear turned into anger toward the actor, as audiences would sympathize with the victims.

In the end, the audience redirected their anger toward the actors. But that’s not the case now; at least, the probability greatly decreased. The audience of “Legal Online” was larger than that of a TV series. Everyone knew Xu Zhizhi was a good person who outsmarted criminals, recognized officially as a good person.

Therefore, those who cursed her previously would be biased. This would significantly decrease the amount of backlash she would receive, and she might even be praised for her acting, renowned for being able to outsmart a murderer.

Listening to Lin Yu, Xu Zhizhi nodded in agreement. This could be considered serendipity, turning a bad situation into a good one. Xu Zhizhi realized why the others were smiling at her—it was because they were aware of this situation.

Sister Yun, fearing Xu Zhizhi might be busy, messaged her to give the good news. Xu Zhizhi replied, then immersed herself back into her acting.

However, she didn’t expect that just as she put down her phone and started filming, a wave of skeptical comments erupted beneath those videos.

They questioned the authenticity of the interview and whether Xu Zhizhi was using this incident for publicity.

“This can’t be serious; how could you believe such an outrageous thing?”

“This Xu Zhizhi looks too much like a murderer; she must not be a good person—maybe she deceived them all.”

“A marketing ploy, how could she possibly do such a thing?”

The netizens, witnessing these comments flooding the section, were immediately infuriated.

Anyone could see that this incident was impossible to fabricate! Were these commenters out of their minds? Most of them were fans of “Legal Online,” a program that had never had scandals; it was impossible for it to collaborate with an actor for marketing!

Thus, a verbal battle was imminent. Passersby were filled with confusion, but they believed this incident was genuine.

“‘Legal Online’ is quite authoritative, and you can’t just use this kind of thing for marketing. I see that those on the other side are just trolls.”

“Although it’s outrageous, I believe it’s real. Reality is often this absurd, and the officials wouldn’t collude with a small actor.”

“The little girl is just good at acting; who has she offended, and she has also done a good deed!”

Passersby, refusing to be outdone, started to respond rationally.

With waves of bystanders and fans from both the program and Xu Zhizhi joining in, the opposing side began to lose ground.

Eventually, a livestream host joined in, revealing that many of those accounts were trolls, making everyone suddenly realize the truth.

This was just a small actor getting in the way of others! No wonder their arguments lacked logic.

Some righteous individuals continued to dig deeper, only to uncover that these trolls were respectively hired by Xu Zhizhi’s former company. The motive was simple: they couldn’t stand Xu Zhizhi rising to fame and sought to suppress her.

This internet feud ignited, with more onlookers digging into an audio incident from months ago involving a company called Dream Morning, notorious for its sloppy handling of issues. At the time, Xu Zhizhi had only gained a little fame, and the unfairly equal treatment enraged many.

Driven by the desire to fight for a good person, netizens organized to swarm Dream Morning’s official account, while simultaneously flooding Xu Zhizhi’s Weibo to bury the troll comments and delete them.

Then it escalated to protecting “Legal Online,” not allowing some people to act recklessly and tarnish reputations through their troll army.

Dream Morning was caught off-guard; they thought no one would trace this back to them.

Unexpectedly, netizens exposed everything, unearthing recording events and revealing the company’s internal financial chaos and tax evasion cases.

This was all thanks to Yun Ziwei’s revelations; Dream Morning had previously plotted to misreport taxes for Xu Zhizhi, but Yun Ziwei insisted they report accurately.

Now that they were hiring trolls to defame Xu Zhizhi, Yun Ziwei could no longer take it and directly exposed it via marketing channels.

They would just wait for the taxation department to check them out for their criminal activity!

Dream Morning, as expected, released a statement. Yet, it bore no hint of remorse, instead downplaying the situation and mocking netizens as a mob.

This ignited another trending topic, shooting straight to number one, with netizens flooding Weibo with their anger.

Unfortunately, after reviewing the comments for too long, they couldn’t select a single one.

When Xu Zhizhi heard about this, she was left speechless.

She had never considered leveraging others’ power to go against Dream Morning; she had planned to take revenge for Bai Qing and the original body herself.

She didn’t expect that just a few hours of not checking her phone and focusing on the shoot could lead to such a turn of events.

She took out her phone, logged into her Weibo, and directly posted three question marks.

Then she added a text: “The candidate for eating melons who eats the latest?! What a surprise.”

Finally, she added a series of shocked emojis.

Netizens couldn’t stop laughing; her expression and reaction were too genuine.

No one doubted that Xu Zhizhi was putting on an act, as she had always been like this—tearing things apart herself, be it recordings or anything else.

She never burdened her fans with her personal issues.

The recording incident was no different; she had personally torn apart her agent.

Nonetheless, the outcome was quite satisfying; Dream Morning received a warning for tax evasion.

Although it couldn’t cause serious damage, several artists under them changed agencies, taking with them many promising talents.

Without these, Dream Morning was left as just an empty shell.

Bai Qing and Wen Yu sought new agencies, only to discover that the entire entertainment industry was aware of their scandal.

Even Sheng Xing Entertainment, whom Bai Qing tried to curry favor with, didn’t dare associate with them, as there was nothing to gain from such a connection.

Even more unexpectedly, the duo’s plans to find new agencies were discovered by Dream Morning Entertainment; one was dismissed, and the other was directly put on hold.

Thus, both of them faded away from the entertainment scene.

But that’s a story for another time.

Xu Zhizhi never foresaw this; she watched her Weibo followers surge, feeling somewhat uneasy.

She sensed that she hadn’t done anything remarkable yet had garnered so much attention, leaving her feeling a bit guilty.

Just as she felt anxious, a mechanical voice echoed in her mind.

[ Ding, the Criminal Assistance System has completed the upgrade. ]

[ Loading host information and skills. ]

[ Loading complete… ]

[ Now issuing the update gift package. Please check it out, host. ]

Xu Zhizhi was taken aback; this voice was identical to the mechanical one that tempted her to bind to the Criminal System initially.

It seemed her suspicions were correct; this might have indeed been a trial period.

Update gift package?

Xu Zhizhi felt a sense of playing a game—there was a newbie gift pack before, where she had drawn three types of trials.

Now, it was an update gift pack; she didn’t know what might be hidden inside.

Pretending to play on her phone, she subtly adjusted her position and then reached out to curiously click on the update gift pack.

This gift pack had some dark patterns compared to before, still in a black box, giving off an ominous aura.

Soon, two gleaming objects appeared as the box shook.

A pop-up message appeared just in time.

[ Unlock skill experience * 30 times. ]

[ Disguise skill * 10 times. ]

Xu Zhizhi looked at the numbers behind, noting that this item also triggered a limited number of uses.

However, she hadn’t used these two skills before.

But what puzzled her was: did disguise also count as a criminal skill?

Then Xu Zhizhi shook her head. Strictly speaking, disguise wasn’t a criminal skill.

One could argue that the skills in this system’s store weren’t necessarily criminal skills.

The criterion for inclusion should have been that criminals frequently used such skills, hence their incorporation into the system.

For example, unlocking; besides legitimate individuals, many would dabble in petty theft.

Disguises likely fell into this category, as besides a specific group that genuinely needed it, most used it for criminal purposes.

Learning to disguise could confuse investigators, allowing for an escape.

Thinking of this, Xu Zhizhi saw some rationale behind it.

Then she continued to click into the system store. The blue transparent operation board deepened slightly, and the interface also underwent a complete upgrade.

For instance, the bottom displayed the skills already acquired for click-and-use, and the Crime Simulator was prominently added.

At the center was the criminal skill marketplace; Xu Zhizhi scrolled down to see about a dozen more skills added.

From making bombs to computer skills, plus ledger falsification and anesthetic creation, etc., each with “permanent version” noted in parentheses.

Xu Zhizhi could even see the prices displayed below, which was more advanced than before, where one could only see prices after entering.

[ Of course, the system has upgraded intelligently and hopes the host will accumulate more Malice Values. ]

A peculiar mechanical voice, bridging male and female, rang in Xu Zhizhi’s mind.

Xu Zhizhi fell silent for a moment and asked in her mind, “So, you’re trying to cultivate the perfect criminal?”

A perfect criminal who manipulates the authorities at their whim.

[ The purpose of the Criminal Assistance System is exactly that; it’s great that the host can grasp this! ]

The mechanical voice’s tone rose, indicating it had basic emotional expression.

Xu Zhizhi was left speechless again; she was grateful she had bound herself to the system; otherwise, who knows what might have happened!

At that moment, Lin Yu patted Xu Zhizhi’s shoulder, “Zhizhi, go get ready!”

“Okay!” Xu Zhizhi replied before her mind could catch up.

Then, silently concluding, “Mainly, I’m just lucky to have such a role. If I had bound to something with extreme monetary deprivation, who knows if I would have walked the path the system set.”

Lin Yu looked at Xu Zhizhi, whose gaze had gone blank, bearing a playful yet helpless smile.

Watching as Xu Zhizhi regained her focus, she promptly stood up to mentally prepare herself.

Standing opposite the ready extras, Xu Zhizhi instantly got into character.

She rushed against the current, weaving through the bustling crowd.

Among them were children, adults, the elderly—each face wore a warm smile through the morning light, filled with dreams of the future.

When Xu Zhizhi was bumped into, her body instinctively shifted aside as she glimpsed a girl’s vibrant smile.

The girl carried a backpack and wore a school uniform.

In that daze, Xu Zhizhi saw a reflection of her younger self in the girl.

She finally realized she was only twenty; if things were different, she might be in university like any other girl.

Instead of her current state—having killed so many, the acts she performed had irrevocably sealed her fate.

She looked at the police officers waiting in front of her, slowly taking steps forward.

Her expression remained calm as she extended her hands, her gaze like a stagnant pool of dead water, no longer with any flicker of emotion.

“Am I going to get the death penalty?” she asked.

The police looked at her, “You will receive a fair trial; wait patiently!”

“Alright,” a smile crept onto her lips.

At that moment, sunlight streamed down, illuminating Du Yuyuan’s head, making her look up at the rare sunny weather.

Under softly colored brows and eyes, faint flush adorned her cheeks, exuding a fragile beauty.

It seemed she was thinking that since entering that factory, she had never felt such sunlight.

“This weather is really nice,” she said slowly.

After saying that, she stepped into the police car without a hint of reluctance.

Just at that moment, a long-anticipated tear slowly slipped from her eyes, vanishing into her collar.

As the police car slowly drove away, Du Yuyuan’s antagonist scenes wrapped up with a countdown.

Following up, she filmed some additional shots, and she would be entirely done.

Everyone on set smiled; that past scene had been heavy, and the atmosphere was palpable.

Now that the filming was finally over, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Yu’s eyes were red, filled with tears as she focused on Xu Zhizhi playing Du Yuyuan.

Perhaps Xu Zhizhi’s portrayal was too convincing, or perhaps she had read the script too much, but Lin Yu felt there truly existed a villain who was both beautiful and tragic, who stepped into ruin under the whim of fate.

“Wuwuwu… she’s so miserable, being used by others only to end up taking the blame!” Lin Yu hugged Xu Zhizhi, starting to sob.

Xu Zhizhi snapped from her acting state, reached out to pat her assistant’s head, “Stop crying, it’s okay. It’s all over now.”

Lin Yu buried her face into Xu Zhizhi, crying even harder at her words.

Although others didn’t show it as much, their expressions still carried sympathy.

With that final scene, they felt Du Yuyuan had come to life.

Director Zhou’s face was tight, but his hands’ continuous movements betrayed his emotions.

He was satisfied with Xu Zhizhi’s performance.

After Xu Zhizhi finished her additional footage, the crew began to wrap up one by one.

Finally, after the male lead completed his scenes, almost three months of filming for the crime thriller “Deception” concluded.

Editing and post-production already went online, expecting a release during the winter break.

It was tight, but they couldn’t launch during the Spring Festival; crime thrillers were not popular during a festive, family-oriented season.

Ultimately, everyone celebrated the completion with a wrap party, after which everyone returned to their respective paths, becoming part of the broader entertainment circle.

Director Zhou, for once, drank a couple of glasses, first to thank everyone for their diligent contributions, and second, to thank Xu Zhizhi for preventing this project from flopping.

At this time, everyone learned that this project had no listed original author.

Initially thought to be scripted by the writer, it turned out Director Zhou had personally penned the original story.

This story was his obsession.

Now that filming was completely done, Director Zhou had fulfilled his long-held wish.

Everyone felt a mix of emotions, with some reluctance and reflections.

Eventually, it all blended into their glasses as they drank until slightly tipsy.

Xu Zhizhi’s cheeks flushed slightly as Lin Yu helped her out of the car, her whole being engulfed in a hazy feeling of intoxication.

Just as Xu Zhizhi was about to return to her room to sleep, a youthful girl, appearing only seventeen or eighteen, intercepted her.

Accompanying this girl were police officers stationed there, wary of a potential kidnapping attempt against Xu Zhizhi.

Upon their appearance, they blocked the girl from approaching Xu Zhizhi.

The girl looked at the two police officers, her gaze directed at Xu Zhizhi.

“Can we talk? I’m Wei Sheng’s daughter!” she blurted out, knowing that if she didn’t speak now, she might never have another chance, her tone slightly sharp.

Xu Zhizhi, slightly dazed from alcohol, looked up at the girl, “Wei Sheng’s daughter?”

Originally, Xu Zhizhi didn’t react, but when the key term was mentioned, her attention was instantly drawn to the girl.

The police had no authority to take someone away indiscriminately or even to expel them, so they could only watch the girl cautiously.

They were wary of any revenge she might seek against Xu Zhizhi that could result in chaos.

“You should leave; we don’t want to see you. What’s there to talk about?” Lin Yu said darkly; Wei Sheng’s daughter couldn’t be anything good.

What could the girl want from Xu Zhizhi? She wasn’t the one to sign a release.

But the girl persisted, her eyes carrying a hint of vulnerability, “I just want to know if my father really is that despicable… In my eyes, he was always… a good person, a good father.”

Xu Zhizhi suddenly became more alert, her eyes complexly studying the girl before her.

Qin Su had mentioned that Wei Sheng described methods of transferring assets entirely to his daughter.

This way, even if he got into trouble, she might manage to escape the law.

The situation reminded her of a pair of parents who siphoned off many salaries for their daughter to live abroad, endlessly enjoying life on social media.

Sucking the lifeblood of countless families to forge her beautiful existence.

“Well… let’s talk then!” It was her last day in the Southern City.

The two police officers stood guard on either side of the girl, and they all sat at a restaurant.

Xu Zhizhi took a seat and slowly said, “What do you want to know? Whether your father is wronged?”

Her words struck directly at the heart of what the girl wished to know, she bit her lip, nodding slowly.

“I want to know, is my father really like the rumors outside suggest? I’ve only known him as someone in the antique business; I had no idea he was involved in crime…” Tears brimmed in the girl’s eyes as she looked pitiably at Xu Zhizhi.

At the side, Lin Yu squeezed Xu Zhizhi’s arm, feeling a flicker of sympathy for the girl.

To grow up thinking your father was a good man only to discover later that he wasn’t.

Now, with him imprisoned, the daughter sought to uncover the true nature of her father.

Xu Zhizhi raised an arm to support her head, leaning sideways against the back of the single sofa; her head felt a bit dizzy and throbbing, this made it somewhat better.

After composing herself, she finally faced the girl again, her eyelashes gently drooping, concealing the expression within her dark eyes as she spoke slowly.

“Actually, I don’t know either; the police will handle things on their end; they will act based on evidence.”

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