Chapter 1

When I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting in front of my computer. On the screen was the Wi-Fi name I had just changed—Invincible Wall-Piercing Baby Killer.

The memory of working myself to death on that construction site from my previous life came crashing back like a knife through my skull. I jerked in my chair and lunged for the keyboard on instinct.

My fingers flew across the keys as I frantically changed the network name to "Unit 402".

I hit Enter repeatedly until the system confirmed the change. Only then did I slump back in my chair and let out a long breath.

Now that I had changed the ridiculous Wi-Fi name in time, that family would have no reason to come after me.

The next second, someone pounded on my door. It wasn't knocking, but pounding. Heavy fists slammed against the metal door one after another, each thud sounding like a call from hell.

Before I could even get up, I heard the pregnant woman next door, Lynette Miller, wailing from the hallway. "Open up! Open up right now!"

I looked through the peephole. Lynette, pregnant with triplets, stood outside clutching her stomach, her face ghostly pale. Her husband, David Butcher, was beside her.

Built like a tank, he owned the neighborhood barbecue stand. His arm alone was thicker than my thigh. His bloodshot eyes always looked ready to kill.

"That Wi-Fi name you changed!" Lynette shrieked, gripping her belly, her voice trembling with panic. "Don't you know it'll make me miscarry? Why did you have to change it to that? My babies… My babies…"

Instinctively, I turned to look at my computer screen. The Wi-Fi name in the status bar was still there, plain as day—Invincible Wall-Piercing Baby Killer.

My mind went blank. I had clearly changed it.

The system had confirmed the update was successful. The router's admin page showed the current name as "Unit 402", but the network in the status bar still displayed those same accursed words.

"I changed it!" I shouted through the door. "The system says it's been changed! I don't know why it's still showing up as that!"

"Bullshit!" David roared, slamming his fist into the door so hard the entire thing rattled. "If anything happens to our babies, I'll make you pay with your life!"

I rushed back to my computer, opened the router settings again, typed in "Unit 402" one more time, and hit Enter. It said the modification was successful.

I refreshed the status bar, yet somehow, the Wi-Fi name still read "Invincible Wall-Piercing Baby Killer".

Outside, Lynette let out another bloodcurdling scream. The cry pierced through the door, the walls, and my body, scraping against my bones like a dull blade.

My hands froze over the keyboard. Cold sweat instantly soaked through my back.

I counted in my head. I had confirmed the change once, and she had screamed once. Swallowing hard, I gritted my teeth and clicked Confirm again.

Then came another scream, sharper than the first. Soon, it dissolved into a string of agonized moans and desperate sobbing.

"What the hell are you doing?" David barked, pounding on the door like a madman. "You're still changing it! You're fucking doing it again! Are you trying to torture my wife to death?"

I panicked, truly. Like a man possessed, I kept changing the network name, typing it in and hitting Confirm over and over.

Every single time, the system insisted the change had gone through. Every single time, the status bar refused to budge.

In the end, I changed it more than a dozen times. Outside, Lynette had also screamed more than a dozen times.

Each scream was weaker than the last. By the end, they were barely audible, fading into faint moans that sounded like her life was slipping away.

The hallway had descended into chaos. Alerted by the screams, the neighbors poured out of their apartments. Some screamed, some called an ambulance, and some pounded on my door.

Over all the noise, David's furious bellow drowned out everything else. "Everyone, look at what that bastard's done! He changed his Wi-Fi to some baby-killing name, and my wife is standing right here.

"Every time he changes it, she screams in pain! There's blood all over the floor! At this rate, it'll be four lives lost in one go! Does this monster have even a shred of humanity?"

"Open up!" one of the neighbors yelled, joining in. "What kind of man hides like a coward? Open the door!"

"How could you do this to her and still cower in there?" another shouted. "Are you even a man?"

I stared at that damned Wi-Fi name on my screen, my fingers hovering over the keyboard with full-blown hesitation. In the end, I yanked the power cord out of the router, flipped the cheap thing upside down, and slammed it onto my desk.

That had to kill the signal.

Suddenly, my phone lit up. Someone in the neighborhood group chat had posted a screenshot. It showed the list of available Wi-Fi networks. Then there it was, plain as day—Invincible Wall-Piercing Baby Killer.

The signal was at full strength. I looked down, the router's power cord still in my hand, the unplugged adapter swinging by my feet.

Immediately, I snapped a photo of the unplugged router and posted it in the group. I wrote, "The router's unplugged, yet the Wi-Fi is still there."

The group chat exploded.

"What the hell? It's still broadcasting after you unplugged it?"

"Paranormal activity?"

"Paranormal or not, the pregnant woman's dying out there. Get your ass outside!"

I didn't move. Instead, I crouched beside the front door, gripping the unplugged power cord.

Outside, Lynette's moans grew weaker by the second. David's furious screams echoed down the hallway, accompanied by the neighbors' accusations. Then, in the distance, I heard the wail of an ambulance.