"Mr. Clarke, can you help me get rid of the tattoo on my butt?"

The young man asks me for help with red-rimmed eyes.

A lot of people have specifically requested me to tattoo something on their body. Honestly, this is the first time I've received a request to remove a tattoo from one's butt.

He grits his teeth, as though he has finally made up his mind.

"I just found out that my girlfriend has a husband! I want to break up with her, so I must get rid of the tattoo!"

I nod in response. "Strip down and let me see the area and the mass covered."

The man hesitates for a moment before turning his back on me and slowly taking off his pants. As soon as his right buttcheek is revealed, I feel my breath getting hitched in my throat.

My wife, Annie Sylvester's face is actually tattooed on that area.

A sharp pain twisted through my chest without warning. Before I could even process it, the door to the procedure room was slammed open with a loud bang.

My wife, Annie Sylvester, rushed in, bringing a cold chill with her. "I won't let you do it, Hudson!"

When she saw me, she stiffened for a split second. Panic crossed her eyes, but it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. She composed herself, her gaze sliding past me as if I weren't even there, and hurried straight to Hudson Brown—my client.

She wrapped her arms around him, her voice softer than I had ever heard it. "Hey, why did you come here? Don't do this. It'll hurt if you go through with it. I can't bear to see you suffer."

Hudson's body went rigid. He pushed Annie away, tears falling as his voice broke. "You lied to me! You're a married woman, and I don't want to be a homewrecker!"

"I didn't lie to you!" she shot back, grabbing his hand with a pleading desperation that felt completely foreign to me. "There's nothing left between my husband and me. We're as good as divorced!"

And yet, just this morning before she left, she had held me close and showered me with kisses. Now, to calm her young lover, she was denying three years of marriage to my face.

Hudson shook her hand off, yelling, "No, I won't accept this! Not unless you divorce him right now!"

"Okay, okay! I promise!" Annie blurted out. She cupped his face, frantically trying to soothe him. "I'll talk to him about a divorce right away. Just don't make a scene here, okay? Let's go home."

He continued to sob, letting her coax him into his clothes as he half-resisted, half-yielded. Eventually, she took his hand and led him out.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Annie never looked at me again, treating me as if I were nothing more than a stranger. I stood there, rooted to the spot, not knowing what to feel.

Then, in the very next second, the electronic voice I had been waiting three years for finally rang out.

[Alert: You have encountered a Top-Tier Betrayal. The Three-Day Liberation system is now activated. The countdown has begun!]

Wonderful. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could finally go home.

I was truly, completely sick of this world.

That night, Annie came home past midnight, carrying the scent of another man's cologne on her. She pressed herself against me, her hands wandering over my body as if nothing atrocious had happened that afternoon.

A wave of nausea rose from my stomach. I grabbed her wrist and asked coldly, "Didn't you want a divorce? When is it happening?"

Annie paused, then let out a soft, dismissive laugh. "What, are you jealous? It was just for show—a little bit of fun. Why are you taking it so seriously?"

I shook her hand off. "Then leave me out of your fun. I'm done."

Her voice shot up an octave. "You're done? Luther, have I been too nice to you? You used to tolerate this just fine. Why the sudden change?"

That was because I no longer had to.

Faced with my silence, Annie softened her tone. "Alright, let's stop fighting. I promise you, Hudson will be the last one. I'll come back once I get bored. We'll settle down, have a kid, and live happily ever after. Cool?"

Wow. How shameless could she be? Who would even talk like that?

A harsh car horn suddenly blared from the street below. Annie's expression shifted instantly. She didn't even take the time to change out of her robe before snatching up her phone and hurrying downstairs.

"Alright, alright… I'm coming…" I heard her murmur into the receiver.

I stood by the second-floor window and watched her sprint out of the villa, ducking as she slipped into a flashy red Ferrari.

The last trace of attachment I held for her vanished the moment I looked away.

The next day, I went straight to the tattoo studio. I gathered all the design sketches I had worked on over the years and stacked them neatly on my senior apprentice's desk.

"From now on, Zach, you'll be running the studio."

Zach Young had been with me for five years—long enough to handle things on his own. He looked at me, his eyes reddening. "Where are you going, Mr. Clarke?"

"Just taking a break for a while," I said, patting his shoulder. I didn't offer further explanation.

The wind chime at the door jingled. Hudson was back.

The moment he stepped inside, he dropped to his knees in front of me. "Luther, please remove the tattoo for me."

He tilted his head up, his young, handsome face full of desperation. "She held me all night, crying, saying this tattoo is her personal mark. She begged me on her knees not to remove it…"

His voice choked, and his hand subconsciously brushed his hip. "But every time I remember she has a husband, I feel like a homewrecker! I must get it removed before I can look at myself in the mirror again!"

I couldn't tell if Hudson was acting or genuinely trying to cut ties with Annie. Regardless, it was clear she loved him. Annie had always been obsessed with her career, rarely displaying her feelings.

I remembered the time I had an asthma attack and nearly died in our bed; she had been indifferent, telling me to "just drink some warm water" before hanging up.

Now, all her patience, tenderness, and even her humility were being gifted to another man.

Honestly, I felt nothing. I was already numb from all the pain.

I was about to turn Hudson down when the system's voice rang out again.

[Alert: This is a mandatory quest. You must accept."

I closed my eyes, knowing there was no way to escape. "Fine. Get up."

I led Hudson into the procedure room and focused entirely on the work, removing the ink bit by bit. If I had to admit, he had excellent skin, and he healed fast. By the time I finished, there was almost no trace of Annie, aside from some slight redness and swelling.

"All done," I said, setting the tools down. "Don't get it wet for three days, and apply the ointment on schedule."

Hudson thanked me profusely and left.

I thought that would be the end of today's drama, but the real climax came in the dead of night. I was in the middle of a deep sleep when a sharp, stinging pain slapped across my face, jolting me awake.

Annie stood over the bed, her face like a mask of ice. "You disgust me, Luther."

Before I could even process Annie's words, two bodyguards burst in, yanked the covers off me, and hauled me upright.

"Let go of me!" I shouted, struggling with everything I had. "What the hell are you doing, Annie?"

Annie simply cast a cold, piercing look at me and ordered, "Take him away."

In the dead of winter, nearly bare-chested, I was dragged out of the villa like a discarded carpet and shoved into a car. The vehicle sped through the night until it pulled up at the city's most expensive private hospital.

Inside a VIP suite, Hudson lay weakly on the bed, hooked up to an IV. The moment he saw me, his eyes grew red and teary. "Annie, he did this on purpose! He's jealous of me! The laser settings were too high! He burned my skin!"

He sobbed. "Now, the doctor says my wound is seriously infected… Will I be scarred forever?"

Annie held him close, her eyes cutting into me as if I were a monster. "You've gone too far, Luther!"

I suppressed the rising nausea in my chest and bit back coldly, "All the equipment I used was thoroughly sterilized, and the laser settings adhered to protocol. There is no way the removal caused that. He's framing me."

Annie knew my character well enough that a flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes. Hudson noticed it instantly. He snatched the IV bottle from the stand and hurled it at me.

A dull thud echoed through the room. The glass bottle hit me squarely between the eyes. Stars exploded in my vision, and blood instantly smeared across my face.

Annie gasped and lunged to Hudson's side, anxiously checking his hand. "Are you crazy? You could've hurt yourself!"

He cried even harder, shoving her away. "And you're still defending him! I knew you cared about him! Annie, we're done! I'm breaking up with you now!"

He bellowed as he swung his legs off the bed, making a show of trying to storm out.

"Alright, enough!" Annie cooed, clutching him tightly and whispering in his ear, "I'll make this right, okay? Stop being mad."

She patted Hudson's back soothingly, then turned to me, speaking as if I were her sworn enemy. "As you can see, he's devastated. You'll have to take the hit this time, Luther."

With that, she gestured to the bodyguards outside. "Break his right hand. Consider it an apology to Hudson."

My eyes snapped wide. I was known in the industry as a master tattoo artist. By giving that order, Annie was destroying my entire livelihood.

Two bodyguards stepped forward, one on each side, pinning me in place. I struggled and shouted with all my strength, but it was futile. One of them ultimately seized my right wrist.

From the hospital bed, Hudson shot me a triumphant look.

"No… N-No…"

My voice trembled with terror, but no one cared. A second later, a searing pain erupted from my wrist. The sound of a bone snapping echoed through the quiet room.

My right hand hung limply at an unnatural angle. Agony blurred my vision. My body went into spasms until I could no longer hold myself up. The next thing I knew, I collapsed onto the cold floor.

The system's voice arrived at the perfect moment.

[Primary Torture Quest: Bone-Shattering Agony—Completed. Countdown: 23:58:10]

"Hang in there, Luther," the system added. "Everything ends tomorrow."

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I was almost at the end.

Seeing the extent of my pain, Annie finally showed a flicker of impatience. She frowned and waved her hand dismissively. "Alright, that's enough. Take him next door to get it bandaged. Wouldn't want him to die here."

The bodyguards obeyed, hoisting me up. However, once we reached a blind spot for the surveillance cameras, their expressions darkened. Instead of the clinic, they dragged me toward a storage room in the basement parking lot.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked anxiously.

Seeing the fear on my face, they grinned maliciously. "You'll find out soon enough."