After Picking Up the Yandere Villain, the Cannon Fodder Just Wants to Save Himself

Xu Chi, an ordinary office worker from a peaceful modern world, wakes up in a rain-soaked alley with a splitting headache and fragmented memories. Beside him lies a unconscious, strikingly beautiful young man. As Xu Chi approaches, a cacophony of violent voices screams in his mind, urging him to kill the stranger. Repulsed by the urge, Xu Chi shouts at the voices, which abruptly silence. He discovers the boy is You Chumu, the primary antagonist of the urban superpower manga he once heard referenced by a coworker. You Chumu is a superpower experimental subject, a yandere villain with an IQ of 220 who escaped a brutal laboratory after enduring years of physical and mental torture. In the original story, You Chumu kills Xu Chi within the first chapter. Panicked by this realization, Xu Chi carries the boy to his ninth-floor apartment, unaware that his fate is already sealed in the narrative.

Inside the apartment, Xu Chi tends to You Chumu’s minor injuries and changes his clothes. When You Chumu awakens, he displays an innocent, harmless demeanor, addressing Xu Chi as "Brother." However, his eyes reveal a chilling indifference, treating Xu Chi like an object rather than a human. Xu Chi, terrified but forced to maintain composure, attempts to send You Chumu to the local management office to find his parents. During this process, he learns that You Chumu suffers from amnesia, having no memory of his past or identity. Xu Chi hopes this means the villain’s murderous trajectory can be altered, but he remains acutely aware that You Chumu is a sociopath who views killing as a trivial solution to problems. The journey to the management office is fraught with tension, as You Chumu clings to Xu Chi’s sleeve, asking naive questions about family and food, highlighting the stark contrast between his innocent appearance and his monstrous nature.

At the management office, the situation deteriorates when an officer mentions an S-rank superpowered individual with vision abilities who can read memories to identify You Chumu’s parents. Xu Chi realizes that if You Chumu’s memories are accessed, his identity as an escaped experimental subject will be exposed, leading to his re-capture or immediate death. Desperate to protect You Chumu from this fate, Xu Chi fabricates excuses to delay the process, eventually convincing the officer to let him take You Chumu home while waiting for the superpowered individual’s return. On the way back, Xu Chi instinctively subdues a thief who stole a child’s cotton candy, displaying physical abilities far beyond those of an ordinary person. This incident catches the attention of bystanders and reveals that Xu Chi’s body may possess latent potential, though he attributes it to luck and leverage.

Back at the apartment, Xu Chi’s life becomes a precarious balancing act. He must care for You Chumu, who mimics his every move and watches him with obsessive intensity, while trying to avoid the plot points that lead to his death. The tension peaks when Xu Chi receives a phone call from his workplace, triggering a flood of the original host’s memories. He discovers that he is not merely a cannon fodder extra but a hidden assassin working for the same national research organization that created You Chumu. The original Xu Chi had been sent to kill You Chumu the night he escaped, and the blow to You Chumu’s head in the alley was an assassination attempt. This revelation transforms the dynamic: Xu Chi is both the victim destined to die and the executioner who failed. Now, he must navigate a world where he is hunted by his own organization while living with the very target he was meant to eliminate. The story shifts from a simple survival horror to a complex struggle where Xu Chi must use his knowledge of the plot and his hidden assassin skills to survive You Chumu’s madness and the dangers of the superpowered underworld.

As Xu Chi returns to his job at the VR technology company, he encounters hostility from colleagues and a domineering manager. Using his assassin’s discipline and the original host’s suppressed confidence, he asserts dominance, shocking those who previously bullied him. Meanwhile, You Chumu remains at home, exploring the concept of domesticity with a disturbing curiosity. He experiments with black fire and watches Xu Chi’s every action, his affection growing more possessive and unstable. The narrative establishes a fragile coexistence where Xu Chi is trapped in a gilded cage with a monster who is beginning to view him as his only anchor in a chaotic world. The core conflict centers on Xu Chi’s attempt to rewrite his destiny, not by killing You Chumu, but by keeping him alive and sane long enough to escape the city and the organization that created them both.