Free Web Novel“I’m honestly curious what life did to you to turn you into such a—” Bai Six said icily, “—slightly annoying version of yourself.” freёwebnoѵel.com
“You’ve been lying to me from the very beginning. You knew I liked money. You knew what kind of people would pique my curiosity and make me want to approach them. You understood my motives and my entire psychological framework, and you used that to keep enticing me into working for you without holding anything back.”
“And just now, you deliberately let me realize that I’m your sub-identity line, didn’t you? All so that after I successfully escape the welfare home, I’ll still keep in contact with you.”
“You need to make sure I won’t betray you. You need to make sure I’ll continue giving you things far beyond the amount of money you pay me. You understand very well that money alone can’t maintain a connection with me for that long.”
Bai Six’s breathing came through the poor phone signal in uneven bursts, like a suddenly stuttering stream, thick and hurried.
“You’re not saying anything because you’re waiting for me to calm down, right?”
Bai Liu did not speak.
He held the phone in one hand and leaned against the wall, his other arm folded beneath his elbow. His expression remained indifferent. freewebnovel.cσ๓
He was indeed waiting for Bai Six to calm down.
Bai Six was a very rational child. The breathing on the other end of the line fluctuated sharply a few more times, as if he were taking deep breaths to suppress his emotions. Then it gradually returned to its normal rhythm, and his tone steadied.
“I have to admit, you really do understand yourself. I truly would never betray myself.”
The fact that he was half the soul of a bizarre blood-drawing investor—even something this absurd only took the fourteen-year-old Bai Six a dozen seconds to accept. He processed it swiftly, soberly, and then cut straight to the point.
“The problems with tonight’s escape are the teachers and the Deformed Children. After all the children in the ward have been baptized, the teachers will patrol, and we’re not allowed to stay outside late. For some reason, Liu Jiayi is extremely familiar with this welfare home, almost as if she lived here before.”
Bai Six’s tone turned subtly strange.
“She figured out the teachers’ patrol pattern. According to her, the teacher usually finishes patrolling our ward at 9:15 and finishes patrolling her ward at 9:30. After 9:30, the five of us /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ can leave the ward and run outside. Based on her familiarity with the welfare home, Liu Jiayi even drew up a rough escape route for us.”
He evaluated her calmly.
“Her ability to execute a plan is very strong. When I first negotiated the escape with her, she was a little flustered, but the moment she confirmed that I’d been sent by her Gege, she immediately began providing useful information. She doesn’t have the planning level of a blind eight-year-old girl. She’s more useful than Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang combined.”
“If not for the fact that she can’t see and there are Deformed Children wandering outside, I think she could have felt her way out of the welfare home by herself tonight,” Bai Six concluded.
Bai Liu made no sound. He simply let Bai Six continue.
It was normal for Liu Jiayi to be familiar with the welfare home. She had indeed stayed here before. And judging from the poisonous mushroom incident in the real world, Liu Jiayi’s mental resilience and intelligence were both outstanding. Bai Liu was not worried that Liu Jiayi would drag Bai Six down during the escape.
Bai Six continued, “But those wandering Deformed Children are indeed a major problem. However, after checking the items inside the coin you gave me, I found one item that can be used here.”
Bai Liu and Bai Six spoke at the same time.
“[Passenger’s Blessing].”
This buff-type item was the main reason Bai Liu had given the coin to Bai Six.
[Passenger’s Blessing] was the reward item Bai Liu had obtained after completing the Monster Book in his second instance. The system’s description of the item was:
[The passengers are grateful to you for saving them from their painful fate, and so they bestow their blessing upon you. As long as you are seated in a vehicle, their spirits will protect you and prevent any monsters from harming you.]
However, the vehicle could not be forcibly carried by the player. It had to be something that already existed naturally in the original scene. In addition, it could only be used once per game.
This item had not dropped when Bai Liu faked his death. It remained inside the coin, which was the game manager. Since it was a buff-type item, its use did not rely on a physical object and was instead attached to the player. It was a non-droppable item, which was why Miao Gaojiang had not suspected anything.
“There are toy cars in the children’s playground,” Bai Six said calmly. “I think they count as vehicles that naturally exist in the Love Welfare Home scene. But those toy cars are locked after 6:00 PM, and the key is kept by the teacher.”
His tone was so composed that what he was about to do sounded less like mischief and more like an ordinary plan to play with toys.
“Liu Jiayi said she can lure away the teacher carrying the key by herself. Then we’ll knock the teacher unconscious, steal the key, and drive the toy car out.”
“But I remember that toy car only seats four people.” Bai Liu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Where is the last one of you going to sit?”
Bai Six fell into an eerie silence for two seconds.
“We also plan to steal a large walker. The welfare home has them, specifically for disabled children. It can be hooked to the toy car and dragged along.”
Bai Liu also fell into a subtle silence.
A walker was the kind of thing that looked like a pair of open-crotch pants attached to a four-cornered frame with wheels. Its speed depended entirely on the two feet running beneath it, and the person sitting inside had to spread their legs. The youngest in Bai Six’s group was already seven or eight years old. Sitting in that thing, regardless of anything else, would look truly humiliating—like running wildly while wearing a pair of flower-patterned cotton underwear.
“Who are you planning to put in the walker?” Bai Liu asked.
“If Liu Jiayi sits in the back, it’ll be too dangerous since she can’t see, so—” Bai Six paused. A hint of poorly concealed mischief entered his tone. “It’s only suitable for the shortest person among us.”
“I’m not the shortest.”
“Mu Ke is.”
As Bai Six and Bai Liu spoke, the sound of a nurse’s high heels clicking against the floor gradually faded outside Bai Liu’s ward.
But not long after the nurse left, new footsteps sounded outside the door.
There was more than one person.
Bai Liu’s eyes darkened slightly. Those footsteps were steady and fast. They should belong to Miao Feichi and the others.
Miao Feichi had clearly timed his arrival so that he reached Bai Liu’s door right after the nurse finished her patrol.
This was the advantage players had when their movement speed exceeded that of NPCs. They could seize these gaps in the NPCs’ routes, unlike Bai Liu, who had been chased half to death the previous night.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on Bai Liu’s door.
Mu Ke’s trembling voice sounded from outside.
“I—I’m Mu Ke. I’m here.”
Bai Liu’s gaze shifted toward the door. He whispered into the phone, “I’m hanging up.”
“Wait.” Bai Six paused for a moment. “When should I call you next?”
Bai Liu said casually, “After 9:30. You can call me anytime. The call duration will still be charged by the minute.”
“If I’m still alive to answer.”
Bai Six was quiet for one second.
“From a financial perspective, I hope you survive. But considering the plan you told me and your identity, it’ll be very troublesome if you live. Besides, your most valuable things are already with me. From that perspective, I would still rather you died.”
After saying that, Bai Six hung up decisively.
Bai Liu smiled with habitual indifference and slipped the phone behind his back.
The hand holding the phone was a monkey’s paw.
Bai Liu lowered his lashes and looked at the monkey’s paw attached to his hand.
Before leaving the welfare home, he had used the system interface to fix Mu Shicheng’s soul paper money panel onto himself. This allowed Bai Liu to continue using Mu Shicheng’s skills even after giving the game manager coin to Bai Six.
But now, he could only use Mu Shicheng’s skills.
He could no longer switch to anyone else’s soul paper money. Bai Six, on his side, also could not manipulate Bai Liu’s main identity line’s panel.
It was only because Bai Liu’s game manager coin was bound to both his main and sub-identity lines that Bai Six could roughly see his survival status and personal attribute panel, as well as receive system prompts from Bai Liu’s side to know whether the main identity line was dead or alive.
From the moment he heard those footsteps, Bai Liu had kept the monkey paw skill in a semi-activated state.
His stamina bar had been exhausted the previous night, so Bai Liu had been unable to use any of Mu Shicheng’s skills earlier. He could only throw Mu Ke out as bait, take a roundabout route to lure Miao Feichi and the others to the ward, delay for time, and avoid a direct confrontation.
However—
Bai Liu glanced at the clock hanging on the ward wall.
At 9:15, Miao Feichi was not the only player whose stamina bar had recovered.
And Miao Feichi was not the only player with teammates to cooperate with.
Bai Liu slowly lifted his eyes.
He looked at Liu Huai, who was standing silently behind the door, holding his breath.
As an assassin, Liu Huai gripped his daggers tightly in both hands. There was the desperate coldness and resolve of a true killer about him. Standing in the shadows behind the door, he received Bai Liu’s signal and gave a slight nod. Then he took a deep breath, leaped lightly, and silently hooked his legs around the ceiling lamp.
Looking down at Bai Liu below, Liu Huai felt more conflicted than ever before.
His gaze landed on the monkey paw already equipped on Bai Liu.
Liu Huai had never expected that, after so long, he would actually cooperate with Mu Shicheng’s skill again in this way.
This might be the final cooperation between the [Thief and the Assassin].
Liu Huai closed his eyes.
He touched the doll tucked against his chest. It resembled him, but it was crudely made.
That was the gift Liu Jiayi had given him today.
It was also a gift for the Investor.
A handmade doll of what she imagined Liu Huai looked like, pieced together by touch.
Liu Jiayi truly loved all kinds of dolls. Although she could not see, she loved touching them and making them, as though this were her way of making up for her inability to see the world.
Even though the dolls she made were very ugly.
It was also because Liu Jiayi liked dolls that Liu Huai had clumsily made a little bear doll for her.
Of course, the result had been very ugly as well.
The brother and sister were quite alike in this regard. Fortunately, Liu Jiayi could not see just how ugly the bear doll truly was, and she liked it quite a lot.
Perhaps this would also be the last time Liu Huai ever saw the ugly Gege doll Liu Jiayi had made for him.
Liu Huai took a deep breath.
His body swayed as if weightless. With a light pull of his hand, he opened the ward door.
The door slowly opened in the silent night with a faint creak.
Before the person standing outside could fully appear before Bai Liu’s eyes, two crescent blades suddenly flashed with arcing light and swept straight toward him.
At the same time, Mu Ke screamed:
“Bai Liu!!”
