Free Web NovelAfter hanging up the phone, Bai Liu turned his head to look at Liu Huai, who was struggling to drink the Mental Bleach.
This guy had both arms severed and was curled up into a small ball like a beggar, biting the bottle as he tried to drink, spilling it everywhere.
Bai Liu had wanted to feed Liu Huai earlier, but he only had one hand himself. When Bai Six’s ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) call came in, Liu Huai had told him to answer it first.
Now that Bai Liu had finished the call, he reached out, picked up the bottle, and fed it to Liu Huai.
Liu Huai glanced at him.
Expressionless, Bai Liu pushed the bottle forward slightly.
In the end, Liu Huai still leaned in and drank.
Liu Huai felt that he must look unbearably pathetic right now. His face was covered in gray ash, and he was drinking from someone else’s hand like a stray dog.
He knew countless viewers were watching this ugly scene.
As his mental value gradually recovered, an unprecedented sense of shame surged through him. The overwhelming emotion made large tears roll down his face.
“What are you crying for?” Bai Liu asked calmly, holding the bottle. “Aren’t you alive?”
“...I don’t know why I’m crying either.”
Liu Huai’s mental value had not fully recovered yet. Like a prideful male college student at an age where embarrassment came far too easily, he turned his head away to hide his face, refusing to let Bai Liu look at him.
Liu Huai hunched his neck and lowered his head, his voice hoarse.
“...I feel like a stray dog with nowhere to go home to.”
“It does look a bit like that,” Bai Liu commented without emotion.
He looked up at Liu Huai. The wound where Liu Huai’s other arm had been cut off was still bleeding.
“The two of us do look very much like stray dogs right now. But at least we’re living stray dogs.”
“Everyone is alive.”
“Including your meimei.”
Liu Huai bit down hard on the mouth of the Mental Bleach bottle in Bai Liu’s hand.
He tried to endure it.
But in the end, he could not stop himself from sobbing aloud.
Armless, Liu Huai curled his body as he cried. He bent down, his head resting against Bai Liu’s hand as he bowed deeply toward the ground, almost as if he were kowtowing to Bai Liu.
Through blurred sobs, he choked out his thanks.
“...Thank you for saving me.”
“And thank the other you for saving my meimei.”
A few seconds before the explosion, Liu Huai had truly thought he was going to die.
After all, without both hands, an assassin whose stamina had been exhausted was practically useless to someone like Bai Liu, who placed profit above everything else.
But Bai Liu had still risked death, rushing through the flames to drag him into the mirror with the whip.
“Actually, I didn’t expect the other me to save your meimei either. I’m not entirely sure what his reason was.”
Bai Liu lowered his eyelashes.
He held his arm out flat and steadied Liu Huai by the wrist, lifting him back upright from that bowed position.
Then he looked directly at Liu Huai’s tear-streaked face, neither cold nor warm.
“But I had a reason for saving you.”
“It was because you saved me too.”
“That was part of the trade and cooperation we agreed on beforehand.”
“If you successfully held Miao Feichi back, then I would do everything I could to save you.”
“If I had to describe myself...”
Bai Liu looked into Liu Huai’s tear-filled eyes and said very calmly,
“...I suppose I am a trustworthy stray...”
“...stray dog.”
—
Thirty-seven minutes earlier, Ward 913.
Liu Huai paced back and forth uneasily, anxiety written all over him. From time to time, he turned to look at Bai Liu, who was sitting by the bed.
He took a deep breath.
“Are you really planning to ambush and kill Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang?! Those two are S-rank players. If we don’t succeed in one move, we’ll all die!”
“That’s why we have to succeed in one move,” Bai Liu said unhurriedly.
“They should already be suspicious of Mu Ke’s identity. At this point, I believe they’ve gone to the ward to look for me. Since I’m not in the ward, they’ll search elsewhere to catch me—this ‘Mu Ke.’”
“But they probably won’t guess that Mu Ke is in the Medical Records Room, so they won’t find him inside the hospital.”
“However, Mu Ke must return to the ward before 9:15, because the nurses will clear out the other areas.”
“I’m guessing they’ll wait for Mu Ke like someone guarding a tree stump for a rabbit.”
“Where will they wait?” Liu Huai asked nervously. “In Mu Ke’s ward? Then wouldn’t they just not come here?”
“Waiting in Mu Ke’s ward would be too stupid.”
“If Mu Ke doesn’t return to his own ward, but instead goes to ‘Bai Liu’s’ ward or some other empty ward, those two will be trapped in Mu Ke’s ward because the nurses will be patrolling.”
“Of course, they could slip out between patrols to look for Mu Ke, but that would double the trouble. It isn’t a very wise plan.”
Bai Liu looked at Liu Huai.
“If I were Miao Gaojiang, the most effective and practical method would be to guard the elevator.”
“Mu Ke can’t possibly take the emergency stairs. His personal panel is completely insufficient to withstand the monsters there.”
“The elevator is their most likely route.”
“Miao Gaojiang and the other only need to wait by the elevator entrance between 9:00 and 9:15. The moment they see the elevator move, they press the button.”
“Because all the nurses are changing shifts during that time, the only people taking the elevator will be patients sneaking back to their wards—which means Mu Ke.”
“After catching Mu Ke, Miao Gaojiang will definitely want to figure out the plan between Mu Ke and me.”
“But Mu Ke won’t talk easily, so he will naturally think of using the keyboard Mu Ke and I rely on to communicate.”
Bai Liu continued calmly,
“I will reveal some information through that keyboard—information he can understand, such as [9][0][6].”
“In that situation, Miao Gaojiang won’t question whether the information he received is true or false.”
“And since the child is being adopted tomorrow, in order to prevent us from interfering at the critical moment, Miao Gaojiang will definitely come to kill me tonight.”
“When they take the initiative to kill me, the initiative will be on their side.”
“They won’t be too psychologically guarded against the people in Room 906.”
Bai Liu looked up at Liu Huai.
“That creates favorable conditions for your sneak attack to succeed.”
“Liu Huai, you are the core of this plan.”
“Although on the surface it looks like the conventional [Thief and Assassin] routine you used to run with Mu Shicheng, this time, you—the assassin—will be taking on the main task.”
“...I know.”
Liu Huai sat down on the edge of the bed as well.
With Bai Liu sitting beside him, Liu Huai lowered his head and pressed both clenched fists against his forehead.
“But Bai Liu, I’ve never been the main attacker before.”
“It was always Shi...”
“God Mu who did that.”
“You’re placing all the chips in this plan on me. The risk is too high.”
“This plan has three steps,” Bai Liu said softly.
“Step one: Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang come to raid us. When the door opens, you launch a sneak attack and hold Miao Feichi back.”
“I will steal Mu Ke from Miao Gaojiang’s hands and let him go downstairs to find the nurses.”
“Once Mu Ke goes to the nurses, Miao Feichi will inevitably shorten the time he spends fighting you and turn to attack me instead.”
Liu Huai did not look up. His voice grew even hoarser.
“In that case, if Miao Feichi wants to end the fight with me quickly, and doesn’t want to be constantly interrupted by an assassin like me, his best choice is to disarm me.”
“To put it plainly,” Bai Liu said without any emotional fluctuation, “that means cutting off both of your arms.”
Liu Huai buried his head even lower.
“...Yes.”
“That’s the fastest way to neutralize a player who relies heavily on their hands.”
“But that also has its advantages.”
“After cutting off your arms, he absolutely won’t suspect that you still have combat capability, and he’ll relax his guard around you.”
“That leads to the second step of the plan.”
“I will hold back Miao Gaojiang and Miao Feichi, buying time for your panel to burst.”
Bai Liu spoke of holding back two S-rank players so casually that it sounded as though he had never even considered the possibility of failure.
“After your panel bursts, you can use your skill [Flash Strike] to force Miao Gaojiang into a stiffened state.”
“Then we enter the third step.”
“You block Miao Feichi’s attack.”
“I only need one or two seconds to pull out the bomb...”
Liu Huai suddenly lifted his head and interrupted him, his face filled with terror.
“Bai Liu...”
“I don’t think I can do it.”
“After stabbing Miao Gaojiang once, I don’t think I can still block Miao Feichi’s attack for you.”
“This plan is too risky, Bai Liu!”
“You’re completely leaving your back to me. You’ll die!”
“I’ll die too!”
“But you cooperated with Mu Shicheng so many times, and he left his back to you.”
Bai Liu’s eyes were calm as a lake without ripples.
“Didn’t you keep him alive?” frёewebηovel.cѳm
Liu Huai was silent for a long time.
Then he closed his eyes.
“...But I made him lose both arms.”
“You did use the dagger in your hand to betray Mu Shicheng.”
Bai Liu looked at Liu Huai as though asking for his opinion.
“But you won’t have hands to betray me with now.”
“Liu Huai, my way of doing things is to assume the other party can do it before it happens.”
“You can do it, can’t you?”
Liu Huai said softly, “I don’t know.”
Bai Liu withdrew his gaze without the slightest ripple.
“Then try first.”
“If you can’t, we’ll talk about it then.”
“What if...”
Liu Huai’s voice trembled slightly.
“What if we die?”
“If you block Miao Feichi, I won’t die easily.”
“If I don’t die, I won’t let you die.”
“If you fail to block Miao Feichi and die,” Bai Liu said plainly, “then I’ll most likely die with you.”
Liu Huai stared at Bai Liu blankly.
Bai Liu glanced sideways at him.
“What? Are you not satisfied with me being buried with you?”
—
They actually did not die.
When Liu Huai was dragged out of the mirror by Bai Liu, for a moment, he even thought he had reached hell.
Only when he saw that his arms were still severed did he realize, dazedly, that he was still alive.
Bai Liu quickly poured Mental Bleach down his throat.
Liu Huai choked as he drank it.
Soon after, Bai Six’s call came in.
After Bai Liu hung up the phone and Liu Huai’s mental value had recovered from being fed, he staggered to his feet.
Only after Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang had been carried away by the nurses did he and Bai Liu dare to come out of the mirror.
Because of that, the nurses believed no one else remained upstairs, so none of them had come to treat Bai Liu and Liu Huai yet.
Bai Liu was not in much of a hurry. He lay on the ground, which was still warm from the explosion.
“Mu Ke will come up to find us in a bit.”
Bai Liu’s shell as an “Investor” was very thick, so lying on the ground right after an explosion did not feel especially hot to him.
His straw bed had also been blasted to pieces.
Liu Huai sat cross-legged on the ground, leaning against the charred remains of a wall as he looked up at the dark sky.
After an unknown amount of time, Liu Huai suddenly lowered his head and looked at Bai Liu.
He hesitated for a moment.
“If I sell my soul to you now, do you want it?”
“Yes,” Bai Liu agreed without hesitation.
“But my game manager is currently with Bai Six. I’ll take your soul once he gives it back to me.”
“How much are you asking?”
Liu Huai froze.
Then he seemed amused by Bai Liu’s attitude of never letting even the smallest bargain slip by, and smiled. His brows curved gently.
“I thought you wouldn’t want it.”
“After all, I’ll probably die in this game.”
“To you, the soul of a dead person shouldn’t be worth anything, right?”
“But if you’re really buying...”
Liu Huai said softly,
“How much did Shi-ge get when he sold his soul to you?”
Bai Liu looked at Liu Huai with some wariness.
“Don’t expect to get the same price as Mu Shicheng.”
“That was too expensive. I won’t buy at that price.”
“...I don’t want that much.”
Liu Huai was truly caught between laughter and tears by Bai Liu.
He had only asked on impulse. He had never expected something as ominous and evil-sounding as selling one’s soul to become an ordinary haggling transaction in Bai Liu’s hands.
The heaviness in his heart eased considerably. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Liu Huai lowered his dirty eyelashes.
His voice was very faint.
“I’ll sell it to you for one point.”
“One point is enough.”
