Free Web NovelTuesday—the Day of Baptism.
That afternoon, after the hymn singing, Bai Liu and Bai Six were in the forest behind the church discussing the escape plan for Wednesday.
Xiao Bai Six lowered his head and touched the coin Bai Liu had given him.
Half-kneeling in front of him, Bai Liu patiently taught him how to use some of the coin’s functions. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he spoke:
“Oh right. Do you remember the little girl I asked you to protect? Liu Jiayi.”
“Her?”
Xiao Bai Six frowned slightly.
“I think she’s strange. She adapted to this creepy welfare home far too quickly and figured out many of the rules almost immediately.”
“I don’t think she needs my protection at all.”
“Is that so...”
Bai Liu’s expression turned thoughtful.
“Liu Jiayi’s Health Value is only fifty. Before this, I had two guesses regarding that.”
Bai Six looked at him.
“What guesses?”
“First, she’s poisoned.”
“That’s highly likely. The information I’ve gathered so far can basically confirm it.”
Bai Liu paused slightly.
“But there’s one strange point.”
“That explanation can’t account for why Liu Huai is bound to her.”
“And it also can’t explain why Liu Huai’s Health Value had to be forcibly reduced by fifty percent.”
As he spoke, Bai Liu adjusted the coin’s interface for Bai Six to see.
“But later, after thinking about it carefully, I realized this kind of forced weakening actually feels somewhat familiar.”
“I’ve encountered similar situations twice before.”
“Usually, it happens because one of the player’s attributes exceeds the game’s balance threshold, so the system forcibly weakens them to regulate the game.”
Xiao Bai Six immediately understood what Bai Liu meant.
“You’re saying Liu Jiayi possesses some attribute so powerful that the system had to weaken her Health Value?”
“Not only weaken it.”
Bai Liu calmly continued adjusting the shop interface.
“The system also bound her to Liu Huai to restrict her ability to clear the game.”
“When I first entered a game, I was forcibly weakened at the final stage because I demonstrated techniques that disrupted game balance and exceeded the conventional game route.”
“But Liu Jiayi was restricted and weakened from the moment she entered the game.”
“That doesn’t look like the treatment given to a newcomer entering her first game.”
Although Bai Six had never played a game before, he always followed Bai Liu’s train of thought frighteningly quickly.
“You suspect Liu Jiayi is an old player?”
“I do.”
Bai Liu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“And based on how the system usually operates—weakening players in the areas where they are strongest...”
“For example, in the second game, there was a player whose Luck was so absurdly high that it interfered with the gameplay itself, so the system forcibly reduced his Luck.”
“In Liu Jiayi’s case, she most likely possesses some kind of special healing-related personal skill.”
“Something involving health restoration.”
Xiao Bai Six frowned.
“But didn’t you say those kinds of skills are extremely rare?”
“Exactly.”
Bai Liu lifted his eyes.
“That narrows the range down even further.”
“Based on the information I currently know, I suspect Liu Jiayi might be a player called Little Witch.”
“But according to the information I’ve heard, Little Witch doesn’t only possess healing abilities.”
“She also has extremely powerful offensive skills.”
Xiao Bai Six commented flatly, “Sounds troublesome.”
“But I want her soul.”
Bai Liu lowered his gaze directly onto Bai Six.
The bluntness of his words was startling.
“I need players like her.”
“The problem is, she already knows I can manipulate players by controlling their souls.”
“She won’t easily agree to make a deal with me.”
“So I can only approach her from another angle.”
“The system is already using Liu Huai to restrain her. And right now, she’s hiding her identity from Liu Huai, which proves Liu Huai is extremely important to her.”
Bai Liu slowly rubbed his knuckles as he thought.
“We can start by using Liu Huai to test her and figure out what she truly wants.”
“After organizing all the information and calculating from the perspective of maximizing profit, I’ve prepared a plan.”
Bai Liu tapped the coin hanging on Xiao Bai Six’s chest.
“You’ll take Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi and escape first.”
“But she probably won’t allow things to proceed smoothly. Various complications will likely happen during the escape.”
“But it doesn’t matter.”
“I already prepared a fault-tolerance route for you.”
“I’ll stage an ambush at the private hospital and delay the time you’re sent there.”
“In other words...”
“You’ll have one additional opportunity to escape.”
“At that point, the plan splits into two possible routes.”
Bai Liu lifted his eyes to look at Xiao Bai Six.
“The first route is if I die during tomorrow’s ambush.”
“If that happens, you ignore Liu Jiayi entirely and run.”
“You only need to bring Mu Ke.”
“We abandon the objective of acquiring Liu Jiayi’s soul.”
“Everything from that point onward prioritizes clearing the game and escaping.”
“There are vehicles at the hospital. You can steal one and use the item [Passenger’s Blessing] to escape with Mu Ke.”
“That will allow you to avoid most of the monsters.”
Xiao Bai Six stared motionlessly at Bai Liu.
“What if those investor players at the hospital come after me?”
“I’ll have someone throw my corpse into the wards belonging to the other monster patients.”
Bai Liu’s tone remained perfectly calm.
“Then those monsters will drain my blood and poison me with their mist until my Mental Value completely empties.”
“My corpse will mutate into the same kind of patient monster they are.”
“But at the same time, I’ll become a monster with even stronger attack power.”
“While you escape, I’ll do my best to preserve my consciousness inside the hospital and delay the players chasing you.”
“That way, I can protect you.”
Bai Six fell silent for two seconds.
Then he spoke with complete incomprehension.
“To save me, you’re willing to become a monster forever and remain trapped inside this so-called game instance?”
“Why would you go that far for me?”
“Because I also hope you’ll go that far for me, Bai Six.”
Bai Liu spoke very softly.
He leaned forward and stared into Xiao Bai Six’s dark eyes, which carried faint traces of confusion.
“If I survive tomorrow’s ambush...”
“...then I hope you’ll die for me and become a monster.”
“At that point, we’ll enter the second route of the plan.”
“I’ll completely gain control over Liu Huai.”
“Then I’ll need you to approach Liu Jiayi and lower her guard toward me.”
“You need to make her believe that both you and your investor—meaning me—genuinely wanted to save her.”
“That way, gaining her trust will become much easier.”
“And then I can obtain her soul.”
Bai Liu lowered his eyes to look at Xiao Bai Six.
His voice became softer and softer, like white silk slowly descending over someone’s face while Xiao Bai Six looked up at him.
“Do you understand what you need to do?”
Bai Six stared directly at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu answered himself:
“Let her kill you with her own hands.”
“Then let Mu Ke throw your corpse somewhere it can mutate into a monster that will help me.”
Bai Six’s breathing stalled briefly.
Then he sneered coldly.
“My dear investor...”
“You must be dreaming.”
“Not everyone enjoys making self-sacrificing acts for others the way you do.”
“I’m not stupid enough to do something like that for you.”
Bai Liu smiled and reached out to touch Bai Six’s face.
But Bai Six coldly turned away to avoid him.
Bai Liu didn’t mind.
“I know you very well, Bai Six.”
“Perhaps even better than you understand yourself.”
“You indeed wouldn’t do something so stupid for someone else.”
Bai Liu’s gaze slowly dropped to the coin hanging against Bai Six’s chest.
He braced both hands against Xiao Bai Six’s narrow shoulders and slowly leaned down, pressing his forehead lightly against the coin.
Closing his eyes, Bai Liu rested there against Xiao Bai Six’s chest.
His tone became strangely devout and sincere.
“But for yourself...”
“You would.”
Just like I’m {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} willing to die for you—
Once you realize I am you, you’ll definitely be willing to die for me.
“The coin is important. Explore it carefully.”
The corners of Bai Liu’s lips curled upward faintly.
“Pay attention to the player names and certain details whenever system notifications appear.”
“You’ll discover something surprising.”
“For example...”
“The answer to the question you’ve always wanted to know.”
“Who exactly I am.”
Bai Six slowly tightened his grip around the coin. freёweɓnovel.com
...
Now, with “blood” staining the corners of his mouth, Bai Six looked at Bai Liu expressionlessly.
“Everything unfolded exactly according to your plan.”
“Although Liu Jiayi thinks you’re a scheming and wicked man, she should now believe that you genuinely wanted to save her.”
“You abandoned yourself to protect Mu Ke, me, and even Miao Feichi and the others.”
“That made Liu Jiayi think you possess some strange sympathy toward children.”
“But unfortunately...”
“You don’t.”
“You’re a complete liar and a scoundrel.”
Bai Six’s tone remained entirely emotionless.
“Her first impression of you was perfectly accurate.”
Bai Liu shrugged indifferently, utterly unconcerned by the evaluation.
“How are you feeling?”
“Can you still move with us later?”
Xiao Bai Six coughed hoarsely.
He lowered his head and wiped the corner of his mouth, brow slightly furrowed.
“...We can’t leave this tunnel during daytime.”
“And even at night, the areas where we can move are very limited.”
“After all the Deformed Children return to the nest, this tunnel will close completely.”
“It won’t reopen until after nine tonight.”
“You should leave as quickly as possible.”
“And I don’t recommend bringing me with you.”
Bai Six slowly raised his head.
Because of death, his pupils had already dilated completely.
His gaze carried a detached calmness.
“What happened just now was already the maximum value I could provide.”
“Under the strain of forced mutation and extreme physical consumption, my internal organs have already begun liquefying.”
“By tonight...”
“I might become a genuine corpse.”
“Or rot into a puddle of sludge used to cultivate mushrooms in this tunnel.”
As he spoke, corpse spots had already begun spreading across his face and hands.
The decay advanced at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Bai Six was rotting abnormally fast.
When Xiao Mu Ke heard this, he immediately burst into tears again.
Mu Ke’s eyes also reddened, and he turned away, unable to continue looking at Bai Six’s condition.
As for Bai Liu—
Just like the already-dead Bai Six, he maintained an eerie consistency with his fourteen-year-old corpse self.
A nearly inorganic calmness.
After listening quietly, Bai Liu merely nodded thoughtfully.
“I see.”
“In that case, bringing you along really would be useless.”
“Then stay here and rot.”
The moment Xiao Mu Ke heard that, he whipped his head toward Bai Liu.
His expression twisted with disbelief.
“You’re just going to leave him here to rot?!”
“Are you even human?!”
Bai Six actually laughed at Xiao Mu Ke’s heartfelt accusation.
A fishy black liquid leaked from the corner of his mouth.
Struggling to keep his increasingly heavy eyelids open, he smiled lazily.
“Mister Investor...”
“Personally, I quite like your animal-like behavior.”
“It matches my expectations for how you should grow.”
“Please continue maintaining it.”
“I’m only an animal inside games.”
Bai Liu smiled lazily as well.
“In real life, I’m a perfectly law-abiding ordinary unemployed worker.”
Bai Six glanced at him.
“Disgusting disguise.”
Without warning, Bai Liu suddenly leaned down and hugged Bai Six.
His chin rested against Bai Six’s forehead.
His lips pressed lightly against Bai Six’s filthy hair stained with blood and mud.
Then he whispered in a voice meant only for the two of them:
“Your corpse will rot here.”
“But even if you become a corpse...”
“A monster...”
“Or a puddle of mud...”
“You will never remain trapped inside this evil welfare home.”
“Or this evil game.”
Bai Six tilted his head back slightly and looked into Bai Liu’s eyes.
Bai Liu still wore that faintly hypocritical smile.
His dark, rippleless eyes reflected Bai Six’s increasingly weakened form.
Then Bai Liu lowered his gaze and pressed a kiss against Bai Six’s forehead like a prayer.
“Because I’ll take your soul away from here, little kid.”
Bai Six slowly closed his eyes, looking slightly dazed.
------
Xiao Mu Ke kept looking back at Bai Six in the tunnel as they left.
His eyes were red from crying, and his voice still trembled with sobs.
“Are we really leaving Bai Six there?”
Bai Liu dragged Liu Huai out while answering Xiao Mu Ke casually.
“He can’t come out, and the tunnel is about to close.”
After getting everyone out, Bai Liu turned around and saw Xiao Mu Ke staring at him with intense hostility.
He looked like a cat about to leap onto Bai Liu’s head and claw his face.
“You could have saved him.”
“But he agreed to die for me.”
Bai Liu gave him a fake smile.
Then he shrugged, freezing Xiao Mu Ke—who had been about to hit him—in place with one light sentence.
“Are you going to attack the investor Bai Six worked so hard to protect?”
Bai Liu’s words stabbed straight through Xiao Mu Ke’s heart.
He glared fiercely at Bai Liu several times, but in the end, he could only compromise through a sob.
They were currently beneath the statue.
Bai Liu looked at the dying Liu Huai they had brought over, then glanced at his soul wallet.
There was now an extra soul banknote inside.
It belonged to Liu Huai.
This was the transaction Liu Huai had made with Bai Liu in the tunnel immediately after Bai Liu recovered the coin.
Although Liu Huai had been delirious, he still remembered what he had promised Bai Liu.
So the soul transaction had gone through smoothly.
In addition, Bai Liu could feel that Liu Huai’s willingness to hand over his soul wasn’t only because of their previous agreement.
It was also because this university student, who had always possessed an extremely strong desire to survive, had developed a death wish after learning the truth about Liu Jiayi.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked at Liu Huai’s dull, deathly gaze.
The man had barely spoken throughout the journey.
Before this, Liu Huai had been so afraid of dying in the game because it was said that the game would harvest a person’s soul.
That truly did sound terrifying.
After all, no one knew what the game would do with a soul.
To be unable to find release even after death was far more frightening than death itself.
That was why Liu Huai wanted to sell his soul to Bai Liu.
It was both a protective deposit and a form of release.
At least it would allow him to die in peace.
But even if Liu Huai really wanted to die—
He couldn’t die yet.
Bai Liu looked at Xiao Mu Ke.
“Do you know where Liu Jiayi is?”
Xiao Mu Ke answered, “The handicraft classroom. First floor of the rear building of the welfare home, second room from the end.”
Bai Liu propped Liu Huai up.
After losing both arms, Liu Huai had also lost some balance in his movements. His head fell weakly against Bai Liu’s shoulder, his eyes half-lidded, his breathing short and ragged.
Bai Liu turned his head and patted Liu Huai’s shoulder.
Only then did Liu Huai slowly lift his head, looking around with a confused, delayed reaction.
“...Are we at the welfare home?”
Bai Liu looked at him calmly.
“We’re here.”
“Wake up, Liu Huai.”
“You’re about to see your meimei.”
“You’ll feel a little better soon.”
“Will I feel better after seeing her?”
Liu Huai seemed to regain a trace of clarity at last.
He weakly shook his head and smiled miserably.
“No.”
“Seeing her will only make me feel more and more pain.”
“I’ve completely lost both the ability and the desire to protect her.”
“I can’t protect her.”
“I’m not a qualified gege.”
“A player who has lost desire cannot survive in this game.”
Mu Ke looked anxiously at Liu Huai, whose vitality was visibly fading.
He had once felt Liu Huai’s intense desire to survive.
Even though Liu Huai’s death might grant him a skill, Mu Ke still couldn’t bear seeing Liu Huai like this now.
He couldn’t help speaking up to encourage him.
“Don’t give up so soon!”
“We’ll do everything we can to find a way for you to live!”
“And isn’t your meimei a healing-type player?”
“She can definitely save you!”
Liu Huai lowered his eyes toward the dagger at his waist.
Because his desire was fading, the dagger was slowly turning translucent.
He suddenly let out a laugh.
Then tears fell without warning.
In a low voice, he said:
“I... I’ve actually always been working hard.”
“I’ve been desperately trying to live.”
“So many things that seem simple and easy for all of you—eating fried chicken, going to a good university, having a normal, imaginable future...”
“For Jiayi and me, all of those were things we had to risk our lives to obtain.”
“The only bright thing in the future we could imagine for each other was the other person’s existence.”
“But now, even that one existence has lost its meaning.”
“Living has become...”
“Too exhausting.”
Tears slid down Liu Huai’s nose and past his clenched teeth.
He looked at Bai Liu, crying so hard that his expression became distorted and ugly.
“Bai Liu...”
“If only you were Jiayi’s gege.”
“You can easily figure out what she’s thinking.”
“You clearly know how to protect her better, how to weigh her resentment and suspicion.”
“But I can’t...”
“I’m too cowardly.”
“I can never protect her from anything...”
Liu Huai’s voice became very soft.
“You promised me, Bai Liu.”
“If I die, you’ll definitely give her a bright future.”
“Don’t let her soul be corroded by darkness.”
“Don’t let her soul be taken by this game.”
“Not even after death.”
Bai Liu looked at Liu Huai’s tear-stained face.
“Mhm.”
After that, Bai Liu adjusted his shoulder to support Liu Huai more securely.
Then he looked forward calmly.
“But that’s something for after you die.”
“Right now, Liu Huai, you’ve already sold your soul to me.”
“At the very least, before you run off to die, provide value worthy of the soul I bought.”
“I spent a whole point on you.”
Bai Liu said it flatly.
Liu Huai’s head had already drooped again from exhaustion.
But when he heard this, he couldn’t help letting out a choked laugh.
His hollow gaze slowly became focused again.
At his waist, the dagger gradually solidified from its translucent state.
Liu Huai exhaled.
“Alright.”
“I’ll make sure the one point you spent as a buyer was worth it.”
—
Love Welfare Home.
Rear building, first floor.
Second-to-last handicraft classroom.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang walked at the front, trembling violently.
Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang followed behind him.
Both of their expressions were extremely ugly.
Miao Gaojiang’s ankle was still bleeding, slowing his movements and leaving a visible trail behind him. But they truly didn’t dare stop.
That monster child’s attack power was far too high.
Miao Feichi was still panting.
He couldn’t believe that in a confrontation against a newcomer who had only played two games, he had been chased so desperately that he hadn’t even had a chance to stop and bandage himself.
They had nearly been wiped out.
Before, when Miao Gaojiang had evaluated Bai Liu with, “Don’t you think he’s scarier than those league players?” Miao Feichi had thought his father was exaggerating.
But now, thinking back to Bai Liu’s blood-stained, smiling face in that dark tunnel, Miao Feichi felt only the lingering terror of narrowly escaping death.
That monster child chasing them in the tunnel was clearly Bai Liu’s child.
Although Miao Feichi didn’t know what skill Bai Liu had used to control a child who had already turned into a monster, Bai Liu’s own child, Bai Six, was already dead.
That meant the man clearly only had the Investor route left to clear the game.
With only a tiny bit of Health left and one hand cut off by Miao Feichi, Bai Liu would be finished if he died.
And yet that lunatic had still dared to chase after them alone.
He had even come within a hair’s breadth of successfully wiping out their father-son duo team—a team that was considered quite famous even in the league.
If Miao Feichi could leave this game alive, he never wanted to run into this madman again.
Thinking this, Miao Feichi looked at Xiao Miao Gaojiang walking ahead of them.
His fear made his expression impatient.
“Where exactly is that brat Miao Feichi?”
“Is he in a handicraft classroom with that little blind girl?”
Xiao Miao Gaojiang lowered his head and nodded timidly.
But his hands clenched tighter and tighter, and cold sweat faintly slid down his face.
He knew Liu Jiayi had a problem.
That terrifyingly clever blind girl was very likely the one who had killed Xiao Miao Feichi and Bai Six.
Her abilities even made these Investors wary.
But Xiao Miao Gaojiang did not tell the two investors forcing him forward that something was wrong with Liu Jiayi.
Because this was his only loophole.
His only chance to escape.
As long as Liu Jiayi clashed with these two investors, he might be able to find a chance to run.
He didn’t want to be drained of blood by these strange investors.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang stopped tremblingly in front of the handicraft classroom door opposite the restroom.
“Last night, Miao Feichi and Liu Jiayi slept here.”
Miao Feichi kicked the door open.
Inside, other than drifting dust and the smell of blood, there was nothing.
Miao Feichi walked in and circled the room.
Then he suddenly stopped in front of a box full of scrap fabric and multicolored materials.
The smell of blood was coming from that box.
On top of the fabric scraps sat two cloth dolls.
One doll had its limbs and head torn off. It looked very much like a doll of Bai Liu.
The other was covered in needles, its expression twisted with fear and tears.
It looked very much like a doll of Xiao Miao Feichi.
A strange, spine-chilling premonition made Miao Feichi slowly brush aside the soft, scattered plush fabric.
Beneath it, Xiao Miao Feichi’s face gradually appeared.
It was densely covered in needles, frozen in an expression of extreme terror.
No one knew how long he had been dead. frёewebnoѵēl.com
His skin had already begun to bloat, and mushroom-like corpse spots were beginning to grow across his face.
His body had been twisted into an extremely unnatural angle and stuffed into the fabric box like a soft cloth doll.
Even his mouth had been stuffed full of fabric.
Miao Feichi froze in front of the box.
Miao Gaojiang walked over, looked down, and also went still.
After a long while, the two of them looked at each other with ugly expressions.
Miao Feichi was the first to speak through gritted teeth.
“Who drained this brat’s blood?!”
Then he waved his hand irritably.
“Dad, go ahead and drain your child’s blood.”
“Return to the hospital and raise your Blood Lingzhi first.”
“We clear as many as we can.”
They had brought blood-drawing equipment with them when they came.
Because Miao Gaojiang had attacked the nurse NPC and didn’t know whether there would be consequences at the hospital—such as staff refusing to help them or draw blood—Miao Feichi and the others had conveniently taken some syringes and IV tubes from the ICU before entering the tunnel.
Seeing that the investors were about to drain his blood, Xiao Miao Gaojiang finally panicked.
He backed away two steps, wanting to run, only to realize the classroom door had already been locked.
As Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang approached him with syringes, Xiao Miao Gaojiang retreated step by step.
Finally, the moment his back hit the wall, he completely broke down and shouted at the top of his lungs:
“I know who drained Miao Feichi’s blood!”
“It was Liu Jiayi!!”
Miao Gaojiang and Miao Feichi exchanged glances.
“Liu Jiayi?”
“Why would she drain another child’s blood?”
Pressed against the wall, Xiao Miao Gaojiang swallowed hard.
“She probably wants to save her gege.”
“She’s waiting for her gege to come get her so he can draw her blood.”
“And to make sure there was enough blood, she seems to have drained Miao Feichi’s blood too.”
“Bai Six was also killed by her.”
Now that he had left the hospital, where the hallucinations easily affected his Mental Value, Miao Gaojiang’s mind had cleared somewhat.
Hearing Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s words, he narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself:
“Draining someone else’s blood to ensure there’s enough...”
“How would Liu Jiayi, a child, know that one person’s blood wouldn’t be enough?”
“That sounds like something an old player familiar with Level 2 game rules would do.”
“But didn’t Liu Huai say Liu Jiayi was entering the game for the first time?”
Miao Feichi wasn’t good at thinking through these twists and turns, so he asked back with a slight headache.
“Even if Liu Huai and Bai Liu are working together now, Liu Huai didn’t seem to be lying back then.”
“That’s true.”
Miao Gaojiang pondered for a moment.
His gaze fell on that oddly shaped, ugly cloth doll.
“And if Liu Jiayi were one of their people, she wouldn’t have killed Bai Six’s child.”
“This killing method feels somewhat familiar.”
“But I can’t remember where I’ve seen it...”
If she were a league player, Miao Gaojiang would have repeatedly watched her small television videos.
A doll-based attack skill and killing method this distinctive was not something Miao Gaojiang would forget if he had seen it before.
But he had no such impression among league players.
That meant Liu Jiayi was not from the league.
However, if she had absolutely nothing outstanding about her, Miao Gaojiang would not have spent extra attention watching her small television either, much less formed a memory of her.
And among the players he had paid attention to, none had been blind...
It was this vague feeling.
He felt as though he had seen this doll before.
But the doll itself did not seem to be the key item.
On top of that, his current mental state was poor, so no matter how he thought about it, Miao Gaojiang couldn’t remember.
While Miao Gaojiang frowned in thought, Miao Feichi had already interrupted his hair-splitting analysis.
“Old player or not, I have no impression of any female player who fights with dolls.”
“She shouldn’t be some amazing player.”
“The key point right now is—where did that little blind girl run off to with my child’s blood?!”
“We have to find her, get the blood back, and drain her blood too.”
“Only then will we have a guarantee for clearing the game!”
As he spoke, Miao Feichi’s gaze fell back on Xiao Miao Gaojiang.
With a sinister expression, he pressed the twin blades in his hand forward until they touched the child’s neck.
“Talk.”
“Where is Liu Jiayi hiding in this welfare home?”
“I—I don’t know!”
Xiao Miao Gaojiang cried out in collapse.
“Even though she can’t see, she was the one who figured out our escape route and the teachers’ patrol patterns!”
“She knows this welfare home extremely well, much better than we do.”
“And she has the teachers’ keys we stole before, so she can enter any room or classroom.”
“If she wants to hide, she could be hiding anywhere in the entire welfare home!”
“If you want to find her, you can only contact the teachers and search room by room.”
“Fuck!”
Miao Feichi cursed violently.
“How long is that going to take?!”
Miao Gaojiang’s expression was also very dark.
“There’s no other way.”
“Your blood is with that blind girl, and Mu Ke is in their hands.”
“They have that monster child. We can’t easily snatch him back.”
“We don’t have enough blood at all, so we can only search one room at a time.”
“Let’s go find the welfare home teachers first.”
“Once we mention our status as investors, they should cooperate with us in finding that little blind girl.”
The father and son did not know that the passage connecting the welfare home and the hospital closed after nine in the morning.
And Xiao Bai Six’s shocking combat power had made Miao Gaojiang—who had personally taken one strike from the boy—increasingly cautious.
During last night’s explosion, Miao Gaojiang had already used up his S-rank burst defense skill, and his stamina bar had been emptied.
Before his stamina bar recovered at nine tonight, his defense could no longer reach ten thousand.
Against an opponent with high attack power, Miao Gaojiang had to be even more careful.
Even if he guessed that the passage might close, who could say whether the monsters inside might come out during the day?
After all, the church was clearly a sanctuary area for children.
He didn’t know whether that sanctuary effect also applied to those dead Deformed Child monsters.
So Miao Gaojiang would not easily turn back and clash with Bai Liu and the others.
Miao Feichi was also clearly still shaken by Xiao Bai Six, that little monster, and would not easily go back either.
Thus, their only remaining route to clearing the game was to find Liu Jiayi, who was carrying Miao Feichi’s blood.
After considering every aspect, this should have been a very stable clearing plan.
But why...
Why did Miao Gaojiang constantly feel that something was wrong?
He felt as though he had missed some crucial detail.
But his mind truly wasn’t clear enough right now.
It was like trying to see the truth through a layer of foggy plastic film.
All he needed was one needle to pierce through that film.
Then he would finally see the thing making him so tense.
But that needle capable of piercing through every illusion could not grow inside his mind.
That needle was held tightly in the grip of his fear.
—
Bai Liu and the others followed Miao Gaojiang’s trail to the handicraft classroom.
After opening the door, Bai Liu entered and looked around, just as Miao Feichi had done.
He sniffed the air, then quickly dug Xiao Miao Feichi’s stiff corpse out from the fabric box.
Xiao Mu Ke barely held back a cry.
Mu Ke’s expression also turned ugly.
Only Bai Liu remained thoughtful.
He crouched down and examined Xiao Miao Feichi’s face, which was pierced with needles beneath the skin. Then he looked up at Liu Huai, who was being supported by Mu Ke.
“Judging from this killing method, Liu Huai, your meimei has a rather strong tendency to hold grudges.”
Liu Huai shook his head with a bitter smile.
Xiao Miao Feichi had wanted to eat her flesh.
So she wanted to drain Xiao Miao Feichi’s blood.
However, it was also fortunate that Xiao Miao Feichi had interfered.
Otherwise, based on Liu Jiayi’s original plan, she had probably wanted to drain Bai Six’s blood.
Although in the end, that Little Witch had given Xiao Bai Six a way out.
Originally, judging from the Little Witch’s ruthless style of pulling weeds out by the roots, directly draining Xiao Bai Six’s blood and cutting off all of Bai Liu’s routes would have been the more realistic choice.
But in the end, she had not done it.
Liu Jiayi had allowed Bai Six to leave the handicraft classroom carrying his own blood.
That could be considered leaving Bai Liu one final thread of hope.
Of course, it was also possible that Xiao Mu Ke’s desperate pounding on the door outside had risked attracting a teacher, leaving Liu Jiayi without enough time to finish drawing the blood and leave the classroom.
So she had been forced to let Xiao Bai Six go.
That was also possible.
Human thought was complex.
Especially when it belonged to an intelligent, overly mature eight-year-old girl.
Bai Liu would never underestimate a child’s ability to play a game.
He could not fully determine Liu Jiayi’s psychological motivation behind every step she had taken.
The only thing he could be sure of was this:
Liu Huai was very important to Liu Jiayi.
Bai Liu stood up and looked around.
“Liu Jiayi isn’t in the classroom.”
“Xiao Mu Ke, do you know where Liu Jiayi might be hiding?”
Xiao Mu Ke thought about it, then slowly shook his head.
“There are too many places she could hide.”
“Finding her will be difficult.”
Furthermore, Miao Gaojiang and Miao Feichi were also searching for Liu Jiayi.
If the two groups ran into each other and the father and son discovered that Bai Liu’s side had lost Xiao Bai Six’s help, it was impossible to say who would survive.
After integrating all the information, Bai Liu did not think openly searching the welfare home for Liu Jiayi was a good choice.
His gaze fell on the weak Liu Huai.
Because they did not need to look for Liu Jiayi at all.
As long as Liu Huai was with them, Liu Jiayi would definitely come to them on her own.
“Back to the church.”
“That’s a sanctuary area for children, and Miao Gaojiang and Miao Feichi probably won’t think of the exit beneath the statue.”
“That exit leads to the monster children’s passage, so it’s relatively safe for us too.”
Bai Liu made the decision with a steady gaze.
“We’ll go back and wait for Liu Jiayi to find us.”
—
As twilight fell, night spread into the welfare home like an ominous black fog creeping in from the horizon.
It was already 8:30 PM.
A full ten hours had passed since Miao Feichi and his father had left the passage.
Aside from Miao Gaojiang taking an hour and a half at noon to recover his stamina bar, they had spent the entire day being led by teachers, quickly searching the welfare home room by room for Liu Jiayi.
But even now, they still hadn’t found that brat.
That brat was like a magician.
She had vanished completely inside the welfare home.
Not a single trace of her could be found.
