Free Web NovelThe entire base had been constructed in the shape of a sphere.
And Heretic [0001]’s containment chamber sat at the sphere’s very pole—the deepest point in the entire facility.
Because of that design, the corridor leading toward Heretic [0001] sloped steadily downward.
Tang Erda continued descending alone.
The farther he went, the heavier the moisture in the air became.
A fishy odor gradually spread through the darkness—a strange mixture of deep-sea fish and rotting seaweed.
The smell itself wasn’t overpowering. It drifted faintly through the air in intermittent waves, but the moment it entered one’s lungs, it produced a dizzy, floating sensation, as if the body were slowly sinking into the depths of the ocean.
Tang Erda had already endured countless forms of mental contamination from heretics before.
This level of interference was nowhere near enough to affect him.
But for people with especially sensitive senses, the smell could severely reduce Mental Value.
Mu Shicheng’s pupils contracted violently beneath the swirling scent.
His breathing grew heavier.
Liu Jiayi immediately noticed something was wrong.
“Mu Shicheng?”
“This smell...” Mu Shicheng pressed a hand to his forehead and shook it hard, trying to stay lucid. “It’s similar to a Level One game I cleared before—《Siren Town》. The merfolk there smelled exactly like this.”
“There may be merman-type monsters on this floor.”
They were currently in reality.
If their minds became contaminated here, there would be no bleach available to recover their Mental Values.
Mu Ke immediately pulled a packet of tissues from his backpack and handed it over.
“Block your nose temporarily,” he said calmly. “Try not to breathe too much of it in. If your Mental Value drops, we’ll all be in danger.”
“Wait...”
Just as Mu Shicheng reached for the tissues, his brows suddenly furrowed.
“There’s another smell mixed in...”
He paused.
“A very faint smell of money.”
Mu Ke instantly withdrew the tissues.
His eyes lit up as he stared directly at Mu Shicheng.
“Bai Liu’s scent?” he asked immediately. “Can you tell where Bai Liu is?”
Mu Shicheng’s hand froze awkwardly in midair.
Expressionlessly, he looked at the suddenly overenthusiastic Mu Ke.
Mu Ke stared back with shining eyes that practically screamed hurry up and sniff harder.
“Quick,” Mu Ke urged seriously.
Mu Shicheng: “...”
Didn’t you literally just tell me to inhale less?!
Stop treating me like a search dog!
—
At the same time—
Tang Erda finally stepped out of the darkness.
Gun in hand, he walked slowly through the dense black mist surrounding him.
Then he raised the muzzle and aimed directly at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu stood calmly before the containment chamber of Heretic [0001]—the sealed room that was never meant to be opened.
As Tang Erda appeared, Bai Liu slowly turned around to face him.
“We meet again, Captain Tang.”
Bai Liu smiled faintly.
His gaze drifted lazily toward the gun aimed at him.
“How about we discuss a new deal?”
“I can give you the cure for the Dried Rose Leaf Gas.” Bai Liu tilted his head slightly. “In exchange, open the door behind me and let me see what’s inside.”
“As long as that explosion never happens, the Dried Rose Leaf Gas in this world won’t spread any further.”
Within Tang Erda’s deep-blue eyes, emotions churned like a violent vortex.
It looked as though the darkness inside them wanted to swallow Bai Liu whole—along with Tang Erda himself.
“The damage caused by you remaining alive,” Tang Erda said quietly, “is far greater than the damage caused by the Dried Rose Leaf Gas.”
“So you’ve finally decided to kill me.” Bai Liu raised a brow slightly. “And abandon the cure.”
A trace of genuine amusement surfaced in his eyes.
“That’s determination I haven’t seen from you before.”
“Aren’t you going to save the thousand-plus innocent people already infected by the gas?”
As he spoke, Bai Liu walked forward slowly, directly toward the muzzle of the gun.
“Are you really going to stand there and watch them wither away one by one, Captain Tang?”
Tang Erda’s pupils dilated slightly.
Yet the gun in his hand remained perfectly steady.
“Saving them means allowing you to live longer,” he replied coldly. “Your survival may save a thousand people...”
“But it will endanger everyone else.”
“Keeping you alive is the choice with the lowest cost-effectiveness.”
“Sacrificing those thousand people and killing you afterward is the optimal decision.”
“Cost-effectiveness?”
Bai Liu had already walked close enough for the muzzle to press directly against his forehead.
He let out a low laugh.
“That really does sound like something I would say.”
“And a choice I would make.”
Bai Liu stared directly into Tang Erda’s eyes.
“Captain Tang... you’ve finally started making decisions according to my values.”
“But then why haven’t you fired yet?”
Bai Liu raised his hand and casually gripped the barrel of the gun himself.
“You’ve already made the ‘correct’ choice.”
“So what exactly are you hesitating over?”
“Is it because among those thousand infected people...”
“There’s someone named Su Yang?”
Tang Erda’s hand finally trembled.
Violent emotions surged through his eyes until the deep blue nearly darkened into black.
His breathing became ragged.
The grip around his gun tightened so hard his knuckles turned white.
—
Su Yang coughing into his hand.
The strange scent of fading perfume lingering on his work ID.
Refusing to return home.
Carrying around a small bottle of Dried Rose Leaf Gas perfume just to delay the speed of his own withering.
Only one month after his child had been born, his organs and bones had already begun slowly deteriorating under medical examination.
Every memory screamed the same truth at Tang Erda—
Su Yang was dying before his eyes once again.
Su Yang had smiled helplessly back then and said:
“Captain, there’s no need to rush so desperately to find a cure for the Dried Rose Leaf Gas.”
“In our line of work, we should’ve expected this kind of ending long ago.”
“Just take it one day at a time.”
“I already have a wife and a child. I guess it’s a little unfair to them...”
“But honestly, I don’t have any regrets.”
“I’m very happy.”
“If I die, the base will issue a large compensation payment.”
“Xiao An has always wanted a bigger house. Once the pension money arrives, she can finally move with the baby into the place she likes.”
Then Su Yang had looked up at him with clean, unwavering eyes and given him a proper salute.
“Vice Captain Su Yang of the Third Branch formally requests permission to participate in one final mission.”
“Since I’m already contaminated...”
“Please allow me to take your place leading the investigation team into the perfume factory.”
—
Again.
It was happening all over again.
Tang Erda clenched his jaw so hard it shook.
The emotions in his eyes were so intense they seemed ready to spill out physically, blood vessels bursting scarlet through the whites.
Su Yang clearly knew Bai Liu possessed the cure to everything.
And yet, just like in that previous timeline, the dying Su Yang still insisted on protecting Bai Liu.
Simply because Su Yang genuinely believed Bai Liu was innocent.
Even if Bai Liu possessed the solution, Tang Erda should not force it out through torture, threats, and coercion.
Su Yang’s choice was exactly the same as before.
Exactly the same.
Tang Erda would never allow that mistake to repeat itself again.
He would never let Bai Liu leave this base alive.
Even if it meant sacrificing Su Yang.
Even if it meant sacrificing those thousand infected people.
He absolutely could not allow that catastrophic explosion to happen again.
Bai Six’s growth rate was too terrifying.
In only three games, he had already established contact with the Evil God itself.
He could already manipulate heretics contaminated by the Evil God.
If Bai Six escaped this place alive, it would mean handing every single heretic here directly into his control.
The faces of countless dead team members flashed before Tang Erda’s eyes—
Screaming.
Bleeding.
Dying horribly because of Bai Six.
—
Captain! Kill him!
Kill the source of everything!
Only by killing him can all of this finally end!
Otherwise the entire world will eventually fall into the embrace of the Evil God!
—
And by then...
Everything Su Yang wanted to protect—
His parents.
His wife.
His child. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
The entire Third Branch—
Would all wither away beneath the spread of that perfume.
If Tang Erda could not save Su Yang...
Then at the very least—
He would save the world Su Yang wanted to protect.
The instant Tang Erda pulled the trigger—
Someone suddenly lunged out from the darkness.
A hand seized Tang Erda’s wrist from behind and violently twisted it aside.
The bullet grazed past Bai Liu’s foot and slammed into the wall.
Lu Yizhan shouted so frantically his voice nearly cracked:
“Dad! Bai Liu, can I just call you my dad already?!”
“Can you stop grabbing other people’s gun barrels and pressing them against your own forehead?!”
“If my reaction had been even one second slower, I’d be eating hotpot with you in the afterlife right now!”
Bai Liu leaned lazily against the wall and glanced sideways at him.
“I learned that from you.”
Lu Yizhan, who less than ten minutes earlier had personally grabbed Bai Liu’s gun and pointed it at his own forehead, instantly choked.
“...Can’t you learn something good from me for once?!”
“No.”
Bai Liu curled his lip faintly and looked away.
“Isn’t this your first day knowing I only like learning bad things?”
Tang Erda had been caught completely off guard when Lu Yizhan suddenly tackled him from behind.
He had never imagined an ordinary person like Lu Yizhan would appear inside the Forbidden Zone.
For one terrifying instant, Tang Erda genuinely thought some monster controlled by Bai Liu had pounced on him.
His body reacted instinctively.
He immediately raised his gun to shoot—
But the moment he turned his head and saw Lu Yizhan’s face, he forcibly stopped himself just before firing directly into Lu Yizhan’s skull.
The bullet instead struck the wall.
Seizing that tiny opening, Lu Yizhan immediately used the close-quarters grappling techniques he’d learned at the police academy to wrench Tang Erda’s arms behind his back.
Objectively speaking, Tang Erda could have broken free easily.
His combat training and physical abilities were leagues beyond Lu Yizhan’s.
But the methods required to escape would inevitably injure him badly.
With how tightly Lu Yizhan was currently restraining him, breaking free forcefully would almost certainly snap bones.
Tang Erda did not want to seriously injure Lu Yizhan, an ordinary investigator who merely happened to know Bai Liu.
So he subconsciously held back.
Unfortunately, that restraint only made Lu Yizhan bolder.
Taking advantage of Tang Erda’s hesitation, Lu Yizhan shoved him directly against the wall and pinned both his arms behind his back using his own body weight.
Veins bulged violently along Tang Erda’s neck.
“I am your superior!” he snapped furiously. “Let go of me!”
Meanwhile, Lu Yizhan sounded utterly aggrieved despite successfully restraining him.
“Officer! Officer, please calm down! Can’t we all just sit ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) down, eat some hotpot, and talk this out?! Why does everything have to end in bloodshed?!”
“I swear, even if my friend isn’t exactly a great person, the stuff he’s done definitely doesn’t deserve the death penalty!!”
Bai Liu casually added from the side:
“Exactly, Officer.”
“I’m just a small businessman.”
“My largest transaction has never even exceeded ten thousand yuan.”
“There’s really no need to treat me like this.”
—
Author’s Note
4: Bought keyboard peripherals and an esports monitor. (Spent 8,000 yuan.)
+1: Bought cute dresses, doll-making fabric, and potion bottles. Also nearly bought a prohibited item offline before 6 discovered it and reported it to the police first. (Spent 350 yuan.)
Ke: Sports cars, a Switch, custom-made clothes, luxury belts, perfumes for every team member, etc. (Spent 6.7 million yuan.)
Lu Yizhan: SK-II, Lancôme gift sets, eighteen pairs of men’s socks, and Nanpiren underwear. Carefully calculated all discounts before purchasing. (Spent 2,100 yuan.)
6 (Bai Liu):
opens Taobao customer service chat
6: Hello.
Customer Service: Hello~ How can I help you today?
6: It’s Double Eleven, so you must be severely understaffed, right? Do you need temporary customer service workers? I can work for 20 yuan an hour.
Customer Service: ?!?!?!?
6: +200 yuan income.
Bai Liu, who had been slightly pleased after earning an extra 200 yuan, soon discovered that every single one of his teammates had spent vastly more money than he had—and had even secretly used team funds to pay off their shopping cart balances during the final ten minutes.
Additional Supplement:
2 (Tang Erda), who struggled internally and refused to use team funds:
Bought diapers → discovered quality issues → refunded.
Bought baby formula → discovered it wasn’t suitable for infants under one year old → refunded.
Bought another brand → refunded.
Bought another one → refunded.
Fast forward to uninstalling Taobao in rage.
2: Children are way too troublesome! Just pick something yourself and buy it!!
Meanwhile, Su Yang, who had been staying awake late trying to grab discounted diapers during the sale, suddenly received a 1,000 yuan red envelope from Tang Erda at one in the morning.
Su Yang: ????
