C District.
The black whip was as flexible as a cobra raising its head. It snaked into the gap between Bai Liu's cuff and the skin of his wrist, winding all the way up to his shoulder. Then, the whip turned, and bone spurs protruded from both sides with a "shing" sound, piercing into Bai Liu's flesh and the crevices between his bones.
Bai Liu (6) dragged the whip's tail, his wrist pressing down as he pulled forward. The movement looked very light, but the force was great enough to drag Bai Liu across the ground.
The whip wrapped tightly around Bai Liu's arm, rotating several times like the blades of a juicer, tearing the flesh and bone of Bai Liu's left arm into chunks.
Bai Liu was dragged in front of Bai Liu (6). He saw Bai Liu (6) raise his eyes and smile lightly at him, saying, "The first step should be to disarm the opponent, to rip off both arms, right?"
This was what Bai Liu had said to Yuan Guang before. Now, Bai Liu (6) was saying it as if it were a joke, even with a gentle tone.
"However, disarmament doesn't have much use for us, does it?"
As soon as Bai Liu (6) finished speaking, Bai Liu quickly distanced himself from him. He bit a bottle of antidote out of his shirt pocket and drank it down with a calm expression. The arm that had been shredded by the whip began to grow back instantly.
"Being your own enemy is really troublesome." Bai Liu (6) withdrew his blood-stained black bone whip, frowning and shaking his head in feigned annoyance. He then raised his eyes and smiled at Bai Liu. "Although I can rely on experience to always maintain the upper hand, it doesn't seem very easy to beat you."
"I believe you think so, too."
Blood stained Bai Liu's pale side profile and lips. He wiped it with his hand and replied faintly, "Maybe."
The smile on Bai Liu (6)'s face deepened. "Because you knew from the very beginning that you couldn't beat me, so you didn't plan to beat me, right?"
"You just wanted to delay time. What are you waiting for?"
"You didn't use your own teammates' moves from start to finish during the process of fighting me, leaving more room for them to survive. Could it be that you are waiting for your teammates to win and then come over to help you?"
Bai Liu did not deny it. He said calmly, "They have a better chance of winning against your subordinates than I do of winning against you."
The smile on Bai Liu (6)'s face became somewhat intrigued. "You think they are stronger than my teammates?"
"No. On the contrary, I think they are far inferior to your teammates, not even on the same magnitude. But comparing the gap between you and me, if this game must be gambled on once—"
"I bet they win."
"So that's how it is?" Bai Liu (6) curved the corners of his mouth with interest. The whip in his hand disappeared, turning into a pitch-black short dagger. He spun it casually between two fingers, then grabbed it firmly with an underhand grip.
Bai Liu looked down at the dagger—he recognized it as Liu Huai's dagger.
The Bai Liu (6) of this world had not signed Liu Huai's skill to Mu Ke, but had possessed it himself.
Bai Liu (6) looked at Bai Liu with a smile that was not quite a smile. "I thought it was because you had developed some inappropriate protective instinct for these useless teammates who sold their souls to you?"
Bai Liu looked at Bai Liu (6) without dodging or avoiding, his tone indifferent. "Is it not a matter of course for a property owner to have a possessive instinct to protect their own property?"
Bai Liu (6) walked toward Bai Liu unhurriedly. His expression was obscured by the suddenly rising dust, making it impossible to see clearly. One could only hear an extremely ethereal, light laugh:
"Is it just a protective instinct for property?"
"The only time property has value is when it is reasonably consumed by the holder. This is the same principle as currency."
"Circulation and consumption are the ways that make them most valuable."
Bai Liu (6)'s laughter came from all directions in the wind:
"I have never seen a Bai Liu (6) who only collects property without consuming it. Such a miserly approach is not something a smart person would take. You should know this better than anyone—"
"—An overly close, intense protective instinct can only arise from one thing: a kind of irrational thing that makes you unable to view them as property."
[System Notice: Player Bai Liu (6) loads Player Liu Huai's panel (Note: Player Liu Huai is in a deceased ghost state in reality, has self-consciousness, and this player's panel can be used). Using the character's personal skill (Flash Strike), one can instantly move to any position on the map!]
When this voice came out from the dust, Bai Liu heard the sound of a sharp weapon cutting through the air at an extremely close distance behind his ear.
A right hand wearing a black glove rested lightly on Bai Liu's shoulder. Bai Liu (6)'s face broke through the fog, appearing behind Bai Liu's ear with a smile in his eyes.
Bai Liu (6)'s left hand wrapped around Bai Liu's neck. The dagger he held was pressed against Bai Liu's throat. He slowly raised the tip of the knife, forcing Bai Liu, who was being held hostage, to tilt his head back along the arc of the raised knife, leaning his head on Bai Liu (6)'s shoulder to listen to him speak.
Bai Liu (6) whispered in Bai Liu's ear in a tone that was like a sigh, filled with a smile:
"You can't bear to spend these assets; you can't bear to let them die."
"You have feelings for them, Bai Liu."
Before his words were finished, Bai Liu (6) cleanly and decisively held the dagger in a backhand grip and slashed diagonally upward. Warm blood surged out, staining the crudely drawn inverted cross pattern in marker on the skin in the center of Bai Liu's collarbone.
The pattern absorbed Bai Liu's blood, lit up extremely faintly, and began to rotate at a speed so slow that it was completely invisible.
Bai Liu whipped his backhand at Bai Liu (6) behind him and then, without stopping, continued to use the whip to smash the five buildings around them.
In the chaos of the five buildings crashing toward Bai Liu (6), Bai Liu found a building and ducked inside. He clutched his own throat, which was split and seeping blood, leaned his back against the wall, and calmly gulped down a bottle of antidote.
This was the last bottle of antidote he had. If he wanted to use the antidote again, he would have to connect to Liu Jiayi's panel.
But that meant Liu Jiayi could not use her skills.
Bai Liu closed his eyes and took two deep breaths. He heard the sound of Bai Liu (6)'s footsteps walking into the building where he was hiding, clear and approaching him step by step.
Bai Liu (6) unhurriedly held the blood-stained dagger with the web of his gloved right hand and cleaned it. "Are you still planning to continue delaying time?"
"If I guessed correctly, the antidote you just used was the last bottle. Of course, you can switch to a teammate's panel to use their skills and continue to use the antidote."
Bai Liu (6)'s voice was full of smiles. "However, your little teammate's life cannot be guaranteed. She seems to be a bit different from my teammates; she doesn't seem to be very good at poison skills?"
Bai Liu did not make a sound.
"How truly calm. Even though you made such a choice driven by emotion, you seem to be as calm as if you don't care about the other party at all," Bai Liu (6) said in a tone of praise. "If I were not you, perhaps I would have been deceived by you."
"However, the plan you chose to have your teammates resist is indeed the only plan that could possibly reverse the situation and beat me."
"Because they have weaknesses, and I have no weaknesses."
Bai Liu (6) said with a smile, "God has no weaknesses. Things without weaknesses are invincible, so your judgment is correct. You chose a correct path."
"But do you want to hear my judgment?"
Bai Liu (6)'s voice grew closer and closer to where Bai Liu was hiding. The dagger in his hand disappeared and turned into a black bone whip again.
Bai Liu moved slightly to the side, away from the wall. His dark eyes tracked the bone whip in Bai Liu (6)'s hand, and the moment Bai Liu (6) spoke again, he struck the wall without hesitation!
A black and a white bone whip lashed against the wall at almost the same time. The wall shattered into pieces in an instant, splashing and scattering. The force of the whips did not diminish, and the moment the wall shattered, they connected in mid-air!
Bai Liu glared fiercely and quickly pulled the bone whip away. His left hand gripped one side of the bone whip and made a blocking motion toward a certain direction. The next second, Bai Liu (6) moved over with a movement speed that could almost only be seen as an afterimage, holding the bone whip and swinging it over.
Bai Liu was smashed into the wall by Bai Liu (6)'s bone whip. A dent of more than half a meter was smashed into the wall behind him, and his shirt was almost completely dyed red by the blood seeping from his wounds within a second.
Bai Liu (6) dragged the whip to Bai Liu, lowering his eyes to look at Bai Liu, who was hanging his head and bleeding profusely, with a pool of blood accumulating at his feet:
"My judgment is that the first of your teammates to die will be Mu Ke."
—————————————————
D District.
Mu Ke was smashed into the wall by a backhand slap that hit his sternum. After coughing a few times violently, he swayed and tried to crawl up.
Before Mu Ke could climb up, [Mu Ke] stepped on his shoulder from above. The leather shoe pressed down little by little, forcing Mu Ke's shoulder down. He did not stop even after Mu Ke's whole face was pressed against the ground; he kept applying force.
Mu Ke's shoulder made the sound of shattering bone. His back convulsed and twitched due to the pain. Mu Ke braced himself against the floor, gritting his teeth as he tried to crawl up, only to be stepped down by [Mu Ke] again.
[Mu Ke] looked down from his elevated position, contemptuously evaluating the struggling Mu Ke on the ground. "What a fragile and ugly body. It's so cheap that I feel disgusted just looking at it."
"I really don't know how you, with this body, dare to stand next to the Guild Leader and reach out to take the dagger he handed to you?"
[Mu Ke] was still applying force. Mu Ke's shoulder had already completely collapsed. He curled up in pain and coughed twice.
His heart, along with his body, surged with intense pain, wave after wave, making Mu Ke confused and unable to judge the current situation for a time.
Everything in front of him became blurry.
[Mu Ke] grabbed Mu Ke's hair and lifted his weak body, forcing Mu Ke to look at him, and then asked coldly, "Where is your dagger? Take it out."
"Take it out now, and I can still cleanly end this worthless life of yours."
The bruised and battered Mu Ke, who was being lifted by his hair, looked at the person opposite him through his dizzy vision. After being dazed for a while, he slowly remembered.
Oh, the dagger. Right, the dagger—his skill weapon.
As long as he took out that skill weapon, [Mu Ke] would quickly snatch it away and use it to counter-kill him.
Mu Ke tried several times to use the dagger to attack [Mu Ke], but his speed and combat experience were completely unable to keep up with [Mu Ke]. As soon as the dagger was taken out, before Mu Ke could even make the first cut, it was already in [Mu Ke]'s hands.
Upon realizing that the [Dagger] was just a weapon he was giving to the opponent, Mu Ke quickly stopped constantly summoning the dagger.
Then [Mu Ke] began to torture him with physical skills, forcing him to take out the dagger. In terms of grappling skills, panels, and reaction speed, Mu Ke was far inferior to his opponent. The only thing he could compare to his opponent was that he had skills.
But in his hands, when facing [Mu Ke], this skill was like a child holding a precious sword, only providing weapons for the opponent.
It was clearly something Bai Liu had given him, yet it was snatched away time and time again.
…He was really as [Mu Ke] said, truly a disgusting, worthless thing.
The lifted Mu Ke moved his right index finger, which had been broken into several pieces by [Mu Ke], weakly. Blood dripped down his clothes. He struggled to open his blood-crusted eyes, looked at the cold [Mu Ke], and suddenly started laughing neurotically while coughing.
Mu Ke spat a mouthful of blood foam onto [Mu Ke]'s face and said in a hoarse voice, word by word:
"I will absolutely never use a dagger again. You can torture me."
"—Even if you torture me to death, I will absolutely never let you touch the dagger Bai Liu gave me again."
Mu Ke raised his chin slightly, looking down at the darkened-looking [Mu Ke] with his blood-stained face. He forced the corners of his mouth to hook. "Because that is something Bai Liu gave me."
"You of that world are not worthy of possessing it, and you of this world are not worthy of touching it."
"Bai Liu thinks I have the value to deserve it, so I have it." Mu Ke's laughter became more wanton. "You, this non-skill user who envies me, your value to your President is not even as good as a dagger of mine, right?"
[Mu Ke]'s face turned completely dark, but he soon returned to normal. He raised his hand to pull out the silk scarf from his suit pocket and slowly wiped the blood foam from his face. He stared at Mu Ke and narrowed his eyes dangerously. "It seems my patience has given you the confidence to talk nonsense."
"In that case, the game ends here."
[Mu Ke] tore off the bandage wrapped around his neck, circled it around Mu Ke's neck with a backhand motion, and gathered his hands into a circle, his eyes filled with a fierce, angry aura. "Die."
Mu Ke held onto the bandage that was tightening rapidly around his neck. The force of the bandage almost shrank his already slender neck by a circle, and the diameter was still shrinking.
On the wall, the shadow of Mu Ke's feet struggling on the ground was cast. The movements of the shadow became smaller and smaller, and then—
The head of the shadow was severed by the bandage and rolled down, bouncing twice on the ground before rolling to the red wooden table leg. A stream of liquid surged out from the cross-section of the headless shadow body.
The headless shadow body fell to the ground without moving.
[Mu Ke] did not move. He lowered his eyes, turned around, retracted the bandage, and whispered to the gem cufflinks on his cuffs, "President, mission accomplished. I will return immediately."
The headless body lying in the pool of blood moved its hand slightly, as if it wanted to hold onto something, but then let go powerlessly.
[System Notice: Player Mu Ke's health points are dropping rapidly!! 22…17…13… Warning, warning! Player health points are below 10!]
Mu Ke's head, by the table leg, looked at the departing [Mu Ke] with eyes wide open in death. His eyelids closed slowly, and countless memories overlapped in his brain.
"What is the essence of an assassin?" Mu Ke was nervous, his legs close together, sitting in the meeting room of the Wandering Circus. "I'm sorry to waste your time, but I really want to ask. What kind of assassin is the best in Bai Liu's mind? I want to find my own positioning."
There were only Mu Ke and Bai Liu, who was sitting opposite him, in the meeting room.
Bai Liu leaned back in his chair, raising his hand to support his chin, deep in thought. "I actually don't like assassins."
Mu Ke was about to be teary-eyed. "Eh?! Bai Liu doesn't like assassins?!"
"Yeah. Assassins mostly mean sacrifice, using everything to lower the opponent's vigilance, enduring humiliation to wait for that final strike. Even the best assassins are mostly in a situation of perishing together." Bai Liu raised his eyes to look at Mu Ke. "This is not my style. I hope to have more remnants."
Mu Ke bit his lower lip tightly. "Then I'll give up…" assassin skills, change to another path…
Bai Liu calmly interrupted Mu Ke's words. "Do you like assassins?"
Mu Ke was stunned. He lowered his head, his hands braced against his knees, slowly clenching his pants, and then said very softly, "I didn't like them before, because I wanted to live a little longer…"
"But after watching Liu Huai do what he wanted to do so desperately, I feel…"
Mu Ke's tone paused.
"I didn't have any people or things I wanted to pursue before. I was just living in fear of death." Mu Ke's head bowed lower and lower, and his voice grew quieter. "But… if I could be like Liu Huai, paying everything to protect the people I want to protect the most."
"…I feel that, in that case, death is not so scary."
Mu Ke opened his mouth, and a tear hit the back of his hand. "I think that kind of assassin is very cool."
"Not at all like me, so cowardly, so afraid of death. Shining bright. I want to become an assassin who can face death bravely for someone."
"Yeah." Bai Liu said plainly, "Then go become one."
An assassin must have no presence, must not be flashy, must minimize the enemy's vigilance toward oneself to the maximum extent, must make the enemy feel that they are absolutely harmless, and then—
One strike, kill.
Nothing makes people less vigilant than a dying person who has lost their head.
[System Warning: Player Mu Ke's health points are continuing to drop… 8… 6…]
The headless body slowly climbed up from the ground. Its hands were filled with smoke, converging into a sharp black short knife.
Now that it had no head, it was equivalent to having no vision, hearing, or sense of smell. The only thing that allowed it to perceive the environment was touch.
Mu Ke counted softly in his heart… one step, two steps…
Don't be impatient. An assassin must wait for the best timing.
It clearly remembered the layout of the entire room. This set of footsteps could only be heading toward the southeast corner. [Mu Ke] was going to get the land deed he had put over there. There was a monster from the cemetery building over there. If [Mu Ke] wanted to get the land deed, according to his understanding of [himself]'s style, to avoid accidents, he would definitely completely destroy the monster and his own corpse before leaving.
Then this meant [Mu Ke] would definitely turn back.
Before [Mu Ke] turned back to completely deal with his [headless corpse], he chose to deal with the monster's corpse first.
The footsteps stopped.
One, two…—It's now!
[System Notice: Player Mu Ke uses personal skill (Flash Strike). Player triggers critical hit at low health, damage doubled!]
On the wall, the headless corpse jumped suddenly from the ground onto the adult man's back, fiercely stabbing into the opponent's heart. [Mu Ke]'s pupils contracted, and an unspeakable, intense pain spread from [Mu Ke]'s heart, causing his movements to stiffen for one or two seconds.
As expected!!
This guy didn't heal his own heart disease!! This was his weakness! He won the bet!
Mu Ke continued to attack fiercely, twisting the hilt of the knife. If he had a head now, he would have definitely roared out with all his might. But he didn't, so he only silently, with a force that made his whole body tremble, made this assassin's final strike.
Wait until [Mu Ke] was completely motionless before Mu Ke limply rolled off his back.
He crawled weakly on the ground, crawled to the side of his head, lay down to connect his body to the cross-section of his head, and then searched his body for a long time. He found a bottle of half-drunk antidote and poured it toward the cross-section of his neck.
The wound between the cross-section and the head slowly healed. Mu Ke coughed twice, his face pale, his eyes staring blankly as he collapsed to the ground. The system prompt sounded in his ear.
[System Notice: Player Mu Ke uses skill Flash Strike to kill (Summoned Object Mu Ke)]
Mu Ke gripped the dagger in his hand, let out a long breath, tightened his grip on the dagger in his hand, and couldn't help but close his eyes and smile.