Outside the factory.
Liu Jiayi dragged the cart with the long pliers in one hand and held poison in the other. She looked around vigilantly while pulling the cart.
She was surrounded by all types of rose employee monsters. Due to the restriction of the cart, Liu Jiayi was attacked from all sides.
Fortunately, the other two members of the King's Guild came out of the factory to help her. With Qi Yifang's large-scale control skill, the attack effect of these scattered monsters was kept within a manageable range.
"Bai Liu, this person really…" Liu Jiayi leaned against a wall in exhaustion, gasping. She raised her elbows to wipe the sweat dripping down the side of her face and looked at the cart, separated from her by the long pliers. She whispered, "Isn't this cart something very important to you?"
"…You gave it to me so easily. If I don't protect it, will you use this to blackmail me later?"
A monster suddenly appeared behind Liu Jiayi. She instinctively stepped in front of the cart and waved the poison, shouting, "Go away!"
The pitch-black poison spilled into the monster's open petals. The monster melted and deformed, turning into a pool of blood.
The monster's attack caused Liu Jiayi, already exhausted from the battle, to forget to maintain a safe distance from the cart. She was affected by the thing in the cart, and her mental value dropped in stages.
Liu Jiayi shook before reaching for the rose perfume in her pocket to restore her mental value. But after pulling it out, she found that the perfume bottle was already empty.
The corpse of the monster, rotted by the poison, attracted more monsters. They surrounded Liu Jiayi and gradually tightened the circle, forcing her closer to the cart. She was increasingly affected by the god-level NPC in the cart and couldn't help feeling dizzy. She had to hold onto the long pliers to stay standing.
The god-level NPC's insides were exposed after being dismembered, and his influence on the area was much stronger than that of the previous welfare home.
"Fuck—" Liu Jiayi couldn't help cursing. She simply let go of the long pliers and continued to stand in front of the cart, poison in both hands, gritting her teeth.
"Little Witch! You've run out of perfume, right? Here!"
"I also have it! Take it!"
"Here!"
Three voices came from different directions, and three bottles of perfume were thrown from various angles. They came from the three reserve members of the King's Guild, her former teammates.
Liu Jiayi looked at the three bottles slowly falling through the air and bit her lip. The hand she wanted to extend froze—she didn't want to owe too much to others.
In the past, cooperation meant everyone fighting together to pass a level. Now, with endless monsters and limited perfume, the situation was different.
That guy Bai Liu was determined to play in the league in the future. If she met Qi Yifang and the others on the field, based on her understanding of herself, these unresolved debts would make her hesitate. That wasn't good.
However, she wouldn't last long if she didn't take them.
"Jiayi!" Qi Yifang saw that Liu Jiayi wasn't ready to grab the perfume and, anxious, called out her name. "Take them! Your mental value is about to drop below 40!"
Just then, the perfume about to fall in front of Liu Jiayi was swept into the arms of a human wind that suddenly came over the factory wall where Liu Jiayi was leaning. He then threw it back along the original trajectory.
Qi Yifang and the other two were a bit flustered as they caught the perfume being thrown back.
"Thank you for your concern and help with my Little Witch."
Bai Liu landed lightly on the ground like a leaf, took the cart from Liu Jiayi's hand, and moved it toward him. At the same time, he threw her a bottle of perfume. Then he turned his head without hesitation and swung his whip at the approaching monsters, creating a semi-circular vacuum of empty space.
He slowly raised his eyes and looked at them from a distance, smiling hypocritically yet politely. "However, we might be enemies in the future. It's better not to be so close, right, Jiayi?"
Liu Jiayi sighed with relief.
Out of a nurse's first instinct, Liu Jiayi glanced at Bai Liu's body to make sure he had no major injuries. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and said sarcastically, "I thought you would swallow these three bottles of perfume alone."
"I originally wanted to do that." Bai Liu turned to look at Liu Jiayi with a smile. "It's just that you wouldn't want me to swallow them alone—or actually, you don't want to owe them. This is why you didn't take them."
Liu Jiayi sprayed herself with perfume twice, took a deep breath, and snorted while glaring at Bai Liu. "You talk too much!"
Liu Jiayi restored her mental value and glanced around. "Where is that Captain Tang?"
Bai Liu swept the approaching monsters away with his whip again and replied, "I asked him to send me out to support you first. Meanwhile, he's cleaning up the monsters inside the factory."
"Wait for him to clear all the monsters in the factory, and he will come out to join us."
"Finish clearing?" Liu Jiayi frowned. "Most of the monsters are concentrated in the factory. Can he really clean them up alone…?"
Liu Jiayi couldn't help wondering if Bai Liu trusted the ability of Captain Tang, who had joined them halfway.
Almost at the same moment Liu Jiayi finished speaking, a man used one hand to support himself on the high wall before her and flipped over in a skillful, clean, and precise posture.
At the same time, his other hand threw the strangely shaped revolver, around one meter in length. To relieve the recoil of continuous shooting, he held the gun under his arm, allowing his waist to maintain a standard, powerful posture during the wall flip.
The wind blew up the hair on his forehead, revealing a pair of focused blue eyes.
As he was still flipping over the wall, he started shooting indiscriminately at the monsters constantly approaching Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
Bang bang bang bang!
The light of the fire and the smoke from the gunfire instantly drew a line in front of Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi that no one dared to cross.
The dense layer of monsters that had suppressed Liu Jiayi so severely was turned to ashes in the blink of an eye. Tang Erda landed on the ground, blackened by the bullets on one knee. Then he stood up with a solemn expression.
The peculiar long revolver folded and retracted with a clicking sound. Within a second, it became a normal revolver, roughly the length of his palm.
He released the magazine and manually ejected the shell casings. He replaced the bullets and turned to look at Bai Liu calmly, as if asking what else he needed to do.
"Wow, that's faster than I thought." Bai Liu raised an eyebrow and looked at Tang Erda. "You finished cleaning up the monsters in the factory?"
There was no expression on Tang Erda's face, as if he didn't feel he had done anything remarkable. He simply replied with one word, "Yes."
Tang Erda frowned, as if he felt he wasn't doing well enough, and added, "The workshops for factory workers and above can't be entered without keys. This means the inside of the Rose Factory hasn't been cleared, but the rest has."
Bai Liu revealed a very satisfied smile. "Well done."
Wasn't this more than doing well?
Liu Jiayi glanced in disbelief at the empty, blackened land in front of her. Then she looked up at Tang Erda.
The members of the King's Guild on the periphery were almost dumbfounded. They stared at the gun in Tang Erda's hands with frightened expressions, their thoughts aligned with Liu Jiayi's.
This is a fking level-three game!*
This guy's attack power was crushing flat land here. It was outrageous.
To learn, Liu Jiayi had watched small TV videos of many league players over the past two years. However, apart from Spades, she had never seen such terrifying skills and destructive attack power.
This was no longer a strength that could be summed up as a mere "league player."
Liu Jiayi looked Tang Erda up and down. This was the first time she had faced this opponent squarely after entering the game.
She quickly calculated Tang Erda's panel in her mind.
Almost a single shot could defeat an explosive S-grade monster, and the single-shot attack value was absolutely in the tens of thousands.
Well-trained muscles, excellent combat awareness, fast mission execution, timely defense that ensured the safety of teammates, and the process of reporting to Bai Liu just now—it was very similar to the information feedback from the front line to a tactical division.
Liu Jiayi looked at Tang Erda in amazement. This guy was a first-class league attacker who had experienced hundreds of battles.
His attack data and combat quality were even more exaggerated than those of many top teams. According to Liu Jiayi's understanding, the attackers of the King's Guild team were likely unable to fight face-to-face with Tang Erda.
How had Bai Liu managed to recruit such a hidden first-class attacker?
Now it seemed that Bai Liu had taken this terrifying person for himself!
Due to Tang Erda's strong sense of presence, Liu Jiayi, who held a certain hostility toward him, couldn't help taking two steps back to stand behind Bai Liu.
She looked down at the shortened revolver in Tang Erda's hand and tentatively asked, "Why did you change the skill weapon after leaving the factory and joining us? The weapon just now had significantly higher attack power."
Tang Erda glanced at Liu Jiayi and replied lightly, "This is enough if there is no need to clean them up quickly."
D*mn! Did this make sense? Liu Jiayi grabbed the hem of Bai Liu's clothes and silently cursed in her heart. She filed away the fact that the attack value of his skill weapon should exceed 10,000 in her mental notes about Captain Tang.
No wonder this person could solo a level-three instance. With this level of strength, he could walk sideways through the game.
She thought about her previous opposition to him… Liu Jiayi caressed her heart, still filled with lingering fear, and glanced at Bai Liu, who was still smiling in front of her. She couldn't help but switch to a '= =' expression.
In every way, Bai Liu had survived such unfortunate encounters with this opponent—it was amazing.
But if such a person really joined…
Liu Jiayi took a deep breath.
Based on the strange events that had happened to Bai Liu, could this strange team maybe really win the league?
—————————————————
After basically cleaning up the little monsters outside the factory, Bai Liu opened the cloth wrapped around the cart and lowered Tawil's head.
Snow-white skin grew rapidly along the lines of the neck joint, and the originally dead face gained a certain vitality. The long silver eyelashes trembled slightly, and a strange, mysterious silver-blue luster spread along the long curls scattered on the ground. The empty chest cavity began to slightly contract and expand from side to side, as if a heart were beating inside.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked at Tawil, who was lying motionless on his knees. He was silent for a moment.
Then he suddenly stretched out his hand and placed it in the empty chest cavity. He seemed to be playing a game, clenching his fist to imitate the appearance of a heart. At the same time, his mouth softly imitated the sound of a beating heart, and a very strange smile spread across his face.
"Thump, thump thump…."
[You said that your heart won't stop beating. If I dig out your heart, will it continue to beat in my hand?]
The 14-year-old jokingly clenched his hand and viciously shook it in front of Xie Ta. At the same time, Bai Liu's (6) face was extremely close to Xie Ta's, as his mouth imitated the sound of a heart beating. [Thump thump.]
[If you are curious…] Xie Ta grabbed Bai Liu (6)'s hand that was imitating a heart and pressed it against his own chest. He looked up and casually said, [Touch it and you will know how my heart beats.]
Xie Ta's hand was covering the back of Bai Liu (6)'s hand, and his heart was beating against Bai Liu (6)'s palm.
They remained deadlocked like this for a long time. Neither withdrew their hands, and the heartbeats of the two gradually became disordered.
This lasted until Xie Ta asked softly, [Is it 'thump thump thump—thump thump'?]
[No.] Bai Liu (6) didn't know why his mouth felt dry. His Adam's apple moved up and down, and his voice was hoarse as he answered, [It is 'thump thump thump—thump thump thump—thump thump thump thump.' In this way, your heart is racing.]
[If I'm like this… is it abnormal?] Xie Ta asked.
Bai Liu (6) looked away and wanted to withdraw his hand. [I don't know.]
However, Xie Ta didn't let him withdraw. He calmly placed his hand on Bai Liu (6)'s chest, as if to feel his heartbeat. Then Xie Ta seemed to laugh very lightly. [It seems normal.]
[Your heart is beating like this, and so is mine.]
"What is he doing?" Liu Jiayi watched Bai Liu holding the god-level NPC on his knees with doubt. He had his head lowered, and it wasn't clear what he was doing, but he was making a strange noise with his mouth. "Isn't he the one least affected by the god-level NPC? Even he can't hold it this time!"
Liu Jiayi grew anxious. She wanted to move forward and interrupt Bai Liu. "Even if the impact is small, this doesn't mean there is no impact! Have Bai Liu hurry and put it down and move away!"
Tang Erda held out a hand to stop Liu Jiayi. "Wait."
Liu Jiayi raised her poison in an alert manner and looked at him. "What? Are you going to let Bai Liu hold it like this and go crazy?"
Halfway through, Liu Jiayi suddenly stopped. She saw a very shocked expression on Tang Erda's face.
He seemed stunned and taken aback by what he saw. It took him a long time before he barely managed to open his mouth.
"…When encountering a scarring scene, mechanically repeating the stereotypical actions related to this scene from memory." Tang Erda was almost unsteady as he muttered to himself. "…This is a typical symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder."
Bai Liu had the same severe post-traumatic stress disorder as him.
He hadn't shown it at all.