Huai Shi spaced out for a moment. He took a whiff of the hand-rolled cigarette that lacked a cigarette butt. There was a spice in it that made it smell refreshing.
“Metal reinforced torso, the incense nourishes the soul.” Crow said calmly, “You will get used to it in the future, but be careful not to get high off it so casually. An addiction would be very troublesome.
“Except for the rare Millenium-Incense, most of the other incenses will stimulate the elementium to achieve the rousing effect—just like an upgraded version of Red Bull and cigarettes. You’ll become a moron if you abuse its usage.”
Huai Shi nodded. He said nothing more.
After a moment, he looked at the elementium flame dissipating on his fingertips. Then, he stretched his neck.
“Again.”
With that, darkness struck.
Soon, he opened his eyes again. He sighed. “Continue.”
Crow nodded.
The long afternoon soon passed under their constant repetition. During the last time he opened his eyes, it was then already dark. His surroundings were quiet and still.
“Do you want to rest for a while?” Crow asked, “After all, you’ve reached your limit.”
“One more time.”
Huai Shi finally realized the distress of heavily addicted gamers. Rubbing his eyebrows, he yawned. “I’m getting the hang of the trick.”
“Okay, so, one last time?”
“One last time.” Huai Shi nodded.
Thus, in a trance, he opened his eyes in the car compartment. Without saying anything, he listened quietly to the order that was coming from ahead.
He even took advantage of the sliver of time to close his eyes and sleep for a while.
“Wake me when we arrive.”
He patted the shoulder of his teammate next to him, his actions very affectionate.
Soon after, the car stopped outside the village.
He was rudely awakened by a kick.
Huai Shi smiled unconsciously. After getting up miserably, he set off after his teammate. After briefly lurking in the bushes, he suddenly patted the shoulder of the man in front of him.
His teammate turned back unpleasantly.
Then, his teammate saw him reaching out his hand expressionlessly. With a dagger in his hand, he stabbed the man in the throat. A second later, the man dropped to the ground.
“Goodbye.”
Huai Shi murmured softly.
Blood soaked the weeds on the dried ground.
Above the barren land, he crawled slowly toward the direction of the other teammate. His movements were quick as he used all four of his limbs efficiently.
He was like a spider crawling through thorns.
One by one, he went about his business. Once in awhile, information would be reported on the walkie-talkie, heightening his senses. He was enjoying the thrill of taking out his teammates.
The experience of being a backstabbing whistle-blower was really pleasant. Huai Shi felt that he was starting to become proficient at this.
His pleasure continued until the gunshots of Team A starting to sound out in battle.
He sighed. He heard the alarm from the walkie-talkie. Someone had noticed that something was wrong. After all, there were 4 or 5 people who had not answered the radio for more than 5 minutes.
It seemed that he could not hide anymore.
He shook his head and sat on the ground. Then, he pulled out the safety pins of a few grenades and, after weighing them a couple of times, threw them hard.
Thunderous explosions rang out in the distance.
The sound of a gunshot sounded. The shrub next to his was hit by bullets. It was as though a field was being torn apart by a storm as the shrub trembled non-stop.
Huai Shi sighed. He raised his sleeve to wipe off the blood on his face. Then, he got up from amongst the corpses of his teammates. His uniform had been stained scarlet by the blood of his friendly forces.
A huge patch of red colored his buttocks.
“How come I look like a monkey with hemorrhoids?”
Huai Shi criticized himself for a bit. Picking up the assault rifle, he walked in the direction of the gunshots, shouting loudly, “Don’t shoot, I’m an ally!”
He then aimed the rifle at the dumbfounded faces and pulled the trigger.
He swept across the whole area, emptying a whole magazine of bullets without any restraint. Then came another magazine. At the same time, he was shot in the shoulder. It was as if there was a big hole in his shoulder that had been torn open by a chisel. Under the intense pain, he seemed to not be able to feel his left arm anymore.
“This is too much, buddy. Why did I break my arm again?”
Huai Shi sighed helplessly. “I haven’t learned to change the magazine with a single hand, eh?”
He threw his assault rifle away. Then, he walked towards the village after pulling out a handgun.
“7794! What are you doing!” An angry roar came from the walkie-talkie.
“I’m taking out my teammates. Can’t you tell, my friend? I choose Black Lily, you choose Hanzō. Together, we can rebuild the empire.”
However, there was no further response from the walkie-talkie. There was only a sullen silence until the indifferent voice of the instructor sounded out again. “Change of plans, eliminate 7794.”
He was being targeted.
“Don’t make a decision so rashly.”
Huai Shi sighed. Before the channel was cut off, he lifted the walkie-talkie. He spoke tentatively, “I think I can be rescued.”
Bang!
Huai Shi pulled his face away instinctively just in time to see the walkie-talkie in his hand explode.
It was a sniper bullet.
With the strong reminder of the death premonition, he quickly got into a low crawl position and crept into the intricate alleys of the village. He heard footsteps from all directions.
He counted silently in his heart.
In the original carriage, 7 on the left were Team B and 6 on the right were Team A. There were 13 people including himself.
Thanks to the whistle-blower’s backstabbing, now, 6 out of the 7 in Team B were dead. They had been wiped out. It stands to reason that side A of the magnetic tape should be released after side B is done. Although side A had yet to be released, Huai Shi felt that it was inevitable.
Fortunately, the location was not far away.
He gestured the direction. Raising his pistol, he shot the head of the reckless man in front of him before firing two additional shots when the man fell to the ground. After this, he released the magazine to check it. There were 6 bullets. This was enough. 1 bullet for each person… just kidding. He was not a godlike gunner. In this kind of messy fight, he’d be considered a lucky bastard if he was able to hit each person with a single shot.
Maybe he could try to fire 5 shots randomly. If these 5 shots did not kill 6 people on the opposing side (with 1 shot coincidentally killing 2 people), then the remaining shot could be used on himself.
A violent death, free from humiliation… This sounded too romantic.
The sound of footsteps gradually approached from the distance. He climbed over the wall after jumping out of the alley. After so many death cycles, he had mastered certain sequences.
Compared to the malicious design of VR games nowadays, this kind of setting which allowed you to reduce the difficulty just by backstabbing was simply too kind.
Then, in the yard behind the wall, he saw those terrified eyes again.
The rickety woman was still looking at the sky.
Her eyes were dull.
She futilely tried to hide her 2 scrawny children behind herself.
However, they were dead now. Bullet holes and blood littered their bodies as they lay on the ground. The dust blew in the wind, covering their hollow pupils.
“Why you guys again?”
Huai Shi spaced out for a moment. Scratching his head, he wanted to say something. However, he was at a loss for words. Although he knew that this was a record and that they were false NPCs, he still felt an indescribable sense of regret.
This was not a game.
“Sorry.”
Huai Shi lowered his head. He dared not look at the pair of eyes that were now covered in dust again.
“I will leave now,” he said.
After opening the door with great effort, Huai Shi rushed into the road before jabbing the barrel of his gun into the opponent’s eye socket. “Die——”
Crash!
A splatter of blood and plasma burst from the back of the man’s head. He had no time to look around. Huai Shi fled desperately, staggering, trying to get away from the courtyard.
However, he could never forget those eyes.
When he tried to think of all this as a game, the countless deaths in the records awakened him from his sweet dream. This was not a game, this was a record, a piece of history.
A piece of history that had happened in this corner of the world.
Trivial slaughtering and trivial deaths.
They were all dead.
Those eyes that had lost their radiance were gradually covered with dust, buried away, and forgotten. They were not even worth remembering…
Huai Shi half-ran, half-staggered, moving forward tiredly in the breach. After kicking open a door, he finally arrived at his destination.
In the room, the old man curled up in the corner seemed to be taken aback. He subconsciously hugged the thing in his arms tightly.
“Let go of it.”
Huai Shi leaned against the door frame, panting. He raised his pistol. “Give me that.”
The man said something. He hesitated, but then let go. Feeling fearful of Huai Shi, he crawled to the ground.
“Thank you.”
Huai Shi panted. Carrying the object, he took two steps backward. Then, he turned around to leave. After taking a few steps, he could not help turning back and shouting behind him, “Be at ease, I will save you.”
No one responded.
The people in this village had probably died a long time ago.
He could not save them.
Damn it…
Raising his arm, he rubbed his eyes. He mumbled softly, “Damn it…”
Immediately after, he heard the bellow of the broken gate in the courtyard. The sound of the assault rifle sounded like a rainstorm, penetrating every inch of space.
Huai Shi curled up behind the stone mill as he heard the sound of debris flying overhead.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself despite the heavy smell of smoke invading his nostril. Then, Huai Shi got up while carrying his newly-acquired RPG on his shoulder. He tried his best to show his teammates his most brilliant smile.
“Hey, how are you guys?”
Then he pulled the trigger.
“—Justice, rains from above!!!”
Boom!
During the violent explosion, the fire and smoke rose to the sky. A mist of blood permeated the air, dancing intimately together with the dust. In the end, it turned into a fine rain, pattering against the wall and the ground.
As well as Huai Shi’s body.
Silence once again filled the air.
Huai Shi dropped the launcher in his hands. He walked toward the center of the village after crossing the messy courtyard and street.
He walked to the man who was waiting there.
Seemingly surprised by this result, the instructor who was standing there with his hands behind his head was stunned for a moment. Then, he lifted his hands. Taking off the sunglasses from his face, he threw them on the ground.
“Although they are all semi-finished products, they were, nevertheless, all destroyed here… I really didn’t expect you to be so ballsy, 7794.”
His grey eyes stared coldly at Huai Shi’s face. Immediately after, he beckoned at the teenager to come closer. “It seems that I need to give you another lesson.”
“Likewise.”
Huai Shi stretched his neck. He then discarded the holster as well as the quick response vest before pulling out an army knife with one hand. After this, he adopted a pose that was completely different from his opposing party.
Unlike the kickboxing technique of the Roman military, this was a classic stance from East Xia. It was an entry-level technique that even the instructor almost did not recognize.
“Come.”
Huai Shi grinned. “Watch me punch the crap out of you with Military Boxing.”
“Very well.”
The instructor seemed to come to a realization when he heard this. His face gradually stiffened with anger as the bones in his body ground angrily. He growled in a deep voice, “Very well, 7794.
“I promise, before you die, you will experience—hell! ”