Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 156
Dark clouds blanketed the sky.
Here, the heavens never showed a bright side. It was as if this was an age deprived of natural sunlight.
And yet the sky never turned truly black, always suffused with a hazy gray—the color of an incense stick burned to its very end.
Under such a sky Zhou Qian’s face looked unnaturally pale, the gleam in his eyes even bordering on the uncanny. Confronted with a man like this, no one would dare underestimate him.
The moment he saw Zhou Qian, Xu Yang almost forgot that he was, in fact, only an ordinary player.
Xu Yang finished his sentence, waved his hand again, and five more members of the Feidu Legion appeared.
Every one of them raised a black gun and aimed at Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou.
Zhou Qian’s gaze swept across those dark muzzles one by one. Then he met Xu Yang’s eyes and said with a smile, “All my teammates have ended up in the purple camp. It’s true I’m at a huge disadvantage by myself. So what should I do? Looks like I really do have to help you. Except—”
Before Zhou Qian could say more, Xu Yang cut him off, eyes narrowing. “Enough nonsense. Start destroying the wristbands, now.”
He stepped forward, gun barrel tilting up to rest right between Bai Zhou’s brows.
Sensing Bai Zhou might make a move, Zhou Qian quickly stepped toward him.
Seeing Zhou Qian move, Xu Yang and his five subordinates all swung their guns onto him. “No tricks. I’m curious what the white wristband does, but it’s not your life-preserver. If you don’t do as I say, I will shoot!”
“Really? Out of curiosity—do you know who Ruan Mei is?” Zhou Qian suddenly asked.
“Cut the crap and swap those wristbands!” Xu Yang barked.
Zhou Qian went on, “Seems you don’t. She’s very closely tied to the white wristband. Which means—you’ve never been to Murder Exhibition, have you?”
If Zhou Qian had directly asked whether Xu Yang had cleared the Murder Exhibition instance, Xu Yang would instantly guess that Zhou Qian had and would treat the instance intel as a bargaining chip.
Xu Yang was a seasoned player, so surely, he was a fine actor. Zhou Qian would hardly be able to judge for sure, just from his face, whether he’d been there or how much he knew.
So Zhou Qian started by asking about Ruan Mei and casually linking her to the white wristband. Xu Yang’s reaction made it clear he knew nothing.
Building on that, Zhou Qian stated flat-out that Xu Yang had never been to the Murder Exhibition. Sure enough, Xu Yang couldn’t even put up a façade.
With that confirmed, Zhou Qian held far more leverage.
“Ruan Mei—serial killer. The general manager we just met in that office building? Also a serial killer. Part of their story still waits to be uncovered in this instance. The rest was told to us back in the Murder Exhibition. So, by skipping that run you missed a lot.”
The ploy worked. While talking, Zhou Qian closed the distance to Bai Zhou, yet Xu Yang not only refrained from shooting but even gestured for his men to hold.
“There’s an organization that rescued a bunch of serial murderers, wrecked this city, and now intends to do what to us outsiders? Do the wristband colors act as some sort of friend-or-foe identifier? Food for thought.”
Reaching Bai Zhou’s side, exchanging a glance with him, Zhou looked back at Xu Yang. “My Brother different from me. I’m willing to negotiate. His temper’s bad—cross him and he draws his blade.
“You’ve heard of him, so you should know that even without any skills, just pure sword technique makes him terrifying. One of the things he’s done year in and year out is practice the blade. So—”
Zhou Qian smiled. “Sure, bullets have unbeatable judgment, 99 percent hit rate—we can’t dodge them. But so what? Even if we take a bullet, before it hits, my brother can still kill you. If you insist on violence, no one walks away happy. But—
“I’m genuinely willing to cooperate. See, I only walked over to persuade him for you.”
Producing a yellow wristband, Zhou Qian lifted Bai Zhou’s wrist with a gentle smile.
At that moment his eyes were the very picture of slipping a ring onto a lover’s finger, and his voice was a soft murmur between sweethearts. “My Brother hates being threatened. If I weren’t here, he’d kill you. Xu Yang, I’m helping you convince him now—so, Zhou Ge, shall we swap bands?”
Bai Zhou withdrew his gaze from Xu Yang and turned it on Zhou Qian.
His eyes softened at once. His right hand still held the blade aloft, yet his left stretched out to Zhou Qian. “Swap.”
Smiling into those eyes, Zhou Qian dismissed his Rib of God, cupped Bai Zhou’s wrist in both hands, undid the yellow band, and fastened another.
“Hurry it up.”
Apparently fed up with Zhou Qian’s dawdling, Xu Yang snapped, “I said keep swapping until all yellow bands are destroyed. You have two minutes!”
Zhou Qian: “What’s the rush? Look how handsome my Brother is—”
Xu Yang: ???
—So what is your relationship?
After tying the yellow wristband, Zhou Qian started trying to shape it into a bow. “Fun or not?”
Seeing this, Bai Zhou gave Zhou Qian a thoughtful look. “Fun.”
Zhou Qian scratched his nose, laughing. “Yeah, it looks awful. I’m no good at this.”
Not far away, Xu Yang’s tone sharpened. “Quit the fancy tricks, Zhou Qian, you’re stalling. One last warning: destroy every band in two minutes or I will shoot!”
He stepped closer—but he didn’t dare pull the trigger.
From what Xu Yang had heard, Zhou Qian’s words weren’t exaggeration:
Once, the strongest of all god-level players was a man named Xie Huai.
Invincible, he’d drawn every legion under his banner and become the undisputed king of the game—until Bai Zhou appeared and Xie Huai vanished.
Many said Bai Zhou killed him.
After Xie Huai died, the united legions scattered again.
And the one supposedly most loyal to Xie Huai was the Peach Blossom Legion.
Someone even the Peach Blossom Legion would follow… and yet Bai Zhou killed him—just how terrifying was Bai Zhou’s power?
Was the man before him truly that legendary Bai Zhou?
Such a monster, even skill-less, might really manage to kill him before the bullets struck.
With that in mind, although Xu Yang kept his gaze on Zhou Qian, he maintained Bai Zhou’s blade in the corner of his eye.
Mutual destruction is the stupidest play, yet in this game most players are lunatics—Xu Yang knew that well.
And he’d seen classic videos of Zhou Qian in action back when he was still below S-rank. He knew how reckless and ruthless Zhou Qian could be. If Zhou Qian was doomed to die he’d drag his enemies with him.
Besides… Zhou Qian clearly had key intel.
—What exactly was the white wristband?
The thought made Xu Yang’s eyelid twitch hard. He had to claw back the upper hand.
In standoffs like this the wager is nerve—whoever flinches first loses.
Showing no expression, Xu Yang spoke again. “Zhou Qian, anyone who dares play this game is ready to die. I’ll gamble with you: even if 137’s blade is that fast—so be it, we go together!
“You have less than a minute left! Destroy the rest of those wristbands!”
Right then another little hamster scurried from Xu Yang’s sleeve, circled Zhou Qian once, then returned to its master.
Such critters can’t sniff out every item in a player’s inventory; they’re specialized for props tied to instance mechanics—like these wristbands.
From the hamster Xu Yang learned Zhou Qian still carried six wristbands. “You have six left—destroy them all!”
“No, you don’t actually dare gamble with me.”
Zhou Qian turned his head. “We got sucked in by accident. Otherwise, we’d never have landed in a zone with zero weapons. You’re different—you prepared this spectacle for the instance reward. You came wanting something. A man with desires won’t die lightly.”
“You mean you entered the game with no desire?” Xu Yang asked.
“See? You’ve admitted you don’t dare gamble.” Zhou Qian praised him in apparent sincerity. “Very frank, very honest!”
“You—you fucking—!”
Every line from Zhou Qian was a trap. A moment’s slip left Xu Yang flustered and furious.
“My desire? Let me think. Oh, I have one: chasing thrills. Mutual destruction—I’ve never tried it. Could be fun.”
“You…” Xu Yang’s anger stalled, then he chuckled, suddenly composed. “All this talk is just stalling, isn’t it, Zhou Qian? You won’t die with me. You want to live. You still have—”
Glancing at the time on the system panel, Xu Yang barked, “Forty seconds left!”
“Mm-hmm. I am stalling for time…”
Zhou Qian leisurely undid the ugly bow on Bai Zhou’s wrist, re-tied it properly—showing no urgency despite all the wristbands he still has left to destroy.
Eyes full of mirth, he looked at Xu Yang. “Haven’t you wondered… what I’m stalling for?”
“You—” Without noticing, Xu Yang’s pupils dilated.
Zhou Qian smiled. “You gave us two minutes to swap out every band. I talked and you refused to extend the limit. I’m not naive enough to think you’d really relent.”
Those two minutes were almost up. Zhou Qian had destroyed only one band.
Xu Yang had assumed Zhou Qian’s chatter was meant either to talk him into dropping the forced-recruit plan or to stretch the time so Zhou Qian could slip away.
In the process Zhou Qian actually destroyed a wristband, lulling him into lowering his guard—
And Zhou Qian’s real goal was simply not to destroy the rest!
Why keep the remaining yellows?
Obviously he wanted his teammates to betray purple later, building yellow into a force that could stand against them.
But how? He had no same-color teammates and, critically, no weapons—how could he boost yellow?
Xu Yang’s doubts were confirmed by Zhou Qian’s next words.
Grinning, Zhou Qian said, “I just wrung a vital fact out of you—you know nothing about the white wristband or the Murder Exhibition. Also…
“I did destroy one band. But I never promised to trash the rest, did I? Because—”
Fury lit Xu Yang’s eyes. Just as his finger tightened on the trigger, Zhou Qian raised a finger for silence. “Shh. You don’t really want to do that.”
At the same instant his subordinates cried out, “Commander, watch out!” “Boss, behind you!” “Careful!”
Even without them, the moment Xu Yang halted he sensed something.
He spun with his gun—and saw a waist-high little dragon pointing a gun straight at him.
The dragon was Zhou Qian’s pet?
Pets in this instance couldn’t use damaging skills, but it held an instance-grade gun with extreme judgment and hit rate!
“Once a target is chosen, there’s a 99 percent chance the bullet hits, and its judgment is top priority—above all other weapons. So it doesn’t matter if my dragon can’t aim. Once he picks you, the shot will hit. Thanks—you told me that.” Zhou Qian smiled. “I stalled to wait for my dragon.
“Now I have bullets too. A moment ago you might doubt my Brother could kill you before the shot, but now we have bullets as well. Still want mutual destruction?
“You turned my teammates purple—great. I’m guessing you and Xu Feiyu still carry extra bands for backstabbing later—but the game’s just begun, and you won’t reveal your ace just yet. So—”
Step by step Zhou Qian closed on Xu Yang, smiling mockingly. “So you, Xu Feiyu, and your trusted cadre—all purple for now—won’t touch my teammates or can’t.
“They’re still mine. With yellow bands in my hands they can come back anytime. Thanks for letting them join purple and share your intel for a while.”
Xu Yang had gathered “little slaves” to scour the instance for clues, intending to cull them once the system announced the player cap.
He’d targeted the god-level players, turning Hidden Blade, He Xiaowei, and Qi Liuxing purple in a row.
Now Zhou Qian, relying on his dragon’s gun, brazenly flaunted the yellow band and declared he’d bring those three back—complete with purple intel.
His method out-maneuvered Xu Yang’s effort with ease.
Using the enemy’s tactics against him, letting the foe regret to the bone—Zhou Qian always relished that and smiled, eyes curving like new moons, clear as starlight.
“Zhou Qian, you think that’s enough? You really think… you’ve won?”
Xu Yang’s voice was hoarse—he was livid.
If Bai Zhou struck at the critical moment, Xu Yang’s god-level instincts might still leave a sliver of life. But now Zhou Qian had weapons too. Xu Yang had to back down.
Drawing a deep breath, Xu Yang shot Zhou Qian a vicious look. “Yes, Zhou Qian… you guessed plenty right. I do have goals. I don’t want to die. I can’t make you all wear purple bands and obey me now. But—
“If you join us purple, as long as my sister, my five lieutenants, and I survive when the cap is announced, I will kill the other purples but never you or your team. I promise that.
“So joining us is a win-win—but you just smashed any chance of cooperation.”
Xu Yang holstered his gun and spread his hands, wearing a hint of helplessness.
“You’ll regret this. You have no idea of your situation—
“That dragon’s gun is the first weapon you’ve found—and the last. I have solid intel: the Peach Blossom Legion intends to keep you from amassing firepower.
“Other sectors of the city are partly under my troops and partly under Peach Blossom’s occupation. You get it?
“My legion and the Peach Blossom Legion are about to encircle you. You’ll be trapped in this pocket—no clues from elsewhere, and only that single gun.”
After signaling his men to lower their weapons as well, Xu Yang said, “All I wanted was for you to join me in gathering intel. That’s impossible now. And you surely can’t ally with Peach Blossom.
“So hole up here with one gun and three bullets and wait to be overrun. Sorry, but to me you’re already a dead man.”
“Oh? Really? Seems things do look bad for me.”
Zhou Qian blinked once and looked at Xu Yang. “Since I’m a ‘dead man’ in your eyes, mind if I ask you something?”
Xu Yang nearly laughed from rage. “Your nerves are something else. Don’t you know fear?”
“Nope. I’ve got a few screws loose.” Zhou Qian blinked again. “What exactly are you after in this instance? Is the hidden reward that important?”
The author has something to say:
Zhou-Every single line shows off his husband-Qian.
Zhou Qian: “Zhou Ge, we’ve only this scrap of land left, and you’re the one soldier I have—but that’s fine. Let’s conquer the world.”
Bai Zhou: “All right.”
Everyone else: …
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