Gecko and Spring

A sharp whistle pierced the air as the tip of an energy-laden bamboo umbrella thrust toward Moonlit Night. He neither dodged nor flinched, watching it without so much as blinking. "Nice reaction."

Only after An Ying had struck out instinctively did he see who was above him. He frowned slightly.

The young man in black sat under the eaves where a light fixture had once been, his shoulder-length hair tied back and a long saber in his hand. Remarkably, the silver bells at his waist hadn't made a sound.

Judging by his vacation-like air and that punchable expression, he had clearly hidden there on purpose to give An Ying a fright.

What a twisted sense of humor.

An Ying's lips twitched. He withdrew the bamboo umbrella and said flatly, "Do you have some kind of fetish for hiding up there? You look like an oversized gecko."

The smile froze on Moonlit Night's lips. He jumped down and walked up to An Ying, annoyed. "Kid, you'd poison yourself to death if you licked your own lips. How can you have the nerve to say that about me, Mr. Spring?"

[It's the guy who fought the rabbit! His name's Moonlit Night! Why is he back?]

[So handsome! He looks strong and handsome from the front!]

[Spring... hahahahaha, Spring, I'm dying. Mr. An Ying really does like climbing up and down things.]

[Right back at him. An Ying called him an oversized gecko too.]

[These two are hilarious.]

[With his help, Mr. An Ying can get some rest, right? I'm really worried something might happen. The anomalies in this instance are way too terrifying. If more people die and trigger the next round of random selection when the instance opens again, what are we going to do? I don't want to go!]

An Ying: ...Great. Besides the nickname "Damn White-Hair" his teammate had given him, he now had another one: "Spring."

For a moment, he couldn't tell which nickname annoyed him more.

"What did you mean just now?" An Ying chose to ignore his remark. "Is there something wrong with this playing card?"

"You felt it, didn't you?" Moonlit Night leaned against the wall and looked him over, taking in his tattered, bloodstained clothes. "What happened to you? You're in such a sorry state."

An Ying's face remained expressionless. "I just nearly died, that's all. Didn't you already know I'd have this brush with death? Why bother asking?"

Moonlit Night said, "I thought you didn't believe me."

An Ying hadn't believed him at first, but his current state left him no choice. It had been a long time since he'd felt so strained. There were an abnormal number of anomalies here. In just a few hours, he had already used up all his energy and even used [Eye] once.

This place was even more dangerous than a danger zone full of anomalies. Humans still struggled too much against anomalies.

Wait, wasn't the person in front of him... human too? How could he be so calm, coming and going freely here?

"Do you people have the ability to see the future?"

Moonlit Night smiled. "Knowing too much will get you killed faster. Why not focus on what's in front of you? Do you still want this nine of spades?"

"You have a way?"

"Of course. I'm here to help you."

"This is how you're helping me?" Sheng Qingqiao stared at the pile of playing cards on the floor in disbelief, the hand holding his knife trembling. "That really is... simple and brutal..."

[Big sis is so cool!]

[She's gone on a killing spree, an absolute killing spree! How can anyone butcher anomalies into pieces like that?]

[Do you really think she's human? No matter how you look at it, she's an anomaly, right?]

[An anomaly? She's on humanity's side, and you call her an anomaly? We've always called people like her saviors.]

In Game Arena No. 1's Lucky Twenty-One, the game had been underway for half an hour, but none of the participating players dared move.

They didn't dare move. Not at all.

A woman in a white dress sat on the giant guillotine in the very center, its enormous blade gleaming above her head and blooming rose thorns beneath her feet.

It should have been a bloody execution ground, but with the woman in white there, even the guillotine seemed to have been made beautiful, losing its bloody menace.

The rose thorns had pierced out of the woman's body, densely covering every gap in the hall. Their vivid, lush branches and leaves looked as though they had been cultivated in the freshest forest: delicate, tender, and beautiful.

Of course, that had been their impression of the thorns before they saw someone cut through a rose stem and die with roses growing all over his body.

Now, looking at the delicate thorns, they only felt a chill all over, their corpses cold.

Even the anomalies hunting the players couldn't escape being corroded by flowers after damaging the thorns.

Dozens of people had gathered in the hall, all huddled obediently within the area enclosed by the rose thorns. Anomalies came to them nonstop, and the rose thorns surrounding them were fragile and delicate. The slightest touch from an anomaly would produce a crisp snapping sound.

"Crack."

Another length of thorn shattered at the touch of an anomaly in a black dress. The anomaly visibly stiffened, while the woman in white, who had been sitting with her head lowered and showing little reaction, slowly looked up at it. A clear tear ran from her empty eyes.

The woman's expression was always sorrowful. Her downturned eyebrows trembled as she spat out one word: "Traitor!"

The anomaly in black: You're staging an accident! I barely touched it!

The rustling sound of sprouting vines filled the air, and the anomaly in black was quickly entangled in thorns. When the first rose bloomed a brilliant red, the anomaly's energy was frantically drained away and dissipated, until it turned into a playing card.

Similar playing cards had fallen all over the floor, but not a single person actually dared reach out and take one.

Although anomalies were their mortal enemies, the sight still made them remark that the rose thorns' method of "staging accidents" was getting more sophisticated. At first, they had at least put up a token defense against a couple of blows before breaking. Now they didn't even bother pretending: one touch and they snapped.

Except Sheng Qingqiao.

Watching the thorns in front of him pick through the pile and deliver yet another playing card, Sheng Qingqiao's stalled brain dimly registered the whispers of the others.

"It's hard not to believe this woman has a thing for Sheng Qingqiao."

"Does she look human to you? I think she looks more like an anomaly."

"A love story between a human and an anomaly? How exciting!"

"Maybe she's someone on the verge of collapse, from using too many anomalous items."

"She's just blocking us here, not letting us leave or letting the anomalies come in. What's that about?"

"I think it's pretty good. Look how many anomalies have come. Even with all of us, killing one is hard enough. If these dozens of anomalies didn't die at this person's hands, I'd be dying at theirs."

"It's already pretty good that we're still alive. Be content."

"Do you think Sheng Qingqiao might be this big shot's kept man... I want to be kept too!"

Sheng Qingqiao was furious. "Stop making things up! I have nothing to do with this person!"

"She's the one who came looking for me out of nowhere and said she wanted to protect me!"

Everyone else: "Oh~"

Sheng Qingqiao: "..."

What do you mean, 'oh'? What do you mean, 'oh'?! My lifelong reputation!