Chapter 30

[Shocking! The little pistol became the prophetic gun of the "ultimate winner"! A wave of a little hand, a pile of nutrient solution—draw it, quick!]

[Fate! Can one shot bring soulmates together across a thousand miles? Fate really works in wondrous ways~ @Plague God]

[He Wenyuan: Malting]

[The facts proved it: so what if you're an emperor of luck? In the end, you still have to rely on the unlucky ones... Ahem, no, I mean strength.]

[Baby 1 and He Muzhi: Unlucky? How rude!]

Qin Su: "...?"

Things had gone against his wishes. The more he feared something, the more likely it was to happen. Murphy's law really didn't lie.

The protagonist's strength was naturally nothing to underestimate, either.

What if he lost... No, Qin Su immediately dismissed the thought.

He couldn't lose.

Even if his opponent was the protagonist, and even at the risk of being hated by the protagonist's fans, he had to stay in character and take first place according to his original plan.

Getting cursed out...

That was still barrage, and it could still earn him Life Points.

At worst, he could simply avoid looking at the barrage while they cursed him out.

Since he'd already prepared himself to be cursed out, he might as well use the protagonist to rake in another huge wave of "attention."

After a moment's thought, Qin Su felt the skies had cleared, the rain had stopped, and he was ready to go again. His cautious gaze settled on He Muzhi, concealed inside a "mimetic bug shell" across from him.

On its back were four long, narrow green wings, two large and two small, shimmering with fluorescence and irregularly scattered with veinlike patterns. It had a sharp, suckerlike mouth, two long, narrow antennae atop its head resembling those of a longhorn beetle in the real world, and four legs and arms as long and narrow as a mosquito's, but with sharp, serrated edges. In the middle was a typical mosquito body, except it was covered in tiny scales...

To Qin Su, He Muzhi now looked like a dazzling version of a mosquito, roughly three and a half meters tall.

Standing before it, Qin Su should have felt afraid because of "how small humans were," but when he saw the laser gun in its hand, his nerves eased somewhat.

Even now, he still thought it was unbelievably bizarre for a bug to carry a weapon.

The weapons in the "bugs'" hands constantly reminded Qin Su that these were bugs created by mimetic camouflage. Still feeling a little pulled out of the scene, Qin Su didn't make any move to "look up" at He Muzhi, just as he hadn't with the other bugs.

Instead, he looked straight ahead.

Looking straight ahead, Qin Su held his position for the moment, cosplaying a "bigshot" who "waited for his opponent to attack first, then casually neutralized the attack."

There was so much distance between them that when He Muzhi moved, Qin Su could observe him and adapt on the fly.

In any case, thanks to his earlier efforts marketing his bigshot persona, even if he silently watched He Muzhi now, everyone would only think things like, "He's so powerful that everyone is the same to him, so he's giving He Muzhi the chance to strike first," or, "He Muzhi is special to him."

On the screen before Duan Lin, which was divided into four sections, the unmimicked view of the real scene in the lower left showed Qin Su gazing calmly through the mimetic exterior, looking directly at He Muzhi.

The students who had been eliminated and carried out of the Simulated Battlefield gradually finished resting and gathered of their own accord behind Duan Lin, watching everything on the screen and marveling.

"How many times has Qin Su used a virtual battlefield to be able to face such realistic mimetic bugs without changing expression, and even visually 'remove' the bug shell and look straight at the person 'inside'?"

"In other words, Qin Su knew there were people inside from beginning to end, yet he didn't hold back at all... Damn, what a terrifying heart. Good thing I'm not really Qin Su's enemy. He's just like a cold, ruthless killing machine."

"I wonder when I'll be able to be like Qin Su?"

Raymond posed a soul-searching question. "I have to ask because I don't understand. Why did Qin Su show me no mercy when he took me out, but treat Muzhi so... kindly? What exactly am I lacking?"

The other students remained silent, only agreeing wholeheartedly with Raymond in their minds.

They really couldn't answer that. Qin Su hadn't treated them any better than he had Raymond.

[Silly child, obviously it's because He Muzhi is the protagonist. Ever heard of protagonist halo? It's so powerful even the bigshot has fallen for him.]

[Fallen for him? My Boss 1? Screw your propeller fart! Can you keep your shipping to yourselves instead of waving it in our faces?]

During that brief exchange of looks, Qin Su was observing He Muzhi, and He Muzhi was likewise looking at "Qin Su."

Beneath the virtual bug exterior, He Muzhi instinctively believed the bug before him was Qin Su. It was over three meters tall, pitch-black all over, and covered in sharp, jagged, armorlike plates. Four forked wings as thin as cicada wings extended from its back. It had no facial features, and its face was no different from its body. Only two inward-curving horns grew from its head, with sharp, barblike spikes on the insides of their arcs.

If he could "survive" until the end of this simulated battle, then surely Qin Su could too.

At the thought that the person across from him was Qin Su, even the howling wind all around seemed to grow quieter. He Muzhi gripped his laser gun tightly in both hands and looked up at the giant black bug before him, which looked incredibly hard, ready for battle.

From the "holographic projection"-like viewpoint, only Qin Su and He Muzhi remained among the students on the Simulated Battlefield. There was no cover anywhere, only howling winds whipping yellow sand across the sky.

[I don't know why, but it's kind of funny watching Boss 1 look straight ahead at He Muzhi beneath the bug, while He Muzhi looks up at Boss 1 in bug form. Their eyes never meet hahaha]

[Our Mu Bao really is suffering from his lack of experience in simulated combat.]

[Boss 1: Look me in the eye.]

[Mu Bao: Huh? I'm watching.]

After waiting patiently for about eight seconds, Qin Su finally saw He Muzhi, standing a long way across from him, move.

He raised the laser gun to his chest with both hands, braced its rear against his shoulder, and attacked in Qin Su's direction.

Since Qin Su was willing to give him the chance to strike first, he wouldn't stand on ceremony.

Pew—

After a faint sound, a white ball of light nine centimeters across shot toward where Qin Su stood, trailing a dazzling bright-blue tail.

The laser gun's recoil made He Muzhi's body lean slightly backward.

As He Muzhi moved, the mimetic bug over three meters tall moved with him, and the desert floor was simulated collapsing beneath it.

Feeling the sand spread beneath his movements, He Muzhi instinctively shifted his feet, finding a better stance on the loose ground. His eyes remained fixed on Qin Su's position without blinking.

He wanted to see how Qin Su would deal with his attack.

Qin Su was far enough away from He Muzhi and knew the laser gun's damage range and values well enough.

After carefully observing the movements of the mimetic bug across from him, Qin Su timed his response for just before he entered the Laser Round's attack range. He neither fired back at He Muzhi with the particle pulse cannon in his hands nor dodged sideways as he had against the other "bugs."

Instead, he watched the Laser Round flying toward him with an indifferent gaze, tightened his grip on the particle pulse cannon, and fired at the ground to his left.

Bang!

The Super-Energy Particle Pulse Cannon attacked by firing a brief beam of searing, high-temperature light from its muzzle. The beam vanished five seconds after firing.

Since he had aimed at the ground, the blinding beam struck the earth, scouring a clear mark through the yellow sand.

Using the recoil from firing the particle pulse cannon into the ground rather than into the air, combined with his own deliberate shift to the right, Qin Su easily left his original position.

As he reached his intended spot, Qin Su caught a glimpse of the Laser Round trailing its long tail of light as it brushed past his side.

With that immediate threat temporarily resolved, Qin Su took the opportunity to turn his head slightly to the left. On the surface, he was looking at "the air through which He Muzhi's Laser Round had passed," but he was actually looking at the mark he had left in the yellow sand when he fired the Super-Energy Particle Pulse Cannon into the ground.

Just as he had expected, the simulated yellow sand had been pushed to either side, and a long trench had been blasted through the middle.

That's enough. Next, he needs to get close enough to reach He Muzhi's back within five seconds, and... grit his teeth and endure the pain caused by the particle pulse cannon.

After settling on his plan, Qin Su, who appeared to be "basking in glory," silently felt emo about the impending "pain."

Being strong wasn't easy, Qin Su sighed secretly.

He had schemed and calculated, and really had dodged the "open attacks and hidden arrows" of the "bugs," only to be unable to dodge the "damage from himself" that was coming soon.

Qin Su's unexpected move left everyone dumbfounded.

Instead of attacking He Muzhi, he had casually fired a shot at the ground to his left and used the force of the particle pulse beam rebounding off the ground to dodge the Laser Round?

He was clearly giving He Muzhi another chance to attack on purpose! He was blatantly going easy on him!!!

"I'm so envious and jealous of He Muzhi right now!"

"Me too!"

"Plus my Identity ID number!"

He Muzhi, one of the people involved, looked visibly startled when he saw this. He instinctively tightened his grip on the laser gun, his heart skipping a beat.

He Muzhi once again recalled his first meeting with Qin Su, when Qin Su had stood in the greenhouse looking down at them.

Why is he only giving me chances? What... does Qin Su want from them?

But Qin Su's behavior gave He Muzhi a deep sense of helplessness at being "looked down on."

Admiring strength was one thing, but nobody liked being in a "weaker" position and needing someone else to go easy on them.

He had to become strong enough that the person he once looked up to would never need to yield to him again.

His throat tight and a surge of drive bottled up inside him, He Muzhi attacked Qin Su again.

This time, his attacks grew urgent. His red eyes fixed intently on Qin Su's position as Laser Rounds trailing long blue tails flew toward him one after another. He was eager to bring it all to an end.

Qin Su calculated the interval between the laser gun's shots while moving effortlessly through the "hail of bullets" according to the direction of He Muzhi's muzzle. Using the trench the particle pulse cannon had previously scoured into the ground as a guide, he headed purposefully toward his ideal distance from He Muzhi.

He Muzhi looks very angry. He needs to pick up the pace.

That way, he won't be able to fight back.

Qin Su was glad that, in his original plan, he had never intended to shoot the protagonist much anyway, so the final scene of his decisive battle with the protagonist would leave a deep impression.

Three more seconds, and he would reach the ideal spot to be strong.

From his brief exchange with He Muzhi earlier, Qin Su had easily noticed that He Muzhi couldn't walk as freely on the "desert" as he normally did.

The simulated combat not only realistically recreated the desert terrain but also its climate. Sand billowed through the air beneath the blazing sun, making it feel as though they were really there.

Although they were actually stepping on solid ground, the virtual scene viewed through the "Sunglasses" was so realistic, and the equipment they wore simulated the physical sensations of being in a desert, that He Muzhi's movements were unconsciously affected by the terrain. Even the "blazing sun" shining directly overhead made He Muzhi frown unconsciously, as though he were uncomfortable in the heat.

All of that...

Would provide powerful "help" for his upcoming "performance."

The fact that they had both fought their way to the end proved that He Muzhi was strong.

As for Qin Su, all he would be relying on to act strong later was his familiarity with desert terrain and his extensive experience moving around in it.

"Qin Su moves across the desert as easily as if it were flat ground, while He Muzhi has frowned in displeasure several times from stepping on loose sand. It's obvious who's better. He Muzhi is bound to lose."

"Qin Su doesn't look... like he's ever lived in a desert. Everyone knows you can tell at a glance when someone comes from a place like that."

"As everyone knows, training in an environment on any planet isn't the same as living there. Maybe Qin Su only trained on desert terrain and left afterward."

"Huh... That's true."

Among the onlookers, some students were analyzing the situation, while the barrage was also arguing in He Muzhi's defense because his unfamiliarity with desert terrain restricted his movements.

[According to the setting of Interstellar Legend, a normal person in the interstellar era, especially someone like Mu Bao, would never encounter "desert terrain" in their whole life if an accidental jump hadn't landed him in the middle of a battle against the Zerg and set his fate in motion.]

[Forget the comic's setting. Even in our real world, how many people have actually gone to see what a desert looks like? I haven't, anyway. I can't afford to experience what it's really like to stand in a desert and walk through it under the blazing sun.]

[All right, all right, stop arguing. Everyone mute yourselves (manually pinches everyone's mouths shut).]

[Am I the only one curious why Boss 1 still hasn't shot at He Muzhi? He's giving him... way too many chances.]

[That's how it is. True love is always like this (not really).]

Amid the noisy arguments between the barrage and the students, Qin Su, who had no time to look at the barrage for now, reached his destination and stopped.

In other words...

Qin Su looked expressionlessly in He Muzhi's direction, his black eyes narrowing slightly.

The timing, terrain, and people are all in his favor. It's time to act.

Despite failing to hit Qin Su again and again, He Muzhi wasn't discouraged. Instead, each setback only made him more determined.

The distance is getting shorter. Qin Su has given him so many chances; he has to land at least one hit to show Qin Su and keep him from being disappointed!

With that thought in mind, He Muzhi briefly rested his arms, then raised the laser gun again.

The people of Class 6 and the barrage viewers saw that just as He Muzhi prepared to attack again, Qin Su, who had previously remained "unmoved" by his attacks, suddenly raised the particle pulse cannon he had been treating as a "decoration."

"!!!"

[!!!]

Finally! Had Qin Su grown impatient? Was he going to end his "merciful" treatment of He Muzhi and bring everything to a close?!

The excited "audience" really did see Qin Su fire the particle pulse cannon in the next second. A wide, searing beam shot toward the...

Ground where He Muzhi was standing???

"???"

[???]

[WTF! Is this a joke? Did He Muzhi save Qin Su's life or something?!]

The "onlookers" weren't the only ones stunned by this. He Muzhi himself was too.

Seeing the beam attack the ground beneath his feet, He Muzhi's mind went blank for a moment before he quickly leaped up, easily dodging the particle pulse cannon's attack.

That's right, just like that.

Watching He Muzhi instinctively jump to dodge the particle pulse cannon, Qin Su resisted the urge to smile.

While everyone was shocked and bewildered by his "unexpected move" and had no attention to spare for him, Qin Su, whose body had long been ready, almost followed the trench the particle pulse cannon had "scoured" into the ground. Using the intense light of the "beam" as cover and enduring the searing agony caused by its "stray light," he practically followed the "beam" toward He Muzhi in a sliding tackle, leaning backward in a stylish pose as he rushed forward.

In the moment He Muzhi instinctively jumped up to dodge the electronic pulse cannon's beam, Qin Su caught him off guard and reached his back as planned.

As soon as he arrived, Qin Su braced the particle pulse cannon against the ground to push himself up and spun around in an instant, facing He Muzhi's back.

He was in so much pain.

Qin Su stood still, his mood dark as he forced himself to endure the intense pain the particle pulse cannon's beam had inflicted on his body.

The only thing Qin Su was glad about was that the pain was only being simulated by the "Mechanical Outerwear" worn over his body. His real body wasn't actually in danger of being burned to ashes.

I dodged it.

Having subconsciously focused on dodging the attack and succeeded, He Muzhi unconsciously smiled and looked toward Qin Su's position.

Although he still didn't know why Qin Su hadn't attacked him directly and had instead attacked his legs, the fact that he could dodge Qin Su's attack just as Qin Su could dodge his swept away the frustration he had felt from missing so many times.

But...

He Muzhi's smile soon froze.

The place where Qin Su had been standing was empty.

Where is he?

The thought flashed through He Muzhi's mind, and he subconsciously started to look around for him.

Noticing the mimetic bug's neck shift slightly, Qin Su forcibly suppressed the urge for his arms to spasm from the intense pain. He raised the particle pulse cannon with both hands and pressed it directly against He Muzhi's back.

It hurt too much. He had to end this as quickly as possible and take off this "outerwear" that could simulate pain.

Before He Muzhi could turn his neck, something pressed against the center of his back.

With the cannon against He Muzhi and mindful that the "audience" both inside and outside the screen was still watching, Qin Su endured the pain and spoke in a painstakingly cultivated, perfectly calm tone. "Goodbye."

One second, something cold was pressed against his back. The next, the bug's brief, incomprehensible sound rang out behind him, and a bone-chilling sensation spread through He Muzhi's entire body.

It was as though all the blood in his body had frozen in an instant, icy cold to the bone.

Qin Su lowered his voice to put on a "low and cold" tone, and as soon as he finished speaking, he pulled the "trigger" without the slightest hesitation.

Because he was firing at point-blank range, Qin Su had braced both legs against the ground, knowing there would be recoil. He had steadied himself in advance and was not thrown back when the particle pulse cannon fired.

Wait... when had Qin Su gotten behind him?!

The thought had barely crossed He Muzhi's mind when a blinding white light exploded behind him.

Intense pain shot through his body. Caught completely off guard, He Muzhi pitched forward, his mind going blank. The agonizing pain swept over him, and he lost the ability to think.

He had lost.

[!!!]

[You can do it like that?!]

[That was insanely cool!!!]

[What a show-off! Even Di Hua Zhi Xiu can't show off like our Baby 1!]

[Showing off his skills, right? He has to be showing off! He could have taken his opponent out from far away, but instead, after giving him several chances, he reached his back with unstoppable momentum and coldly delivered a fatal blow when his opponent was at his most vulnerable and hadn't even had time to react! That move was so damn cool!]

[What a show-off!]

[No... what gives Qin Su the right to treat our Mu Bao like that? He's deliberately humiliating him, right? If he's so capable, he should've just 'killed' him outright.]

[Take a seat, basic move.]

[Seriously, so your Qin Su is precious, but our Muzhi isn't? Is he just toying with him?! Why hurt our Muzhi?!]

[So, did the little-pistol-and-unlucky-guy CP just declare a BE, just like that?]

[BE my ass! One dies, one lives, and the one left spends the rest of his life missing the other to the bone—that's the good stuff!]

[You weren't happy when he didn't give him a chance, and now that he did, you're upset because your He Muzhi couldn't seize it himself. Why are you so hard to please?]

[That was incredible, oh my god!]

[I strongly suspect that Boss 1 did this because, after repeatedly giving He Muzhi chances, he didn't get the result he wanted, so he caught He Muzhi off guard and did that to him. It definitely wasn't humiliation; it was a... warning to He Muzhi, maybe?]

[Um... just a bystander here, but this is 'Simulated Zerg Combat,' OK? Everyone on the battlefield except yourself is a bug. No matter how you treat the bugs, it's only natural.]

[Couldn't agree more. If you don't kill the bugs, what, are you supposed to put them on a pedestal? Qin Su did nothing wrong.]

[Is there a problem with Boss 1, who's obviously battled the Zerg countless times, beating He Muzhi? Not at all. You can't expect them to make our Boss 1 lose just because He Muzhi is the protagonist, can you?]

The bullet comments were in an uproar, but the people in the Comic World who had witnessed the whole thing firsthand were silent.

[Cat head]