The Gap in Resolve / So That's How You're Playing It!

The forty-ninth chapter: The Gap in Resolve

Two more bullets, two precise headshots, took out two Deathless.

Even phasing was useless.

Auto-aim?

Hey, hey! Someone's cheating here!

Liu Bai could see that Himeko had not aimed at all. She had simply called out a name and pulled the trigger.

And those names were... coffee-growing regions?

"Colombia!"

So she had to call out the name?

But it did not matter. After witnessing the power of her bullets, Liu Bai's goal was to drain the ammunition from her gun.

Now she only had one bullet left, while three Deathless remained.

Even without teleportation, the Dormant Spirit Deathless were enough to force Himeko, an ordinary person, into a desperate situation.

"Last round—Mexican Devil Pepper!"

Boom—!

The violent explosion directly swallowed the three Deathless in midair.

Bang!

Immediately afterward, a bullet shot out of the explosion's smoke straight at Liu Bai.

"...There's still one?"

Looking at the Dormant Spirit Deathless blocking the bullet in front of Liu Bai, Himeko's mouth twitched.

"Why did it suddenly turn into Mexican chili peppers at the end?" Liu Bai complained as he released more Deathless.

"I like it. What's it to you!"

Himeko had no choice but to start running, trying to reload while moving.

Bang!

"Eek—!?"

Liu Bai's side held every advantage, and Guinaifen had gained the upper hand as well.

The firecracker she threw once again knocked back the petite girl before her.

"Thank goodness. Looks like I'm still pretty strong, huh?"

"Ugh..."

Seele tightly gripped her scythe and looked toward Himeko, unsure whether she should point her blade at her enemy.

"Do you really have to keep fighting? You could take your companion and run for your lives... Otherwise, I won't hold back next. How did that saying go again? Leave some room for others, and you'll meet again someday~"

Seeming to notice Seele's hesitation, Guinaifen put on a stern face to intimidate her.

To be honest, this was her first time fighting with real weapons, and she was nervous too.

Combined with how harmless the other girl looked, Guinaifen did not really want to continue fighting.

But it was not entirely an empty threat.

If the other side truly refused to let up, Guinaifen could only prepare herself to draw blood.

She... had seen death before.

She had seen her family members die in battle, her home planet destroyed, her elders pass away from illness... She had seen everything there was to see.

When her older brother had been captured as a pirate, she had even prepared herself for the entire family to die.

Though she did not want to take the life of a girl around her younger sister's age, she truly would kill her if this continued.

Perhaps this girl had her own reasons, but Guinaifen also had people she needed to protect.

After enduring so many hardships in this life, she was no longer the helpless child she had once been... It was time to show her resolve.

"..."

Seemingly sensing some kind of determination from Guinaifen, Seele's hand tightened around her scythe and trembled slightly.

(Seele, leave this to me. The gap between your resolve and hers is too great.)

"I don't want to."

(Sigh...)

"I still have to fight..." Hearing Seele's answer, Guinaifen let out a regretful sigh. The usual flippant brightness vanished from her face, replaced by an icy, stern expression.

"Eh? No—"

Clang—!

In an instant, the broken end of a rusted steel bar shot straight for Seele's throat. Seele barely managed to block the strike almost entirely on instinct.

(So fast...!) Cold sweat covered Seele's body.

(You're the one hesitating, Seele.)

Clang clang clang clang—!

She struck, lifted, chopped, covered, pressed; stabbed, thrust, parried, blocked, seized.

In Guinaifen's hands, the steel bar became one with spear and staff. Her attacks came like a raging storm, and Seele's occasional counterattacks were easily deflected.

(If this continues, you'll die. Let me take over.)

Bang—!

Guinaifen used one hand to suppress Seele with her "spear," while her other hand steadily caught the tranquilizer dart flying toward her head between two fingers. She casually tossed the dart aside, then glanced at Himeko, who had a gun pointed at her.

"Tsk, you reacted to that too? Let's go, Seele! The operation has failed!"

Seeing this, Himeko merely lamented the irrationality of the world for a moment. Then, completely ignoring accuracy, she began firing tranquilizer darts in rapid succession.

This time, Guinaifen did not try to catch them head-on and instead chose to leap away.

Her bullet-catching trick was basically acrobatics. She could easily catch a single shot, but against rapid fire, trying to catch them directly would still get her hit.

"Understood, Professor!"

With Himeko's covering fire, the pressure on Seele vanished. Just as she had when arriving, she lightly cleared the speed bumps and the Titans, then caught Himeko as she jumped down from above.

The Titan Mechs, which had originally become burdens, had now instead become perfect rear guard units.

"Don't—"

"Alright, alright, calm down, Little Gui."

Liu Bai held Guinaifen's shoulder from behind as she tried to rush out, while also having a Deathless slow her down.

"You were taking it too seriously. They had no intent to kill... Well, although kidnapping can sometimes be even scarier than intent to kill."

"Ah..."

Guinaifen seemed not to have recovered yet.

"Guinaifen? Little Gui? Dear Guinevere?"

Liu Bai turned Guinaifen around and patted her face.

"Aaaahhh—! That was so stressful—! Boss Liu! Why is that little girl's mouth even tougher than Chang Chang's? Who did the two of us offend? Was this really necessary?"

Guinaifen threw away the steel bar and started rolling around on the ground.

"Fighting is way too stressful! It was even more stressful than the first time I tried eating noodles upside down!"

Mm, looked like she had come back to her senses.

"So did you eat them up your nose?"

"Mmh—no, that's not the point! Boss Liu, your focus is way too weird!"

"No, it's just that compared to eating noodles upside down, the pathetic sight of failing to eat noodles upside down is more interesting, isn't it?"

"No wonder nobody wants to watch me eat noodles upside down anymore—! I said the point isn't eating noodles upside down! Pay attention to my stress!"

"Then keep rolling?"

Liu Bai squatted down, resting his chin on his hand as he watched Guinaifen.

"I think watching a cute girl roll around is pretty entertaining too. It could be a paid program."

"It's hard to imagine what kind of mental state viewers would have to pay for that program."

Guinaifen kicked off the ground and sprang to her feet.

"So, we're safe now?"

"Nope. Look over there."

Liu Bai pointed at the Titans still crawling like snails through the speed bumps.

"Go dismantle them, Little Gui."

"Ah... Um, Boss Liu, I threw out my back just now."

Guinaifen slowly lay back down.

"Ow, ow... Little Gui's poor, ill-fated old back~"

She absolutely did not want to fight things that looked like Aurumatons!

"Aurumatons aren't that bad, are they? They're just elite monsters, though they are pretty annoying."

"Easy for you to say when your back doesn't hurt—Little Gui's back hurts terribly right now! Ow, ow~~"

"Then let's run. Nobody's blocking our path now anyway. We can find a window and climb through it."

"Oh, you should've said so earlier." Guinaifen flipped up onto her feet. "Come on, come on, let's run. Let me tell you, us street performers may not have many skills, but our running-away skills are absolutely first-class—oh, right, Boss Liu, you actually failed to stop that woman. I almost got turned into a sieve."

"Yes, yes. I'll be more careful next time."

Guinaifen Favorability: 4454

You're Playing Like This, Huh!

"Why are you back?"

Gray Serpent looked at Liu Bai, who had returned to Shencheng Pharmaceuticals with Guinaifen, his tone somewhat strange.

"Where's Raven?"

"Who?"

"Raven."

"?"

Liu Bai and Guinaifen exchanged looks, both utterly baffled.

"...You escaped on your own?"

"Yeah. We got lucky, and they let their guard down." Liu Bai brushed it off, then took out every electronic device he had on him. "The people who kidnapped me were from Anti-Entropy. Take a look and see how they pinpointed my location."

I act completely unpredictably and they still managed to catch me? What the hell is this?

"No need to check. Your wristband was hacked."

Gray Serpent glanced at the black wristband Liu Bai handed over.

"They planted a background program in the wristband? You people still dared to use this thing?" Liu Bai was somewhat stunned.

"Because we installed other programs too," Gray Serpent replied coldly. "This wristband was completely hijacked. But I'm curious how Anti-Entropy knew its serial number and IP address. Did you give the wristband to someone else?"

Put simply, Gray Serpent had bought Anti-Entropy's civilian wristbands, implanted viruses and other things to hack them, then turned them into their own equipment.

Then this time, Anti-Entropy had taken their own things back.

But while it was easy to modify a wristband on a physical level, locking onto one without making contact was relatively troublesome.

Which meant... there had been contact.