Farewell, Prison!

"Puff... hah..."

Qiu Ran lay in the back seat, sleeping peacefully. The howling wind and snow of the Outland were barely noise at all against the soundproofing of this Nethermark Humanity-modified vehicle.

"Xiao Yun, wait for your sister to come back... puff... Once you get into college, we'll go eat barbecue... Your sister will use Aoneng to grill meat for you."

She curled up beneath her coat, a glistening little river trailing from the corner of her mouth. Every so often, she chuckled. "Potatoes, the potatoes are done... hehe... Master, we don't have to work anymore..."

Clang! A sudden bang jolted Qiu Ran awake. She hurriedly raised her head and saw that the camouflage cloth covering the vehicle had been removed. The infected woman named Nomi slammed a fist against the window and shouted at her.

"Open the door!"

"Stop hitting it, stop hitting it! I just bought this car..."

Qiu Ran pitifully climbed over the front seats and quickly unlocked the door.

"Damn, I'm freezing to death! Hey, you big dummy! I called you for ages just now. How did you not react at all?"

Nomi immediately climbed in, shaking snow and slush from her body. She skillfully stepped on the clutch and shifted gears, not forgetting to mutter a complaint.

"Uh, well... I fell asleep." Qiu Ran scratched her head and chuckled sheepishly, looking adorably simple-minded.

"Seriously? In a place like the Outland, where tornadoes, sandstorms, avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes, and landslides could hit at any time—you could sleep? How could you possibly sleep?!"

Nomi rattled off a string of words, then stuck her head out the window and shouted outside, "Hey, are you done yet?"

As soon as she spoke, Li Aoz pulled open the door and slipped inside. Protected by gravity, he did not have a trace of windblown sand or melted snow on him.

"The hook's attached. Drive."

Li Aoz spoke rapidly as he opened Nethermark Humanity's medical kit and quickly cleaned his shoulder, applied medicine to stop the bleeding, and wrapped it in bandages.

"Law Enforcement Division Four's vehicles are faster on flat ground. We definitely can't outrun them."

"Then what do we do?"

"They don't know we switched cars yet. Once we get some distance, unhook it and throw the car behind us away. They'll definitely send some people down to check it."

"But even then, won't there still be people chasing us?!"

"They just climbed a slope. There are four vehicles in total. If one breaks off, only three will remain... I can take them out."

Li Aoz rummaged through the vehicle. Suddenly, he spotted the chains used to secure the vehicle and a can of gasoline in the back seat.

"—If they dare come, they'll be walking straight into their deaths."

Li Aoz took the chain in his hand, weighed it, and nodded in satisfaction.

Because of the mutation direction of the Ability Pod, he had previously considered using Bloodfiend Style as a transition during the Mutant stage. Now that he had seen the chain, he decided not to hesitate any longer.

He would go with Bloodfiend Style!

"When I advance toward becoming a Resonator in the future, flexible weapons like chains and whips will suit me best. Paired with the low-threshold Bloodfiend Style, they'll make up for my lack of Combat Power."

The problem with Starcallers was their high entry barrier and lengthy training cycle. In his previous life, Li Aoz and his fellow enthusiasts had constantly thought about how to change that.

The threshold for Omega-class Aoneng, with its four prerequisite requirements, could be solved. There were stable ways to obtain them later on.

But how could they change the experience of being trapped in prison? Li Aoz had control and awareness beyond most players, but ordinary players did not have that kind of energy.

Why were there so many people playing Martial Artists?

It was not because brainless combos like Skull-Splitting Hand, Uppercut, Shadowless Lightning Fist, Aura Cannon, Deliberate Bombardment Fist, and Nine Heavens Thunder Double Kick looked cool—it was because they required no thought.

Mage players had to calculate cooldowns when stringing together combos, work out formulas, consider mana consumption ratios, and think about positioning.

Mutants had to carefully and precisely manipulate Aoneng, while making use of every surrounding factor to achieve decent results.

But Martial Artists did not need to.

These fighters basically just activated super armor and charged in with basic attacks, which solved ninety percent of all problems.

The remaining 9.9 percent could be solved with BKB.

For the final 0.1 percent, there might be no solution at all. Just die.

Bloodfiend Style happened to have a low barrier to entry and was easy to popularize.

Even without the factor of the Ability Pod, players would almost certainly obtain the two core Aoneng required for Bloodfiend Style.

Life Extraction, Death Link.

Both were only Delta-class, commonplace trash.

The completed Bloodfiend Style only needed one more damage-over-time Aoneng.

No one knew what Li Aoz was thinking.

Nomi merely glanced at him and said,

"Then I'm counting on you."

Nomi could not honestly say she disliked Li Aoz, even though not a single thing out of his mouth seemed true.

His nationality might have been fake, his name might have been fake, and perhaps even he himself was fake.

But in the face of a life-and-death crisis, he had not abandoned her, a teammate he had met by chance. He had still been able to calmly negotiate with the vicious members of Law Enforcement Division Four and stall for time without selling her out in exchange for his own safety—just that alone made him far better than most people.

Besides, Li Aoz's Aoneng carried an inexplicable, irresistible sense of oppression. She had nothing to say about that.

Li Aoz turned the rearview mirror away so Law Enforcement Division Four's high beams would not blind Nomi. The safety and stability of the vehicle came first.

"Qiu Ran, watch the rear window. If you see headlights, tell me immediately."

"Oh, okay—wait, weren't we the ones chasing someone down? Why does it sound like... we're the ones being chased?"

Qiu Ran was a little confused.

"You guessed right, but there's no prize. We ran into some very, very bad people. Keep an eye on the rear, and I'll buy you a drink later."

Li Aoz could not be bothered to explain Law Enforcement Division Four. Ordinary people were deeply afraid of such secret police agencies.

Nomi suddenly asked,

"What about me?"

"You're the driver, and you want a drink? Friendly reminder: drunk driving is illegal in every country. Besides, isn't someone underage? You still want to drink?"

"Huh? Damn it, (Frostplate Civilization), I've smashed who knows how many skulls with a hammer since the day I was born, and you're telling me I'm underage and can't drink? I (Outland manners)!"

Li Aoz had wanted to tease Nomi and ease the tension. But in the next instant, Qiu Ran, who was pressed against the rear window, cried out.

"They're here! Cars! One, two, three, four—four cars! Ahh, they're coming straight for us!"

Ping—bang bang clang—

Before Qiu Ran had even finished speaking, several pale cracks blossomed across the glass before her. One 9mm bullet struck the window directly in front of her nose, scaring her into clutching her head and curling up on the rear seat cushions.

"Don't panic." Li Aoz picked up the chain and gasoline can from the floor and casually reassured her, "This is Level Three bulletproof glass made by Duerner Light Industries. It can withstand full-power rounds and 12.7×108mm machine-gun bullets. They can't shoot through it."

"I know. I'm responsible for maintaining this car..." Qiu Ran said pitifully. "But whether it can stop bullets, I... I've never tested it."

"That won't do. You've never seen how Duerner's boss, Rulio Duerner, held product launches. That guy sat right inside a car and had his subordinates shoot it with guns for ten minutes in front of reporters."

Qiu Ran clicked her tongue. "Th-that's such a bold boss."

"Bold my ass. His Aoneng absorbs kinetic energy. Firearms were useless against him in the first place."

Li Aoz patted her shoulder.

"Miss Qiu Ran, in a moment, I'll lower the chain. Just stick out a finger, activate your Aoneng, and tap it."

"Uh... okay."

Li Aoz's joke relaxed her quite a bit. Qiu Ran tightly clutched the seat cushion, but she was no longer as panicked.

Li Aoz flattened the front passenger seat so he could stand firmly on it. Watching the Law Enforcement Division Four vehicles relentlessly pursuing them through the rear windshield, he continuously estimated the distance in his mind.

"Four hundred meters... three hundred... No, too fast. At this speed, the wind will blow me away the moment I stand up."

If he used Aoneng inside the vehicle, the Gravity Field would directly envelop the car as well. Li Aoz's development of gravity was still too limited, and he could not guarantee that doing so would not affect his allies.

Most importantly, the car—in the Outland, being without a vehicle was basically no different from being dead.

Killing people would be easy enough. With his strength, he could take down as many Frostplate police officers below Alpha Rank as they sent.

But after seeing the chain, Li Aoz no longer intended to be so crude.

He could have some fun with this.

Bracing himself against the seat, he shouted to Nomi,

"Nomi, I'm giving you twenty seconds. Gradually lower our speed to sixty kilometers per hour. Don't let them notice we're slowing down."

"I got it. Stop distracting me!"

As Nomi spoke, she gradually eased off the gas. The vehicle slowed naturally and steadily, while Qiu Ran could clearly hear the gunfire growing denser.

Clink—

Li Aoz stood in the middle of the vehicle and wrapped the iron chain around his arm. This chain had been used to secure vehicles. It was eight meters long, each link ten millimeters thick. It would have been difficult for an ordinary person even to lift, but for Li Aoz, it was exactly right for swinging in combat.