Silver-Level Strength

The toppled shelves left the little convenience store looking like a complete mess.

Snacks, drinks, and other items lay scattered all over the floor.

Lu Bai sat sprawled beside the checkout counter. The Eight-Sided Han Sword had fallen by his feet when he was shot.

One hand braced against the floor while the other covered his gradually healing wound.

The blood that had seeped through his fingers earlier had soaked his clothes, staining them an irregular crimson and making him look rather miserable.

Not to mention, Common Face was pressing a gun to his head.

Wu Ya had originally been hiding behind a shelf in terror, but when she saw this, she had no idea where she found the courage.

She could not help shouting, "Stop... What are you trying to do!? This is against the law!"

Her voice trembled uncontrollably. It was hard to say how intimidating such a rebuke could be.

"Oh, right. Murder is against the law."

Common Face tilted his head toward Wu Ya, then suddenly grinned. "Then why aren't you running? Are you reminding me to deal with the witness?"

At those words, not only Wu Ya, but everyone else, including Ke Jianghao, felt as though their hearts had skipped a beat.

Just then, an incomparably clear whooshing sound tore through the air.

Thud~

An arm clutching a gun dropped to the floor. The cut was incredibly smooth, so clean that the bones, muscles, and fat within could be distinguished.

Only after swinging his sword did Lu Bai slowly raise his head and softly ask, "Then why did you dare come so close to me?"

Perhaps it had all happened too quickly. Common Face had not reacted at all, and he even stared blankly at the arm on the ground for a moment.

"Ah... Ah! My hand!!"

Only when blood began pouring from the cross-section of his arm did Common Face let out an uncontrollable, heart-wrenching scream.

Brother Niu reacted quickly, though.

Realizing things had gone wrong, he decisively raised his gun at Lu Bai and began emptying the magazine.

However, Lu Bai had prepared himself the moment he swung his sword. Like a hunting cheetah, he perfectly embodied the phrase: still as a virgin, swift as a rabbit.

He slapped the ground with one hand and sprang upward. While dodging the first bullet, he seized Common Face by the throat and lifted him up as a human shield, then closed in on Brother Niu with ghostlike speed.

As the saying went, beyond seven steps, the gun was faster; within seven steps, the fist was faster.

In a sense, that was true.

Speed was relative, after all.

In the end, Lu Bai did not need to be faster than a bullet. He only needed to be faster than the other man could turn his gun.

It was worth mentioning that Brother Niu was a very steady person.

At that critical moment, he did not panic and fire off all his bullets. Since he was not confident he could hit Lu Bai behind the "human shield," he simply gambled and fired a shot at Wu Ya.

Limited by the cramped space, he could only gamble that Lu Bai would save her.

If Lu Bai did not save her, then Brother Niu could only say there was nothing he could do.

It sounded like a long sequence of events, but from the moment Lu Bai swung his sword, only a few seconds had passed. Being able to make a decision that quickly was already impressive.

The truth was, Brother Niu had guessed right, but not entirely.

The moment Brother Niu turned his gun, Lu Bai hurled Common Face at him.

Then he stamped down hard and launched himself forward. The terrifying force of that step cracked the floor tiles with fine, spiderweb-like fractures.

Several meters vanished in an instant as he swung his sword by instinct.

A flash of sword light.

The Eight-Sided Han Sword's reliable sharpness sliced Brother Niu and Common Face in half on the spot.

[ Ding! ]

[Points +1. Current Points: 2. Current Rank: 57/279]

[Points +1. Current Points: 3. Current Rank: 13/278]

Almost at the same time, mechanical notifications rang out consecutively in Lu Bai's mind.

"Do you know what you're saying?"

Ke Jianghao's eyes held shock and absurdity, but above all, disbelief—a whole fan-shaped chart of emotions.

"Let me confirm this again. You're saying you aren't from this world? That you came to this world just to kill each other? Are you some kind of alien? E.T.?"

"I'm not joking." Lu Bai symbolically patted the checkout counter.

Everyone gathered around the counter, their gazes drifting from time to time toward the two corpses before the shutter door before hurriedly darting away again.

Maybe they had vomited enough already. Faced with such a bloody sight now, their resistance to vomiting had improved considerably. Even the two girls were only slightly pale.

"It's not that I don't believe you."

Ke Jianghao swallowed and sighed. "It's just that... today has really been eye-opening."

Tian Wang and Zheng Xiaoming exchanged glances.

Lu Bai gave him a sidelong look. "You believe me?"

Ke Jianghao did not respond. Instead, Wu Ya nodded. "Setting aside the fantastical parts, your explanation doesn't entirely fail to make sense.

Anyway, if you were from our school, I definitely wouldn't have even the slightest impression of you."

Of course, Lu Bai's far beyond human healing ability had also added considerable credibility to his explanation.

Feeling the warmth in her face, Wu Ya added quietly, "That's why you were so determined to leave, isn't it?"

Lu Bai bent down and picked up a bottle of cola from the floor. "More or less."

Hiss!

Carbon dioxide and cola bubbles burst from beneath the cap.

Only after the fizz had mostly died down did Lu Bai raise it to his mouth and take a gulp. "If I keep staying with you, it won't be safe for you either."

That was the truth.

Before the duo arrived, the system had announced the locations of the deathmatch participants once. At the time, the radar map had not shown any deathmatch participants nearby.

This duo had clearly come specifically to hunt Lu Bai after the locations were announced, only to suffer a reversal in the end.

Normally, two deathmatch participants armed with guns dealing with a lone deathmatch participant would be a sure thing.

Lu Bai did not know what proportion of the deathmatch participants used this sort of "hunter playstyle," but he imagined it could not be a small number.

Besides, based on the three deathmatch participants Lu Bai had encountered, he had his own judgment regarding the strength of Silver Abilities.

In his view, Silver-level abilities should all brush against the edge of supernatural power, while also having significant restrictions—or flaws.

This was what people commonly called a high ceiling and a low floor.

At the right moment, a Silver-level ability might even be stronger than a Gold-level ability.

The advantage of his Gold-level [Super Regeneration] was actually its consistency.

But if a deathmatch participant shot him in the head from far away, there would be no saving him. No amount of consistency would matter.

So if he underestimated other deathmatch participants just because his ability was Gold level, he might suffer badly for it.

At that thought, Lu Bai felt that he could not stay in one place for too long.

He had to leave the store.

And kill all the other deathmatch participants!