Far Ahead

Tang Peng and Zhou Meina squeezed together in the narrow gap by the window, looking down at Lu Bai, who was about to be eaten by zombies. Both of them sneered nonstop.

As the zombies drew closer and closer to Lu Bai, they could almost picture him dying in their jaws the very next second. It gave them a vengeful kind of satisfaction.

Yet Lu Bai remained calm, as if he hadn't even noticed the zombies closing in from both sides of the road.

He lifted his head slightly and gazed calmly at the couple on the fifth floor. The gentle smile on his face didn't change in the slightest.

The fastest zombie had already charged up beside Lu Bai. Bits of flesh clung to its snarling mouth, and a wave of stench washed over him.

But Lu Bai didn't even glance in the zombie's direction. He simply swung his sword with a casual flick.

The Eight-Sided Han Sword's reliable sharpness sliced the zombie in two as easily as cutting through vegetables.

From Tang Peng and Zhou Meina's perspective, they only caught a glimpse of the sword flashing in Lu Bai's hand before the terrifying zombie collapsed on the spot.

"How can he be that strong?!"

Seeing this, Tang Peng was suddenly alarmed.

Zhou Meina was just as shocked by Lu Bai's display.

Forcing herself to stay composed, she gritted her teeth and said, "So what if he's strong? I refuse to believe that guy can kill every zombie outside."

Well, she was right.

Whether or not Lu Bai was capable of it, he had no intention of killing all the zombies at the moment.

After dealing with only the fastest zombie, Lu Bai leaped toward an air-conditioning unit on the hotel's second floor.

With [Blood Rage] boosting him, he felt he could jump three or four meters high in a single bound.

Thud!

Lu Bai landed on the second-floor air-conditioning unit with one knee on the ground.

One of the screws holding the unit to the wall snapped off. Lu Bai steadied himself by pressing his left hand against the top of the unit.

Without wasting any time, he suddenly pushed off with his feet again and jumped toward the third floor.

To ordinary people, the fifth floor was already high enough for a fall to be fatal.

But for Lu Bai, with [Blood Rage] activated, it was only a matter of a few jumps.

"Holy shit, is that even human?!"

Tang Peng had already sensed something was wrong when he saw Lu Bai reach the second floor in just two or three jumps.

Unfortunately, before he could react or do anything to stop him, Lu Bai had already burst through the window.

After landing inside, Lu Bai didn't even need to roll to absorb the impact. He simply stood up.

He looked at the couple by the window. In that setting, the kind smile on his face only made him seem more unnerving.

Tang Peng stared at Lu Bai, his whole body stiff as if it had turned to stone, his eyes filled with disbelief.

They had known Lu Bai was pretty strong, considering he could kick through tempered glass.

But even if he'd used all kinds of footholds along the way, jumping up to the fifth floor in just a few bounds was hardly something a normal person could do, right?

Lu Bai raised the blood-drenched Eight-Sided Han Sword in his hand. That small gesture alone made Zhou Meina burst into tears. She shrank back as much as she could, trying to hide behind Tang Peng.

Tang Peng swallowed, then dropped smoothly to his knees.

"Brother... no, sir, please! We were wrong... Please, don't kill us!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Terrified out of his mind, Tang Peng repeatedly slammed his forehead against the wood-grain floor, each impact ringing out with a thud.

They were consumed by regret. They had never imagined they'd provoke a monster like this.

Lu Bai surveyed the room and, recalling how the young couple had acted last night, roughly understood what had happened.

When people had gone almost two days without food or water, it wasn't surprising they might do anything.

It had to be said: human nature was complicated.

Compared with premeditated murder, crimes of passion generally received lighter sentences, and people could understand such verdicts to some extent.

That alone showed that people understood, deep down, that most of them couldn't fully control their emotions and actions.

Lu Bai sighed, pulled a piece of high-end chocolate from his pocket, and held it out to them. "Eat."

Tang Peng had flinched when he saw Lu Bai move, but once he realized it was a piece of chocolate, his feelings became incredibly complicated.

He couldn't tell whether he was grateful that Lu Bai had repaid their cruelty with kindness or simply relieved to have survived. Either way, his eyes gradually reddened.

"Th-thank you. We were wrong. Thank you so much."

Zhou Meina accepted the chocolate with trembling hands. Seeing that Lu Bai wasn't stopping her, she quickly peeled off the wrapper and stuffed it into her mouth.

Seeing this, Lu Bai raised an eyebrow. "You're really eating it?"

Tang Peng: "Huh?"

As he spoke, Lu Bai decisively drew the Shuangying pistol from his waist.

The Shuangying pistol was kind enough not to jam.

Bang! Bang!

One shot each.

Although Lu Bai had never handled a real gun before, at such close range it would've been difficult to miss.

"I understand why you did it, but if I'd really been an ordinary person, wouldn't you two have killed me by ambushing me?"

It was simple: adults had to take responsibility for their actions.

Lu Bai looked at the two freshly dead bodies before him, hung the Brocade-shell pistol back in place, and vaulted out the window. He still had prey to hunt.

"Sumimasen."

Lu Bai gave the corpse, its eyes still wide open, a proper ninety-degree bow.

[ Ding! ]

[ Points +1, current points: 9, current rank: 1/173 ]

After leaving the Department Store, he continued searching for other deathmatch contestants based on the location data published by the system.

He had to admit, after obtaining [Blood Rage], he felt that when facing other deathmatch contestants, at least in direct combat, he was practically unbeatable.

For the record, after nearly getting caught off guard at the Department Store, he decided to play it safe. Whenever he ran into another deathmatch contestant, Lu Bai activated [Blood Rage] without a second thought.

As a result, the several lone deathmatch contestants he found in succession were as helpless as infants before him, unable to fight back at all.

Lu Bai put away the Eight-Sided Han Sword and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

This Deathmatch Showdown.

The rankings were displayed in real time, and location information was announced every so often. It wasn't hard to see that this so-called Deathmatch Showdown was encouraging the contestants to kill one another.

In other words, the rankings were probably tied to the rewards at the end. Otherwise, there'd be no point in the contestants slaughtering each other.

"I should be far ahead in points by now. But why is my Ability Pool higher-level than the other contestants'?"

If it had only been a guess at first, he was now almost certain of it.

Of course, this seemed like a good thing to Lu Bai no matter how he looked at it. But when something good happened for no reason, it was hard not to wonder about it.