Chaos

"Practical life tip: friends who kill often should take note—improperly carrying a corpse can cause lumbar injuries."

Lu Bai stood hidden in the shadows, seemingly smiling.

"You're still awake?"

At the sudden teasing voice from the darkness, the figure holding the burly man upside down stiffened.

Cui Qing tugged aside the tent flap, letting a little more light into the tent. "Oh, looks like you knew it was me all along."

Seeing that Lu Bai was actually awake, Gao Pangzi, still held upside down, whimpered even louder. His flushed face looked especially agitated.

"Yeah." Lu Bai yawned and replied nonchalantly.

Cui Qing exhaled, the corner of his mouth lifting into a mocking smile.

"Could you do me a favor and clear up a few things for me, so I can put on a better act?"

"I don't know what kind of persona you'd been using before."

"Oh?"

"From what I've seen, you've been laying it on a bit thick."

"Too much of a good thing?"

Lu Bai tilted his head and thought for a moment, as though weighing where to begin.

Cui Qing didn't rush him.

"I remember Gao Pangzi smacked rice into your face, and you just sat there without budging.

But before that company commander arrived, you suddenly fell to the ground for no apparent reason and needed Company Commander Zhou to help you up. That was the first thing that seemed suspicious to me."

"Maybe I just couldn't keep it together mentally?"

"Second, this morning, when I lifted the flap of the tent next door, you were so frightened by what you saw inside that you sat down on the ground. That was even more suspicious."

"Wouldn't that fit my timid, cowardly persona?"

"Did you forget what it's like outside? There are far more bloody, gruesome scenes everywhere you look.

If a sight like that really left you too weak to stand, how did you make it from the city to this military base? Were you that lucky?"

"Maybe I'm just the chosen lucky one?"

"And you also hid from Company Commander Zhou the fact that I had a gun."

"I can't go running to report every little thing, can I?"

Cui Qing seemed annoyed by Gao Pangzi's constant wriggling. He ran a fingernail across Gao Pangzi's neck, and blood immediately gushed out.

"If you insist on arguing, there's nothing I can do."

Lu Bai shrugged and slowly rose to his feet. "Whether my guess was right or not stopped mattering the moment I saw you attack someone with my own eyes."

Blood trickled down Gao Pangzi's jawline, soaked into his hair, then dripped onto the army-green quilt beneath his head.

"Fair enough."

Cui Qing paid no attention to Gao Pangzi's dying struggles. He simply reached out and gently rubbed the wound on his neck, as though caressing a delicacy prepared with care. "Aren't you curious why I attacked an ordinary person?"

"It's probably some ability that boosts your physical strength by killing people. It can't be for fun—you're not Hannibal."

Lu Bai delivered the deadpan joke calmly, but unfortunately, the other man didn't understand it.

Halfway through, however, he suddenly realized something and felt a little nauseous.

Maybe this guy really was.

The six bodies from the tent next door still hadn't been found.

"I don't know who this Hannibal you mentioned is, but the look in your eyes right now is very disrespectful."

Cui Qing's expression darkened. It wasn't as if he could control what abilities the Deathmatch System's Ability Pool offered.

[Ghoul (Silver)][Gulp It Down, Absolutely Amazing! (Silver)]

That was his current ability set.

As for its strength, he was satisfied. After all, deathmatchers were all about power.

Having lost too much blood, Gao Pangzi's struggles had weakened considerably.

Thud~

Cui Qing tossed Gao Pangzi aside like a piece of trash and brushed the bloodstains off his clothes.

He hunched forward slightly and said ominously, "Let's put the small talk aside for now."

"Hold on. You don't think I'm going to fight you, do you?" Lu Bai looked a little surprised. "What did you think I was chatting with you for all this time?"

Cui Qing froze. Then he watched as Lu Bai pulled a walkie-talkie from his clothes.

The indicator on the walkie-talkie was still glowing green, showing that it was working normally.

Thud, thud, thud~

Outside the tent, heavy footsteps drew closer. By a rough estimate, there had to be two whole platoons.

Cui Qing's face turned green.

"My advice is to run as fast as you can. If you're confident in your fighting ability, you could also try carving your way through this entire military base." Lu Bai smiled leisurely.

"Just you wait!"

Cui Qing glared viciously at Lu Bai, then bolted out of the tent.

As soon as he rushed outside, a barrage of shouts rang out.

"Stop!"

"You're surrounded. Stop resisting!"

"Stop now or we'll fire!"

Holding a walkie-talkie identical to Lu Bai's in one hand, Zhou Zongming directed his subordinates as they closed in on Cui Qing, his feelings complicated.

He'd never expected the culprit to be Cui Qing, a young man who seemed timid on the surface. Even more surprising, it had been Lu Bai—a high school student with bizarre behavior—who saw through him.

In any case, things had come to this, and there wasn't much time to dwell on it.

Zhou Zongming spoke coldly over the combat channel. "The target is extremely dangerous. You're authorized to open fire."

The next second, the shouts and commotion gave way to a fierce burst of gunfire.

Dozens of automatic rifles spat flames, bullets raining down on Cui Qing.

Even though his physical abilities had become almost inhuman, Cui Qing was still incredibly vulnerable to a hail of bullets.

He darted frantically, leaping and dodging, but still couldn't avoid every shot.

After running just a few meters, several clouds of blood had already burst from his body.

Luckily, tents stood all around them. Startled by the gunfire, the residents inside began screaming one after another.

Worried about the civilians in the tents, the soldiers couldn't unleash a full barrage.

Cui Qing dodged left and right, mingling with the civilians fleeing from their tents. He seemed to catch a glimpse of a way out.

"Have every entrance and exit in District 7 sealed. Xiao Li, request support from the Rapid Response Battalion. Also, tell the medical staff on duty to get ready to receive the wounded."

As the situation grew more chaotic, Zhou Zongming forced himself to stay calm and rapidly issued orders. "Third Platoon, go in and evacuate the civilians. First and Second Platoons, keep up the encirclement..."

Meanwhile, Lu Bai stayed in the tent and watched in secret.

He wanted to take a shot from the shadows, but his marksmanship was barely better than a beginner's. There was no way he could count on hitting his target.

Outside the tent, frightened, anxious cries rose and fell.

Under cover of night, the chaos at the shelter grew and spread.

"After all that stalling, they still ended up with an encirclement full of holes."

Lu Bai sighed and leaned forward as far as he could.

If the scene had frozen right there, his body would have formed an angle of almost thirty degrees with the ground.

Blood Rage, activate!

Then he stomped hard against the ground. Dust billowed beneath his feet as he shot forward like a hypersonic missile.

He crashed straight through the tent in front of him without slowing down, continuing along a direct path toward Cui Qing.