The Third-Round Ability Pool

Smack~

About ten meters away, a door suddenly sprang up into the air.

Two men then crawled out from underneath, looking disheveled. Their black suits were torn to shreds, and of the sunglasses they'd been wearing, only half a temple still hung from one man's ear.

In a different setting, they could've dropped to their knees and started begging for alms.

The bald man didn't even glance at Lu Bai and the others. He cursed under his breath, "Boss, our second brother's done for."

"Fuck! We got played."

The boss tossed aside the half a temple hanging from his ear and grabbed the bald man's shoulder, baring his teeth in pain. "Come on, kid. Let's go settle the score with the Survey Corps."

Near the Administrative Building, a large swath of rubble was covered in scraps of cloth and plaster. Several "corpses" struggled to prop one another up and stand.

It took some effort to recognize them by their clothes as the six students in gray uniforms from earlier. Now, though, only four of them remained.

Amid the ruins left by the explosion, a few lucky survivors could still be found, though they were all clearly in rough shape.

When the explosion happened, Zhuo Li had been on top of a tent.

Given the situation at the time, even Xiao Xueyin hadn't been very hopeful that Zhuo Li would make it out alive.

What really surprised him was that Hoodie Man had died in the explosion too.

He could only put it down to bad luck.

"Since it's already happened, there's no point beating ourselves up. We have to look ahead." Xiao Xueyin suppressed his negative emotions, trying to lift everyone's spirits.

But in reality, setting aside Osas, who had little fighting ability, the other two didn't need any encouragement at all.

Once she'd recovered, Liu Yue was already rubbing her fists together, her eyes gleaming with menace.

"Damn it, I'm gonna kill those Survey Corps bastards today."

Lu Bai was even less likely to be affected. At most, he found the situation a little amusing.

Watching their reactions, Xiao Xueyin was briefly at a loss for words. He wasn't sure whether he should tell Liu Yue to calm down.

After a moment's silence, he reminded them, "Let's check the third-round Ability Pool first."

Actually, when the system's notification sounded, Lu Bai had already checked his third-round Ability Pool. He just hadn't made up his mind yet.

After all, his pool this round was rainbow-tier.

[Demon Contract (Rainbow): Demons have an incomprehensible obsession with contracts. You can offer your life in exchange for a demon helping you fulfill a wish. This ability is extremely uncontrollable. Users should remember: when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.]

[Flash Time (Rainbow): The signature skill of the terrifying killer Hit. It lets you skip through time. Using this ability requires no extra stamina, and you can skip ahead by up to 0.5 seconds. Make full use of that time to toy with your opponent as you please. Friendly reminder: leave at least one second between uses.]

[Cannot Be Looked At Directly (Rainbow): One of the traits of the Old Gods. After obtaining this ability, you yourself become an indescribable source of terror. No matter how you are observed, you inflict distortion, confusion, madness, and other negative effects on the observer. This ability is extremely uncontrollable. Users should remember: the observer includes you, too.]

Judging from the descriptions, all three abilities in the pool lived up to their rainbow-tier rank.

Lu Bai's hesitation mainly came from the fact that these powerful abilities all seemed to carry considerable risks.

Especially Demon Contract and Cannot Be Looked At Directly. Their descriptions practically sounded like the system was telling him not to choose them.

He had a feeling that picking either one might get him killed even faster.

After mulling it over for a while, Lu Bai chose Flash Time, which seemed to carry less risk.

"Woohoo! This round's Ability Pool is gold-tier!"

Liu Yue switched moods in an instant, her voice brimming with excitement.

But her smile wasn't contagious.

Instead, Xiao Xueyin's expression grew even more serious. "This isn't good."

For fighters in a deathmatch, the Ability Pool was almost always better the higher its tier.

But clearly, that didn't apply now.

If you were to make a rough summary of the Ability Pool's different tiers, it would go something like this—

White-tier abilities had no supernatural elements. They covered things like combat skills, driving skills, and ordinary weapons.

Silver-tier abilities were better than white-tier ones, but came with greater limitations. They generally had some supernatural effect, and could be surprisingly effective when used at the right time.

At gold tier, an ability was a complete supernatural power. Generally speaking, using it came with no restrictions, only differences in strength.

You could tell from the two gold-tier abilities Lu Bai had chosen. Their effects were outstanding, even enough to transform him completely.

As for rainbow-tier abilities, there wasn't much to say. Just the color of the Ability Pool exuded a sense of sheer power.

That was precisely why Xiao Xueyin felt so discouraged.

The reason was simple: the Survey Corps had too many deathmatch fighters.

Ten silver-tier abilities and ten gold-tier abilities were two completely different things, let alone the fact that the Survey Corps had more than ten members.

"Run while we can. Get as far away as possible." Xiao Xueyin had decided he didn't want to stay in this military base any longer.

Liu Yue had already chosen her ability. Hearing Xiao Xueyin, she flicked her hair in displeasure. "Come on, don't be a coward. Let's just fight!"

"She's right. You're not even as brave as a woman."

Somehow, the black-suited boss had made his way over. He patted his bald-headed lackey on the shoulder and said to Liu Yue, "Little miss, wanna come with us brothers and settle the score with the Survey Corps?"

Xiao Xueyin glanced at him without arguing.

"Hey!"

Yan Zhiquan called out and led the three surviving classmates toward Lu Bai and the others.

After taking a couple of steps, he felt uncomfortable. He simply tore off the legs of his uniform pants, which had been reduced to a few strips of cloth, and turned them into shorts.

"So, what do you think? With things looking like this, we should team up, right?" Yan Zhiquan asked eagerly, still seven or eight meters away.

"One, two, three..."

The black-suited boss counted them up and grinned. "Well, would you look at that? We've got ten people now."

Noticing Liu Yue's eagerness to jump into action, Xiao Xueyin finally couldn't keep silent.

"The Survey Corps has clearly teamed up with the Ten Blades. Don't tell me you haven't realized that."

"So what?"

The black-suited boss's tone suddenly changed, and an ominous aura began to emanate from him.

"When things look bad, you hide and pray no one finds you for a while?"

He spat on the ground disdainfully and continued scornfully, "If you ask me, kid, spending too long at the academy has made you soft. You don't have a drop of fight in you."

At that, Lu Bai rubbed his forehead with his palm. "Is dumping Zombies at the shelter what you call having a drop of fight in you?"