Lucky Bounce

Clang, clang, clang!

At Zhou Zongming's command, the heavy machine guns mounted atop the two armored vehicles began unleashing a furious hail of fire.

With the power of heavy machine-gun rounds, there was no need to aim carefully. A mere graze was enough to tear a limb clean off.

Under the sweeping fire, bullets sent shards flying from the reinforced concrete walls.

Crouched behind an armored vehicle, Osas looked at the bodies of several soldiers lying in the open space and said, still shaken, "Good thing we reacted quickly. It would've been a real loss if we'd been taken out by one of those shots."

"When are we going in?" Liu Yue was growing more and more excited.

Xiao Xueyin watched the building. "Let's wait a little longer. It's too dangerous to go in now."

Hearing that, Liu Yue immediately looked dissatisfied. "Wait again? You don't seriously expect these natives to take out the Survey Corps, do you? We should go in now. Once all these native soldiers are dead, we'll be in even greater danger."

"Miss Liu is right."

Yan Zhiquan nodded in agreement, then suddenly seemed to think of something. "What do you think, Brother Lu?"

He looked around and felt a jolt of alarm.

"Where's Brother Lu?"

Lu Bai pressed the button and closed the elevator doors.

With the fierce firefight by the Emergency Channel, nobody noticed him passing through the first-floor lobby.

Clang~

He glanced around, then swung the Eight-Sided Han Sword and cut an outline into the ceiling of the elevator car, large enough for an adult to climb through.

He put the Eight-Sided Han Sword away again, stamped his foot, and leaped straight up, smashing through the cutout.

Bang!

The noise of Lu Bai landing atop the elevator car echoed through the pitch-black elevator shaft.

He slowly straightened and looked up toward the top of the shaft.

In the faint light filtering through the ventilation opening, he could just make out two figures concealed in the darkness.

Still gazing upward, Lu Bai said with a smile, "Not taking the elevator really was the right call."

"Facing the two of us alone probably isn't the right call."

Zhu Da's hoarse voice was somewhat unsettling.

Lu Bai drew the Eight-Sided Han Sword and hefted it in his hand. "Who knows?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Zhu Er gave a sinister chuckle. "Big Brother, let's go."

The brothers at the top of the elevator shaft moved together, as if they were in free fall.

A closer look, however, revealed sparks occasionally flaring where their grappling hooks scraped rapidly against the walls on either side.

Lu Bai watched them descend, still wearing a kind smile.

"Something's not right."

Zhu Da didn't believe a veteran survivor of the death match would give up so easily.

So he didn't wait until they were closer to attack. When he was about three floors up, he fired a grappling hook.

Lu Bai tilted his head slightly. The gleaming hook shot past his eyes and easily pierced through the elevator car.

Zhu Er was clearly less cautious than his brother. He landed directly on top of the elevator car. Given how small it was, they were practically face-to-face.

Without the slightest hesitation, he thrust both hands down, and several grappling hooks shot out from behind him.

To be safe, Lu Bai's face flushed red in an instant as he activated [Blood Rage].

His physical abilities surged, allowing him to easily discern the paths of the incoming hooks.

Even in such cramped surroundings, he could twist and dart aside, evading every attack.

To his surprise, despite dodging every hook, two bloody streaks had somehow appeared on his body.

Lu Bai wasn't the only one taken aback. Zhu Er, standing in front of him, looked equally stunned.

[Lucky Bounce (Gold): Your attacks have a chance to bounce an additional time, dealing 10% of the original damage.]

By any measure, this Gold-level ability was far from weak.

Don't underestimate a tenth of the original damage.

Just think of the grappling hooks that had pierced through the elevator car. Even a tenth of their force would be enough to threaten someone's life.

Yet this attack had only left bloody streaks on Lu Bai. Calling them even minor wounds was a stretch.

Wasn't this guy's body tougher than a Zombie's?!

"How—"

Zhu Er blurted out in shock, but before he could finish, a flash of sword light appeared.

After swinging his sword, Lu Bai didn't spare Zhu Er another glance. He stamped down and sprang into the air.

His figure darted back and forth through the narrow elevator shaft, rising rapidly as he charged at Zhu Da above.

For the record, the moment Zhu Da saw Lu Bai swing his sword and kill his younger brother, he realized something was wrong. By now, he had used his grappling hooks to climb to the level of the fifth floor.

Unfortunately, that distance was nowhere near enough.

From an observer's perspective, Lu Bai's pursuit looked like a video with a terrible frame rate.

He was like a high-ping warrior in a game: it looked as if he was moving, but it was closer to teleporting.

Zhu Da's grappling hook finally caught the top of the elevator shaft and hauled him rapidly upward. He let out a sigh of relief and finally had a moment to glance back down.

But when he did, the flickering figure below, like a ghost from a horror movie coming to claim his life, made his scalp go numb. And that eerie smile on Lu Bai's face only made cold sweat pour down his body.

"Fuck!"

At last, a hand grabbed the back of his neck.

"Goodbye."

Lu Bai's voice sounded so gentle that it was almost unnatural.

For some reason, Zhu Da felt an inexplicable sense of relief, as if he'd finally been released from his suffering.

[Ding!]

[Points +2, Current Points: 24, Current Rank: 1/42]

The rooftop terrace of the Administrative Building.

Bang!

The metal cover over the ventilation opening was kicked away.

Lu Bai climbed out at an unhurried pace, then calmly brushed the dust from his clothes.

The gunfire below still hadn't died down. Perhaps it was his imagination, but it even seemed more intense than before.

He walked around the top-floor corridor but didn't see a single person.

"Is the Survey Corps really that confident in those brothers?" Disappointed not to find anyone, Lu Bai could only continue down to the floor below.

He was confident he could take on any death-match participant one-on-one. But if he had to face dozens of them, he couldn't guarantee he'd make it out unscathed.

With all the different abilities combined, there were simply too many variables. It was best to take them out one by one, like he had in the elevator shaft.

Suddenly, Lu Bai stopped at a corridor corner and looked down at the floor with interest.

The System Panel showed that the "Node" overlapped with his location.

Was it on the next floor down? Or the one below that?

Either way, it couldn't be far. The entire Administrative Building was only eight stories tall.

After a moment's thought, Lu Bai continued downstairs.

He figured the "Node" was probably on the Survey Corps commander now.

With the firefight below so intense, there probably weren't many death-match participants around Brother Hui, right?