Can't Cut?

Administrative Building, sixth floor.

A bearded Deathmatch Participant pushed open the heavy doors of the Conference Hall and hurried toward the emergency exit.

When he reached the corner of the T-Shaped Corridor, his steps abruptly halted.

"Who are you?"

As he spoke, the bearded man had already slipped his right hand into his pocket.

"A name is merely a codename. As the saying goes, Shang Yang knows a horse's strength, Bi Gan sees human hearts..."

Lu Bai drew his Eight-Sided Han Sword and smiled kindly. "If you get the chance to spend more time with me, you'll know I'm a good person."

"Heh heh, do you think I still have a chance?" The bearded man seemed to raise his voice casually.

Thud~

The bearded man's head fell onto the corridor floor, rolling twice before coming to a stop.

"Probably not."

Only after stepping over the bearded man's corpse did Lu Bai toss out that remark.

The bearded man had deliberately shouted, which meant he believed someone was likely able to hear him.

Strangely, throughout all this, not a single sound came from the Conference Hall.

Lu Bai arrived before the heavy solid-wood doors of the Conference Hall and reached out to push them open.

The first thing he saw was the High School Student seated upright at the head of the Conference Table, as well as Agu sitting on the High School Student's right.

He glanced at the projector beside them, which was playing footage of the battle downstairs, then walked to the Conference Table. As though he were the master of this meeting, he pulled out a chair and sat down.

With an innocent smile on his face, he asked gently, "Not going to say anything?"

"Looks like you took out the Zhu Brothers. You're far more capable than I imagined," Agu praised, maintaining his refined demeanor.

"You flatter me."

Lu Bai smiled and nodded, then glanced sideways at Duan Jianhui. "This must be Brother Hui?"

Bang!

Before he finished speaking, a gunshot rang out abruptly, echoing through the Conference Hall.

Blood gushed from the bloody hole in Agu's forehead. As his body naturally slid to the floor, his face still wore that admiring smile.

[ Ding! ]

[ ...Current Points: 26... ]

Lu Bai put away Shuangying's sidearm and sincerely apologized to Duan Jianhui. "Sorry about that. I warned him before not to run around."

Duan Jianhui's expression froze for a moment before quickly returning to normal.

"Aren't you being a little too arrogant?"

"Which law says I can't be arrogant?"

Lu Bai scratched his head and smiled honestly. "It's still less of a commotion than what you people have stirred up."

"Though I don't particularly like this guy either, he could at least serve as surveillance. Killing him right in front of me is really a bit disrespectful."

Lu Bai chuckled. "So what are you planning to do?"

Duan Jianhui fell silent for a moment, then took two USB drives from his pocket and placed them on the desktop.

"These two USB drives are 256G and 128G respectively. Which one do you want?"

Lu Bai raised his right hand level with the bridge of his nose, then clenched it into a fist. "I want them all."

"Heh heh, don't be so greedy."

Duan Jianhui gave a bland smile, making it impossible to tell whether he was mocking him or not.

He continued, "Actually, we've met before."

The smile on Lu Bai's face faded somewhat. "The school restroom?"

Duan Jianhui nodded. "Looks like you remember. The first rule told us never to invest emotions in the natives. So I'm very curious—why would you deal with these natives, and even reveal the matter of the deathmatch to them?"

As he spoke, he picked up one of the USB drives and toyed with it in his hand.

"Want to know what's on it? Let me remind you: their situation can't afford to be delayed."

"How's the resolution?" Lu Bai suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

Duan Jianhui could not help but pause. "Don't worry, it's high-definition."

Lu Bai sighed, his tone full of regret.

"A few days ago, I downloaded a 1080p video, but there were only three people in it."

Duan Jianhui: "?" You're talking about breeding here with 1080p?!

Boom!

Lu Bai brought his sword down in a savage slash.

Wood chips flew and dust billowed as the solid-wood rectangular Conference Table was forcibly split in two.

Lu Bai ignored the "Node" that had fallen beneath the Conference Table. He merely stood where he was, Eight-Sided Han Sword in hand, lost in thought.

Because he could sense that his sudden explosive strike had not actually hit Duan Jianhui.

Based on his previous experience, no one should have been able to react to a sneak attack using [Flash Time].

Duan Jianhui reappeared in his chair as though he had never vanished.

Leisurely rising from the chair, he walked over to Lu Bai and picked up the USB Drive. "I'm not terribly satisfied with your answer, but it doesn't matter. As it happens, I'm quite curious what your reaction will be when you see their corpses."

Lu Bai paid no attention to what Duan Jianhui said. After all, he wasn't the first Deathmatch Participant to threaten him with Wu Ya and the others.

He was rather puzzled as to why these Deathmatch Participants thought they were so important to him. At the end of the day, wasn't he just repaying a favor?

He truly couldn't understand the way Deathmatch Participants' minds worked.

Besides, there was no telling whether any of this was even true.

Lu Bai could not be bothered to argue with Duan Jianhui. His arm abruptly exerted force, and a sharp whistle tore through the air once more as the Eight-Sided Han Sword traced a semicircular arc through the air.

No surprise.

Duan Jianhui remained standing where he was, completely unharmed. He had not even made a motion to dodge, merely swaying the USB Drive between two fingers as he put on a sentimental air.

"By my reckoning, they have only a few minutes left before they depart this beautiful world."

Second floor, safe passage.

"We can pull out now." Fei Xiao emptied his magazine and casually tossed the assault rifle downstairs.

One of the Ten Blades members hesitated upon hearing that. "Shouldn't we notify the Survey Corps?"

Fei Xiao immediately sneered. "Let them wear each other down first."

His reasoning was simple.

Looking at the overall situation, the three factions of Deathmatch Participants currently stood at roughly a 2:1:1 ratio.

The Survey Corps already held an absolute advantage in numbers. Why would they help the strong eliminate the weak first?

If the entire Survey Corps hadn't had their eyes on him at the time, forcing him to play along, he would have taken the Ten Blades to form an alliance with Lu Bai and the others long ago.

Of course, the current situation was not bad either.

It would be even better if, after the Survey Corps wiped out the surviving Deathmatch Participant alliance, they were left badly depleted themselves.

"Isn't this a bit too risky? Brother Hui's ability set is terrifyingly strong." That member still hesitated.

Another, rounder member slapped him across the head. "Damn it, you ball-biting bastard! We're leaving, so move!"

The Ten Blades quickly reached a consensus. Led by Fei Xiao, they swarmed toward the depths of the corridor.

The inexplicable ceasefire above instead made the troops in the stairwell uneasy. They had no idea what trick was being brewed behind that gourd.

The silence lasted for half a minute.

The soldier at the very front, holding a riot shield, could not resist poking his head out, only to quickly pull it back again.

After testing the waters and finding that there was still no movement behind the safe passage door, he finally raised his riot shield again and stepped upstairs.