Rumors

Lu Bai hung up the phone after saying a few words, not wanting to hear Xu Qiang's complaints on the other end.

He crouched down to check Yao Yi's condition. "There are no fatal injuries, the most dangerous thing is excessive blood loss. It seems you've protected him quite well."

Multitasking was easy for Wang Ting; while modifying several heads, she replied, "I'm doing this so I can survive."

Lu Bai gave Yao Yi some basic first aid to stop the bleeding. "Looks like you two are getting along well now?"

"Actually, it's not good. I can feel that he's still very resistant to me. The only reason he's willing to accept me this time is because he's in mortal danger."

"Indeed, you failed to seize his brain, and that's my fault." Lu Bai shrugged.

Wang Ting couldn't quite grasp Lu Bai's teasing yet, and nodded down with her two strange eyes.

"Yes, the current location for parasitism is far from ideal for me."

"For you, besides the brain, there's no other ideal place to parasitize, right? The arm?"

"Neither is ideal; Yao Yi is too weak."

After dealing with the two boys' heads, Wang Ting began to reform the female high school student.

One of its eyes turned to Lu Bai: "Based on my judgment, the survival rate of parasitizing you will increase by 70%."

"How come it's only 70%?"

"Because this is my initial assessment, and my understanding of you is not yet deep enough, my judgment will tend to be conservative."

The man and the beast chatted casually for a few minutes until the sounds of sirens and emergency medical services approached from afar.

Lu Bai stood up and dusted off non-existent dust from his clothes. "Alright, you should hide now."

Evening, outside the ICU ward of Jiangyu City First People's Hospital.

"I just don't know if that leg will have any lasting effects."

After learning about Yao Yi's condition from the doctor, Tong Shujuan felt relieved.

Xu Qiang remarked, "Don't worry, this kid has always been lucky."

Lu Bai checked the time. "He should be unlucky; he was only discharged from the hospital a few hours ago."

"So what exactly happened? There were only three Parasitic Organism, yet they're all so badly injured."

Xu Qiang didn't quite understand. In his mind, even if he encountered five or six Parasitic Organism, Lu Bai should be able to deal with them without taking any damage.

"It's your fault for not providing him with a gun," Lu Bai casually deflected the blame, since he couldn't very well admit that he was the one who was stabbing someone at the time.

"None of you have received professional training and do not meet the requirements for carrying firearms."

Xu Qiang offered a perfunctory explanation, then said, "Since it's nothing serious, I'll head back to the station first. I have a ton of things to take care of there. I'll come see Xiao Yao when he wakes up. As for you..."

Thinking of Lu Bai's way of doing things, he felt a mix of emotions. "He's a team leader now, at least he should calm down. There's no need to rush to deal with the Parasitic Organism. Don't call me again later to clean up the mess."

After saying that, Xu Qiang hurriedly left with two subordinates.

Suddenly, everything fell silent. Only Lu Bai and Tong Shujuan remained in the family waiting area outside the ward, and the atmosphere suddenly became somewhat awkward.

It must be said that Tong Shujuan's feelings for Lu Bai were very subtle; at least, their interactions weren't as natural as hers with Yao Yi.

Yao Yi felt indebted to Tong Shujuan because she had pulled her along and led her behind a pile of scrap metal when they ran away.

But Lu Bai was quite different.

Of course, it's not resentment or anything, it's just a psychological knot in my heart.

Reason told her that she should be grateful to Lu Bai for saving her life, but emotionally, she watched Lu Bai kill her parents one by one. Even though she knew they could no longer be considered her parents, it wasn't so easy for her to get over it.

This resulted in her always appearing somewhat unnatural when facing Lu Bai, and she generally avoided spending time alone with Lu Bai or having casual conversations with him.

"Um... Lu, team leader."

Tong Shujuan sensed that the silence would only make the atmosphere more awkward, so she took the initiative to start a conversation. "Are you aware that the official report has been released regarding the Parasitic Organism?"

"I heard Director Xu mention it briefly before, what's wrong?"

Unlike Tong Shujuan, Lu Bai didn't have such complex inner thoughts; he focused his energy on observing the people coming and going in the corridor outside.

According to his understanding, now that the "Node" has appeared, there must be quite a few deathmatchers secretly approaching the hospital. Perhaps some of the bolder deathmatchers are even mingling among the people passing by in the corridor.

"Uh, yeah, it's really popular online."

Lu Bai's reaction made Tong Shujuan feel even more embarrassed. She forced herself to continue, "Many people are discussing Parasitic Organism, and everyone is very interested in the Special Affairs Bureau specializes in handling such cases."

"Is that so?"

Lu Bai casually gave a reply.

He didn't spot any guys with titles above their heads, and since deathmatch fighters are generally good actors, it's hard to judge them based on their behavior alone, which made him suspicious of everyone.

Feeling awkward, Tong Shujuan gave up and started browsing the news on her phone.

She hadn't been scrolling for long when she frowned. "Team Leader Lu Bai, someone has posted your information online."

The truth is outrageous: the most popular topic online is Parasitic Organism, followed by Lu Bai's resume; Special Affairs Bureau has to rank lower.

"My box was opened by someone?" Lu Bai was stunned.

"Yes, your resume has been posted online. I'll have a colleague handle it for you."

Tong Shujuan wasn't exaggerating, after all, she worked in the department responsible for internet monitoring within the Special Affairs Bureau.

Is there a problem?

"These are all your embarrassing moments from school, and the top comments are very biased; it's obvious someone is stirring up trouble."

Tong Shujuan paused mid-sentence, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why are official media outlets also reposting this? And the tone is..."

Lu Bai leaned over and took a look.

This article first affirms the work and necessity of the Special Affairs Bureau, laying a solid foundation for something, and is basically a bunch of high-sounding words.

Then, changing the subject, she said she was troubled by the purity of the team, believing that the Special Affairs Bureau was the mainstay in the fight against Parasitic Organism, and that it was unacceptable to allow any negative factors to gradually rise and escalate within it...

Although Lu Bai's name was not mentioned at all, judging from the official media's reposting, it's quite obvious who the negative factor was referring to.

Even without reading the comments section, Lu Bai knew that the comments below were probably all cursing him.

There's really nothing we can do about that; in a sense, that's indeed the truth.

The only problem is that the initial resume provided by the Deathmatch System was too bad, making it difficult to clear one's name.

The fact that it could cause such a huge stir all at once means there must be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Lu Bai pressed his temples.

Compared to the deathmatch, he felt this was more like the mayor's doing.