The Carnage

"Did The Governor really want to negotiate?" Little Fatty asked in surprise. "We killed a lot of his men last night, and even took out Ma Ruiqi. Can he really swallow that?"

"Of course he can't. He's just using negotiations as an excuse to deal with us." Kirk knew the plot: The Governor planned to ambush Rick during these talks.

"I get it. The two groups can't stand each other, but neither can afford to take heavy losses in a fight." Little Fatty spoke bluntly. "So now they're planning to play dirty. Is Rick really that stupid?"

"Rick will probably go," Kirk reasoned. "He's the team leader. The other town has more people than we do, and they have heavy weapons. If he refuses to negotiate because of a personal grudge, the weak and injured won't be the only ones who object. Even the Plot Characters will have something to say. Once the team loses heart, it'll be hard to keep them together."

Sure enough, with Andalusia acting as mediator, Rick agreed to temporary peace talks, despite hating The Governor to the core.

To guard against a possible surprise attack, the entire Plot Character team held a long discussion. They carefully considered the possibilities Kirk and the others had raised and prepared for the negotiations.

Shane led Green, Maggie, Carl, and the others in defending the prison.

Rick, the leader, went to the talks with Daryl and the crippled Doctor Old Man.

Mori, Michonne, and the other underlings took all the newcomers and hid near the negotiation site—a secluded villa.

This time, the space offered no mission options. Instead, it ordered all the newcomers to protect Rick. "The evil Governor claims he wants to meet Rick one-on-one. Your mission is to ensure Rick's safety. Success will earn a generous reward. Failure will cost you a certain amount of Survival Points. If your Survival Points fall below zero, you will be eliminated."

"Boss, how are we supposed to protect Rick from this far away?" Little Fatty asked. He was lying in the grass with a camouflage net over him and paint on his face. Beneath it, he wore Soft Armor, making him look like a ridiculous porcupine.

Mori had assigned everyone positions according to the terrain. He and Daryl were on the flanks, while the newcomers hid behind them. The Governor had made it clear in his letter that the meeting would be "one-on-one," with each side allowed to bring only two people into the villa. Rick had taken Daryl and the crippled old man. To avoid alerting the other side, everyone else was a full 800 meters from the villa.

"Rick can't die in the plot. The other side knows that, too, so they might play dirty and try everything they can to kill him. If they want a fight, we won't just roll over." Kirk wasn't too worried. Mori and Daryl were both tough fighters. There was only one question he still couldn't answer. Ma Ruiqi must have defected because she'd offended Rick and realized she had no future with their group. But on the third night after the prison was attacked, she shouldn't have been thinking that way yet. So who had deliberately unlocked the doors and let the wolves in?

There was another traitor in the group!

Ma Ruiqi and Sally were dead. Kirk recalled Blondie, Ranmaru, the Korean newcomer, and the others, scene by scene, like a movie playing in his mind. His suspicions centered on the prison warden's key. That key... Suddenly, an idea flashed through Kirk's mind. (Kirk: Is this really not a Conan spin-off? Why is there a mystery to solve in an infinite-flow story?)

"I've got it! Where is that damn cross-dresser, Ranmaru?" Kirk hurriedly asked Little Fatty.

"He's over by that tree with Michonne." Little Fatty pointed to a distant tree.

Kirk and Little Fatty rushed over, but they were already too late.

Michonne was dead, her eyes wide open.

Someone had slashed her open from behind, spilling her entrails across the ground, and cut off her head. From her wide, furious eyes, it was clear she'd been ambushed from behind. Her flashy silver Japanese Sword was gone.

"That damn cross-dresser did it!" Kirk ground out.

"But how did he open all those prison doors to let the walkers in? There weren't any signs of forced entry." Little Fatty sounded puzzled.

"There wouldn't be. He was the one who gave Rick the warden's key in the first place. Contractors can't copy plot items, but Plot Characters can. As The Governor's inside man, he could easily have made a duplicate key, then worked with The Governor to open the prison gates and attack us from both sides!"

"But he's a Contractor on our side. How could he...?" Little Fatty still didn't understand.

"He might not be one of ours at all!" Kirk said bitterly. "He could've been a Contractor on The Governor's side from the start! He entered the world early, killed the newcomer who was following Michonne, then pretended to be that newcomer and joined her!"

"That's possible?" Little Fatty was amazed. "That damn cross-dresser was hiding deep!"

"Indeed. As long as he's alive, there'll be no peace." A voice drawled from behind them.

Little Fatty turned and saw Blondie standing behind them with several others.

"Blondie, you heard everything. We have to find that Japanese cross-dresser right away. We need to kill him before he ruins our mission!" Little Fatty said urgently.

"Save your breath, Little Fatty. Blondie's here to kill the two of us." Kirk turned around with a cheerful smile. "Aren't you, Blondie?"

Blondie's expression shifted several times before finally darkening. "How'd you know I was going to kill you?"

"Because you're a stupid pig!" Kirk said, still smiling. "You used those Tyrannosaurus Glasses to see how many Survival Points Little Fatty and I had, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I got careless and let you two brats fool me last time. I checked a couple days ago, and the two of you had over ten thousand Survival Points between you. Now you're going to pay for tricking me." Blondie grinned viciously.

Little Fatty shouted, "If you kill us, Rick will be doomed! If the mission fails, we'll—"

"Lose Survival Points, right? Killing you will earn us plenty, and The Governor also approached us through Ma Ruiqi beforehand. We decided things would be better for us on his side. Now you—"

Kirk cut him off with a smile. "Yeah, I don't want you breathing another second, you piece of shit. Die!" When he said "Die," he was still beside a tree ten meters from Blondie. By the time he said "you," he had appeared right beside him!

As soon as Blondie's voice rang out, Kirk had turned his back to them and decisively downed the Cat's Agility potion he'd bought after killing the six-times-mutated Walker King. His movement speed surged by 30%! Combined with Kirk's eight Agility and the 30% movement boost from Gonzalez's Feather Boots, he was now almost as fast as a Contractor with thirteen Agility!

Thirteen Agility! More than two and a half times an ordinary person's speed. Kirk reached Blondie in a blur, trailing afterimages.

Blondie swore and raised his gun to shoot.

The huge gap in combat experience between them was clear. Ever since entering this world, Kirk had risked his life again and again to improve his close-combat skills. Blondie, on the other hand, had done nothing but fire from the safety of the back lines.

What chance did a lousy marksman have against a close-combat specialist who was all over him?

Kirk even feared Blondie might have some trick up his sleeve, so he opened with Throat Cut!

Blondie had made a tidy profit through extortion and completing missions. He'd raised his Stamina to seven and his Agility to eight. Though his movements were awkward, he twisted aside at the last possible moment and dodged Kirk's vicious Throat Cut!

Kirk didn't care. He sneered, not waiting for his dagger to finish its swing before reversing his grip and stabbing again! He'd killed countless fierce, powerful walkers in close combat. Blondie was no match for even a three-times-mutated walker.

Blondie scrambled to dodge but didn't get clear. Thanks to Cat's Agility, Kirk's attack speed had increased by 10%, and a streak of blood flicked across Blondie's face.

"Fuck!" Before Blondie could finish cursing, Kirk flipped his dagger and slashed viciously toward his ribs!

Blondie fell on his ass in terror. Kirk's strike missed, but he immediately gripped the dagger with both hands and drove it down with savage force!

"Help!" Blondie was so terrified he nearly pissed himself. He might have been a hothead, but he'd never seen anyone fight with such murderous fury. Kirk was like Black and White Impermanence, the reapers who came for souls: every strike went for a vital part, every blow meant to kill.

At that moment, Blondie's henchman Bucktooth charged in and grabbed Kirk's hands. Kirk had seven Strength, and Bucktooth was about the same. The two struggled against each other.

Blondie got up and turned to run, cursing at his accomplices. "Are you all fucking dead? Grab your weapons! It's just the two of them! Kill them all!"

Little Fatty had already grabbed his steel shovel and joined the fight. The last time the brothers had been robbed by Blondie, they hadn't lost much, but Little Fatty had still been furious. Now Blondie was back, and he wanted to kill both Little Fatty and his big brother. There was no choice but to fight to the death.

Kirk wrenched free of Bucktooth's grip and used Throat Cut. Bucktooth was the strongest member of Blondie's team, a knockoff laborer and part-time MT. His Stamina was nine, but he didn't have his boss Blondie's Agility, and he couldn't dodge. A flash of white steel, and blood burst from his throat. His eyes bulged as he clutched his neck and fell. He passed the toughness check against Kirk's Throat Cut and escaped instant death, but he couldn't escape the fourfold critical damage and thirty points of Bleed Damage that chased his soul.

Five seconds later, Bucktooth died.

Blondie stared in horror as Bucktooth, his toughest and most durable subordinate, died at Kirk's hands in a single round. He couldn't believe it. Was this really the same rookie who wouldn't fight back when robbed, wouldn't talk back when cursed, and had kept calling him "boss"? How had he changed so much in six days?

Still, he shouted at everyone to open fire. Mori had ordered them not to shoot, to avoid drawing The Governor's attention, but Blondie no longer cared about that order.

Kill that little bastard first!

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