The Rules (Revised)
But that's all she could say; she could only get a little advantage verbally. There was no way Zhao Yijiu would actually stab Yu Xing with a knife.
Anyway, Yu Xing was used to bullying him, so Zhao Yijiu no longer cared about it.
He stopped dwelling on Yu Xing's actions, because in the mental world, apart from the last sentence about being fooled again, Yu Xing seemed quite serious about what she said.
He looked around. The screen was still dimly lit, playing something he couldn't understand. The infected people around him sat scattered in place, and no one had moved.
Great, once these infected individuals are eliminated, his third-stage mission will be complete.
However, it seems like something is missing.
Zhao Yijiu then realized that someone was missing. "Where's Yiqing?"
Did something happen to them while they were fighting the infection?
"Ah, you don't need to worry about Yiqing. If he's gone missing, he must have gone to do that thing." Yu Xing smiled, then looked up as if sensing something, glancing at the wall on one side of the screening room.
There were traces of Yi Qing passing through the wall there. Although no physical materials were left behind, the lingering scent in the air was different in a certain place.
He let Yi Qing, who was bored, catch vengeful spirits to play with, just to give the now unrestrained Sheqing Ghost a chance to vent his frustrations.
Otherwise, if Yi Qing were to become suffocated, Yu Xing wouldn't be able to determine how dangerous it would be. After all, Yi Qing had existed for a very long time, perhaps even longer than the Ghost Tree he had seen. A true thousand-year-old vengeful ghost should never be underestimated in terms of danger.
Hearing Yu Xing's words, Zhao Yijiu felt relieved, withdrew the few remaining teammates' affection she had given to Yi Qing, and left her original position with the Stop Killing in hand.
Seeing that he was about to kill the infected, Yu Xing immediately followed. Before Zhao Yijiu could attack the first infected, Yu Xing swiftly lifted the infected's arm and snatched the computer watch off it.
As mentioned before, almost everyone in the world owns a smartwatch, making it as ubiquitous as a mobile phone in the real world.
Aside from those who deliberately threw away their watches after being infected, or those who lost their watches because the watch strap broke due to some violent movement, almost everyone else owns a watch.
Yu Xing needed the wristwatch to communicate with the system, but the wristwatches of Zhao Yijiu's previous mission targets were all too dirty, and he really didn't want to touch them.
As for the few people in the movie theater, although some of them had been infected for a very long time, at least their watches were intact.
The infected person who was touched was completely bewildered. Finally, he belatedly raised his head and realized that two strangers were standing next to his seat.
One of them stole his personal computer, and the other held a knife to him.
Infected person. "..."
His rusty mind was barely able to process the situation, and he eventually relied on instinct to focus his gaze on the gleaming blade.
Yu Xing raised an eyebrow in surprise. Wait a minute, do these infected people still have self-awareness?
He thought that people infected by the virus in the movie theater were already immersed in their own movie plots.
His surprise came too soon. The infected person opened their mouth and the first thing they said to Zhao Yijiu was, "Are you... my... villain?"
The infected person spoke very slowly, like a rusty robot trying to learn human language.
Zhao Yijiu didn't want to pay attention. He knew that the moment the virus successfully infected the person, the person was already dead, and what remained was just an empty shell possessed by a vengeful spirit.
Seeing too many such bodies only intensifies the despair of being possessed. Zhao Yijiu raised her knife and stabbed at the infected!
The infected person tilted their head, dodging a fatal blow. The Stop Killing blade embedded itself in the infected person's collarbone. The infected person seemed oblivious to the pain, their eyes vacant as they muttered, "The villain... is coming... to hunt down the protagonist."
"The protagonist is going to... turn the tables!" The infected man suddenly roared, grabbing Stop Killing with his bare hands. His palms were cut by the shadows and ghostly energy on Stop Killing, drawing blood, but he seemed to feel no pain at all, his expression not changing.
He even stood up, tilted his head, and tried to strangle Zhao Yijiu with his bloodied hands.
In that instant, Yu Xing sensed an aura akin to that of a ghost. This infected being was different from the infected they had encountered before; it was far more powerful.
He took a step back with interest, intending to observe how Zhao Yijiu would resolve the situation.
In fact, Zhao Yijiu could have easily dodged the infected person's counterattack, or rather, his attack just now wouldn't have missed at all; he was simply trying to collect data on the infected person.
Over the past year, his experience in deduction has grown increasingly rich; data collection and intelligence gathering have become ingrained in his very being. He also noticed the difference between the infected individuals in the screening room and those outside, which he suspected was due to the presence of an extra vengeful spirit.
So he deliberately let the knife miss, wanting to see the infected person's reaction.
As a result, with the blessing of a fully formed vengeful spirit, the infected person's intention to destroy themselves seems to have transformed into an intention to destroy others.
This undoubtedly represents an increase in the level of danger.
Having confirmed this, Zhao Yijiu no longer held back. Taking advantage of the moment when the infected person was about to choke him and the distance between them closed instantly, he decisively drew his weapon, the Stop Killing, and with a flick of his wrist, the sharp blade pierced straight into the infected person's brow.
Previously, infected individuals encountered would die immediately after experiencing such an attack, in accordance with the science of the organism.
However, even with the stab piercing his forehead, this infected individual still possessed the strength to struggle. He let out a meaningless roar, as if wondering why the protagonist was so easily killed by the villain.
Ultimately, what will kill the infected is the ghostly aura inherent in Stop Killing and the power of that shadow, not the physical blade.
"It's not just their aggressive intent that's increased; their survivability has also improved," Yu Xing concluded as an observer. "Tsk tsk, isn't this just like a zombie? They've improved in every aspect."
Zhao Yijiu nodded silently.
However, the enhanced side effects were also obvious: the infected person had died, but the other infected people sitting in the audience were completely unaware.
They seemed more immersed in their own world.
Unable to extricate myself.
"That's interesting. If the virus strengthens as the vengeful spirits take shape... that would be the real apocalypse," Yu Xing said with a smile.
An apocalypse that can be resisted is not hopeless enough. Only when humanity continues to resist, only to find that the danger is growing stronger, will the oppressive feeling of helplessness be the final straw that breaks humanity's back, and that is when the true end of the world arrives.
It is believed that this pattern will soon be known to all the predictors, but at this moment, Yu Xing's focus is not on this; he has something more important to him.
Yu Xing fiddled with the spotless wristwatch-based personal terminal. "You said before that as long as the deducer has a wristwatch, they can receive messages from the system, regardless of which wristwatch they own, right?"
The Absurdity System is bound to the deducers; it has the ability to send precise one-to-one messages, but it requires a wristwatch-based quantum computer as a medium.
"I'll give it a try now. I wonder if the system will welcome me?"