Queen's Game

Bai Zhu slowly clenched his fist.

Strength wasn't just about stronger muscles.

After his stamina increased, much of that weakness from overtaxing his body had faded.

More importantly, his Reiatsu recovered much faster.

Before, every bit he used was gone for good. Now, his body could sustain a steadier Reiatsu cycle, and ordinary exertion no longer felt so taxing.

In close combat, combined with small amounts of Reiatsu, his consumption was almost on par with his recovery rate.

Bai Zhu's head started to feel a little light.

Wasn't this basically taking off?

If he'd known this function existed sooner, would he have been chased around like a dog by those metal cans?

"System, you really hid this well."

His thoughts had just begun to wander when his body suddenly tensed.

A shadow fell over him.

Bai Zhu was lying behind a snowy slope, watching the snowfield.

Now, there was a pair of bare feet in front of him.

They stepped on the snow, barely sinking into it.

A red glow shone through the tops of the feet, which could only be called perfect.

Bai Zhu instinctively took a breath.

"Mm, that's the smell!"

The first thought that popped into his mind wasn't danger.

It was that his position was wrong.

He was lying on the ground, his face less than half a meter from someone's feet.

The scene was far too embarrassing.

In certain strange comics from his previous life, the next panel would probably cost money.

But Bai Zhu didn't have the slightest inappropriate thought right now.

He only wanted to ask one question.

When had she arrived?

Milluki was still talking through the earpiece.

"Bai Zhu? Why did you suddenly go quiet over there?"

Bai Zhu's throat moved.

"Fatty."

"What?"

"She's standing right in front of my face."

The sound of a keyboard falling came from Milluki's end.

"What do you mean, in front of your face?!"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

Bai Zhu slowly raised his head.

The woman in white stood before him, looking down at him.

Her face was very young, her skin unnaturally pale, and there was little trace of life in her pupils.

Several black crystal needle tubes floated behind her, their tips all pointed downward.

Bai Zhu gave a dry laugh.

"Miss, could I ask for directions?"

The woman in white didn't respond.

"Is there a restroom nearby? I'm lost."

Milluki let out a broken, low roar through the earpiece.

"You're asking about a restroom at a time like this?!"

There was still no response.

Only the black needle tubes moved.

There was no windup, no sound.

One needle tube shot straight for the back of Bai Zhu's neck.

His body reacted before his mind did, sliding sideways while pressed flat against the snow.

The needle tip grazed the skin on the back of his neck and plunged into the frozen earth.

Boom.

Cracks spread across the ground, and shattered snow flew into the air.

The back of Bai Zhu's neck turned cold. After landing, he rolled twice with the momentum, slapped a hand against the ground, and sprang to the other side.

"Fuck, that was close."

"I almost didn't even get to load my last words."

Milluki shouted through the earpiece.

"You dodged it?"

"No shit!"

Bai Zhu had barely steadied himself when the second needle tube arrived.

This time, he saw it.

But seeing it and dodging it were two different things.

The needle tube was too fast, and its trajectory could change.

It bent slightly in midair and shot directly toward Bai Zhu's waist.

Bai Zhu drew his sword.

He slashed sideways.

Clang!

The needle tube was knocked away by the blade, skimming over the snow before plunging into the frozen earth. Another ring of cracks split across the ground.

Bai Zhu's arm went numb.

"What material are these needle tubes made of?"

Bai Zhu had no time to think. The moment he knocked the needle tube away, he sprinted toward the woods. After one exchange, he understood that he couldn't beat this person. He had to run.

The woman in white stayed where she was and didn't pursue him.

She merely raised her right hand.

In the direction of North Warehouse, the gray-robed attendants carrying the pregnant women seemed to receive an order and all stopped moving.

Beside a vehicle door, an attendant took out a Black Crystal Collar from a medical case and directly fastened it around a pregnant woman's neck.

Bai Zhu's expression darkened.

"Fatty, what is she doing?"

"Maybe the convoy is moving ahead of schedule?"

"She doesn't need to decide life or death with you here. As long as she keeps you occupied, those pregnant women will be sent into the mine tunnels."

Illumi's voice cut into the underground channel.

"The transfer orders have changed."

Bai Zhu tightened his grip on his sword.

Illumi continued his report.

"Number Nineteen is being loaded onto a vehicle early."

Milluki cursed.

"They noticed something wrong outside!"

Bai Zhu stared at the woman in white in the distance, then swept his gaze over the convoy.

Defeat her?

Impossible.

Don't fight?

If the convoy entered the mine tunnels, rescuing them later would become even harder.

His enhancement had only just been activated. His body hadn't fully adapted yet, and his Reiatsu had only recovered somewhat.

On top of that, the other woman's origins were unknown. Fighting her head-on would be testing his luck with his skull.

But when he thought about how good his condition was right now—better than ever before—

That faint, unrealistic heroic impulse in his mind was instantly strangled.

Going head-to-head with that white-clad saint? Only an idiot would do that.

Bai Zhu suddenly smiled.

"Fatty."

"What now?" Milluki's tone was impatient through the earpiece.

"At North Warehouse, your little bugs can still move, right?"

"They can, but they're all reconnaissance and interference models. There aren't many of them, so don't expect another mushroom cloud."

"Who asked you to blow anything up?"

Bai Zhu rested his Zanpakuto on his shoulder and looked at the woman confronting him in the distance.

"I'm going to charge that bus. Help me cut off those gray-robed attendants' communications, then create some chaos. Three seconds is enough."

Milluki hesitated.

"You want to hijack a vehicle right in front of that woman?"

"Correction."

Bai Zhu's expression sank. The enhanced power in his legs erupted in an instant, and he shot forward like an arrow released from its string.

"I'm going to take people from right in front of her."

Milluki choked on the madness of the idea, then immediately burst into curses. "Are you insane? That's suicide! My big brother is still down there. If you die, you'll drag him down with you!"

"That's exactly why you have to take this deal."

"If I go down, your big brother won't get away either. Help me, and we'll get everyone out together. Think it over yourself."

"...Fuck!"

The sound of Milluki smashing his keyboard came through the channel. "Three seconds! Only three seconds! If you die, don't come asking me to collect your body!"

"Don't worry. I'm terrified of dying."

The moment his words fell, the Black Crystal Needle Tubes floating behind the woman in white all turned at once.

But Bai Zhu didn't charge toward her.

He launched himself in the opposite direction, sprinting diagonally along the snowy slope, straight toward the buses that were loading passengers!

He was much faster than before! He was almost as fast as when he had used Shunpo.

The needle tubes tore through the air after him.

Bai Zhu sharply twisted aside. A needle tube grazed his coat hem and buried itself in the snow, blasting open a web of cracks.

The second needle tube sealed off his path in advance.

Bai Zhu drove his toes down, stamping a shallow pit into the frozen earth. He forcibly changed direction, nearly skimming across the snow.

That agility boost was worth it!

Milluki listened to the wind roaring through the earpiece, but his hands never stopped moving.

Outside North Warehouse in the distance, the communicators at the waists of several gray-robed attendants suddenly emitted a burst of piercing static, then all went silent.

"Communications failure!"

"What happened?"

In the instant they panicked, Bai Zhu had already leaped over a low slope and plunged into the outskirts of North Warehouse!

"Heretic!"

Several gray-robed attendants finally noticed him.

One of them had just reached into a medical case for a pistol when Bai Zhu's figure flashed in front of him.

He didn't even draw his sword.

With one strike of the hilt, he smashed it precisely into the man's chin.

Thud.

The man's eyes rolled back, and he fell stiffly into the snow without even twitching.

Bai Zhu casually snatched the medical case from his hand without looking inside, then spun and kicked another attendant rushing at him in the chest.

With a heavy, muffled impact, the man flew away like a ragged sack.

"Don't move!"

Bai Zhu's voice wasn't loud, but it overwhelmed all the noise at the scene.

"I'm in a very bad mood right now, and I don't know my own strength!"

Behind him, the woman in white finally began to walk.

She didn't run. She merely walked over the snow, yet the distance between her and Bai Zhu was shrinking at an eerie speed.

Milluki's voice exploded through the earpiece.

"Bai Zhu! She's coming!"

"I see her!"

Bai Zhu yanked open the bus door.

Inside the bus, several pregnant women were tightly bound to their seats, cloth strips cinched over their mouths, their eyes filled with terror.

One woman raised her head. Her face was deathly pale.

It was Number Nineteen.

Bai Zhu raised his hand, the Reiatsu-coated hand blade slicing through the restraint around her wrist.

"Don't scream. Don't struggle. I'm here to hijack this vehicle, good guy."

The woman froze completely.

Bai Zhu shoved the stolen medical kit into her arms.

"Do you know medicine? Throw out the sedatives and anything colored!"

Number Nineteen's hands shook badly, but her survival instinct made her nod at once and start rummaging through the kit.

Just as Bai Zhu was about to cut the next person's restraints, a cold figure blocked the light outside the carriage.

The woman in white was already standing by the carriage door.

She raised her hand.

Three Black Crystal Needle Tubes silently passed Bai Zhu and hovered with precision beside the necks of the three pregnant women in the carriage, their tips less than a centimeter from the skin.

The air throughout the entire carriage seemed to freeze solid.

Bai Zhu stopped moving.

Milluki's side was deathly silent as well.

The woman in white finally spoke, her voice as flat as a stagnant pool, utterly devoid of emotion.

"Put down the blade."

Bai Zhu looked at the needle tips trembling faintly beside the pregnant women's necks, then slowly raised his left hand in surrender.

"Alright, alright, don't get worked up. We can talk this out."

The Zanpakuto in his hand slowly lowered.

The woman in white did not look at the blade. Her gaze remained locked on Bai Zhu.

"Leave."

Bai Zhu glanced down at the blade in his hand, then at Number Nineteen, who was frantically throwing out medicine.

Then he suddenly grinned, flashing a mouthful of white teeth.

"Beautiful."

"Did you forget that I fucking... have teammates?"