"Why didn't you come to work?"
The young man, half his head caved in, demanded an answer from Su Wu.
Su Wu remained expressionless. He did not answer his former coworker "Wang Zhiyou," who could no longer be called human.
He stared at the candle in his hand.
The candle burned furiously.
Yet it burned much more slowly than it had under the red lanterns' light.
The moment "Wang Zhiyou" stepped into the circle of candlelight, the candle burned down to its base, its flame on the verge of going out.
Su Wu took out another candle and caught the dying flame with its wick.
"Wang Zhiyou" was only three paces away. Even at such close range, Su Wu could keep the flame going without so much as blinking!
This was just a game!
He had to find the best solution to every problem in this game!
Not turn tail and run the moment he ran into trouble!
The newly lit candle began burning furiously again, even faster than before-because "Wang Zhiyou" had entered the area illuminated by its flame!
The orange flame resisted the supernatural encroachment.
Having stepped into the circle of light, "Wang Zhiyou" trembled all over, his flesh and bones grinding together as though they could no longer bear the strain.
Creak, creak!
The fiend's lone foot seemed trapped in a bog. He could no longer take another step!
It worked!
Su Wu's brow relaxed. Holding up the candle, he grabbed Jiang Yingying, who stood behind him, frozen with fright, and passed three paces from "Wang Zhiyou."
Once the candlelight no longer enveloped "Wang Zhiyou," he regained the ability to move.
He turned and pursued Su Wu.
"Why didn't you come to work?"
He roared furiously from behind.
"Why didn't you come to work?"
Another figure emerged from the gray fog, pressing into the candlelit area around Su Wu alongside "Wang Zhiyou"!
Whoosh!
The forty-centimeter red candle burned down to its base in the blink of an eye!
Su Wu lit the two candles he already had ready from the remaining flame, handed one to Jiang Yingying, then rang the Imperial Bell around his neck!
"Ding-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling!"
Invisible sound waves spread outward, washing over "Wang Zhiyou" and another coworker, "Xin Qiaoge." Both fiends doubled over like cooked shrimp.
Then, without warning, a bang came from "Wang Zhiyou." Blood spattered from his left arm, and his entire forearm dropped to the ground!
Blood splashed onto Su Wu's face.
Unfazed, he continued shaking the Imperial Bell and keeping the candlelight alive.
The bundle of candles on his back dwindled rapidly, while the Imperial Bell rang on and on.
Explosive cracks continued to erupt from "Wang Zhiyou" and "Xin Qiaoge." Their limbs scattered like building blocks, soon leaving them as a heap of mangled flesh on the ground!
Amid the scattered flesh, only their faces remained intact, without a trace of damage.
They could no longer make a sound.
Their faces lay on the ground facing Su Wu, blood-red eyes staring fixedly at him.
"Why didn't you come to work?"
"Why didn't you come to work?"
Four figures emerged from the hazy fog.
Some were men and some were women, all strangers Su Wu had never seen before.
The mangled flesh on the ground began writhing and piecing itself together, forming new bodies topped with the faces of "Wang Zhiyou" and "Xin Qiaoge."
"Why didn't you come to work?"
"Why didn't you come to work?"
Six.
Eight.
Twelve.
A dense mass of figures crowded toward Su Wu, all saying the same thing: "Why didn't you come to work?"
All the candles Su Wu carried on his back had burned out.
Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead. Even ringing the Imperial Bell nonstop could no longer hold back the tide of "people" pressing toward him.
Tears shimmered in Jiang Yingying's eyes. Seeing the dark mass of "people" closing in around them, bringing the stench of blood and charred flesh, she bit her lower lip, then suddenly held the rooster in her arms out to Su Wu. "Take him!"
Su Wu looked at her in confusion.
"I'll lure them away. Take Emergency Rations and go!"
Su Wu stared steadily at her.
After a moment, he nodded. "All right."
That slender figure walked toward the "crowd." Most of the fiends converged on her, but a smaller number continued surrounding Su Wu.
"Why didn't you come to work?"
A heap of mangled flesh bearing "Xin Qiaoge's" oval face blocked Su Wu's path.
He slammed a fist into it!
Bang!
Blood splattered everywhere!
"Ding-a-ling-ling!"
The Imperial Bell kept ringing.
"Xin Qiaoge" staggered under the blow and fell to the ground.
More figures pushed through the ringing to close in on Su Wu-the corpses that had been shattered by the bell and candlelight had developed a strong resistance to both after reassembling!
"Why didn't you come to work?"
The questions flooded Su Wu's ears like a tide.
A fire burned hotter and hotter in his chest.
He charged back and forth through the "crowd," fists and feet flying, knocking down one feeble fiend after another, only for them to quickly surround him again.
You have gained a temporary talent: Street Fighting (white). Your temporary talent-Street Fighting-has been upgraded to a green talent. You have gained a temporary talent: Blood-Draining Berserker (white).
"Why didn't you come to work?"
"Why didn't you come to work?"
The "crowd" swallowed Su Wu.
The sounds of sinew, bone, and flesh being torn apart came from within.
You died. This simulation has ended. Rating: C+. Comment: The darkness before dawn is always hard to endure. Rewards: C+ rating base reward: 50 origin jade; Safe house discovered: +10 origin jade; Successfully evaded the Eye Fiend's pursuit 15 times: +450 origin jade; Smashed 13 Trapped Corpses: +13 origin jade; Gained temporary talents Art of Speaking (white), Street Fighting (white), and Blood-Draining Berserker (white): +3 origin jade; Gained temporary talent Street Fighting (green): +10 origin jade; Talent Upgrade Talisman (green) ×1. Wallet balance: 809 + 536 = 1,345 origin jade. The items available to take out of this simulation game are as follows...
A huge dial hovered before Su Wu, with items appearing around it one after another.
Option 0: Corpse Buddha Ghost Hand. Option 1: Art of Speaking (white). Option 2: Street Fighting (white). Option 3: Street Fighting (green). Option 4: Blood-Draining Berserker (white). Option 5: A Chevrolet Cruze car key.
Su Wu's gaze lingered on the "Corpse Buddha Ghost Hand" option for a moment before shifting to the items below it.
After a moment's consideration, he said, "Bring options 1, 2, 4, and 5 into reality."
Bringing options 1, 2, and 4 into reality costs 150 origin jade; Bringing option 5 into reality costs 10 origin jade. Purchase complete. Your wallet balance is: 1,185 origin jade.
The mechanical female voice replied, "Street Fighting (white) and Blood-Draining Berserker (white) can be combined with your innate talent, Pain Transfer (green), to form a spellmark. Combine them?"
A spellmark?
For some reason, Su Wu thought of the "curse marks" in Naruto, an anime he had watched long ago.
He answered inwardly, Yes.
The instant he settled on that thought, a warm current surged from below his navel and rushed through his limbs and every part of his body. At that moment, the electronic voice said, "Spellmark 'Strongman' has been synthesized."
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