Headshot

"Ah!"

Xu Le sighed and rubbed the Golden Toad mark in his palm.

All he could do now was pin his hopes on Zhang Zhe's fighting ability and the few cards he still held.

As Zhang Zhe fought the Oddities, a commotion broke out in the classroom behind Xu Le.

"Xu Miaomiao, what are you doing?"

The shout sent the classroom into turmoil. Of course, Zhang Zhe heard it even as he fought.

He looked back and saw the student named Xu Miaomiao sink her teeth into a male classmate's neck.

Her bite was powerful enough to tear away a chunk of flesh in an instant.

Her twisted limbs wound around the boy's body. The unnatural angles alone made it clear that she was no longer a normal human.

A normal person's arm could not bend a full 360 degrees.

"She's been contaminated! Get back!"

Zhang Zhe roared. The distraction kept him from watching the Oddities in front of him, and several Living Corpses rushed forward, leaving wounds across his front and back.

The Oddities licked the blood from their nails as though savoring a delicacy.

Zhang Zhe knew that if he could not hold off the Oddities in front of him, he would not be able to protect anything behind him either.

With no other choice, he looked at Xu Le!

"Xu Le, help me."

"Can you tell me why you're the only teacher here?"

"I'll tell you once this is over."

Xu Le looked at Zhang Zhe. Finally, he nodded and walked toward the classroom.

Dangerous as the classroom was, he had to do this.

If Zhang Zhe could not focus on fighting, the front line would fall.

Once it fell, the Oddities would kill Xu Le too. There would be no exceptions.

So even though Xu Le was deeply unhappy with Zhang Zhe's actions and disagreed with them, he did not refuse his request.

"Fine."

As Xu Le strode toward the classroom, Wang Man hurriedly caught his arm.

"Xu Le, isn't it dangerous in there?"

Xu Le nodded and offered a reasonably patient explanation:

"If Zhang Zhe dies, we all die. So Zhang Zhe can't die."

Wang Man froze. Mr. Zhang Zhe was so strong. Why would he die?

Damn it, Xu Le, can't you explain that a little better?

While Wang Man hesitated, Xu Le had already walked inside. He fired a shot straight into the ceiling.

Bang!

12-1.

The gunshot echoed, clearly suppressing the crowd's agitation. At least, it still could for now.

[Surrounding heart energy is rising rapidly. Please take caution.]

[Fear is a delicacy for all Oddities and will draw them here.]

[Anger is a delicacy for all fierce species and will draw them here.]

[Heart energy has reached alert level 1.]

All sorts of notifications kept appearing. When large numbers of humans became afraid, the crowd itself became a danger.

Anger would draw fierce species.

Fear, meanwhile, would attract every kind of Oddity.

Several hundred students were present. Faced with one crisis after another, their fear and other emotions had long since approached the heart energy limit.

In other words, to the Oddities, this classroom now held hundreds of blazing torches.

Like beacons in the darkness, they drew wandering Oddities toward them.

If the situation was not dealt with quickly, disaster would undoubtedly strike this classroom.

And it would be a disaster beyond saving.

Could he turn the tide?

Xu Le thought it would be difficult, but he had to do something.

He strode up to the mutated girl named Xu Miaomiao, raised his gun, and fired.

Bang!

Xu Miaomiao's head burst apart.

The bitten boy beside her was finally free. He looked gratefully at Xu Le and spoke weakly:

"Thank you, thank you! I'm so grate-"

Bang!

Then the boy's head burst apart too.

12-3.

The other students stared at the scene, dumbfounded.

Hadn't Xu Le come here to save people?

"You... what are you doing?" someone asked hesitantly.

"I'm saving people. To be precise, I'm saving you, dumbass."

Xu Le spoke viciously. His earlier calm indifference vanished, his expression turning savage and fierce, like someone who killed without blinking.

Without being ruthless now, he would never intimidate this crowd.

He could hardly meekly tell everyone that this person would mutate into a level 1 Oddity in another eight minutes and fifty-six seconds, could he?

After Xu Le killed two people in succession, the students around him looked at him with far more fear.

Though he was thin, he had a gun, and the killings and the Veteran’s Soul lent him their weight.

He looked something like a hardened killer now.

After killing those two people, Xu Le once again felt that sense of fulfillment well up inside him.

Was that my second correct prediction?

After experiencing it twice, Xu Le had gained a rough understanding of what a "correct prediction" meant.

It was not a judgment about whether something was right or wrong.

It was a judgment that influenced how an event unfolded. That had been true the first time, and it was true the second time too.

If Xu Le had not decisively killed them just now, the entire classroom would have descended into chaos.

Once chaos broke out, it would be beyond his ability to control alone.

So shooting to kill without hesitation had been a correct prediction that steered the situation toward safety.

Xu Le stood with his gun in hand, turned toward the crowd, and finally spoke:

"Anyone reasonably strong with a decent brain, come help me. If you've got any sense, you should be able to understand why I did that. You should also understand what's happening in this classroom. I can't handle this alone. If you want to stay alive, come help."

Xu Le had spoken rather bluntly, yet left some of the meaning unstated.

Just as he had said, those who understood would understand.

For those who did not, explaining would take too much trouble, and even then, they might not understand.

Naturally, some people objected after Xu Le finished speaking.

But Xu Le's response was equally direct. Wherever he saw the first hint of defiance, he pointed his gun.

They soon behaved themselves.

"I understand what you mean. I can help."

At last, the first person stepped forward.

Xu Le's first impression of him was that he was tall and powerfully built.

What a beefcake!

The man before him had to be over 190 centimeters tall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, though his face looked a little simple.

Xu Le knew better than to judge people by their appearance, but a hint of doubt still crept into his eyes.

Then the burly man came to his side and spoke quietly:

"My name's Li Wei. You need help dealing with the Polluters who came running back, right?"

Xu Le's eyes brightened slightly. Appearances really could be deceiving!

This burly fellow had a very clear grasp of the situation!

"Anyone else?" Xu Le asked again.

With the first person stepping forward, the invitation became much easier to accept.

Others who understood the situation stepped forward one after another.

Xu Le exchanged a few words with each of them to check whether they had their heads on straight.

Mutation took only ten minutes, so this was wasting precious time.

But Xu Le had to do it. He had no ability to brainwash people at short notice, so making sure they were useful and would not cause trouble was crucial.

Before long, more than a dozen people had gathered around Xu Le.

They might not have fully submitted to Xu Le, but they at least accepted him. They also knew the situation in the classroom was already grim.

If they wanted to save themselves, they had to do something.

Xu Le looked at the last person.

"What's your name?"

"My name's Zhang Qiang. I'd like to help," said a slightly plump girl.

"All right, Zhang Qiang. Come over here." Xu Le beckoned to her.

Zhang Qiang looked a little surprised.

"Don't you need to ask anything else?"

"No. I'm an excellent judge of character. I can tell at a glance that you're exceptional."

Xu Le greeted her with a smile and beckoned Zhang Qiang over again.

The others wore strange expressions. What was this? Girls got special treatment? This woman wasn't even pretty, at least not compared with Wang Man, who kept clinging to Xu Le.

Did Xu Le really have such unusual tastes?

Just as Zhang Qiang came close enough, Xu Le suddenly moved.

He kicked Zhang Qiang's knee, yanked her arm, and ignored her screams as he broke it, then pinned her beneath him.

"What are you staring at? Help!"

Only after Xu Le's shout did the people around him belatedly spring into action.

Some still hesitated, but two or three bolder ones climbed onto Zhang Qiang with him.

Zhang Qiang struggled constantly beneath the four people pinning her down.

Yes, four grown men, including some muscular ones, were struggling to restrain a completely ordinary girl.

However slow they were, they now understood that something was wrong.

"It's a Polluter's self-defense response!" someone said.

"Who has a weapon? Finish her."

Xu Le spoke again. He could certainly shoot her in the head, but he would rather have one of the others act.

First, he wanted to conserve ammunition.

Second, he wanted these people to prove their commitment.

There were many aspects of his behavior he could not explain. How could he tell who was a Polluter?

Had he killed anyone by mistake?

After the Red Moon Calamity ended, he would probably be called to account for all these questions.

He had to consider his future.

So he had to get other people involved.

The law could not punish everyone. It was not much of an argument, but it was still an argument.

Even though he had not broken the law.

After Xu Le asked, none of those restraining the girl spoke. They remained silent, seemingly hoping someone else would act.

But that was not what Xu Le wanted to see.

If these people refused to act, he would have no safe way to carry out his next steps.

So Xu Le loosened his grip a little.

"I can't hold her!"

"Don't you have a gun?"

"Do you think I have unlimited bullets?"

Xu Le's words stunned the others, and some could not understand.

Hadn't he just revealed that he was running low on ammunition? What was Xu Le thinking?

Sure enough, after hearing Xu Le say he was short on bullets, a thin student standing nearby suddenly rushed forward.

He pulled a dagger from his pocket.

And plunged it straight into Zhang Qiang's back.

One stab, two stabs, three stabs.