At that moment, Liu Shuang finally understood the despair Zheng Ren had felt fighting alone without support, and the anger Zhao Chengyuan had felt when Liu Shuang had left him hanging.
No, his despair was even greater. After all, he had to face two Hunters alone.
Rip!
One Hunter's claws tore through Liu Shuang's thigh, shredding his expensive-looking bespoke suit into strips.
Of course, the muscles in his leg were also reduced to strips of meat.
Accompanied by its prey's screams and spasms of pain, the Hunter ate with relish, slowly savoring tonight's spoils.
On the brink of death, Liu Shuang's mind was clearer than ever. He ate a strip of dried lamb, increasing his strength a little to resist, and used his weapon to block the Hunter's snapping jaws while shouting out into the corridor:
"Brother Zhao! Your mother needs money for surgery, right? I have money! Just help me, and I'll give you five hundred thousand when we get out! No, even one and a half million! I also own a property. Altogether..."
Liu Shuang's words struck a chord with Zhao Chengyuan.
The money he had withdrawn from the bank was actually still far short of his mother's surgery fees. If...
He was tempted and wanted to open the door and join the fight.
But as his hand landed on the doorknob, Zuo Cheng'an's voice drifted over.
"The people who entered the World Survival Game should be the ones who went missing in reality. We haven't heard of anyone making it back, have we?
"On the other hand, this game is so miraculous that we might get items that cure every illness someday, or even bring the dead back to life.
"The most obvious example is that gummy candy, which can heal injuries that should land you in intensive care."
He deliberately drew out his words, sounding sly and wicked.
Yet those few sentences helped Zhao Chengyuan see the facts clearly.
He certainly would not be going back anytime soon. But if he worked hard to make his way through the game and stockpiled healing items, he might really find an opportunity to return someday and save his mother in the real world.
Zhao Chengyuan's heated mind had cooled. He seriously considered Zuo Cheng'an's suggestion and found that it did indeed make sense.
Human medicine in the real world compared with the game... no! There was simply no comparison!
Even if he got the money, his mother's illness might not be cured. In the end, she would still die tormented by sickness and pain.
Conversely, if he could find an item in the game that treated cancer, then find an opportunity to return, his mother could recover completely!
I have to hurry! I have to move fast!
Zhao Chengyuan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the weakness in them had vanished.
The moment he heard Zuo Cheng'an's voice, veins bulged on Liu Shuang's forehead! Vicious curses rang out one after another.
But soon, the corridor fell silent again, leaving only the crunch of bones being chewed and the sound of limbs being torn apart.
Just as Liu Shuang had not appeared to join the fight last night, no one went to save him tonight.
Seeing that he had used the Hunters to eliminate a future ticking time bomb,
Zuo Cheng'an, who had been waiting for quite some time, left his room and swung his axe at the two Hunters, whose health bars now read "28.7%" and "30.22."
Seeing how little the health bars above the two Hunters' heads had changed, Zuo Cheng'an contemptuously kicked Liu Shuang's corpse.
And this guy even had an item that increased strength?
He hadn't even contributed as much as the guy with glasses.
The two Hunters clearly had not forgotten the man who had made them suffer so badly last night. They stopped eating and watched Zuo Cheng'an warily.
Seeing Zuo Cheng'an leave his room of his own accord, Zheng Ren looked puzzled.
"Brother Zuo, isn't tonight the last night? By the time the Hunters finish eating the corpse, it'll probably be dawn. Why not just wait to clear the instance?"
Zuo Cheng'an answered him with action.
He dodged a Hunter's attack, darted over to Liu Shuang's corpse, and picked up a bag of dried lamb and a pair of glasses that had suddenly dropped.
Unbothered by the blood on the two items, he put on the glasses, pulled out a strip of dried lamb, and ate it.
Feeling strength surge through him, Zuo Cheng'an aimed a precise chop at the Hunter's neck!
Previously, relying on the health bars to locate them, Zuo Cheng'an could only roughly determine the Hunters' positions.
When his axe fell, he had no way of knowing whether it would hit a shoulder, an arm, or a head, and it could easily get stuck in bone.
But after he put on the half-rimmed black glasses, his vision instantly cleared. The Hunters' forms were as clearly visible as they were during the day.
What was he waiting for? Time to attack their weak points!
But the axe blade was too short. The strike failed to decapitate the Hunter and only sliced through the soft tissue at the front of its neck. Fortunately, it still shaved 5% off the Hunter's health bar.
The shrinking health bar spurred Zuo Cheng'an on, and he raised his axe to keep dealing damage.
He had not been idle earlier. In his room, he had used the potion to "enchant" his axe blade again.
There had not been much potion to begin with, and now only the final third remained. Fortunately, the instance was nearly over.
The others also rushed out to help. They could not see the Hunters' health bars.
On top of that, the Hunters seemed unable to feel pain. No matter how severe their injuries, the force and speed of their attacks remained unaffected.
This led the others to think the Hunters were still at full strength and that they had no hope of winning, so they focused mainly on buying time when they attacked.
Only when the potion took effect and the Hunters' reactions grew sluggish did they glimpse a chance of victory.
With a final chop to one Hunter's chest, Zuo Cheng'an successfully finished it off.
[Defeated 'Hunter (E)' x1]
The game's notification sounded in Zuo Cheng'an's mind, but there was no notification of an item drop.
No item dropped this time? Zuo Cheng'an had already prepared himself for this and was not particularly disappointed.
His earlier item drop had very likely been partly due to getting the instance's first kill.
Just then, the health bar of the other Hunter, which Zheng Ren, Li Yueqiu, and the others were fighting, also bottomed out. Zheng Ren, who landed the final blow, froze for a moment.
Zuo Cheng'an knew his temperament fairly well. He was not someone who could keep things hidden.
Since he had merely frozen briefly without looking delighted, that meant Zheng Ren had heard the game's notification but had likewise received no item drop.
The sample size was too small to determine the item drop rate in the instance.
All three Hunters were dead. According to the bullet comments, they could clear the instance early without waiting until dawn.
Just as that thought occurred to him, Zuo Cheng'an's vision went black.
The next instant, he appeared on a bustling, lively street.
People in somewhat strange clothing moved back and forth around him. No one seemed to notice him.
He could only see their mouths opening and closing as if they were talking, but he could not hear a sound.
Moreover, there were no eyeball-shaped cameras on this street, and the bullet comments in his field of vision seemed to have been blocked.
It seemed those viewers could not follow him here or see this place.
[Ding! Congratulations, player, on clearing the beginner assessment instance! Calculating rewards...] [Overall rating: S] [Free attribute points gained: 10 (level-one instance cap: 5; S-rank rating doubles rewards)] [Points gained: 200 (level-one instance cap: 100; S-rank rating doubles rewards)] [Physical damage detected. Spend 25 points to recover? (Click to expand details)] [Yes] [No]
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