An Unexpected Savior

A powerful punch interrupted his voice.

Liu Wei punched him in the face, "Aren't you the Elemental King? Aren't you arrogant? Go ahead and unleash your ultimate move! Let's see you betray us!"

As Liu Wei roared, he punched Xiao Yu repeatedly in the ribs, Xiao Yu felt intense pain that made it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"That's enough." Zhang Haian's voice made Liu Wei stop and step aside.

Zhang Haian walked over, squatted down, and looked at Xiao Yu's face. While fiddling with the pistol in his hand, he asked calmly, "So, before I get to know you, is there anything else you want to say?"

(Damn, is this for real? Are they really going to kill me? Didn't they say they'd chop off my hands and feet or something?) Actually, if it were just chopping off my hands and feet, Xiao Yu could totally accept it. After all, technology is so advanced these days; at most, they could just install a mechanical arm. But he didn't expect the other party to be so unreasonable and directly try to kill him.

Seeing that Xiao Yu remained silent, Zhang Haian shrugged and pointed his gun at Xiao Yu's head.

"Wait a minute," Xiao Yu said in a deep voice, "Don't you want to win back your losses?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's very simple. You've already lost a lot of money, but that doesn't mean there's no chance to turn things around. If I can beat Naiser, you can still make money. If you can't win this match, you're completely finished. So I'm your only chance to turn things around now. And since I know you're going to kill me this time, I'll definitely cooperate with you. At worst, you can keep the prize money afterward."

Even Xiao Yu could not remain calm in the face of death.

"An interesting suggestion," a slight smile appeared on the Zhang Haian's face.

Xiao Yu felt a sense of relief, thinking to himself, "Am I saved?"

"But I'd rather see you die!" Zhang Haian's face suddenly twisted in pain as he pressed the gun against Xiao Yu's forehead, gritting his teeth as he spoke in his ear, "In our line of work, there's a rule: for those who refuse to cooperate, we'll do a little dirty work to make them suffer, but that's all. But for those who agree and then turn back, there's only one way out—death!"

As Zhang Haian spoke, his breath hit Xiao Yu's face, but he suddenly stood up. "However, I'm not going to get my hands dirty for someone like you."

As he spoke, a burly man in black beside him waved his hand, and the man immediately pulled out a pistol and walked towards Xiao Yu.

"Damn it!" Xiao Yu thought, a surge of rage rising within him as the burly man in black drew closer. "Why? Why is this happening? I am the mighty Elemental King, the ruler of the Elemental Plane, the King of The Immortals, the incarnation of Chaos, the man about to become the final boss! But all of that was in the game!" Xiao Yu suddenly realized that the feeling of being incredibly powerful, of being able to control everything, was nothing but a false illusion created by a game. As long as he lived in this real world, he was just an ordinary person.

The burly man in black pointed his gun at Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu closed his eyes and awaited death.

Bang! A gunshot rang out. In that instant, Xiao Yu almost felt the breath of God of Death. However, the expected excruciating pain did not come. He opened his eyes in surprise and found that the burly man in black in front of him swayed and suddenly fell down with a bloody hole in his temple and his brains splattered out.

"Who goes there!?" The men looked around in surprise and raised their guns.

Bang! A second gunshot rang out, the overhead light shattered, and darkness enveloped the surroundings. Then came a series of gunshots, a cacophony of clashing and clanging. Xiao Yu felt bullets whizzing around him, screams filled the air, and the thud of bullets hitting flesh echoed. When all was Tranquility, the lights suddenly came back on. He saw that the menacing figures he had been dealing with were now corpses on the ground, the stench of blood filling the air. He realized he wasn't dreaming. A dark figure emerged from behind the shelves, gun in hand, and expertly searched the necks of the corpses on the ground.

"Safe!" the man said, his voice strangely familiar.

"Safe!" A slightly aged voice came from above. Xiao Yu looked up and saw a person standing on a shelf in the distance, giving him a thumbs up. The eyes under the mask were unusually bright.

Five minutes later, Xiao Yu was led by the man in black to a car outside the warehouse.

The car started and headed towards the city. Looking at the lights outside the car window behind him, Xiao Yu breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Thank you," he said to the person in the front passenger seat.

"Not at all, I told you we'd meet again." The man in black in the front passenger seat turned around, removed his mask, revealing an aged yet still handsome face.

"It's you!?" Xiao Yu was taken aback; it was actually the man in black robes from before.

He suddenly understood why the voice of the man in black beside him sounded familiar, "Are you Merlin?"

Turning around, the person sitting next to him was none other than Merlin.

"That's right, it's me. Are you surprised?"

"Who are you? Why did you save me?" Xiao Yu asked the old man.

"That's a long story. Come on, let's talk about it properly when we get there."

The car stopped outside an old house that looked like an underground base.

"This is my secret base. Come on, I'm sure you have a lot of things you want to know."

The base was very well hidden inside, with many power cords visible on the ground. In one room, Xiao Yu saw two rows of game pods, which made him feel as if he had entered a holographic virtual internet cafe from the late 20th century. At that time, holographic virtual technology was a high-end product that ordinary people could not afford and could only experience in internet cafes. However, with the popularization of holographic virtual technology, such internet cafes are now rare.

In a room at the very back of the base, the old man poured Xiao Yu a cup of tea. "Alright, now I can answer your question. Ask away."

PS: Chapter 56 should be Chapter 57, "Retaliation."