Chapter 10: Intelligence
The lock disc on the giant wall slowly rotated. Even without survivors to calibrate it, there was a certain probability it would self-correct, though the odds were lower than winning the lottery jackpot.
Below a low wall a hundred meters away, Molei, Yueshitu, and Lilim lay there. The three of them were in a high-level stealth state. As fellow survivors, they could see each other—an advantage for the survivor side.
Molei’s eyes glistened with tears. She felt she was reaching her limit. If she had known this would happen, she would never have drunk so much life spring water.
Compared to Molei, Yueshitu beside her was much calmer, regulating her breathing rhythm.
On the right, Lilim looked puzzled. She couldn’t figure out what had suddenly happened to her two allies—one was turning green, the other was breathing and meditating?
The confusion didn’t last long. When Lilim met Yueshitu’s gaze, she understood.
“I can’t hold it anymore. I’m going to explode.”
Molei spoke in a very low voice, low enough that only Yueshitu and Lilim could hear. The nightmare body wasn’t like their real bodies, which had strong hearing, vision, and perception.
“Hang in there. For friendship’s sake, hang in there.”
Yueshitu also whispered, her neat little white teeth clenched tightly.
“Even though friendship is important, I can’t hold it anymore.”
“You deserve it. Who told you to come up with that terrible idea of drinking life spring water?”
“You drank it too.”
“It’s all your fault.”
Yueshitu’s eyes also welled up with tears. She felt one part fear, two parts tension, and seven parts shame.
“It’s not my fault. It’s yours.”
“Yours, yours, your whole family takes the blame, your whole family are turtle immortals. Ugh~, I really can’t take it anymore.”
Yueshitu and Molei began their friendship interaction, the Apocalypse sisters downgrading to plastic sisters.
“Hahaha~”
Lilim struggled. Holding back her laughter was truly difficult. Hearing her slightly loud laugh, Molei and Yueshitu, who were interacting, were both startled.
“Lilim, keep it down, keep it down!”
“Haha, I can’t help it. I’m dying. A nightmare avatar, so what if it dies? Hahaha, you two are here to be funny, aren’t you? Bladder sisters, haha…”
In such a serious setting, Lilim usually wouldn’t laugh unless she couldn’t help it. In fact, she was planning to die on purpose this time. Someone had to draw the life hunter’s attention. Those two little sisters were about to burst and couldn’t run fast. Lilim knew it had to be her this time. She only hoped that when the nightmare body died, the feeling of death wouldn’t be too real.
“You female demon, let’s go for it.”
Molei leaped up from the ground, stepped onto the low wall, her pink short hair flying, looking valiant and heroic.
“Axe guy, come after me if you’ve got the guts, tui!”
After taunting, Molei turned and ran. The moment she turned, a killing intent that made every hair on her body stand on end surged toward her, soaking the clothes on her back with sweat.
Molei sprinted, footsteps rapidly closing in from behind.
Su Xiao charged down from a pile of rubble. The reason he had been guarding this spot was that he suspected Molei and the others hadn’t gone far. He had also confirmed one thing: survivors had a very strong stealth ability.
Earlier, when chasing the female spellcaster Luo Xi, she had suddenly disappeared, which had given Su Xiao a vague idea. Later, when he encountered Tian Yu, he witnessed the other’s stealth ability.
Now, encountering Molei and the others again, Su Xiao confirmed that all survivors had this stealth ability. There must be some drawback to it, otherwise the game wouldn’t be playable, and the hunters would surely lose.
Su Xiao speculated that after survivors used this stealth ability, their movement speed was greatly reduced, or they couldn’t move at all. Alternatively, the ability had a cooldown and a limited duration.
Now, Su Xiao had confirmed that survivors couldn’t move while in stealth. Moving would expose them, just like Molei at this moment.
Su Xiao strode after Molei. Before he could climb over a low wall, the ground beneath his feet suddenly became very soft and rose slightly higher.
Su Xiao stumbled two steps, steadied himself, and raised his axe to strike the spot he had just stepped on. Someone was there—he had stepped on them.
With a bang, the hunting axe embedded into the stone slab, sending chips flying. A figure was in mid-backward leap, with a bloody gash visible on their shoulder—it was Lilim.
Lilim looked utterly speechless. Su Xiao’s foot had nearly crushed the breath out of her. As a life hunter, Su Xiao’s strength was too great. With Lilim’s current 30 points of stamina, not having her ribs broken was already lucky.
“Molei, you won’t get far. I have a chance…”
Before Lilim could finish, a sharp clink sounded. A pebble hit Su Xiao’s metal mask—it was Molei.
Su Xiao’s gaze shifted to Molei. She raised both hands, extended two slender middle fingers, and said with a smile:
“Come on, I’ll show you the power of a battle angel.”
Molei was full of confidence. The next second, she did a wide split, lowering her body height.
Bang.
The hunting axe embedded into the wall behind Molei. She swallowed hard—this was way too intense.
Molei got up in a not-so-graceful manner and fled. She ran several hundred meters before stopping at a large house. The door had been removed, and inside were many compartments. The doors and windows of the compartments had all been taken down, leaving only rectangular openings.
Counting the second floor, this large house was at least a thousand square meters. The interior was complex, with stairs, landings, compartments, short corridors, and more.
Molei stood in the central hall on the first floor, on a stone platform, doing stretching exercises like gymnastics. Today, she, Molei, battle angel of the Apocalypse Paradise, was going to show this life hunter what she could do.
“Come!”
Molei stomped her foot, lowered her body, and stared intently at Su Xiao as he walked in through the front door. To be fair, Molei was a loyal girl. Faced with that certain death situation earlier, she had jumped up to attract the enemy, giving her teammates a chance to survive.
“…”
Su Xiao stopped, swung his fist, and smashed it into the stone wall beside him. A square section of the wall suddenly caved in.
Rumble.
The front and back doors, as well as all the windows of the large house, were sealed shut by falling iron gates. Molei didn’t know that this house had a nice name: the Mandala House. In many places, the mandala flower symbolized despair, pain, and so on.
Molei, who had been ready to show off, stood frozen in place. She had been full of clever maneuvers in her mind—running in circles, jumping out windows, jumping off the building, etc.
“Don’t, don’t come closer. I’m very tough. Yaame~”
Molei resisted for less than seven seconds before Su Xiao kicked her into a corner, unable to move.
Su Xiao looked at Molei curled up in the corner, aimed at her neck, and was about to chop off her head with his axe when he thought: Why kill this goofball? What benefit would it bring?
If he killed Molei now, she still had two more nightmare bodies. In a few minutes, this goofball would come out of the newborn square and be free to move. As for killing Molei three times, that was difficult.
To permanently eliminate Molei, Su Xiao estimated he would have to kill her at least three times to possibly drop her sanity below 1 point, trapping her forever in the painting world. Undoubtedly, this would take a considerable amount of time.
Since killing wasn’t very effective, why not capture Molei? That way, she couldn’t die, nor could she continue searching for lock discs. If he really wanted to kill her, it would be more efficient to do it in other painting worlds.
Thinking this, Su Xiao pulled a chain from his clothes. The chain was about as thick as a pinky finger, with a sharp spike at one end.
“What are you going to do? I won’t give in. Wait… wait! Help!!”
Amid Molei’s screams and struggles, the chain pierced through both her arms, then wrapped around them. Although she screamed nonstop, she never begged for mercy.
The hunting axe flipped in Su Xiao’s hand. He used the back of the axe to strike each of Molei’s lower legs once. Molei once again unlocked the achievement of broken legs.
Ten minutes later, below the giant wall, a metal rod as thick as an arm was driven into the wall, five meters above the ground. Molei was hung upside down from it, the lower half of her face bound with a leather mask, her mouth stuffed so she couldn’t make a sound, only whimpering.
Molei twisted left and right like a caterpillar. Not far from her was Lock Disc No. 2.
Behind a low wall a hundred meters away, Yueshitu and Lilim were watching Molei, both with expressions of grief.
“This is a trap.”
“Even if it’s a trap, if the life hunter isn’t very smart, we might have a chance.”
Yueshitu’s words made Lilim hesitate. Among the three, Molei was the fastest at unlocking lock discs because of her keen observation. Don’t forget, Molei was a battle angel who had killed over a hundred violators. Although she was a bit goofy, her overall strength was formidable.
Back when Molei had just advanced to the eighth rank, she could lead the Apocalypse Paradise’s eighth-rank contractors to reap benefits. This showed her strength—as long as she wasn’t going head-to-head with Su Xiao. Molei was actually not weak at all.
“The life hunter’s intelligence… hard to say.”
Lilim wanted to play it safe and leave Molei behind. Dying once in the nightmare world wasn’t unacceptable.
“I’m sure that axe guy isn’t very smart. Think about it—he crushes us in every way. Except for his weakness in sharp turns, he’s too strong in everything else. If he were also smart, what would be the point? Then we could report this life hunter to the Void Tree.”
“Re… report?”
Lilim felt like she was gaining strange knowledge.
“Yeah, report to the Void Tree. I’ve done it before. I reported Bai Ye from the Reincarnation Paradise, and it was successful. He’s also in the painting world this time. Oh, by the way, keep this a secret.”
“Uh~”
Lilim was momentarily speechless. She realized that Su Xiao’s reputation across the various paradises wasn’t great.
“Anyway, let’s try to save Molei. At worst, you or I will lose one life. Lilim, you lure the life hunter away, and I’ll save Molei. If I can’t save her, as good sisters, I’ll break her neck and let her revive.”
“Alright.”
“Let’s go.”
Yueshitu and Lilim charged out at the same time. Lilim flicked her arm, sending a pebble flying. Before the stone could hit Su Xiao’s head, he caught it with a slap.
From under his metal mask, Su Xiao let out an ‘angry’ breath, grabbed his hunting axe, and chased after Lilim like an enraged beast.
Seeing this, Yueshitu was overjoyed. She ran toward the upside-down Molei. Five meters, four meters, three meters. Yueshitu looked at Molei hanging upside down facing the wall, silently thinking: ‘Good sister, I’m coming to save you. Don’t be afraid.’
Just as Yueshitu was three meters away from Molei, she suddenly felt something hard under her foot. It seemed to be a protruding metal corner. She guessed what it was, and her pupils sharply contracted. But it was too late. A crisp sound came from beneath her foot.
Click!