Fu Songcheng withdrew from the virtual space of Source Star.
Opening his eyes, the ceiling of the villa’s first-floor bedroom looked somewhat oppressive in the dim light.
He lay quietly on the bed, feeling the slow, heavy beating in his chest.
Why was it so hard?
After meeting Quan Heng, after coming into contact with Source Star, after learning that his suffering and misfortune weren’t natural disasters but man-made calamities—every step was hard.
Struggling at every step, advancing by inches.
The ever-present surveillance; one wrong move and everything could be lost.
The lofty, arrogant “viewers” who treated Blue Star people as game NPCs…
Everything was forcing him to make choices.
And he had no choice.
In the darkness, Fu Songcheng silently let out a breath of turbid air—for himself, and for Chen Ke.
Chen Ke… chronic illness…
Cut flesh and remove bone before the poison can be cured.
He rose, his movements light as a prowling night cat. Without turning on the lights, he walked straight out the door. Yu Huaiting didn’t know what he intended to do, but followed softly as well.
Ghosts walking in pairs, sins in twos.
Fu Songcheng turned to look at Yu Huaiting, a look Yu Huaiting knew well. Before they’d entered the friendship instance, Fu Songcheng had worn this same look—but then it had been to persuade him not to kill.
Now he looked at him quietly, and Yu Huaiting knew what he was going to say.
Second floor.
Chen Ke, Bai Mu, and the others had been arranged to rest in the guest rooms on the second floor.
Because there were so many of them, they’d been split across several rooms.
Perhaps because they’d finally escaped Dawn’s pursuit, or perhaps because of Fu Songcheng’s promise, this group of exhausted special players slept unusually deeply.
Fu Songcheng and Yu Huaiting, one after the other, crept up the stairs like phantoms.
Fu Songcheng stopped before the master guest room at the end of the corridor. Inside was Chen Ke.
He didn’t knock. Instead, he directly took out the villa’s spare card and lightly swiped it on the electronic lock.
A soft beep sounded, especially jarring in the silent night. By the time the person inside reacted, Fu Songcheng had already pushed the door open.
Chen Ke looked alertly at Fu Songcheng, his hand already reaching for the item under the pillow.
Fu Songcheng was faster than him.
Without a single wasted word, just as he’d dealt with Quan Heng back then, he sent him off.
When the dagger fell, there was no sound.
The blade split muscle; the gentle sensation traveled down the handle into Fu Songcheng’s palm.
Chen Ke’s eyes stared at Fu Songcheng, then slowly closed.
Fu Songcheng looked at Chen Ke, gently laid his body flat on the bed, then took a photo through the system.
A ghastly trail of blood ran from the neck to the heart.
The clothes were stained black and wet with blood, the wound horrifying.
On the other side, Bai Mu had woken too.
She wanted to get up and find Chen Ke, but Yu Huaiting had already reached her.
Yu Huaiting’s movements were more brutal and direct than Fu Songcheng’s. He didn’t cover Bai Mu’s mouth—instead he slammed the dagger’s handle viciously into her temple, and Bai Mu instantly blacked out.
Soon they’d dealt with everyone on the second floor.
“Gege.”
A warm hand suddenly reached from beside him, lightly covering the back of Fu Songcheng’s hovering hand.
Fu Songcheng turned his head. Yu Huaiting had at some point come to stand beside him, the two of them covered in blood.
His gaze was as calm as ever, his deep pupils reflecting the faint blue glow of the system light screen, and also reflecting Fu Songcheng’s face at this moment.
“They’re free.”
Yu Huaiting said in a low voice.
“I know.”
Fu Songcheng closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Cold teammates—just like that, he’d turned them into warm points.
They sent the death photos of the few players to Old Zhao. When the eight Dawn bounty players’ avatars went dark, everything was silent.
[Ding! Bounty mission complete.]
[Congratulations, player Fu Songcheng, on obtaining mission reward: 20,000 points.]
A full twenty thousand points, buying eight lives.
Fu Songcheng said nothing, and Yu Huaiting said nothing either. The two looked at each other in silence, and in the dim light, together they bore all the sin and risk.
“Let’s go.”
After a long while, Fu Songcheng gripped Yu Huaiting’s hand back, his voice so cold it held not a shred of warmth. “Let’s find Si Yi.”
Then Si Yi’s avatar went dark as well.
Source Star’s public Star Network forum once again hit peak traffic.
The bullet comments monitoring Fu Songcheng’s livestream exploded instantly, dense text scrolling madly, nearly blotting out the entire screen.
[Holy shit! Holy shit! He killed them?!]
[Cold teammates turned into warm points.]
[Fu Songcheng’s morals and integrity melting away like cream.]
[Hahaha I said it—what waves could a Child Star possibly make?]
[So what if they died? Tomorrow I’m descending too—I’ll kill ten first to warm up!]
[How many more are going to die?]
Source Star players argued, reveled, and celebrated in the bullet comments over this betrayal, treating others’ lives and deaths as the most exquisite electronic pickles.
And compared to Source Star’s clamor, in Blue Star’s instance public channel, there wasn’t much difference.
The chat logs on the public screen refreshed as players envied Fu Songcheng monopolizing so many points.
[Dawn: Player [Fu Songcheng] has successfully completed the bounty mission! Targets Chen Ke and 8 others confirmed dead!]
[Lone Wolf: So fast. Those people had so many anti-tracking items, and they got killed before I could even find them.]
[Liu Mian: Let him eat from the public trough first—damn it.]
[Blade Dance: As expected of Fu Songcheng, so strong, so strong!]
[Lü Zhaolin: What’s up with your IDs? I want non-real-name IDs too?]
Immediately after, a striking gold announcement popped up on all Blue Star players’ panels.
[Dawn Guild Official Statement: In recognition of the outstanding strength and decisive judgment demonstrated by player Fu Songcheng in the bounty operation, this guild hereby issues a public commendation! Dawn always welcomes the strong, and will never tolerate any act of betrayal!]
The statement was issued extremely fast, riding the wave to recruit.
Having been robbed of a sum, Dawn was still expanding its guild’s size.
“Riding the ad slot.”
Yu Huaiting coldly scanned the gold announcement and summed it up.
Fu Songcheng directly closed the public screen and opened his personal attribute panel. “Let them ride it. Let’s add some attributes.”
He added 3,000 points of agility to both himself and Yu Huaiting, spending sixty thousand points.
But they still had a hundred thousand points to splurge.
“I don’t need that much.”
Yu Huaiting frowned. Even for him, it was the first time spending points so extravagantly.
Sixty thousand—nearly all the assets he and Fu Songcheng had before.
“You need it.”
Fu Songcheng’s tone brooked no doubt. He stared into Yu Huaiting’s eyes. “We both do.”
So the cold, cold points too were transformed into warm attribute points.
After the enhancement, the two spent several hours adapting to all the changes brought by the massive single-stat shift.
They could do many things in a short time now; it seemed the flow of time had slowed considerably for them.
Fu Songcheng could feel his body incredibly light, his senses amplified several times over—he could even hear the sound of leaves hitting the ground dozens of meters away.
And the system’s rankings changed at this moment.
[No.1 Yu Huaiting]
[No.2 Fu Songcheng (up 13 places)]
…
[No.23 Lu Xiao]
Fu Songcheng’s name shot up to second place on the Power Ranking, right behind Yu Huaiting.
He had finally caught up on the leaderboard to the lover who’d entered the instances before him.
Yet at this moment, Fu Songcheng’s mood was anything but happy.
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