ITOTIABSAM | Infinite Flow | 188
Leaving behind the brilliant lights, Xie Ye and Gu Cong navigated through the narrow alleys, walking in the outer city where many players avoided.
There wasn't any clear boundary, but Xie Ye could distinctly feel the surrounding buildings becoming taller and denser, devoid of any beauty. They were cramped together like sardines in a can, utilizing every bit of space to the fullest, giving an indescribable sense of oppression.
Several plastic barrels lay haphazardly around, either overturned by people or stray cats, with garbage scattered everywhere. Fortunately, there was no sewage spilling out. The open shops all seemed to have reached a consensus, with bright red or green lights shining, saturating Gu Cong with cheap, overwhelming light, making his handsome face appear ghostly.
Xie Ye chuckled softly.
Gu Cong glanced sideways, "I thought you wouldn't adapt well."
Or perhaps dislike it, after all, no matter which world Xie Ye was in, he was very clean.
"Why?" Xie Ye paused, recalling his performance in Nightmare Town, and answered his own question, "Actually, the environment I grew up in wasn't that great."
He formed a claw shape with his left hand near his face, intentionally trying to scare, "I'm a ghost, you know."
Born from mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
But Gu Cong wasn't startled in the least. He even found the other party very cute—even though Xie Ye's lips were as red as blood, his breath icy, and his skin pale to the point of near transparency, he still found him very cute.
So he naturally pinched Xie Ye's cheek, "I know."
"Ghosts aren't that big of a deal."
Ghosts aren't that big of a deal.
Xie Ye's heart began to beat like a human's once again.
Gu Cong's fingertips were warm and slightly rough, with a thin layer of calluses, causing Xie Ye to involuntarily stop his attempt to dodge and allow the other to treat him like a child, pinching him repeatedly.
Anticipating the new position broadcast to be imminent, after indulging in his actions, Gu Cong glanced at his wristwatch and said, "Is there any way..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly grabbed Xie Ye, bent down, and retreated into the shadows where the buildings overlapped.
Under the red moon, a giant bird with steel-reinforced bones flapped its wings and flew past.
It was probably a player's item, with feathers shimmering with silver-white, inorganic light, mechanically circling nearby.
Being oversized, the bird couldn't land between the densely packed buildings, and the flashy signs of various shops provided good cover for Gu Cong and Xie Ye.
0028 quickly provided an analysis report, "The eyes are high-definition cameras, but there's no specific target. Be careful, and you can still avoid it."
【Do you want me to help you hack it?】
Gu Cong decisively expressed his refusal. If anything happened to the giant bird in this area, it would be tantamount to indirectly informing pursuers that they had found the right place.
Squinting up at the sky, Xie Ye also guessed the purpose of the bird. He tapped Gu Cong's arm and whispered, "I can take care of it, but it might cause a bit of a commotion."
Gu Cong smiled, "Let's just stay quiet and follow the shadows."
The complex and crowded terrain of the outer city served as natural camouflage. Despite his tall stature, Gu Cong had learned related techniques in other worlds. As long as he could figure out the flying patterns of the giant bird and find blind spots in its line of sight, avoiding detection wouldn't be difficult.
Five minutes.
There were five minutes left until the next system broadcast.
In these five minutes, he needed to find a crossroads where the system broadcast could be tricked, confusing most of the pursuers who relied on real-time positioning.
With a clear mind, Gu Cong looked up and carefully observed for a minute before stepping forward to lead the way, saying, "Follow me."
Xie Ye obediently complied.
Walking in the darkness was as familiar to him as anything could be. He moved as silently as a cat, stepping on the shadows of the buildings as well as the shadow of the man in front of him. It felt like playing an interesting game, and a smile graced his lips.
Soon, they reached a fork in the road. Just as Xie Ye was about to follow Gu Cong and turn left along the wall, his foot suddenly seemed to catch on something, causing him to stumble and his ankle to throb with pain.
The next second, the aura belonging to "Jiang Chuan" vanished.
Although it was just an ordinary intersection, it felt as if the other party had stepped into another dimension, surrounded by silence.
"Xie Ye," the familiar voice sounded behind the boy, barely concealing its satisfaction. Someone had removed their disguise and peeked out from a dilapidated storefront nearby. "Long time no see."
Turning around, Xie Ye indeed saw a familiar face.
Li Jie.
The other person held a rope, made of vermilion-yellow talisman paper twisted into a rope. It looked fragile, yet one end was firmly tied to Xie Ye's ankle, emitting a crimson light.
Inspecting his prey from top to bottom, Li Jie's gaze seemed to convey a desire to have the rope around Xie Ye's neck instead. However, Xie Ye's expression remained unchanged.
Now Li Jie was genuinely surprised. "Aren't you surprised?"
Xie Ye shook his head. "You know me."
Compared to the average players who were searching for a needle in a haystack, the group of people who had experienced "Nightmare Town" together clearly had an advantage and were more likely to claim the bounty.
Li Jie also thought so.
When they left the instance, the magician who inexplicably bowed had caught his attention. And among all the residents of Nightmare Town, the most unique and incongruous figure was undoubtedly Xie Ye.
Initially, Li Jie thought that Xie Ye might possess some special items. He planned to wait for Xie Ye to be alone, enter the instance again, and then follow him to snatch whatever he had.
Who would have thought that the system would give him such a big gift? Xie Ye was a bug, a bug worth a hundred thousand points. It was like a gift from heaven.
"Looking for Jiang Chuan? Don't worry, my friend will take care of him," intentionally provoking Xie Ye's emotions with his words, Li Jie's empty hand gestured silently behind him.
"The sky has that big bird circling around. The best choice left for you is this path."
"The time is running out, just before the system announcement... cough cough!"
Whoosh.
A cold wind blew.
Without warning, the yellow talisman rope wrapped around Xie Ye's ankle turned into a large bunch of burnt ashes, raining down on Li Jie, who was chattering incessantly, smearing his mouth with soot.
Suppressing the urge of the black mist stirring within him, Xie Ye whispered softly, "Where's Jiang Chuan?"
Li Jie, who had lost his composure, was furious.
Without any mood to beat around the bush with him, he received a response from his teammate through his earpiece and sneered, "Him? The traitor who openly walks with monsters. Of course, he has to be killed, handed over to the system for a reward."
"Thanks to you, the item panel is unlocked. Now players can attack each other."
Kill.
Dead.
Never to be seen again.
In the blind spots of everyone's vision, the faint black mist crept along the shadows like a gentle veil. Sensing the danger keenly, Li Jie flipped his right hand, swiftly grasping the gun and firing off a box full of runic bullets.
These were the high-end goods he had spent a fortune on, once saving his life in a difficulty 8 dungeon. Even facing the final boss, after leaving the original dungeon and arriving at the transfer station, they should have...
Ding!
As if blocked by an invisible barrier, the runic bullets with their faint golden tails instantly dimmed, clattering to the ground with crisp, pleasing sounds.
The planned support didn't arrive either.
In the earpieces connecting him to half the guild, there was only silence. Li Jie could only hear his own wildly accelerating heartbeat and the footsteps of the youth approaching him step by step.
Thud, thud, thud.
His spine and forehead exaggeratedly oozed out fine beads of cold sweat. He desperately suppressed the urge to bolt, his voice urgent, "I've activated my shield. If you kill me, with this much commotion, other players will... Uh!"
Pale fingers gripped his throat.
Delicate, slender, with a hint of pale pink at the tips, they were the same ones he had privately mocked as feminine.
But now, this "feminine" hand felt chilling, as if it weighed a ton, ready to snap his neck at any moment.
"You've never killed anyone, never killed a player, right?" Forced to play his final card, Li Jie struggled cautiously, like a squirming insect. "I know you've never killed anyone. Your eyes... they're different."
"If you kill me, the system will definitely broadcast it. By then, there will be no chance for reconciliation between you and the players."
Li Jie struggled to continue, his breaths ragged, "And... and the same goes for Jiang Chuan. You wouldn't want to betray him or become an enemy of the players. I can help keep the villa's address and Jiang Chuan's existence a secret for you." With each word, his grip tightened around the boy's throat, desperation evident in his voice, "Xie Ye, for my sake, for the sake of my vows, there's no need for this."
His plea was met with the sharp, splintering sound of bones.
Crack.
The broken bones pierced through arteries, tearing flesh, as Li Jie collapsed with a thud, desperately clutching his wound. He was astonished and resentful, his words choked, "You... you..."
"Players... will never... forgive..."
"Thank you for reminding me." Looking down from a height, Xie Ye lowered his gaze, surrounded by countless humanoid forms coalescing into black mist, standing beneath the crimson remnants of the moon.
This chase allowed no room for error.
His conflict with the players couldn't be avoided through mere world announcements or hiding. No matter how harmless, friendly, or normal he appeared, he remained a walking bounty, a monster in the eyes of the majority.
—-An endless cycle of bounties.
The system handed him a game-over move.
Yet, he naively believed he could revert back to being just an ordinary player.
With black mist swirling around his fingertips, Xie Ye lifted his arm and deftly removed the wristwatch he once cherished, the one the system used to locate him. Without looking back, he casually tossed it into a nearby trash can.
Behind him, a dense fog spread, engulfing the entire outer city in an instant.
The majestic bird hovering in the sky, as if losing its signal, plummeted down, exploding into a burst of bright fireworks in the night sky.
In the hazy neon lights, curious NPCs opened their windows to peer around, while cursing players fell silent upon seeing a series of death reports in the world channel.
Guided by murmurs in his ear, the black-haired Xie Ye made a timely right turn, running into the man who was also searching for him.
【Kill him.】
【Bring him home.】
【Fool! He colluded with that Li Jie! The system must have raised the bounty on him!】
"Sorry," Xie Ye with his right hand hidden in his sleeve whispered, bending his eyes with a smile once he made sure the other person was unharmed, ignoring all the clamor and uproar that only he could hear. "It got a little noisy."
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