Volume 1 - CH 9

One morning passed quickly. The weather system’s simulation of sunshine was identical as that in the real world. The scorching sun shone brightly, and the rising temperature seemed a bit dry and hot. 

Bai Chunian had read Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing’s mission books. The rest of their missions weren’t in one place. Lu Yan’s second mission was in the hospital. Calculating from the map, it would take fifteen minutes to drive from the library to the hospital, very close.

But there was one thing worth noting. Bai Chunian had been paying attention to the killing broadcasts above the sky. There was a team called the Ghost Hunting Group that frequently killed enemies. A rough count from the broadcast should be about 29 times. The name that appeared the most was [Ghost Hunting Group] He Suowei. This person named He Suowei had been broadcast at least nineteen times, as well as the remaining three team members, several times.

Only two hours had passed since the start of the exam. The Ghost Hunting Group had taken nearly 30 heads. The city map was very large, it should be impossible to put seven or eight teams together in the same place when assigning candidates. With a little thought, it was clear that this team had been driving around looking for people to kill. Their tactics were probably taking advantage of the large crowds at the beginning to score headcounts, and then went to do their mission once they’d killed almost everyone. 

On the surface, this tactic was indeed very efficient, but actually, they could’ve died halfway easily. ATWL was a survival test, if the team accidentally got into trouble in the middle and then eliminated before reaching 48 hours, then even with more headcount, it would still be counted as a failing grade.

As everyone knew, the act of helping in the ATWL exam had been banned repeatedly, but this field had formed an industrial chain. Many retired mercenaries and unemployed gangsters who had just been released from prison turned to becoming helpers in the exam as their means of livelihood. In that case, this Ghost Hunting Group team who insisted on choosing reckless tactics must be extremely confident in their own strength.

Bai Chunian leaned lazily under the load-bearing beam. He fiddled absent-mindedly with the megaphone he’d collected and hummed as he smiled softly: “We’ve encountered an expert this time. Seems like it’s not just as simple as helping with the test.”

Rimbaud used the strong electromagnetic force from his fishtail to attach himself onto the steel beam of the library. The fishtail coiled between the steels, and he raised his chin slightly to listen to the kill broadcast. He was unfamiliar with human language, but very sensitive to repeated information frequently received. This Ghost Hunting Group team had obviously aroused Rimbaud’s interest.

“Come down.” Bai Chunian patted the spot beside him.

Rimbaud swam along the steel beam, crawled down and sat next to Bai Chunian.

Seeing him holding a Python Revolver and constantly disassembling and reloading bullets, Bai Chunian held his chin, smiled and said, “Feel like fighting?”

Rimbaud shook his head gently, opened his arms and circled Bai Chunian in the corner, making a protective posture.

Bai Chunian froze for a moment. He forgot that with Rimbaud’s knowledge of human technology, he couldn’t possibly understand realistic sensation holographic VR. He must be treating the present as a real battlefield.

“Protect me, then.” Bai Chunian curled his lips, his thumb and forefinger pinched Rimbaud’s left and right cheeks, pressed out two dimples, and smiled coldly, “Then you were so cruel to me at that time, just to rob me a place to get out of the prison. Have you forgotten? I haven’t.” 

“With your little ability, you still fought me one-on-one… I originally planned to humor you, let you go out and be free. You didn’t need to be so anxious. You didn’t have to be so… cruel to me. ”

Rimbaud listened calmly at first, but then became more and more eager to understand what Bai Chuinian was saying, because he understood the expression in Bai Chunian’s eyes—helplessness and sadness. And a little bit of fierceness.

Seeing the omega’s pitiful appearance, Bai Chunian pinched Rimbaud’s face again. “So what if you’ve escaped? I still caught you back. Say it, do you like me? ”

Rimbaud pursed his lips and looked around helplessly. Lu Yan, who was planning his route, finally couldn’t stand it anymore, and pulled Bai Chunian’s hand off Rimbaud’s face. “He can’t even speak. Why are you bullying him?” 

Bai Chunian shrugged indifferently. “Please give adults a little time to teach their wives, Little Rabbit.”

“That’s it? You?” Lu Yan glanced at Bai Chunian and snorted. With a popping sound, he pulled Rimbaud up, who had been attached to the ground with electromagnetic force, like pulling up a toilet plunger. He took him away, and the long tail dragged all the way.

They left after resting on the spot for ten minutes. Bai Chunian drove to the gas station to fill up the fuel tank, and then continued on to the hospital. Lu Yan’s second task was to find a hallucinogenic agent in the hospital. At the same time, the hospital was also a fixed ammunition box placement point. If the timing of entering the hospital wasn’t right, there would be an inevitable war of attrition.

Bai Chunian bought a pack of cigarettes and drove at full speed on the road with a cigarette end in his mouth. It was a pity he couldn’t steal a sports car, otherwise he would have the ability to be a road killer. 

Lu Yan, “Why are you driving so fast!”

Bai Chunian, “Hey, I’ve been too busy lately. It’s been a long time since I raced. Now, even if I see a Wuling Hongguang under the building, I’ll feel that it’s beautiful.”

Just then, a bright green Lamborghini passed them by with a wave of vibration, and drove quickly all the way to the end of the road.

Bai Chunian dusted the soot off the window. “I’m chasing, alright? There are only two of them.” 

Lu Yan half leaned into the driver’s seat. “Can you catch up?”

“Yes, the big bull’s fuel consumption for 100 kilometers in the economic model needs 27 liters. There’s no gas station from where they came, if they’re so fast, sooner or later, they’ll have to stop for refueling.” 

Sure enough, the blinding green stopped at the villa area in the distance, and two alphas in team uniforms jumped out of the car and went upstairs with their guns.

Bai Chunian deliberately reduced his speed, driving slowly close to the villa area. He parked the car in the shadow of the greenery, tapped his fingertips at the steering wheel and waited for the right moment.

“They reached the second floor and went to the balcony. Little Rabbit, you two will go over and clear them up later.”

Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing nodded, took out their firearms out of their gun belts and loaded them, ready to get off.

For concealment purposes, they parked at the back of the balcony. They couldn’t see the movement of the balcony from this direction, they could only rely on experience and sound to speculate on the enemy’s location.

Just then, a kill broadcast suddenly sounded out from the sky:

【Ghost Hunting Group】 He Suowei eliminated 【Hide Power to Gain Scores】Meng Rui

【Ghost Hunting Group】Gu Wuwei eliminated 【Hide Power to Gain Scores】 Yuan Kong

“Wait a minute.” Bai Chunian stopped Lu Yan and Bi Lanxing, who were about to get out of the car to set up the ambush. He let go of the handbrake, turned around, and quickly drove away from the villa area on a narrow road.

“Hey! We’re leaving? Why are we leaving?” Lu Yan couldn’t let go of the two heads that were only one step away from arriving in his hands. He lied on the car glass, looking back reluctantly.

Bai Chunian drove with one hand and put his other hand on the passenger seat. “The two inside the Lamborghini must’ve been killed.”

“But I didn’t hear the gunshots?” 

“The two killers jumped out together. They’re from Ghost Hunting Group, maybe with bare hands or cold weapons. They laid the ambush in the villa area and took other teams as bait. We would’ve been killed by these animals if we went in.”

Lu Yan shuddered. “You… Aren’t you good at shooting? Are you afraid of them?”

Bai Chunian laughed. “What I’m afraid of is that you’ll be dead.”

“Bah.” Lu Yan held his breath.

“Nevermind, this team called Hide Power to Gain Scores haven’t been wiped out yet. The remaining two shouldn’t be far away. Let’s search the neighborhood and see if we can get the rest out and kill them.”

Bai Chunian drove around the neighborhood for a while, and when he passed by the kindergarten, he heard the sound of moving tables and chairs leaking from the inside.

“Tch, whose little cutie pie is here.” Bai Chunian turned the car around and drove directly into the main building of the kindergarten. The four of them went upstairs from both directions to block the retreat of the people inside.

A dark shadow flashed across the dance hall, which Bai Chunian keenly sensed. He exchanged the M25 on his back with the one on Rimbaud’s hand. After setting up Rimbaud’s Python Revolver on the dance hall’s stair seats, he told Lu Yan through the communicator, “I’ve set up for you in the dance hall. Come here and knock him off. Then we’ll double-team the other one.”

“Roger that.” Lu Yan grabbed the desert eagle and turned to the window, kicked the air diffuser above the dance hall and fell from the sky. He held one member of Hide Power to Gain Scores at his gunpoint.

Two shots rang out from the silent dance hall.

The broadcast rang to announce the kill:

【Casually Playing】Lu Yan eliminated 【Hide Power to Gain Scores】 Beaver

At the same time, Lu Yan tumbled to the ground holding his collarbone that had been shot, clutching the blood-spurting bullet hole in pain. His blood bar plummeted to the bottom.

Bai Chunian’s heart sank. Just now, he was aiming at the person perfectly. Although he indeed had a gun in his hand, with Bai Chunian’s marksmanship, this man couldn’t have had the opportunity to shoot and hurt Lu Yan. 

There must be a sniper at a distance.

Bai Chunian followed the bullet hole that broke the floor-to-ceiling window and stared into the distance. A small reflection helped him lock the sniper’s position.

Bai Chunian narrowed his eyes to look, the person’s appearance was somewhat familiar. He seemed to be the greyhound omega he met before entering the test site, called Xiao Xun.

“Tch, this annoying sniper.” Bai Chunian picked up Lu Yan to help him stop the bleeding and injected the recovery serum into the blood bar to replenish it as soon as possible.

Rimbaud set up his M25 at a high point, his eyes turned cold, the sapphire-blue pupils looked through the scope, and an indifferent, handsome omega face appeared in his field of vision—Xiao Xun was also aiming at him at the same time.

“Rimbaud, fight him.” Bai Chunian believed in Rimbaud’s marksmanship. Each of the Special Operations experimental subjects was an expert in firearms, and there was nothing he wasn’t good at with weapons.

Almost at the same moment, two gunshots exploded at two points far and near.

The short few tenths of a second was as long as a century. Rimbaud suddenly let out a muffled voice. He was shot in the clavicle. Thrown two meters away by the huge impact of the sniper bullet. The electric light that swam in the scarlet blood flew all over the place, and the blood bar on his chest plummeted sharply, leaving only a trace of red.

The sky was silent, no kill broadcasts coming in.

Bai Chunian froze.

Rimbaud, unexpectedly, didn’t win against that greyhound omega.