Chapter 122: Talking
She let out a soft laugh and walked toward Dragon Emerging from the Sea. Her eyes curved into gentle crescents, entirely lacking her usual cool, sharp authority.
“Brother Long, so this is where you are! I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find you.”
Dragon Emerging from the Sea didn’t suspect a thing. He let out a long breath of relief. “It’s good to see you’re unharmed. The others have gone missing as well. Let’s hurry and track them down.”
Lin Huai nodded. “All right, let’s go together.”
Yet even as she spoke about searching for the rest of the team, she didn’t take a single step forward. Instead, she reached out and smoothly slipped her arm through his. Her voice softened into an affectionate purr: “Don’t worry so much, Brother Long. They’re all capable fighters; nothing bad is going to happen to them. It won’t hurt if we look for them a little later.”
She looked up at him with a warm smile. “With such a rare chance to be alone, we should take advantage of it and spend some time together.”
As she spoke, she leaned her head gently against his chest.
Dragon Emerging from the Sea froze the moment her arm hooked into his. His eyes went wide with sheer shock—wider than they had ever been in his entire life—and his face held more genuine terror than if a horde of high-level monsters had ambushed him.
When his senses caught up, he realized she was already leaning against his chest. Without even taking time to process what was happening, he shoved her away purely on instinct.
He stared at this strange, affectionate version of Lin Huai, his expression instantly turning deadly cold. Raising his sidearm in a single, fluid motion, he pressed the black muzzle firmly against the center of her forehead.
His voice dropped into a low, menacing growl: “Who the hell are you? You’re not the Boss!”
“Talk. Where is she? Where did you take her?!”
The fake “Lin Huai” didn’t show the slightest hint of panic at having her disguise exposed. Realizing her act had failed, her expression shifted instantly, and she burst into bright, carefree laughter. “Oh, come on, Brother Long! I was just playing a practical joke on you. I didn’t think you’d see through it so quickly.”
She patted her chest with a grin. “I was only trying to give you a little scare.”
The hand holding the gun remained rock-steady, without even the slightest tremble. Dragon Emerging from the Sea’s voice turned even colder. “Switching your routine won’t save you. No matter how much you try to act, you’re not her.”
“The Boss would never pull a childish stunt like this in a lethal combat zone,” he said flatly. “She values her life more than anyone!”
Bang!
The instant his words fell, a bullet tore through the center of her forehead.
Watching the false “Lin Huai” dissolve into a drifting cloud of red mist, Dragon Emerging from the Sea’s face grew increasingly grim.
Monsters taking on the faces of teammates and infiltrating the ranks—this was the worst-case scenario in any combat operation, and it had actually come to pass.
Not far away, Old Wang was scouring the scorched terrain, desperately searching for his missing companions.
He checked behind every bizarre boulder and peered into every rocky fissure, but found no trace of another living soul.
Just as he was about to give up on wandering the wasteland and head straight for the colossal rift torn across the sky, a crisp female voice called out from behind him:
“Old Wang, where are you going?”
Hearing the familiar voice, Old Wang turned around in a hurry. A relieved grin broke across his face. “Oh, thank goodness! Are you all right, Young Miss? Why are you alone? Where are the Boss and Brother Long?”
Jiangzhehu Inheritor shook her head, looking utterly bewildered. “I have no idea. I turned my head, and everyone vanished. I’ve been walking for ages and only just spotted you. And then you looked like you were about to sprint off.”
Old Wang pointed up at the massive crimson chasm hanging in the sky. “I was thinking that with the Boss and Brother Long’s skills, a place like this could never hold them down. If we push toward the central rift, we’ll probably cross paths with everyone there.”
She listened, nodding thoughtfully. “Mm, that makes sense. Let’s move quickly then. If we reach the rift first, we might even be able to provide backup for the others.”
Old Wang nodded and started marching forward. But they hadn’t covered much ground before the cracked earth gave way, and a fresh pack of small ghouls swarmed out from underground, cutting off their path.
Old Wang drew a massive greatsword that resembled a holy knight’s blade. He had always loved the raw weight and clean clash of cold steel, preferring the swing of a blade even when he carried modern firearms.
Seeing the fiends closing in, he took two quick steps back, locking his back firmly against the young heiress. She held a submachine gun. Moving in tight coordination, the air filled with the steady roar of automatic fire and sweeping arcs of brilliant blade light, swiftly cutting down the first wave of attackers.
Breathing hard, the young heiress lowered her empty weapon and tossed it aside in frustration. “Out of ammo… this gun is useless now.”
Old Wang immediately opened his inventory, pulling out spare magazines and a backup firearm to hand over. “Here, take mine.”
She waved her hands, refusing to take them. “If you hand over all your ranged weapons, what will you use?”
Old Wang gave a hearty laugh, adjusting his two-handed grip on the greatsword’s hilt. “This blade is more than enough for me.”
A second wave of monsters lunged forward without pause. The pair fought for what felt like ages, but the swarm seemed bottomless. Both of them were rapidly running on empty. Right at that moment, a mid-tier ghoul darted out from the shadows, its razor-sharp talons tearing straight toward Old Wang, who was half-kneeling on the rock to catch his breath.
“Look out!”
With a terrified cry, the young heiress threw her arms around Old Wang’s neck, shielding him with her own body and taking the full brunt of the strike across her back.
“Young Miss!”
Seeing black, corrupted blood gush from her shredded back, Old Wang went into an absolute panic. His eyes turned bloodshot with emotion. “Are you out of your mind?! Aren’t you supposed to be a genius with numbers?! Why the hell would you do something so stupid at a time like this?!”
She collapsed into his arms, her breathing shallow and weak. “I just… I couldn’t bear to watch you die…”
The surrounding monsters gradually thinned out. Hoisting the wounded girl onto his back, Old Wang began trudging determinedly toward the rift. As he walked, he kept talking to keep her conscious: “Hang in there, Young Miss. Don’t be afraid. Once we find the Boss and meet up with Milk Tea, you’ll be completely patched up.”
Resting her chin on his shoulder, she suddenly pouted, her voice tinged with petulant dissatisfaction: “Tell me the truth. In your heart, who matters more to you—the Boss, or me?”
Old Wang blinked, thoroughly confused. The question felt completely out of left field, but he still answered in earnest: “The Boss is our squad leader, and you are you. How can you even compare the two? It’s not the same thing at all.”
She refused to drop the subject, her tone turning petty and unreasonable: “I don’t care! If that’s how it is, I’d rather just die right here. The way you talk makes it sound like you care about your Boss far more than you care about me.”
Old Wang’s brow furrowed. He had been carrying her for a while and was growing winded, so he knelt down, gently easing her off his back and propping her up against a flat boulder.
“Young Miss, why are you talking like this?” he asked, genuinely exasperated. “The Boss is everyone’s Boss.”
She turned her face away with an offended sniff. “You just don’t love me. If you truly loved me, why would you keep bringing up another woman in front of my face?”
Old Wang scratched the back of his head, looking troubled. A nagging sense of wrongness had been gnawing at the back of his mind. Staring into her arrogant, unreasonably demanding expression, his gaze slowly darkened.
He crouched down until he was looking directly into her eyes. Then, in a calm, quiet voice, he asked:
“What is sixty-six plus eighty-eight? Answer me in one second.”
A flicker of confusion crossed her face, followed immediately by genuine indignation. “I’m pouring my heart out about another woman, and you suddenly ask me to do mental math?! Besides, sixty-six plus eighty-eight is an arithmetic problem! How could anyone calculate that in a single second?!”
The moment the complaint left her lips, the heavy greatsword in Old Wang’s hand plunged straight through her chest.
She stared down at the cold steel in wide-eyed disbelief, then looked up at the man, whose face had turned as hard and emotionless as stone.
“Why…?” she gasped, her voice choking on blood.
