Chapter 41: Killing the Scumbag
Lin Huai pulled back her war scythe and feigned confusion. “Chen Feng? You were pulled into this game too?”
Because Chen Feng had been challenged directly, he had entered the match without ever seeing Lin Huai’s username.
Seeing her act as though she had only just recognized him, Chen Feng’s eyes shifted rapidly. In an instant, his face softened into an emotional expression of relief. Forcing out tears of worry and joy, he stepped forward, opening his arms to embrace her.
“Xiao Huai, I finally found you!”
“I’ve been searching everywhere for you in District 88, Sector 888. I was terrified you were already dead. It’s so wonderful that you’re still alive! But wait, why aren’t you in Sector 888?”
Lin Huai stepped back smoothly, easily avoiding his reach. Watching his exaggerated, deceitful performance, she cursed herself once again for how blind she had been in her past life.
She lowered her gaze, running a finger along the cold edge of her scythe. Her blood ran hot, and her fingertips trembled with suppressed rage. “Oh? Why would you assume I’d be in Sector 888? There are countless sectors in this game. Isn’t it completely normal for us to end up in different ones?”
Left hanging awkwardly with his arms out, Chen Feng lowered his hands. His eyes flickered with guarded thought. “I was just guessing. Before this dungeon opened, we couldn’t receive news from other sectors, so I could only search through 888.”
Lin Huai let out a soft sneer and looked up into his eyes. “The Trial Grounds of Mount Duoshu are only open to the number-one player of each zone. Does that mean you are the champion of Sector 888?”
Chen Feng smiled, nodding with unmistakable arrogance. “Of course. Xiao Huai, to be honest with you, I hold the number-one spot across all three leaderboards in Sector 888. I’m very powerful now. Come over to Sector 888 and fight by my side! Together, we can make it to the very end of the road!”
A cold curve formed on Lin Huai’s lips. “Is that so? But I’m also the top-ranked player in my zone. If I come to Sector 888, will you step down and give me your first-place title?”
Chen Feng chuckled. “Xiao Huai, we’re engaged. Even though we never had the chance to hold an official wedding, we’re practically husband and wife. When two people are united, what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine. Why worry about empty things like leaderboard ranks?”
As he spoke, he stepped closer again, grabbing Lin Huai’s wrist. He lowered his voice, sounding eager to share an important secret. “Xiao Huai, tell me: what kind of vehicle do you have?”
Lin Huai widened her eyes, putting on an innocent look. “Just a pickup truck. I only managed to upgrade it to Level 3 recently.”
Chen Feng’s brows furrowed tightly. “A pickup truck? Was there anything loaded onto the back of it?”
Lin Huai shook her head calmly. “No. Just an empty truck bed.”
“Impossible!” Chen Feng snapped, his head jerking up, his gaze suddenly piercing as he glared at her. “Are you lying to me? There’s no way you arrived with nothing!”
Lin Huai’s eyes turned pitch black. She sneered, and her scythe slashed out without warning. “It seems you know what I brought even better than I do!”
“Chen Feng, I used to wonder: if you remembered nothing in this life, should I just let you go? But you remember every single detail. You were reborn too, weren’t you? That’s perfect. Now I can kill you without the slightest burden on my conscience!”
With a flick of her wrist, the scythe blade detached and spun furiously toward him.
The instant Lin Huai moved, Chen Feng had already anticipated the danger. He threw himself backward, rolling across the ground to avoid the fatal strike.
The attack missed its mark, and the scythe snapped cleanly back into Lin Huai’s grasp.
Chen Feng pressed a hand against a shallow cut on his left forearm, his expression turning vicious. He pushed himself to his feet. “So my guess was right. The moment the game reset, I searched for your name in Sector 888. When you weren’t there, I started suspecting. You really came back too.”
Dropping all pretenses, his face became grim and detached. “Lin Huai, use your head and calm down. Even though I killed you in our past life, you must understand that you would have died sooner or later anyway. I only sped up the inevitable.”
“You never reached the final stretch! You have no idea how brutal this game becomes at the end. You don’t even know why the entire game restarted in the first place!”
“You died far too early! There are so many things about the late game you know nothing about. So even if you started over, and even if you know slightly more than an ordinary rookie, you still have zero advantage over me! I know infinitely more than you do!”
Chen Feng tried to keep talking, but Lin Huai refused to listen to another word. “Since dying early or late makes no difference to you, you can die right here today!”
She charged forward again, hurling offensive talismans with her free hand. In an instant, the arena erupted into a roaring sea of flames.
The battleground was modeled after a rugged, hilly terrain. Chen Feng dodged the fire, leaping atop a rocky knoll to keep his distance. “Lin Huai, even after being reborn, you’re still as reckless as ever! Nobody actually dies in an arena duel! You can’t kill me here! Stop wasting your breath! Why can’t we just calm down and have a proper talk?”
Noticing Lin Huai’s movements slow for a brief moment, Chen Feng assumed his words were working. He pressed on quickly: “Lin Huai, you hate me because I killed you for Su Wan back then, right?”
“What if I hunt Su Wan down right now and hand all her supplies over to you? Can we bury the past and start over?”
Lin Huai closed her eyes, almost laughing aloud from pure rage. How could a creature this utterly shameless exist in the world?
“Chen Feng, from the very beginning to the very end, the only person I have ever wanted to destroy is you!”
“Whether Su Wan lives or dies is completely irrelevant to me.”
“More importantly, since we’ve both lived through it, what makes you think I’d fall for your pathetic lies a second time? When you murdered me, was it really for Su Wan, or was it to steal my coffin? Did you really think I was that blind? You are rotten to your very core, yet you still use a woman as a shield. Following a coward like you was truly the greatest misfortune of her life!”
Seeing Lin Huai swing the giant scythe once again, Chen Feng was forced to draw his twin daggers to parry the blow.
Clang!
“Lin Huai, what will it take for you to listen to reason?!”
“You have no idea what waits at the end of the road! You can never survive it on your own!”
“Listen to me: hand the coffin over to me. This time, I only want the coffin—I won’t harm a hair on your head! Once I reach the end of the road, I can find a way to save you!”
Lin Huai wanted to drag more information out of him, so she kept up her relentless assault, pretending to be deaf to his pleas. “You speak as though you’ve already stood at the end of the highway. If I trust you again, I deserve to die.”
“Besides, if you steal my coffin, how am I supposed to survive out there? Save me? Once I’m dead and buried, how are you going to save me? With your crocodile tears?”
The scythe sliced close to Chen Feng’s throat once more, leaving a bloody line across his skin.
Chen Feng jerked his head back, touched the wound with trembling fingers, and quickly pulled out a healing potion and bandages to apply to his neck. The cut knit together and vanished in seconds.
His face darkened with rage, his teeth grinding in pure frustration. “Lin Huai, can you stop being so stubborn?! The end of the highway can resolve any regret! It can grant any wish! The legend is real! As long as you give me the coffin, I can reach the final checkpoint, and I can bring you back!”
“What’s more, I understand that coffin far better than you ever did! Before you died, that coffin was stuck at Level 3. But less than four months after you were gone, I managed to upgrade it all the way to Level 8!”
“You have no idea what that coffin is truly capable of! Leaving it in your hands is a complete waste! Only I know how to unlock its full potential!”
He softened his tone, trying to sound gentle. “Xiao Huai, be good. Just give me the coffin, alright?”
“In exchange, I’ll give you a zone-transfer card so you can come straight to Sector 888. From that moment on, I swear I’ll protect you with my life.”
