V3C23

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This was undoubtedly a sad story.

Zhang Jia’s girlfriend Zou Lili caught the eyes of Du Cheng, who was used to causing outrage. The malice and darkness of human nature had been infinitely enlarged in this game of nightmares, and people who saw little of law and order only became worse. As Zhang Jia left to stock up for the next round, Du Cheng made Bai Lushuang lead Zou Lili to the highest level of a hotel he had bought off and tried to assault her. Unexpectedly, Zou Lili reacted extremely fast and with one kick to between his legs, almost cut off his bloodline. Aiding the villain, Bai Lushuang pulled out a fruit knife amidst the wailing and cursing of Du Cheng and stabbed Zou Lili in the stomach. Wounded, Zou Lili escaped in a hurry, crying for help as she ran.

Coincidentally, Su Tian came to find Du Cheng that day. As she walked out of the elevator, she saw Zou Lili begging her to call the police, blood dripping down her while Du Cheng and Bai Lushuang followed close by.

Su Tian froze from terror and watched in a daze as Du Cheng stepped on Zou Lili’s wound, making her cry out in pain. Bai Lushuang covered her mouth and with one slash down her neck, blood flew out from her arteries, a few drops landing on Su Tian’s face, slowly dripping down. It tasted like metal and rust.

Realizing she had just committed homicide, Bai Lushuang leaned into Du Cheng’s arms and cried, saying that she didn’t do it on purpose, that she just didn’t want Du Cheng to be taken away. Du Cheng held her and comforted her as he cursed Zou Lili for not knowing any better.

Su Tian’s legs trembled. She wanted to run, but what happened after? Where could she hide? Du Cheng wouldn’t just let her go, he would definitely kill her!

For some reason, scattered images surfaced in her mind: Du Cheng confessing his love to her with a bouquet of flowers, promising that he would return from his strayed path and stay true to her; when she first saw Bai Lushuang, her meaningful and mocking gaze, sauntering in front of her in Du Cheng’s arms just a few days later; Zhang Jia and Zou Lili hold hands countless times, looking and smiling at each other with the silent understanding of lovers…

She had always been so soft, always been so stoic, believing that as long as she pretended to not care, she really could stop caring. But had she really never been jealous, never regretted, never hated, and never loved? No. She loved this man, like a girl with her first awakening dreaming of her prince charming, and then finding him.

She was so naive and stupid, like a tragedy, yet also like a joke. She had really thought that she would be like the female leads of a grandiose love stories, fantasizing for the man who had already sailed past countless lovers to stop for her. He hadn’t.

He wasn’t a prince. He was just a vile villain.

Still holding Bai Lushuang, Du Cheng raised his head and casted a vicious glare at the numb and vacant Su Tian.

That moment, she suddenly understood. Beyond her love which had never began, she had to make a choice.

Conscience, or life.

&&&

“The body needed to be destroyed, so we fitted it into a suitcase to throw into the ocean, but that night, the next round started and Zhang Jia came back looking for Zou Lili. So we hid it temporarily in a freezer and… then I died, so I don’t know what happened next,” Su Tian finished with difficulty.

“It’s not hard to guess what happened next,” Song Hanzhang said calmly. “After the end of the next round, Du Cheng went on to take care of the body– technically the world we return to at the end of each round should be a new one, and the body shouldn’t exist, but maybe due to the special properties of players’ bodies, she didn’t disappear. The closest coastal area would be outside of this city, so Du Cheng would have also discovered that he couldn’t leave the city, and was even teleported back to where he was. Zou Lili’s body would have followed him as an ‘item’, either in the car or next to him, but not where she was before, otherwise Zhang Jia would definitely have found out that she was already dead…”

“What if he already knew?” Zhang Sijia suddenly said as if smiling. “That brother of mine isn’t much worse than me for brains. Did he really not consider the reason behind Zou Lili’s sudden disappearance? Or Su Tian, did you think that your death was just an accident? I’m afraid he’d rather make a mistake than let anyone go by now.”

Su Tian shivered in terror. “No, no way… back then…”

Zhang Sijia smiled mockingly. “Of course, he would play it dirty if he wanted to kill you under their noses. Didn’t you say he had a teleportation skill? All he needed to do was give you a little push then flash to a concealed location and pretend to come save you with the others. Would anyone really notice?”

Su Tian opened her mouth but not a word was able to come out.

She finally understood why there were eight people in her team before she died, but there were only four left.

She felt so sad; from Du Cheng to Bai Lushuang to Zhang Jia, she didn’t understand a single one of them.

“So you didn’t want to reveal this information to Zhang Jia, but rather to Du Cheng? Once he discovered that Zhang Jia found out why Zou Lili had died, there would be no going back. Even if Zhang Jia didn’t seem to want revenge, he would take the initiative against Zhang Jia,” Song Hanzhang said.

Zhang Sijia smiled faintly. “If it was only my team I would have, but we’re a duo right now, which is more than enough power to just obliterate them with. There’s no need to be that roundabout then, we can just get to it.”

“Alright.”

“Since we’ve decided to work together, we should at least exchange our skills and items too. It’ll make planning easier,” Zhang Sijia said.

Song Hanzhang looked back at Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing; Gu Fengyi considered and nodded.

The two sides efficiently exchanged skills and items – of course, the witch box was hidden.

The two rewards Zuo Linyuan saved were a compound bow and dynamic vision, with a cutlass he took out from the wishing fountain as a melee weapon; Zhang Sijia had a healing skill and a hypnotizing skill; the sister’s rewards were two knives of different lengths, one of them with a speed booster, the other with a medical bag; as for Su Tian, because she had lost all her skills and items after resurrecting, she only had the electric skill she got this round which could numb and hurt the enemy.

“Our biggest problem now is to find where to find 2002 team. It won’t be hard to deal with them – we’ll follow them to a place suitable for battle; Zuo Linyuan and Gu Fengyi are both skilled with bows, even if they aren’t able to finish it with one shot, Su Tian and Liu Qingqing’s skills will be enough to panic them. I won’t have to say anything about the rest, right?” Zhang Sijia said.

“Finding them won’t be an issue. Once we get within a certain distance from them, I’ll be able to locate them before they find us,” Gu Fengyi said lightly.

“Where does Du Cheng live?” Song Hanzhang suddenly asked Su Tian.

Su Tian paused. “The guest house in the south dormitory area. He booked the entire top floor of it.”

“After leaving that wooden door in the ballroom, we all returned to where we were at the start of this round. Du Cheng isn’t the attendious type, so we can exclude the education blocks in our search area. Since he lives in the south dormitory area, we can start from there,” Song Hanzhang said.

“I only have one request – leave Zhang Jia to me.” Zhang Sijia’s voice was cold, sheer murderous intent filling his almost feminine vocals.

Lin Jue looked at him in shock. Why did Zhang Sijia hold such malice against this brother he had never met, to the point that he wished to kill him? Even though they were blood-siblings!

Zuo Linyuan patted his shoulder. Zhang Sijia didn’t react and only looked icily ahead. “There can only be one survivor between him and I.”

When his mother was pregnant with him, this couple who were overwhelmed by the loss of their son were overjoyed yet also filled with grief. They suspected that their missing eldest son was already dead, and had returned to this family this way, so they named him something that filled that child with deep hatred – Zhang Sijia.

Back then, the young infant Zhang Sijia didn’t know what waited for him was almost twenty years of gentle torture and madness wrapped under the guise of family.

The first word he learnt wasn’t mom, nor dad, but a name the couple taught him by pointing at photographs.

‘Brother’.

|TOC|

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