Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 292 Winning and Losing (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)
Looking at that smiling face, in the blink of an eye, it was covered with countless beads of blood.

He then slowly lowered his sluggish gaze to the joint of the blade's belly, focusing on the blade itself.

That knife was a gift from him.

Now, however, it has become the weapon that takes his life.

That smiling face was terrifying, with countless beads of blood constantly rolling down his face.

"You...you really...misjudged...you." The gang leader who had been stabbed said, trembling, enduring the pain.

He initially found it hard to believe what had happened, but now that he had confirmed his situation, he felt somewhat relieved.

He didn't feel much when he was stabbed by the short knife, but now, the pain was overwhelming.

The pain, however, did not make his already excruciating and dizzy mind even more unbearable.

The pain, instead of compounding his previous discomfort, instantly brought him to his senses.

However, he was truly unwilling to accept it.

After several years of operation, the team has finally stabilized in recent years, and the number of casualties is no longer so difficult to estimate.

His team is clearly improving.

He had once considered his fate: he might be able to escape by chance and rise to become a powerful figure; or things might not go so well, and he might die in an official crackdown; or he might die in a major operation, by the sword of a powerful figure.

But I will not die today, I will not die at the hands of these three ordinary people, absolutely not.

His ambition wouldn't allow him to stop there.

He tossed and turned all night yesterday.

Whenever he was about to pull off a big heist, he would think about it a lot the night before.

Earlier today, he only felt a little listless, but he never expected to fail today.

He still has a lot to do, and there are still many things he hasn't finished.

For example, killing the man standing opposite.

However, the man standing before him now was the very person who had ended his life.

This was utterly ridiculous to him.

He had been scheming for a long time. Before, he had been thinking about how to get rid of him, the person who had once threatened his position and whose influence had begun to overshadow his own.

But he hesitated to take action.

He spread many rumors, which caused the team's reputation to decline considerably, especially for the man standing before him who was the team's backbone.

But he hesitated for a long time about the final blow that could bring him down.

He didn't consider himself a good person, but he was certainly not someone who could ignore everything.

His core leader had been with him for many years, and he couldn't immediately make up his mind to get rid of him.

Actually, he just hadn't found a way to remove the core leader from that position, to make the brothers in the team stop valuing him, but without taking his life.

He lacked the wisdom and strategic thinking of someone with a strong will; he couldn't devise a solution that satisfied both sides. All he could think of was survival or death. However, when things reached a certain point, they were no longer within his control.

Often, he reacts only when circumstances force him to, and some of his actions are incomprehensible even to himself.

Many things forced him to make this decision, and he truly made up his mind.

However, he never expected that his knife would be slower than the knife of the backbone.

However, he still greatly underestimated his backbone, his former brother with whom he had spent every day.

"Ruthless enough." He uttered the two words slowly, his voice trembling, almost a whisper, even weaker than the first one he had uttered.

The smile on that face remained unchanged.

"I know what you're thinking." His eyes were smiling, and his lips moved slightly.

Those who heard this panicked.

Then he laughed.

He was naturally aware of what the person in front of him had said.

Even though he has a knife in his stomach, he can still think clearly, even more clearly than usual.

"Of course you...know." The sentence was somewhat ambiguous, it was unclear whether it was being said to the person in front of him whose face was covered with beads of blood, or to himself.

After saying this, he had exhausted most of his strength, and he could barely maintain his facial expression.

It took him a lot of effort to put on that smile.

The corners of her mouth, which she had deliberately raised, were already trembling uncontrollably.

It seems that the flesh on his face is no longer something he can control.

And so, the two of them faced each other, their smiling faces locked, neither of them baring their teeth, but in their eyes, it was clear that neither of them wanted to let the other off the hook.

At this time of day, in this somewhat desolate forest, it feels rather eerie.

This scene would send chills down anyone's spine.

The leader, who prided himself on his intelligence, was well aware that in the eyes of those three, his actions were tantamount to betraying his teammates and his leader.

His boss, in a certain sense, was also his master.

How can someone who betrays their master or their teammates be trusted?

"You won...you won?" With that, his smile deepened, and his face became even more radiant.

"You lost, but you didn't really lose. As for me, I didn't win either." The leader's smile faded, his tone was indifferent, but his face showed a complex emotion he had never seen before.

Seeing that his leader had suppressed his smile, the emotions that had been buried deep in his heart for a long time suddenly surged up like waves crashing against the shore.

This was the resentment he had been holding onto for a long time, but now it was not up to him to decide.

His face turned gloomy and fierce, his anger seemed to overflow from his eyes, and his smile disappeared.

“You…of course…didn’t…win.” He gave a bitter laugh, stared fiercely at his leader, and said, “Your…retribution…is…coming…soon.”

"Retribution?" the pillar of the group muttered to himself, then laughed again, this time aloud.

As for the slightly eerie laughter coming from the core of the group, the leader himself didn't sense anything amiss.

Perhaps, even if he wasn't as intelligent as the person in front of him, the former backbone of the team, he still knew what kind of person the man standing in front of him was through their daily interactions.

Therefore, he couldn't be sure of the main character's condition at this moment. He knew that although he couldn't hold on for much longer, the person in front of him was also about to go crazy. He shakily raised his arm, reached out, and carefully wiped the main character's face with his sleeve. In an instant, most of the blood beads on the main character's face were wiped away, and the person looked much more refreshed.

The leader didn't object to this action at all and let him wipe it.

Soon, he wiped away all the blood beads on the leader's face.

The leader still had some faint red marks on his face, while his sleeves were stained bright red.

Looking at his much cleaner face, he nodded in satisfaction and said nothing more.

The pillar of support shook his head and said to him, "You're wrong. My retribution has already come."

Upon hearing this, he was taken aback.

What does this mean? What does it mean that retribution has already come?
His brows furrowed again, and he became curious about what the man would say next.

"My retribution began the day you brought me back." Although the leader's words hadn't improved much, he was in a state of near madness.

He continued, "From that day on, there was no turning back. I never thought about how to live a good life. But I've been scheming my whole life, and I can't die at your hands. I can't let you succeed."

Looking at the pillar of support and listening to his accusations, his brow relaxed, and he nodded to the pillar of support, seemingly agreeing with something.

Whether they are satisfied with the near-madness of their leader or agree with his words and the sentiments he expressed, remains unknown.

"Utterly ruined?" He repeated the words of his mentor, seemingly doubtful yet genuinely finding it laughable.

He laughed a few times, and then his expression became frighteningly serious.

His eyes were fixed on his leader: "The day I brought you back, I never thought of killing you, much less using you for anything."

“That day…you were truly pitiful. I couldn’t bear to see such a frail child standing there, unable to get out of the ground, letting the rain lash against him.”

“What mistakes could a child make? How could he be homeless? I can’t stand it.” His tone became more and more agitated, as if some images were appearing before his eyes. His speech was no longer so difficult and became much more fluent.

"Cough cough!"

He coughed heavily twice and spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground.

He continued speaking, but didn't pursue that topic further, instead saying, "I admit, I'm not a good person. In fact... I'm selfish. But, to tell you the truth... before today, I still... hadn't made up my mind to kill you."

Upon hearing this, the leader's heart skipped a beat, and his pupils involuntarily dilated. He found it hard to believe whether what the person in front of him was saying was true or false.

Even with his intelligence, it would be difficult for him to discern the truth.

"What did you say?" He didn't bother to consider whether what his former boss was saying was true or false. He knew the man in front of him didn't have much time left, so he asked him directly, his tone full of disbelief.

"I'm not lying to you," he replied slowly.

Upon hearing this, the leader panicked somewhat. He couldn't believe his judgment was wrong, and he couldn't believe that his previous judgments had been so terribly wrong. That's why he decided to strike first.

He may not be a strongman, but he never shows weakness.

We've been miserable and weak, but we've never been afraid.

Few people knew the pride in his heart, but he knew himself that he would never admit defeat to anyone.

Therefore, once a decision is made, he is always the one who acts first.

"No, no. You've changed, you've changed. The rumors, the ostracism, they're all true!" He shook his head desperately, his eyes fixed on the person in front of him, each word a confirmation to himself.

The gang leader let out a long sigh of relief, his breathing already very unsteady.

He said to his key advisor, "Everyone has changed, not just me... I've changed, and you've changed too. We can't go back to the way things were."

"In the past, I would never... lay a hand on you. And you would... protect me in every way, never letting me lose face even a little bit."

Seeing the backbone shaking his head with all his might, his tone softened: "Do you remember that time when a new recruit in the team embarrassed me in front of everyone? Even though you're not very good at fighting, you still came up with a plan and beat him up that night."

After saying that, he smiled, and the physical pain from the wound in his lower abdomen was no longer so intense.

He himself didn't realize that he had become much more energetic when he spoke.

Having said these words, the core leader naturally understood what he, as the boss, meant.

He knew that the person in front of him was not going to live, so there was no need to lie to him anymore.

Deceiving yourself is pointless. Is he just trying to make himself regret it?

It was clearly a difficult thing for the leader to let his backbone spend the rest of his life in regret, because the backbone himself didn't know how much longer he had to live.

Whether we can survive to this day is an extremely difficult question.

Therefore, he is now almost certain that his boss is not lying.

He knew his boss well and was pretty sure that the boss hadn't come up with a good way to get rid of him, which was why he hadn't made up his mind to do it.

But none of this matters anymore.

"I changed my mind."

Hearing this seemingly random remark, the leader was somewhat surprised.

Then, he saw his boss glance in the direction of the young master, then turn to him and say, "You'd better live on."

"You bastard! What nonsense are you spouting!" The leader roared at his boss, furious.

He pulled his pillar of support to his side, pressed one of his ears to his lips, and weakly said, "It's not nonsense. You're still young, I know, you have a way to find a way out of this... Use your intelligence to survive."

Upon hearing this, his gaze became somewhat vacant, a rare expression on the leader's face.

But he tried hard not to let his mind wander, pulling himself back from that blank state.

As the leader was trying to figure out the meaning of his words, he suddenly felt his wrist twist.

He was a little slow to react, and only subconsciously looked at his hand that was gripping the hilt of the knife.

"ah--"

A long, loud roar instantly brought him to his senses.

"Anyway... we're not going to survive, so this... will be more satisfying." The eldest brother, who had been stabbed in the abdomen by the backbone, pulled the backbone to his side and moved the short knife swiftly.

Face to face, cheek to cheek, the two of them moved even closer.

The sounds he made were almost entirely breathy, unlike his earlier improved state where he could speak fluently and continuously.

His face is now completely out of his control.

(End of this chapter)