Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“We just need to divide the situation into two categories.” He adjusted his thoughts and quickly said, “First, the veterans didn’t intend to use us as bait or experiment on us; we’ve all been wrong.”

"—This possibility is low, but not impossible. If it is, while shutting down the instrument was rash, we can simply restart it immediately, apologize, and admit our mistake to gain the understanding of the senior members. There might be some punishment, but it certainly won't be too severe. And most importantly, through this action, we can confirm that the senior members have goodwill towards us. Then everything will naturally go smoothly from here on out."

He paused, and then nodded in satisfaction when he saw that no one directly objected.

"Then the second possibility is that the veterans are really planning to pave the way for them with our lives. In that case, there's nothing more to say; as long as this machine is shut down, that 'angel' will make his move immediately."

"We don't need to be afraid because we're in a safe house now. Even those self-proclaimed angels of death can't affect us in a few seconds—you know, I've watched the entire Final Destination series. And even an ordinary supporting character in it can survive for a whole year by hiding in an ordinary sanatorium!"

"So we are safe, but it's different for the veterans underground. The complex ley lines are full of dangers and minefields for them. Naturally, they are very wary of death—if we make even the slightest move, they will inevitably be attacked. And at that time, we will have bargaining chips."

Yang Le said confidently, and this time, no one objected to him.

—Wang Xia may have had the intention to refute. But when the fair-skinned young man said seemingly casually, "I overheard something outside before. In our communication with the veterans and this base, we newcomers were labeled as 'special materials for experiments'"—this was something the veterans themselves admitted, and the documents and regulations were all very complete.

Thus, Wang Xia's desire to stop Yang Le quietly disappeared.

A minute later, Yang Le stood before the instrument under everyone's watchful eyes. Then, he pulled down the switch that indicated 'stop working'.

Now everything is going according to my plan.

Yang Le thought to himself, when he suddenly felt someone gently pat his shoulder.

The next moment, he saw Li Laoshi, who had remained silent from the beginning. And, Li Laoshi's right fist, which was growing larger and larger towards his face!

With a loud 'thud,' Yang Le's head was smashed to pieces like a watermelon that had fallen from the tenth floor. He had been punched to pieces with the skill of a beginner.

Section 75 Floros

Have you ever eaten a coconut? You know, that spherical fruit with a sturdy shell, white flesh, and a slightly fishy-smelling juice? In terms of weight and size alone, a human head isn't much different from a coconut. And if you consider the strength of the shell and its stress limits, they are almost identical.

Smashing a coconut isn't difficult. Most people with some boxing talent, provided they have a sufficient energy supply, can smash a coconut with a single punch after two or three years of dedicated training. Similarly, with the same amount of resources and time, smashing a head with a single punch isn't that hard either.

However, there are many kinds of smashing. Breaking the outer shell and squirting out juice is one kind of smashing. Piercing the outer shell and letting the white, viscous contents squeeze out from the gaps under pressure changes is another kind of smashing. And smashing the entire shell into powder, causing all the soft and hard tissues to scatter unevenly at a speed of more than 30 meters per second within an area with a radius of 15 meters, is a third kind of smashing.

Yang Le's head was smashed in the third way.

His astonished expression remained frozen on his face, but half a second later, the skin completely detached from the facial bones and flew directly into Huang Lilin's arms with a 'snap'.

Huang Lilin then screamed in terror.

However, the next moment, Li Laoshi's figure appeared in front of Huang Lilin like a ghost, his five fingers together like a knife, and he slashed forward with all his might!

"What are you doing!" Wang Xia roared, lunging at Li Laoshi like an enraged lion. Even while still in mid-air, his flying kick, accompanied by a blur of air, struck Li Laoshi's lower back! Undoubtedly, in his rage, he had used his full strength; if it landed, it would have broken at least three of Li Laoshi's ribs!

There's a saying: "Better to take three punches than one kick." This refers to the fact that the explosive power of the legs is more than three times that of the arms. If a person's punch can generate 200 pounds of force, then their side kick will certainly be over 600 pounds. And a 600-pound punch is already at the level of a top-tier boxing champion on Earth. It's quite possible to knock down or even kill an ordinary person with one punch, let alone Wang Xia, who was originally a reconnaissance soldier. The power of his fists is already comparable to that of a typical professional boxer, and his kick could be a matter of life and death even on a border battlefield!

If she doesn't dodge, she'll at least be seriously injured, but if she does dodge, Huang Lilin's life will be saved, and the rhythm of the battle will fall into Wang Xia's hands.

Attack where the enemy must defend—this is the essence of military strategy. Wang Xia was a soldier himself, so naturally he would apply military tactics in combat. The shout served both to boost morale and to gain the upper hand, acting as bait to let Li Laoshi know that he still had options. And given Wang Xia's years of military experience, under normal circumstances, most people would find it difficult to escape such a trap.

Li Laoshi is an ordinary person, a conclusion Wang Xia reached after observing the newcomers and veterans daily for the previous five days.

Unfortunately, his intelligence was outdated!

With a sharp crack, Huang Lilin's terrified face, along with her severed neck, froze in mid-air. A strike to the Adam's apple is a deadly blow, and in Li Laoshi's hands, it could sever a woman's neck along with her throat! Even the most powerful executioner's blade couldn't achieve such effortless ease. As the second person died, a large gush of crimson blood spurted from Huang Lilin's neck. The blood then coalesced into a deep red mist in the air, staining the ground within a radius of several meters.

He didn't dodge, so Wang Xia's side kick struck his side abdomen. In that instant, the two lowest ribs of Li Laoshi's chest broke simultaneously. The broken bone fragments shot into his abdominal cavity and, within a single breath, pierced through most of his internal organs and bones!

This was a fatal wound, a fatal blow that triggered a massive hemorrhage. Even a well-trained soldier would only have a few minutes to live after such a kick. Almost visibly, his complexion instantly changed from the rosy glow of intense exercise to the yellowish-white of uncontrolled blood loss. Strands of blood mixed with tissue fragments gushed from his mouth and nostrils, yet his not-so-robust frame remained upright, completely unmoved!

He raised his hand, his upright arm remaining perfectly steady despite the fatal wound inside his body. And within milliseconds, that raised arm withstood Wang Xia's subsequent attacks. After blocking Wang Xia's punch, his footwork solidified, power flowing from his waist and hips, through his shoulders, a single, concentrated force from his toes to his neck, followed by a powerful, heavy Iron Mountain Lean!

Its momentum is like the sea, its weight like a mountain!

Even though Wang Xia didn't see the slightest trace of martial arts in Li Laoshi, when that Iron Mountain Lean came crashing down on him, he instantly felt as if a black mountain was crashing into him, and he had no way to escape.

To dodge—dodge was impossible. Wang Xia had attacked in anger, kicking and punching in quick succession, bringing him within half a meter of Li Laoshi. And for most martial arts masters, that half-meter distance was practically nothing.

Li Laoshi was not a master of boxing, but Wang Xia knew that this unassuming middle-aged white-collar worker could beat most of the famous boxers on Earth to death right now!

He can kill other people, so he can certainly kill Wang Xia. Even now, let alone in the distant future, he's completely helpless against this Iron Mountain Strike.

There was no way out, nowhere to escape.

Since death is inevitable either way, all I can do is take him to hell with me!

In the blink of an eye, Wang Xia's thoughts raced, taking less than thirty milliseconds in the real world. And according to his estimation, Li Laoshi's Iron Mountain Lean would strike him solidly in one hundred and fifty milliseconds—that is, 0.15 seconds.

There wasn't enough time to dodge, but moving just an arm was more than enough! His blood and qi erupted all at once, and at that moment he even felt that his fist technique had reached a completely new level!

However, realm is realm, and power is power. When the mountain collapses, even if one has mastered the art of fist techniques to the highest level, one can only await impending death. Wang Xia didn't even have time to marvel at his breakthrough in fist techniques. The only thing he could do was to raise his active fingers into swords and pierce the mountaintop as it crashed into him!

You smash my body, I'll stab your head in the head, that's fair.

And in that instant when 0.15 seconds had passed, Wang Xia obtained the result he wanted.

With a loud "crack," the right half of Li Laoshi's face, along with his right eyeball, was completely pierced. His broken teeth and the jawbone ripped off by the force of the impact flew high into the air, flung aside like a piece of unwanted trash. His head snapped back violently, but his body didn't stop moving. Almost simultaneously, Wang Xia's body was propelled like a broken rag doll, crashing through a pile of things before slamming into the smooth wall of the safe house. All his ribs shattered in that instant; his internal organs were undoubtedly reduced to a bloody mess. He opened his mouth wide, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of reddish-black internal organs.

Ah... I'm going to die.

Wang Xia thought to himself, then looked up at Li Laoshi, who was still standing firmly despite half of his face being stabbed. A rare feeling of resentment welled up in his heart.

[What a pity, all the tasks assigned to me by the organization have been...]

The next moment, his hand, which he struggled to raise, fell to the ground. He breathed his last swiftly and decisively.

he died.

However, death is not the end.

Just as his consciousness faded into darkness, he sensed a voice rising from the depths of his heart. A deep, resonant voice, like that of a bespectacled northern man. It was a spell, a talisman, a key, a path that could cross the threshold of life and death, leading him back from darkness to light.

'Pardon—Souls return, flesh and blood are reborn!'

He felt his heartbeat again, felt his injuries healing rapidly, his flesh regenerating, his bones healing, and his organs being repaired to a usable state. Then, he saw the light again... and Li Laoshi's face, which had appeared before him at some point, indifferent and waiting to deliver the second punch.

"Ah... please don't do this." Wang Xia's face showed an expression that was hard to tell whether he was going to cry or laugh.

However, in the next second, accompanied by a gunshot, Li Laoshi's head exploded into pieces.

Author's Note:

..............................

Do you know what was special about Floros? He was blind.

I suspect I'm close to it too; it only came to my senses when I woke up this morning. I don't think I've been paying attention to the thousands digit when I've been looking at my favorites these past few days…

Holy crap, it turns out it didn't drop by 100 but increased by 900!

_(:з　∠)_

Let's take this opportunity to revise the update method... Turn the page.

Chapter 76 The End of the Newlyweds

The shooter was Zhu Wen, who had asked the senior officer for a weapon back in the church. Because she had not received any training and had never handled any firearms before, the senior officer gave her a shotgun with a shortened barrel, making it look like a pistol.

The bullet was loaded, and the safety could be released once the user calmed down. Because of the sawed-shortened barrel and the use of shotgun shells, this weapon was only lethal within five meters. Accuracy wasn't a major concern; after all, someone who could miss with shotgun shells at five meters... was quite a talent.

The veteran who handed her the weapon probably didn't think much of it, since no veteran in the Central State team could be killed by a shotgun that could only fire one shot. But for a rookie, this gun was deadly.

Zhu Wen needed the gun primarily to deal with newcomers like herself—especially after witnessing Li Laoshi's 'accidental' death and subsequent resurrection as a soulless individual, which further solidified her belief.

She has keen eyesight, capable of seeing many things. However, seeing doesn't equate to being able to reach; her ability to perceive secrets requires strong execution to be effective. Before her physical abilities can be enhanced, and before Saito Hajime's 'Xuanyuan Qi Observation Method'... or 'Emperor's Qi Observation Technique' has reached the entry-level requirement of using 'true qi' to interfere with reality, she can only rely on firearms.

There's only one chance, only one bullet. When Li Laoshi suddenly sprang into action and smashed Yang Le's head with a single punch, she naturally came to this realization.

She pulled out her gun from under her coat and carefully disengaged the safety. As Wang Xia launched a kick and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Li Laoshi using military fighting techniques, her mind raced.

[Li Laoshi is the puppet of the witch Norrell, a spy planted by her.]

She didn't let Li Laoshi activate it until all the senior members had left and Yang Le had shut down the equipment.

We were placed in this safe house on the orders of a senior member.

Before the equipment was shut down, everyone except me exhibited some mental abnormalities.

She blinked, just as the gun barrel was being pulled from her pocket.

[I understand... Norrell wants to kill all the newcomers. But why? Why would she do that? Aren't the veterans already splitting up? Doing this now will only fuel internal strife!]

Wait! Why are the veterans splitting up? If my observation is correct, there are no obvious emotional entanglements or conflicts of interest among them. Most of them aren't bad people, and they've fought side by side for a long time. There's absolutely no reason for them to be suspicious of each other... Could it be...?

Zhu Wen's thoughts suddenly cleared, and in an instant, a lot of information she had seen but hadn't noticed before surfaced in her mind. She thought of the mutual distrust and individualistic behavior among the veterans, yet they also trusted each other to some extent... In her eyes, the various actions of the veterans in the past were arranged into a complete line. And at the end of the line was the scene where the veterans acted together this time, abandoning the newcomers and the main characters of the story and heading straight to the underground.

A rough guess that she had had for a long time was quickly pieced together in her mind.

[I understand... The reason they're so suspicious of each other, almost to the point of splitting apart, isn't because of any irreconcilable conflict between them. It's because... no, it's because someone in the entire Reincarnation Team, including us, has a problem. There's a mole hiding inside... and most of them are aware of it.]

[There might be other reasons, but none are as important as this. After all, they became partners before this horror movie world even began, teammates who survived several worlds together. What's there to hide in a bond forged through life and death? Besides, there are some intelligent people among them; if irreconcilable conflicts arose, they would definitely handle them directly, instead of dragging it out until now and tearing each other apart!]

Therefore, their mutual wariness stemmed from their individual efforts to uncover the mole. The fact that they resumed their collective action eight hours prior, heading underground together, undoubtedly indicated that they had confirmed the mole was not among the senior members.

If not among the experienced, then among the newcomers.

[That Norege wants to kill all the new recruits and force the traitor to surface!]

Her eyes narrowed as she watched Wang Xia being slammed against the wall by a powerful shoulder strike. As Li Laoshi recovered from his backward fall and charged towards the still-alive Wang Xia like an enraged bull, she too began to run towards him.

As he ran, he raised his gun and aimed it at Li Laoshi's head!

[No, if she simply wanted to kill all the new recruits, she could have easily used a bomb or some strange magic to blow us all up. The fact that she didn't choose to do that and instead had a soulless proxy do it suggests that she didn't actually want to kill all the new recruits!]

No, we can't be sure. Perhaps she had other reasons for doing this. Perhaps she wasn't entirely confident, which is why she arranged for Li Laoshi to act instead of creating an accident herself. It's also possible that her God Space rules prohibit senior members from attacking newcomers... But whatever the possibility, it means we're not entirely without hope. And the first step we need to take now is—

Survive!

She pointed the gun at Li Laoshi's face, which had lost its right eye. Then, she pulled the trigger!

'boom--!!!'

The one hundred grains of diamond shot loaded into the shotgun tore through the air and immediately displayed the unique physical properties of metallic particles on Li Laoshi's head. Time seemed to slow down in her eyes as she watched a silvery mist tear layer by layer at the skin, muscles, blood vessels, and bones of Li Laoshi's face, and in less than half a second, sprayed blood plasma, proteins, carbon-phosphorus polymers, and brain tissue into the air, turning into a radial, spreading red and white mixed trail.

Li Laoshi's head was completely knocked off, and his body fell down with it.

Zhu Wen immediately turned her gaze away and pointed her gun at Wang Xia, whose body had been restored by some unknown force—she sensed a familiar scent.

“Saito Hajime?” she asked, frowning.

Wang Xia was taken aback at first, then gave a wry smile. He replied, "It was him, he saved me." He propped himself up and stood up, ignoring the shotgun still pointed at him by Zhu Wen.

"Ten years of martial arts training is no match for a single magic technique. What truly saved my life was a gun... I guess I understand the thinking of those martial arts masters from ancient times and the early days of the People's Republic. Fortunately, I am ultimately a soldier, not just a boxer—and besides, your gun can only hold one bullet, so don't hold it up."