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Tang Erda’s breathing stopped for a moment. He remembered the god-level NPC with his eyes closed in the mirror when Bai Liu broke the mirror in the video of Exploding Last Train.
It wasn’t something that existed in the instance but was Bai Liu’s fear that was reflected?
Bai Liu pushed back the hair that had clotted behind Tang Erda’s ear due to blood and leaned on his shoulder so that Tang Erda couldn’t break free. Then he whispered, “Do you want to face my fears?”
Bai Liu’s hand slowly moved upwards as he spoke. A huge mirror with a diamond light appeared in front of him and ripples surged in the mirror layer by layer. It was as if something was going to emerge from it in the next second.
“Don’t—!” Tang Erda wanted to turn his head in confusion. He didn’t want to look into the mirror again but he was too close to Bai Liu. His head happened to be close to Bai Liu’s shoulder when he turned his head and it was a posture that made him a bit dependent. Tang Erda wasn’t used to relying on anyone so he instinctively wanted to remove his head from Bai Liu’s shoulder.
“It doesn’t matter.” Bai Liu’s voice was gentler than ever. His fingers went down the blood-stained hair at the back of Tang Erda’s head, kneading and patting soothingly, as if appeasing a manic and restless pet dog. “This time, the mirror is used by me. Your Su Yang will be fine.”
The weak Tang Erda stopped struggling in a trance under Bai Liu’s soothing. Bai Liu gently moved Tang Erda’s face to make him face the mirror. Tang Erda’s pupils shrank when he saw the situation in the mirror.
He saw a person—a child who was drowned countless times in the water, sealed in a marble statue and viewed. A child whose blood was drawn and who was covered with pinpricks. He was crushed and brutally dismembered, his beating heart dug out and placed in a factory room where people constantly poured hot liquid onto it.
Perfume was pumped into his heart like blood, forcing it to convulse and beat in pain. Then the heart he saw in the factory room was…
Such a cruel scene exceeded Tang Erda’s tolerance. He couldn’t help trembling and feeling nauseous. He turned his head sideways to escape this scene.
He thought he had experienced the limits of torturing a person but he never knew that torture couldn’t be stopped even after death.
Bai Liu didn’t allow Tang Erda to turn his head. He forcefully held Tang Erda’s head to make him face the scene in the mirror.
“You see, we are the same,” Bai Liu whispered from next to Tang Erda, whose expression was blank. “We all feel fear, anger and uncontrollable empathy because of someone’s torture.”
“I can feel the pain of other people.” Bai Liu lowered his eyes. He got down on both knees and leaned forward slightly. The moment Tang Erda tried to lean back to dodge, Bai Liu unexpectedly hugged Tang Erda. “I know you are in a lot of pain. It is just as much pain as me, Captain Tang.”
“Believe me, I won’t cause you any more pain. Let the pain I caused previously stop here.”
“I might not be Bai Liu (6) but I know you might want to hear me say these words to you—I’m sorry. It’s been hard for you all this time.” Bai Liu patted him on the shoulder.
Tang Erda, who was hugged, raised his head in disbelief. Tears couldn’t stop falling from his gray-blue eyes.
Bai Liu (6)… no, Bai Liu was apologizing to him?
The Tawil in the mirror raised his eyes. His silver-blue eyes were like ice crystals melting in the sunlight. Tang Erda was dazzled by these eyes. Then a burst of white light appeared in front of him that almost made him faint.
The white light spread far and wide, floating like an aurora in front of Tang Erda’s eyes. He seemed to become lighter in an instant, floating endlessly in the light. He saw Su Yang’s smiling face in the light. The man stood in front of him, patiently and persistently asking him a question.
“Captain, why are you so obsessed with convicting Bai Liu (6)? There is obviously no evidence, right?”
He seemed to say something that infuriated Su Yang. Su Yang had never been so angry before as he yelled at Tang Erda, “Captain, if we do things purely by emotion and desire, what is the difference between us and those heretics?”
“At any time, be sure to use your eyes and evidence to determine whether this person is a monster or human.”
Then after this shout, Tang Erda lowered his head in a slightly confused manner.
He seemed to want to leave but was stopped by Su Yang. The two people stood frozen in the narrow corridor of the Heretics Bureau. It wasn’t known how long the stalemate lasted before Su Yang took a deep breath and raised his head.
“Captain, if you really can’t hold on one day and end up polluted like everyone else.”
“I’ll definitely save you.”
Su Yang smiled like he hadn’t lost his temper with Tang Erda. He took a step forward, opening his lips and saying something softly, “——”
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes and whispered to Tang Erda, “——”
The voices of the two men merged indistinguishably in Tang Erda’s ears, “Captain Tang/Captain, if you really can’t hold on, just leave the rest to me.”
Bai Liu hugged Tang Erda and said softly, “Give me your wish, give me your soul and give me your pain. Let me, who was originally the culprit, bear all of this for you. This is what I should do.”
The dying, weakly breathing Tang Erda, who didn’t even have half a face, leaned on Bai Liu’s shoulders. His eyes looked like his soul had been lost and his hands didn’t fall. He didn’t react at all.
After an unknown amount of time, a tear dripped down Tang Erda’s jaw. His fingers moved and his arms raised extremely slowly. He struggled in a laborious manner to hug Bai Liu back painfully, as if he was going to die in the next moment. He gritted his teeth and choked up.
“Bai Liu, this is the last time. It is the last time I will trust a deal with you.”
Bai Liu’s face showed a comfortable smile. “You won’t regret it.”
Tang Erda closed his eyes. “I will give you my soul in exchange for fulfilling my wish.”
Bai Liu smiled. “I’ve already given you the money so I won’t pay any more.”
Tang Erda cocked his head. Then he realized that Bai Liu was talking about the room full of coins that he left behind in order to escape from the Dangerous Heretics Bureau.
The speechless Tang Erda finally relaxed. He looked into the distance. It wasn’t known what he was thinking but a slight smile appeared on his face.
“You really are… like before.”
“I hope you don’t mind my little habit too much. After all, it seems like—” Bai Liu held up the soul banknote with Tang Erda’s image and raised an eyebrow with a smile, “—We should be working together for a long time.”
[System notification: Player Bai Liu has used RMB *@&@ (the number is complicated, being calculated) to buy the soul of player Tang Erda.]
***
The temple.
The hunter card on the table floated in the air the moment Tang Erda agreed to the deal. It changed from a weeping hunter to a fierce-eyed hunter wearing a werewolf hood. It floated from the prophet’s side to the side of the hooded man.
The man in the hood clamped the floating card with two fingers and looked at the prophet opposite him with a smile. “The last god that you can release, the hunter, has also switched to a werewolf card. What are you going to do now?”
The prophet’s gaze stopped on the werewolf card. “The game isn’t over yet.”
The hooded man looked at the rose card he had lowered with a smile. “It will be soon.”
“All the clues have been gathered and Bai Liu (6) won’t let the game last long.”
***
Bai Liu walked out of the corridor and Liu Jiayi looked down at the time. “It is 16 minutes. You dealt with that idiot?”
“Okay.” Bai Liu tidied up his clothes and cuffs, which were stained with the blood left by Tang Erda. Fortunately, he didn’t care too much.
He turned his head to look at Liu Jiayi. “Go in and heal him.”
Liu Jiayi rolled her eyes and walked with two bottles of antidote. “You really don’t mind what he did?”
“If I had minded this, I wouldn’t have gotten along with you in the first place.” Bai Liu smiled and looked at Liu Jiayi for a while. “Obviously, I’m not such a person. This isn’t in line with my principle of handling things in my best interests.”
Liu Jiayi silently withdrew her gaze and obediently carried the antidote inside.
Bai Liu added, “We will use him against the monsters of this world later. Try to make him fully recover. He is now my private property and I don’t want to see him fight for me in an injured state.”
“I got it!” Liu Jiayi waved her hand impatiently.
Qi Yifang was stunned to see Bai Liu order around Little Witch so easily. Little Witch was on the same level as the Queen of Hearts in the Kings Guild. Her status was very transcendent and noble. Even Hearts couldn’t order Little Witch around like a small soldier.
Bai Liu also saw Qi Yifang and nodded at him without any hesitation. He even hypocritically reached out and shook Qi Yifang’s hand. “I like your skills very much. If there is the opportunity, you should jump ship to play with our team.”
Qi Yifang, “……”
What was with this opening remark?
Bai Liu’s overly frank and shameless attitude made Qi Yifang wonder if this person was just joking with him. Just as Qi Yifang was thinking suspiciously about Bai Liu’s implications, Tang Erda came out behind Liu Jiayi.
Captain Tang, who had just switched camps, obviously wasn’t very used to it. He wanted to draw his gun as soon as he saw Bai Liu but soon remembered Liu Jiayi’s strange words when he was rescued by her. Thus, he felt a bit embarrassed and withdrew the gun.
Tang Erda glanced at Liu Jiayi, who was looking him up and down with an extremely mean look. Then he looked at Bai Liu and felt uncomfortable. These people were previously all enemies who had beaten him to death!
Don’t talk about that. Look at how just before entering the game, he almost killed Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
Tang Erda had only made the deal with Bai Liu for 10 minutes and he had already started to regret it. He felt that something must’ve fascinated him 10 minutes ago or that Bai Liu used an item to hypnotize him.
He must’ve been insane to make the choice to trade his soul with Bai Liu!
Just as Tang Erda was secretly regretting his impulsive spending (?), Bai Liu suddenly reached out a hand to him. Tang Erda, who was already wary of Bai Liu and had conditioned reflexes, instinctively drew a gun and aimed it at him.
It was obviously Bai Liu who reached out to him in a friendly manner and Tang Erda who aimed the gun at him.
The atmosphere was a bit frozen for a while and Liu Jiayi unkindly held a bottle of poison. “Bai Liu, are you sure you are okay with this guy?”
“He doesn’t trust me very much.” Bai Liu shrugged. He didn’t care and continued to step forward. He was completely unafraid of Tang Erda’s gun. He grasped Tang Erda’s clenched fist that was by his side, raised it up, shook it and smiled at Tang Erda. “It doesn’t matter, I trust your ability.”
Bai Liu movements were like an owner teaching a dog who had come to a new place and was still alert to shake hands.
Tang Erda, who had been just a bit confused by the action of drawing the gun, slowly lowered his gun and watched Bai Liu for a while. His eyes were still alert but he tentatively shook Bai Liu’s hand back.
He was like a big wolf dog that had just been tamed, with his paws restrained and his tail and ears pulled down.
The smile on Bai Liu’s face deepened a lot.
Yes, he wasn’t really smart but he was really good to cheat.