The job took over two hours. Without the right tools, and with the black sedan's seats anchored much more securely, dismantling them proved extremely difficult. By the time they finally removed the seats, darkness had fallen.
They had picked up several diesel cans back at the dwarf farm, which they now used for gasoline, siphoning all the fuel from the fish truck and splashing a portion of it inside. After Chu Yu pressed her cheek against Mumu's for one last goodbye, she set the fish truck ablaze, shut the door, and together, the three of them shoved the truck off the cliff.
The three peered over the edge, only turning away once the flames vanished from sight.
Near the edge of the bonfire, a dark silhouette darted forward. Ding Shi caught only a glimpse of movement, but without hesitation, he pivoted, threw his arms wide, and tackled Brother Kai and Chu Yu to the ground. A throwing axe whistled as it flew right over their heads.
Ding Shi rolled to the side and went to draw his gun, but Fei Lang leaped into the air brandishing a pair of axes and chopped straight down at him. Ding Shi rolled back the other way.
His strike missing, Fei Lang spun around to hack at Ding Shi again. Ding Shi planted his hands against Brother Kai's chest, kicked him out of harm's way, and snatched the baton Chu Yu was carrying, clashing with the incoming Fei Lang.
The moment their weapons met, Ding Shi knew he was outmatched. Not only did his opponent wield the twin axes with uncanny finesse, but the man also possessed monstrous strength. In the span of a dozen seconds, Ding Shi had to resort to mutually destructive tactics just to stave off two of Fei Lang's lethal strikes.
Brother Kai grabbed a baton and flanked Fei Lang from behind. Fei Lang momentarily disengaged from Ding Shi, forcing Brother Kai back with a horizontal sweep of one axe while chopping at Ding Shi with the other. Ding Shi fell back to evade it. Fei Lang's other axe whipped toward him in a windmill-like spin, driving Ding Shi into a frantic retreat.
"Stun him!" Ding Shi shouted.
Chu Yu pulled the pin on a concussion grenade and hurled it toward the trio. It detonated, robbing the three combatants of their sight and hearing, shattering their balance, and even dulling their sense of touch. Chu Yu was less than six meters away, and the blast caught her as well.
Chu Yu crouched down, clutching her head in agony from the dizziness and ringing in her ears. Yet she knew she was the least impaired person there. Straining her willpower against the physical torment, she patted around the ground until her hand brushed against a rock.
Closing her eyes for a few seconds to recover, Chu Yu opened them, gripped the stone, and lunged forward, smashing it frantically into Fei Lang's head again and again. Having killed for the first time, Chu Yu was consumed by a frenzy of emotion; Ding Shi had to seize her wrists, and Brother Kai had to slap her across the face before she finally regained her senses.
Looking down at Fei Lang again, Chu Yu saw his head and face mangled into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.
Chu Yu turned away to vomit, and Brother Kai couldn't stomach it either, dry-heaving off to the side.
Ding Shi, whose nerves were by far the steadiest, began looting the corpse.
Fei Lang Card: a card bearing Fei Lang's portrait. It had three uses. One: hand the Fei Lang Card over to the yamen for a bounty. Two: use the Fei Lang Card to unlock his safe house. Three: tear up the Fei Lang Card to gain a 0.5 clear rating.
Ding Shi quietly tore the Fei Lang Card in half. It wasn't that he was selfish. As things stood, none of the three could go anywhere near the city's yamen; doing so would force them into a breakout battle against the agents. If an agent wounded them, the AI would delete the footage, but if they hurt an agent, the AI would forward the recording to the yamen, branding them wanted criminals.
The safe house was even more out of the question—who knew where Fei Lang's safe house was, let alone what kind of nasty surprises lay inside?
Thus, the Fei Lang Card had only one viable purpose: raising a player's rating. But whose rating should it raise? That was too troublesome. Better to just secretly tear it up—sacrificing himself to bear the burden for the sake of team harmony.
...
On the morning of the third day, Brother Kai, having rested overnight, took the wheel and set out. Since the black sedan had an automatic transmission, Chu Yu could drive it too. Along the way, they encountered numerous players and patrol officers. The group realized that as long as you didn't violate traffic laws, the War Police wouldn't pull over your vehicle or check your driver's license. Theoretically, therefore, players didn't even need a driver's license.
Who would have thought there was a trap inside a trap? Ding Shi mentally noted that he'd learned something new today.
Penalties for traffic violations varied depending on the severity of the offense, but one thing remained constant: the War Police would photograph the vehicle, the driver, and the passengers.
"Slow down," Brother Kai warned from the passenger seat. Damn it all—within five hundred meters, three different speed limits had popped up. First: a minimum speed of 50 km/h. Second: a maximum speed of 100 km/h. Third: the maximum speed adjusted to 70 km/h.
Chu Yu slammed on the brakes. Ritian's head bounced off the seat, while Ding Shi, sleeping in the back, cracked his head against the back of the front passenger seat, nearly snapping his cervical spine.
"Speed up, speed up!" Brother Kai urged anxiously. He hadn't seen an end-of-minimum-speed-limit sign, which meant the 50 km/h minimum was still in effect.
Chu Yu obeyed instantly and floored the accelerator, slamming Ding Shi back against his seat with the abrupt surge of acceleration.
"Not too fast!" Brother Kai shouted.
Chu Yu quickly steadied the wheel. Having finally navigated the hellish five-hundred-meter stretch, Brother Kai and Chu Yu both exhaled in relief. Ding Shi rubbed his neck, bewildered. "What's going on? Where am I? What just happened?"
"Nothing, nothing," Chu Yu smoothed things over, handing Ding Shi a bottle of water. "Go back to sleep for a bit."
Ding Shi nodded, took a sip, and pointed ahead with a grunt. "Mm-hmm."
"Stop!" Brother Kai yelled in panic. Fifty meters ahead stood a speed limit sign: Factory Entrance: Speed Limit 5 km/h (Actual Limit).
"Five kilometers?" The three looked at each other in disbelief.
Chu Yu stepped on the brake and kept her eyes glued to the speedometer as the car crawled forward. Ding Shi opened the door, stepped out to take a leak by the roadside, jogged a dozen paces, opened the door, and hopped back in.
Chu Yu huffed indignantly, "That kind of behavior is deeply insulting to the driver."
Ding Shi replied, "Sorry, Driver. Next time, I'll give you a chance to insult me."
Time could heal all wounds, and after all, Mumu hadn't truly died. After a night's rest, the bonds between them had mended quite well. The friendship between Brother Kai and Ritian deepened by the day, while Chu Yu and Ding Shi shared a mutual appreciation—not romantic interest, but a genuine respect for each other's capabilities and character.
The previous night, when Ding Shi asked about how Ritian had been ambushed, he had learned that the team had initially planned to leave him behind; it was only Chu Yu's insistence that had prevented him from being abandoned in the wilderness.
Though Chu Yu could be a bit clumsy in certain matters, she had a good head on her shoulders and acted with integrity. Ding Shi was very glad to have a friend like her.
The car crawled past the factory gates. Two police cruisers were parked alongside the plant, and under the watchful gaze of four robotic police officers, the car trundled by at a snail's pace. Chu Yu didn't have a license, but they had no reason to pull her over.
Chu Yu pulled over to the side. Ding Shi took over as driver, Chu Yu served as navigator, and Brother Kai moved to the back seat to give Ritian water. A full day had passed since Ritian was injured; even with antibiotics, his wounds were beginning to inflame. Treating wounds like these required basic iodine for topical disinfection; one couldn't rely solely on oral antibiotics.
Ding Shi took the wheel, but before they had traveled four hundred meters, an agent vehicle came speeding in pursuit. The two cars engaged in a brief, rather unexceptional chase along the national highway. In less than two minutes, Ding Shi executed a PIT maneuver, sending the agent's car crashing head-on into a bridge pier.
Chapter 56