On the fifth day at 5:00 p.m., the Yuyu Car left the expressway and drove into Beishang County.
Chu Yu administered an adrenaline injection from a medical pack to Ritian. Regaining some consciousness, Ritian endured the pain and sat up, using the main quest map to navigate for the car. At 5:20 p.m., the vehicle stopped in front of a small villa, where a man wearing a hat stood by the gate.
Chu Yu and Ding Shi dragged Ritian over to the man in the hat. Sitting on the ground, Ritian slowly retrieved the X pathogen from his inner coat lining.
Suddenly, a car hurtled toward them at a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. Ding Shi spun around, wrapped his right arm around Chu Yu's midsection, and threw them both rolling to the left. With the heavy thud of an impact, a violent rush of wind blasted past. The burly Ritian was sent flying over ten meters, slamming into the perimeter wall of a villa. His body smashed through the wall and crashed into the swimming pool within.
Losing control, the car crashed into the villa wall on the opposite side of the road, plowed across the lawn, and punched right through the French windows, leaving a swath of devastation in its wake.
Chu Yu scrambled to her feet. There was neither fear nor sorrow in her—only incandescent rage. "*Bleep* *bleep* *bleep*!" she cursed, marching quickly toward Ritian.
Ding Shi seized Chu Yu by the collar and yanked her back. "We're leaving."
Chu Yu struggled, but she was no match for him and was shoved forcefully into the back seat.
Barely a minute after the Yuyu Car left the area, Shabi stumbled onto the villa's lawn and collapsed. Covered in blood, one of his arms hung limp, swinging a full 360 degrees as if he had eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit.
Panting, Shabi crawled along the ground until his fingers finally found a shard of glass. Gripping it in his left hand, he plunged it into his throat, let out a savage roar, and wrenched it viciously to the side. Arterial blood spurted forth.
He needed to die, and die as fast as possible, so he could catch up to Ding Shi. He wasn't worried about losing his memories; there were only two targets left on the entire map, and agents everywhere were swarming toward them. His only fear was running out of time to intercept Ding Shi. He had to kill him—he had to kill him at least once.
In the car, Chu Yu clenched her fists, glaring fiercely at the road ahead. After a long silence, she asked, "Who was that lunatic?"
Ding Shi said, "Duan Bi—though I prefer to call him Shabi. He comes from a family of assassins who served the top boss of A City. My boss's boss died at their hands. After my boss's boss was killed, my boss formed Fenghuo Hall to take revenge. A year later, Fenghuo Hall surrounded the assassin family. Except for Shabi, who escaped fate because he was serving time in prison, every last one of them was wiped out."
Chu Yu asked, "So he hates you over a blood feud?"
Ding Shi said, "No, he doesn't hate me. He just wants to make a name for himself. If anyone stands in his way, he gets rid of them. I just happened to be that anyone."
Chu Yu sighed. "If you're going to tell a story, just tell it. Don't slip in witty wordplay. It's giving me mixed emotions."
Ding Shi smiled faintly. "My boss was Wang Meng, head of the Dragon Gang—the largest and last organized crime syndicate in A City. Under Wang Meng's leadership, the Dragon Gang swept through A City and seized control of virtually every illicit enterprise. Right around then, Shabi was released from prison. He joined forces with Wang Meng to take me down. Fatally wounded, I dragged them both down to the grave with me. Right before dying, I arrived in the Yita World."
Chu Yu asked, puzzled, "Wang Meng was your boss, so why did he turn on you? Was he killing the donkey once it had finished grinding the grain?"
Ding Shi replied, "No. Because I was undercover."
"Huh?" Chu Yu gasped. You don't look like a police officer in the slightest.
Ding Shi said, "Police have to abide by the law when dealing with criminal gangs, but criminal gangs don't need any evidence to deal with other gangs. While in prison, Shabi got acquainted with my superior's deputy, who'd been arrested for duty-related crimes. From him, Shabi learned there was an undercover mole by Wang Meng's side, as well as the details of the undercover operation.
"After getting out, he kidnapped my superior, wiped my undercover files, and handed the evidence over to Wang Meng. He might seem insane now, but back when he only had one life, he didn't dare act crazy—at least not to my face. If he had, I wouldn't have been blindsided by Wang Meng and fed two lead pills.
"Duan Bi—a short dagger, short yet lethal enough. In reality, he wasn't crazy at all; he valued his life immensely. He was extremely insidious, but insidious without being clever, which is why I've always called him Shabi. It wasn't to mock him—it was just stating a fact."
Chu Yu thought for a moment. "In reality, you must have been even more insidious than him—and crazier, too."
Ding Shi pondered this for a moment as well before correcting her: "I prefer the words 'clever' and 'brave.'"
Chu Yu couldn't help but laugh, the chuckle easing the rage and grief in her chest.
***
Day Five, 8:00 p.m.
Jibei County was a large county seat, as well as Chu Yu's final destination in this instance. Once they entered Jibei County, the location of Chu Yu's home was activated, generating a shortcut route leading straight to it.
On the outskirts of town, the Yuyu Car sat parked neatly in a temporary parking stall. Chu Yu stepped out, used instance coins to buy some food and water from a street shop, and returned to the car. "How does it look?" she asked.
By the streetlight, Ding Shi was examining the map, which traced a red line representing the shortcut the system provided to Chu Yu.
Ding Shi said, "Traffic in the county seat is heavy, and we've switched cars again. The AI updates our location every half-hour. As long as we don't stay in one place for more than thirty minutes, it won't be easy to pin down our license plate.
"There's a major flaw with the shortcut the system gave you: it passes through ten traffic lights, and every one of them has high-definition surveillance. The driver's face will definitely be captured."
Chu Yu said, "You think the agents aren't looking for the car, but for the person."
Ding Shi said, "I don't know about the other agents, but Shabi has caught up with us again and again despite how often we switch vehicles. He's almost certainly tracking the person, not the car."
Chu Yu asked, "Then which way do we go?"
Ding Shi said, "We'll be exposed eventually—it's only a matter of time. If we take the shortcut and main roads while Shabi monitors the surveillance photos sent by the AI around the clock, there's a high probability he'll spot me immediately and lock onto our plate. And switching cars inside the county seat will be tough." The only way to switch cars would be to buy one, which was too time-consuming.
Ding Shi continued, "I'm thinking of taking the shantytowns to the west, cutting through the urban village to reach the north side, and then getting onto the elevated expressway marked on the shortcut. That way, we can try to get you home within five minutes of being spotted."
Chu Yu didn't answer right away. "Is Shabi the only one you're worried about?" she asked.
Ding Shi replied, "The agents still hunting us are all players who died in the Taoyuan Village instance and haven't managed to finish their Returning Home quest yet. They're not much of a threat to me. But Shabi is different. He's a professional assassin. Right now, I only have one life, while he has infinite lives. Every move he makes is aimed at mutual destruction, whereas I have to stay alive."
Chu Yu said, "I have a bold proposal."
Ding Shi said, "I'm listening."
Chu Yu said, "I'll drive, and I'll take you to Beiyang County first. If the cameras can't catch your face, Shabi won't be able to find you."
Ding Shi said, "But you'll have to face a swarm of agents."
Chu Yu said, "We're going to blend in with the agents' vehicles anyway. Rather than worrying about that, you should worry about me breaking traffic laws." Chu Yu didn't have a driver's license, but the car was an automatic, so driving it was no trouble for her.
Ding Shi said, "Your proposal is a solid plan, but are you sure you want to cover the rear?"
Chu Yu said, "I'm sure. Besides, I think finishing the quest without making a sound would hurt Shabi even worse than killing him. Not only will you have defeated him in combat, but you'll have crushed him in intellect as well."
Ding Shi said, "Except it was your idea, and your courage."
Chu Yu said, "Can't we just not tell him? I can already picture his face when he's seething with rage."
Ding Shi nodded. "All right."
Chapter 60