Chu Guang turned his head.
A brawny man stood at the doorway, his left arm firmly wrapped around Night Ten's neck and bound hands, while his right hand held a pistol, the muzzle pressed against his temple.
But the moment he uttered the phrase "let her go," two guns were already swiftly aiming at him.
Upon seeing this, the brawny man instinctively ducked behind Night Ten and shouted frantically,
"Nobody fucking move! Your teammate is in my hands! I know you're strong, but can you be faster than a bullet?"
Chu Guang, holding his gun, was momentarily stunned, the corners of his mouth twitching unnaturally upwards.
I'm strong?
Hey, that's a bit embarrassing.
Having been in the Wasteland for over five months, this was the first time someone complimented him on his strength.
"Chen Yang? You're not dead?!" Xia Yan stared wide-eyed at the man in the doorway.
The brawny man's expression was visibly awkward, but he still managed to force a grin on his face.
"Hehe, I'm not that easy to kill. Just wait, I'll rescue you first!"
Hope reignited in Xia Yan's eyes.
If possible, she certainly didn't want to fall into the hands of these "primitives." She could imagine, with the five toes she had left, the kind of treatment she would receive as a captive.
Occasionally, captured mercenaries would be ransomed back from slave traders by teammates or Company associates, if they happened to be sold to Giant Stone City.
But even if they stayed alive, they were no different from the dead.
Whether in spirit or body.
Finally managing to wriggle free a little space from beneath the brawny man's arm, Night Ten, nearly suffocated, gasped for air without taking a breath.
He struggled desperately while shouting,
"Shoot! Fire at me!! What the hell are you waiting for!"
"Fuck... this idiot's got body odor, it's killing me!"
If the brawny man had known what this guy was shouting about, he might have actually lost his cool and shot him on the spot.
Unfortunately for him,
The man didn't understand and just found the hostage annoyingly loud.
Raising the gun handle, Chen Yang smacked the back of the hostage's head and scolded sternly,
"Keep still!"
Night Ten was anything but still.
He couldn't feel the extreme pain; in fact, getting hit like that only enraged him more, and he shouted with even greater force,
"Shoot at me! Manager, please don't worry about me; I can't die!"
Nonsense.
Of course, I know you can't die.
You think I'm the one buying your lives?
Chu Guang rolled his eyes internally. His face, however, revealed nothing as he coolly observed the brawny man named Chen Yang at the doorway, saying nonchalantly,
"I don't like being threatened. You'd better put the gun down, put your hands over your head and against the wall. I might let you live."
Chen Yang exclaimed excitedly,
"I'm not joking around with you! I will shoot!"
"Same here," Chu Guang calmly looked at him, "want to try? We'll both make a move on the count of three."
Unable to bear watching any longer, Xia Yan, slumped under the bar, didn't want her teammate, who had narrowly escaped death, to end up dying here because of her.
"That's enough, Chen Yang. You can go on your own... don't worry about me."
Chu Guang ignored her and softly spoke the first number,
"3."
Watching Chu Guang beginning the countdown, a bead of sweat rolled down Chen Yang's forehead.
This guy's insane!
Doesn't he care at all about the life and death of his teammates!
And the hostage, with his face full of eagerness to embrace death, did not look like a hostage at all.
"2."
Madness.
Complete madness!
"Wait, stop, I don't mean to threaten you! You can take the hostage, no problem, I just want one thing!"
Chen Yang admitted he wimped out.
Glancing hastily at Xia Yan sitting on the ground, he continued rapidly,
"Just give me the key on her; I'll let her go the moment I have the card!"
Chu Guang raised his eyebrows, curious,
"A key?"
"A magnetic card! She knows what I'm talking about!"
Chu Guang looked toward Xia Yan on the ground but the woman didn't look back at him; she just stared blankly at her former teammate.
"So it's the key you're after..."
"Call it whatever you want; instead of dying here for no reason, it's better to let me complete part of the Work."
Teammates?
This is the Wasteland.
Originally, his plan was to wait until the Crawler had left before checking the bodies of his teammates, otherwise, he wouldn't have played dead to escape and watched from the sidelines, only coming to help her now.
Chen Yang ignored his former teammate's disappointed gaze, using the gun to press against the hostage's temple and slowly backed away, his eyes locked firmly on Chu Guang's face.
"How about it? A woman and your teammate, I just want a card from her! The card is useless to you anyway."
Chu Guang nodded,
"That makes sense."
So that would mean I come out ahead?
But...
No need for that.
Chu Guang looked toward Xia Yan.
"Give it to him."
Seeing the Manager not shooting but instead negotiating with the kidnapper, Night Ten struggled all the more fiercely, fearing that the NPC might compromise with the kidnapper for his sake.
"Don't mind me! Fang Chang, have you gone stupid, shoot!"
I'm a player.
I ain't scared!
If I die here, it'd be a noble sacrifice and my approval rating would skyrocket!
"I fucking... don't move around, let me aim properly."
Fang Chang was nervous as hell.
He dared not move a muscle.
It wasn't that he couldn't go through with it - he had shot his teammates while playing battle royales before - but this Game wasn't a battle royale. With the Manager not taking action, how could he dare to make a move?
What if I miss the critical plot, what then?
Xia Yan silently pulled a blood-stained card from her pocket, which the team leader had given to her before his death.
Logically, Chen Yang should not have known this card was on her person.
Unless he had already searched the team leader's body.
In an instant, she understood everything.
Xia Yan looked at her former teammate with an expressionless face. Instead of sadness or fear, her heart was filled with numbness.
Perhaps her end would be quite miserable.
Like a dirty rag thrown in the corner to await mold, or sold by these barbarians to other slave traders until she could no longer work.
But suddenly, she felt all of that didn't matter anymore.
"Take it."
With two fingers, she tossed the card out.
Watching the card fall at his feet, a brief flash of ecstasy and unabashed greed crossed Chen Yang's eyes. He stepped on it, trying to kick it outside the door.
But at that moment, something unexpected happened.
Almost at the same time as he stretched out his right foot, the hostage struggling violently in his arms suddenly slumped and slipped out from under his elbow, kneeling directly on the ground.
Before Chen Yang could react to what was happening, two gunshots rang out beside him. One of them pierced right through his forehead.
A spray of blood burst from his brow.
Chen Yang, eyes wide, fell straight back, dying without ever understanding what had happened in that instant.
"Fuck, got him!"
A headshot!
Pulling aside the barrel of the gun, Fang Chang shouted excitedly.
"That was my shot, your bullets flew off to the street lamppost… Better keep practicing," Chu Guang said with an expressionless face as he reloaded his rifle.
He had lost all hope for these players' marksmanship.
Speaking of which, this was the first time he had used his "GM" authority to forcefully kick a player offline.
Surprisingly handy, that feature.
Of course, he wasn't going to admit it if the players asked, just blame it on network fluctuations as a game planner at most.
"You, you killed him…"
Xia Yan looked at Chu Guang with a wooden face, clearly not expecting him to suddenly fire.
Chu Guang said impatiently, "I told you I hate threats, and besides, I gave him a chance."
And that guy had pointed a gun at him after all.
In the midst of the conversation, Night Ten, who had been kneeling on the ground, suddenly convulsed and woke up bewildered.
"Why did I get disconnected just now?"
His blank gaze drifted and landed on the corpse behind him, and Night Ten immediately jumped up from the ground, reflexively.
"Holy shit, how did this guy die?"
Did the plot jump again?!
Fang Chang walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
"Must have been a network fluctuation. It's good you could log back in… Headshot, hehe, wasn't that badass?"
"Badass, badass, extremely badass!"
Alright.
Looks like I can even skip explaining this.
Having retrieved his gaze from the two players, Chu Guang felt he had sufficiently recovered, so he stood up from the restaurant chair.
Approaching the corpse of Chen Yang, Chu Guang bent down to pick up the bloodied card and the fallen handgun from beside his feet.
The former was temporarily useless, the latter was a good find though.
Chu Guang played with the handgun for a while, which seemed to be semi-automatic. He wasn't sure about the power, but it appeared to be significant.
"I'm planning to leave, good luck to you."
Seeing Chu Guang speaking to her, Xia Yan looked up blankly.
"Aren't you taking me with you?"
Chu Guang asked in return, "Did I say I would take you?"
Xia Yan was stunned.
This was completely different from what she had envisioned, entirely beyond her expectations.
But she no longer had the luxury of time to think.
Watching this man named Chu Guang indeed not joking and proceeding to exit with his two loyal subordinates.
The thought of being left behind alone, caused her to panic.
"You... you really aren't the Looters?"
Chu Guang stopped in his tracks and asked her with a teasing tone, "Are you disappointed?"
"I," Xia Yan opened her mouth, embarrassed for a moment, then cleared her throat to continue, "I mean, are you survivors from nearby? Can you take me to your settlement?"
After all, she had nowhere else to go.
To think of walking back to Giant Stone City with one leg, was more ridiculous than single-handedly knocking out a Crawler, not to mention she couldn't go back anyway.
Since these people here weren't Looters or slave traders, going with them might not be bad.
However, Chu Guang had no interest in carrying this burden.
The current medical conditions at the refuge definitely couldn't afford her a mechanical prosthesis, at most, a woodworker could make her a crutch to get by.
With a missing leg, she definitely couldn't do hard labor, plus another mouth to feed with that food—better to recruit another player to join.
But just then, he overheard the two players whispering.
"Is this woman a new NPC?"
"Possibly, but not sure...looks like the Manager isn't planning on taking her."
"But I think she could still be saved."
"Indeed, she seems to be a mercenary or something. Even with a leg missing, making firearms, weapons and such should still be possible, right?"
Emmm...
Sort of made sense when they put it that way.
Chu Guang considered for a moment and then looked at Xia Yan.
"I'll be straight with you; you're a burden now. Even if you're left at the nearby survivor settlement, your fate won't be much better than death."
Xia Yan bit her lip and lowered her head.
That was the truth.
She could already imagine what would happen to her.
Observing the woman who remained silent, Chu Guang continued, "Of course, if you have a skill to offer, I'm not opposed to taking you..."
"As long as you're willing to work for me."