[It's Ming'an, Ming'an!]
[I remember every person from Dragon Country on the Hall of Fame and preliminary list clearly—that's like the youngest one.]
[He looks so harmless, oh, his arm is broken, poor thing.]
[Calm down! He chopped off his own arm!]
…
Lv Shu recalled the youth who had once in a gang hideout, killed the marauding gang members with him. He automatically categorized the person before him as good, nodding his head towards him.
Su Ming'an had not expected to meet this person again at Central Hospital.
He remembered that the opponent seemed to be the only person from Dragon Country in the Hall of Fame, predicted to have the highest combat power.
He waved at the young man, then turned and headed off to explore another direction.
Lv Shu had no intention of socializing with Su Ming'an; he also wanted to leave at this time.
But just as he was about to turn away, the system's alert suddenly sounded in his ear.
[Update Supervisor mission.]
[Eliminate target (Su Ming'an), Number BE3030.]
[Location of the nearest coordinates identified. Please, Supervisor, eliminate the target within this world cycle.]
Lv Shu's gaze froze for an instant.
…In fact, unlike ordinary players, Lv Shu, like a very few others, was chosen by the system from the start to become a "Supervisor."
The organizers seemed to enjoy seeing them play the game in different routes, so just as there are ordinary players with force and intelligence methods, so too exists the "Supervisor's" PvP method.
As the name suggests, Supervisors are specifically targeted at players. They don't need to focus on solving mysteries; the system assigns them targets to kill, provides coordinates, and then rewards them the moment they kill the appropriate players.
Lv Shu hadn't received any assassination missions since he got this identity, until the moment he met Su Ming'an, when the system suddenly updated.
…He now had a clear target to hunt.
Lv Shu seemed to enter into combat mode instantly, but seeing the youth's bare, defenseless back and dangling left sleeve, his usually cold gaze wavered slightly.
…Why is Su Ming'an the one I have to kill?
This was just an ordinary, kind player, with whom he had once rescued people imprisoned in jail.
Struggle flashed across Lv Shu's face, but the bright red font in his task bar clearly reminded him—that the consequences of failing a Supervisor mission were unimaginably dire, it was best not to be optimistic.
And Lv Shu himself… had absolutely compelling reasons not to leave the scene.
The struggle in his eyes cut off inch by inch; he lifted his distinctly defined fingers, with the tips briefly pausing on ascended scarlet butterflies.
A blue flash passed by.
The Mantis, like a clump of green shadow, shot like an arrow into the young man's frail body. Su Ming'an slightly lifted his eyelids, turned around to face him, his back exploding in large patches of blossom-like blood.
…Even Lv Shu had never thought the strike would be so easy, like a blade edge tearing through thin paper, effortlessly bisecting the defense.
He was somewhat surprised watching this scene. And Su Ming'an, with bloodied face, suddenly bore a smile: "Lv Shu, the sole top ranker from Dragon Country, were you trying to replace me? "
"I heard your statement from the bullet screen, you said you were going to win until the end… but I'm sorry, this was my mission." Lv Shu felt ashamed of his own sneak attack, even more powerless about his compelled act of killing.
"…So there is such a mission." Su Ming'an's lips spread with copious amounts of fresh blood: "…But, as long as you can prove you're more suitable than me…"
Lv Shu didn't understand what the other was laughing about.
The next moment, the Mantis's blade edge carved the brightest, most dazzling bloom on Su Ming'an's chest.
"You just wait." Su Ming'an said, looking at him.
Lv Shu watched as the person before him finally fell down, like a kite with its string cut.
Lv Shu hesitated as he walked over to confirm the state of the body, somewhat dazed.
…Truly dead?
Without even a single counterattack… it was even simpler than killing an ordinary person.
He could clearly feel the burst of danger that emerged the moment the hit landed, which even he found slightly terrifying.
Lv Shu was a bit stunned, but he definitely heard the system's prompt of a successful mission.
In his vision, masses of bullet screens surged:
[!???]
[What the Hell?]
"I just spaced out for a moment, how did I die?"
"Oh, the strife within Dragon Country is fierce!"
"Damn, even the host is so brutal, killing like that, I'm unfollowing, unfollowing."
"Ming'an really isn't afraid of pain... He was smiling like nothing happened even after being stabbed through by a blade."
"I think he's truly terrifying... just like a fervent believer in some ideology. He really had no defenses... "
"... Didn't he say he wanted to make it to the end before?"
"What does Ming'an mean???"
"I don't believe he's just a player ranked in the top hundred, Su Ming'an will definitely reach higher levels."
"But there's no helping it, Lv Shu is clearly stronger than this preselected list kid."
"Su Ming'an is so full of himself, probably finding excuses for his failure."
"..."
...
Lv Shu looked bewilderedly at the dead body he'd turned over, his hands smeared with lots of blood, the expression on the face of the dead person was a closed-eyed smile—what was he happy about under such intense pain?
Lv Shu felt a bit of a chill on his scalp, even with twenty years of a life full of bizarre surprises, he'd never seen such a strange person, clearly a student whose every action conformed to normalcy, yet displaying numbness and anticipation similar to a madman when facing pain and death. Like a witch in Medieval Europe, tied to the stake and giving a chilling, crow-like cackle at the flames of Execution by Fire before death.
He staggered to his feet, his hands were still damp, his narrow eyes looking down the dark corridor ahead, seeing a path that seemed to lead to a vast abyss, enveloped in extreme darkness.
He pulled out the Black Blade from behind and walked over.
...
Outside Central Hospital, the sky was bright and beautiful.
Outside the gate, remnants of a small fountain remained, alongside a row of long round benches, where a black-haired girl swung her legs as she sat, a donut studded with chocolate bits in her mouth.
Suddenly, the young man next to her trembled violently, then he opened his bloodshot eyes.
Blood slowly trickled down from the corner of his mouth, the girl's expression grew cold as several inches of a gleaming white blade unsheathed: "What's wrong?"
"... My clone was chopped down, there indeed are enemies inside." Su Ming'an wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the phantom pain in his chest and back still lingered, his eyes teary the moment he opened them, a physiological result of severe phantom pain.
Su Ming'an and Yuanyuan had reached Central Hospital but didn't enter immediately.
The hospital's vast area and numerous blind spots, along with dense zombies, made it most appropriate to send a clone in to scout first.
In Su Ming'an's hand was a map, mainly to see if there were any players targeting him inside.
... Unexpectedly, there really were.
Even Lv Shu, who also gave him a bit of a headache.
The stream's chat could not reveal useful information about players and World Replicas, he wasn't worried that the other party would realize only a clone had died.
"I'll go kill him." Yuanyuan's blade gleamed coldly under the bright sun.
"No rush, I know you're eager to fight... but I don't want to see you get hurt," Su Ming'an sincerely said to her, "That blade really hurts when it cuts, it's very uncomfortable. I caused the trouble, I will settle it myself."
Yuanyuan secretly ground her teeth, her hand itching even more.
The chat in Su Ming'an's live stream scrolled:
"We must have revenge this round!"
"The opponent is Lv Shu, number one on Dragon Country's list... seems like there's no hope..."
"Maybe we shouldn't go to Central Hospital? Going there again is just courting death."
"How could someone from the preliminary list defeat a player from the Hall of Fame... don't drag Yuanyuan into this, host."
"Don't be like that, I still have high hopes for the host, Yuanyuan's combat power isn't bad either, maybe it'll work."
"Why pick a fight inside? We're all here to earn points, why keep fighting, why not just focus on missions... "
"..."
As the chat scrolled, Su Ming'an ignored it.
"Before entering the hospital, drink this." Su Ming'an produced a bottle that looked like an insecticide from the supermarket, the liquid gleaming in the sunlight.
Without a word, Yuanyuan took it and drank it down in one gulp.
Immediately after, she found the black spots that had been spreading across her body for the last few days disappearing one by one. When Su Ming'an checked her wrist, the red marks had also faded.