This stalemate lasted for only a few seconds, but it felt like a century.
Suddenly, this stalemate was broken by a few soft clatters. Someone had reloaded their crossbow with a new arrow.
You Huo glanced over at the source of the sound. Three had raised their weapons and turned their backs to them, pointing their crossbows at the two standing on the opposite building.
One cursed disdainfully, "You fucking bastard!"
The one who cursed had a head of yellow permed hair. He was a man of medium height who didn't look very special from the back, so he had no sense of presence amongst the crowd.
It was like this until he rolled up his sleeves, revealing his two arms covered in tattoos. It was only then that he became recognisable.
You Huo who saw the zoo animals tattooed on his arms suddenly felt that it looked a little familiar.
He soon realised that he knew this person.
Not only him, Yu Wen, Shu Xue and Old Yu would also recognise him if they have good memory —– He was their teammate from the first exam, that little thug with tattoos.
He moved his face slightly to adjust his aim allowing You Huo to see his side profile.
It was indeed the tattooed man.
After such a long time he now had an additional scar across his face. From his forehead it ran across over his left eye down to his cheek.
The faces of the two bastards on the opposite building flushed red. They gripped tightly onto their crossbows until their knuckles turned white.
"I…..I think that although the buzzcut man...." One of them swallowed nervously, "….But he's not wrong."
"To hell with you asses." The tattooed man continued to throw out vulgar curses.
Without even looking back, he indicated to You Huo and the others with his lips, "I have met these people before. They're pretentious and arrogant and extremely irritating but after several rounds of exams I've encountered bastards of all kinds and people like these here are rare. Speaking honestly, all these Mirror Humans wouldn't have died without them and I would've already died yesterday."
He stared straight at the buzzcut man on the opposite building, "I am just your typical bad-tempered thug but even thugs have their own thug ethics. Let's settle this here today! If any one of you bastards want to continue, you'll have to get through me first."
Clack——-
There was another sound of an arrow being loaded.
One after another, crossbows were loaded. They all turned their backs against the "Mirror Humans" they should be shooting and unanimously pointed it towards the buzzcut man and his comrade.
Among them, some truly meant it while others were just following the crowd. No one could tell which they were based on appearances alone.
But it didn't matter. At least at this moment, they had their backs towards You Huo and the others.
There were also a large group who didn't know which side to choose and just decided to stand aside.
In a blink of an eye, the situation had reversed.
The two on the opposite building could only lower their weapons under the pressure from the opposing group.
The buzzcut man could only shrink back and silently curse, "Fuck".
Crazy. They're all damn crazy!
As he cursed inside, his eyes darted around trying to find a way to reverse the situation.
At the last critical moment, he caught sight of a thin shadow appearing from within the fog — After the first wave of Mirror Humans were killed, the ones from locations even further away had rushed over.
Just in time!
Large crowds appeared in an instant. The buzzcut man shouted a warning, "Be careful downstairs!"
There was a bang from the opposite side. The buzzcut man crouched down and stumbled pathetically over to a corner.
Selfish people treat the others all the same.
When he ran to hide, he didn't say anything to his comrade and he soon heard a muffled sound come from his comrade after he hid.
Was he hit?
The buzzcut man quickly loaded his crossbow while he calculated in his mind: The group in the opposite building should have turned their attention to the Mirror Humans and have fired out their first wave of arrows. While they're in the middle of loading their next arrows, it was a chance for him to attack and disrupt their rhythm.
He just needed to take advantage of this timing to fire a shot at them to settle this.
At the same time there wouldn't be many Mirror Humans left so he would just need to spend some time cleaning the remaining Mirror Humans up. With this, he also had a chance of earning more points.
The buzzcut man silently counted: 3, 2, 1.
He looked out from his corner and aimed his crossbow——-
But he was met with an arrow!
Seeing that sharp tip quickly fly over towards him, his pupils shrank and he didn't have the chance to react.
Whoosh———
The tip brushed past his skin.
All the blood in his body rushed through his blood vessels as his heart beat frantically. He felt like he was just tossed onto the ground by someone.
The buzzcut man stared at the sky, breathless.
Only then did he realise that the arrow had actually pierced through his shirt collar, pinning him pathetically to the ground.
The person who fired it had no intention to let him off!
He panicked for a moment until he heard a soft sound.
It sounded like something falling onto the roof.
His scalp went numb. He struggled to lift his neck.
Through the corner of his eyes, he saw You Huo in the distance open his eye narrowed eye, lower the crossbow and hand it over to someone next to him.
And nearby....
Qin Jiu was already on the roof!
"How did you get here?!" The buzzcut man's voice cracked.
Qin Jiu had two arrows in his hands. One second ago he was still on the edge of the building and a second later he was right in front of the buzzcut man.
He squatted down and picked the buzzcut man up by his collar. With a snort he said, "Scared silly? Didn't you say it earlier? That we're Mirror Humans?"
The buzzcut man's fingers curled up into a fist. Just as he was about to grab an arrow nearby, he heard a click.
It was only when he was struck with severe pain that he realised that Qin Jiu had accurately crushed his wrist.
There was another soft sound nearby. You Huo had also come over.
Qin Jiu picked up the buzzcut man's crossbow, loaded it up with an arrow and turned to ask You Huo, "My dear, where did the arrow hit Miss Yang?"
"Right arm."
Qin Jiu nodded and aimed the arrow at the buzzcut man's right arm.
"AHH!!!"
The buzzcut man screamed.
This kind of crossbow was specially made by the townsmen to fight against the Mirror Humans so it naturally would be very effective against ordinary humans as well.
The tip of the arrow pierced through the flesh and blood instantly flowed out.
You Huo covered this nose as he took the crossbow off Qin Jiu.
Without even bending down, he aimed it down at the buzzcut man's collarbone, "This is Old Yu's."
"AHH!!!!"
The buzzcut man rolled around the ground as his dirty mouth shot profanities at the person standing closest to him "Fuck your mother. You fucking—-ah!"
The next moment, the buzzcut man was punched in the face.
As hard knuckle bones struck his cheekbones, his head smashed against the ground leaving him in a dizzy and dazed state.
He blinked vigorously to clear up his vision.
He saw You Huo shake his hand and say coldly, "This is a bonus."
As fresh blood flowed out onto the ground, its sweet and pungent smell was something extremely tempting for a Mirror Human.
You Huo furrowed his brows and patted Qin Jiu, "Let's go."
The buzzcut man struggled to raise his head.
Several heads suddenly appeared by the edge of the roof. Five or six Mirror Humans hadn't joined the others to attack the other building and had followed the scent of blood over to this one.
"No....No!" The buzzcut man's blood went cold. He struggled to grab Qin Jiu and You Huo's legs, "No, you can't go...…Save me! I won't be able to escape from them! This is all your fault! Your fault!"
Qin Jiu paused and turned back, "If I remember correctly, we seemed to have saved you once back at the movie theatre? From the looks of it right now, it seems you don't take your life very seriously."
The buzzcut man's eyes widened and his nose flared.
"Then forget it."
The buzzcut man heard him say this.
The next second two figures jumped off from the building.
Madmen.
A pair of madmen!
The buzzcut man cursed despairingly.
The Mirror Humans had already reached the rooftop. They climbed along on their hands and feet like frenzied lizards.....
***
The last group of Mirror Humans were crazily besieging the building where all the examinees were gathered as arrows fell from above like rain.
Qin Jiu landed on the ground and quickly avoided an arrow, "Call 154."
"Thought of a way?"
The eight of them were indeed in a difficult position. As long as they were still alive and well, those examinees would not be able to end the exam.
To let the examinees escape safely, they must be cleared out here in this place.
It was a completely dead end.
"I have a way that's not so much a way." Qin Jiu said, "It's a little troublesome for us but it can at least send away the unrelated people."
...….
154 came faster than ever. In just two minutes, he had appeared below the building.
"The restaurant has been reporting the results. Do you guys know how many negative points you have???" 154 straightened out his clothes which have become a little dishevelled as he rushed over to return himself back to his usual meticulous appearance, "If you continue like this a bug is going to appear!"
Qin Jiu said: "Isn't that just right?"
154: "...…The core is still inaccessible. Can you be a little more low-key, boss?"
He had grown used to calling him boss and couldn't change it for the time being.
"So why did you call me? I have been nervously waiting for you to call me the past few days."
Qin Jiu said, "Aren't there additional questions in this exam?"
154 nodded, "Yes."
Qin Jiu, "Help us forcibly activate it."
154: "???"
"I mean, what are you trying to do?" He looked over at the roof. As far as he could see, all the examinees were gathered there, "You haven't had enough fun? Additional questions have other conditions and the number of people is also limited. Not all of you can be pulled in."
"Why involve everyone? I'm not like the system." Qin Jiu said with a huff.
154: "...….."
"Just the eight of us is enough."
The system had mentioned clearing Mirror Humans. Under normal circumstances, this would mean killing all of them but there were also special circumstances that could be taken advantage of – namely the additional questions in this exam.
The additional question would be equivalent to opening a new space.
Like a house, the current exam is the master bedroom while the additional question is equivalent to a storage room just outside and not considered a part of the bedroom.
Once the eight of them are pulled into that space, they would no longer 'exist' in this exam.
In other words, they were 'cleared'.
"You don't need to actually start up the exam." Qin Jiu said, "Forcing it to start is too much of a commotion and too troublesome. As long as we are put in there for a while until the system announces the result is enough."
154 was a little hesitant.
You Huo asked, "Too difficult?"
"In theory, it should work." 154 said, "Each stage of the exam would have about half a minute of buffer time before it officially starts. Boss's idea is okay. You can take advantage of that buffer time to hide out for a moment. As long as you grasp the right timing, you won't actually need to solve the additional question but....."
You Huo: "But what?"
154: "The risk is high."
You Huo: "Risk?"
154 said, "The first is the issue with speed. Even just a slight delay can trigger a notice and all the invigilators would find out that you have forcibly activated the additional questions. As long as one person confirms it, the system would start up the exam as per usual."
He paused for a moment and added, "And this isn't the main concern. Your life is also at risk. Think about it. We're switching from one exam centre to another and also doing it very quickly. As long as something goes wrong in the middle———-"
He pinched his fingers together to gesture a small gap between them and said seriously, "You're over. You may even end up in a situation where one half of your body is left here while the other half is left there. I haven't tried it before, but it doesn't rule out this possibility."
Qin Jiu said, "It will indeed be a little ugly."
154: "...….."
Is being ugly the main problem here?
You Huo: "Try first, talk later."
"Who are you going to talk to if you really end up cut in half???"
154 was amazed by these two.
But he thought about it again. In the current circumstances, they only had two other options; drain the examinees out until they could only raise their weapons at them or considerately kill themselves.
Compared to those two options, activating the additional question was the safest option!
154 could only helplessly nod his head.
If the additional exam centre appears, it would only be at the end of the second stage of the exam so time would be extremely tight,
He returned to the invigilator's place to pick up 922 and the two of them went to the information centre to keep an eye on the exam situation and its live reports.
At 14:28, the third arrow flew from a crossbow, striking the very last Mirror Human.
922 shot up like he was shocked, "Now!"
154 issued a command under the guise of the system.
At this moment, the system seemed to have noticed something and the command was paused for a moment. Even if it was just a second, it still brought along great risks.
154's expression instantly changed. He quickly turned to look at the invigilator's message board.
On the board, every invigilator's response to the message would be displayed clearly.
In a room in the invigilator's place, 021's phone sounded and a prompt message appeared:
[Examinee suspected to have violated rules to activate additional question.]
Below that were two options.
[Confirm that it is false information]
[Verified. To be dealt with immediately]
021 was stunned for a moment.
The screen in the restaurant had reported on the circumstances in the exam over the past few days so all the invigilators had a good guess on who the possible culprit could be. This was true for 021 too.
She understood instantly. Her finger instantly tapped [Confirmed that it is false information].
The notice was then sent to the recycle bin. She was however still a little uncomfortable.
Compared to her, 154 and 922 felt more uneasy.
They were worried about the other invigilators.
Back then, A and 001 had secretly worked together to destroy the system. It had failed because the system had noticed their plans at a critical moment. At that time, 154 was still in a state of being deleted by the system's main body so he didn't know much about the specifics.
But he had always believed that it wasn't the system's main body itself that had actually noticed it. Because it involved subtle details between people that couldn't be perceived by a computer program, he felt that the one who noticed it must've been a human.
Only a human would be able to understand those emotions and notice those subtle changes.
Moreover, the system had also undergone a special upgrade during that time. Something like that was definitely done manually by someone.
154 at one time suspected that someone had secretly reported to the system or had casually mentioned something.
He was worried about it being one of the invigilators.
Although he had screened through all the invigilators in this exam, he still felt a little nervous at this very moment.
Ding——-
Notification sounds sounded from all the invigilator's phones.
All the invigilators looked down at their phones.
154 stared at the screen not even daring to breathe.
The next second, a new notice appeared on the screen.
[Invigilator 172 confirmed that it is false information. Sent to the recycle bin.]
[Invigilator 066 confirmed that it is false information. Sent to the recycle bin.]
[Invigilator 115 confirmed that it is false information. Sent to the recycle bin.]
...…..
More than thirty notices appeared in an instant. Every line was similar.
154 was stunned for a while. He finally let out a long sigh of relief.
He suddenly felt that humans are really amazing beings.
They're clearly completely separate entities but when faced with things like this, they would actually respond exactly the same way.
Perhaps this was the reason why they were able to become comrades back then———
This thing called faith and tacit understanding.