Chapter 206: The Rose Factory

After milking Tang Erda until she looked less weak, from about one breath to two, Liu Jiayi stopped just in time - she didn't dare to revive the big guy after she'd made him lose his strength.

"And then what?" Liu Jiayi raised an eyebrow at Bai Liu, "What are you going to do?"

Bai Liu sat down casually cross-legged beside Tang Erda: "It's rare to get him to settle down, ready to talk to him."

"And then we'll talk about a win-win deal." Bai Liu smiles as he looks at Liu Jiayi.

Liu Jiayi took two silent steps back at the sight of Bai Liu's smile, then rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and looked at Tang Erda, who was still unconscious, with a little pity.

--Poor fool, he's about to be conned by Bai Liu.

Qi Yifang's terrified voice comes from far away, and he seems to be running this way, having just been frightened by the big transformation between Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu, the outsider who is still keeping track of the numbers and is only now coming back to his senses and heading down the corridor.

Liu Jiayi put away the antidote and stood up, "I'll go outside and stop Qi Yifang, you have fifteen minutes to deal with this whatever Tang is, is that enough time?"

Bai Liu leans against the wall in the corridor and lazily raises his hand in an OK gesture.

Liu Jiayi turned to leave, and without looking back she tossed Bai Liu a bottle of antidote: "Take care of yourself before you take care of others."

"Shame on you for taking my skill panel and still hurting like that."

Bai Liu raised his hand to wipe the blood that was sliding down the corner of his mouth, caught the antidote Liu Jiayi tossed to him, and said with a smile, "Thank you."

He did have Liu Jiayi's witch panel, but Bai Liu himself had almost run out of stamina in the confrontation with Tang Erda, and hadn't had time to replenish it before he could use Liu Jiayi's skills.

Not to mention that Bai Liu, being a player at heart, is indeed not very sensitive to his own life expectancy.

If Liu Jiayi hadn't been so alert to Bai Liu's low life and thrown him an antidote, Bai Liu would have been negotiating with Tang Erda on his meagre three life points.

If Tang Erda is on the brink of death and rebels, there is a real possibility that something will happen to him.

The little witch waved her hand impatiently and walked away.

Bai Liu and Tang Erda are the only two remaining opponents in the dark and drab corridor, having fought a vicious battle.

Bai Liu drank the antidote and stamina restorer to bring his panel back to full, before getting close enough to pat Tang Erda's bloodied face.

Tang Erda's face was half full of blood from his own suicide bullet, and there was so much blood flowing from underneath that his breathing and heartbeat were almost inaudible.

Now that Bai Liu has slapped him with such a relentless hand, Tang Erda's eyes faintly open a little, the pale blue light filtering through his eyes, the only brightness in this dark corridor.

The moment he saw Bai Liu, Tang Erda's blood-soaked fingers moved reflexively, as if to summon a gun, but eventually let go - he no longer had the strength to fight.

All he could do was stare at Bai Liu with blood-stained blue eyes dead on, seemingly trying to roll over and grab Bai Liu's ankles, and say, laboriously, word for word, "...... Let go of ...... Su Yang ......"

"Actually, I'm curious." Bai Liu didn't dodge, instead he leaned in closer to Tang Erda and looked straight at her without dodging, "I saw in the mirror that the Su Yang who set you on your quest to kill me in the first place must be dead already, even her soul has disappeared, no?"

Tang Erda's pupils jerked as she tried to grab Bai Liu.

Bai Liu calmly continued, "No matter what, even if in the end your wish is granted, everyone is saved, and I in every timeline die and stop plaguing others, won't the Su Yang that you wanted to save the most still not return?"

"So what's the point of your hunt for me?"

Tang Erda, lying on the floor like a dead statue, was motionless, with only his fingers curled together as if trying to squeeze them into a fist, but he was too tired.

Tang Erda can't even make a fist, she can only stare blankly at the black ceiling of the corridor, her head filled with a myriad of voices.

[...... Terrible opponents, the dreaded Wandering Circus, because of the presence of the clowns, many people simply don't have the courage to fight them! A voice narrated impassionedly, [But the other team in today's final match was clearly not such a coward, as they bravely took on the Roving Circus!

You know the Joker Sniper's skill is the Soul Crusher! This is not a secret among all of us players, it was released by their captain Bai six by default.

[This is a rather terrifying skill that has caused many teams to choose to surrender before the confrontation - because once hit by a clown sniper, even the soul will shatter into a million pieces in a flash!

[The people who experienced that pain themselves can no longer tell us about it, because they have all left this world, but that is not the most terrible thing about the soul-crushing gun, the most terrible thing about this gun is that-]

[- It will kill a person completely, without any possibility of being resurrected, completely and utterly disappearing from the world].

[Even if time starts over, even if the mountains and seas are reversed, there is absolutely no way they can be resurrected].

[For his soul is completely gone].

[Today! As we learned through our previous interviews, the main target of the Wandering Circus Clown Sniper is the captain of the other team, Mr. Hunter, who is also a gunner! Looks like we get to enjoy a fierce confrontation and clash between top players of the same skill!

The background noise of the field, the bright lights spilling from the top of nowhere, the cheering and whistling crowd, and the other team coming towards them from afar.

Liu Jiayi, Mu Sicheng and Muke stand in various slouching poses on either side of Bai six, who is wearing a cheeky clown's mask and standing behind him with a gentle smile on his face.

Bai six looked at him with amusement, reached out to shake his hand before the start of the game and said something that Tang Erda has never been able to get out of her head until now.

Bai six smiled and said, "There's something about you that I don't have, Mr. Hunter, and I'm curious about you."

"I'd like to know the circumstances under which you'd drop something like that."

And Tang Erda alertly drew back her hand, "Whatever it is you're talking about, I don't throw it away easily."

"Oh, yeah?" Bai six had the same polite smile on his face, he swept a meaningful glance at Su Yang standing behind Tang Erda and the smile on his face deepened slightly, "Mr. Hunter, it's best to ban intra-team romance, it's not appropriate for the team."

Tang Erda was stunned, and behind him Su Yang's face changed slightly.

Bai six waved his finger as if he hadn't said anything, and turned away with a smile on his face.

"Team love?" Tang Erda turned to Su Yang with a frown of confusion, "Aren't all of us guys on the team? How can someone fall in love within the team?"

Su Yang's face paled for a moment, and he looked up at Tang Erda for a long, long time before finally smiling helplessly, as if in a kind of compromising admission of defeat.

He lifted his pale eyes to look tenderly at Tang Erda, took a deep breath and let it out again slowly, and said softly as if he were mentally prepared to take the blame for his mistake, "He was talking about me, Captain."

"I liked you, I didn't even plan to tell you, I was going to keep it a secret until I died." Su Yang lowered her eyes and smiled, "Unfortunately, Bai six saw it coming."

"Su Yang from the first world line has a crush on you, doesn't she?" Bai Liu looked down at Tang Erda and said, "I saw it in the mirror, you're so dumb, can't you see that Su Yang likes you with those eyes?"

What men fear is not only the things they fear, but what lurks beneath them, the unthinking happiness they once missed.

Su Yang is always looking into Tang Erda's light-coloured eyes, is always the best support on the field as Tang Erda attacks fastest, blushes slightly when she is gauged as Tang Erda's sage, and then quickly looks at Tang Erda's panicked expression as she looks confused and explains.

They were the best duo in the tournament that year, beating out the other perennial number one duo, and as Tang Erda stood on the victory podium with a smile on her shoulder, he turned to Su Yang and asked her what she wanted as a reward.

Tang Erda knew that Su Yang had really put in a lot of effort and trained herself for a long time in order to be able to catch up with him and work with him.

Tang Erda rightly feels she should reward her excellent subs.

Su Yang just tilted his head and looked at him for a long, long time, as if victory didn't appeal to him as much as a sideways glance from Tang Erda, and then Su Yang arched his eyes and put on a very, very happy and bright smile, and he said-

--being able to stand with the captain right now is the biggest reward for me.

--I hope that the next time the captain encounters something, he won't carry it alone and can just think of me.

[I want to be the captain's trusty lieutenant all the time.]

Su Yang always says this, always following silently behind Tang Erda, who can't hide from him, can't shake him, and he always turns around to see the look in Su Yang's eyes standing behind him asking what he needs.

Su Yang will always be his best vice-captain and he has never bothered to think about why that is.

When Tang Erda finally realised it, it was too late, his mind was blank after Su Yang's confession, his face still serious and saying he would seriously consider it, but his heart was already in a panic.

Su Yang just waved her hand and smiled indifferently, saying that the captain didn't need to care, just pretend that I never said that, if Bai six hadn't brought it up on purpose, I wouldn't have spoken up now.

-- Consider my words later when you have time, I just thought ......

Su Yang looked back against the light amidst the cheers of the field, still with that gentle smile on his face, but somehow there was a lingering sadness in that smile.

-- It was just that moment just now, Captain, when you asked me, that I suddenly felt that if I didn't talk to you now, I might not really have a chance.

With the stray circus on the field pressing hard and the presence of the clown sniper, their side was too scared to make a move and Tang Erda was going to use herself as bait to lure the clown sniper into shooting.

As long as the Joker fired once, they would have at least fifteen minutes of each other's skills on cooldown to act to their heart's content.

But the Joker had no idea what orders he was taking from Bai six, a guy who was always impulsive and crazy, but this time, no matter how much Tang Erda provoked him, he just wandered around the periphery, putting a lot of pressure on Tang Erda and the others.

Soon Tang Erda understood Bai six's intentions - this guy was going to play a tug-of-war!

Bai six's players have a higher panel than Tang Erda's new generation, and there's no advantage in waiting for their stamina slots to run out.

Tang Erda was leaning against the wall with his teeth gritted, he had already lost two players to the opposing team.

But the bait isn't enough and the clowns aren't biting!

"Captain." Su Yang, who had been silent, suddenly looked up and he said, "I'll be the decoy too."

"No." Tang Erda flatly denied, "You can't be the bait, the Joker is mainly targeting me to roam and he won't shoot if you go out there."

"Their target is indeed you Captain." Su Yang smiled as he held up a Hearts A skill card, "But it's not like I don't have a way to completely turn into you Captain, this is a prop I won from a player called Hearts that can completely turn me into ...... you in my mind without anyone seeing the break."

Tang Erda frowned, "What are the conditions of use for this prop?"

"A mirror." Su Yang lowered his eyes, his lashes fluttering softly, "All it takes is a mirror that allows me to see myself, and I can become you."