Chapter 207: The Rose Factory

Tang Erda frowned in disbelief, "All it takes is for you to look in the mirror? And you can become exactly like me?"

Su Yang looked up, he smiled and said, "It's that simple, nothing else is needed - just for me to look in the mirror, that's all."

Tang Erda looked to the other player, " Su Yang, you are the support, your attack value is too low, as a decoy you can't even get a hit, you give the prop to ......"

"No Captain." Su Yang looked straight at Tang Erda, something seemed to flicker in her eyes, but the smile on her face was real, "This prop is only for me to use in order to look in the mirror and become you."

"I'm probably the only person in the world who can use this prop like this."

Tang Erda and Su Yang look at each other, Su Yang doesn't look away from Tang Erda - in fact they both know at this moment that it doesn't matter who is the other bait, whether the attack value is high or not.

They were destined to lose.

--The question is just who gets hit by the Joker sniper.

Tang Erda wishes she had been the one to get hit, and the other one, at least, not Su Yang.

Su Yang stood up, he straightened his back and saluted Tang Erda: "Captain! Please let me be your second-in-command, to support you to the last minute!"

Tang Erda is woefully defeated by Su Yang's frank and straightforward gaze, and he feels as if Su Yang has seen through his modest selfishness.

Just as he couldn't stop Su Yang from going to him and following him into the game, he couldn't stop this person from following him - Su Yang became another Tang Erda as he wished.

They split into two, with another team member backing them up from a distance, watching to see which decoy the Joker sniper would choose to strike - with two decoys, the Joker could only choose to roam and surround one, and had to choose to shoot one down, or Tang Erda's firepower would reverse the pressure on the Wandering Circus.

Sure enough, the Joker soon made his choice, and deep down Tang Erda was even relieved to see the peculiar smiling face approaching him - he had become the bait the Joker would eat.

After a tussle, a frenzied suicide attack by Tang Erda that left Muke the Wandering Circus dead, Mu Sicheng badly wounded and ate more than half of Bai Six's bloodied skin, the clown sniper finally seemed to lose it.

After seeing Bai six wounded, the clown disobeyed Bai six's orders and stopped using his skills as a deterrent and raised his gun on Tang Erda.

A greyish flame of light converged at the muzzle in the shape of a skull - Tang Erda realised that this was her opponent unleashing a skill.

A shattered soul? Seems like a good ending, Tang Erda thought as she watched the huge black muzzle of the gun.

He even gave a relaxed smile - at least Su Yang and the other man were safe for the next fifteen minutes.

As long as the game is over in fifteen minutes, win or lose, they'll be fine - just -

Tang Erda's heart thumped twice faster for some reason when he thought of Su Yang's eyes dropping and whispering that he liked him a second before he was shot by the bullet.

It's a good thing he didn't say yes, or Su Yang would have been devastated if he had died.

[System Alert: Player Su Yang plays the skill Spades A Poker, and the skill (Telekinesis) swaps places with player Tang Erda]

Tang Erda will probably never be able to forget the scene that followed.

His kind and upright, lieutenant who even stammered when he lied to help his teammates on lazy leave might have told him that one lie in his life without being seen.

And it was a lie that Tang Erda has remembered to this day.

That Hearts skill card was not one, but a pair, and Su Yang had decided early on that whichever bait the Joker chose, he would block it for him - which is why Su Yang was so determined to come with him.

The white bone whip, thrown from behind, followed Su Yang, who had transformed, shaking it from side to side in a zigzag pattern to stop Su Yang's escape route.

Bai six, having realised that the Joker had sent out his skill, simply didn't waste it and reacted quickly to play this sniping match with the Joker as he whipped off his bone whip and pulled Su Yang by the neck, trapping him in place.

And just a second later, the silver bullet penetrated Su Yang's temple.

Plasma exploded in the face of Tang Erda, who had not yet recovered.

Su Yang instantly shed his Tang Erda shell, his eyes emptying as he changed back to his original form and collapsed to the ground.

He died too quickly, leaving nothing to say to Tang Erda, still holding the playing card that had unleashed his skills, with Tang Erda's likeness in his peach heart.

The only other player at the other end was also surrounded by Liu Jiayi and Mu Sicheng.

Tang Erda was left alone on the field, frozen on her knees in front of Su Yang's corpse, as all the rest of the Roving Circus crew made their way over - the winner was decided.

But all Tang Erda could think of was the sound of that exaggerated pre-match commentary.

-- [Soul Breaker Gun! Who is more powerful, this gun or the Hunter's Revolver? Of course the only thing we can tell is that the Soul Breaker hurts more, after all, people who are hit by the Soul Breaker have a grimace on their face before they die, and they look like they're in excruciating pain! Being hit by a hunter's revolver doesn't produce that look!

Tang Erda's eyes slowly moved down, he didn't want to look at Su Yang's face, but at this point it seemed like a bad idea not to, it was his vice captain, so he did.

Strangely, Su Yang is not grimacing; he wears a serene smile, and with the strangulation marks of a whip on his neck, he looks as if he is lying happily in a pool of blood.

In that moment, Tang Erda understood what Su Yang was thinking - this guy was thinking the same thing as he was before he died.

Once I thought that another person could survive my death, I felt happy about it, a happiness that not even the pain of death, of a broken soul, could conceal - because another person was the most important person in my heart.

[To stand with the captain now is the greatest reward for me!

[Captain! You took time off to drink again! You can't do that even without heresy!

[The captain is already thirty-six, right? Why don't you think about having a family? ...... No thoughts of having a family? =This kind of answer, no wonder you are the most pushed to get married in the team every year ......]

[Me? Why don't I have a family? ...... Probably because ...... the people I like don't have a family in mind either.]

It was at a Heresy Handling Bureau year-end celebration.

Tang Erda took a sip of wine and rather bitterly advised his overly innocent looking lieutenant, "The kind of guy you should give up on before it's too late, just hanging on to you, you're almost thirty and still haven't talked to you about getting married - most likely a scum bag."

A slightly drunk Su Yang leaned against Tang Erda, who squinted and smiled as if he were a small child who had been given candy: "He wasn't hanging on to me, he was just really ...... retarded."

Su Yang hugged Tang Erda drunkenly: "But ...... it's okay, you can't get rid of me, I'll always, always ......"

His eyes drifted closed from intoxication, "-land wait on."

On the borderline, Bai six is ready to deliver the final blow to Tang Erda with his wandering circus, when the hunter finally raises his gun and points it at himself, with the same happy smile as Su Yang, who is lying on the ground.

Tang Erda closed her eyes and murmured as if she were whispering to Su Yang.

"You will not be kept waiting any longer."

[System Alert: Player Tang Erda's core desires have changed - generating a derived attack skill (Russian Carousel)]

[System Alert: Player Tang Erda's skill is locked to himself, because the skill is already locked to the player himself, it is forbidden to lock to himself repeatedly, the target is automatically changed to the player with the heaviest killing intent - Player Bai six]

[System Alert: The reels start spinning ......]

The bullet went through the hunter's head, dramatically hitting the enemy captain, and the Wandering Circus exited the game en masse.

And Tang Erda thus absurdly won the game that cost him everything.

-One man's victory.

The guys didn't care enough about winning this game to give up so easily, they simply got the thrill of the game by playing their opponents.

A gruelling game for Tang Erda was a game that was played with a fair amount of fun for the Rangers.

The gods asked him what his wish was, and the hunter who had won everything looked up with a lax gaze and made a wish that could not be stopped:

[I want everyone, especially Su Yang, to be alive for this game.

The gods asked him: [For this, will you pay any price?

Tang Erda closed his eyes and tears dripped silently down his cheeks: [Yes.

Tang Erda, lying on the floor, looked listlessly at the top of the corridor, as if his soul had drifted far, far away, having to think for a long, long time before he could hear Bai Liu's words and answer them.

Bai Liu asked him, "Is there any point in saving these Su Yang? They're not the Su Yang you wanted to save in the first place, are they?"

"I know that ...... " Tang Erda's dry mouth opened and closed, her tone choked and hoarse, "I know there's no way to get him back, but I'm just resigned to not being able to save Su Yang from you even once. Su Yang."

"Not happy that you get to torture him every time!!!" Tang Erda reluctantly propped himself up from the ground, his face covered in tears as he fell to his knees, holding up a looming silver firearm aimed straight at Bai Liu .

The man's hands are shaking, his body is shaking, Liu Jiayi just checked, Tang Erda probably blew most of her brains out, and now he's standing up and forcing his skills on Bai Liu - in every sense of the word, this guy's willpower is remarkable.

"Only, if I'm still alive." Tang Erda's eyes had begun to glow grey as most of his brain had been blown out, and now he was mostly blind, unable to aim at Bai Liu, and could only shoot around like a headless fly, breaking down and hissing, "You just can't get past me to hurt any innocent people!"

"Bang - bang - bang - !"

Bai Liu stands up, watching calmly from his perch as Tang Erda drops to her knees, stumbles and fumbles for a shot, and then falls helplessly to the ground in a spasmodic struggle as she runs out of energy.

The gun falls a little in front of Tang Erda's finger, flickering and seeming to disappear, but Tang Erda can't feel it anywhere.

A hunter without a gun, a wounded and trapped beast.

Bai Liu walked up to Tang Erda, crouched on one knee and picked up the gun and placed it in Tang Erda's hand, then held Tang Erda's hand and raised the gun to his forehead, his tone nonchalant: "If you want to kill me, you can do it now."

A look of dismay appeared on Tang Erda's face.

"I understand that you don't trust me, and I won't trust you, but from what I've learned, we should be on the same side." Bai Liu lifted his eyes and explained to Tang Erda in a strained manner, "I'm not sure about other world lines, at least this one right now, I have no extra interest in torturing your lieutenant, someone set you up to force me to do what he thinks I should do."

"But not coincidentally, I'm a bit of a rebel and not very willing to go along with people." Bai Liu lifted his eyes, "He wants you to kill me, or me to kill you, so I'll instead have to save you and get this Rose Perfume thing over with, and see what he wants?"

"I can't believe you've been around the world line with me so many times, so you should already have a good idea of my skills, you can distrust me, but you should at least trust me with the deal, breaking the deal won't end well for me myself."

Bai Liu held out his hand to Tang Erda and he smiled, "How about you give me your soul and I'll help you get your wish?"

Tang Erda seems to have sensed Bai Liu's hand reaching out to him, and he barely manages to half-hold up his body and open Bai Liu's hand with all his might.

Tang Erda gasped and viciously drew his gun back from Bai Liu's hand, redirecting it to where he had heard Bai Liu breathing, and said in a single word, " Bai six, do you think I'll believe you just because you say that? Yes, yes, the consequences of your transactional skills breach are indeed serious, but you have not failed to address them."

Bai Liu took a half step back with some regret - this guy really wasn't that easy to convince, too perceptive.

As Tang Erda said, Bai Liu did have a plan to deal with the failure of the deal, and he was not completely unable to deal with that outcome - it seems Tang Erda had indeed been tortured by Bai six many times, and had predicted such things.

Tang Erda struggled to lift most of her face, "looking" at Bai Liu with those grey, dead blue eyes, the gun raised in her hand wavering slightly, "I will never work with a monster."

Bai Liu asked softly and rhetorically, "Captain Tang, what makes you so sure that I am a monster, or a living heretic?"

"Do I look, in any way, very different from normal people?"

Tang Erda took a deep breath and leaned against the wall for a couple of laboured gasps before she could continue, "Of course it's not the same, you're just a monster in normal human skin, blending in with ordinary life!"

"In other world lines, the Bureau of Heresy Processing distinguishes between living heretics, that is, monsters that look exactly like normal people on the outside, and normal living people, who use a prop." Tang Erda had a very twisted expression on her face, "A prop you are also familiar with, the Murphy Theorem Magic Mirror you just used on me."

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, "Really? That's the first time I've heard this mirror used to distinguish between monsters and the living."

Tang Erda says: "This mirror allows a man to see what he fears most, and monsters have nothing to fear because they have no emotions, no heart, and their souls are all filled bodies of desire, knowing only to attack and plunder."

"We've done this test on you in almost every world line except this one, and in every one of them you have nothing to fear, nothing in this mirror when you stand in front of it! Not even yourself!"

Tang Erda choked and coughed violently because of the intensity of her speech.

His mouth was full of blood and foam and he slid down the wall, but the gun was still pointed at Bai Liu.

"This weakness of yours, water, is all something we've ripped out of your experience, but for you, water doesn't even rise to the level of fear as an emotion, it's just annoying at best."

"The same reason you can be unaffected by me making this cloister out of two mirrors is because this mirror doesn't work on you at all, right- Bai six, you monster who has no fear of anything."

"I'm never going to make a deal with you." Said Tang Erda, about to pull the trigger again.

This time Bai Liu stood directly opposite him and instead of dodging, he moved closer to Tang Erda, to the point where he was almost face to face with him, and reached out to grasp the muzzle of his gun.

"There is oh." Bai Liu lowered his eyes, his lashes flicking imperceptibly, "The fear thing, I do have."

"Do you want to see it?"

Tang Erda was truly stunned this time.

Meanwhile, Liu Jiayi, who was standing outside the door, took out the diary again and flipped through it with his head down.

Qi Yifang was stopped at the door by Liu Jiayi and now that she was looking at the diary again, she poked her head in a bit curiously, "Little witch, haven't you already read it once? Are there any more clues to the game in there?"

"No more." Liu Jiayi continued to turn without looking up, "It's not a game, I'm determining the trajectory of that godlike NPC."

Qi Yifang is at a loss again: "????"

What's this again? What's with the godly NPCs again?

Liu Jiayi's finger rests under the handwriting in his diary, wrinkling his brow to check the trajectory of the idol -

-appeared in the seaside town, then transferred to the orphanage and finally purchased for this rose factory.

Yes, the path of this idol roughly matches several of the games in which the godlike NPCs appear, in the order in which they are described in this journal, namely Siren Town, The Loving Home and this one, The Rose Factory.

Liu Jiayi's expression turns sullen - but there's one thing that doesn't add up.

One more game in which godlike npc's appear - The Mirror City Bombing.

According to the trajectory path given in this diary, there is no way this idol could have made it onto the underground - at first it had been worn in a museum in some isolated seaside town, then it was transferred directly to an orphanage via a lorry, and later it was all purchased by this psychotic generation of factory managers, cut up and buried in a field of roses.

That is, if the idol represented a god-level NPC, the idol would have remained in the orphanage at the time of the underground bombing in Mirror City, and would not have appeared on the underground at all.

According to the correspondence that a god statue appears in reality before a god-level npc appears in the game, there shouldn't be any god-level npc in Burst Last Train either.

In other words, what appeared on the underground should not be a real idol, or a god-level NPC, but simply a magic mirror.

Why can Bai Liu see godlike npc's in the game through that mirror?

The power of that mirror, she remembered, was-

Liu Jiayi slammed the diary shut and she looked back at the closed corridor with a stunned expression.

-- She knew why Bai Liu could see godlike NPCs in the mirror of the bursting last train.

Bai Liu must have been afraid of godly npc's and then after gazing into the mirror, saw the godly npc he was afraid of through his mirror skill!

"That's not right." Liu Jiayi mumbled strangely to herself as she rubbed her chin, " Bai Liu, that guy, doesn't look like he's afraid of God-level NPCs, does he? Then what is he afraid of, and why can he see God-level NPCs in the mirror?"

"If it's not fear of godly npc's per se, is it possible that it's fear of some state of godly npc's?"

Liu Jiayi meditated with her hands on her head as she tried to remember what she saw in the video: "I remember Bai Liu in the video for 'Explosive Last Train', at the beginning when she saw Tavel, the other person was like floating in the water, with her hair spread out, and then her face looked like - -"

In the corridor, Bai Liu has a disturbing emotion in his eyes, but strangely, his expression is incredibly calm, but Tang Erda, who is approached by such a calm Bai Liu, has the illusion that she is uncontrollably infected by Bai Liu's emotions.

Tang Erda sensed in Bai Liu a deep, unmistakable negative emotion that he knew all too well - the pain and fear that had torn him apart at the sight of Su Yang's body.

Tang Erda can't even resist the urge to back away from Bai Liu's proximity as the similarity of emotions looms.

But he was too weak, and Bai Liu easily caught Tang Erda's jaw in his right tiger's mouth, held Tang Erda's gun away from him with his left hand, and then closed in strongly.

Bai Liu whispers in Tang Erda's ear as if he were whispering, in a tone as careless as if he were telling a lie.

" Captain Tang, I really have something that scares me."

"I grew up afraid to see someone close their eyes in front of me and never open them again."