BXBX NOVEL Chapter 56.1
Puppet Zhang looked at Bai Liu. “Did you deliberately ask Du Sanying to hang the broken lens outside to lure Brother Thief away? You already knew that there would be a Brother Thief at this station and had Du Sanying lure him away?”
“Yes.” Bai Liu nodded. “I found that the monsters at every station aren’t new but actually came from the previous station.”
Puppet Zhang wondered, “How did you find out?”
Bai Liu raised his eyes. “It is because the number of exploding passengers is increasing at every platform though we have attacked them.”
Puppet Zhang realized. The number of passengers was indeed much higher this time compared to the last station. The increase in monsters would further increase the difficulty for players to steal the broken lenses and escape. It was no wonder that Bai Liu wanted Du Sanying to guide Brother Thief away. If Brother Thief and the increased passengers flocked in together, the players really wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
However, no matter if it was players stealing Brother Thief’s broken lens or players distracting Brother Thief, the survival rate couldn’t be too high. Puppet Zhang’s face became darker and darker. No wonder why all the players who previously played this game were wiped out. This game was really disgusting. Brother Thief appeared when there were still seven stations. This game had seven players in total. Seven players and seven stations. One station would kill exactly one player and they would be wiped out at the last station…
Yet under Bai Liu, they actually arrived at the fourth station without one player dying. In the last station, Mu Sicheng took one step into the ghost gate before being pulled back. This station was Du Sanying…
Tut.
Puppet Zhang glanced at Bai Liu. This guy was really good at using his brain and using people. Du Sanying might be useless but the possibility of him dying or being robbed was very low. Using him to lure away Brother Thief was the best option but—
“Aren’t you worried about Du Sanying being too scared to lure Brother Thief and putting the broken lens in the system backpack?” Puppet Zhang asked with narrowed eyes. “This is a very dangerous thing. How are you sure that Du Sanying won’t escape? if he escapes the battle and Brother Thief turns back to attack us, we are all in danger.”
Bai Liu answered, “I am in a cooperative relationship with him.”
Puppet Zhang understood and was a bit surprised. “Du Sanying’s luck value is 100% yet he is controlled by you?!”
He had tried to control Du Sanying many times but his puppet silk thread couldn’t even touch Du Sanying’s side! It would be interrupted somehow! Du Sanying had a very famous item called ‘Release Control Jacket’. No control skills could penetrate this coat and it was one of the reasons why Puppet Zhang gave up on controlling Du Sanying.
Bai Liu shrugged and smiled. “Perhaps for players like Du Sanying, being controlled by me is a type of luck?”
Puppet Zhang who silently watched as Du Sanying was chased by Brother Thief while crying and calling for his mother, “……”
‘Okay, if you say that this is Du Sanying’s luck…’
The overall gathering of lenses this time was very smooth. Apart from Du Sanying who only had swear words to say, the rest of the group had an incredibly relaxed mood as they found all 40 pieces. Liu Huai and Mu Sicheng were responsible for getting the lenses and couldn’t avoid the fire damage from the passengers, so their health decreased each by 20.
“The use of defense items like the bandage can’t reduce the fire damage.” Mu Sicheng’s clothes were burned, revealing his stained chest and abdominal muscles. His face was also blackened and his hands were sweaty and black. He looked like a coal miner.
Mu Sicheng gasped as he sat on the ground. He raised his bandaged hands to wipe his chest before putting both hands on his knees as he looked up at Bai Liu. “I only have 40 health left. I can hold up for two more stations.”
Liu Huai also wiped the sweat from his chin with the back of his hand, gasping in a tired manner on the ground. “My health is 70 points. I can hold on for three stations.”
Bai Liu mused for a moment. “Everyone, tell me your health. I have 6 points.”
Li Gou said, “65.”
Fang Ke answered, “80.”
Puppet Zhang said, “85.”
Du Sanying, who had been chased the entire time, was strangely silent. After a long time, he gulped. “…100 points.”
Even Bai Liu fell into a speechless silence.
The very sorry-looking Mu Sicheng stared at Du Sanying for a while before opening his mouth. “You were chased so badly yet you didn’t lose a single point of health? Isn’t Brother Thief’s movement speed 1,400? Why weren’t you caught?”
Du Sanying’s guilty eyes widened slightly and he scratched his face. “I was almost caught many times but… he tripped over the seat of the train many times.”
Puppet Zhang was completely speechless. This wasn’t the first time he saw the power of Du Sanying’s luck value but this was too fucking outrageous! The boss was tripped by seats while chasing someone?!
Puppet Zhang exclaimed, “How many times did he trip that you weren’t even caught once?!”
“Just a few hundred times…” Du Sanying answered weakly while looking away.
Bai Liu, Puppet Zhang and Mu Sicheng, “……”
Hundreds of times… Did Brother Thief ever stand up in front of you, Du Sanying?
Before the train stopped at the next station, Bai Liu revealed the battle plan again.
He looked at the LED countdown, turned back to look at the ground behind him and simply gave orders. “There are two minutes to go until the next station. The next station, Li Gou and Liu Huai will be responsible for stealing the fragments. Puppet Zhang and Fang Ke can assist and replace Mu Sicheng. At the station after that, Li Gou and Fang Ke will be the main attackers. The other two will assist. Then it will be Puppet Zhang and Fang Ke. In this way, we will rotate and keep everyone’s health at least above 20. We still have a monster in the monster book that hasn’t appeared. We have to be prepared for the boss fight.”
“Du Sanying, you are still responsible for attracting the attention of Brother Thief.”
Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu with a bit of confusion. “Then what should I do?”
Bai Liu looked calmly into Mu Sicheng’s eyes. “You are responsible for preparing for the boss battle. I absolutely need you in the boss battle. You are very important and the main force against the boss, so you can’t die easily. Your health must at least be above 30.”
Mu Sicheng looked down at his injured self, raised his eyebrow and spread open his hands. “You want me to lower my mental value again and madly fight the boss, right? Do you really regard me as a sheep to collect wool from? I will be delirious if my health keeps going up and down in such a short period of time. Bai Liu, please don’t treat everyone as a monster who can collapse their mental value like you, okay?”
He wasn’t wrong. After his mental value dropped to the single digits and recovered, Mu Sicheng’s eyes started to become dazed. Even if his mental value was restored by Bai Liu’s mental bleach, it had dropped sharply and recovered quickly in a short period of time. The side-effects were still there and Mu Sicheng’s spirit and attention was falling.
Previously when Mu Sicheng was the main one attacking the exploding passengers, he was almost burned to death several times. He was helped by three people and the closely watching Bai Liu managed to barely save him.
Bai Liu’s voice was calm. “Judging from your performance just now, your condition really isn’t good. Thus, I have decided to replace you. Rest from now on and restore your energy. I need you to maintain a high degree of concentration during the boss fight. Take some sleeping pills to sleep and you can sleep for 20 minutes.”
Sleeping pills could be bought from the system store and the effect had always been good. Take one and the person would immediately fall asleep. This was really effective for restoring the mental value. However, Mu Sicheng wanted to laugh after hearing it. He lay back and rested his head on the palms of his folded hands.
Mu Sicheng tilted his head and watched Bai Liu with a smile. “If I fall asleep, who will protect me and ensure my safety? You have arranged for everyone else to grab the fragments.”
Bai Liu looked at him with surprise. “Me.”
Mu Sicheng was so startled that he coughed. Then he sneered and wanted to ridicule him. ‘Bai Liu, you only have a health value of 6 points and you want to protect me.’ Then he met Bai Liu’s plain eyes and his sarcastic words couldn’t be expressed at all. He just scratched his head in an annoyed manner. “You only have 6 health points. Are you joking, Bai Liu…”
Bai Liu didn’t hesitate to explain. “Out of everyone here, only I can guarantee your survival 100%. Do you have any objections to this?”
Mu Sicheng’s eyes swept over the gloomy Puppet Zhang, the crying Du Sanying, Liu Huai who was avoiding his gaze, the other puppets and finally settled on Bai Liu’s unshakable eyes. This guy also had this look in his eyes previously when executing the plan to control Puppet Zhang. ‘I know this is very risky but I won’t change it.’
A few seconds later, Mu Sicheng made a dull sound and finally raised his hands in compromise, surrendering. “Fine, I have no objections.”
“I said that I won’t let you die, Mu Sicheng.” Bai Liu walked over and smiled at Mu Sicheng. It was a soothing and comforting smile that looked hypocritical on Bai Liu’s face, but Mu Sicheng still looked relaxed.
Bai Liu patted Mu Sicheng on the shoulder and sat next to him. “Sleep.”
Mu Sicheng was patted by Bai Liu and involuntarily closed his eyes, relaxing. He was originally very nervous but Bai Liu’s whispered ‘sleep’ was like a spell. Mu Sicheng couldn’t help relaxing his tense muscles and nerves, leaning against the carriage door. He thought that even if he closed his eyes and rested, he would never fall asleep. Falling asleep in a game was too nerve-wracking. It definitely wasn’t something that a highly vigilant person like him could do…
Bonus ko-fi chapter
Proofreader: Purichan