SB Ch10: Reversal of the good and evil

Chapter 10: Have you ever seen a horror movie?

Yang Ming’s move didn’t surprise An Wujiu at all.

For him, in a situation where his own health bars were running low, people with high combat power but low survival value had only one use—to become his weapon in duels.

There was more than one way to build a faction. Besides enticement, there was also intimidation.

Now almost all the advantages in the room were concentrated in his hands alone. Just those openly on his side already included Liu Chengwei, and his conversation with Ueno in the corridor had also been seen—there was an 80% chance they had connections.

Someone with Ueno’s timid and cowardly personality should have been the type Yang Ming valued least, but he was willing to meet with him privately. The greater possibility was that they had a red line relationship between them.

But specifically who had a crush on whom was still unknown.

Obviously, Lao Yu and Shen Ti, who Yang Ming pushed out disregarding their lives, very likely had no red or black line relationship. If they did, it could only be a black line.

Even if Shen Ti betrayed him and chose to duel with Yang Ming, Yang Ming with 3 health bars combined with Liu Chengwei’s 7 health bars and Ueno’s 5 health bars totaled 15 health bars, almost double Shen Ti’s health bar count.

Shen Ti was a smart person who knew how to hide—he wouldn’t do that.

“What? Unwilling?” Yang Ming took a step closer to him. “Don’t tell me you also sympathize with him? Like his face?”

Hearing this, Shen Ti shrugged, humming a tune as he walked out of the darkness.

Seeing him step forward, An Wujiu’s emotions barely fluctuated.

Although they had spent some time together in the rest room corridor earlier, this was ultimately a survival battle. Even the closest friends had moments when they crossed swords, let alone strangers who’d met once.

Self-preservation was never wrong.

Shen Ti brushed past An Wujiu, who had barely managed to stand up, and with a jump, leaped directly into the red duel threshold.

The corner of Yang Ming’s mouth hooked up, his eyes showing barely concealed contempt. He glanced at An Wujiu, staring at that face that looked pure and kind, his gaze turning cold.

“Today’s duel threshold belongs to you.”

An Wujiu slowly stepped into the crimson duel threshold, standing opposite Shen Ti. After clearly realizing the fact that no one would help him, he actually felt a sense of relief.

The Guanyin on the mechanical mask still wore that compassionate expression. Shen Ti turned his head, shook his hands, and very seriously did warm-up exercises.

An Wujiu made no movements at all.

“He’s going to get beaten again.” Wu You’s voice was very small, his tone complex. He looked at the eight complete health bars above Shen Ti’s head.

This was only the first day.

At this moment, Wu You truly understood what Zhong Yirou meant. If there were no duels and victory was determined purely by health bar calculations, perhaps someone would be willing to bet their only 4 health bars on An Wujiu, just to buy a favor. If An Wujiu was really as strong as Yang Ming said, he might even be able to pick a side.

But this duel involved real combat—injuries, bloodshed. Others didn’t have much medicine either. Rashly picking a side would only bring trouble.

Moreover, the opponent was Shen Ti—Wu You had absolutely no reason to stand against him.

“Are there other characters joining the duel?”

The system asked. Wu You observed his surroundings. Only Lao Yu seemed to want to participate, but he hesitated for a long time, wavering.

“Can you back out after joining?” Wu You asked this question for him.

The system answered, “Choosing to join confirms your faction and cannot be reversed. Please make your decision carefully.”

“Got it, I’m not joining.” After Wu You answered, he saw Lao Yu also pull his foot back.

He was probably connected by a red line to someone in the duel threshold, but from his own perspective, it could only be a connection to An Wujiu.

But in the current situation, even if he wanted to help, there were too many people on the other side. The duel was destined to be disadvantageous.

“Confirmed no other characters participating.”

After declaring the duel threshold sealed, a weapon selection bar appeared above. Their fates rolled in a small grid for several seconds before settling.

“This round’s weapons—Shen Ti: Long Blade; An Wujiu: Steel Rod.”

In an instant, blue data fragments appeared before both of them, gradually merging into their respective weapons.

Seeing Shen Ti’s long blade, An Wujiu’s hands began to tremble again. Moreover, his breathing also became difficult.

Liu Chengwei below the stage mercilessly mocked, “An Wujiu, you might as well just stand there and let Shen Ti slash you a few times. Save some energy, or you won’t even be able to walk out of this room.”

“This round’s duel—”

Both raised their hands to grasp their weapons.

Before the holy voice could announce the start, Shen Ti in the duel threshold directly extended both hands, raising them high in a pause gesture.

“Wait a moment.”

He spoke for the first time.

This strange action left everyone present confused. Only Zhong Yirou widened her eyes.

“Well, so he’s not mute after all.”

An Wujiu was quite puzzled, but Shen Ti before him had already walked to his front. His guard instantly went up, but unexpectedly, the other party extended both arms toward him.

“Let me hug you.” The masked Shen Ti’s tone carried a hint of laughter, his voice deep and pleasant, making An Wujiu feel at a loss. “Friendship first, competition second.”

Injured all over, he was just embraced lightly by Shen Ti. The other was a head taller than him, and with one arm around him, he was completely encircled in his embrace. Those hands wearing black gloves even gently patted his back.

At first it was normal.

Then suddenly something was wrong.

At a certain moment, An Wujiu’s heart transmitted unprecedented pain, as if a sharp chainsaw had been stabbed directly into it, rotating at high speed, drilling his heart into a bloody mess.

Shen Ti’s breath still haunted him like a ghost.

“I’ll make this quick.”

His chest felt as if it had been violently torn open and dug out, his organs exposed alive to the air. This was completely different from the previous wrist injury—he could clearly feel every bit of pain, like a living person.

Seeing An Wujiu’s abnormal expression, Shen Ti was puzzled for a moment.

But it was only a few seconds.

While An Wujiu was immersed in pain for half a second, Shen Ti, who had given a friendly hug the moment before, decisively launched a sneak attack. The hilt of the long blade struck hard against An Wujiu’s uninjured wrist.

The pain and muscular reaction caused the steel rod in An Wujiu’s hand to fall. Shen Ti’s toe flicked and lifted it, the steel rod bounced upward, caught by his hand, then thrown backward.

With a clang, the steel rod fell where An Wujiu couldn’t reach it.

Weapon confiscated. Next, Shen Ti’s every move almost pushed An Wujiu to a dead end. Side kicks, diagonal slashes—the health bars above An Wujiu’s head rapidly depleted.

“He’s so strong too.” Ueno said in a small voice.

“Strange…” While everyone exclaimed, across the crimson light screen, Zhong Yirou showed a thoughtful expression. “He’s attacking so fiercely, why isn’t he using the blade?”

Although Shen Ti’s attack rhythm was very fast, it wasn’t the same as Liu Chengwei’s fatal strike tactics. He didn’t seem to intend to take An Wujiu’s life.

The pain made An Wujiu’s body sluggish, forced to retreat continuously, struggling to breathe. He didn’t understand why—when Liu Chengwei attacked him before, he hadn’t felt pain.

The previous wounds seeped blood again, dripping onto the floor drop by drop.

Enduring the intense pain like his heart being stripped away, An Wujiu tried to block, but one hand couldn’t match two arms. Estimating the distance with his eyes, An Wujiu guessed without looking back that he was about to be forced against the light screen.

Once he truly had his back against it, he would have no room left.

An Wujiu raised his hand to punch. Shen Ti prepared to withdraw his leg to receive it, but in an instant caught nothing—it was just An Wujiu’s feint. His upper abdomen was kicked by An Wujiu, and in a flash, the other had already escaped, flashing behind Shen Ti.

Suddenly, his neck was circled from behind by An Wujiu’s single arm, the strength of the arm exceeding his imagination. For an instant he almost suffocated. “Wait wait wait I can’t breathe! Cough! Cough cough…”

Could the left hand also be a mechanical skeleton?

An Wujiu paid no attention. The thick smell of blood spread through the air. He kicked Shen Ti’s right hand, forcing him to release his fingers. The long blade fell, emitting a humming metallic resonance.

An Wujiu predicted Shen Ti would elbow strike, because he didn’t belong to the brute strength type, so he stepped back to prepare to directly pull Shen Ti down. But unexpectedly, Shen Ti directly grabbed his left hand and with a major throw, slammed the severely injured An Wujiu hard to the ground.

But he didn’t have another hand to block Shen Ti’s counterattack.

The fall made his entire body emit metallic resonance, his eardrums about to shatter. An Wujiu’s heart intensely ached again.

His back was completely soaked with sweat.

“His health bar only has the last sliver left.” Ueno watched with cold sweat, only wanting to pray he would never enter this terrifying duel threshold. “It’s going to zero again.”

The next counterattack point…

Closest to them was Shen Ti’s long blade.

But this intention was discovered by Shen Ti at the same time. He quickly crouched down, and at the instant An Wujiu tried to turn sideways and reach out, grabbed his long hair fiercely and scooped up the long blade.

Shen Ti’s wrist turned several times, the black hair climbing around his wrist like vines. With a fierce pull, Shen Ti yanked An Wujiu into his embrace, forcibly pulling him in.

His chest was a vast horizon. An Wujiu’s heart was the sun on the verge of death, beating frantically and vibrantly.

Desperately making its final sound.

Could An Wujiu really just be a fragile ordinary person?

The last sliver of health—might as well be decisive.

He raised the long blade.

But the next second, the blade in his hand and the person in his arms…

Both disappeared.

Intense pain came from his wrist. With a crack, Shen Ti’s wrist was dislocated alive. The next moment, he felt the tense left hand suddenly relax.

The black long hair gripped in his hand was cut clean through.

Raising his head, Shen Ti saw that the guy who was just one step away from being cornered had returned to a safe distance. The other lowered his brows and eyes, floating hair slightly covering his cheek.

He heard sobbing, saw that person’s eye corners reddened from tears, blood vessels under the skin dilating, the flushed neck turning the flower on his neck side into a pink peony.

Why was he crying?

An Wujiu’s tears fell beautifully. Transparent teardrops slid to the corner of his mouth, flowing into the blood stains, pale lips and jawline—everything was just right. Even his furrowed brows had an exquisite fragility.

“It… hurts.” He spoke in a dull tone, slowly raising the back of his left hand to wipe away the tears on his cheek.

Only then did Shen Ti feel the intense pain in his wrist, but he couldn’t open his fingers, tightly gripping An Wujiu’s severed hair.

“It hurts so much.”

Just three words, but his tone had completely changed.

In an instant, everyone noticed something was wrong.

On that clean, beautiful face was a smile as crazy as a cultist’s. He held the long blade that originally belonged to Shen Ti, the blade tip pointed straight at his throat.

“You like my hair that much?”

“I’ll give it to you as a souvenir.”

An Wujiu laughed neurotically, unable to stop, his disheveled hair half-covering his eyes.

This laugh didn’t seem like a laugh—it was the sound of fingernails scraping across metal, making one’s hair stand on end.

This sudden change didn’t surprise Shen Ti, and even made him somewhat delighted. He stared at An Wujiu, watching blood drip from his chin.

A nosebleed.

An Wujiu realized it too. He raised his hand to wipe away the flowing blood with the back of his hand, red blood smeared directly on his cheek, but he was still laughing. “Sorry, I seem to be like this when I get excited.”

Then his smile stopped in an instant. He used his blood-stained left index finger to wipe away the remaining tears at the corner of his eye, his tone gentle, even with a bit of the pleasing manner habitual to the weak.

“By the way, how did my kind appearance look? Do you still like it?”

His wrist lifted.

Everyone outside the duel threshold held their breath at the movement full of killing intent.

The next second, the teasing blade tip cut the connection. Shen Ti’s button fell with a sound, rolling bloodily to An Wujiu’s feet.

“I’m so annoying. How strange—how did I become like that just now?”

The smile on his face stopped. He took a deep breath of the sweet-smelling air, exhaled, blew away the hair in front of his eyes. “Maybe I’m sick.”

Finished speaking, An Wujiu bit one end of the thread with his teeth and pulled hard, expressionlessly tightening the suture line of the wound. Blood flowed down his white arm, dripping onto the ground drop by drop.

But he didn’t even furrow his brow.

“I spent ten thousand holy coins to fix this. Stitching it again is very expensive.” An Wujiu stared at the wound, muttering to himself.

Shen Ti stared at him.

This person was, as he thought, very wrong.

He wanted to try again. But before he could kick, An Wujiu predicted his next move.

“Let’s fight later.” He also made a pause gesture, then tugged at his hair with his left hand, as if tidying his appearance, then walked forward a few steps. Across a layer of blood-colored light screen, he looked at the onlookers, wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his blood-stained hand, and grinned what he thought was a friendly smile. “Got a cigarette?”

Everyone froze in place.

The An Wujiu before their eyes seemed to have completely become a different person.

This face was no longer perpetually calm—now it was full of dramatically vivid life. He was asking for cigarettes like a madman at the moment of life and death, with only a thread of health remaining.

But his face, his body hadn’t changed at all. He was still the same An Wujiu, even his memories were continuous.

Ueno, closest to the duel threshold, was somehow frightened by him and stepped back half a step, stammering, “N-no, Mr. An.”

His gaze swept over everyone. An Wujiu’s face showed disappointment. “None of you have any…” He pursed his lips. “What about e-cigarettes? Amphetamines? If nothing else, cocoa butter substitute will do.”

Zhong Yirou noticed his speech speed was different from before—it had become fluent and rapid.

Silence and retreat were the only answers An Wujiu received. He felt bored, irritably rolled his eyes. “If you don’t have any, you can exchange for them, you bunch of poor…”

Before finishing, An Wujiu suddenly turned around, as if possessing precognition, dodging Shen Ti’s attack.

The steel rod struck hard on the sealed light screen of the duel threshold. Data fragments shattered like exploding glass shards, then quickly recovered with a buzzing sound.

At this moment, An Wujiu finally faced his opponent seriously.

He raised his hand, supporting his temple, as if remembering something, and walked toward Shen Ti. “Oh, I almost forgot. You just told me you’d make it quick, right?”

Hooking up the corner of his mouth, An Wujiu’s peach blossom eyes curved into crescents. He paced around to Shen Ti’s back, leaning close to his left ear and explaining in a small voice, “Sorry, my brain has a problem. It doesn’t work very well.”

The laughter in his tone was bone-chilling.

The next second, An Wujiu came behind Shen Ti, pressing the blade tip against his spine, using that childlike expression to ask a completely unrelated question. “By the way, have you all seen horror movies?”

“I especially like watching them, especially in those virtual reality theaters. It’s very exciting—you can feel the ghost right behind you.” An Wujiu even shuddered, as if just thinking about it was terrifying.

“Wearing masks…” He extended his finger, the fingertip slowly sliding across Shen Ti’s right shoulder. “You know… what’s the time-tested technique horror movies use to scare audiences?”

The entire duel room was unnaturally quiet.

An Wujiu leaned close to Shen Ti’s right ear, answering on his own.

“Jump scare.”

Finished speaking, An Wujiu suddenly extended both hands, making a frightening expression, emitting sounds imitating wild beasts, but it wasn’t scary at all—it was even somewhat cute.

Naturally, Shen Ti wasn’t scared by him.

“How was it?” An Wujiu circled back step by step to Shen Ti’s front, hands behind his back. “Did I imitate it well?”

“Imitate what?” Shen Ti’s voice was deep.

An Wujiu laughed. “Your sneak attack just now. Wasn’t it cute? I haven’t encountered such a cute sneak attack in a long time.”

A children’s version of jump scare.

He laughed endlessly, like a child amused by a comedian’s little trick. The hand holding the weapon drooped, relaxed without any defense. While laughing, he said to Shen Ti, “Since you’re so cute, let me teach you…”

Just when everyone didn’t know how to react, An Wujiu’s smile disappeared in an instant.

“What a real jump scare is.”

A cold gleam flashed. The silver long blade struck out with completely irresistible force and uncatchable speed.

He raised his hand and slashed fiercely toward Shen Ti’s head.

Crack.

The crack split open.

Snap—

The false Guanyin statue made of biochemical materials and machinery broke into two halves, falling to the ground. What appeared was an extremely handsome face.

An Wujiu stared at him, a delighted light flooding his eyes, but his expression was so innocent.

“Ah, did I scare you?”

“I’m really sorry. It’s just that from the first moment I saw you, I was very curious what you looked like.”

His black short hair was disheveled from combat, stuck to his forehead with sweat. His skin tone was slightly darker than An Wujiu’s, bone structure three-dimensional, good-looking, features exquisite and sharp. A blood-drop-sized ruby was embedded between his brows, coral bead earrings swaying from his earlobes. His entire person exuded an intense exotic feeling.

Most unique were those eyes—the pupil color was between tsavorite and paraiba tourmaline, a transparent and subtle blue-green.

Humans often liked to carve the gods they believed in to look like this.

Hooking up the corner of his mouth, An Wujiu glanced at the long hair Shen Ti still gripped tightly. The gleaming blade tip slowly moved upward along Shen Ti’s facial contour, as if caressing.

“Chinese people value reciprocity. Since you have taken my hair…”

“Shouldn’t you give me a pair of eyes in return?”

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