Chapter 79

"My mood is very good today," Yuan Lan suddenly said.

Ji Chuanze looked at him, somewhat confused, not knowing why he said that.

"Therefore, I've decided to give you a chance to escape." Yuan Lan raised a hand towards Ji Chuanze, his five fingers slightly splayed. "Next, I'll count down from 5. When I reach 1, I'll kill you. In the meantime, run as far as you can. So, I'll start counting down now, 5—"

He began counting down on his own, completely disregarding whether Ji Chuanze would cooperate.

"What?" Ji Chuanze was startled.

Yuan Lan's golden eyes, as if cast from gold, curved, and a thick malice almost overflowed as he continued to count down: "4—1!"

He actually skipped two numbers and went straight to 1!

At the same time as Yuan Lan counted down, Ji Chuanze reacted and immediately tossed the black wooden scabbard he held in his right hand. He switched to holding the hilt with his right hand and swung it forcefully.

The Tang Hengdao unsheathed half an inch from its tight scabbard under Ji Chuanze's swing. He then kicked the exposed mouth of the scabbard, sending it flying.

Yuan Lan had counted to 1, and Ji Chuanze's Tang Hengdao was already unsheathed.

"Time's up!" Yuan Lan snapped his fingers with a happy expression, and several puppet threads attacked Ji Chuanze.

Xiao 6 shouted, "He didn't count 3 and 2, how shameless!"

Ji Chuanze threw away the milk tea bag he was carrying in his left hand, gripped his horizontal blade, and charged forward, his gray eyes fixed on the incoming puppet threads.

He wielded his blade with swift precision.

The strong and flexible puppet threads were deflected to the side by the horizontal blade, but they did not break. Instead, they bent into a "V" shape with the force transferred from the blade's contact.

Ji Chuanze let out a "tsk."

Seeing this, Bai Xuechao felt a little relieved.

Ji Chuanze's special ability wasn't entirely useless against the puppet threads. Although the threads didn't break, they stopped the attack, and that was enough. Moreover, if all went as expected, Ji Chuanze would then use his special power to enhance his blade's attack power, making it quite possible to cut through the puppet threads.

He asked Xiao 6, "How much longer until the protagonist group arrives?"

Xiao 6 quickly checked the protagonist group's activity log and, after rapid calculation, replied, "The protagonist group is coming back by car. They should be downstairs in about two minutes!"

Bai Xuechao let out an "oh."

"Two minutes, Ji Chuanze, hang in there. Don't die."

However, he was a little surprised that Ji Chuanze hadn't escaped. Was it because of Jiang Yunyi's order?

Yuan Lan released Bai Xuechao, raised one foot and placed it on the backrest of the sofa chair. With a slight push, he stepped onto it, standing on the backrest and looking down at Ji Chuanze, who was fighting his puppet threads.

Ji Chuanze was surrounded by dense puppet threads, like prey caught in a spiderweb.

He infused a large amount of special power into the horizontal blade in his hand, dodged a whipping puppet thread by turning his body, then leaped backward, avoiding two puppet threads that were stabbing towards his calves. He kept his hands moving, bringing his blade down to cut a puppet thread that had intercepted him as if it had foreseen his movements.

Under his greatly enhanced attack, the puppet thread was finally severed.

"Oh? It broke." Yuan Lan raised an eyebrow, finally showing some interest in Ji Chuanze. He asked, "What level are you? If I'm not mistaken, you should be level 7, right?"

Ji Chuanze didn't answer Yuan Lan's question, concentrating on dealing with the puppet threads.

To cut the puppet threads, Ji Chuanze needed to use a large amount of special power to strengthen his cuts, and maintaining his special ability also required special power, so his special power was rapidly being depleted.

"Your special ability seems somewhat interesting." Without Ji Chuanze's answer, Yuan Lan could carry on the conversation himself. Moreover, he still had Bai Xuechao. He slightly turned to put his arm on Bai Xuechao's shoulder and asked, "Xiaoxuechao, tell me, what is his special ability?"

The puppetry special ability activated, and Bai Xuechao felt his mind becoming a bit muddled and uncontrollable. He subconsciously said, "Seeing weaknesses."

He slowly thought, If that ability were used in interrogation, what intelligence couldn't be dug up?

If Xiao 6 knew what Bai Xuechao was thinking at this moment, it would definitely say: "Host, you can still think of that at a time like this, you're truly... I'm crying my eyes out."

Yuan Lan asked again, "Is he level 7?"

Bai Xuechao "mm"-ed.

"Good boy, good boy~" Yuan Lan said, smiling as he ruffled Bai Xuechao's head, making his soft, snow-white hair slightly messy.

Bai Xuechao: "..."

Yuan Lan, you just wait.

At the same time, several puppet threads chased after Ji Chuanze.

Ji Chuanze was conscious of conserving special power, so he didn't raise his blade to cut the puppet threads. Instead, he ran around the room, constantly dodging the threads.

He leaped up, stepping on the wall to propel himself away, and several puppet threads all plunged into the wall due to inertia.

With a thunderous crash, a large hole appeared in the game room's wall. Through the hole, one could see the corridor belonging to Dream Game City and dazzling lights.

That was just the beginning.

When the puppet thread attacks missed, they occasionally pierced the ground or walls, leaving holes. Ji Chuanze, when cutting puppet threads, sometimes also inadvertently cut the walls, leaving deep knife marks on them. The dull thud of breaking bricks and stones frequently rang out. The guests downstairs also heard it and all looked up with their mouths open.

"What's happening?"

"An earthquake?"

Top-floor game room.

Yuan Lan, like teasing a dog, flung out several puppet threads. After Ji Chuanze dodged or cut them, he wouldn't give the other party time to breathe, then flung out several more puppet threads.

His golden eyes held a malicious smile as he watched Ji Chuanze, effortlessly predicting Ji Chuanze's next moves, acting in advance to intercept and attack, preventing Ji Chuanze from dodging and forcing him to continuously expend special power to cut the puppet threads.

After nearly a minute of this, Ji Chuanze began to experience side effects from the rapid depletion of a large amount of special power within a short period, and his vision started to blur slightly.

Ji Chuanze secretly thought, "This is bad."

Bai Xuechao also noticed that Ji Chuanze had expended too much special power and wouldn't be able to sustain it. He prepared to activate his special ability to attract Yuan Lan's attention, creating a moment for Ji Chuanze to catch his breath. Since he still needed to maintain his persona in front of the protagonist group and the readers, he could only use his water special ability.

Clusters of water condensed in the air.

Yuan Lan turned sideways and put an arm around Bai Xuechao's shoulder, sighing helplessly. A sad expression appeared on his handsome face, and he exaggeratedly said, "Xiaoxuechao, how could you help others fight me? I'm so sad, I feel like I'm going to die from grief!"

As he spoke, Bai Xuechao's special power output was forcibly halted, and all the water clusters in the air fell to the ground, splashing water droplets.

"Don't call him that," Ji Chuanze said in between hacking puppet threads, his voice deep and mellow, with a slight hoarseness. He said with a look of disgust, "It's utterly disgusting."

Bai Xuechao: Thanks, you spoke my mind.

Yuan Lan chuckled a few times, then, still holding Bai Xuechao, looked at Ji Chuanze and asked with some confusion, "Xiaoxuechao, do you find it disgusting?"

Bai Xuechao's lips pursed again and again, wanting very much to swallow the answer that was about to blurt out, but under the compulsion of the special ability, he still said it: "No." Only speaking one word was his final stubbornness.

Ji Chuanze first made a gagging expression, then sneered, "You have to control others to get the answer you want. How pathetic."

"Oh, is that so?" Yuan Lan showed a brilliant smile.

Countless puppet threads attacked Ji Chuanze.

The previous attacks were completely dwarfed by this one, clearly showing that Yuan Lan hadn't been serious before.

At this moment, thin, translucent puppet threads covered everything, perfectly blocking all of Ji Chuanze's escape routes. They cut over him relentlessly, one after another, like a pack of beasts baring their fangs, or a cold assembly line machine mercilessly executing its program.

Ji Chuanze couldn't defend himself and was cut on the arm by a puppet thread. Where there was one, there were more; the wounds on his body increased, and blood flowed freely.

His vision became increasingly blurred due to the continuous depletion of his special power.

He could no longer clearly see the fine puppet threads; he could only wield the horizontal blade in his hand impenetrably, blocking or cutting the puppet threads that slashed or stabbed at him.

Yuan Lan raised his hand, and countless puppet threads simultaneously swept downwards.

"Boom—!"

A huge crash of breaking bricks and stones rang out, and the floor of the game room collapsed into a large hole. Screams of people scattering in terror came from downstairs.

Ji Chuanze fell entirely into the large hole, hanging halfway in the air by clutching the edge of the hole with his left hand. His right hand, which held the horizontal blade, also reached up, and he used both arms to climb upwards. Blood trickled from his temple into his gray eyes.

His entire body was covered in cuts from the puppet threads, bleeding profusely, like a man made of blood.

Yuan Lan appeared at the edge of the hole at some unknown point, his leather shoe stepping on Ji Chuanze's left hand that was gripping the edge, maliciously grinding it.

Ji Chuanze gritted his teeth, enduring the pain from his entire body and fingers, and continued to climb upwards. But then he saw Yuan Lan lift the foot that was grinding his left hand, playfully kicking his shoulder.

"By the way, why didn't you run away?" Yuan Lan asked.

"Ha... do you think I don't want to run?" Ji Chuanze looked up, glaring at Yuan Lan like a stubborn beast. Blood pooled in his cold gray eyes, and his voice was hoarse as he defiantly said, "But my current identity is Bai Xuechao's bodyguard. Protecting him is my mission."

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