Seamlessly, Zhi Jue appeared where Ji Jiu had just been, his neck firmly grasped by the Qinge Armor.
To be precise, Zhi Jue currently lacked a "neck."
His body was incomplete. Half of his face was gone, leaving only a solitary eye. His chest was blown apart, revealing the faintly beating heart within. All his limbs were dislocated; his left arm and right leg were gone. Only a left hand missing three fingers and fragments of his right leg bones remained, suspended in mid-air, resembling a dismantled puppet.
Ji Jiu's neck had also been shattered; what Miss Chai now held was merely a flap of skin and muscle extending from his chin.
They swapped?
Li Ang frowned and turned to look at a high-rise far to the side—the Ball Technique was no longer there.
Atop that distant rooftop, Liu Wu Dai used a three-channel telescope to directly observe the change in aura.
Ji Jiu's aura appeared at the edge of the high-rise rooftop. With a slight turn, he toppled off, free-falling and eliciting screams of shock from pedestrians below.
SMACK.
Ji Jiu's broken form, as if falling into a pool, struck the concrete ground directly. Both he and his aura vanished from sight.
COUGH, COUGH, COUGH.
Zhi Jue, whose throat was grasped, attempted to laugh boisterously. However, his severely damaged body didn't permit it. Before any laughter could emerge, he began to cough violently, spewing out a large clump of black, tainted blood.
The Qinge Armor, in its red and white humanoid form, clutched Zhi Jue's throat and unhesitatingly used its Petrification ability, turning his body's surface entirely to stone.
Li Ang looked at him indifferently and said nothing. He vaulted onto the rooftop. The Qinge Armor, dragging the disfigured Zhi Jue, landed gently there as well.
Liu Wu Dai glanced at Li Ang, who silently shook his head.
It was unclear what equipment or skills Ji Jiu had used to make the Scout Soldier Bee lose track of his aura. Perhaps they would only be able to lock onto him if he reappeared.
Liu Wu Dai silently drew a Wooden Arrow and shot it at Zhi Jue.
The Wooden Arrow exploded in mid-air into countless fragments. These formed thousands of wooden splinters that embedded themselves in the ground around Zhi Jue—this was indeed the Wooden Arrow Prison skill she had used before.
"You and your teammate," Liu Wu Dai said coldly, looking at the dismembered Zhi Jue inside the prison, "have swapped places."
"That's right," Zhi Jue said, coughing. "I left some life-saving equipment behind. By now, he should have run far away. You... COUGH, COUGH... you can't catch him anymore..."
His relationship with Ji Jiu wasn't deep; even during the Datura period, they were merely nodding acquaintances.
He was willing to swap places solely because his injuries were too severe for even a Miniature Life Potion to heal. Even without interference, he would naturally die within minutes from the extensive damage to his body.
One always has to pay the piper eventually in this line of work. Zhi Jue had been aware of this since the first day he became a player.
Moreover, his death was not without purpose: Ji Jiu could continue the mission he had left unfinished.
"COUGH, COUGH. Let's make a deal." Zhi Jue was facing upwards. Lacking a neck, he couldn't turn his head and could only stare blankly at the clear night sky and the round, full moon. "Your name is Wu Dai, right? The next heir of the Liu Family, Liu Wu Dai. COUGH. Your father, Liu Kejian, disappeared tonight, didn't he? Along with those infected with the Datura disease, vanishing from the Special Affairs Bureau's stronghold."
Liu Wu Dai, her face indifferent, aimed her Short Bow at Zhi Jue, who lay on the ground, exhaling more than inhaling. "You're not from the Special Affairs Bureau."
Ever since the Liu Family had allied with the Special Affairs Bureau, she often entered their various strongholds and occasionally cooperated with the Mobile Detachment on missions.
She was at least familiar with the majority of the operatives in the Yin City Mobile Detachment.
Just moments ago, Liu Wu Dai had used the three-channel telescope to confirm the target's identity before daring to attempt the assassination. Otherwise, carelessly attacking a Detachment operative would be like the floodwaters inundating the Dragon King's Temple—a disastrous case of friendly fire.
"Of course not," Zhi Jue said with effort, spitting blood. "But I know that when your father was taken away, the bookshelf in his solitary confinement cell held Rousseau's 'Confessions' and Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws.' The Jade Pendant your mother gave him was on his nightstand. The last dinner he had was beef-flavored nutrition paste. Am I right...?"
Liu Wu Dai imperceptibly tightened her grip on the Wooden Short Bow in her hands. Before setting out on the mission, she had specifically reviewed the surveillance videos from inside the Special Affairs Bureau stronghold. The details were exactly as Zhi Jue described.
Zhi Jue coughed violently. Even though his one remaining eye was filled with blood, preventing him from seeing anything, he seemed able to discern the subtle expressions on Liu Wu Dai's face.
"I... I can tell you his whereabouts..." Zhi Jue said slowly, his voice growing fainter and his expression becoming increasingly vacant. His head tilted, and he passed out.
Liu Wu Dai instinctively moved to get a closer look at Zhi Jue's face but was stopped abruptly by Li Ang, who raised his hand.
The next second, Zhi Jue's forehead suddenly burst open. A blood arrow shot out silently, aiming for Liu Wu Dai's brow.
Already on guard, Liu Wu Dai raised a transparent golden Shield in front of her, blocking the blood-red Arrow. Simultaneously, Li Ang pulled the trigger of his Barrett. BANG! It hit Zhi Jue's head, blowing it to pieces.
The Grey-white World suddenly dissipated. At the same time, a System notification sounded:
[Player "Zhi Jue" has been killed by player "Li Rising"]
Liu Wu Dai glanced at Li Ang with slight surprise. He rubbed his palms together and smiled. "If I said it was a coincidence of names, Miss, would you believe me?"
Without a word, Liu Wu Dai relaxed the string of her Short Bow and looked at the teammate she hadn't seen in a long while. "Your disguise is very good."
Li Ang waved his hand dismissively. "Naturally," he said humbly. "When I was broke in the past, I often went to the zoo, put on a costume, and pretended to be a panda, a gorilla, or even a giraffe to earn money to support my family."
Pandas and gorillas aside, how exactly did you pretend to be a giraffe?
Familiar nonsense, a familiar taste. Liu Wu Dai remembered it all.
Just then, a sharp engine noise rose in the distance. Two helicopters, painted black, descended slowly from high above. Their searchlights swayed, targeting the rooftop where Ji Jiu had just been.
The Special Affairs Bureau had arrived faster than expected.
"Let's go." Liu Wu Dai didn't dwell on Li Ang's identity. She made a swift decision, canceling the Wooden Arrow Prison skill. Holding her Short Bow, she turned and ran northwest.
Li Ang put on rubber gloves, collected the fragmented remains of Zhi Jue's body into his backpack slot, and followed Miss Chai.
Not far to the northwest was the location of the two portions of King Slime, as indicated by the System notification.
Running and leaping across the rooftops of tall buildings, Liu Wu Dai and Li Ang quickly reached their destination. On a hotel rooftop, they retrieved two pale ceramic bottles suspended in mid-air.
[Special items King Slime*2 have been acquired by player "Wu Dai"]
Liu Wu Dai immediately tossed one bottle to Li Ang. They both activated their cloaking abilities and glided down the exterior walls of the tall buildings into the dark alleys below.
After landing, Liu Wu Dai put away her Short Bow. Li Ang also removed his Cloak of Justice, storing both it and the Qinge Armor in his backpack. Then, shoulder to shoulder, he and Liu Wu Dai walked out of the alley. They straightened their slightly disheveled clothes and, with composed expressions, headed towards the red Mini they had parked on the roadside earlier.