Chapter 36 What Happened

At the same time, two kilometers away.

"How did it come to this..." Honghu was carrying Tianma Xingkong on his shoulder, hurrying behind Zhaoying Wang.

"Carrying a chuunibyou (middle-schooler syndrome sufferer), following my nemesis, fleeing the Derivatives' pursuit..." Honghu muttered to himself, "How did things progress to this point..."

"Give up your futile struggles." Suddenly, a voice rang out, the voice of a female Derivative.

"With your speed, you can't possibly escape us." Another Derivative, who looked quite like a giraffe, chimed in. This one had clearly undergone beast-morphing enhancement.

Before the words faded, three figures had quietly closed in, surrounding the three players.

"Yulong, leave us and run," Tianma Xingkong advised. His spine hadn't recovered, so he was still unable to move.

Zhaoying Wang also turned to Honghu and said, "Yeah, Little Ma is definitely not going anywhere. As for me... my physical skills are mediocre to begin with, and I'm injured, so I probably won't make it either... You should retreat alone; I'll try to buy you some time."

Honghu was silent for a few seconds upon hearing this, then sneered, "First of all, let me reiterate, my name is Honghu..." Whether intentional or not, as he spoke, he flung Tianma Xingkong to the ground. The latter didn't react, as his body had already lost sensation...

"Secondly, if I wanted to escape alone... I would have parted ways with you guys tens of minutes ago." Honghu said, "A Summoner who has lost his summons, and a broken-backed Saint Seiya, are basically four points that are ripe for the picking. I could kill you and then run."

"Looks like you really considered it..." Zhaoying Wang murmured.

"Of course, because it's also a strategy." Honghu adjusted his glasses and continued, "However... with the finals having evolved into the current situation, points have probably already lost their meaning..." He paused for a moment, "In any case, I don't want to be captured by these guys; God knows what will happen..."

As he spoke, Honghu summoned his longbow again. The bow was clearly a psionic weapon, and the light arrows he usually used undoubtedly consumed psionic power. He had completely exhausted his psionic power after releasing [Spirit Bombardment], so he had put the weapon away.

But now, facing this almost hopeless predicament, Honghu had to summon the weapon again, even though his psionic power had only recovered to less than twenty points.

"Hmph... a desperate struggle." The third Derivative looked at Honghu and sneered.

"Let me." The female Derivative responded, taking the lead and reaching for Honghu's throat with a single arm.

Bang—

A loud sound, a burst of blood.

The Derivative's head, like a squeezed pimple... instantly turned into a large pool of pus made of brain matter, bone fragments, blood, and other things, splattering on the curb of the sidewalk.

"What!"

Not only the other two Derivatives, but even Honghu and Zhaoying Wang were shocked.

"Hey? What's wrong? What's wrong?" Only Tianma Xingkong, lying on his back and unable to move, kept asking.

"Hmph..." As a cold snort arose, two rapid shadows landed.

Based on their hairstyles alone, Honghu and Zhaoying Wang recognized the newcomers... the one with the afro was Qu Mingzhen Nan (TakingANameIsReallyHard), and the one with the mohawk was Zhen Nan Qu Mingzi (ReallyHardToTakeAName).

"Since you asked so sincerely," Lao Qu began.

Zhen Ge continued, "We will answer you with great mercy."

"To prevent the world from being destroyed."

"To protect the peace of the world."

Boom—

Their entrance lines were interrupted halfway through... a huge cardboard box fell from the sky, covering the beast-morphing Derivative. Then, another figure flew in, landing on the box.

This newcomer was wearing a brown bathrobe, flip-flops, and had messy hair. On his decadent face, he wore a pair of thick sunglasses.

"Fuu..." Fei Chai Shu (Uncle Bum) exhaled smoke and said, "Fighting is fighting, why talk about peace..."

"You..." The remaining Derivative was shocked after observing Uncle Bum's data, but he only managed to say one word.

Bang—

Another bullet pierced the air, another headshot.

"Oh, it's you guys..." Zhaoying Wang pondered, looking at the people in front of him, "Then the one responsible for sniping in the shadows is Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu (NameToReallyHardTake) then." It seemed that he knew something about the Qu Mingnan trio, and may have even crossed paths with them.

At this moment, the cardboard box under Uncle Bum's feet began to shake violently, and the sounds of dogs barking inexplicably came from inside...

"Hmm... this one seems pretty tough." Uncle Bum simply sat cross-legged, seemingly wanting to suppress the box.

"What's going on..." Honghu complained, squinting, "Boxquake, is it..."

"Hey! Why are there dog barks? What's going on?" Tianma Xingkong was still shouting.

"Eh? What's wrong with this guy?" Lao Qu asked as he walked over.

"Spinal damage," Zhaoying Wang replied, "Oh, right, I remember you know..."

"Ah!" Tianma Xingkong's scream interrupted his words.

When Lao Qu heard the word "spine," he had already cast a healing skill on Tianma Xingkong.

[Name: Battle Therapy]

[Skill Card Attributes: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Healing]

[Effect: Randomly removes one abnormal status from the target (target limited to players, cooldown time of thirty minutes, requires striking the target's injury with a blunt weapon when used)]

[Consumption: Stamina 250]

[Learning Conditions: Medical Specialization E]

[Remarks: Special medical skill of a warrior race.]

[PS: We never use anesthetics when removing appendixes, just a bottle of vodka or a sap.]

[PS2: Experiments have shown that the most effective way to repair something is to continuously beat the faulty object with a wrench. This method can also be used to treat hyperactivity in children.]

The blunt weapon Lao Qu used to activate this move was a metal baseball bat.

With this strike, Tianma Xingkong's scalp almost exploded from the pain, and he jumped up from the ground. Two seconds later, he belatedly said, "Wait... I can move?" He tried to move his limbs and looked at the game menu, "Although my survival value hasn't recovered, the abnormal status is gone..."

At this time, the cardboard box under Uncle Bum's body also stopped moving, and no sound came from inside.

So, Uncle Bum jumped off the box and snapped his fingers. The next second, the box began to shrink and quickly became seventy or eighty centimeters on each side. Uncle Bum then turned around and opened the box.

From under the inverted box, a husky emerged... the dog was not large, just a puppy, and it wagged its tail at Uncle Bum, barking twice.

Although the little guy seemed harmless, a closer look revealed... that the husky's mouth still had bloody scraps of flesh hanging from it.