Chapter 82: Lin Sanjiu’s Kills and Steals
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
While she was dragging Chen Fan’s corpse, Lin Sanjiu carefully examined his lethal wounds.
The old woman only used a single blow to kill Chen Fan; however, Chen Fan’s chest was covered by multiple bloodied holes which were nested closely together. It was like a mashed up beehive and was quite a disturbing sight. No matter how much force that woman's punch held, there was no way that it could naturally produce such a wound. At that point, Lin Sanjiu concluded that it had something to do with that woman's fists.
Right now, Lin Sanjiu was witnessing that woman's strange attack. Instead of a single concentrated blow, the old woman's punch was like a combined attack of a dozen sharp spikes at once. Currently, they were all aimed at Lin Sanjiu upper body. If they hit her, she would instantly become a human sieve, and her corpse would look worse than Chen Fan’s. Alarmed, Lin Sanjiu shifted her body, and as if every inch of her muscles suddenly came alive, she barely evaded the attack with a series of odd twists.
The attack cut off a lock of Lin Sanjiu’s black hair, scattering it in mid-air. The length of the hair on Lin Sanjiu left side was now only at her collar bone.
"Oh? You're quite good." The old woman laughed in a hoarse voice. "The apocalyptic scenario in this world had just started for a few months, yet you have such physical aptitude… are you also from another world?
"No," Lin Sanjiu replied as she stared at the woman.
The current circumstances were not very favorable for Lin Sanjiu. Even though she already knew that it wouldn't be easy, it was different experiencing firsthand how horrifyingly lethal that old woman's attack was — and it seemed as if that was just to test her. She could tell that the prematurely-aged woman definitely had more hidden up her sleeves.
On the other hand, she had just woken up from a one-week coma, and her School of Higher Consciousness was still sealed. In addition to that, she didn't even have a decent weapon within the cards she had...
"No? Haha! Then your Potential Growth Value shouldn't be too low!" The old woman suddenly laughed out, tearing her fragile old dried skin. "Your Active Skill must be pretty good, why don't you just give it to me."
Just as she said that, she lunged toward Lin Sanjiu. Lin Sanjiu couldn't even see the rain of punches clearly, she was drowned by the multiple waves of spine-like attacks. If Chen Fan saw that sight, he would have been thankful that he did not die as a foam of blood.
With a burst of adrenaline, Lin Sanjiu moved at a speed she had never even imagined, her movements were so fast that they almost congealed into a single streak. Yet even at that speed, she only managed to dodge the main field of the attack, while both of arms were already covered with multiple streaks of blood. While she dodged, she nervously considered her options. Her laughter item could not be used on females, Cat Litter was not a combat item, if she used "Route 300" to seal her opponent's special item, the old woman could still continue using her Active Skills…
By elimination, she was only left with her Pygmalion Choker. However, the greatest flaw of the item was that she needed another person to describe a skill to her; otherwise, that Special Item was basically useless.
[What should I do?]
"Why are you only dodging?"
Every subsequent whirlwind of attacks was more vicious than the previous, but the old woman was unable to cause any major injuries due to Lin Sanjiu’s eel-like dodging. The old woman finally started losing patience and held back her attacks saying, "Let's put a quick end to this."
Lin Sanjiu stroke the back of her neck mindlessly, and a thought suddenly crossed her mind: [Isn't there a person right in front of me?!]
She knew that she wasn't great at acting, so she just steadied herself and lowered her eyes, asking, "Do you know why I specifically asked you to come up to the platform with me?"
A glint suddenly flashed in her opponent's weary eyes.
"That's because Chen Fan is my younger brother. We grew up together and even developed the same abilities. Since you killed him, I must avenge him."
As expected, that old woman was slightly taken aback. She took a glance at her own hand and said, "What? That pen? Some sort of coincidence?"
Lin Sanjiu’s Pygmalion Choker grew faintly warm for a second but immediately cooled down again.
[Why can't she make herself clear!]
Lin Sanjiu suppressed her anxiety and thought for a moment before she intentionally asked, "You know about it? If you’ve already witnessed my brother's power, how could he possibly lose to you?"
"Haha!" the old woman suddenly let out a high-pitched laughter. "How? How was he suppose to win with that rubbish ability to create coincidences? I guess you'll die by my hands too!"
Once that woman finished her sentence, Lin Sanjiu leaped up high, barely evading the sudden flurry of fists.
Lin Sanjiu snatched a breath as she threw a glance at her own hand. Unlike the original skill, her Pygmalion Choker could activate a skill at an extremely fast speed; so before she even landed on the ground, she was holding a fountain pen in her hand.
[No coincidence. No story]
Description: A painful fact that people can’t accept is that life is a series of coincidences. Humans are wired to seek for order and patterns amidst chaos and are unable to accept that they just drift through life. This is precisely the reason why suspense novels and conspiracy theories are so popular. Despite the chaos in life, this ability creates advantageous coincidences for the user just like the main character in novels, creating the illusion that all things are bounded by a natural order.
Remarks: The impact and frequency of the coincidences are determined by how common the user’s name is. A unique name would imperceptibility reduce the probability of other coincidences occurring.
The old woman was stunned when she saw this. Even though she didn’t understand what had happened, she felt like she was tricked. The old woman gave Lin Sanjiu an evil glare and lunge at her once again. This time, she did not use her fist, her two palms landed perfectly on Lin Sanjiu’s…
… broad, thick back?
[How is this possible? We were facing each other just now…] Just as this thought surfaced, the old woman’s ability was already activated, and the body in front of her instantly broke apart into multiple cubes...
[Carving up an Ox]
Anything that the user touches with her palms will be broken down into multiple cubes, including living humans. However, there are limitations when this ability is used on live humans: only the area in contact with the user’s palm will be affected, and the damage will be determined by the difference between Potential Growth Value of the user and the target. If the target’s Potential Growth Value is much higher than the user, the attack might only affect the target’s skin; whereas if the target’s Potential Growth Value is much lower, the attack could sever a limb or even disintegrate the target’s heart.
Fragments of flesh, hands, and legs fell from the sky like a rain of meat, putrid rotting fluid covered the old woman in an instant. Knowing that such a scenario would not happen if she touched a living person, the old woman was already aware that her attack had missed its target...
[What’s with these body parts? Is it that young woman’s habit to bring dead bodies around with her everywhere?]
Before the old woman could react, she noticed a long whip-like metallic sheen approaching her, through the rain of body parts. Shocked, she dodged and accidentally stepped on a finger soaked in rotting fluid — she suddenly lost balance and slipped.
Previously, she would have easily steadied herself in a split second; however, this time there was a long metallic whip-like thing waiting for her to lower her guard. In that short interval, the long whip-like shadow struck and pierced through her lower abdomen
At the same time, all the body parts, bits of flesh, mutilated hands and legs, and innards finally fell to the ground. The end of that gruesome rain revealed Lin Sanjiu standing with a duoluozhong’s mouthpart in her hand. When she saw the old woman on the ground with a drooped head, Lin Sanjiu wiped away the blood and flesh on her own face and commented rather unimpressed, "So, this is [No coincidence. No story]."
The old woman couldn’t help coughing up a mouthful of blood, there was still disbelief on her face when she saw the mouthpart in her abdomen.
That was a mouthpart from one of the duoluozhongs from Oasis.
Moments before, Lin Sanjiu pulled out a duoluozhong’s corpse from her deck of cards to defend herself. However, she did not expect that when her opponent used that [Carving up an Ox] ability, the duoluozhong’s mouthpart would be so perfectly amputated, that it naturally became an excellent weapon.
Lin Sanjiu silently stepped forward and suddenly pulled out the mouthpart from the old woman’s body. While blood spewed out from that woman’s abdomen. Lin Sanjiu held the mouthpart tightly and swiftly stabbed both of the woman’s thighs. As that woman screamed in agony, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help frowning and quickly shattered the woman’s upper humerus (shoulders).
Even though she felt that her opponent deserved that torture, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help sighing, "You shouldn’t be able to retaliate in that state…"
There was no expression on the old woman’s face as she retorted, "So, what?"
The old woman said that with confidence as the duel should end right about now according to the rules as she had already been incapacitated. Just as that was said, Mr. Dot’s voice quickly rang out: " Congratulations! The contestant from the Red Team won!"
Normally, both of them should leave the platform at that point. All seven people on the ground, looked up to the platform, waiting. However, Lin Sanjiu crouched down beside her opponent as though she didn’t hear the announcement.
"Um, since you killed Chen Fan but I spared your life, I need to get something additional from you," Lin Sanjiu immediately held the woman’s left arm as she said that, then she began jerking it, further exacerbating the woman’s fractures. The old woman let out a painful growl, but Lin Sanjiu only laughed lightly, without changing her expression. "It will just take a few minutes."
That woman’s eyes suddenly widened as the red capillaries in her eyes flared because Lin Sanjiu was reaching for the ordinary-looking pouch on her waist. This was instantly followed by noisy protests from the White Team, but Mr. Dot did not step in to stop this as none of the rules were broken.
"Right, since you’re from another world, you should have quite a lot of items." Lin Sanjiu looked at the three cards in her hand, before throwing a glance at the old woman who was lying in a pool of blood. That woman may have looked old previously, but right now, she seemed almost near her deathbed. Her stomach and intestines were mashed up, and that wound was just a mess of blood and flesh. From the looks of it, she probably wouldn’t survive. Lin Sanjiu turned away in a near cold-blooded fashion and gestured for the White Team to collect their member.
When she landed back on the ground with a thud, the blood which slid off her body created a splatter on the floor. Lin Sanjiu carried the long mouthpart back with her to her own tile and watched as the White Team carried the old woman back to their side.
Reduced to that state, the old woman would have to count herself lucky if she didn’t die, so she definitely wouldn’t be able to join the next two games. After everyone read the hints, the sixth round ended with a heavy atmosphere.
In the same round, Old Wang who had been trying to avoid the White Team finally collided with Long-legs. But Lin Sanjiu’s action brought about an outcome that no one had anticipated: Old Wang did not move from his tile and just shouted, "I surrender!"
Thus, the second game ended with the Red Team losing and Lara’s abrupt rants. The current score was 5:6, the Red Team was behind by 1 point, and the next game was going to begin.