LWGP - Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Sewing
Zheng Yu was furious, but it was plain to see that among the people here… he was the strongest fighter. The one closest to him was a young man from the military.
Judging by the force of the young man's attacks and his physical speed, his Strength and Agility were probably both above 7. Of course, his upper limit would depend on his burst potential.
But Zheng Yu was a cut above him.
It was obvious.
Moreover, Zheng Yu's combat skills were no weaker than a soldier from the military. Even while distracted and paying attention to Wang Jiu, he could still dodge the Black Widow's attacks in time and deliver powerful counterattacks.
Having recognized this fact, Wang Jiu pondered for a moment before saying earnestly, "Mr. Zheng, you know this was all just an accident. But since it has come to this, one must always look forward. I have no grudge against you, so why let me affect your duel with this monster? One must make trade-offs, especially when the outcome can no longer be changed."
Just as she had used skiing to tactfully explain her consensual, romantic affair with Xiao Jue, she now used this kind, considerate, and utterly rational persuasion to remind Zheng Yu of her intentions and the result.
And his next choice.
Zheng Yu had previously suspected that she had deliberately provoked and tortured Yang Dong. And then… this BOSS was a secret realm BOSS. He had just asked the System, but because he wasn't the owner, he didn't have the proper permissions. The System had simply said it was controllable.
Of course it was controllable. It could be used as bait to lure Yang Yu into a risky situation where she could use this Black Widow to torture and kill him, and it could also attract everyone's attention here at the crematorium…
But the usually cunning and calm Yang Dong hadn't seen it. His judgment had been clouded by the tragic death of his only son. Plus, she had feigned joining the fight against the BOSS, exposing her back as a vulnerability, and Yang Dong couldn't resist.
Most importantly—he, Zheng Yu, wasn't by his side.
To use a secret realm BOSS to steadily torture and kill a father and son, impressive!
However, the meaning behind her words now was also very clear—originally, the BOSS's treasure should have been hers, but in order to kill the father and son, she had publicly released it. That was her trade-off.
Looking at the damage output now, the ownership rights would, in all likelihood, go to him, Zheng Yu.
An exchange for peace?
Could she be trusted? Given her temperament and actions, it seemed plausible.
But that wasn't important.
Zheng Yu estimated her strength from when she killed Yang Dong earlier. To prevent him from protecting Yang Dong, she must have used her maximum speed and power. She was strong, probably on par with the young man from the military, but there was a definite gap between her and himself.
In that case…
Zheng Yu glanced at her, said nothing, and from then on, focused solely on dealing with the Black Widow.
At this moment, Yang Dong was not yet dead, but Zheng Yu didn't even ask about him.
"Mr. Zheng must know that someone will save you, which is why he abandoned you, Mr. Yang."
Wang Jiu said to Yang Dong, then asked Li Ting if there was a doctor present.
Li Ting met her gaze and stated solemnly that there was not.
Of course not. How could there be?
Even though he himself had been a military doctor long ago.
But there really wasn't one here (don't ask him why not).
Oh, right, there actually was one among the players, but that person was currently attacking the Black Widow.
The old men and women were moving quite seriously, shuffling around on the periphery with accelerated Tai Chi steps, occasionally harassing the Black Widow with their weapons to increase their Participation. Their agility far surpassed that of former Olympic athletes.
They looked just like the noobs from the 80s who were encountering online games for the first time in the then-popular internet cafes and arcades.
Perhaps some of them had never played games, like those old ladies, but… they must have secretly consulted their children and grandchildren recently.
The so-called elite are those who live and learn. Besides, this could strengthen their bodies. Totally fine, totally fine!
I'll just slack off, and slack off some more. Hey, you can't hit me, you just can't hit me!
The vibe was so damn similar.
Li Ting looked again at Yang Dong, who was nearly unconscious but still not dead, and thought to himself that the game had truly changed humanity a great deal. It hadn't even fully loaded yet, and these registered players at the forefront could already curse up a storm while having their limbs severed.
Yang Dong was cursing Wang Jiu, his eyes filled with hatred, spewing all sorts of foul language.
Unfortunately, the person he was cursing was Wang Jiu.
Li Ting glanced at Yang Dong and said to Wang Jiu, "Aren't you going to fight the Black Widow, Ms. Wang?"
Although he had also understood the meaning of her conversation with Zheng Yu.
He wasn't willing to let Zheng Yu get the lion's share of the reward, but it was too late to call for reinforcements now.
He hadn't anticipated that Zheng Yu would be this powerful.
"No, how can material gain be more important than a human life? A doctor's heart is like a parent's. Besides, I was too harsh just now. I must make amends."
"…"
Li Ting felt that this person's acting was so superb that she probably believed it herself.
"Since Ms. Wang is here, I'll head over then."
By saying this, Li Ting was tacitly acknowledging that the government also did not want Yang Dong to live.
So he didn't stop Wang Jiu.
But he thought of something—Qi Dong seemed to have mentioned that the rule prohibiting private fights was made with Wang Jiu and the Yang family in mind…
This must have been another part of her plan.
Most importantly—she saw through the government's killing intent towards the Yang father and son, and she was willing to be that sword.
"What to do? I'm the only surgeon here with nothing to do. Only I can save you. Although your son was a piece of trash, he died a worthy death. And although you're also a piece of trash, you're at least an old piece of trash. My Old Lady taught me from a young age to respect the old and cherish the young. So, I can only save you."
Then, Wang Jiu took two things out of her coat pocket.
They weren't things a normal young person would use.
A very old pincushion and a ball of cotton thread.
They actually belonged to the Old Lady and had been left in her house. Sometimes, when she waited for her to come home at night, she would see the Old Lady sitting on the sofa as she walked in, watching a Korean drama while threading a needle to knit a sweater. But her skills were very poor. In her youth, she had been engrossed in academia and medicine, never the model wife or mother from the start. In her old age, she had picked this up out of boredom.
Until the day she died, she never managed to successfully knit a wearable sweater for Wang Jiu.
Wang Jiu slowly threaded the cotton through a needle she had taken out. She gathered the severed legs and arms, starting with an arm, and began to meticulously string them together with the needle and thread, then placed it against the stump of Yang Dong's arm.
"Sorry, the equipment here is limited. I can only use the most simple and unadorned physical therapy."
"Just bear with it, it might hurt a little."
Then, she viciously pierced the skin and flesh of his wound with the silver needle.
Yang Dong was in extreme agony and cursed even more furiously, but Wang Jiu gagged him with a strip of cloth torn from his severed arm.
"Crying and shouting will waste your energy. Besides, your yelling will disturb the others."
"You don't have to look at me like that."
Her hands moved with practiced ease, a smile on her lips, her eyes full of affection. "Actually, I don't hate you and Yang Yu."
How could Yang Dong believe that?
But her voice was exceptionally soft, as if talking to herself. "I don't mind your methods or your process, and I don't care how many people die, or how they die. But it couldn't be her."
No one heard. Only Yang Dong's pupils trembled.
She was as wicked as a demon, as cold and unfeeling as a block of stone, yet she repeatedly tortured Yang Dong with her human-like ego and her pursuit of others.
The high development of social civilization ultimately gave birth to a non-positive rule—if I have nothing to do and my neighbor's house catches fire, I don't mind getting some water to help save them. But if the fire creeps over to my wall, I will naturally put out the fire on my wall first, regardless of whether anyone in your house burns to death. After all, property is very expensive. There's another possibility: the fire doesn't reach my wall, but you are a heinous villain, not a good person, and a treasure-filled spider demon falls from the sky right outside my door. Naturally, I'm going to fight the spider demon first.
A rule is a rule because of its universality and irrefutability. And this, too, is human nature.
This was the last thing Wang Jiu said to Yang Dong.
Yang Dong couldn't make a sound. After that, Wang Jiu said no more, only focusing on sewing his limbs back on amidst the fierce human-spider battle raging around them. But she deliberately didn't stop the bleeding, so more and more blood flowed…
One still, one in motion. The human world and purgatory.
Under the repeated stabbing and sewing of the needle in his wounds, Yang Dong's breathing grew weaker and weaker. He could only stare fixedly at Wang Jiu.
Finally, he breathed his last.
He died with his eyes open.
Her hands were sticky with blood as she stared expressionlessly at his corpse.
Suddenly, a huge noise came from not far away. Turning to look, she saw that the Black Widow's body was already riddled with bloody holes. According to the System's prompt, its health bar was already at 5%.
It was about to die.
Xiao Jue and the others had been attacking the monster with all their might. They didn't know its health bar, but seeing its speed and attacks growing weaker, they figured it was at the end of its rope.
Many were preparing for the final blow.
Just then, as if knowing its fate was sealed, the Black Widow let out a sudden, shrill cry. Its body began to tremble violently, and then… a layer of blood-red mist spread across its surface, and its spider legs abruptly grew several sizes thicker.
"Not good, it's going berserk!" The young expert from the military saw this and immediately shouted a warning.
"Get back!"
Under the shock, some who knew they weren't strong enough and prioritized their own safety fled backward. Others… preemptively launched their strongest attacks.
In that moment, the upper limits of their Agility and Strength were truly exposed as they vied for the final blow.
But in that same instant, four figures advanced instead of retreating, including Zheng Yu and the young man himself, as well as two others.
These two were Xiao Jue and Xu Zhiyan. The former had likely been hiding his strength all along, which wasn't surprising. As the head of a family and the leader of a large corporation, despite his young age, he was calculating. When he had attacked Yan Yanting earlier, it was out of anger, but even in his anger, he had held back—making everyone present believe his Strength and Agility were both around 5.
As it turned out, they were probably well over 7 now.
Generally speaking, people with high attributes currently had to meet three conditions.
1. Belong to the first or second wave of registered players, and basically succeed on the first try, giving them a time advantage. Furthermore, they had time to experience other dungeons later. Of course, ordinary people wouldn't be so unlucky/lucky. This was usually for those with the human resources to consolidate dungeons, like the military. Whenever a dungeon appeared, they would send people in to clear it, especially the wilderness invasion types. The experts in the military now had, in all likelihood, grown rapidly in these types of dungeons (the military also had the advantage of firearms, which hadn't completely lost their effectiveness yet). But if the military and government had this capability, so could others, like large corporations and powerful families. Look at Yang Dong, he could do it, let alone the Xiao Family. So, Xiao Jue basically met this condition.
2. Obtain good equipment, especially Bronze-grade equipment with +4 or +5 to attributes. The Azure Serpent Emblem that Wang Jiu first obtained had a very small bonus, but it was a growth-type, meant for the long term.
3. Have high dungeon and personal ratings, receiving bonus attribute points or special rewards, or gaining enough experience to level up directly. This category was for attribute point rewards.
If one could meet any two of these three conditions, they would basically have high attributes of 4 or 5 and above, or even a balanced 5 across all three attributes.
But there were also a few rare cases who either excelled in a single condition or grazed all three without fully meeting any of them, yet by consolidating resources, they still achieved high attributes.
Wang Jiu was an anomaly among these few. But compared to Xiao Jue, a wielder of money-power, and Xu Zhiyan, a rising elite, she had yet to make a move, yet to show her burst potential.
It was as if she was waiting for an opportunity.
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