Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Chapter 52: "Please, Save MeThe girl’s dirty hands immediately clutched at the corner of Su Ming’an’s clothes, her still clearly defined black and white eyes looking up at him, "Please, please save me... I don’t want to be taken for transformation, I want to be human..."

Su Ming’an didn’t push her away but instead raised his head and slowly put on a pair of pitch-black gloves.

The group of men in tattered clothes rushed to the alley entrance and, upon seeing Su Ming’an, the burly leader of the group furrowed his brow. He walked straight up, seemingly wanting to pull the girl hiding behind Su Ming’an out.

"Don’t come any closer," Su Ming’an said.

"Don’t meddle in other people’s business! I’m her father, and she goes wherever I tell her to!" the man glared furiously at him.

"She’s your daughter, but she’s also an independent person. She doesn’t want to undergo transformation, didn’t you hear her?" Su Ming’an said.

"Pah! What do you know, you greenhorn!" the man sneered, rolling up his sleeves. "I’ve raised her all these years just to send her up there. Judging by your clothes, you’re an outsider. Let me give you some advice, this matter is our own business in White City, stay out of it! Now, get out of my way!"

With that, he reached out with his large hand to drag the girl out, regardless of whether Su Ming’an stepped aside or not.

Su Ming’an reached out his hand and then placed it on the man’s shoulder.

"Don’t touch me, schmoozing me won’t change my mind..." The man’s expression suddenly lost its vitality in an instant.

Without making even a whisper of sound, his body suddenly dropped backward like a pillar, crashing down.

Su Ming’an withdrew his hand, which had just touched the man’s neck, and then took off his gloves with a look of disdain, slapping them onto the corpse’s face with a "snap."

The remaining men who were still eager to act tough instantly lost their menace.

They immediately turned to run away—

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out, and one of the men fell with blood spraying from his chest.

"Run again," Su Ming’an, holding a Remington RP9, said with eyes as cold as ice. "Stay and show me the way, or I won’t mind wasting another bullet."

The men all knelt down at once, knowing the survival law of this city: if you discover you’re outmatched, you don’t go looking for death.

"Leave one person to show the way," Su Ming’an said with his gun trained on them. "Or, if there’s a map or something, hand it over... Otherwise, don’t blame me for not being nice."

"This... This is a map of our city. If you need guidance, I can also..." a long-haired, scruffy man stammered, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from his chest. Su Ming’an glanced at it, took it, and then told them to scram.

The men ran off in a flurry, only the little girl who was still terrified tightly grasping Su Ming’an’s clothing.

Su Ming’an didn’t know if these worlds were real or created by the game organizers as instances, but that didn’t change his treating all NPCs as real people—there were plenty in this sick city, not worth his while to waste bullets on each of them. He looked at the little girl, "Alright, you don’t have to undergo transformation now, so, where do you want to go?"

The girl looked at him, her eyes filled with dependency and timidity—she had nowhere else to go, no one else to rely on. As soon as Su Ming’an left, she would not be able to avoid being taken to the center in exchange for coins.

"If you’re afraid of dying, stay here and pray you won’t be found," Su Ming’an said. "If you’re not afraid of dying, then follow me. As a chip of considerable value, you can get me into the central institution."

"You..." the girl began to speak, with dirty cheeks but clear eyes. "Are you going to take me there too... just like my father?"

"Yes," Su Ming’an said, "Otherwise, I wouldn’t have saved you. This is your worth, and if you want the girl following us to have a chance of escaping this whirlpool of fate... If you’re lucky, follow me, and you’ll stay alive. If not, stay here, and I won’t take you with me."

The girl glanced at Su Ming’an, then pursed her lips.

She suddenly turned and ran into the dark alley, her small figure quickly disappearing from sight.

Su Ming’an didn’t stop her. Watching her go, he followed the map and walked away.

Suddenly, the "tap tap tap" of the girl’s footsteps came again from behind.

"Big Brother, you saved Siyi, you’re a good person." The girl’s eyes shone brightly as she handed over some old clothes and a hat she had found from her hiding spot to Su Ming’an: "Big Brother’s suit is too conspicuous. Put these on instead, I believe in you... Big Brother will definitely save us!"

Su Ming’an did not expect this surprise gain. He realized the suit might be a sign of an "outsider," and that people’s attitudes toward "outsiders" and city residents were entirely different.

Along the way, he asked Siyi, who said she had only heard a rumor since she was young, suggesting that on the day outsiders arrived, the city would be completely saved.

As the two moved through the alleys, suddenly, Su Ming’an’s heightened spiritual power picked up some people talking. He stopped Siyi, gesturing for her to make no sound.

He heard the voices of roughly four or five men.

"...There’s no problem, right,"

"...Do you really want to go up against big shots like Su Ming’an and Noel?"

"...But if you think about it, we can’t beat them when it comes to getting women. Only two can clear the world, and if we don’t take them out, the chance will never come to us..."

"...Yes, it’s better to strike first."

"...But it’s probably not enough with just us. Maybe we can pull Eli in. I heard he provoked the Number One Player even before the start..."

Su Ming’an made footsteps.

"Who!" Several players quickly turned around and saw Su Ming’an holding a little girl’s hand.

"...Seems like an npc?" They glanced back and, owing to the effects of the hat and clothes prop, simply ignored Su Ming’an’s exposed face, assuming he was a resident of the city, and started talking openly.

"He’s with a woman! Must be a useful npc!" A man with multi-colored dyed hair said.

"What should we do? Should we..." Someone gestured at his neck, suggesting they take the girl, which would give them a chance to enter the Research Center.

"Big Brother..." Siyi pulled nervously on Su Ming’an’s sleeve.

"Are you outsiders?" Su Ming’an knew that his hat and clothes were doing their job, making them overlook his appearance and think of him as a local. He looked at them: "What are you discussing? You..."

He hadn’t finished speaking when he saw a person, fierce and menacing, suddenly lunge at him, wielding a knife that looked anything but ordinary, with utmost confidence: "Screw it, just kill and be done with it! No one’s watching here anyway—"