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墨書 Inktalez
Chen Rui and Li Xue reached the bottom level, where silence enveloped them, so profound that they could hear each other's breaths clearly.
"I suddenly started to hate this game," Chen Rui said softly, yet his voice echoed around them.
Suddenly realizing something, Chen Rui hurried to the wall and gently knocked on the concrete surface with his fist. The sound immediately spread through the air.
Li Xue noticed Chen Rui's unusual behavior and asked quietly, "What's wrong?"
"There is only one truth," Chen Rui replied, resting his forehead against his hand, trying to appear nonchalant.
At that moment, hurried footsteps could be heard from above, accompanied by indistinct voices that were drowned out by the noise of the steps, making it impossible to discern what was being said.
"Let's go," Chen Rui quickly mouthed to Li Xue, grabbing her wrist and starting to run. He crashed through one door after another, and the previously silent basement erupted into a cacophony of sounds, blending together into an incomprehensible din.
After entering one room, Chen Rui immediately stopped but continued to shuffle his feet. Seeing his movement, Li Xue's eyes lit up, and she began to step in place as well.
As they both stepped lightly, they gradually moved to either side of the door. Their footfalls became softer. Chen Rui checked his weapon, switched off the safety, and set it to semi-automatic mode, waiting for their prey to arrive.
The noisy clamor slowly faded away as the hurried footsteps grew closer. Chen Rui signaled Li Xue to stop.
Once they halted, the two sets of hurried footsteps slowed down but did not vanish; instead, they transformed into a steady, heavy rhythm that carried a hint of pride and mockery.
Chen Rui mouthed to Li Xue, "On the count of three, I'll rush out first. Follow me."
Li Xue nodded, disengaging the safety on her gun and placing her index finger on the trigger, ready for action.
Watching the energetic soldiers, Chen Rui couldn't help but smile, raising his left hand and slowly extending his thumb.
At that moment, the only sound in the surroundings was the slow, heavy footsteps, as if time had frozen.
Chen Rui gradually extended his index finger.
The footsteps grew louder; the two individuals were separated from him by just a wall and a door.
Chen Rui slowly extended his middle finger, and when it was fully stretched out, he quickly clenched his left hand into a fist and immediately burst through the door.
Li Xue swiftly raised her rifle to follow. Two familiar figures appeared in her line of sight. Before she could pull the trigger, she heard gunfire—“Bang, bang, bang, bang”—four quick and precise shots.
Is this how it ends? The thought flashed through Li Xue's mind, filled with reluctance. It had been so hard to team up with him, so hard to be of help to him, so hard to—
"Hey." A long sigh startled Li Xue because it wasn't Chen Rui's voice.
Zhou Yan quickly reacted and complained, "You two are so annoying."
Li Xue suddenly noticed that there were two spots on Zhou Yan and Zhou Zhi's bulletproof vests emitting wisps of smoke.
Did we win? Li Xue was taken aback by this sudden joy of victory, standing there dumbfounded with a silly grin on her face.
"Smile, smile, smile!" Zhou Yan looked at the delighted Li Xue and felt a pang of bitterness. She quickly walked over to Li Xue and tapped her forehead. "Silly! There can only be one final survivor; you better figure it out."
She shot a glare at Chen Rui as if to say, "If you don't let her have this victory, I'll make you regret it."
Li Xue was pulled back to reality by Zhou Yan's words. Indeed, there was only one spot for the winner; forming a team was merely a temporary strategy. Besides, she hadn't contributed much, just following him for a while.
Zhou Zhi walked over to Chen Rui with a smile and playfully punched him on the chest. "Brother Chen, you must teach me that amazing shooting technique of yours. Using a double shot like that is truly unprecedented."
The double shot was a type of handgun technique, compensating for the relatively low lethality of handguns by allowing for two shots in quick succession.
However, Chen Rui using a semi-automatic rifle to perform this maneuver seemed somewhat showy. Rifles were already powerful enough, especially at such close range where a second shot was unnecessary to inflict damage. Moreover, rifles were far less agile than handguns, making the technique significantly more difficult to execute. Using this method would not achieve the same effect as with a handgun; instead, it could put him at a disadvantage.
Yet, in terms of absolute marksmanship, none of this mattered. It was akin to when the SEAL Team used this very model and technique during their operations, aiming for a complete kill of the target.
Chen Rui shook his head and replied, "Boss Zhou, don't flatter me. If I hadn't suddenly thought of this plan, we probably wouldn't even be able to hold our own against you."
"You’re the one who can’t hold your own," Li Xue lightly elbowed Chen Rui in annoyance. Even without you, I could at least take down one of them, right?
Zhou Boss chuckled noncommittally. "Brother Chen, don’t say that. Excessive modesty is just hypocrisy. We've all seen your shooting skills; it’s nonsense to say I could surpass you. By the way, what was your brilliant idea? Care to explain?"
Chen Rui feigned mystery and said to Zhou Zhi, "Just go tap on the wall yourself and you'll find out. If you can't figure it out, then break the wall; that will definitely reveal it."
Zhou Zhi walked over to the wall with a puzzled expression and lightly tapped it. The sound echoed throughout the room and faded after several seconds.
"What is this!" Zhou Zhi stared at Chen Rui in astonishment, realizing he had missed something so simple.
The entire basement wasn't poorly soundproofed; on the contrary, it had excellent sound insulation. The only thing that lacked soundproofing was the door itself. Due to its design, any sound made in here would create an echo and spread outwards, while the poorly insulated door allowed echoes to escape, giving the impression of poor soundproofing.
"This must have been intentional on their part; every room is designed this way so that echoes can travel further," Chen Rui said with a smile as he looked around the perfectly arranged room.
"You led us here like this?" Zhou Yan said with a bitter smile, still unable to grasp where they had gone wrong.
Chen Rui shook his head and explained with a smile, "That's not the point. The key is that you mistakenly thought the soundproofing here was poor. You didn't know how far apart we were, and the echo created the illusion that we were still far away, which gave us the opportunity to launch a surprise attack."
Zhou Zhi and Zhou Yan exchanged glances, both coming to the same conclusion about Chen Rui's cleverness in this room. They realized that there were still two rooms separating them from Chen Rui's group. So when the door was suddenly burst open, there was a moment of surprise that led to their elimination.
"Ah," Zhou Zhi said with a helpless smile, sighing, "In the end, we still lost."
Zhou Yan pinched Zhou Zhi's waist and laughed, "Who was it that said they would definitely win? Your words are really unreliable."
"We'll be leaving now, but don't keep us waiting too long; after all, it's just the two of you left." Zhou Zhi said with a hint of meaning in his voice as he waved goodbye to Chen Rui and Li Xue, being dragged away by Zhou Yan.
Li Xue didn't know what to say. She looked at Chen Rui's resolute and handsome face, hesitating to speak.
Seeing her like this, Chen Rui understood her thoughts but quickly pulled out his gun, spinning it in his hand before offering it to Li Xue by holding the barrel.
Li Xue glared at Chen Rui in annoyance as she looked at the gun in front of her. Her voice was low as she said, "Do you think I'm that kind of person?"
Chen Rui realized his action had been misunderstood and smiled awkwardly. "I know you’re not. I already have two points, while you have none. If I get eliminated, you'll have four points and I'll have two; that's not too far apart. But if you get eliminated, I'll have six points—that's too big of a gap. The order for the next round would be too far off for us to coordinate well."
Li Xue looked at Chen Rui's smiling face and slowly took the gun from him. The heavy metallic feel made her uneasy as she stared blankly at the weighty object in her hand, not even bothering to disengage the safety.
Watching Li Xue appear so lost, Chen Rui felt somewhat at a loss himself; after all, who would voluntarily let someone else "take them out"?
Li Xue shook her head with a bitter smile and spun the gun around again, aiming it back at Chen Rui.
Chen Rui was momentarily stunned as he slowly took the handgun. Although he was not one to hesitate, it felt particularly difficult to be so cold-hearted as to eliminate her from the game.
Li Xue looked at the indecisive Chen Rui and urged him with a smile, "Hurry up! I let you have this because I saw how good your shooting and tactics are. In the next round, I'll hide first, and you can come in last to wipe out everyone, then just hand it over to me."
Since she had already said that, it would not be in Chen Rui's nature to linger any longer. He smiled apologetically, quickly disengaging the safety on the gun, aiming the dark muzzle at Li Xue's bulletproof vest.
The two exchanged smiles, and Chen Rui's right index finger slipped into the trigger guard, slowly squeezing the trigger.
"Bang." The gunshot rang out, smoke filling the air, but no one fell. There was only a small scorch mark on Li Xue's vest, emitting a faint smell of gunpowder.
For some reason, at the moment the shot was fired, Chen Rui felt as if a cold bullet had pierced his own chest. The air seemed to turn gelatinous, making it hard to breathe.
Suddenly, he noticed tears welling up in Li Xue's eyes and hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her. "What's wrong? What's wrong? It was my fault; I'm sorry."
With tears in her eyes, Li Xue smiled and said, "What's wrong with me? It's you who made a mistake. I'm just happy."
Chen Rui forced a bitter smile but remained silent; he could never truly understand her or see through her.
Eventually, Li Xue's tears flowed freely, yet she smiled brightly. "Because I finally didn't kill you again."
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