Survivorship Bias

Chapter 17: You are quite sensitive

After bandaging his wound in the storage room, Lao Yu took out his own bread from the cabinet and took a bite. The pain here felt very real. He took a painkiller tablet, but its effects hadn’t kicked in yet. He had only two tablets left and needed to conserve them.

Just as he swallowed the dry, hard bread, Shen Ti pushed the door open and entered. He had a pair of tea-colored sunglasses perched on his nose, which he had just exchanged that morning.

Seeing Lao Yu, Shen Ti paused for a moment, then pushed up his glasses and greeted him with a “Good afternoon” in German.

His way of greeting was strange. Lao Yu didn’t say much and just nodded in response.

Suddenly, Shen Ti realized something on his own, “Oh, wait, you’re French.” After saying that, he said “sorry” in French.

He was an odd person. This fact wasn’t surprising anymore, and Lao Yu didn’t bother with it. He saw Shen Ti walk towards a glass cabinet on the side and realized that Shen Ti’s supplies were stored next to his own.

Shen Ti hadn’t eaten anything; his supplies were almost untouched. No wonder the energy bar on his head was much lower than others’. He opened the cabinet, took out a bottle of water, and unscrewed the cap before chugging it down, resembling some sort of animal while drinking.

Lao Yu didn’t look back at him and just chewed on the last bite of his bread. He wore a striped shirt, feeling an odd pain in his body. Apart from the chest and abdomen injuries from the duel, his back also felt sore.

And his ankles.

At some point, Shen Ti had somehow sat down beside him, leaving no trace at all.

“Hey, your skill allows you to freely enter others’ rooms, right?” He extended his hand with his index and middle fingers, mimicking a walking motion.

Lao Yu furrowed his brows, “You’re only realizing this now?”

“Just confirming again.”

Shen Ti seemed to be contemplating something. After a short while, he pointed at Lao Yu’s chest, “What’s inside your clothes?”

Lao Yu instinctively pulled open his shirt, looked down, and then raised his head, quite puzzled, asking Shen Ti, “What?”

“Oh.” Shen Ti’s face remained impassive, shamelessly stating, “The injury on your chest seems a bit strange. I need to take another look.”

It was only now that Lao Yu realized he had been tricked by Shen Ti earlier. This guy had no sense of order in his actions, not behaving like a normal person.

“What do you mean?” Lao Yu questioned.

Shen Ti tilted his head, staring, then tilted the bottle to finish the last sip of water, “All these wounds are new, from the duel?”

“Yes,” Lao Yu nodded.

“Nothing else…?” Shen Ti craned his neck to observe other parts of Lao Yu’s body, almost giving him a thorough examination.

“What are you trying to do?” Lao Yu was utterly confused by his behavior.

Unable to find any other injuries, Shen Ti gave up. He seemed a bit tired, rubbing his eyes lazily with his hand and speaking lackadaisically, “Let me ask you, what did you and that little devil do last night?”

His attitude was nonchalant, and his speech seemed disinterested. Most importantly, his thoughts were jumping around, switching to a new topic suddenly.

Lao Yu was slightly annoyed by this attitude, “Why should I tell you?”

Shen Ti turned his head, his green eyes faintly glowing in the dim light, resembling will-o’-the-wisps. He pointed his thumb toward the door, “You’re quite good at pretending. You weren’t like this when we were outside. Are you trying to bully me?”

An air of reasonableness.

Provoked by Shen Ti, Lao Yu was momentarily at a loss for words.

“Forget it.” Shen Ti flattened the bottle in his hand, then lifted it to blow air into the opening, puffing it up before capping it again, “I’m not interested in your private conversations. Just tell me what time you finished talking and where you went afterward.”

Lao Yu frowned. Despite not wanting to tell Shen Ti the answer, his question made him recall the events.

“Let me think. The hypnosis gas messed with my mind a bit.” Lao Yu took a deep breath, “I only remember that when we were talking in the reception room, it was almost midnight. At that point, I told Wu You that it wasn’t early anymore and we should go back to sleep, or we might break the rules.”

Shen Ti conjured a lollipop from somewhere, placed it in his mouth, and asked vaguely, “And then? You both went back?”

Lao Yu nodded, “He walked back with me. We walked side by side to the doors of our rooms and said goodnight to each other. Wu You is a polite kid.”

“And then?”

“Then I went back to my room to sleep.”

“Slept…” Shen Ti repeated the word, then raised an eyebrow at him, “Don’t you find that strange?”

“What’s strange?” Lao Yu asked, puzzled.

“Your skill,” Shen Ti held up his fingers to count, “You can use your skill from 7 in the evening till 5 in the morning, and then you’re forced to fall asleep at midnight. So, there are five hours wasted, right?”

Finishing his statement, he looked at Lao Yu as if trying to observe any traces and confirm his suspicion.

But Lao Yu just looked confused and told him, “I’m puzzled too. I’ve never really understood how I should use my skill. Even if I can enter someone else’s room before I sleep, I can’t take their supplies or do anything meaningful, so what’s the point?”

Shen Ti lazily nodded, almost as if he was swaying slightly, then stood up, “I knew it.”

Lao Yu was baffled, “What did you know?”

“I know that you don’t know anything.”

With that, Shen Ti turned and left without looking back.

Lao Yu sat there for a while, growing increasingly puzzled. He buttoned up his shirt, opened the door, and coincidentally, the holy sound announcing a duel came from the bunker.

“Another duel?” Lao Yu hadn’t expected it.

Zhong Yirou walked in from the hallway, “It’s initiated by Ueno Taisei against Liu Chengwei.”

Given Ueno Taisei’s personality, he wouldn’t initiate a duel willingly. This duel must have been initiated by Yang Ming.

But why?

Could it really be just because he suspected Liu Chengwei of being a cult member? Did he really go to such lengths?

But what benefit did he gain from battling one of his own subordinates?

Could it be that there are new chess pieces on the board again?

“The duel has ended.”

Coming out of the dueling threshold, both were covered in blood. Liu Chengwei’s face was masked with wounds and blood, making it impossible to discern the eye he had lost. It was simply horrifying.

His steps were unsteady, swaying as he walked forward, leaving bloody footprints with each step. He halted only when he stood in front of Yang Ming.

Yang Ming, dressed in a neat suit, remained silent. He caught a whiff of the strong scent of blood, causing him to furrow his brows.

Liu Chengwei suddenly reached out toward Yang Ming’s throat, gripping it fiercely, exerting nearly all his strength, as if he wanted to strangle him right there!

“Warning! Warning!”

The holy sound appeared, and Liu Chengwei reacted as if shocked by electricity. He trembled violently all over and released the grip on his own hand, collapsing heavily to the ground.

“Players are not allowed to engage in combat outside the dueling threshold. Liu Chengwei has violated the rule once and received an electric shock warning.”

Yang Ming’s throat burned with searing heat. The brief sense of suffocation and pain fueled his anger. He kicked the unconscious Liu Chengwei in frustration.

“You damn bastard!”

After cursing, he adjusted his tie around his neck, then cast a sidelong glance at Ueno. “Initiate another one.”

Zhong Yirou furrowed her brows. Liu Chengwei has only three health bars left now. Did Yang Ming intend to kill him today?

Ueno didn’t know whether he could resist or what the consequences of resisting would be. Would Wu You and Yang Ming initiate duels against him?

Perhaps there was also his black line; his 5 health bars were far from sufficient.

Ueno requested the system to initiate another duel with trembling lip.

After a moment, the holy sound responded, “Today’s dueling limit has been reached. The dueling threshold is now closed.”

The crimson web retracted just like that, eventually fading away in the dim room. Unable to initiate another duel, Yang Ming’s fury burned even hotter. Seeing Ueno’s distraught appearance only deepened his suspicions.

Just a while ago, while everyone’s attention was focused on the dueling threshold, he stood alone in a corner, taking out what Wu You had given him.

It was a crumpled and torn piece of paper with a sentence scrawled on it. The handwriting was crooked and messy, as if written with a non-dominant hand. The last word was misspelled and had several circles drawn over it. Perhaps the intention was to start over, as there were two large crosses above the whole sentence.

[Ueno has teamed up, meet in the reading room at 9:30 p.m.]

This discarded note immediately confirmed the sender’s identity to Yang Ming. This was why he had pressured Ueno into dueling Liu Chengwei, to gauge his reaction.

In truth, there was a fleeting moment when he suspected this might be a ploy by An Wujiu, but his unending dread, panic, and apprehension towards An Wujiu blurred his judgment once again.

Had both of his allies truly been turned against him by An Wujiu?

Perhaps An Wujiu was exploiting his variety of tactics, thus using the simplest method to force him to drive Ueno away again, leaving him isolated.

Indeed, Liu Chengwei wasn’t an ordinary person; he was a cult member. If he collaborated with Ueno, he would indeed be in grave danger.

But if Liu Chengwei truly was a cult member, why did An Wujiu directly expose his identity and target him in the morning? Yang Ming furrowed his brows, deep in thought.

The most dangerous place was often the safest; the more forcefully one stepped, the cleaner their relationship appeared.

“What should we do with him?” Suddenly, Wu You spoke up, interrupting his thoughts. “Just leave him here like this?”

Yang Ming took a deep breath.

Even if they couldn’t kill Liu Chengwei today, they needed to restrain him.

“Are you able to stay up late tonight or tomorrow night?” Yang Ming faced Wu You and asked.

“Tonight,” Wu You replied.

Yang Ming nodded. “Then tie him up in the reading room, on the couch. Make sure he can’t move at all. You keep an eye on him and see what happens when he wakes up tomorrow morning.”

If someone died again, it meant Liu Chengwei wasn’t a cult member. But if it was a peaceful night, there was no way Liu Chengwei could stay.

After all, this guy only had 3 health bars left, with just 2 points of survival value.

Consider those two points lost.

Several men in the room lifted Liu Chengwei up and led him to the reading room. Wu You brought a blanket from his resting room and laid it on the floor. He and Lao Yu then proceeded to tie Liu Chengwei securely to the couch, immobilizing his limbs.

Once everyone else left, Wu You sat on the floor, silently nibbling on a piece of bread. After finishing half of it, the groaning Liu Chengwei on the wooden bed regained consciousness. He struggled with all his might, hurling insults at Wu You. But Wu You paid no attention, calmly finishing off the remaining half of the bread.

Liu Chengwei’s insults grew more and more vile, and he even forcefully spat in Wu You’s direction. However, Wu You only slightly turned his head to avoid it, remaining silent.

Unable to duel, time passed quickly. An Wujiu finished reading half of the “Vimalakirti Sutra,” becoming increasingly drowsy and yawning. He estimated that it was around ten o’clock, so he closed the book, stood up, and returned to his resting room.

Passing by the corridor outside the resting room, he spotted Zhong Yirou, leaning back on the couch with her legs crossed and a newspaper covering her face. Her skeleton high heels swung back and forth, about to fall off.

“Looking for me?” Zhong Yirou sensed An Wujiu’s presence and lowered the newspaper, revealing her cat-like eyes.

An Wujiu took a step closer and noticed the coffee cup beside her, tilting his head.

“Another deal?”

They didn’t exchange many words in the corridor, aware that walls had ears. An Wujiu led Zhong Yirou to the soundproofed music room. He shared his plan with her in a candid cooperative manner, not bothering whether she agreed or not. Then he yawned incessantly and returned to his own room 5.

He was quite confident that Zhong Yirou would agree.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have waited for him in the corridor outside the resting room until he emerged.

Both were clever individuals; there was no need to say too much.

An Wujiu sat on the edge of the bed, feeling the arm that had been suspended in front of his chest go numb. It was uncomfortable. He untied the strip of fabric, letting his right arm down, and then crawled onto the bed. Drowsily, he closed his eyes.

In his ears echoed Liu Chengwei’s hoarse curses. He replayed the events of the day in his mind, the strategies merging into numerous intricate paths leading forward, still some distance away from his ultimate goal.

With a lack of food and water resources, An Wujiu could sense his physical energy dwindling at an accelerated pace. The yellow energy bar above his head kept diminishing. At this rate, he would run into trouble sooner or later.

Before that, even if he had allies, he couldn’t and shouldn’t trade for other people’s supplies. It would be too easy to expose himself.

Just three more days…

He lay down, and soon enough, Liu Chengwei’s curses seemed to quiet down. The resting room became particularly silent. So quiet that An Wujiu could only hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

He used his heartbeat to estimate the time.

It was 11:35.

Twenty-five more minutes to go.

The sensation of counting time using his heartbeat felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t recall the circumstances under which he had done such a thing. He felt like he had been doing it day after day.

The frustrating feeling of amnesia irritated An Wujiu. Preparing to turn over, he had just shifted his shoulder when suddenly he rolled over, opened his eyes, and used his uninjured left hand to flip the person near the edge of the bed onto the bed. He then stepped over, bent down, and sat on top of the person. He brought his forearm down to press against the person’s neck.

It was Shen Ti.

An Wujiu firmly suppressed Shen Ti’s throat, his eyebrows furrowed. Shen Ti’s hands kept patting An Wujiu’s arm and body, struggling like a dying fish.

“Trying to ambush me?” An Wujiu’s arm relaxed a bit, moving slowly to the left on Shen Ti’s reddened neck, until he switched to using his hand to grip Shen Ti’s throat.

A lively pulse throbbed in his hand, faster than his own heartbeat.

An Wujiu loosened his grip slightly, using only a bit of strength, allowing Shen Ti to breathe. Shen Ti gasped for air and smiled at An Wujiu. In the dim light, his voice seemed to be amplified by An Wujiu’s heightened sensitivity to danger, making it sound even more perilous.

Thus, the danger escalated.

“You’re quite sensitive,” he lay beneath An Wujiu, his enchanting green eyes seemed to have a layer of mist, “How did you figure it out?”

“I heard it…” An Wujiu lowered his head, getting closer, he extended his right hand, still carrying the scent of blood and a hint of gruesomeness, and his fingertips gripped the two strings of red coral that were swaying slightly. His tone was icy.

“The sound of your earring.”