Life Game In Other World
Chapter 531

Chapter 531: 531

He Ao lowered his head to look at the pool of blood beneath his feet.

Raindrops fell into the pool of blood, already distorting its original shape, but through the hazy curtain of rain, He Ao could still roughly make out the symbol that the pool of blood had once formed.

It was a symbol drawn in fresh blood, ’K’.

And in the very center of the blood pool, where He Ao had just knelt, lay a black and white, eerily smiling mask,

Of all the occult knowledge, Jess had studied the most about sacrifices, as this involved the making of gene potions.

Similarly, he understood the appetites of the ’Evil Gods’ well, with the sacrifices he could offer, an Evil God would hardly bestow power beyond C-level, and no divine being would aid him, nor did he have anything else to rely on.

All his knowledge of the occult came from three sources, the old professor, the detective agency, and the Mysterious Person; the old professor had already been killed, the detective agency would never take on a case beyond their abilities, and the Mysterious Person was the one who wanted him dead.

He was desperate.

So he had no choice but to place his hope on the hidden entity ’K’ he had once seen, even though he knew no sacrificial rituals related to ’K’, nor whether ’K’ would offer any help. It was like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

He had no other options.

The scene reminded He Ao of Joey, who was similarly devoid of everything.

Joey was innocent; he wasn’t old enough to do anything yet.

And Jess was kind; he had never done anything wrong.

But at different times, they arrived at the same crossroads.

He Ao slowly crouched down, picked up the mask from the ground, and put it on his face.

The fresh blood stained on the lower edge of the mask imprinted on the contours of his cheeks, flowing with the blurred raindrops into the silent night.

Thud—

That was the sound of footsteps splashing through a puddle, creating bursting water droplets.

In the stillness of the night, the footsteps drew nearer and nearer.

······

"This damn rain, it washed away all the bloodstains. That guy should be nearby."

The man wearing the exoskeleton armor raised his hand to glance at the glowing display on his wrist, then took something from the dagger at his waist, "My armor is almost out of power; how is this guy like a rat?"

The hazy raindrops slid off the hard metal contours of the armor.

"After all, he’s a Transcendent," said the man next to him who was holding a Gauss rifle, chuckling, "His physical fitness is much better than ours."

"Heard that guy doesn’t dare to kill?"

The first man held his Gauss rifle and walked ahead, while scanning the surroundings with an infrared detector, slowly advancing.

The curtain of rain noticeably interfered with the infrared detector’s display, filling the screen with mottled noise.

He turned on the strong light fixed to his helmet, illuminating the area ahead.

"Yeah, those gang members who attacked him were just knocked out by him, he didn’t go for the kill," the man following behind said with a laugh, "so when we see him later just shoot straight away since he won’t kill, right?"

He looked up at the gloomy sky, "This rainy weather is really bad, we would have found him earlier if not for the rain, but he got hit by a sniper, won’t live long even if he didn’t die, couldn’t have gone far."

"Better be careful though, even a rabbit will bite when cornered."

The man in the front whispered.

"True."

The man behind nodded in agreement.

They walked forward a few steps, and the man in front suddenly stopped, crouched down, and stared at the ground, "Bloodstains, he must be nearby."

"Didn’t expect to stumble upon him," the man behind gripped his Gauss rifle tightly, "The team that gets rid of the target first gets a federal coin bonus, this might be the easiest money we’ve ever made."

His display showed an electronic map indicating that this was a dead end.

"Once this is over, I’ll go wild at the dance hall for a night, pop the most expensive bottle, and pour it over those b*tches."

The man in front also stood up, revealing a hideous grin.

The two continued to move briskly along the alley.

Soon, they arrived at the end of the alley where there was only a pool of blood, already dispersed by the rain.

"Ran away?"

The man in front looked at the end of the alley with some confusion.

Bang—

Just then, a faint noise came from behind them.

"Behind us!"

The two immediately turned around, unhesitatingly opening fire towards the direction of the sound behind them.

Boom boom—

With a loud explosion, the wall shattered under the impact of the Gauss rifle bullets, sending fragments flying.

The sturdy wall blew open a hole, revealing the structure behind it, but around the hollow, there were no limbs or blood.

It was a trap!

The two immediately stood back to back, surveying their surroundings.

At that moment, a masked figure dropped from the wall to one side, landing in front of the man behind.

The man watched the black and white mask, aiming at the figure in front ready to shoot, but the figure moved faster. He swiftly pulled out the dagger tucked at the man’s waist, raising his arm like a phantom to the man’s neck.

The sharp blade slipped into the man’s neck through the gap between the helmet and the body.

"Gurgle—"

The man opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but blood filled his neck.

The man standing ahead realized something and immediately turned around, pulling the trigger.

Accompanied by a roaring sound, the bullet hit his comrade’s body, passing through the exoskeleton armor and detonating with a boom.

Blood obscured his vision.

And in that instant, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck; a keen dagger entered from the side at his nape and slanted downward along the vertebrae, piercing through his trachea and carotid artery.

He struggled briefly and fell forward.

Crimson blood flowed into the drain at the edge of the alley, mingling with the rainwater.

He Ao pulled out the dagger and crouched down, opening the display on the man’s arm and tapping into the map interface, whereupon a series of red dots appeared in his view.

1···2···3······30

Including these two, a total of thirty people. Judging by their attire, they should belong to some mercenary organization.

The sniper shouldn’t be among these thirty.

Apart from the sniper, Jess had sensed another exceptionally powerful presence while fleeing, likely C-level.

It was unclear whether this C-level was with the mercenaries or associated with that Mysterious Person.

Thirty people—the size of a fully-staffed mercenary combat squad.

A standard combat squad would have at least one sniper, at least one C-level Transcendent.

They sure held Jess in high regard.

He Ao memorized the approximate locations of these mercenaries and picked up the two Gauss Rifles on the ground.

The two rifles were G-K2 model Gauss Rifles, sold externally by the Yiwis Space System Corporation, and at the pinnacle of commercial-grade weapons, usually only sold to large Mercenary Corps.

Each magazine held five bullets; there were now three and four bullets left in the two guns respectively, and He Ao found five magazines on the man whose body was still intact.

A total of thirty-two bullets.

He Ao opened personal information and glanced at his current status.

[He Ao (Jess)]

[Authority Level: Advanced Player]

[Physical Fitness: 1194 (127)]

[Skills: Talent Sequences 272: Super Memory (Soul Binding) (C-level), Basic Firearms Mastery (partial soul), Talent Sequences 72: Secret Mage (C-level) (not usable)]

[Mechanical Modification: None]

[Martial Arts: Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation (C-level) (partially usable)]

[Character Skills: Talent Sequences 54: Almsgiver]

Jess’s Talent Sequence was ’Almsgiver’.

The ability of the Almsgiver was simple: an Almsgiver could gift a part of their possessions to another, anything at all, even picking up a stone and offering it.

The recipient would subconsciously accept the Almsgiver’s gift, regardless of whether they wanted to or not, and their favorability towards the Almsgiver would increase.

The more the gift was cherished by the recipient, the faster their favorability increased, but this affection wouldn’t turn into love, only a sense of closeness and obsession. If the favorability rose too much, the obsession could transform into possessiveness and a desire to control.

This Talent Sequence wasn’t combat-oriented, so it provided little enhancement to physical fitness.

In fact, starting from the ’Hermit’, the Talent Sequences of this pathway provided minimal improvements to physical fitness.

Jess originally wanted to purchase a combat-oriented Talent Sequence, but the detective agency had said they could only secure a Talent Sequence from this pathway, so he had compromised in the end.

Almsgiver wasn’t geared for the spotlight, but if nurtured behind the scenes continuously, it could still exhibit extraordinary strength.

The issue was that Jess had always been alone; he was always under surveillance.

Still, he’d used the Almsgiver’s power to win over some of the laboratory’s research assistants, getting them to plant a virus in the lab’s computer for him.

He’d also used this ability to steadily curry favor with the Mysterious Person, which he believed was the reason the Mysterious Person trusted him.

However, it was clear that even with the influence of the Almsgiver’s ability, the Mysterious Person had never truly trusted him—all this so-called ’meeting with the big shot’ was nothing but a trap to kill him.

To lead him to a deserted place, and kill him without damaging the laboratory or attracting attention.

The West District was the most chaotic area in Vitland City, akin to the Aston District in Dawn City—a paradise for gangs and criminals.

He Ao lifted his wristband, which had no signal; the Mercenary Corps had deployed a signal jamming device nearby.

When He Ao had checked the map just now, even the mercenary’s own smart devices could only receive signals from their comrades, unable to access outside signals and trapped within a local network.

As per Jess’s plan, the lab’s computer Trojan should have activated by now, and the detective agency should have contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But He Ao felt that the situation was not as simple as it seemed.

Confused thoughts incessantly battered his mind.

This was the chaos from the body he occupied. Jess hadn’t fully mastered the initial Talent Sequence when ascending, and had completed the ascension prematurely.

Moreover, the sensation after consuming the Secret Medicine didn’t quite match those from the Secret Medicines He Ao had taken before.

Perhaps things were not as straightforward as they appeared on the surface.

Nonetheless, the primary objective now was to break out of the encirclement.

Wielding the Gauss Rifle, He Ao walked out of the long alley through the blurred curtain of rain.

The dim streetlights illuminated the mottled raindrops, and the eerie, smiling mask reflected a cold light in the silent night.