It seemed that because this wasn't what she and Li Wu had agreed upon earlier, Anna didn't turn back to look at him. Instead, she puffed out her cheeks and glared angrily at the two cyborgs in front of her.
Arga and his colleague exchanged dismayed glances. Finally, they shook their heads and began backing away, step by step.
With such a "monster" standing guard, making a move on the Herrscher of Thunder today was impossible. They could only retreat for now and come up with another plan.
"I didn't say you could leave." Just as the cyborgs focused their attention on Anna, Li Wu raised the muzzle of his gun and aimed it at the cyborg's head.
BANG!
The bullet pierced through flesh and bone, leaving a bloody hole in the cyborg's forehead as he collapsed straight to the floor.
Seeing this, Arga let out a bitter smile and covertly held up three fingers with his left hand toward the glass door.
Li Wu quickly fired two shots outside the glass. The third cyborg, who had been hiding outside, smashed through the glass door and leaped high into the air. But before he could even land, Anna intercepted him with a mid-air spinning back kick that shattered all his ribs. He collapsed to the ground like a beaten dog.
Anna shot Li Wu another fierce glare, cursing him secretly in her heart.
I thought we agreed I was just dropping him off at home! But this guy doesn't value his life at all—he's completely using suicide tactics! Now I have no choice but to step in and finish this for him...
I've been totally roped into this mess by Li Wu!
"You... you! Anna Schariac!!"
The third cyborg gasped out Anna's name. But very quickly, Li Wu walked up to him and pulled the trigger again.
BANG!
With that gunshot, Anna's name became his final words.
"It's over." Li Wu slumped onto the floor, leaning against the wall and panting heavily.
"Not yet." Anna pointed at Arga. "There's still one 'witness' alive. Aren't you going to take care of him?"
Li Wu looked in the direction Anna pointed, his expression seemingly a bit hesitant.
"Wait! Don't! Li Wu and I are old acquaintances. I didn't do anything on this mission! I was purely slacking off and just tagging along, I didn't put in any effort at all... Raiden Mei can testify! I wasn't even the one who personally wielded the Plasma Kagehide to freeze her. I'm just a miserable corporate wage slave too, don't kill me! I can deactivate the Plasma Kagehide's ability!"
Seeing the aggro suddenly shift to him, Arga's survival instincts instantly kicked into overdrive. He knelt on the ground begging for mercy, slowly inching toward the Plasma Kagehide in an attempt to control it.
But the moment he reached out his hand, Anna viciously stomped on it. She retorted unkindly, "Your excuse is far too clumsy. Did you really think I'd let an enemy use a cheap excuse to get their hands on a weapon?"
Arga wanted to cry but had no tears left. He genuinely just wanted to help unfreeze Raiden Mei! Who knew this Schicksal Valkyrie was so vigilant that she wouldn't even give him a chance to demonstrate his loyalty?
With things at this point, Arga had to pin his hopes on Li Wu's conscience. Looking at the current situation, he was the only one who could persuade Anna.
"Li Wu, hurry up and plead for me! I didn't have any bad intentions; this was all Boss Raiden's mission. The other cyborgs had death chips installed in their brains—they had to do it to survive. I'm just a lowly grunt! My colleagues might be willing to throw their lives away, but I'm not!"
"Mei, is that true?" Li Wu turned his head and asked.
"Mm..." Raiden Mei nodded lightly. As she spoke, another thin puff of white mist escaped her lips. "He really didn't attack... And he seemed to intentionally chat with the other two about everyday things, stalling for a bit of time..."
"Right, right! Tonight's attack was an impromptu plan, I was just forced to tag along. I thought you could take care of them by yourself, so my plan was to secretly team up with you and backstab my colleagues once we got to your house. Most cyborgs are death row inmates—rapists, murderers, guys guilty of heinous crimes. But not me! I'm completely clean, you can check my records! I modified my body purely because I have a dream of cybernetic ascension! Flesh is weak, cybernetic ascension is the way!"
"If I had known you weren't here, I definitely would have sent you a message." Arga squatted on the ground, looking up at Li Wu with a face full of innocence.
"Oh? You've spun a pretty decent yarn. But who knows if you're just playing both sides? It's simplest to just kill you. I certainly don't have the free time to go background-check your records." Anna snorted coldly and stomped down harder.
"Let him go. He... isn't an enemy," Li Wu said.
So it was Arga who had stalled for time. If he hadn't delayed them, Li Wu probably would have had to die a few more times.
"But the fact that I intervened today..." Anna began.
Seeing Anna's wavering gaze, Arga immediately put on a 'blind man' act. "What intervention? Aren't there only five people here today? Me, my two colleagues, Raiden Mei, and Li Wu. Hey? Why can't I lift my hand? How strange, my hand is actually being stepped on by the air!"
"...Fine. I've memorized your face and your name. A third person is not allowed to know about what happened today."
"You mean absolutely no fifth person will know!"
Anna glanced back at Li Wu, then walked out to the living room, grabbed a cup of cold water from the dispenser, and sat on the sofa to rest.
Back in the kitchen.
Arga first helped lift the Plasma Kagehide's restriction on Raiden Mei. Then, expressionless, he forcibly tore off his own mechanical prosthetic limb and had Li Wu shoot him in designated spots.
They were all locations dangerously close to his vitals, but just barely missing them.
Seeing Arga still talking and laughing even after taking several bullets, Li Wu couldn't help but ask, "Does it not hurt?"
"Hurt? If I hadn't injected a painkiller, it would definitely hurt like hell. I already gave myself a shot when I tore off my prosthetic. I won't feel any pain for the next hour."
Hearing this, Li Wu's eyes lit up. "Where can I get this painkiller?"
If he had this kind of painkiller, the agony of "Return by Death" would be significantly reduced.
Arga sighed and shook his head. "It's exclusively developed by Anti-Entropy, and currently, it only works on cyborgs. If you want a painkiller that works on your body, you should ask the Valkyrie behind you. Schicksal are the absolute professionals when it comes to pain relief. Five hundred years ago, they already developed a special medicine that can completely block all pain."
"But what you need right now isn't painkillers, it's something to stop the bleeding. It just so happens I have some recovery meds on me. Made by Anti-Entropy—pretty effective stuff. Every time I get hurt, I inject this and I'm healed up in no time."
Arga stepped forward and prepared to inject the medicine directly into Li Wu's wound.
The needle plunged straight into the bullet hole. Li Wu's mouth merely twitched; he didn't make a single sound.
This shocked Arga immensely. While it was true that one could endure the pain if they braced for it, Li Wu looked as if he didn't care at all. It wasn't the reaction of a normal person.
When a normal person sees a needle being jammed directly into an open wound, they would naturally feel some level of "worry" or "fear." But Li Wu showed absolutely zero emotional resistance.
"Wait, this bullet... Did your gun misfire? You shot yourself in the shoulder?!" Arga was dumbfounded as he proceeded to extract the bullet from Li Wu's flesh.