As Alex spoke, he staggered backward and accidentally kicked a bottle on the ground. It was empty. It fell over and rolled to Bai Liu's feet.
Bai Liu lowered his gaze.
On the bottle, written neatly, were the words:
[Medicine to Reactivate Cells of Dead Organisms (Animal Experimental Version, Do Not Use on Humans)]
[Developed by: Alex Brown]
Bai Liu's eyes shifted. Several empty bottles lay scattered behind Alex.
He calmly looked at the corpses surrounding them.
Fragmented arms. Half of a skull with exposed brain matter. A severed calf, its tendons torn apart by an explosion. Each broken limb pointed toward Bai Liu at grotesque angles.
In the dim light of the tent, the jagged fractures looked like eyes.
Rotten, blood-soaked eyes staring greedily at Bai Liu—the only one present whose body remained intact.
It was as if these dismembered remains had developed a will of their own.
[System prompt: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for unlocking the "Dense Forest Border" monster book – Half-Dead Corpse.]
[Players can earn one point by collecting and subduing a half-dead corpse fragment. The player with the highest total points within seven days wins.]
So these were the "bodies" the game required them to collect.
And the one who created them—
Bai Liu slowly raised his eyes to look at Alex, who was still kneeling on the ground in collapse. He could clearly sense the violent wavering in this NPC's alignment, shaken by overwhelming grief.
This was the critical turning point.
The key moment that would determine whether Alex defected.
Bai Liu did not stand up. He remained crouched as the corpse fragments slowly squirmed closer.
"You think Guy did something wrong?" Bai Liu said quietly. "But do you think these corpses did the right thing?"
Alex clutched his head and howled in pain.
He did not answer. But the confusion and turmoil in his eyes made his answer obvious. He did not believe they were right either.
Bai Liu glanced at the writhing remains. "Guy once told you that war is like this," Bai Liu said meaningfully. "In war, everyone becomes an emotionless corpse."
"I actually liked your earlier idea," Bai Liu continued softly. "If corpses could fight instead of the living, then no one would have to be harmed."
He sighed. "But that's impossible."
Alex froze.
Bai Liu stood and gently patted his shoulder.
"Get some rest. There will be a major battle tomorrow. Who knows how many new corpses will be created? We'll be busy."
He pulled Spades—whose gaze had nearly fused to the moving corpse fragments—out of the tent and back to their own.
Spades looked at him. "You're baiting Alex into switching camps."
"Not exactly." Bai Liu removed his dirt-stained military coat and hung it on the wall before lying down on the camp bed. He turned his head slightly, smiling at Spades.
"Defecting wouldn't benefit us."
"If Alex switches to the enemy and we follow him, the enemy's trust in us—late defectors—will never be as strong as their trust in the Reverse God and the others, who defected from the start."
"In simple terms, if Alex defects, our chances of winning will still be lower than the Reverse God."
He looked at Spades with a half-smile. "And in that case, they're very likely to win you over."
The moment winning or losing was mentioned, Spades immediately focused.
He sat down at the edge of the bed and began removing his uniform. "How do we beat them?"
Bai Liu subtly retreated further onto the bed.
"The game only provides two visible options: our camp and the enemy's camp."
"Based on current developments, whether Alex stays or defects, if we want to win, we would need to become weapons of war. We would have to create massive casualties and supply corpses for Alex to transform."
"I don't like that approach. It's inefficient and dependent on brute comparison of panel values."
"And in terms of overall team strength, we can't beat them." Spades interrupted seriously.
"It's comparable. My panel value alone is higher than the other three combined—excluding the Reverse God."
Bai Liu fell silent. Then he raised an eyebrow.
"What exactly is your panel value?"
Spades calmly recited a string of numbers.
"The Reverse God's panel is confidential, so I don't know his exact value," Spades added. "But it shouldn't exceed mine."
Bai Liu fell into an eerie silence.
No wonder the Reverse God wanted to suppress him.
With a panel value like that, if Spades acted freely and refused to follow orders, he would be like a human wrecking ball. He would destabilize everything. In league matches, it took nine people working together to restrain him. No single person could.
"I'd heard rumors your panel exceeded ten thousand," Bai Liu said slowly. "I didn't expect it to be that much higher."
"I passed ten thousand in my first year," Spades replied. "Later, my teammates told me to keep it secret before league matches. They said an outstanding panel makes you an easy target."
"Even so," Bai Liu continued, "that's still only an individual advantage. In this game, the Reverse God and his team made the first move. They secured the enemy camp and gained a positional advantage."
"Even if we defect later, we'd still be competing for corpses."
"And they would still hold the advantage."
"So," Bai Liu said with a faint smile, "to neutralize their camp advantage, we need to introduce a third faction."
Spades frowned.
"A third faction? Whose?"
"Alex's," Bai Liu replied calmly. "A personal camp."
Midnight.
Spades slept deeply beside Bai Liu, one arm wrapped securely around his waist.
Very gently, Bai Liu extricated himself from Spades' limbs and slipped out of bed.
He quietly entered Alex's tent.
Alex was still sitting on the ground in exactly the same position as before, as though he hadn't moved in hours.
Without lifting his head, he spoke hoarsely:
"The battle begins in three hours. Don't try to persuade me. Go back and rest."
"You've joined the Second Assault Team," Bai Liu said calmly, turning on the dim lamp. "In three hours, you and Guy will stand on opposite sides of the battlefield."
He looked down at Alex.
"Do you want to see him one last time before you aim guns at each other?"
Alex slowly raised his head.
A flicker of hope ignited in his dull eyes—then quickly dimmed.
"Soldiers caught fraternizing with the enemy before a major battle are tortured," he said weakly. "Don't risk that for me."
"There's a place where meeting him would be legitimate," Bai Liu said softly. "The neutral Red Cross Rescue Society. Wounded soldiers are permitted there."
Hope flared again.
"But entry requires a guarantor," Alex said quickly. "Do you know someone there?"
"Yes," Bai Liu smiled. "I know someone who can guarantee your admission."
The Red Cross compound was brightly lit.
This neutral medical organization, dedicated to rescue operations, maintained camps on both sides of the conflict and at the border itself.
After Bai Liu reported his location to Liu Jiayi, Alex shot himself in the leg—twice—without hesitation.
Soon, a Red Cross vehicle arrived and carried the wounded Alex away.
Bai Liu climbed into the vehicle as well.
The medical staff greeted him warmly.
"Are you Jiayi's brother?" one of them asked cheerfully. "She thought you were injured and urged us to hurry."
"You two look so alike."
To them, the two Asian children—Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu—looked nearly identical.
"Your sister is extraordinary," another said eagerly. "We can't believe someone so young could be so skilled. She handles battle trauma and heavy bleeding better than a dozen trained adults."
"She's saved dozens of lives in just two days."
"Have you thought about sending her to medical school after the war?" someone hinted enthusiastically. "War service earns admission to top universities. You could give your spot to Jiayi."
Bai Liu smiled faintly.
"She's only nine."
"That doesn't matter!" they protested. "Jiayi is a genius! She absolutely deserves advanced education!"
In just two days, Liu Jiayi had maximized her favorability with the Red Cross NPCs.
Which made things extremely convenient.
The vehicle drove straight into the Red Cross camp.
When Bai Liu stepped down from the truck, he saw Liu Jiayi running toward him.
She wore an oversized nurse's uniform, a small cap perched on her head. Blood-stained white gloves covered her hands. A palm-sized Red Cross emblem fluttered on her sleeve as she ran.
The people here surprisingly listened to her words. As long as she said where to send it, the people carrying the stretcher would immediately send it to that place in the tent.
Liu Jiayi seemed to be a very influential figure here.
When she ran up to Bai Liu, he smiled and teased, "You're doing well."
Liu Jiayi angrily took off her gloves and threw them into the medical waste bin. "Could you have dragged this out any longer? You've been stalling this camp game right up until the eve of the final battle just to switch sides. I almost defected to you with the entire Red Cross."
"But since you hadn't given any instructions, I held my position." She dusted the talcum powder off her hands and continued seriously, "You didn't contact me yesterday, so I knew you had other plans for this game. As a neutral voluntary organization, the Red Cross can help you switch camps. Which side are you joining now?"
Bai Liu smiled. "A third party."
Liu Jiayi reacted quickly. "You want to form your own faction? With the main storyline NPCs and the corpses as the core?"
Bai Liu nodded.
She frowned and thought for a moment. "The corpses don't need rescuing, so the Red Cross would be useless to you. I want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"Oh, by the way, the difficult part of this game isn't the camps." Liu Jiayi raised her head. "You know that too—it's the Killer Sequence players who end up in a different camp from you."
She looked a little worried. "Even if the Reverse God and Spades seem to be targeting each other in this game, whichever side they're on, they're not opponents we can compete with right now. They were last year's championship team. The gap in overall strength is huge."
"Essentially, the two camps that truly determine the outcome of this game are Spades and the Reverse God. We're just a small variable."
"I know." Bai Liu smiled faintly. "So I just need to make both Spades and the Reverse God believe that they're in the same camp as me. Wouldn't that be enough?"
"That way, no matter which side wins, I win."
Liu Jiayi froze. She quickly understood what Bai Liu was planning and couldn't help but make a speechless face. "You're going to play double agent again?"
Bai Liu smiled and hummed in agreement.
She frowned. "But Spades and the Reverse God aren't fools. How are you going to make them believe you're on their side?"
Bai Liu lowered his eyes. "With sincerity, of course."
Liu Jiayi: "…"
Don't make bad jokes at a time like this!
"The Reverse God and the others, along with the main NPC Guy, are at the Red Cross right now, aren't they?" Bai Liu changed the subject.
Liu Jiayi nodded. "Yes. Since it's the eve of the war, the Reverse God and the others came to contact the Red Cross. I just triggered the main NPC, Guy. He was injured and brought here for treatment."
Bai Liu looked at her. "Did they recognize you as a player?"
"I was recognized…" Liu Jiayi looked puzzled. "But the Reverse God and the others have generally treated me well. They seem to regard me as an ordinary NPC with rescue functions. They even traded points with me twice for antidotes."
"The NPCs here can't be saved with antidotes, but players can. The Reverse God and the others took the initiative to buy antidotes from me, and I gave them to them."
After thinking for a moment, she added, "They don't have any hostility toward us. Their goal is clear—they just want to defeat Spades."
"To put it bluntly, they just want Spades to lose." Bai Liu curled his lips. "On that point, we're perfectly aligned."
Liu Jiayi looked up at him. "I feel like you've already figured out how to persuade the Reverse God. But what about Spades? He doesn't seem like someone easy to convince."
"Spades' side…" Bai Liu paused slightly. "It's handled. He fully believes that he and I are on the same side."
Liu Jiayi was shocked. "You two had a brutal fight in the last dungeon. How did you convince him to trust you completely?!"
Bai Liu looked away almost imperceptibly. "I used some special methods."
Liu Jiayi circled him suspiciously and faced him again. "Why won't you look at me when you say that? You never feel guilty when you do immoral things. What did you do to Spades that makes you feel guilty?"
Bai Liu: "…"
Children who are too perceptive really aren't good for morally questionable adults.
When he didn't answer, Liu Jiayi raised her eyebrows. "I won't force you to tell me. But I'll find out eventually."
"But forget it for now. The war is about to begin, and there isn't much time." She waved her hand. "I'll take you to see the Reverse God and the others."
As Bai Liu followed her, he asked, "Isn't it a bit rushed for the Reverse God and the others to contact the Red Cross at a time like this?"
"You have the nerve to say that." Liu Jiayi sounded exasperated. "Aren't you doing the same thing?"
"I'm waiting for a key plot point," Bai Liu replied.
Liu Jiayi continued walking without looking back. "So are they. The indigenous side doesn't trust the Red Cross. They think we're aligned with the opposing camp and have always refused our help. They won't even let us shelter their wives and children."
"But the Red Cross is actually safer than the so-called neutral indigenous villages where they were staying."
Bai Liu immediately understood. "Last night's raid made them realize those neutral villages aren't safe, so they started considering the Red Cross. As rebels, the Reverse God and the others don't have communication barriers with the locals. So they were sent to negotiate, right?"
"It's more than that." Liu Jiayi glanced back at him. "The Reverse God is more capable than you think. I don't know what he did, but he's now the commander of the indigenous people—the highest strategic officer. He came to the Red Cross today not only to make contact, but also in his capacity as commander to resettle harmless women and children."
"From rebel to commander in two days?" Bai Liu raised an eyebrow.
"Yes."
"Anyway, he gives me an uncomfortable feeling… He looks harmless and always smiles, but in reality, he knows everything."
"If he's the commander, arranging the relocation of women and children should be simple. He shouldn't need to stay here until the war begins—he should return to camp." Bai Liu paused. "What happened?"
"There are factions among the indigenous people," Liu Jiayi explained. "One faction is the emerging group led by the new commander, the Reverse God. They're willing to accept new ideas and hope to use victory in the war as a foundation for development and growth."
"Most of their top leaders had good relations with the factory director, who was shot earlier. They received assistance and ideological guidance from him."
"There's also an old faction that's hostile to everything new. They follow a religion preached by Arabs, some kind of evil god belief. They yearn for a traditional farming life and reject all mechanical production tools, believing that using machines is blasphemy against the hands God gave them."
She looked at Bai Liu. "You've probably guessed that the leader of this faction is the former commander—the one who shot the factory director and started the war."
"The two factions are irreconcilable. The new faction currently has the upper hand, but the old faction refuses to relinquish power and keeps causing trouble."
"For example, the Reverse God arranged for these women and children to be relocated hours ago, but members of the old faction suddenly showed up and tried to stop him, accusing him of being a traitor and an undercover agent. They claimed he wasn't protecting their families, but planning to sacrifice them to the enemy in exchange for greater rewards."
Liu Jiayi stopped in front of a tent and tilted her chin toward it. "They're inside. They should still be arguing. Do you want me to go in with you?"
Faint quarrelling could be heard from within.
Bai Liu shook his head.
Understanding, Liu Jiayi tossed him a bottle of antidote. "Your weapon was destroyed. If anything happens, shout. I'll guard the entrance."
After that, the nurse-uniformed Liu Jiayi took out a bottle of poison spray, hid beside the tent, and gave Bai Liu an OK gesture.
He returned the gesture, lifted the curtain, and stepped inside calmly.
The arguing parties fell silent.
On the left stood the Reverse God and his group. On the right was a group wearing eagle-feathered headdresses, animal skins draped over their shoulders, and oil paint on their faces. Their expressions were fierce, and their slightly sharpened teeth suggested a habit of tearing into large chunks of meat.
When they saw Bai Liu enter, the traditional natives bared their teeth at him, but their leader stopped them. He stared at Bai Liu for a long moment and said in a strange tone, "He is favored by the True God. Do not offend him."
Then he saluted Bai Liu, bowed slightly, and withdrew politely.
The emotion in Bai Liu's eyes was unreadable, but he quickly masked it. He looked at the Reverse God. "It seems I interrupted your discussion."
"No, no—you saved me," the Reverse God rubbed his forehead and sank into a chair with a long sigh of relief. Smiling, he extended his hand. "I've been arguing with them for two hours. The moment you arrived, they were willing to retreat for now."
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and shook his hand. "First time meeting you. Bai Liu."
The Reverse God smiled. "Tactician of the Killer Sequence. Just call me the Reverse God."
He gestured for Bai Liu to sit. "You came to talk to me about something, didn't you?"
Bai Liu sat down and met his gaze with a smile. "Yes. I want to discuss how to make Spades lose this game."
The Reverse God straightened from his slouched position. With a wave of his hand, his subordinates withdrew, leaving only three other members of the Killer Sequence, Bai Liu, and the Reverse God inside the tent.
"I have a way to make Spades lose to you miserably in this game," Bai Liu said calmly.
The Reverse God and the three members stared at him in surprise. After a moment, the Reverse God asked eagerly, "Go on."
"Stop." A young man who looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, standing behind the Reverse God, raised his hand. He looked at Bai Liu sternly. "Spades doesn't listen to anyone. If that's the case, your plan already has a flaw from the start."
The Reverse God turned and lightly smacked him, feigning anger. "Why are you speaking to another player like that? Where are your manners? Introduce yourself first."
The young man stiffened. "Member of the Killer Sequence, control position—Bai Jiamu."
The Reverse God raised a hand apologetically. "Sorry. Please continue."
Bai Jiamu interrupted bluntly, "There's no way he can control Spades. Spades doesn't even listen to us…"
"It may not be control," Bai Liu said with a smile. "But influencing him to that extent should be possible."
The Reverse God apologized for his teammate, then smiled and asked, "Mr. Bai Liu, you said Spades trusts you. Is there any objective basis for that claim?"
Bai Liu replied calmly, "Oh. That's right. I married him yesterday."
The Reverse God: "…"
Bai Jiamu: "…"
The other Killer Sequence members: "…"