The moment Mu Sicheng turned his head, Bai Liu felt the back of his collar tighten slightly in Mu Sicheng's grip. Mu Sicheng was moving so fast that Bai Liu could barely see his hand.
For a brief second, Bai Liu felt as if he were suspended in midair, then he plunged downward like someone bungee jumping. His body tore through space at terrifying speed, as if he had entered a time tunnel. The surrounding scenery blurred into streaks of color; black and white dissolved into indistinct lines. Bai Liu's ears rang violently. There was no sense of light or shadow, only the roar of the wind. The high-speed air scraped painfully across his face. Suspended by the back of his collar, Bai Liu probably looked like a kite caught in a hurricane to anyone watching.
"Cooooool—" Bai Liu tried to whistle.
But Mu Sicheng was moving so fast that the sound fractured into pieces. Only Mu Sicheng, maintaining the same velocity, could hear him clearly.
Even while being swung around, Bai Liu didn't forget to give Mu Sicheng a thumbs-up. "Your skill is like a speedster's. No wonder everyone says you're the fastest player in the game. You can hold off the thief brothers for a full minute."
"…Aren't you afraid you'll tear your throat talking at this speed?" Mu Sicheng raised an eyebrow. "And why does it feel like you're insulting me?"
"My skill lets me move extremely fast, but it consumes a lot of stamina," Mu Sicheng continued, ignoring Bai Liu's glib praise. "I can carry you for one minute at most. If we don't win within that minute, my speed will plummet. When that happens, we're both finished. Got it?"
"Got it." Bai Liu made an OK gesture. He tightened his grip on the fishbone whip, lowered his eyes, and smiled faintly. "Let's begin."
[System tip: Player Mu Sicheng's movement speed has decreased to 3,400. You will soon be overtaken by Older Brother Thief.]
Mu Sicheng slammed his foot against the carriage wall to brake. His monkey paws gripped the metal, feet pressed together as long claw marks screeched across the stainless-steel surface.
The blackened heads and skeletal fingers of the two thief brothers entered their field of vision.
Mu Sicheng inhaled deeply, focusing all his attention. Bai Liu's gaze sharpened as well. If Du Sanying had been there, he would've been startled to see how similar their expressions were, cold, inorganic, almost machine-like.
Older Brother Thief bounded across the carriage walls, springing toward Bai Liu with shrill screams and a twisted grin. The moment he slashed down with his claws, Mu Sicheng's breathing grew uneven.
Then Bai Liu spoke calmly, "Mu Sicheng, just do what you need to do. The rest—"
"—Leave it to you, right?" Mu Sicheng snorted. "Don't repeat yourself. I've heard it enough."
Bai Liu's plan was simple in theory.
The thief brothers were a combination of speed and power.
Older Brother Thief's attacks were relatively weak. Based on his fight with Du Sanying, they were likely only C-grade. That meant against Bai Liu and Du Sanying, whose attributes were below C-grade, each hit would cost only 2 HP. However, Older Brother Thief's movement speed was extremely high, nearly on par with Mu Sicheng's A-grade speed. Once he caught up to a player, he could interfere and suppress their movement.
Then Younger Brother Thief would close in.
Younger Brother Thief wasn't as fast, but his attack power was devastating. The synergy between speed suppression and overwhelming damage made them nearly unbeatable. Add their seamless brotherly coordination, and it became a near-unsolvable combination.
Unfortunately, "unsolvable" still had to be solved.
Based on the game's overall mechanics and the distribution of fragments, Bai Liu estimated that Older Brother Thief carried around twenty fragments. It was almost impossible for their team to obtain them under normal circumstances.
The only solution was superior speed, superior attack timing, and flawless coordination.
Mu Sicheng covered the speed requirement, but he couldn't fight both brothers alone while stealing the broken lenses. If he tried, he'd likely be crushed by Younger Brother Thief before even touching Older Brother Thief.
Therefore, they needed someone to cooperate with Mu Sicheng at speeds between 3,000 and 4,000, creating openings for him to steal.
And they couldn't afford a single mistake.
After calculating every variable, Bai Liu concluded it could only be him.
Everyone else's HP was below 30; they couldn't sustain such precise, high-speed coordination. Bai Liu only had 3 HP left. One error would mean a total wipe.
Neither of them could slip.
Du Sanying had already forced the thief brothers to use their ultimate skills. They were now in cooldown. That made Bai Liu's plan feasible but still incredibly dangerous.
Even then, their base attributes were far below the monsters'. Mu Sicheng wasn't even sure whether he could successfully steal from a monster that was also a thief.
It was a gamble. But Bai Liu had said to trust him.
So—fuck it.
Mu Sicheng inhaled sharply and hurled Bai Liu toward Younger Brother Thief, while pivoting to intercept Older Brother Thief charging at him.
His sharp monkey paws clashed against Older Brother Thief's scorched claws. The two dark figures collided midair, hands striking toward each other's chests.
The moment the exchange ended, Mu Sicheng twisted back, grabbed Bai Liu, who had just lashed Younger Brother Thief with the whip, and rotated their positions.
Now Mu Sicheng faced the Younger Brother Thief. Bai Liu was thrown toward the Older Brother Thief.
Without hesitation, Bai Liu snapped his whip toward Older Brother Thief, his expression completely steady. Mu Sicheng lunged at Younger Brother Thief, intercepting him before he could retaliate against Bai Liu. Even at that speed, flames licked against Mu Sicheng's body.
[System tip: Player Mu Sicheng has been burned. HP -1, Mental Value -1.]
Older Brother Thief retreated, landing atop Younger Brother Thief's shoulders. With a roar, Younger Brother Thief launched upward again.
Mu Sicheng threw Bai Liu once more.
Spinning through the air in what felt like slow motion, Bai Liu flicked his wrist. The whip lashed across Older Brother Thief's back. The monster shrieked in pain.
Enraged, Younger Brother Thief charged, fists blazing, determined to crush Bai Liu.
After the whip strike, Bai Liu's body lost momentum and dropped toward the flames below.
Just before falling into Younger Brother Thief's burning body, Bai Liu calmly called, "Mu Sicheng."
Mu Sicheng swung sideways from two rings, hooking his tail around Bai Liu's waist midair. He yanked him upward, narrowly avoiding the flames. Hanging one-handed from a ring, Mu Sicheng fixed his gaze on the injured Older Brother Thief and shot out a monkey paw.
Older Brother Thief shrieked and countered instantly. The two dark figures clashed in midair—stealing hands flashing faster than the eye could follow—before rebounding apart.
Bai Liu, drained from two consecutive whip strikes, dangled from Mu Sicheng's tail while drinking a stamina recovery agent.
Younger Brother Thief roared and charged again, fists smashing toward Mu Sicheng.
Before Bai Liu finished drinking, he tapped Mu Sicheng sharply on the back. Mu Sicheng's tail whipped, throwing Bai Liu outward again.
Still biting the recovery agent between his teeth, Bai Liu swallowed mid-flight rapidly. His eyes remained locked forward. As Younger Brother Thief's blazing fist descended, Bai Liu twisted and lashed the whip at the incoming strike.
The punch skewed off course, grazing past Mu Sicheng's head and slamming into the carriage wall instead.
"Fuck!" Mu Sicheng cursed, heart pounding. That had almost smashed his skull.
He scrambled up two rings, catching the exhausted Bai Liu again.
Bai Liu gasped. "Can you keep going?"
Mu Sicheng's stamina was nearly depleted. He had been hanging from the rings to shield Bai Liu while repeatedly accelerating to maximum speed to catch him midair. The strain was enormous. And the minute was almost over.
Bai Liu hung limply, his feet hooked around Mu Sicheng's legs. He lazily lifted a hand and made an OK gesture.
In truth, he didn't even have the strength to speak.
He quickly pulled out another stamina recovery agent and began drinking it. Before he could finish, Mu Sicheng kicked off hard and threw him outward again.
The two thief brothers immediately rushed toward Bai Liu, but he was already flying away. While airborne, Bai Liu calmly raised the bottle to his lips and finished the recovery agent without spilling a single drop, his eyes never leaving the brothers.
Seeing Bai Liu tossed aside, the two monsters instantly switched targets to Mu Sicheng.
Bai Liu flicked his wrist. The whip snapped out in a sharp zigzag, striking between the brothers and forcing them off balance.
In truth, the whip dealt almost no real damage. It merely disrupted their judgment and positioning.
Even so, Mu Sicheng felt a chill run down his spine. This guy's hands and his nerves were terrifyingly steady.
If Bai Liu said he wouldn't make a mistake, then he truly wouldn't. He only had 3 HP left. If Mu Sicheng failed to catch him even once, Bai Liu would die instantly.
And yet Bai Liu showed no fear. He simply continued creating openings for Mu Sicheng to steal.
"One minute is almost up," Bai Liu said casually, as if commenting on the weather. His expression, pale from exhaustion, looked almost relaxed. "Still haven't stolen the broken lenses from Older Brother Thief? Then we're finished…"
The way he said "we're finished" was absurdly indifferent, as if it had nothing to do with him.
"It's not in the right place." Mu Sicheng's face remained expressionless as he hung from the ring with one hand, gasping from the strain. "The broken lenses from the passengers and Younger Brother Thief were near the heart. But I can't find anything near Older Brother Thief's heart."
"Not near the heart…" Bai Liu murmured thoughtfully. "From the game's design perspective, the broken lenses are clearly a weakness. Weaknesses are usually placed in vital areas. For the other monsters, it's the heart. But not for him…"
Older Brother Thief was different from the others.
He specialized in speed and stealing.
Those traits were almost identical to Mu Sicheng's.
"There are only a few seconds before Younger Brother Thief's ultimate comes off cooldown." Mu Sicheng glanced down at the monster pacing beneath him, flames gathering again. He closed his eyes briefly, chest heaving. "My stamina's almost gone. Bai Liu, if we don't get the broken lenses on the next exchange, we die here."
Bai Liu suddenly looked up.
"Mu Sicheng," he asked softly, "what do you think is the most important or most vulnerable part of a thief?"
Mu Sicheng didn't have time to think.
His pupils contracted sharply.
"Bai Liu!! Older Brother Thief is behind you! Turn around and swing the whip!"
The minute was nearly over. Both of them were at their limits. Mu Sicheng clung to the ring with one hand and held Bai Liu with the other. Below, Younger Brother Thief was already gathering flames for another devastating strike.
He couldn't let go. All he could do was shout a warning. But Bai Liu didn't move. He didn't even turn his head.
Behind him, Older Brother Thief's fingers extended and sharpened into a cone-like formation. His exposed gums stretched into a grotesque grin.
Without hesitation, he thrust forward. Five dark, jagged fingers burst through Bai Liu's chest.
The impact drove Bai Liu's body forward violently. He lifted his head slightly, brows knitting together. Blood spilled instantly from his mouth, staining his white shirt crimson.
Mu Sicheng's eyes shrank to pinpoints.
"Bai Liu——!!!!!!!"
[System tip: Player Bai Liu has been attacked by Older Brother Thief! You are on the verge of death!!]