The King of Black Fog

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The endless sea of sand before their eyes was enough to incite despair by the mere sight, not to mention the scorching sun overhead.

Li Changzhou roughly estimated the temperature to be at least 45 degrees Celsius.

"What do we do now? The desert is so vast, where do we find the other contestants?" Li Qianxia also couldn't help but use her hand to shield her forehead.

"Find shade." Li Changzhou ditched the AK, spread his hands, and five seconds later, an M95 sniper rifle appeared in his hands.

He detached the scope, using it as binoculars to scan the distant terrain, and continued to speak:

"As long as we find shade, we can rest, find water, find food, and find the other contestants."

"Exactly." Yang Qinglan nodded, "Although the desert is vast, all the strugglers only have one place to go."

It seems the Black Card player knows about the "struggler" status.

Why do White Card players get rewards for killing 'strugglers'? What's the relationship between the two?

Li Changzhou couldn't help but ponder.

The scope's field of view is very narrow; snipers usually have spotters equipped with rangefinders and binoculars, responsible for finding the enemy.

Some snipers also carry binoculars, but he didn't have one, so he could only search little by little with the scope.

Lucky for him it wasn't about finding enemies, otherwise, by the time he found them, the rape blossoms could have turned into rapeseed oil in a pot.

Suddenly, his right eye pressed against the scope squinted instinctively. In the lens, a figure appeared in the desert.

"What's going on?" Yang Qinglan had been watching his face all along.

"There's someone, one person, heading this way," Li Changzhou said in a deep voice, "Should I just open fire?"

"How far? Can you hit them?"

"Can't tell the distance, probably can't hit them; the target is constantly jumping, must be some Jumping Skill."

"One person," Li Qianxia hesitated a moment before asking, "Should we make contact with this person? Maybe we could cooperate – aren't there 15 spots in this game?"

Yang Qinglan pondered for two seconds, then looked at Li Changzhou: "What do you think?"

"We can give it a try; I'll go negotiate," Li Changzhou replied.

"Then forget it, just kill them." Li Qianxia immediately changed her tune.

Yang Qinglan sighed but didn't ask whom she had originally planned to send.

"Wait until they get close enough for me to see, and then I'll make a move," she said.

"Okay!"

The three of them retreated back behind the dunes and waited quietly.

The quicksand was scorching hot; the sun broiled everything, and Li Changzhou felt like a chicken leg in an oven.

He kept holding the scope, locking onto the target in case he lost sight of it.

The target approached rapidly. The jumps, initially disregarded, were in fact quite impressive – by rough estimate, one leap covered the distance of half a soccer field.

"Wait!" he suddenly spoke up, "The target is wearing military uniform."

"Military uniform?" both of the others asked at once.

Yang Qinglan asked one more question, "Which country's?"

"Daxia."

The three fell into hesitation.

As citizens of Xia Country, they held both trust and respect for military personnel, and the decision to kill a soldier outright wasn't an easy one to make.

After a moment of thought, Li Changzhou was the first to speak up: "According to the signpost's message, the officials are trustworthy for now. Should we try to negotiate?"

"I'll go!" Li Qianxia said immediately.

Li Changzhou immediately scolded her, "That person can leap half a soccer field in one jump; what use is your long gun? I'll go with the AK, and you and Qing Lan cover me."

"Call me Xiaoling," Yang Qinglan corrected him.

"Miss Yang, we're not close enough to be on those terms, but I don't mind the formality; just call me A-Zhou," he said.

Yang Qinglan snatched the scope from his hand, and with a wave, she commanded calmly, "King of Black Fog, go!"

Her tone was as if she was ordering a dog.

"I might not return, so I hope you will call me—Owl," Li Changzhou stood up.

"Brother—" Li Qianxia also stood up but was promptly pushed back down by Li Changzhou.

"Don't look at me like that; I've read 'How to Win Friends and Influence People in 30 Seconds', 'The Ultimate Negotiation Skills You Can Learn in 3 Hours'. When you hear the sound of my gunfire, come running over as fast as you can."

Having said that, he patted down the sand on his pants, slowly sliding down the dune.

Despite the urgency of the situation, habit compelled Li Qianxia to make a jibe: "You're going to get dirty anyway, why pat it down?"

"Maybe he thinks it looks cooler that way," Yang Qinglan speculated—her tone was almost provocative.

"You two are so annoying!" Li Changzhou descended with the flow of sand.

Li Qianxia clenched the Blood-sucking Gun in her hand, her feet planted firmly, ready to activate 'Wolf Howl' at any moment to burst out.

Yang Qinglan wasn't watching the Daxia soldier, but Li Changzhou.

The unknown military figure, expert in jumping, she wasn't sure if her 'Attract And Repel' could throw off their balance, but it would certainly throw Li Changzhou off balance, allowing him to dodge attacks.

Li Changzhou moved slowly, making sure not to stray too far from the dune, waiting for the other to approach.

Looking at their silhouette through the heat haze, he felt like he was in a Western showdown—though considering he had an AK rather than a revolver, it felt more like a Middle Eastern arms deal.

With a 'thump', he could hear the sound of the other person leaping and landing, their feet crunching into the gravel.

Li Changzhou deployed his ultimate conversation tactic.

He dropped the AK—tethered around his neck with a rope—raised his arms, and shouted, "Don't shoot, I'm a civilian!"

His voice was so loud and piercing that even the two behind the dune could hear it.

Yang Qinglan watched intently, asking Li Qianxia, "Did the doctor really say your brother was normal?"

Li Qianxia covered her face with one hand, feeling embarrassed.

Despite the distance, the figure halted; a female soldier with short hair and a skin tone that exuded a sense of strength.

After sizing up Li Changzhou a few times, she called out loudly, "I won't hurt you, throw your weapon over!"

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"This won't do, I still can't trust you!" Li Changzhou responded loudly as well.

"I am Zheng Qing from squad six, team three of Daxia Special Warfare Bureau's Battle Department, I swear by the constitution of Daxia to protect your safety... Throw the gun over here!"

Li Changzhou took off his rifle and tossed it three meters away to his right, not giving it to the female soldier named Zheng Qing.

"Commander Zheng, I..."

Li Changzhou didn't finish his sentence when Zheng Qing bent her legs slightly and with a leap, charged over like a cannonball.

A wolf howl sounded from a distant dune, and a powerful force poured into Li Qianxia's legs as she dashed out like the wind.

Almost simultaneously with their movements, Yang Qinglan's eyes turned blue.

Li Changzhou felt like he was tied to a high-speed train moving to the right, his entire body lifted into the air.

"Whoosh!" The female soldier's feet kicked into the sand where he had originally been.

With a similar whoosh, Li Changzhou fell into the sand.

Without time to get up, he grabbed the AK by his hand, raised it, and fired.

The female soldier kicked with her right foot, and her whole body instantly teleported into Li Changzhou's embrace, lifting up the arm that held the gun.

A loud bang echoed as the bullet shot towards the sky.

Zheng Qing's body fell forward, pinning Li Changzhou down, her elbow strong enough to shatter bricks was pressed against his neck.

But before she could fully press down, something unexpected happened.

Like a scene from a movie being rewound, her body was pulled back by gravity and landed exactly where Li Changzhou had initially stood.

Instinctively, her fingers turned into claws, scraping straight claw marks across the sand between her and Li Changzhou.

Li Changzhou lowered the gun's muzzle and aimed at Zheng Qing once more.

"Wait!" Zheng Qing shouted.

"Bang! Bang!" Two shots rang out, and Zheng Qing's lower body went limp, her entire body collapsing onto the sand.

Blood flowed from her knees, quickly absorbed by the dry sand.

At last, Li Qianxia arrived, her youthful and sunny face now written with severity; the crimson steel gun showed no mercy as it thrust toward Zheng Qing's heart.

"Mosquito! Hold your fire!" Li Changzhou yelled.

Li Qianxia stopped, panting and turned her head, looking at him with confusion.

Li Changzhou was also panting heavily.

Though he rarely engaged in physical activity, the tension of the life-or-death situation had drained a great deal of his energy.

Under Li Qianxia's puzzled gaze, he held the AK steady, pointing it at Zheng Qing.

"You're a soldier, I'll give you one last chance. Got anything else to say?" he said coldly.

Despite being shot in the knees, Zheng Qing didn't even furrow her brows and struggled to lift her face, saying solemnly, "I just wanted to restrain you."

"I told you I'm a civilian, I even threw away my gun, and you still attacked me?"

"Value games, who dares to easily trust someone else? Moreover, you are wearing women's clothes; the moment I saw you, I suspected you had killed a female struggler, but I realized my mistake after your female teammate appeared."

Li Changzhou slightly lowered his gaze and glanced at himself. The lace-trimmed collar was tight; although it was hot, he didn't cut it off with his dagger to avoid sunburn.

"What should we do?" Li Qianxia asked her brother.

Since Zheng Qing hadn't finished her attack, it was unclear whether her intention was to restrain or to kill someone.

But no one would let her finish her attack.

After thinking for a moment, Li Changzhou said, "Search her for weapons."

Li Qianxia stuck her gun in the sand, stepped forward to search, and all the while, Li Changzhou kept his gun aimed at Zheng Qing's temple.

The dark muzzle reflected sunlight, like a bright-eyed black venomous snake, ready to strike at any moment.

"No weapons found." Li Qianxia had searched even places like the groin.

"Tie her hands with her shoelaces."

Only after confirming that no rapid healing phenomena occurred in Zheng Qing's legs did Li Changzhou look towards the hills.

Yang Qinglan descended from the dune, cautiously eyeing the motionless Zheng Qing.

"So there were three of you," Zheng Qing gasped slightly, losing her strength rapidly due to the bleeding and high temperature.

The frisking had taken too much time.

Li Changzhou frowned, looking at her, his gun still unyielding.

"Without treatment, she might die here," he said, glancing at Yang Qinglan from the corner of his eye.

Standing behind Li Changzhou, Yang Qinglan asked Zheng Qing, "Are you alone?"

"Two people, and a police dog," Zheng Qing swallowed dryly, her lips turning white. "There's a giant python in the desert, hiding under the sand. We were attacked and ran in different directions; you have to be careful."

Li Qianxia looked at Yang Qinglan, beginning to believe that Zheng Qing only intended to restrain Li Changzhou.

Yang Qinglan's expression remained unchanged. "What's your instinct? And your skills, equipment."

"Instinct... ten percent immunity to pain, skill is... Jumping Spider's jumping ability, equipment is dagger, and during the fight with the giant python... during the fight..."

Zheng Qing's voice faded, and her head drooped as though she had passed out.

The three exchanged glances, and Li Qianxia stepped forward slowly, checking the other's neck pulse.

"Still alive," she said, looking at the others.

Yang Qinglan thought for a moment, then asked Li Changzhou, "What do you plan to do?"

Li Changzhou knew that at such times, one must not show sympathy or kindness, and he remembered the story of "The Farmer and the Snake," but still, he suggested:

"...trust her once?"

"All right." Yang Qinglan opened her hand, and after five heartbeats, the 'Mosquito Blood Pack' appeared in her hand, complete with a disposable transfusion kit.

She crouched down, rolled up Zheng Qing's sleeve, and inserted the needle.

Throughout the process, Li Changzhou and Li Qianxia remained vigilant, but Zheng Qing was not pretending to faint.

"We must find a shaded area quickly," Yang Qinglan rose to her feet, "Continued exposure to the sun is not only deadly for her, but it's also dangerous for us."