Su Bai crouched down, stretched his hand and touched Ego"s face, which had just been smashed by himself. The thick disgusting blood and brains were all over his palm. He lifted his hand to his nose and smelled it.
Fatty watched Su Bai. His breath was accelerating. All of a sudden, he couldn"t recognize this young man in front of him. Was this still the lukewarm playboy?
Su Bai didn"t eat any of the blood or brains. He shook off the dirty stuff and reached out for another staff under Ego"s body.
He held both staves; one of them was emerald, the other was azure. Both of them looked plain, but holding them in his hands, he felt as if he could feel their heartbeats. They must be extraordinary.
Finally, he looked at Fatty.
Clearly, he was hesitating.
Fatty could see his hesitation and held his breath because of fear.
Just then, Su Bai looked up and realized that it was nearly dawn.
He had something else to do.
"I won"t kill you," Su Bai said.
Fatty nodded quickly.
"Take care."
After that, Su Bai stood up and walked away into the woods.
Fatty"s face was covered with cold sweat. He wiped it up and then started to move his legs slowly. Both legs were badly injured and bleeding heavily, even the bones could be seen.
At last, after struggling in pain for 15 minutes, Fatty got his legs out but he couldn"t walk. He had to crawl on his hands.
However, a dramatic voice came from behind Fatty. He turned around, and then his eyes widened.
He saw himself standing there looking at him with the intent to kill.
After walking into the woods, Su Bai started to move fast. He had tied the staves onto his back with some vines. He needed to get to that place for the next reset.
Sophia couldn"t make it, but the black-hair girl should be there unless something went wrong. So there should be only the two of them in that place. But it was possible that someone else had gotten there as well. After all, it was luck that had brought him there the last time.
The most possible guess was that he had already grown a great doubt deep down in his heart, and that was why he was attracted to that place by some unknown force. Of course, there were many conditions; before that, he couldn"t die or avoid meeting his own duplicate.
While Su Bai was running, he realized that 50 meters away from him, there was someone else parallel to him running at the same speed.
At last, Su Bai stopped. So did the other guy.
It was himself; but this time, it was different. This guy looked rather obscure as if he was wandering from two extremes.
Su Bai looked at him and he looked back.
They just stood there staring at each other.
"I"m in a hurry," Su Bai said.
"I know," the other guy replied. Apparently, he knew a lot. Every reset was also an update for these duplicates.
"So, let"s get started."
Su Bai threw himself at him. The duplicate was changing rapidly; he withered until he became skinny, and there seemed to be faint flames burning in his eyes.
While Su Bai was running towards him, two fangs grew out from both corners of his mouth, his eyes turned dark and weird, and his body became lighter and swifter.
"Bang!"
Su Bai"s fingernails went into the duplicate"s chest and immediately left to avoid being frozen by the duplicate. His fingers left marks on the duplicate"s chest.
The duplicate roared and enclosed his arms. Suddenly, ice and frost appeared within a range of several meters. At the same time, his skinny palms slammed horizontally onto Su Bai.
Su Bai drew back rapidly to escape from the duplicate"s palms. But after he was a bit farther from the duplicate, he turned around with the strength from his waist, and kicked towards the back side and hit the underbelly of the duplicate.
The duplicate was forced to step back. He hit a tree and the whole tree shook.
Su Bai was prevailing in both attacks. Though the duplicate wasn"t badly injured, he couldn"t take the fact that he was overwhelmed by the original one. In his mind, he was exactly the same as Su Bai, or even more vicious; so he would be able to win, or at least be equaled with Su Bai. But now, Su Bai seemed to be more skillful than him. Then what was the point of his existence?
What was the point of his existence as a duplicate that couldn"t take place of the original one?
The duplicate changed himself from a zombie into a vampire. Perhaps he thought Su Bai must have been enhanced greatly in both speed and sensitivity as a vampire and that was the reason why he was overwhelmed.
A skinny creepy zombie turned into a weird, cold vampire within the blink of an eye. Such a sudden change was so obvious.
Su Bai smiled. He had no idea why the duplicate was so confident in himself. Su Bai had been considering himself as the original, but maybe the duplicate had been considering Su Bai as a duplicate.
As for Su Bai, although he was enhanced in speed and sensibility as a vampire, his attacks were not strong enough. Therefore, after the duplicate turned into a vampire, Su Bai"s body withered and he turned into a cursed zombie.
This time, the duplicate took the lead.
The duplicate was much faster. After he approached Su Bai, his claws went straightly towards Su Bai"s neck. But Su Bai didn"t seem to resist at all; he just stretched out his arms.
"Riiiiip!"
"Riiiiiip!"
With two clear sounds, two scratches appeared on Su Bai"s neck and black gluey blood started running down. Apparently, he was hurt.
But the duplicate"s attack was not impressive, unless he could stick his fangs into Su Bai"s neck. But unlike Nona, who was controlled by Ego, Su Bai wouldn"t let the duplicate stick him with the fangs.
The duplicate tried to draw back once he successfully attacked, just as Su Bai had done. But suddenly he found an ice wall behind him blocking his way of retreating.
Su Bai was expecting that the guy would retreat after only hurting him a little, so he didn"t protect himself at all, and just took the attack as a zombie then blocked the duplicate"s way instead.
"Boom!"
The duplicate was trapped. Su Bai immediately rushed out and pressed the duplicate with his shoulder.
"Bang!"
The ice wall was crushed; the duplicate was knocked off and fell to the ground. It seemed that some of his ribs were broken. He tried but failed to stand up.
Su Bai took out the staff. His wounds on the neck were bleeding; some blood had reached the emerald staff on his back. After taking in his blood, the staff began to shake, as if it couldn"t help but attack. Su Bai was surprised but also glad to see that. The staff could be activated by blood, it was that simple.
Holding the staff, Su Bai walked towards the duplicate who was lying on the ground. He smashed as if it was merely a stove poker. The duplicate rolled aside with his arms and legs against the ground and managed a narrow escape.
"Bang!"
The staff hit the earth and the ground sank. Su Bai was satisfied with such might. He knew nothing about magic or spells. It was a surprise that he could give play to part of its power in such a simple way.
However, from the duplicate, there came the cracking of bones. The duplicate had barely recovered; he was staggering when he got up. But then, the duplicate seemed to be surprised about something. He fell in a pile of fallen leaves and took out an emerald stave, then he cut his palm with his fingernails and let his blood drip onto the staff. The staff immediately started shaking.
"So, that"s how it works."
The duplicate looked at Su Bai with pride as if he was saying, "Look, I have anything you"ve got. I"m just as good as you are". However, such craze to vie was already leading him to a disadvantageous position.
But when Su Bai saw the duplicate take out the staff which had already been hidden here, he felt as if lightning had struck him. His thoughts were cras.h.i.+ng rapidly. At last, his face twisted in rage.
Yes…
At this moment, Su Bai finally understood the aim of the Dreadful Radio"s plan to make the duplicates go after them…
… and he finally found out what situation he was facing...
Instantly, an enormous fear spread in Su Bai"s mind, along with a deep aftershock.
"So that"s what it is!"