23: Heartbeat

Hiding behind the fire water tank, Ye Haiming's face turned pale in an instant. For a moment, he couldn't tell if Lin Chuan had truly sensed him or was just bluffing.

Hesitating, he did not show himself immediately.

Until a cold wire wrapped around his neck...

Trembling in fear, Ye Haiming immediately cried out, "Classmate! I mean no harm!"

Lin Chuan, of course, knew that the man hadn't hidden there while he was killing people.

Rather, he had been hiding behind the fire water tank from the very beginning.

Even Takasaki and the others hadn't noticed his presence!

Generally speaking, there was a clear hierarchy of suppression between Talents.

For example, earlier, when Lei Ming's Lightning Net collided with Wan Gang's Vajra Shield, the Lightning Net disintegrated the Vajra Shield almost instantly.

The reason was that Lei Ming's Lightning Net was an A+ Talent, whereas Wan Gang's Vajra Shield was merely B-Level.

As for Lin Chuan's B-Level Invisibility Talent, most of the time it was only effective against Talent users below A-Level.

If an A-Level Talent user calmed their mind to sense around, they could see through his invisibility.

S-Class Talent users didn't even need to focus; they could easily see through his invisibility.

Ye Haiming had been hiding behind the water tank and remained undetected by Takasaki and the others, which meant his Concealment Talent was at least B-Level!

Lin Chuan didn't strangle him immediately. Instead, he retracted the wire and said indifferently, "Come out yourself."

Ye Haiming didn't dare delay and immediately walked out from behind the water tank.

As he walked, he raised both hands high and called out in explanation, "Big shot, I'm not with Takasaki's group!"

"Tell me, why were you hiding there?"

A look of anger crossed Ye Haiming's face as he quickly explained, "I was originally a student in the South Four Building. When the apocalypse started, I was in my dorm."

"Because we were located directly below the Dimensional Rift, our South Four Building had a massive number of Dimensional Bugs."

"Later, Takasaki led a team here to fight monsters. At first, he acted like a savior, and all of us rescued students were deeply grateful to him."

"But there were too many monsters on the rooftop at the time. Even Takasaki and his group couldn't handle them all at once."

"So he came up with an idea to make us rescued students go up to the rooftop to lure monsters for him!"

"Some people were fast enough to survive; others were directly slaughtered by the monsters!"

"My Talent allows me to conceal myself, so I hid behind the water tank and managed to survive."

"Later, when Takasaki and his group took over the rooftop, I was afraid of being discovered, so I stayed hidden there and didn't dare leave!"

"In truth, Takasaki and his people aren't good people at all. Two of the Talent users who paid the entry fee to come to the rooftop were killed by them!"

"The bodies were hidden beneath the pile of Dimensional Bug corpses you just burned, big shot! There should be around a dozen of them!"

Ye Haiming spoke with righteous indignation, appearing completely sincere.

Lin Chuan actually knew that among the pile of Dimensional Bug corpses he had just burned, there were indeed seventeen human corpses mixed in.

Such things were actually not uncommon.

This heavy rain that temporarily boosted people's attributes had, to some extent, ignited humanity's "courage."

Those who wanted to seize the opportunity and become ruthless overlords in this chaotic world had already taken action on the very first day.

Lin Chuan took a casual tone, nodding to Ye Haiming before lazily saying, "Alright then, you can leave."

However, Ye Haiming did not leave immediately.

His eyes flickered with hesitation before he finally spoke up, "You said earlier that there's something wrong with this rain, so Takasaki and the others who got soaked won't see tomorrow's sun?"

Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow and looked at Ye Haiming. "What are you trying to say?"

"I want to live!" Ye Haiming's gaze turned exceedingly firm. With a thud, he dropped to his knees. "Please save me, big shot! I am willing to work like a horse and slave away for you!"

Liu Bohao lacked the ambitious resolve of Ye Haiming, but seeing this, he mimicked him, quickly kneeling down in front of Lin Chuan and begging, "I'm also willing to slave away for you, big shot! Please save—"

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a cold touch wrapping around his neck.

Liu Bohao trembled violently, immediately too terrified to utter another sound.

He regretted it so deeply now! Why didn't he just leave when he had the chance? Now he was dancing on the edge of death again!

He stammered frantically to change his tune, "B-B-Big shot, I was wrong! I'm not worthy to slave away for you! I'll leave, I'll get lost! Please, just let me get lost..."

"Get lost, then."

Feeling the wire around his neck disappear, Liu Bohao practically scrambled on all fours to flee the rooftop!

As for Ye Haiming, a wire was actually wrapped around his neck as well.

Yet Ye Haiming's composure was far calmer than Liu Bohao's.

He was also scared out of his mind, but he gritted his teeth and persevered, saying word by word, "I am also unworthy to slave away for you, big shot. I only beg you to point out a path to survival. I, Ye Haiming, will surely remember your kindness forever!"

Spoken with such solemn conviction, it sparked a trace of interest in Lin Chuan.

In this apocalypse, could there really be such a thing as remembering and repaying kindness?

Lin Chuan had seen far too many situations in his past life where someone was saved one second, only to stab their savior in the back the next.

Since it was only a matter of a single sentence anyway, he offered a faint hint, "If you can't reach Level 3 today, then find a place with strong defenses to hide before midnight. Perhaps you'll manage to survive."

Ye Haiming didn't ask further or push his luck. He slammed his head against the ground three times in heavy kowtows to Lin Chuan and promised, "If I survive, this life belongs to you, big shot!"

Lin Chuan showed no reaction to his promise.

However, after Ye Haiming left, Aiya suddenly speculated, "Is your method for becoming immune to the rain's side effects reaching Level 3? Could it be that you have a way to reach Level 3?"

Lin Chuan didn't explain.

He casually killed the new Dimensional Bugs emerging near the Dimensional Rift and burned their corpses, all in one fluid motion.

Afterwards, he threw the seven bottles of Blood Gu insects from his backpack into the Dimensional Rift!

The Dimensional Rift was a black-hole-like existence, except a black hole looked black on the outside, whereas the Dimensional Rift looked red.

A clump of deep crimson that left one unable to tell what lay at the end of the red.

As the water bottles drifted toward the end of the red, they were gradually consumed by special energy.

However, those Blood Gu insects remained safe and sound, as though they had crossed the rift and traveled to another world.

This scene left Aiya dumbfounded.

By the time she snapped back to her senses, she realized Lin Chuan had already walked up to her.

Reaching his hand out to her, he said, "Give me your hand."

"Huh?" Aiya was dazed, but she reflexively raised her slender, delicate hand anyway.

Then, that cool, soft little hand was taken into Lin Chuan's grasp.

Unbidden heat flushed across Aiya's face.

But before she could feel embarrassed or annoyed, she heard Lin Chuan squeeze her hand and say, "Let's add each other as friends."

As soon as he spoke, a system notification sounded in Aiya's mind:

[Ding! Player Lin Chuan has requested to add you as a friend. Accept? Yes / No]

Without much hesitation, Aiya clicked yes.

Immediately after, she discovered that right next to the system's chat channel, a Friend List tab had suddenly appeared!

Lin Chuan didn't elaborate much, simply stating indifferently, "I have something to attend to and need to leave for a bit. Wait here. If there's danger, send me a private message."

"Ah? Oh, okay..."

Aiya had barely uttered a response before noticing that Lin Chuan had already vanished.

Only her small hand, which he had held, still retained his warmth, causing her heart to flutter wildly...