145: Chapter 145 "If you can't defend it, you don't deserve to live."

Shen Qingyue attractiveness: 91.

Su Muxue attractiveness: 90.

Even if Grandmaster Ling Suzhen isn't 90, she would absolutely not drop below 85.

This is not a matter of attractiveness.

It is that the system did not identify her properly.

Lin Yuan returned to Tiangong No. 1.

Liu Qing was sitting cross-legged on the floor, with the South Suburbs, Jiang University, and East Suburbs surveillance feeds scrolling on the screens.

"Master?"

Lin Yuan pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Investigate Grandmaster Ling Suzhen."

Liu Qing immediately pushed up her glasses.

"Public records, military files, Ancient Martial Arts Association archives, or private communications?"

"All of them."

Lin Yuan's tone was very flat.

"Check back twenty years. No, thirty years."

Liu Qing's fingers landed on the keyboard.

"Many databases were destroyed after the apocalypse; I can only piece it together from old network caches, news mirrors, and remaining military backups."

"Good."

Only the sound of the keyboard remained in the living room.

Three minutes later.

The first file popped up.

[Capital Emergency Response Team Special Consultant: Grandmaster Ling Suzhen]

The photo was recent.

Cold face, qipao, eyes like knives.

Liu Qing continued to dig deeper.

The screen flickered.

A blurry old photo was restored.

Snowy ground. Northern border outpost. A dozen corpses of foreign armed militants were lying on the ground.

In the center of the photo, a woman wearing an old-style military jacket, her left hand pressing on a scabbard. It was Grandmaster Ling Suzhen.

Liu Qing looked at the timestamp. "Seventeen years ago."

Su Xiaonuan walked in carrying coffee and happened to see the screen. Her footsteps stopped.

"She... looked like this seventeen years ago?"

The Grandmaster Ling Suzhen in the photo was almost indistinguishable from the one now. Even the coldness at the corners of her eyes was the same.

Lin Yuan didn't speak. Liu Qing continued to dig deeper. Soon, another scanned document popped up.

Paper file. The edges were yellowed. [Civilian Ancient Martial Arts Assistant: Lin Su]

In the photo was a woman who looked extremely similar to Grandmaster Ling Suzhen. The hairstyle was different. The name was different. But that face had hardly changed.

File date. Thirty years ago.

Liu Qing's hands stopped on the keyboard. No one in the server room spoke.

Tang Qiqi didn't know when she had snuck in hugging her Pikachu, took a look at the screen, and her voice became much quieter. 'Did she get a membership for anti-aging?'

No one laughed. Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair. His brows furrowed.

Su Xiaonuan immediately stepped forward to massage his temples. "Boss Lin, do you mean..."

"She might not be a person born normally in this world."

"Or rather..." Su Xiaonuan's voice tightened. "A player?"

"It is possible." Lin Yuan tapped his fingertips lightly on the table.

"The likes of Bai Jingchen and Shen Qingyue came after the apocalypse."

"Grandmaster Ling Suzhen is different." "She might have entered the game decades before the apocalypse."

Su Xiaonuan increased the pressure of her hands. She had followed Lin Yuan for so long that she knew what the word "player" meant.

Lin Yuan looked at Liu Qing. "Monitor Grandmaster Ling Suzhen." "Her room, training room, medical room, and everyone she has come into contact with." "Do not alert her."

Liu Qing nodded. "Understood, Master."

And just as Lin Yuan began to target Grandmaster Ling Suzhen, on the other side of Jiang City, Chiba Sakura also began to close the net.

Evening. Jiang University East Gate. Thick fog pressed down on the streets.

Chiba Sakura stood on top of an abandoned bus, the bandages on her face not yet removed.

Behind her, nearly a hundred ninjas were scattered on rooftops, at the base of walls, and in the shadows of shops. All around were corpses of zombies.

Chiba Sakura raised a megaphone. "Before midnight tonight, hand over fifty women under the age of twenty." "Otherwise, you will all die."

Inside Jiang University. Hundreds of students gripped their weapons, their faces pale.

Chu Feng sat on a chair, a cooling patch on his forehead, an IV needle in the back of his hand. He wanted to stand up.

Xu Mengmeng pressed him down. "If you use your Superpower again, you will die."

Chu Feng gritted his teeth. "If I sit here and watch her snatch people, I will also die."

Bai Jingchen stood to the side. After Chu Feng collapsed, the burden of the entire Jiang University fell on him.

Utilizing the unfathomable ability of "Mr. Ghost," he had just calmed everyone down, only for them to be crushed by a single sentence from Chiba Sakura.

He did not refute Chiba Sakura. Master Jiu had a cigarette in his mouth, squatting by the wall. "These devils know how to pick their timing."

Xu Qiangwei whispered: "They didn't come to negotiate; they came to tear people's hearts apart."

At the entrance of the cafeteria. It was as chaotic as a wet market.

"Hold the line! She wants fifty girls. If we give them today, tomorrow she'll want five hundred!"

"What are we supposed to hold with? Chu Feng can't fight, Bai Jingchen doesn't have much combat power, and Master Jiu isn't even from our Jiang University!"

"What about Mr. Ghost? Why isn't he coming out now?" "Is he watching us wait for death?"

In the corner, a male student suddenly spoke. His voice wasn't loud. But everyone heard it. "How about... we send a few who have no one to rely on out first."

The air went quiet. In the line of girls, crying erupted.

Fang Xiaoxiao rushed over and slapped the male student across the face. "Say that again."

The male student covered his face, his eyes also turning red. "Did I say something wrong?" "You have parents, you have teammates, you have people protecting you." "Those who have no one to care for them, they won't live long anyway."

The fatty lunged forward and pinned him to the ground. "Screw you! Why don't you offer yourself up to buy time?"

The situation spiraled out of control. Several girls hugged each other and cried. Some began to retreat. Some put down their weapons. Fear was faster than the ninjas' blades.

Bai Jingchen stood on the steps, watching all of this. He finally understood why Lin Yuan never believed in self-awareness.

People's hearts are not evil. But they can go soft. When they go soft in the end, they will hand the knife to the enemy.

Xu Qiangwei stood to the side, holding a walkie-talkie. Although she had been rejected by Lin Yuan once yesterday, she still wanted to try again. "Boss Lin, Jiang University cannot hold."

The walkie-talkie was silent for two seconds. Lin Yuan's voice came through. "Hold for three hours."

Xu Qiangwei was anxious. "Chiba Sakura brought over a hundred ninjas!" "Chu Feng is seriously injured; we don't have the combat power to go head-to-head with them." "We can't hold."

Lin Yuan's tone didn't change. "Then you don't deserve to live."

Xu Qiangwei's hand holding the walkie-talkie froze. [Ding! Target Xu Qiangwei (attractiveness 90), favorability -1%, current favorability: 0%.]

Lin Yuan continued: "I have given medicine, given supplies, and given opportunities." "Now, it is your turn to prove that you are not trash."

The communication was cut off. The basement went quiet.

Master Jiu finished the last drag of his cigarette and stubbed it out. "That's harsh." He looked up at Bai Jingchen. "But it's true."

Chu Feng leaned against Xu Mengmeng, his voice hoarse. "I can still burn one more time."

Bai Jingchen said coldly: "You will die once you burn." Chu Feng looked at him. "Then what do we do?!"

Bai Jingchen didn't answer. He pushed the crystal cores on the table one by one next to the note. He took off his glasses and wiped them clean with the corner of his shirt. "I am not Lin Yuan." "I have no right to let others die first."

He put his glasses back on and looked at the East Gate on the monitor. "Notify everyone." "Whoever mentions sending girls out again, I will send them on their way first." "Mr. Ghost will hold out for everyone for three hours."

Xu Qiangwei stood at the door, her eyes red. "Bai Jingchen." "Will you die?"

Bai Jingchen pressed the last red crystal core onto the paper. The note ignited with white fire. His voice was very soft. "It depends on fate."