Book 6: Chapter 32: Inner Demon

“Hahaha!” Qin Lun suddenly saw a twisted, ferocious grinning face reflected in the gray steel surface. “Qin Lun, you’re afraid!”

“Impossible. How could I feel fear?” Qin Lun shuddered, his eyelids twitching violently. “Those emotions should have been suppressed by you…”

“Think, Qin Lun, think about it. You’ll understand…” The voice in his heart faded slowly. Qin Lun fell silent. When Joey reminded him, he had already started to realize the truth.

His public life had become too rich lately, and he had absorbed too much outside information, slowly picking up emotions that normal people have. In the past, Qin Lun would have shoved all those feelings onto Joey, completely resetting himself to cut away unnecessary emotions.

But now, Qin Lun unconsciously refused to do that. He felt his life was thrilling. Every day brought new adventures and surprises that gave him a deep sense of satisfaction. Deleting these feelings would be like tearing himself into two halves, something he could not accept.

“So I can feel fear, like a normal person?” Qin Lun looked at his hands, a strange expression appearing on his face. He licked his lips and murmured eagerly, “What will happen next?”

As time passed, the night grew deeper, but Qin Lun’s earlier uncertainty faded from his face.

I can’t find you, so what? Even if you do find me, you still need the right angle to shoot me. I refuse to believe that when you move to a new shooting position, you’ll remain flawless like now.

Thinking this, Qin Lun gradually calmed down. Ignoring the hidden sniper, he simply closed his eyes to rest. At the same time, he split the current parking lot scene into several images and projected them into Death Notice to compare the foreground and background.

…

After night fell, the quiet parking lot grew restless. Small rodents that are active at night began to emerge from their hiding spots in search of food.

A mouse sniffed and crawled along the ground. It was lucky and soon found a water source. Following the trail of pale yellow liquid, the mouse quickly found where the water came from—a small leather tube that gave off a fishy smell.

The leather tube stuck out from under a slightly old piece of canvas. The canvas was unremarkable, almost blending into the surroundings. If not for the tube giving it away, even the mouse might have missed it.

The little mouse hesitated, then cautiously crawled under the canvas. It immediately felt warmth, and the soft touch around it even reminded it of its mother’s embrace.

For rodents, teeth are the best probing tools. The little mouse soon tried taking a small bite of the soft “dough” around it.

The “dough” didn’t react, but the mouse’s eyes began to shine. It knew it had found food. The taste of blood on its tongue couldn’t be wrong—the thing in front of it was edible.

The canvas was half-draped over a wrecked car. Following the canvas upward, from a hole in the wreck peered the muzzle of a sniper rifle. Behind the muzzle was Qin Ba’s face, hard as marble.

Sweat trickled down the sniper’s cheek. Intense pain surged from his calf, attacking his nerves wave after wave. In past one-on-one fights, he would never have made such a mistake, letting a small mouse or snake sneak into his hiding spot.

Patience is the most important quality for a sniper lying in wait. But this time, Qin Ba thought that with the nano crystal insects, he would quickly pinpoint his opponent’s location. Also, since he arrived at the parking lot later than his opponent, his preparations were rushed. That’s why he didn’t notice the urine bag’s tube sticking out from his pant leg.

The mouse was now in a very awkward position—right on his calf. Without moving other parts of his body, Qin Ba couldn’t reach it with his hand, so he had to endure the pain silently.

“Climb up a bit more, just a bit more!” Qin Ba made his calf muscle twitch slightly, hoping the mouse would scurry upward so he could grab and kill the damn rodent.

But the next moment, a look of alarm appeared on Qin Ba’s marble-like face. The little mouse seemed to sense danger. It turned and dashed out of the car wreck covered by the canvas, its fluffy tail swaying behind it like a palm-leaf fan, thoroughly screwing over the sniper.

“Not good!” Qin Ba no longer cared about catching the big squirrel with the fluffy tail. He flipped the canvas aside and leaped out of his original hiding spot.

“Bang! Bang!” The sniper’s reaction was just right. The moment he left his hiding spot, gunshots rang out in the parking lot. One white and one black bullet traced a graceful arc, striking exactly where he had been hiding.

Once the shooting started, it didn’t stop. Bullets rhythmically and systematically avoided obstacles, forcing Qin Ba to change hiding spots again and again. Though none had hurt him yet, it was clear he would soon be cornered.

“I have to retreat first!” Qin Ba was both shocked and furious. Fights between Apostle gunslingers were like this: once you lost the initiative, it was hard to regain control. Especially since his heavy sniper rifle, with its slow firing rate, wasn’t suitable for mid-range combat. And being turned around in such an advantageous situation was anything but pleasant.

“Trying to run!” Seeing a magical shimmer flash over Qin Ba’s body as he withstood two bullets to charge forward, Qin Lun immediately understood his opponent’s intent.

“Can’t let him escape, or we won’t be able to do anything else in the upcoming Domination War!” A glint appeared in Qin Lun’s eyes. He stood up from his hiding spot, leveled his twin guns, and started firing while chasing the fleeing Qin Ba.

Qin Ba, relying on his magic shield to retreat quickly, soon noticed something strange. Starting just moments ago, the mana in his magic shield began draining rapidly, soon to be unsustainable.

“He came out of hiding?” Qin Ba’s pupils narrowed slightly. He turned to look back and indeed saw Qin Lun rushing toward him, completely disregarding his own protection.

“How long has it been since I last fought a life-or-death battle face to face like this!” Qin Ba’s gaze flickered, a trace of recollection in his eyes. He then turned around, looped the sniper rifle’s strap around his arm a few times, lifted the rifle with his left hand, and stood still like a marble statue.

The black and white bullets fired by Qin Lun made the sniper’s magic shield waver unsteadily, as if it might collapse at any moment. Yet, the one-eyed man’s face remained calm, without even a twitch.

A chilling feeling crept into Qin Lun’s heart, as if the God of Death stood behind him, raising his scythe to harvest his life.

“Can’t retreat, can’t dodge. If I retreat, the situation will reverse!” Qin Lun had never felt a face-to-face fight with another Apostle to be so dangerous. Even when facing many Plot Characters and Apostles stronger than him, he never had this feeling of a lump in his throat.

He still had an earth defense scroll, but earth magic scrolls were different from magic shields. That was a physical defense spell; once used, an Earthen Wall would appear. Though it could block the sniper’s attack, he himself would likely lose his shooting angle and thus the initiative.

Can’t retreat, can’t hide, and must maintain the current attack intensity. If Qin Lun could shatter the sniper’s magic shield before the sniper attacked, this crisis would be resolved.

Qin Lun suddenly regretted not summoning Cerberus earlier. If the Inferno Hound were here now, the sniper would stand no chance.

Qin Lun subconsciously activated Clock Eye. Perception-formed Time-Space Threads tangled messily at the muzzle of the one-eyed man’s sniper rifle, as if they could extend into the barrel and control the bullet directly.

“Bang!” The one-eyed man’s sniper rifle finally fired. Qin Lun’s Clock Eye contracted sharply, and the Time-Space Threads made from Perception felt as if they were being torn apart. The bullet slowed down hundreds of times, appearing on Qin Lun’s retina.

“I can block it. I know I can!” Qin Lun’s face was blank, countless tiny lines of data scrolling down like a waterfall from the depths of his pupils.

“Bang, bang, bang…” Qin Lun’s hands moved so fast they left afterimages. Bullets worth one hundred Shattered Crystal each were fired without restraint, colliding in mid-air like marbles, instantly forming a bullet net.

Qin Lun had seen this gun technique once before, back in the World War II World, against Vice Professor Kathleen. Back then, facing his sniper bullet, Kathleen had performed this bullet net once.

This gun technique required high skill, and Qin Lun hadn’t reached the level to perform it yet. But facing this life-or-death crisis, the young man finally simulated a rough bullet net using the Combat Model in Death Notice.

“Thump!” Everything around returned to normal. A stream of blood shot from Qin Lun’s chest, and his body was thrown backward.

Yet, a faint smile appeared on the young man’s face. Though the bullet net he simulated was far from Professor Kathleen’s, it still worked. Even though the sniper bullet hit him, it had already broken apart mostly and lost much of its power, no longer hindering his ability to fight.

“Bang, bang, bang…” Even as Qin Lun flew backward, his twin guns kept firing without pause. Bullets sprayed onto Qin Ba’s magic shield, and before Qin Lun even hit the ground, the sniper’s magic shield rippled faintly and dispersed.

Qin Ba casually pulled the trigger and put his right eye back to the sniper scope. In his view, before these two pistols reduced his health to zero, he could definitely kill Qin Lun first.

But when the first white Angel’s Praise bullet embedded itself in his chest, Qin Ba grunted and stepped back, his expression changing drastically.

“This kind of power… This guy isn’t a blade master or Magic Warrior. He’s a close-range Gunslinger!”