Chapter 461 - 403: Mai Mingle and Mercury’s Trump Card

Chapter 461: Chapter 403: Mai Mingle and Mercury’s Trump Card

"Put the gun down,"

Mercury clutched her injured shoulder and sat up. Her face was deathly pale, a stark white against the pitch-black curtain of rain, as if she were a ghost whose soul had been frozen right out of her. "...If you’re any kind of competent Hunter, you should’ve heard of me."

The Knight Family’s driver panted, his eyes peering out from behind the gun to scan Mercury’s face.

He paused. For a moment, it was impossible to tell if he recognized Mercury. Then, a second later, he abruptly started laughing.

"So you’re the Cleaner Fish who’ll do any job as long as the pay is right. Can you even lift your arm anymore? Can’t fire a gun now, can you? Who hired you to wreck our truck?"

Unclear whether from injury or agitation, he heaved great clouds of white vapor with each breath. The muzzle of the gun in his hand trembled, but it remained pointed at Mercury and Mai Mingle. "It doesn’t matter. Once we get you back to the Family Faction, we’ll get to the bottom of this."

The driver jutted his chin at Mai Mingle, gesturing toward a spot away from Mercury.

"You! Put your hands up and kick both machine guns over there. Otherwise, the next bullet is going into you."

Mai Mingle suppressed her shock and anger, raised her hands high, and slowly walked over to the machine guns.

"Listen to me," she said, knowing it was useless but having to try anyway. "We were caught in one of the Nest’s traps. We were being controlled by a dream—that’s why we flipped the tanker truck..."

As she spoke, she glanced over at Mercury.

Mercury had been shot in the right shoulder and truly couldn’t lift her arm, let alone fire a gun. Besides, when Mai Mingle had tackled her, the machine gun had been knocked from her grasp, landing several feet away.

Mai Mingle had fired a gun in her dream, so she had a vague idea of how to use one, but with the driver’s gun trained on her, there was no way she could bend down to pick it up faster than a bullet could tear through her.

’If there’s any chance of turning this around, it can only be...’

"I was asleep at home," Mercury said suddenly in a low voice, as if she’d read Mai Mingle’s mind. "By the time I came to my senses, I was already here."

Mai Mingle froze. She took a closer look at Mercury, and her heart plummeted.

’How did I only just notice?’

Concealed by the blurry darkness, Mercury’s clothes were too loose and thin. She didn’t even have a raincoat—no, she wasn’t even wearing shoes. Her feet had long since turned a bluish-white from the cold.

’No one sleeps at home fully armed. Does that mean Mercury has no weapons and no Illusion? Could she not even call for backup?’

’Once I kick that machine gun away, won’t we be completely at his mercy?’

"You’re the one who sounds like you’re dreaming," the driver said, panting heavily. He caught his breath before continuing, "This is Blackmoor City. How could a Nest control you? I’m counting to three. If you don’t kick the machine gun over—"

’There’s no other choice.’

Mai Mingle had no choice but to kick the machine guns away, one by one. The driver was clearly worried Mercury might try to intercept them, so he had specifically chosen a spot in the opposite direction, giving her no chance to make a grab for them.

Once the guns were clear, he kept his own weapon trained on the two women as he quickly sidled over, bent down, and swapped it for one of the machine guns.

With that, their chances of escaping him were virtually zero.

"Tie her up," the driver commanded.

"But she’s injured—"

"Cut the crap. Either you tie her up, or you die."

Mai Mingle kept her hands raised, not moving.

’Does this driver really think I can’t see what he’s planning?’

’He recognized Mercury at a glance, which means she’s a pretty famous Hunter. The driver thinks she was hired to attack him, so it makes sense that he sees her as both his greatest threat and his best source of information.’

’By contrast, what reason would he have to keep an unknown like me alive after I’ve tied up Mercury and eliminated the threat for him?’

’In fact, leaving me alive would just create a loose end.’

Mai Mingle was kind, not stupid.

"I... I don’t have anything to tie her up with,"

She could only try to stall for time, rambling on heedlessly. "I wasn’t lying to you. I think the Nest sent its residents into the human world, and we were caught in one of their traps. What is this Original Liquid? Where did you get it? The Nest’s objective must be to have it overturned and completely spilled..."

The driver, who had already twice roared at her to shut up, suddenly froze when he heard her last sentence.

Plumes of white vapor billowed from his mouth, almost completely obscuring his face.

"The Nest... could it be that the Nest doesn’t want it to fall into our hands? After all, this time we used that Jin Xueli’s method... No, that’s not right. This isn’t the first time we’ve taken Original Liquid. We’ve always been able to get it before..."

Mai Mingle’s ears perked up at the name "Jin Xueli."

’Putting aside for a moment why a player from the Nest Dominance Game was involved, the fact that he was talking to himself was... weird.’

’Normally, when you’re in front of an enemy, you’d just think these things, not say them out loud, right?’

’What was even weirder was, why was so much more white vapor puffing from his mouth when he spoke?’

’You don’t breathe out while you’re talking, so besides the puffs of air needed for certain sounds, there shouldn’t be a constant stream of breath... But right now, the driver’s entire head looked like a steam engine.’

’With all that swirling white mist, could he really see anything clearly?’

"Hm? No, impossible. Someone must have hired them to sabotage our Family Faction’s business... They’re so well-informed, so well-informed. If I can just drag out the person pulling the strings, hahahaha..."

"Hey," Mercury called softly to Mai Mingle.

Her gaze remained fixed on the driver. Over the rumbling downpour, she said in a near-inaudible whisper, "This guy got some of the Original Liquid on him."

"What? How do you know?" Mai Mingle whispered back. "You know what the Original Liquid is?"

"The Original Liquid is a Nest substance, isn’t it?" Mercury said, jutting her chin toward the driver. "It looks like he’s about to turn into something from the Nest himself."

The driver had fallen silent.

His head was completely enveloped in a cloud of murky white vapor. Mai Mingle didn’t know if it was a trick of her mind, but she felt that the color of the swirling mist was gradually darkening, and it looked familiar in a way she couldn’t quite place.

"You have your phone on you, right?" Mercury said. "Give it to me."

’She definitely wouldn’t have been carrying her phone while she was sleeping.’ Mai Mingle handed her phone over, glanced at the driver, and whispered, "What are you going to do? Shouldn’t we just run for it now?"

Mercury thought for a moment.

"Do you dare grab the machine gun at his feet?" she whispered.

For the last few seconds, the driver hadn’t reacted to any of their movements, but neither of them knew if he was still watching, ready to attack at any moment.

Mai Mingle looked from the machine gun at the driver’s feet to Mercury.

’If I rush over to grab the gun and he turns his on me...’

’Then all my struggles, my second chance at life that has barely even begun, would all turn to dust. There would be no do-overs.’

"And you?" Mai Mingle asked.

"I don’t have my Illusion on me, but my most famous Illusion can’t be brought into the human world, nor should it ever be," Mercury said. "It’s just a phone number I’ve memorized."

Huh?

’A phone number? That’s an Illusion?’

’So an Illusion can be a string of numbers? Didn’t they say there’s no such thing as cell phones in the Nest?’

Mai Mingle thought she had already seen everything imaginable and unimaginable since being awakened by the thief, but it turned out the world still had new surprises in store for her.

"I need to call that number," Mercury said, her eyes fixed on the driver. "Once my contracted resident answers, I can bring the Nest’s network down on our target and attack. But just in case, I need you to get that machine gun and buy me some time. So? Do you dare?"

Mai Mingle glanced at the driver again.

It wasn’t her imagination. The color of the white mist was indeed getting darker, now a murky gray. ’When it becomes completely black... won’t it look like a Black Abyss Belt?’

"I’ll go," Mai Mingle said.

Mercury raised an eyebrow, looking slightly surprised.

They were both trapped in the same predicament. Mercury had her role to play, which meant Mai Mingle had to play hers. Of course she was afraid.

But fear was just an emotion, not a plan of action.

In her previous life, Mai Mingle had been confined to the tiny corner society had drawn for her, consumed by anxiety, endlessly crunching numbers just to protect her little spot. She had never taken action, never stepped outside of it.

She had 25 days left in her second life. Taking this risk was the only way to do it justice.

Mai Mingle tentatively took one step forward, waited, then took another. The driver remained standing there blankly, not reacting.

’Could it be? Wrapped up in that mist, maybe he really can’t see anything?’

’If that’s the case, I should just get it over with—’

But just as Mai Mingle was about to lunge for the driver, he suddenly moved.

Even though his head was shrouded in a large cloud of mist—no, a Black Abyss Belt—the driver still twisted his body and raised the machine gun toward Mai Mingle.

In that instant, Mai Mingle realized: he was a step too slow.

And this fleeting moment was her only window for survival.

Under the pouring rain, Mai Mingle let her foot slip, using the momentum to fall onto the flooded road.

The next second, a long stream of brilliant white fire, accompanied by a deafening roar of gunfire, tore through the rain like a savage beast. It carved a dazzling scar across the sky just above her head, as if the world’s curtain had been momentarily ripped open.

’When you fire a gun, aren’t you also held in place for a moment by the bullet, the kinetic energy, and the recoil?’

Lying prone in the pouring rain, Mai Mingle swept out her leg, hooking the machine gun next to the driver and pulling it into her hands.

In that one second, she knew anything could happen.

The night could end with her getting the gun and holding the driver at bay, or it could end with the driver turning his weapon and unloading dozens of rounds into her.

Whether it was the Black Abyss Belt on the driver’s head, her own reaction speed, or just a tiny bit of luck, Mai Mingle managed to smoothly swing the machine gun around, aim it at the driver, and shout, "Don’t move!"

The driver, still holding his gun, fell silent and stopped moving.

He hadn’t said a single word for a while now.

"Drop the gun," Mai Mingle commanded.

To her surprise, the driver actually dropped his gun—without a moment’s hesitation.

Only then did Mai Mingle release the tension gripping her heart. She scrambled to her feet, still keeping the driver covered, and turned to shout, "Mercury, are you okay? Did you connect with your Illusion?"

Mercury had reacted quickly, dropping to the ground in time to avoid the driver’s gunfire.

She nodded, pressing Mai Mingle’s phone to her ear with one hand. "Don’t worry," she called back. "The call connected."

As soon as she said that, Mercury spoke into the phone. "Hello?"

Mai Mingle watched her, and her blood ran cold.

"Mercury...?" she called out.

Cradling the phone between her shoulder and ear, Mercury waved a hand at her, still speaking into the receiver. "This is Mercury, can you hear me? Hello?"

Mai Mingle called her name again. "Mercury."

Mercury looked up at her. "What?"

Mai Mingle looked at her, then at the darkness behind her.

As if sensing something, Mercury slowly turned to look over her shoulder.

A broadly smiling resident with bulging eyeballs was pressing a cell phone to its ear. Right at that moment, it replied, "Loud and clear... Hello there, you two."