Fu Jingchuan had a gut feeling—the person Ye Shu spoke of was none other than the man who had just been hunting him with ruthless intent.
"Yes! I almost got...stabbed to death by him!"
"The grudge between us is massive! There's no way it ends here."
For the first time, an eerie expression flickered across Ye Shu's otherwise delicate face. Even Su Bai shuddered, taken aback by it.
Fu Jingchuan nodded along, pretending to understand.
They hadn't been together in the previous rounds, so he had no idea what Ye Shu had gone through. Still, considering that hunter was utterly deranged, it made sense they'd try to kill Ye Xiaoshu on sight. The tension between the two was only natural.
And yet, something about it all felt off—though he couldn't put his finger on why.
Ye Shu waited in the same spot...
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours... Still, no sign of Lin Qingyue. Gradually, a murderous urge began to bubble under her skin.
———
On the grasslands to the north.
Ye Wanwan was being herded and cornered by a pack of hunters. Once the proud little princess of the Lin family, she was now rolling about in the dirt, stripped of all dignity.
"It's all Zheng Lin's fault!"
"If she hadn't exposed my identity in front of everyone, the other players wouldn't have abandoned me, left me as bait... Damn it, damn it! When I get back, I'm going to kill her!"
Ye Wanwan was seething with rage, but she ran fast, barely tripping before tumbling into a rancid sludge pit, brown muck smearing her face. Miserable didn't even begin to cover it.
A hunter standing on the bank snickered, leveling a gun at her.
"Little mouse... still trying to run?"
"You managed to kill Number 02 and 03. Not bad! So why run now? Bring out that black cat—I want to see what's so special about it."
Panic-stricken, Ye Wanwan hugged her head, shouting, "I didn't kill any hunters! I'm not the person you're after! I swear on my life! You've got the wrong woman!"
All she'd done was assume a fake identity for a bit... Now she was really being hunted like the real deal!
"You're the Sika Deer from the last round—don’t think we don’t know."
"Do you really take us for fools?"
As their leader tightened his finger on the trigger, Ye Wanwan scrambled for words.
"No, really, I'm not! If I were, would you even need to chase me this long? I'm just an ordinary girl!"
"I know who you're looking for—I have a picture. Spare me, and I'll show you the real one you're after!"
With desperate hands, Ye Wanwan fished a photo from her dimensional pouch.
In the picture, a girl wore her hair in a haphazard ponytail, black strands stuck to her face, eyes cool and aloof. A plain t-shirt and jeans still managed a wild, untamed beauty.
She’d once hired a private eye to snap it at the archery range.
Who'd have guessed that the ever-protective Qin Zaozao would seek out Ye Shu, even wanting to claim her as a true sister? Was it really just because Ye Shu had taken her oxygen tank during the suffocation crisis? But Qin Zaozao had survived, hadn’t she?
She’d already apologized. What else could they possibly want from her?
"It's her!!"
"She’s the one to blame!"
"It has nothing to do with me! She set me up! If I were as powerful as her, would I still be running for my life? Think about it!"
Ye Wanwan didn’t care if that Sika Deer was Ye Shu or not.
If the hunters took Ye Shu out—so much the better.
"Makes sense," one of the hunters mused, his pistol drifting a hairsbreadth away.
Ye Wanwan's heart leapt with hope. She pressed on, feeding them more bait. These mechanical half-robots—she thought they’d be smarter. Turns out she’d run them in circles with ease. "She's killed so many of your fellow hunters! Why don’t you gang up on her?"
"That's true," another hunter agreed.
But in the next instant, all guns snapped back toward Ye Wanwan.
"What are you doing? I just gave you useful intel! You can't kill me—"
Suddenly, Ye Wanwan’s breaths came in ragged gasps, her legs trembling with terror, words dissolving on her lips.
"That woman’s the Demon of the Eastern District, and you’re telling us to go murder her?"
The moment they saw the picture, the hunters knew the prey before them was still scheming. The woman in the photo—code named Ye Xiaoshu—was infamous in the East. Every hunter knew her legend.
She’d slaughtered nearly a hundred hunters herself, all with nothing but a wooden sword.
None of them had seen any mysterious black tiger.
The Sika Deer liked to lure hunters into ambushes. They were completely different.
"What does that mean?"
Ye Wanwan’s mind blanked, staring back at the hunters, as if she truly had no idea.
"It means… you can go to hell now!"
Without hesitation, the hunter pulled the trigger.
Ye Wanwan stood frozen, terror wide across her eyes. Her revival card had been used up last round.
She never expected that one day, she would actually die in this game.
Just as the bullet was about to punch into her, Ye Wanwan’s body grew light, softly vanishing from the mud.
———
Eastern District.
Ye Shu, no longer satisfied merely hunting hunters at her usual spot, suggested moving into new territory.
Naturally, Su Bai followed wherever Ye Shu led.
Suddenly, a violent twitch shook between Ye Shu’s brows—as if something had gone awry.
She scanned the area. Her gaze finally settled on a tree trunk across the pond—over there… someone was sitting.
A second glance—an old acquaintance.
So, he hadn’t run.
Not only was Lin Qingyue still nearby—he was bold enough to remain out in the open.
Over a dozen hours had passed, and she only now noticed...
"Shushu, what are you looking at—wait, isn’t that…"
Following Ye Shu’s stare, Su Bai found herself locking eyes with Lin Qingyue’s chilling gaze. She instinctively stumbled two steps back.
Wasn’t this the most notorious antagonist NPC of the survival game?
Just showing up, right here—wasn’t that a bit much?
Ye Shu didn’t hesitate. She drew her sword and charged.
Lin Qingyue didn’t dodge, allowing the wooden blade to pierce straight into his chest, not offering even the faintest resistance.
Ye Shu showed no mercy, fearing this madman might revive to finish her off. She plunged the blade again, this time into his heart.
Lin Qingyue’s smile began to crack.
"How about now? Satisfied?"
"Not at all!"
Once more, the sword flashed, tearing through Lin Qingyue’s throat.
With three gaping wounds gushing blood like spring fountains, Lin Qingyue soon drew his last breath.
The two spectators nearby stood thunderstruck.
Su Bai: "..."
That was the villain! The game’s final boss!
And Shushu—her Shushu—had stabbed him three times, killing him outright.
Fu Jingchuan could only stare at the fallen man, a turbulent storm of emotion flickering in his eyes as he glanced back at Ye Shu.
As far as he remembered, this hunter was notoriously powerful—he wouldn’t have died so easily at Ye Xiaoshu's hand.
The feud between them must have been deep enough that, in the end, he’d allowed her to kill him.
Was it all just his imagination?
[Ding! Congratulations, Player 10096, for defeating the hidden boss of this round. The game will end early!]
[Congratulations to Ye Shu for clearing the Hide and Seek Game!]
[Rank: SS.]
[You have escaped the world.]
[Dungeon: 29,800 survive Hide and Seek. District a101 ranks first. All players clear the round as a team, earning 10 extra points, Strength +1, Constitution +1, Agility +1.]