"Huffing and puffing~" I gasped as I slowly stood up, grabbing the scissors on the way.

Moxiaoi was still sitting on the floor, her eyes dazed. She shook her head frantically and slapped the back of her skull hard, trying to snap herself awake.

"You okay?" I reached out a hand to pull her up.

"..." Her gaze remained unfocused as she took my hand and stood. "This time... thanks to you."

"No problem~" I scratched my head and grinned foolishly.

Moxiaoi gave me that same look she reserved for idiots, then glanced at the black-clad woman’s corpse on the ground. "Take the time reward."

"Eh~ No need. You saved my life in the end anyway."

"Sure?" she asked.

"Uh~ You take it."

She didn’t hesitate. Crouching down, she pressed the dead woman’s wristband against her own, draining all her time.

"Ten hours... How many people did this woman kill?" she muttered in shock.

I’d earned half an hour too... wait? No, I’d already gotten a full hour’s bonus?

Time rewound earlier.

When Li Xiaobai reached the corridor corner, the situation mirrored Moxiaoi’s: empty hallways. He knew the black-clad man must be hiding in one of the hospital rooms.

Li Xiaobai didn’t rush. He paused for two or three seconds at the corridor entrance.

"Heh~" He snorted coldly, then strode forward with his cleaver, utterly unlike Moxiaoi’s cautious approach.

He bypassed the first room, lingered briefly at the second without entering, and finally stopped at the third.

Without hesitation, he turned and stepped inside.

"..." He halted just past the doorway, voice icy. "Come out. I know you’re here."

Silence. No reply.

"The second-to-last bed on the left... leaning against the edge, aiming that bow at me, right?" Another cold laugh echoed in the room.

Still silence. No answer.

"If you won’t come out, I’m coming in." He started walking.

The moment his foot landed, a figure sprang up from the corner of the second-to-last bed on the left. A compound bow fired an arrow straight at Li Xiaobai’s face.

Smooth motion. Blinding speed. Pinpoint accuracy. Even seeing it coming, dodging was near impossible. Yet the black-clad man’s confident expression flickered with shock.

*How did he know where I was? I’m a professional hunter! How did he sense me?*

But what happened next stunned him more.

The youth didn’t dodge or block with his blade. He just watched the arrow fly toward him, utterly indifferent.

As it neared his face, he shot his hand up—and caught the arrow mid-flight!

"What?!"

The black-clad man stared like he’d seen a ghost. *Catching my arrow barehanded? That’s impossible!* His mind reeled, but reality didn’t care.

He watched the youth casually toss the arrow aside.

"Who are you?" the man stammered.

Li Xiaobai fixed him with his signature dead-fish eyes, cold and dismissive, as if staring at a corpse. No words. He lunged forward in a flash, cleaver swinging down at the man’s head.

The black-clad man reacted fast. He flung aside his bow, drew a machete from his waist, and slashed back.

"Clang!" Steel met steel.

"Crack!" A shattering sound.

The rusty cleaver smashed into the gleaming machete, gouging a massive notch into the blade. The cleaver shattered instantly, splitting in two.

"Argh!" The man screamed. Though his opponent’s weapon was ruined, the impact split his palm and numbed his entire arm.

*What kind of monstrous strength is this?!*

"This trash?" Li Xiaobai muttered, staring at the broken hilt in disbelief.

"Huh?" He suddenly whipped his head toward the room’s corner, sensing something.

"Daring to lose focus mid-fight?!" the black-clad man roared. *Calling my weapon trash? While ignoring me?!*

Gritting through the pain, he gripped his machete with both hands and swung down at the arrogant youth.

"No time to play. Goodbye." Li Xiaobai didn’t even glance at him. He ignored the strike completely.

"Bastard!" The man poured all his fury into the blow.

But a shadow faster than his blade shot out from behind the youth—piercing his chest like a spear!

It struck true, exploding his heart.

"W-what?" He barely glimpsed the spider-leg-like spear...

"Monster..." he gasped, then collapsed.

"..."

Spider Spikes retracted smoothly into Li Xiaobai’s body (evolved), impossibly cool. He looted the man’s time, then shoved the corpse into a corner.

"Ten hours... not bad. Hm?" He glanced at his wristband, muttering to himself.

About to leave and help Moxiaoi, he spotted something interesting on a bed.

"Eh~ Moxiaoi, I just got an extra half-hour bonus!" I called out to her in surprise.

"..." Moxiaoi checked her wristband. "That monster must’ve killed the black-clad man."

"Xiaobai?"

"Let’s go. I don’t want to watch corpses explode." She shot the dead woman a cold look and sprinted down the corridor.

"Eh~ Wait for me!" I didn’t want to see explosions either. I dashed after her.

"Boom!" An explosion sounded the moment I cleared the room.

As Moxiaoi and I reached the corridor, Li Xiaobai appeared from the far corner.

"Ugh~ I searched the whole floor. Turns out you were right here..." He groaned when he saw us.

"Ah~ Xiaobai, did you take care of that... man?"

"Finished him ages ago! I swept the entire floor too. Besides those two enemies, no one else was here." Xiaobai bragged. He’d scored a full ten hours, after all.

"Really?" I grinned. Made sense—he’d clearly looted plenty from his upper body.

"..." Moxiaoi stayed silent. *He’s lying. He waited until we killed the woman before checking the floor.* She’d suspected it before, but now she was certain: this man had some radar-like biological sense.

"Where’s your Crossbow?" Xiaobai squinted at Moxiaoi with a smug grin.

"... Destroyed." She scowled, frustration twisting her face.

"Here." Li Xiaobai pulled a compound bow and quiver from his back, tossing them to her with a cheeky smirk. "Know how to use it?"

"..." Moxiaoi snatched them without a word, her face darkening with irritation.

"Eh~ Donghui, I found something for you too." He turned to me, that same smug grin spreading.

"Huh? No thanks~ I can’t use it anyway. I’ll stick with my scissors."

"Nah, look at your clothes—they’re ruined." He leered.

*Uh oh. That grin feels shady.* But he was right. My tracksuit was soaked in blood from the fall—sticky and gross. And the black-clad woman’s slash across my chest had torn it open like a vest.

Revealing my pale, flat chest...

"Uh~ Yeah, can’t wear this..." I quickly covered myself, realizing Xiaobai’s lecherous stare.

*Why am I covering my chest? I’m a guy!*

"Guess what I found?" He beamed, pulling a package from behind his back.

A brand-new nurse uniform.

I froze in shock.

The wristband showed 3 hours remaining. Game time left: 21 hours and 30 minutes.