Volume Two: Devil’s Game Chapter Twenty-Two: Playing the Double

Shen Yixue kept sprinting through an industrial park, while behind her came a relentless clamor of metal striking metal: the armored clatter of the Keeper, and the crash of shattered metal hitting the ground as the Keeper tore through whatever stood in his way.

“How long are you going to keep chasing?” Shen Yixue gritted out, teeth clenched. “It’s all thanks to those bastards, wasting my energy.” As she spoke, she slapped another burst talisman onto herself.

In the chase, the two soon reached the edge of the district. Seeing the wide-open road beyond, Shen Yixue felt a headache coming on. If it turned into a flat-out race across open ground, she’d be done for.

Just as she was thinking that it was troublesome, a voice drifted into her ears. “I say, scrap heap, you’re chasing someone again.” The speaker sounded utterly indifferent.

Shen Yixue stole a glance and saw Lu Yi seated atop a factory roof, a shard of stone in his hand as he tapped the roof with it, making a dull thudding sound.

“Run!” Shen Yixue shouted at him. “This Keeper’s on par with the last one that went berserk!”

Lu Yi smiled and lifted a hand to Shen Yixue in a beckoning gesture. “Duck.”

At once, Shen Yixue lowered herself, and a blade of killing intent whisked overhead.

On par with the last berserk Keeper—meaning Shen Yixue had seen a Keeper in a berserk state before. Lu Yi’s thoughts turned over that fact as he rose to his feet. He hurled the stone in his hand straight at the Keeper.

The stone struck true. The Keeper immediately turned his head, and at that single glance he came to a stop.

“It’s you!”

“That’s right, it’s me.” Lu Yi spread his arms with brazen confidence. “I say, scrap heap, I heard you’re angry again? Why are you so incapable of keeping calm? You already suffered such a huge loss before—haven’t you learned a thing? What good does anger do?”

The Keeper gripped the hilt of his blade tightly and turned to stare at Lu Yi. His hands loosened and tightened, tightened and loosened. He cast a vicious glance at the place Lu Yi stood and at the factory roof beneath his feet, then finally let out a cold snort and resumed chasing Shen Yixue.

“A Fish: Damn, this Keeper is so pathetic he doesn’t even dare to throw out a single harsh word.”

“Sweetheart Yiyi: Looks like that lonely time beneath the water really left a shadow in his heart. He’s wary of the streamer now.”

“Golden Camel: Exactly. The Keeper is clearly afraid the streamer has done something nearby.”

Lu Yi chuckled. “Since it won’t chase me, then I’ll chase it.” With that, he leaped straight down from the factory roof.

“I’m a Husky: Damn, streamer, you’re amazing. I know you’ve been looking for the Keeper for a while, and there aren’t any traps around. Yet you still dare to play so recklessly.”

“Phoenix: Go, streamer! What kind of mischief are we doing this time?”

“A Lone Wolf in the Miasma Valley: Keep being reckless. I’m cheering for you.”

Hearing the barrage of comments and the gift notifications in his earpiece, Lu Yi smiled and trotted after the Keeper. “Hey, weren’t we getting along pretty well last time? You wanted to chase me, and I let you chase me—it’s just that I wouldn’t let you get your way. So why can’t you even speak now?”

“Yandere Fairy: Heehee. Streamer, the Keeper just wants to catch you, just wants your body, just petty and shameless. Then you wouldn’t let him, so things fell apart. Heehee.”

“Sweetheart Yueyue: Wow, so filthy. There’s a lot of room for imagination there.”

Lu Yi’s face darkened line by line at the barrage of messages, while Shen Yixue was nearly collapsing inside as well. Someone was clearly luring the Keeper from behind, yet the Keeper simply refused to look back. Was her own hatred really that deep, or was the Keeper wary of Lu Yi?

And so Shen Yixue fled in front, the Keeper pursued behind, and Lu Yi trailed after the Keeper, endlessly taunting him.

Soon the Keeper’s skill came off cooldown, and he sprang up suddenly.

“Watch out, he’s jumped!” Hearing Lu Yi’s warning, Shen Yixue’s expression changed. She quickly slapped another burst talisman on herself, veered sharply, and lunged forward.

But the Keeper did not leap ahead. Instead, he came crashing down toward Lu Yi, gripping his long blade with both hands and aiming it squarely at him.

“Kid, you’ve run this far. Don’t tell me you’ve still got traps around you?”

Lu Yi smiled faintly. Between his fingers was a small scrap of paper. He flicked it a few times, and then, in the Keeper’s eyes, the scrap vanished from Lu Yi’s hand, while the Lu Yi in front of him continued jogging forward at the same pace as before.

“A decoy?” the Keeper cried out in alarm. “Don’t think I can’t root you out just because you’re invisible.”

With a shriek of wind, the Keeper slammed down heavily behind that Lu Yi. Stones burst and flew in all directions, yet not a single piece was obstructed by anything invisible. Refusing to give up, the Keeper slashed out a horizontal blade-light, but still gained nothing.

“How is this possible? You cunning brat, you’re actually running alongside the decoy!” the Keeper roared. But the moment the words left his mouth, he felt a heavy kick land on his backside. He stumbled forward several steps, catching himself on his long blade before he could fall.

Lu Yi lowered his leg and said irritably, “Decoy my ass. What I was holding was just a piece of paper. You couldn’t see it because I hid it in my palm.” As he spoke, he tossed a torn scrap of paper to the ground, then immediately took off running again.

“Sweetheart Yiyi: Streamer, six six six. I was wondering how I didn’t know you had a paper decoy. So you were just putting on an act.”

“Yandere Fairy: Streamer, you really are outrageously bold. If the Keeper had ignored everything and just smashed at the decoy he thought he saw, wouldn’t you have been finished?”

Hearing the yandere fairy’s words, Lu Yi revealed an inscrutable smile. “That would be a low-probability event, and I wasn’t exactly without a countermeasure.”

“Yandere Fairy: A countermeasure? What countermeasure? Nobody saw it earlier.”

“I’m a Husky: Why ask so many questions? Maybe it’ll be another surprise later on. Anyway, streamer, six six six—you’ve got the Keeper dancing in the palm of your hand.”

“Look at You Once More: That decoy trick was smooth. You completely grasped the Keeper’s suspicious state of mind right now.”

“Look at You Once More sent Streamer Lu Yi 100 pairs of skate shoes.”

“Phoenix sent Streamer Lu Yi 1 Bone Warsteed.”

“Sweetheart Yiyi sent the streamer 20 Wish Bottles.”

By the time Lu Yi turned and ran, the Keeper had already steadied himself. Yet he did not give chase at once. He stood there, his whole body shaking uncontrollably from humiliation—the humiliation of being toyed with so completely by his opponent.

“Aaaah! I will never rest until one of us is dead!” the Keeper roared, drawing his long blade from the ground and pursuing Lu Yi.

“What? Never rest until one of us is dead? Well, that’s a different set of words, at least. But don’t dream of it on your life.” Lu Yi sneered without turning back.

The Keeper had clearly lost all patience again. White vapor rose from his body as he abandoned Shen Yixue entirely and accelerated after Lu Yi.

Only after the two had run some distance away did Shen Yixue peek out from behind a wall. She took a few breaths to steady herself. “Why do I feel like the Keeper is a completely different person in front of Lu Yi? What exactly did Lu Yi do to him?”

Soon, a smile appeared on her face. “I’ll just follow and take a look.”