Chapter 148: You've Overplayed Your Hand

Night fell.

The fat man's drunken haze had largely worn off. He raised a hand to thump his aching head and looked across the table at Zhou Yi and Sophia with a face full of grievance.

"Boss, why do you still look so deeply troubled now that everyone's gone? Was my act not convincing enough, or what?"

Zhou Yi glanced not far away at the corpse-like Black Panther, as well as his two subordinates. The two lacklings were now honestly squatting beside Black Panther to tend to him, not daring to cast a single look toward Zhou Yi's side.

Zhou Yi glanced over before looking back at the fat man.

"A good act?"

The fat man paused, blinked his small eyes, and let out a burp.

"What's wrong? Wasn't it good?"

"The Hunter tribe possesses terrifyingly sharp perception by nature. Did you really think such crude disguises could fool their eyes?

As for those two fellows' tracks, they've already been sensed. Didn't you hear them mention just now that they felt locked on?

And yet you arranged for them to rest in this very room. They've already traded blows with them; these disguises are completely useless. It's practically the same as being recognized on sight."

The fat man wilted, though he still refused to admit defeat.

"Still, they didn't flip out, did they? Didn't they just leave?"

Sophia let out a cold snort.

"Leave? There's no telling where they might be watching this place from right now. They simply didn't understand the meaning of our little play today, which is why they didn't dare to act rashly."

The fat man wilted completely. He looked at the two shivering lacklings, then at Cheng Zhi, who was still toying with a tree branch, and spoke in an awkward tone.

"Then what should we do now?"

Zhou Yi turned his head to look at Sophia. Seeing her continuously fiddling with her control disk, he assumed she had managed to establish a connection and leaned over to take a peek.

"Can you contact the base?"

Sophia shook her head and switched off the control disk.

"The functions haven't been restored, but it can display the Hunters' locations and numbers. They are right nearby, forming a state of encirclement.

Right now, either we use earth-escaping techniques, have those two lads lead the way to clear a path connecting to the mining area, and take Black Panther with us as we leave; or we wait for Black Panther to wake up. Didn't he say his control disk can already connect to the base?

We can follow him straight to Base 37 and wait for Base 72 to recover later. Facing them in a head-on battle while carrying Black Panther gives us zero chance of winning."

Sophia directly dismissed head-on combat as hopeless. Clearly, her calculated conclusion was that their chances of winning against the old man's faction were absolute zero. Although it was a bit of a blow to the ego, the truth was the truth.

Zhou Yi glanced at Black Panther. The man's injuries were severe, especially his ribs and lungs. With the limited conditions here, that was all they could do. There was no telling whether he would wake up, or when. Still, leaving him behind wasn't something a decent person would do.

The crux of the matter was that this fellow possessed such tenacious vitality; if he somehow escaped, he would become a mortal enemy in the future.

"I'll go check if we can wake Black Panther up. You two get over there and start digging a tunnel immediately. Fat man, go with them. Even if you're not an Earth-attribute user, you can at least move bricks and shovel sand. Be careful to stay hidden—start digging right in the building where Black Panther used to live."

The fat man didn't waste breath this time, his face a mask of extreme tension.

Sophia had said the map showed the Hunters' coordinates, meaning the old man and his people hadn't left. If they decided to storm back, given his meager abilities, he would only be waiting to take a beating. It was much better to contribute some effort right now.

"You two, hurry up and follow me! If you dare say you can't, I'll just throw you out to feed that old man!"

The two lads didn't waste any words and hurried away after the fat man. Cheng Zhi also stood up.

"Sir, I'll go over and help out. We at least need to disguise the earth and gravel being hauled out, otherwise I'm afraid it will attract their attention. If they realize we're trying to run, they'll definitely charge in and slaughter us."

Zhou Yi raised a hand to stop him.

"Let the three of them handle it. You remain on guard. Night has fallen, and they'll be closing in closer and closer. The village is still somewhat lively for now, but by the second half of the night, there's no telling."

Cheng Zhi paused, then nodded hurriedly.

"Don't worry, sir. I'll go take charge of the perimeter watch right now. I'll notify you the moment there's any news."

Cheng Zhi also departed. In the spacious room, Black Panther's snores shook the rafters. There was no telling whether this fellow was truly asleep or in a coma; logically speaking, even a coma after sustaining such heavy injuries wouldn't produce snores this earth-shattering, right?

Could he have a history of epilepsy? But even then, he should have woken up by now.

"Can Black Panther be woken up?"

Sophia had her doubts as well. She stood up and walked to Black Panther's side.

She prepared to tap her control disk. Zhou Yi knew she wanted to use spirit stones to give Black Panther an energetic stimulus; after all, when he himself had been injured previously, absorbing spirit stones had healed his wounds almost completely.

However, this Black Panther was, after all, a man from Base 37, and a deeply sinister individual at that. If he were to be driven by greed upon seeing wealth, or if he discovered that the spirit stones they used emitted spiritual energy similar to that of the water rats, he might turn and bite them in the back the very next second. Even if they managed to return to the base, he might still find a way to make things difficult for them through Waldner.

Besides, no matter how one looked at it, this fellow looked like he was faking it. Especially those snores—there was no variation in pitch or volume whatsoever. Too fake!

Zhou Yi hurriedly raised a hand to stop Sophia's movement.

He gave a slight shake of his head and blinked. Sophia closed the control disk. Although she didn't fully understand what Zhou Yi meant, she understood that he didn't want her to use the spirit stones.

"With him looking like this, how can we wake him up ahead of time? No matter what, we can't just leave him behind, right?"

"Naturally, we can't leave him behind. Vice-Commander Black Panther didn't abandon us earlier, so we certainly can't do a thing like that. At worst, we'll have the fat man carry Vice-Commander Black Panther on his back later. The four of them can hide inside the mining tunnel and dig slowly from there.

As for the two of us, we'll face the enemy head-on and rally the villagers to take up arms. That way, if they want to kill us, they'll have to slaughter the villagers first. Surely they wouldn't be so reckless and disregard all consequences?"

Sophia let out a sigh, seeming to understand Zhou Yi's intent, and chimed in.

"Fine then. Once the tunnel is dug far enough, we'll have them go down. We simply can't compare to the abilities of that blade-wielding old man and his people. I'm sorry, it was all my poor choice that led you to die with me in this world."

Though their conversation was meant for Black Panther to hear, Sophia's apology was entirely sincere. Her eyes turned slightly red, shimmering with moisture. She truly regretted choosing this world as a hiding place; dying by herself was one thing, but dragging the rest of them to their deaths weighed heavily on her conscience with a sense of guilt.

Zhou Yi grinned and waved a hand at Sophia.

"What's the use of dwelling on that? Having walked through several worlds and lived through multiple lives, it's as if I've added several highlight reels to my existence. What's there to apologize for? Let's carry Vice-Commander Black Panther to the backyard. If we wait any longer, I'm afraid we'll arouse those people's suspicions, and I also need to notify the front to stir up some excitement."

Sophia nodded and took her place at the head of Black Panther's bed, while Zhou Yi stood at the foot. Just as they reached out to lift him, Black Panther coughed twice and slowly opened his eyes.

Right as Zhou Yi's face was directly facing Black Panther's, the sudden opening of those eyes caused Zhou Yi's hand to slip. His grip on the bedpost suddenly loosened, and with a loud crash, the bed was overturned, sending Black Panther tumbling to the floor.

Black Panther executed a nimble roll, squatted agilely on the ground, and looked up at Zhou Yi with a crooked smile, extending a hand toward him.

"Zhou Yi, not bad. All right, get up now, I'm fine!"

Sophia wore a look of utter astonishment. She hadn't expected Zhou Yi's judgment to be so spot-on—this Black Panther really had been playing possum. Her face grew a fraction colder as she let out a hum of displeasure toward Black Panther.

"Hmph, I thought you were at death's door. Turns out you were just faking your death."

Black Panther chuckled, entirely devoid of any shame after being caught playing dead.

"I really didn't mean to. When the old man came in, I was absorbing the energy of a spirit stone, hoping to recover more quickly. I didn't dare show my face back then. Fortunately, your reactions were quick enough to cover for me."

Sophia offered no further words of reproach. After all, the man wasn't from her own base. Although they were both vice-commanders, their rankings differed vastly, and explaining himself to her was already showing enough respect.

"As long as you're awake, is your body fully recovered?"

Black Panther grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, pulled it off over his head, reached out to tear away the bandages and gauze wrapped around his torso, and swung his arms. Noticing his arms and face were still stained black, he casually wiped them clean.

"Recovered. I'm at peak condition now. As long as it's not an ambush, dealing with that old man shouldn't be a problem."

"Then what do we do now?"

"Didn't you already plan it out? Dig a tunnel and run. Those people have already started tightening their encirclement; I estimate they'll storm in within half an hour."

Zhou Yi froze. *What the hell, we're still going to dig a tunnel at a time like this? Is his brain broken?*