When Chu Yian said they'd meet up, Youche was honestly a little excited.
In his mind, Chu the Elder was a towering man—nine feet tall, rock-solid abs, a stern and square-jawed face framed with greying temples. Kind of like Huang Zhong from Honor of Kings, the version who carries a tank around.
Just. Righteous. And brimming with a sense of security.
But when they actually met…
Youche looked at Chu Yian. Then looked past her, expecting someone else to show up.
Why didn't the elder say he brought a girl along?
And this girl… she was actually pretty cute.
If he'd known, he would've at least washed his face before coming. He wondered if the exhaustion of the past few days had dulled his usually handsome features.
While Youche's mind was running wild, Chu Yian silently sized him up.
He was around 1.7 meters tall, half a head taller than her. Lean, weak-looking—one of those guys you could probably kill with a single suitcase to the head. Not a threat to her, but also probably not much help in a real fight.
Chu Yian made her mental assessment, while Youche started getting impatient.
He broke the silence first.
"Hey, miss, what's your name? Where's Chu the Elder?"
Chu Yian glanced at his obvious attempt to act cool.
"That's me. I'm Chu the Elder."
Youche: ...?
At first, he refused to believe it. The "Chu the Elder" he imagined was nine feet tall, white-haired, muscled, probably dragging a tank behind him to save the day. Instead… he got a soft-looking, easy-to-bully girl.
To sum up their first meeting: neither of them lived up to the other's expectations.
"All right, enough standing around."
Chu Yian climbed onto the concrete railing. Looking down still made her a little dizzy, but she took a deep breath and leapt across to the other building.
"You got your stuff ready?"
She dropped her backpack and headed into Youche's place, crossbow raised and at the ready. She searched the entire room thoroughly.
Clear. No one inside.
"All packed."
Youche stood at the door with a huge hiking pack on his back, plus the standard game-issued backpack strapped in front.
Chu Yian glanced at him and frowned.
"You sure you can run carrying all that?"
"I can run!"
Youche insisted, though the weight was making his legs tremble.
But he couldn't bear to part with his stash—every single item he'd worked so hard to collect. Leaving it behind would feel like slicing into his own flesh.
"All right then."
Chu Yian nodded, understanding. Though if he slowed her down and got caught…
"A teammate sacrificed means power amplified."
Damn, that's cold.
Youche was right beside her—he definitely heard that.
"I mean… maybe I shouldn't bring so much after all."
Reluctantly, he opened his small backpack, cleared it out, and packed a few compressed biscuits, two bottles of water, and… a pair of nunchaku?
"You can use those?"
Chu Yian looked surprised.
"A bit," he replied, strapping the metal nunchaku to his shoulder strap.
Seeing that he'd lightened his load, Chu Yian was finally satisfied. Time to go.
The elevators were long out of service. Their only way down was the left or right stairwell.
From the 16th floor, they descended quietly, as silent as possible. But the closer they got to the 8th floor, the more their hearts pounded.
Youche led with the nunchaku. Chu Yian covered the rear with her crossbow.
They passed the 8th floor safely.
But just as they were about to relax, they ran straight into two armed raiders coming up between the 5th and 6th floors.
"Shit, trying to run?"
One of them, wearing a red bandana, slammed his axe into the stair rail with a sharp clang. They blocked the way down and eyed Youche before turning their hungry gazes toward Chu Yian.
"Easy there, we know how things work on the streets," Chu Yian said quickly, lifting her bag. Inside were just two biscuits and two bottles of water. "We lived on the 16th floor, just trying to head back to the countryside. We didn't take anything except a day's rations. You're welcome to whatever's in our apartment."
Youche opened his bag too. Just a little more food than Chu Yian had.
"Who wants food from broke losers like you?"
They were here on White Bro's orders to loot the whole complex. With an entire building up for grabs, who cared about what was in a couple backpacks?
But what they did care about was Chu Yian's weapon—and her.
"Why go back to the countryside, pretty girl?"
The guy with a blue dragon tattoo on his shoulder leered.
"Come with our boss, White Bro. He treats women real nice—you'll be living the sweet life."
Even if the boss wasn't interested, they could always pass her down to the underlings.
Chu Yian saw through them. She'd tried being nice, but it was useless with thugs like this.
She raised her crossbow and aimed at the dragon-tat guy's head.
"Move. Now."
"Little lady, don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit."
The tattooed man stepped forward, trying to grab her crossbow.
Youche jumped in, swinging his nunchaku in a blur. Whap-whap-whap!
The guy backed off, swearing.
"Haa-ya!"
Youche even threw in a Bruce Lee-style battle cry.
Then… the tattooed man landed a punch square on Youche's face. Stars filled his vision.
Chu Yian didn't hesitate. She aimed at the man's thigh and pulled the trigger.
The arrow pierced straight through.
The guy screamed in pain.
The red bandana guy lunged at her.
Chu Yian turned and sprinted up a few steps, opened the distance, then loosed another arrow. She didn't aim precisely, but—
Thwack!
It hit him right in the left eye.
"AAAAHH—!"
His shriek echoed up the stairwell. Blood poured from between his fingers. Chu Yian's face turned pale. She'd only meant to disable them—not this.
But his screaming alerted the others. Reinforcements started coming from above.
Too late to worry about that now.
"Run!"
She yelled at the stunned Youche and bolted down the stairs. But before she'd gone far, someone grabbed her backpack.
She spun around instinctively—and came face to face with a scar-faced man, a jagged line cutting through his eyebrow.
He stood there like a blood-soaked mountain of knives.
Danger!
Chu Yian instinctively slipped out of her pack and sprinted faster.
But one of the men was even faster. Grabbing the rail, he vaulted straight down to the next landing, cutting them off. Behind them, more enemies approached.
They were trapped.
Chu Yian and Youche were caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Move!"
Chu Yian raised her crossbow at the youth blocking their way.