64: Chapter 64 Even if the fist doesn't ring, the score will still be settled.

Wind and snow swirled with shards of ice, battering the back of Chen Fan's neck. Leaning against a fractured stone pillar, he could clearly feel the frigid air seeping through the cracks and boring into his wounds.

The bloody gash on his chest, torn open by a ghostly shadow, was still seeping blood. The system notification displaying 17% health flickered on his retina like a patch of jarring red mist.

The sound of a Law Blade scraping against the ground drew closer from the distance, and Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed.

He saw Seventh of Class C's shadow reach the bridge deck first—the Profound Iron Law Blade dragged a deep furrow through the snow, each step sounding like a hammer blow to his nerves.

The mechanical voice of the system announcement suddenly exploded, making his eardrums ache: "Target player Chen Fan, anomaly index exceeds limit. Executing Purification Protocol."

"Xiao Fan," Su Shuang's voice came from the right, carrying the chill of ice shards.

Chen Fan turned his head and saw her leaning against the bridge railing. The phantom image of her fox tail was thirty percent fainter than usual, and her fingertips were trembling uncontrollably.

Her gaze was out of focus, yet she still forced a smile. "They... are monitoring every critical hit."

Chen Fan's pupils constricted.

He could hear his heart beating like a drum. When he was wounded by the ghostly shadow earlier, he had instinctively wanted to trigger a critical hit for a counter-kill, but a system warning had suddenly popped up: "Monitoring intensity increased; critical hits will trigger a Hunting Mark." The words were so red they looked ready to drip blood.

Su Shuang's words now confirmed his suspicions: this damn system even monitored critical hits. No wonder he was always hunted like a stray dog whenever he triggered them before.

The cold sneer of the Black Banner Emissary came from the left.

From the corner of his eye, Chen Fan saw the figure shrouded in black mist raise a black banner. Twelve ghostly shadows lunged from the banner's surface, silver-gray data streams swirling around them as they flanked him in a fan formation.

The ghostly shadows' shrieks made his temples throb. The nearest one had already unsheathed its sharp claws, less than three feet from his face.

"There's no escape, Chen Fan," Seventh of Class C's voice drew near.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the cold glint of the Law Blade reflecting the waning moon, illuminating the cracks on Seventh of Class C's mask—cracks caused by the copper coins earlier.

"I once struggled just like you, until I understood—obedience is rebirth."

Rebirth?

Chen Fan remembered the nameplate he had picked up at the post station three days ago. When Xiao Lin had died clutching it, his eyes were still wide and bulging.

He suddenly heard a faint 'crack' from the bridge railing. A gray shadow crawled out from a fissure, its voice sounding like rusted iron grinding together: "They changed us... names, memories, pain... all rewritten."

Gray Tongue!

Chen Fan's heart jolted.

He remembered Su Shuang saying that the bridge railing was entangled with the lingering thoughts of those erased by the system. He hadn't expected them to emerge now.

His peripheral vision swept under the bridge. Something seemed to move in the shadows—was it Broken Brush?

That guy had said he would lead him to clues about Qingqiu. Why was he now...

A ghostly shadow's claw grazed the tip of his nose, and a burning pain immediately flared in his left arm.

Chen Fan stumbled back, the ice cracking beneath his feet—but this was no accident.

He deliberately stumbled into a half-kneeling position, his right hand quietly clenching.

He had learned the "Breath-Holding Method" while hauling bricks at construction sites—keeping strength from leaking, storing it to release later.

Now, he suppressed the critical hit energy into his dantian, slowing his breathing to an extreme, just as he did when carrying three hundred pounds of rebar.

System notifications flashed before his eyes, but Chen Fan turned a deaf ear to them.

He could feel the heat current racing through his body. A critical hit that originally required forced activation was now slowly taking shape along with the rhythm of his breathing.

【Hidden Critical Hit ×3】—No red light, no notification sound; even the system monitoring failed to react in time.

"Ha!" Chen Fan let out a low shout, and his right fist boomed out silently.

Seventh of Class C's Law Blade was only halfway raised when his mask suddenly 'cracked' open.

His entire body was struck as if by an invisible giant hammer, flying back thirty feet and crashing into a bridge pillar. Silver blood leaked from the corner of his mouth—a sign of data body collapse.

The Black Banner Emissary's startled roar was still stuck in his throat when Chen Fan closed the distance, his elbow strike whistling through the air to smash against the banner pole.

With a 'crack,' the black banner shattered. The twelve ghostly shadows instantly collapsed into data streams and vanished into the wind and snow.

"Nice work." Su Shuang stumbled over, her fox tail wrapping around his arm.

Only then did Chen Fan notice her forehead was covered in cold sweat, and the phantom image of her fox ears was flickering in and out of existence.

She leaned toward his ear, her voice as light as a sigh. "He has nine white marks on his forehead... the tenth mark was meant to be carved onto your head."

Chen Fan looked at the unconscious Seventh of Class C.

Under the moonlight, half a face was visible through the cracks in the mask. Sure enough, there were white marks on his left forehead. When Chen Fan counted to the ninth, the man's Adam's apple moved.

This was no judge; he was clearly a living target branded by the system.

He reached out and took the "Eradication Order" token from Seventh of Class C's waist. The metallic touch was piercingly cold.

"Go!" Su Shuang suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Chen Fan looked up and saw three silver lights piercing the night sky in the distance, locking onto their location in a triangular formation.

Su Shuang's fox tail was trembling. "Patrolling Enforcers... they're here!"

The bridge suddenly shook violently, and Chen Fan nearly fell into a crack in the ice.

He steadied himself against the bridge railing and heard a raspy whisper from beneath the bridge: "Want to enter Qingqiu? First, pass the Three Eyes of the Life Recording Division." As the voice faded, the vibrations intensified, and ice shards came showering down.

Chen Fan pulled Su Shuang and ran toward the underside of the bridge.

Wind and snow poured into his collar. He could hear the sound of the Patrolling Enforcers breaking the air as they drew closer.

Passing the crack in the bridge railing, he caught a glimpse of Gray Tongue's lingering thoughts slowly dissipating, leaving behind one final sentence: "Under the bridge... Hidden Cave..."

In the shadows beneath the bridge, Broken Brush was curled up in the withered grass.

Blackened bandages were wrapped around his stump of a leg as he looked up at the commotion on the bridge.

Amidst the dripping of water from the stone walls, he split his mouth into a smile, revealing two yellowed front teeth.