is here?

Shi Mo "ambushed" the three people who had just finished emergency treatment and were still exhausted and smelled of blood in the corridor outside the seventh-sequence medical room.

He leaned casually against the cold alloy wall, his hands in his pockets, his silver hair hanging messily over his shoulders.

Seeing Bai Xu, Hong Yuan, and You Ying supporting each other, their faces increasingly pale, their combat uniforms torn and stained with unknown dirt, a pure, almost cruel curiosity flashed in his eyes, and a cold smile curved his lips.

"Yo," he said, his voice low but just loud enough for the three of them to hear, his tone light and almost cruel, "You're back? Looks like you had a good time."

The air in the corridor seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.

Hong Yuan's lips pressed into a pale line, her fingers unconsciously curling slightly, pulling at the wound on her arm, the stinging pain making her brows furrow even more. Enjoyment? The image of Eagle Eye laughing as the stone shattered against the wall flashed before her eyes, the doctor's lips moving before disappearing, and the stone's final, calm gaze as it was swallowed by darkness.

Youying suddenly raised her head, her eyes still a little red, and glared fiercely at Shi Mo, squeezing out a sound from her throat: "Enjoy yourself? Why don't you go and enjoy yourself to the fullest yourself?"

Bai Xu paused, his face expressionless, only a deep weariness and lingering coldness settling in his eyes. He looked at Shi Mo: "You've been in the monitoring room the whole time?"

"Otherwise what?" Shi Mo retorted matter-of-factly, even tilting his head innocently. "You guys didn't include me in the fun." There was actually a hint of regret in his tone, as if he had been excluded, which made people furious.

Hong Yuan's voice was hoarse, with a suppressed tremor: "From beginning to end? You watched it all?" She couldn't understand how anyone could watch such a tragic seven days with such a spectator-like attitude.

"Hmm." Shi Mo nodded, his tone as calm as if he were talking about what he had for lunch. "When that ordinary person lunged out at the end, it was quite interesting. He calculated very accurately, using his own existence as a weight to pry the scales of the rules. It was stupid, but effective."

He assessed Stone's sacrifice with the same analytical, tactical tone he used, calm, objective, and even with a hint of approval of the "effective operation," but without any emotion at the loss of life.

Youying's chest heaved violently as she stared at Shi Mo as if looking at something incomprehensible. Finally, she gritted her teeth and growled, "...Madman."

Shi Mo raised an eyebrow, seemingly finding the assessment quite amusing: "Compared to that guy who treats rules and regulations like snacks, I think I'm pretty normal."

Youying was speechless, choked by his words.

Bai Xu interrupted the increasingly uncomfortable conversation, looking calmly at Shi Mo: "What valuable observations do you have?" He forced himself to suppress his emotions; Shi Mo's perspective might provide crucial information.

Shi Mo shrugged, his tone casual: "Observation? Your system of rules is full of loopholes; even a slightly intense emotional reaction can overload it. Besides," he said, his gaze falling on Bai Xu's face with scrutiny, "your method of forcibly maintaining the stability of the passage at the end, although crude and wasteful, was based on the right idea. It seems your eyes aren't entirely for show."

Bai Xu ignored the assessment in his words and pressed on, "What do you think about the contradiction in the core logic?" He was referring to the sense of rift in the hotel's own rule system.

"Inefficient greed," Shi Mo offered a brief assessment. "Trying to extract maximum value from fear while maintaining a facade of order, even setting up a rule to encourage cooperation to increase dramatic conflict—besides making its own logic more easily torn apart by conflict, I see no benefit. Perhaps…" He paused, a faint, almost ethereal glimmer flashing in his eyes, "it's also constrained by some higher 'framework,' unable to be too blatant in its greed? Or perhaps, 'fear' mixed with the energy of 'order' has a richer flavor?"

His speculations remained unconventional, yet they plunged Bai Xu into a brief moment of contemplation. The limitations of the higher-level framework… this was indeed a direction worth exploring.

Hongyuan couldn't hold back any longer, her voice choked with sobs and anger: "If you were in there, what would you do?"

Shi Mo looked at her, his eyes calm and unwavering: "It's simple. Find that so-called core, and dismantle it before it starts spouting nonsense. Rules are for those who need to abide by them." He spoke as if it were the simplest and clearest thing in the world.

The three fell silent again. This way of thinking, which disregarded all rules and went straight to the heart of the problem (and intended to physically dismantle it), left them speechless. Moreover, they had no doubt that Shi Mo was absolutely capable of doing it, and very likely could.

"It seems you've gained quite a bit." Bai Xu changed the subject. He vaguely sensed that Shi Mo's aura was more concentrated than before, and also possessed a hidden, yet dangerous, quality.

"It's alright." Shi Mo didn't deny it. "The drama wasn't boring. Also," he mentioned casually, "my skills seem to have improved a bit."

Shadow cursed under his breath and turned his head away.

Shi Mo ignored him and turned his gaze to Bai Xu with a clear purpose: "When is the next instance? This time, it's my turn to step in, isn't it?" His eyes clearly showed that he was tired of being a bystander.

Looking into his eyes, which held no gloom but only pure curiosity and a hint of impatience, Bai Xu felt his heart, which had just caught its breath, sink again. Introducing this completely uncontrollable variable into the next instance would trigger a chain reaction that was utterly unpredictable.

"...We need time to rest and evaluate." Bai Xu didn't directly refuse, but his tone was cautious. "The choice of the next instance must be made carefully."

Shi Mo was not satisfied with the answer, but didn't say anything more, only casually tossing out, "Make a decision quickly. It's stuffy here."

After saying that, he didn't linger. He turned and left on his own, his steps casual. His silver hair drew cold arcs under the corridor lights, which seemed out of place with the wounds and heaviness of the three people behind him.

Watching him disappear around the corner of the corridor, Hong Yuan seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumped, and her eyes reddened again.

Youying rubbed her face vigorously with her uninjured hand.

Bai Xu stood still for a few seconds, then raised his hand and rubbed his temples hard; his fingertips were icy cold. He turned to a seventh-sequence logistics personnel standing by, and whispered instructions, his voice barely audible and hoarse:

"Erect tombstones for Hawkeye and the Medic. The best locations, the strongest materials, with their names and numbers clearly engraved." He paused, then added, "...the tombstones, make them nice."

This is one of the few things he can do for his fallen teammates at this moment, and it is also the last thing he can do.