Chapter 596: Better Than This

"What...?" Di Ma turned back to look at Di Shu, her expression full of confusion. "Are you threatening me? On what grounds?"

"Hey, I just have a guess, and it might sound far-fetched, but you might as well hear me out!" Di Shu stepped forward slowly, his face plastered with a polite smile.

"You..."

Di Ma finally realized just how troublesome the rat in front of her really was. She only regretted underestimating him before.

"You kept saying to the Di Zhu, 'As long as we can take them down, we'll get credit,' which made me think of something interesting." Di Shu laughed. "Forgive my boldness, but you don't exactly come across as a smart person. I wonder if, when you were egging on the Di Zhu, you couldn't think of a good reason on the spot and accidentally let slip what you were really thinking?"

Everyone frowned at these words, while Di Ma's eyes widened in shock.

"So, you're not actually trying to help the Di Zhu get credit—you're trying to get it for yourself..." Di Shu pressed on with an aggressive smile, his words cutting like a knife as they closed in on Di Ma.

"I'm done talking to you."

A hint of panic flashed across Di Ma's face as she turned to head for the door, but Di Shu stepped forward and grabbed her arm.

"Leader, don't rush off—I'm not finished yet." Di Shu said with a smile. "I want to keep guessing. Give me another chance."

"Get lost!!" Di Ma looked anxious as she shook off his hand and insisted on opening the door.

At that moment, Di Yang and Di Hu realized what was happening and quickly blocked the door.

"Oh, don't go!" Di Hu sneered. "You were so gung-ho about causing trouble earlier, but now that it's backfiring, you want to run? Where's the fairness in that?"

"That's right!" Di Shu chimed in. "I said I was going to threaten you, and now you're trying to bolt before I've even said anything?"

Seeing that she was outnumbered, Di Ma stopped trying to escape and turned back to face Di Shu defiantly.

"Fine, since you say you're threatening me, I want to see just how capable you are. How exactly are you going to threaten me?"

Di Shu scratched his forehead and replied, "Leader, you're being so straightforward that it makes me seem sneaky. Well, since that's the case, I'll go ahead and guess boldly... You don't seem like a big-shot type. Even with the game designed by Jin Si Hou, you probably haven't killed enough people in thirty years to reach three thousand six hundred, right?"

Di Ma's face turned extremely ugly, and she didn't respond.

"One hundred a year, and you couldn't even kill one every three days." Di Shu nodded. "So my guess was a bit off. You're not really after 'credit,' because your goals differ from the Di Zhu's. Sucking up to the Tian Ji won't get you promoted, so your actions now seem more like... like..."

Di Shu thought for a long time about how to phrase it.

"Ah, I got it—'redeeming yourself with merit,' right?" Di Shu's smile grew even brighter. "Di Ma, you wouldn't have made some fatal mistake that you need to quickly make up for, would you?"

"I..." Di Ma looked at Di Shu in utter disbelief. "How did you..."

"But we're already at Di Ji level, so what could make you this panicked...?" Di Shu lowered his head, pretending to think. "Panicked enough that you need to do something right away to show your loyalty to your superiors... But you're not showing loyalty to Tian Ma; instead, you're trying to impress Tian Long. Is it that serious...?"

Hei Yang glanced over at the lazy dog cracking sunflower seeds in the distance, his eyes growing deeper. The rat he had brought along might have some personality flaws, but his mind was certainly sharp.

"In other words, this matter would make Tian Long furious and could even threaten your own safety..." Di Shu stroked his long whiskers and figured it out in seconds. "As we all know, there's a group of Can Yu Zhe causing trouble outside today... Putting it all together, is it possible that they stirred up a huge mess at your place—something so big that even you couldn't control it, leading to extremely severe consequences? Consequences so bad that you might not even qualify as a Di Ji anymore?"

"Are you really just guessing?" Di Ma stared at him and asked.

"Of course, of course." Di Shu nodded. "You wouldn't think I already knew the answer, would you? That would be giving me too much credit."

Di Ma gave up resisting and said to everyone, "My situation is indeed critical right now... If I don't do something fast, I'll definitely get expelled. So, coming to trouble you all was really a last resort."

"I've heard that kind of talk too many times." Di Hu shook his head. "Because of my situation, I have to do this to you—but the world doesn't owe you anything. Why should we suffer for your problems?"

Di Ma furrowed her brow, her voice changing slightly: "Then what do you want me to do?! That Can Yu Zhe just said one thing, and it drastically reduced the difficulty of my game! I can't kill anyone now! If Tian Long finds out I'm wasting a spot here, he'll definitely expel me!! Using you all to gain credit is the only thing I can do!"

"One sentence reduced the difficulty of your game...?"

No one had ever heard of such a thing—they couldn't even picture it.

"But you still have another option." Hei Yang said coldly from the side, "I just read this line in the Chen She Shi Jia left by Yang Ge—'If we perish now, we die; if we rise up, we die anyway.' Since you're doomed no matter what, why not join us and give it a try?"

Hei Yang's words made everyone hesitate. After all, Di Ma didn't seem like a reliable teammate. Was it really okay to bring someone like her into the group?

But thinking it over, everyone in this team was hardly any better than her. They all had their own motives and ideas, making it a team full of weaknesses anyway, so adding another weak link wouldn't hurt.

"Yeah, Di Ma..." Di Shu caught on to what Di Yang meant and quickly added, "The Di Gou and Di Zhu can understand this logic, so why can't you? How can you be a leader and still fall short of pigs and dogs?"

Di Zhu and Di Gou felt something was off about that statement, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it.

"So, am I just being forced into this...?" Di Ma frowned. "I don't even want to join—it's all that Can Yu Zhe's fault..."

"So, what's your answer?" Di Shu asked.

"I need to go back and think about it."

"What a shame." Di Shu said, "I told you this was a threat. If you don't agree, I'll spread your situation everywhere. Then, it won't just be your tendons on the line—probably your arteries too. We wouldn't want to see a Di Ma who's worse than pigs and dogs, would we?"