Hell’s Handbook

sist on allowing Mr.
Chu to fly with us, I will have no choice but to refuse to pilot the vehicle.
As the only one who knows how to do that, I believe you ought to respect my choice.”

Su Jin scoffed and he glanced at everyone on Ju Xinlan’s side with a sinister smile.
“I’m going to give all of you one last chance, so you can still change your mind now.
Tell me – are you really going to stick to your first decision?”

The three newbies were silent, and they all eventually nodded in agreement that Chu Yi should not be allowed to board.

Su Jin sighed and waved his hand to motion to them that they could leave.
Since Chu Yi was not allowed to board, he wasn’t going with them either.
Kano Mai chose to do the same thing as him.
Su Jin looked at Chen Duo and said, “Miss Chen, if you trust me, stay here and I will guarantee your safety even after they’ve left.”

She nodded without hesitation.
“I’ll have to trouble you guys to take care of me then.”

Su Jin nodded at her with a smile.
The three newbies quickly boarded the helicopter while Su Jin spoke privately to the professor.
“Prof, it’s too bad that we can’t continue on this journey together, but since we did rescue you from the library, could you at least tell me the exact location of the Safe Zone?”

The professor felt bad for refusing to let Chu Yi board earlier, so he quickly agreed to answer Su Jin’s question.
He found a map on another helicopter and marked out the exact location of the Safe Zone.

“Mr.
Su, I…have a great responsibility to fulfil, so I hope you can understand,” said the old man with a guilty look on his face.

Su Jin smiled faintly and shook the professor’s hand.
“I hope your journey ahead is smooth.”

“You too.” The professor sighed, then glanced casually at Su Jin’s pocket.

Su Jin laughed and returned the ‘vaccine’ in his pocket to the professor, which relieved the old man.
He was still wondering how he could convince Su Jin to return this to him.

“What a hypocrite.” Ju Xinlan scoffed inside the helicopter as she watched Su Jin and the professor talk.
To her, that was the ultimate display of hypocrisy.
Su Jin clearly hated them so much, yet he still cooperated with the professor as if the future of mankind was more important than his own life.

The helicopter took flight in no time.
Ju Xinlan suddenly started yelling at Su Jin from the helicopter, “You hypocrite! You stupid hypocrite! You can wait to die here with all that hypocrisy! HA! Aren’t you angry? Aren’t you soooo angry? But you can’t do anything about that! The last man standing turns out to be me! HA! I, Ju Xinlan, is the ultimate winner!”

“She’s a real nutcase.” Su Jin shook his head disdainfully.
This woman had clearly gone mad.

After the helicopter had left, Kano Mai glared at Su Jin furiously and said in a frustrated voice, “Why did you agree to her suggestion? Why did you allow everyone to vote like that? This is a Handbook Challenge and the only aim is to survive! On top of that, she’s caused this horrible thing to happen to Chu Yi and you let her off?! WHY?”

Su Jin was a little intimidated by Kano Mai’s angry yelling and said, “Don’t be so angry.
I have my own plans.
You know I’m never the good guy for nothing.”

Chen Duo smiled and said, “Miss Kano, don’t be angry with Mr.
Su anymore.
Actually…I figured that Mr.
Su had some plans of his own already.”

“Oh?” Su Jin was surprised to hear this.
He looked at her curiously and asked, “Why don’t you tell me about what you think?”

She nodded and said, “This is all guesswork, so please don’t be offended if I’ve guessed it wrong.”

“Nah, it’s fine.
Just speak freely.” He nodded at her.

“If my guess is right, Mr.
Su is using them like a minesweeper.
You’re just using them to test the waters,” explained Chen Duo.

Su Jin’s smile widened and he nodded to tell Chen Duo to continue.
After receiving affirmation, she went on, “Before this, Mr.
Chu and Miss Kano explained to me that this whole thing is a Challenge, and to look at it simply, it’s like a stage in a game.
Once we complete all the missions in this stage, we would also have completed the stage.”

“Continuing with this analogy, you could see Professor Charlemagne as an NPC of this stage, and he’s an NPC with a quest.
I haven’t played a lot of such games before, but I know that such NPCs can either lead you to other side quests or trigger other events.
If I’m not wrong, Mr.
Su thinks that the professor will trigger an event that may be very difficult to deal with and could possibly affect whether we get through this game stage or not.
That’s why you wanted them to leave with the professor, because then we could avoid going through whatever event he would trigger.”

Su Jin gave her a pleased nod and said with a smile, “Miss Chen, you’re a really smart young lady.
You’ve nailed it.
Ju Xinlan is an evil woman who’s done this to my companion, so there’s no way I’m going to just let her off like that.
Since I would prefer her dead, I might as well make full use of her before she dies.”

“Poor Mr.
Zhang and Mr.
Shen, though.” Chen Duo smiled sadly.

Su Jin shook his head.
“I gave them the chance to choose our team, but they failed to seize the chance.
When they turned their backs on Chu Yi in hope of surviving this ordeal, they didn’t realize they were actually turning their backs on their own lives.”

But Kano Mai was still very unhappy.
“If I were you, I would have killed Ju Xinlan with my own hands to avenge Chu Yi.
She’s the one who landed him in this state after all!”

Su Jin quickly tried to calm her down.
“No, no, if my guess is right…there’s still hope for Chu Yi yet.”