My Ability Pool is Superior-Chapter 42: Scouting Intelligence

Two death fighters wearing plaid shirts were squatting tremblingly on the ground, their wrists severed at the root still oozing blood.
Under the dual influence of pain and pressure, both had a layer of fine sweat beads covering their foreheads; perhaps due to excessive blood loss, their complexions were abnormally pale.
Lu Bai gripped the eight-sided Han sword, tapping the ground lightly now and then, not in a hurry to inquire.
“Big Brother, what the hell are you trying to do?” The death fighter in the black plaid shirt spoke with a sobbing tone.
In his view, since the other party hadn’t killed him directly, there must be something they wanted to ask; considering their own group’s affiliation, it was most likely related to the Survey Corps.
In any case, the other party was definitely open to negotiation, so he deliberately acted weak and vulnerable, trying to find an opportunity to escape the current predicament.
Lu Bai ignored him, tilting his head with an indifferent appearance, seemingly unconcerned that these two might take the chance to run away.
Time passed second by second like this; he could wait, but these two death fighters couldn’t—not stopping the bleeding soon, there might be no need for rescue at all.
The situation was stronger than the people; the black plaid shirt still forced himself to calm down, shouting with a mournful face: “Big Brother, what are you doing? Give us a straight answer!”
“Ah?”
This shout woke Lu Bai as if from a dream; he slowly straightened his head, explaining in a calm tone: “Almost all mammals tilt their heads briefly when they can’t understand something; I think a 45° angle is more helpful for thinking.”
Who asked you about that?!
The black plaid shirt’s mindset was on the verge of explosion; he felt like he must have forgotten to check the almanac before going out, only to have the bad luck of running into a lunatic.
Of course,
No matter what he thought inside, on the surface he squeezed out a fawning expression: “You have something to ask us, right?”
However, what responded to him was an extremely swift sword strike, followed by the head falling to the ground; Lu Bai gained a few more points.
Without any warning, the death fighter in the black plaid shirt didn’t even have time to make any resistant action before death.
“I was indeed planning to ask something, but suddenly I don’t want to ask you anymore.”
Lu Bai shook off the blood staining the eight-sided Han sword, glancing sideways at the last death fighter: “I heard them call you Osas, right?”
Hearing his own name, Osas lifted his head, his lips moved, but no sound came out.
It was worth noting that Osas wasn’t as stubborn as the previous two, nor as clever as the black plaid shirt.
Like the vast majority of people, he had neither the determination to face death nor the shamelessness to surrender.
Lu Bai had precisely seen this point, which was why he had specially left Osas until now.
He squatted in front of Osas and said softly: “The Survey Corps only left you four to clean up; where did the others go?”
Osas shifted his gaze to the side, not answering.
“You don’t know either?”
Osas remained silent in response.
Lu Bai carefully observed the changes in the other’s expression and nodded in understanding: “Oh, looks like you do know.”
Caught off guard by this conclusion, Osas was dumbfounded with a hint of shock.
“Where did they go? Barracks? Warehouse? Research Center? Tsk, looks like the Research Center.” Lu Bai rubbed his chin.
Osas couldn’t understand at all how this was figured out, so he simply buried his head again.
“Actually, I was guessing, but from your reaction, I probably guessed right.”
The smile on Lu Bai’s face grew even brighter: “But it’s really troubling; do you think your Survey Corps people will believe I guessed this, or that you betrayed them?”
“Damn it! If you’ve got the guts, just kill me.”
Osas completely lost it, adopting a broken-jar-falls-hard attitude.
“Look at you, getting anxious again.”
Lu Bai was full of smiles.
He conveniently tore off the black plaid shirt from the corpse, ripped it into strips to serve as simple bandages, and wrapped up Osas’s wound.
During this process, Osas’s expression was complex, occasionally wincing in pain with a sharp intake of breath.
Lu Bai didn’t care about Osas’s psychological state; as long as the other didn’t resist fiercely, it was practically acquiescence.
After simply bandaging it up, he stood up and said mildly: “Tell me about it.”
Osas remained silent, and Lu Bai didn’t press him.
The quiet lasted about half a minute before Osas asked unnaturally: “What do you want to know?”
“Everything, including what the Survey Corps plans to do.”
“Plan to lure as many other death fighters into the Research Center as possible.”
Lu Bai hummed, signaling Osas to continue.
Perhaps realizing he had already substantially betrayed them, Osas stopped hemming and hawing.
He spilled it out like beans from a bamboo tube: “The general plan is to attract a large number of death fighters into the Research Center and then wipe them all out at once; I’m not clear on the specific method, but I guess it’s probably using explosives.”
“How to ensure enough death fighters are attracted into the Research Center? Can’t just hope they’re all reckless brutes, right?”
“I’m not a core member of the Survey Corps; such key intelligence wouldn’t be told to too many people, but I heard Brother Hui had already mastered the ‘node’ by the early hours of the night.”
Osas spoke more and more fluently, feeling like if he kept going, he’d start analyzing the intelligence for Lu Bai proactively.
“Mastered the ‘node,’ huh.”
Lu Bai thoughtfully repeated Osas’s words and followed up: “Do you know A Gu? He’s lab personnel at the Research Center.”
Osas shook his head: “The Survey Corps has no one named A Gu.”
“Alright then.”
Lu Bai hadn’t expected to figure everything out just by grabbing any Survey Corps member.
If anything, his main purpose in coming here was actually to bail out Zhou Zongming; gathering intelligence was incidental.
He helped Osas up and smiled mildly: “Come with me; you probably can’t go back to the Survey Corps now anyway.”
……
The sky had fully brightened, and the mist in the mountainous area gradually dissipated.
The busy night was finally over, but the situation was far from concluded.
Birdsong came from the mountain forests on both sides, as if exchanging distant calls with the roars of zombies in the settlement.
The fresh morning air carried a faint bloody smell, heralding that thousands had perished that night.
Silence surrounded the Research Center, but if the death fighter location information were announced now, one could clearly see the ring of red dots surrounding the Research Center building.
Seeing Lu Bai return safely, Xiao Xueyin smiled, originally wanting to say something, but he then noticed Osas following closely behind Lu Bai and asked instead: “This one’s from the Survey Corps?”
Seeing this, Liu Yue’s eyes lit up, and she excitedly clapped her hands.
“Impressive, didn’t expect you actually captured one alive.”