Shi Qian swung her hand out without hesitation, and her vernier caliper cone flew out to intercept the whip Bai Liu had struck down. The force of the whip pressed Shi Qian down so hard that both her knees slammed onto the ground; she gritted her teeth and used her shoulder to brace against the vernier caliper cone, sliding backward a distance on her knees before finally neutralizing the force of Bai Liu's whip.
A series of cracks appeared on the surface of the cone, sending metal fragments falling. Shi Qian's knees trembled as she knelt on the blood-covered ground, her pupils shaking and her breathing ragged.
…So strong. This was already the strength of those monster-like star members from top-tier guilds; they were simply not on the same level as these contestants.
In the videos she had seen before, this person named Bai Liu wasn't this strong. He was growing too fast, too terrifyingly.
If they didn't escape immediately, they really were going to die!!
[System Notification: Player Shi Qian has used personal skill (Misty Forest)]
[This skill can reduce map perception to 50 centimeters. Players can only perceive things within a radius of fifty centimeters centered on themselves. Beyond fifty centimeters, the player's hearing, touch, smell, vision, and other perceptual abilities are severely degraded.]
[For example, regarding vision: beyond fifty centimeters, the player's visibility will be like that of a person with high myopia of 1,800 degrees without glasses; they won't even be able to distinguish between humans and animals.]
[Note: This skill fails when player Shi Qian's health falls below 50, as she will be unable to maintain it.]
Thick, dense gray-white fog instantly rose from the ground, enveloping the entire city. The skyscrapers built of steel and concrete loomed within the surging, opaque mist like towering trees in a forest, showing only faint outlines.
[System Notification: Player Shi Qian has used personal skill (Eyes of the Mist)]
[This skill can cover all allies on her side, maintaining a perception range of fifty meters within the obscuring mist.]
Shi Qian's facial features emitted a strange, pale fluorescence that attached itself to her body. The mist around her cleared, and she clearly saw Yuan Guang kneeling on the ground not far from her, as well as Bai Liu, who was a certain distance away from Yuan Guang.
She was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw Yuan Guang slowly lift his head. His features glowed with the same fluorescence as hers as he stared intently at the land certificate in Bai Liu's hand in the distance.
Yuan Guang propped his hands on the ground, swaying left and right, yet firmly and without retreating, he moved toward Bai Liu.
Shi Qian's expression turned to one of shock.
Yuan Guang couldn't possibly want to… snatch the land certificate from Bai Liu's hand, could he?!
He'll die!!!
Yuan Guang's vision was both clear and blurry. Shi Qian's skill [Eyes of the Mist] allowed him to maintain a visibility of fifty meters in this vast mist where directions were indistinguishable, but the heavy blow Bai Liu had dealt him left his eyes filled with stinging blood and grit. They were sore and painful, with a ring of black shadows around his vision and a buzzing noise ringing in his ears.
Blood and sweat dripped from the tip of Yuan Guang's nose as his blurred vision gradually focused on Bai Liu's hand.
Bai Liu had already activated the True End line, and the main quests for everyone had changed. He had already obtained one certificate, and likely had more than one. If Yuan Guang wanted to win, if he wanted to clear this game, there were only two paths to take—
—First, kill everyone on Bai Liu's side.
—Second, snatch the land certificates from Bai Liu's hands.
No matter which path he chose, he couldn't back down now; there was no retreat left behind him.
Yuan Guang closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his hand trembling slightly as he pushed his utility knife to its maximum setting. Then he snapped his eyes open and charged fiercely toward Bai Liu!
Shi Qian gritted her teeth and followed closely behind, using her vernier caliper cone to circle around and coordinate an attack from behind Bai Liu, forming a pincer attack with Yuan Guang from the front and back.
Simultaneously, they raised the utility knife and the vernier caliper cone, stabbing fiercely toward Bai Liu in the center of the encirclement, who seemed completely oblivious.
Bai Liu leaned back slightly and tilted his head, a thin smile on his face. "I'm actually quite curious. How did you find the courage to come and deliver yourselves to death?"
The utility knife and the vernier caliper cone grazed past Bai Liu's neck one after the other, the resulting wind tossing the hair on both sides of his head; a strand of severed hair drifted onto Bai Liu's shoulder.
Bai Liu's gaze fell indifferently upon the slightly trembling utility knife and vernier caliper cone, which were less than a centimeter from his carotid artery. His tone was calm. "When killing someone, it's better if the hand holding the weapon doesn't shake."
"If you want a demonstration…" Bai Liu lifted his eyelids and raised his whip, his voice carrying a smile, yet his movements were incomparably fierce. "—this is how a killing weapon should be used."
Bai Liu grabbed Yuan Guang's wrist and yanked him into his fifty-centimeter visibility circle. He snapped his wrist, and the whip coiled around Yuan Guang's arms, then he pulled down without hesitation.
Yuan Guang's pupils constricted violently. His arms made the sound of tendons snapping and separating from the flesh and bone of his body. Blood erupted forth, and a few short shrieks escaped his throat; he was in too much pain to even make a sound.
"Step one: you should first disarm, removing the opponent's arms." Bai Liu raised his face, which was pale and wet with blood.
Shi Qian pulled back and fiercely swung the side of her vernier caliper cone, shooting out a long blade. Bai Liu leaned his body back to dodge; the blade grazed past his eyes, almost brushing his eyelashes. Shi Qian did not retreat or stop; she stared intently at Bai Liu, pressing her hand down as the vernier caliper cone spun to the left and shot out another blade, stabbing toward Bai Liu's shoulder!
Bai Liu leaned his shoulder back to retreat and dodge while simultaneously retracting the whip that had been coiled around Yuan Guang's severed arms.
In the midst of the emergency, Shi Qian caught a glimpse of Yuan Guang out of the corner of her eye and kicked him into the mist to put distance between him and Bai Liu, while she herself gritted her back teeth and continued to face off against Bai Liu.
Yuan Guang was a Summoner, not a close-combat player at all. Why was this idiot trying to compete with someone like Bai Liu, who was clearly skilled in medium-to-long-range close combat?!
This uniquely structured vernier caliper cone was as flexible and versatile as a multifunctional army knife in Shi Qian's hand. It constantly changed forms in her fingers, swinging out sharp long blades from various angles and stabbing toward Bai Liu's shoulders to suppress any upward movement of his arms, preventing him from raising his whip.
"Not bad learning." Bai Liu's left and right shoulders kept dodging back. Several blade scratches appeared on his face, dripping blood. He lifted his eyes to look levelly at Shi Qian, who was relentlessly pressing him in close-quarters combat, and a very shallow smile appeared on his face. "The whip is indeed a medium-to-long-range weapon. Using close-quarters combat to break my arms and disarm me is a very good suppression strategy."
Shi Qian interrupted Bai Liu coldly. "We're opponents. There's no need to be so kind as to teach us, Guild Leader Bai."
As she spoke, the vernier caliper cone in her palm spun around, its transformation so fast it was almost a blur, turning into a spiked opening awl. Shi Qian gripped the handle of the vernier caliper cone, her gaze fierce as she stabbed from back to front toward Bai Liu's scapula.
"Until the final moment, it's not certain who will disarm whom!"
Bai Liu bent his body forward to dodge the awl stabbing from behind his back. Shi Qian seemed to have anticipated this movement; without hesitation, she raised her right knee and kicked toward Bai Liu's face as he bent down. Bai Liu was quick to react and dodged to the left; Shi Qian's knee grazed past Bai Liu's ear, and he caught a flaw as she landed.
Almost instantly, Bai Liu lashed out with his whip, coiling it around Shi Qian's ankle and preventing her right leg from dropping.
With one foot hoisted by Bai Liu and the other on the ground, Shi Qian's legs formed a ninety-degree angle. Her abdominal muscles tensed as she leaned back, tugging against Bai Liu's whip, while she simultaneously turned her body and gripped her hands tightly in front of her chest, staring at him maliciously.
Shi Qian stared unblinkingly at Bai Liu, whose face was dripping blood. Her chest heaved slightly, and cold sweat dripped from her jaw.
Bai Liu's face was hidden in the mist; his gaze was not fixed on her body because she was standing outside the fifty-centimeter range.
This guy, as a Tactician, had such strong close-combat skills. Even with limited perception and while fighting her—a main attacker with close-combat skills—he actually managed to suppress her.
What kind of monster was this person?! Wasn't he a rookie?
Seeing that Bai Liu was about to use the whip to throw Shi Qian away, Shi Qian gritted her back teeth and, in a do-or-die move, decided to use his force against him. Pulled by Bai Liu's whip, she took two large hops forward on one leg. The moment she entered the fifty-centimeter range around Bai Liu, her gaze sharpened. She spun and bent her waist, raising her leg to coil around Bai Liu's whip with one foot in a suicidal momentum, kneeling on the ground as she was dragged in.
The whip was entangled by Shi Qian's leg and rendered unusable; the moment Bai Liu saw this, he raised his hand and withdrew the whip.
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has withdrawn weapon (Siren's Bone)]
At the moment the whip on her leg disappeared, Shi Qian, who was kneeling on one knee and covered in wounds from the bone spurs, had her eyes light up. She raised her vernier caliper cone and charged forward without hesitation to break Bai Liu's arms.
—At such a close distance, such an obvious opening, it's now!!
The sharp tip of the cone plunged into Bai Liu's shoulder, making the creaking sound of flesh being pried open by the tip. Blood instantly stained more than half of Bai Liu's body. Shi Qian gripped the vernier caliper cone and thrust it in fiercely; just as a smile was about to appear on her face, the smile froze.
A gun was pressed against her abdomen.
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has loaded the panel of player (Rose Hunter) and is using the opponent's skill weapon.]
Bai Liu looked down. "At this distance, so close to me, I can see your openings very clearly."
This guy intentionally revealed an opening to let her ambush him! It was all so he could bypass the mist of her skill, then switch weapons and directly—
"Bang—!!"
Shi Qian didn't have time to finish her thought. Her pupils contracted and then rapidly dilated. Her hand, which had been tightly gripping the vernier caliper cone stabbed into Bai Liu's shoulder, slowly dropped as she fell backward onto the ground.
Her gaze was vacant, and blood flowed from her mouth and nose as she coughed incessantly. The pool of blood beneath her quickly spread across the ground before being absorbed by the land.
[System Warning: Player Shi Qian's health is dropping rapidly! 89… 73… 69… 57… 48…]
[System Notification: Player Shi Qian's skill has been deactivated.]
The mist that had shrouded the entire city slowly dispersed. Dawn was approaching, and thin rays of daylight pierced through the clouds to fall upon the ground.
Yuan Guang, kneeling on the ground, looked up. He saw Bai Liu against the light, flicking his hand; the gun in his hand had changed back into the blood-stained white bone whip. Then, Bai Liu dragged the bone whip and walked toward him unhurriedly. Behind him on the ground lay Shi Qian, whose eyes had lost focus.
The blood-spattered bone whip dragged along the ground as it approached Yuan Guang, making a dangerous rustling sound like a rattlesnake slithering.
Yuan Guang's gaze froze.
[That skill is very dangerous. If you use it, you might be killed by your own summons, so I won't use it easily.]
[I would rather risk being killed by you and stand on the field together with you.]
Yuan Guang, who had no arms, lifted his head. His gaze slowly moved to the face of Bai Liu, who had walked up to stand before him.
Bai Liu looked down at him from above, his expression as calm as a god granting one last chance at life. "If you withdraw from the match now, both you and she can live."
"She, I, and all the people from Russell Cemetery will live," Yuan Guang said, staring at Bai Liu's face, his tone very slow. "But it won't be at the cost of my surrender."
Tears were flowing unconsciously from his eyes. "To escape pain, I gave up many times and gave up many things. Every time I gave up, someone would die. I found that the pain did not decrease. Because of my seemingly kind 'giving up,' everyone—whether living or dead—instead had to endure more pain."
"I am the one who has kept everyone suffering, the hideous and cowardly person."
"I've had enough of giving up, whether it's giving up on myself or others."
"This time, I absolutely, absolutely will not give up!!!"
Yuan Guang shrieked at the top of his lungs, his face flushed red and the veins in his neck throbbing as he roared out. "This match, I must live to win until the very end and bring them all back!!"
[System Notification: Player Yuan Guang has equipped the identity "Monster Book: The Painter Who Hates Himself" and is using personal skill (Evil Self-Portrait)]
[This skill can only be used against players on the same game map as the summoner. It can summon the most evil versions of oneself from all parallel world lines—those who chose the most evil option at every branch point. Each summoned entity will share 1/n of the summoner's health according to the number summoned. When all summoned entities die, the summoner's health will drop to zero, and they will die along with the summons.]
[System Notification: Does player Yuan Guang wish to use this skill against all members of the opposing team on the field?]
[System Notification: Confirmed]
[…Five summoned entities are rushing here from other world lines. Currently, the summoner (Player Yuan Guang) has 51 health, thus each summoned entity will have 10.2 health…]
[During the duration of the summons, the summoner (Player Yuan Guang) himself loses the ability to move. Please, player Yuan Guang, hide well. These summoned entities are extremely evil and have no intention of protecting the summoner. They will not follow your commands and will slaughter anyone they wish to kill on the field according to their own whims, including the summoner himself! It cannot be fully guaranteed that the summoner will win the game! Please, summoner, use this skill with caution!]
[Summoned entities are loading into the instance… Warning! Warning! The power of the summoned entities far exceeds the maximum capacity the instance can withstand! The instance is in danger of collapsing. System maintenance is requested…]
[Summoning entities loading complete.]
As the mist gradually cleared, five figures walked unhurriedly out of the mist. A boisterous yet somewhat lazy voice came from the mist. "Boss, why have we suddenly entered an instance?"
The voice sounded very much like Mu Shicheng, but it was much more mature and deeper than the current Mu Shicheng, sounding like he was in his thirties.
Another voice answered him unhurriedly. "It might be Daniel's prank."
"Guild Leader." This was Mu Ke's voice, even more reserved and cold. "You are being a bit too indulgent with Daniel."
That first voice continued to answer calmly. "He is very useful. Useful children can enjoy privileges with me, just like Jiayi."
A young girl's voice made a disgusted "yue" sound. "Don't try to be my spiritual dad, thank you very much. It makes me feel physically nauseous."
The mist was blown away.
The person standing at the head of the five was a man whose age was difficult to discern. He had a long ponytail trailing to his waist, a well-fitted white shirt, and black boots that reached his knees. On both hands, he wore black leather gloves, and he held a black whip. His pitch-black eyes were shallow and calm, with some fine lines at the corners of his eyes, giving off a sense of deterrent power that made people not dare to look him in the eye.
The most important part—he looked exactly like Bai Liu. To be more precise, he looked like a Bai Liu who was over ten years older.
Bai Liu and this person who looked identical to himself locked eyes.
The other party looked levelly at Bai Liu, raised an eyebrow with interest, and suddenly chuckled. "This situation… it doesn't look like my naughty godson is playing a little game with me."