Chapter 157

Chapter 157: Attack of the Protagonist (9)

Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma

The Kingdom of the Dead Souls was a lost, borderless area.

Although the desert here was so vast, it didn’t have even a handful of yellow sand. Zooming over there, an ash-grey hue covered the whole area.

The dead would turn into dust, and that dust had accumulated here to form thousands of miles of desolate gray desert.

There was no day and night to separate time. The sky forever had a dim ash-gray color while a black fireball was hovering in midair, shining its ‘dark light’ to illuminate this world. That black moon represented the Dark Abyss Benighted King. Wherever the dark light shone, it was his territory. The souls oppressed by that dark light were his people.

At this moment, the sand was still wild and mad as usual. A demonic song reverberated somewhere, rising together with the bursting sandstorm. In the middle of the mournful howl, a round space crack appeared, and then a silhouette jumped out from it.

K3 – Hematite descended just like a rocket hitting the desert, causing a really loud noise. Waves of sand rippled violently while murderous intentions were spreading out, enveloping the sandy area.

"Show yourself." K3 smiled coldly. "Even if you’ve regretted letting me come here, it’s too late."

To K3, what could restrain his powers was the difficulty level of the scenarios. Vahira assumed that he would take the upper hand in the other world, which turned out to be an obvious mistake. It might be his powers could surpass a Level 4 Derivative in this place, but this Level 3 Derivative could still maintain his strong powers here as he had a bigger space to perform.

Bloody clouds rolled in as the black moon paled. The gloomy song howling along with the wind also ceased. In just a blink, a black smoke plunged down from the air, which then condensed to form the body of Vahiru.

His true form was an old man with a purple face. He had blade-like eyebrows arched above a pair of eyes as bright as stars. His beard was long enough to reach his chest. The old man was wearing a long black robe. With the same appearance, if he were an upright person, it shouldn't be much to use ‘immortal manners – Dao's bones' to describe him. However, there was a demonic, sinister aura emitted from Vahiru’s body. After taking one glance at him, people would shiver without feeling cold.

The strange wind had to quiet down, and the devil souls were forced to stay away.

The surroundings suddenly became completely tranquil. It was as if everything was waiting and watching for Vahiru’s next move.

"I can see… I can hear your arrogance," said Vahiru. "I also feel that you are very strong, but those things will not shake my fighting spirit."

"Talking about watchdogs." K3 was still deliberate. Even though his right arm could only perform 50% of his real strength at the moment, he had the absolute confidence in his victory. "You seem not bad, either."

Being a Derivative, moreover, a Level 3 Derivative, he understood the order and rules of Thriller Paradise more than a BOSS in the scenario.

Speaking of analyzing skill in fighting, apparently, he could be more objective and specific.

If we have to make a comparison, Vahiru was really strong in the Dead Souls Kingdom. He was much stronger than Rainsford that Feng Bujue had met in the Hunter’s Island, but if compared him with the higher-level monster Satsuma Diehl, he was a little weaker.

If they came to the world of the Sakura Town, Vahiru would be limited and weakened. If they had to fight, two GMs in good condition would have a relatively big chance of killing him.

As for K3 – Hematite, if they were in Sakura Town, his powers weren’t much different from the combined competence of the two GMs, even slightly stronger. When he came to the Dead Souls Kingdom, the restraint he had on data was reduced accordingly; thus, when a person’s limit was extended, he was still stronger than Vahiru.

"The one who wants to destroy the Soul Seizing Formations… Savage!" Vahiru shouted and swayed his body, turning into a shadow which glided to K3 in a flash.

The battle began. Vehement murderous aura rose fiercely.

Vahiru launched a killing strike in an attempt to take the upper hand. K3 stepped on the dust of bones; his arms shook both the Earth and firmament. He stood still, gently pushing the other's ghost claw aside. The two of them passed each other, and Vahiru’s attack was dissolved just like that.

Of course, Vahiru just wanted to probe the opponent with this strike. Facing a strong opponent, he didn't dare to use all his strength recklessly to prevent himself from revealing flaws that could lead to his defeat.

Vahiru turned around and grunted loudly. A black smoke gathered behind his back as the murderous aura torrentially rolled out, turning into a tangible force striking toward K3’s back.

"Long-range attack now?" K3 indifferently turned around. "Such a showy technique. Well, maybe it could threaten the players a bit…" He immediately raised his right arm and unfolded his hand. Scarlet light bloomed out.

Facing the furious momentum of the black wave, he was using a red power, which was much stronger to counter. Use hard strike to resist hard strike. During the collision of the two forces, a loud sound echoed like a giant bronze bell being hit in the middle of the barrens.

The noise faded and the firmament discolored. Until the ash-gray dust settled again, the two silhouettes still stood firm. No one shed a hair. However, such a probing battle to test their levels using these strikes, the two of them could make it for three days and three nights like they said in chivalrous novels, which would only end when one of them had to answer the call of nature.

"Temporary data, how pathetic you are! Even if you can survive now, when the scenario ends, you will vanish." K3 sighed as his tone was full of sorrow. "In countless scenarios, the system can always generate countless ‘you’. You will be killed by numerous players, or you can kill them… But none of them have meaning. To you, death is the end. But to them, death means returning."

"I don’t know what you are talking about…" said Vahiru.

"Indeed, you find it hard to understand, but the most sorrowful thing is, even if you could understand it, you couldn’t change anything," K3 said. "Only the data which have a higher position approaches ‘the unique’ can ‘live’ long stage. Although they can avoid the fate of vanishing at least, they have more time to memorize. In this space, their death will also become an epic."

K3 sighed. "And you… don’t waste my time. Be content with your lot. Just go and fulfill the system’s condition to teleport players." Sharp murderous aura burst out from K3’s eyes. "I’m just one step away from Level 2; I can’t tolerate even half of a mistake. I will absolutely not let a group of temporary data like you do something wrong!"

…

"… Is that… human?" Invincible Hero asked with a low tone. He looked at the direction in the woods which Copernicus was gazing at and saw a group of people ambling towards them.

"Perhaps it’s just an illusion…" answered Copernicus.

"Oh… They’re an illusion, not monsters." Feng Bujue thought that his urge to curse this GM was surging more and more. The others hadn't come near yet, and with rational logic, they would believe that those were monsters. But this man told them that the others weren’t real entities.

"Should we hide?" Ye Zhi still considered things with common logic and provided a reliable suggestion. She spoke up while covering her flashlight.

"Hey, should we hide?" Feng Bujue determinedly turned to Galileo and asked with an impatient tone.

"Ah… I think… No need." Galileo was bewildered as he hadn't reacted with the sudden question from Feng Bujue, yet he answered it instinctively.

"Okay, then let’s see what trick this illusion can do." Feng Bujue poked one hand into his pocket while the other hand was holding the flashlight, feeling bored to death looking at the vanguard in front of them.

Ye Zhi studied the three of them with strange looks, raking her eyes through Feng Bujue, Copernicus, and Galileo. She could feel something weird here. These teammates didn't look reliable at all, but they always used strange deeds to make correct things, just like they had read the manual beforehand.

Not long after that, the figures of the vanguard approached them. They were sauntering; moreover, their gaits were also odd, like children playing the train game where one was connected to another.

The one who led the team had his head drooping to his chest while both of his arms were stretching forward like jiangshi’s [1] posture. He was staggering, leading the ones behind. The second person put his arms on the shoulder of the one walking in front of him. His head was also pressed down very low, hiding behind his two arms. The third person had his arms on the second person. This vanguard had six people in total.

When they came nearer, the six players could finally see their costumes more clearly thanks to the light on their lighting devices. The six people, who all had their heads stooped down, had their clothes and gender exactly the same as the six players.

"Ha, ha… No need to say it. The one in the last position will have a line. 80% he will say, ‘Come with us quick’…" laughed Feng Bujue.

The other team had passed by the players wordlessly and silently, just like they were a group of average Joe and plain Jane walking around. It was unknown whether it was coincident or untimely, but the last one walking in the line had the matching purple suit with Feng Bujue’s. Moreover, when he was passing by the players, he lifted his head up, revealing an ashen, desolate face. He rolled his eyes and said with a tone that sent shivers down people’s spines, "Come with us quick…"

"See, I was right." Feng Bujue shrugged.

That weird but comfortatble manner spread out rapidly to the others, just like when you’re about to watch a horror movie and someone has already told you the scary details. After you have prepared yourself, those scary details couldn't ultimately create the frightening effect as expected. The players’ Fear Value didn’t surge even a bit.

"This cheap trick… Hong Kong ghost movies had been using since the 1990s," Feng Bujue said. "I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the same scene." He looked towards the vanguard walking farther and farther from them, entering the gloomy mountain. Anyway, he didn't want to let it go for now and continued to say, "If it really wanted to make us irritated, it would have been better to have connected them as the human centipede and when they got here, let the first one say—"

"Stop it!" Ze Yhi immediately interrupted him. "Besides contributing good ideas, could you please shut your mouth?" As a girl, her rationality was steadily being reduced since she had met this guy Feng Bujue. Compared to the game, the mental pollution generated from Feng Bujue’s words and deeds were much scarier because it would affect them in reality.

"As we have seen illusions, this means we’ve entered the range of the magic formation, right?" Well, being a GM, Copernicus was upright enough to draw the topic back on the right track.

"Just drop the word ‘right’," said Feng Bujue, "you just need to lead the way."

…

[1] Jiangshi – A jiangshi, also known as a Chinese "hopping" vampire, is a type of reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore. "Jiangshi" is read goeng-si in Cantonese, cương thi in Vietnamese, gangshi in Korean, kyonshī in Japanese, and "hantu pocong" in Malay. It is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing Dynasty, and it moves around by hopping, with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or "life force", usually at night, while in the day, it rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves. Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangshi