Rules: Mad Killing

"... So you can talk."

Iver stopped and looked over with interest. "I thought you had sworn an oath not to speak. Or that you would have taken pity on me and let me save him."

"There's no need to say anything meaningless. It only weakens one's will and makes one weak."

When Iver stopped moving, the monk nodded slightly and continued in a low voice, "Mr. Aleister, please be patient and listen to me."

"This ritual has special victory conditions, unlike the normal New Moon Ritual —in the normal New Moon Ritual, even if you kill everyone, you will still lose if the mission is not completed."

"However, this time there's a ' Mad Killing ' rule, so killing everyone beforehand can also complete the mission. Even if you don't complete the mission, the last survivor will win. The simplest way to win is to reduce the number of people to three. The giant will prioritize picking off the corpses, so the remaining three will automatically win regardless of their score."

"But this strategy has a flaw. If the other six people aren't all killed, and someone survives... that person could potentially get a high score. This would mean that one of the three people would be eliminated."

"Therefore, the most stable winner, besides the one with the highest score, is the one who kills the most. If someone kills one person and the remaining seven people survive, then as long as the Titan chooses the dead as food, the person who performed the ritual will inevitably win."

"From this perspective, killing one person in each of the three storage rooms is the safest approach. This way, no matter which room the Titan goes to, it won't choose any survivors as food."

"You're right," Iver nodded, "But would anyone else have thought of that?"

"The team that was not expected to be there was already a disadvantage from the start."

The monk answered calmly.

His eyes shimmered with a blue light that symbolized the Path of Wisdom: "Although the one who has not killed has a slight disadvantage in terms of the chance of winning—when the remaining six people gather, they will surely win as long as they work together to annihilate one team."

"Because there are four people left at this point, and the other team only has one kill while their teammates haven't gotten any. Even if the other team gets a second kill, it will reduce their numbers to three."

"But this also means that the person who gets the three heads can hide until the ceremony ends."

Iver shook his head. "There's no need for him to cooperate with his teammates to help him complete the mission."

"If that's the case," the monk replied, "His teammates might join the other's team or even betray him. Therefore, this is the best way to maintain balance, allowing the two to cooperate perfectly without worrying about their teammates scoring higher than them."

"As soon as our two-person teams appear in front of other teams, they immediately realize that if they don't make any kills, you will win immediately because 1 is greater than 0. Considering this, they must make at least one kill to restore balance, so it will eventually become a six-person game."

"But if you kill two people, then you will be powerless against a three-person team and a two-person team. Generally speaking, a two-person team has a better chance of winning than a three-person team, and a two-person team and a three-person team have a better chance of winning than a one-person team. But if everyone is a one-person team, then the remaining three people will win directly."

After reading the rules for this promotion, the monks summarized several possible tactics in less than half a minute.

But Iver merely raised an eyebrow and chuckled softly, "However, you've overlooked one possibility. That is, someone who has been killed multiple times is very likely to be targeted by the others."

No, it won't.

The monk, holding aloft a flame like the sun, replied, "If we work together to wipe out a team, that is, kill a total of four people, then at most five people, including you, will survive. If someone kills you, they will become the only survivor with kills remaining and will achieve a special victory condition. Therefore, for the others, whether you survive or not is actually irrelevant—it's just that the victory condition for [Mad Killing] has shifted."

"And if someone has already killed someone by this point, leaving four people including you, then they have even less reason to target you, because at this point, the death of any one of them would represent victory."

"In other words, points and missions are just traps and can be ignored. In any case, as long as a squad is wiped out, the ritualists who have killed people will gain an advantage; the fewer the number, the greater the advantage. If we kill 'Red' and wipe out a squad, we can ensure that both of us can advance. This is the strategy with the highest total benefit for both of us among all the possibilities so far."

"...amazing."

Iver nodded approvingly, "You've convinced me. Now that we're teammates, what's your name, and how should I address you?"

"Sheriff Luo, I am an ascetic on the Path of Wisdom. Four Symbols Monk who practices the power of the Four Symbols."

The monk, codenamed "Sheriff Luo," clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and whispered, "I am an ascetic from the Parthian Ancient Kingdom, and I have recently been traveling to Avalon..."

As he clasped his hands together, the flames on his body gradually died down. The flames he held in his palms were slowly drawn back into his body.

Sheriff Luo looked down at Red, his deep blue eyes calm and merciless.

However, Hong, who lay on the ground without uttering a word, met his gaze and a strange smile appeared on her lips.

The next moment, the dense shadows transformed into countless sharp blades, piercing the monk through the side and turning him into a hedgehog!

He immediately coughed up a mouthful of black, foul-smelling blood.

But before he could make a move, the Shadow Blade from Aleister was instantly withdrawn.

Then, a pure shadow, like a giant guillotine, condensed and fell, instantly cleaving him in two.

This was just a normal attack for Shadow Fiend. But he couldn't withstand even a single attack.

"Unfortunately, he is late."

This was the situation Red had been waiting for. She deliberately remained still, intending to expose the monk's weakness to her ally.

Red said gloatingly, "He doesn't know that we've already reached an agreement—release me, Mr. Aleister. You just heard it yourself; our two-person team is much more efficient than you acting alone."

Iver, shrouded in shadow, with a bewitching purple glow in his pupils and covered in numerous purple wounds, simply stared at her silently, without uttering a word.

Seeing his attitude, Hong panicked a little.

She quickly realized why—it must have been the "knight's" words that reminded the naive Aleister of their pre-arranged alliance.

The monk who was just beginning his journey on the Path of Wisdom made a mistake... but it wasn't really his fault.

Because he arrived late, he didn't hear about Aleister's experiences, nor did he know that he was a demon possessed by the Shadow Demon.

Sheriff Luo treated "one person" as a unit of calculation, assuming that more people would be better than fewer people. But in reality, the strength in this ritual was uneven—"Aleister," possessed by the Shadow Demon, was undoubtedly the ceiling of strength in this ritual where everyone was only at the First Level.

Although she, Deer Antlers, and Thunder have higher-level professions, that doesn't mean they are very powerful now.

This ritual is very simple—they only need three people to survive to the end and kill everyone else to win. The mission and the Holy Lance don't need to be considered.

That's the unique feature of the New Moon Ritual: you can start killing people without even knowing how to begin. The only thing to consider is not killing everyone beforehand... but because of this special victory, even that requirement is waived this time.

"I can work with you, Mr. Aleister."

Hong quickly replied, "I actually have some work at the Inspectorate on Glass Island. It can't hurt for you to know someone like me, right? If you ever run into any trouble, you can always come to me... Although Avalon forbids Path of Transcendence, you are, after all, a demon, not Demon Scholar, so there's still some room for maneuver..."

But Iver simply stared at her silently, a slight smile playing on his lips.

His reckless and brainless nature had vanished, replaced by a sinister and evil aura.

"Mr. Sheriff Luo reminded me of something, something of utmost importance."

Iver said quietly, "That is, even if you kill the most people, you won't necessarily be targeted by others. Because the process of killing you also generates kill counts. With only nine people in total, eliminating the weak is actually much simpler than targeting the strong..."

"And the problem that 'killing everyone will cause the ritual to end prematurely' will be offset by the special rules of this ritual."

Upon hearing this, Hong finally realized that something was wrong.

Her skin swelled up bright red—blood oozed from under her skin, turning into blades that cut the ropes.

But after the monk died, the room lost its only source of light.

She was completely unable to evade the Shadow Fiend, and couldn't even detect where it appeared from.

The next moment, she felt her throat and limbs being bound, and she was being suspended by threads made of shadow.

"Then goodbye, Lady Red. Demons don't need teammates."

Aleister's voice faded.

Her head was easily severed by the shadow.