Second Round of the Ability Pool

Department Store, Rooftop.

Guo Mi threw away the cigarette in her hand and stepped on it to extinguish it. "Why aren't they back yet?"

"Probably held up by Peng Qi again. Yang Bo went down with him, so what's there to worry about?" Old Song said with a fawning smile.

But his words, instead of reassuring Guo Mi, made her expression flicker with uncertainty.

"Yang Bo isn't as unreliable as Peng Qi."

Ding dong~

Lu Bai walked out of the elevator and scanned the area. "If there's no one on this floor, then the only place left is the rooftop."

He had been searching floor by floor after dealing with Yang Bo and Peng Qi.

He had even taken a break to wash his face and change his clothes midway, as if he were back in his own home.

A normal elevator wouldn't go directly to the rooftop, so Lu Bai headed straight for the adjacent fire escape after exiting the elevator.

The handrail in the stairwell was somewhat dilapidated and old, and the grout between the stair tiles was filled with black stains.

When this Department Store was in operation, the rooftop had always been sealed off for safety reasons. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it was rarely visited.

Everything seemed normal, except for... the thick, nauseating smell of blood!

It was like a pungent cocktail mixed with rust, heated to a boil on an induction cooker. The smell of blood was so intense it felt heavy, filling every inch of the stairwell.

It was hard to imagine how many corpses were the source of such a strong smell.

Lu Bai held his breath and quickened his pace.

As he rounded a corner, he was met with scattered pieces of flesh, bones with bloody tendons, and other objects piled high in the entire escape route. Blood flowed everywhere, making it impossible to find a safe place to step.

The "Emergency Exit" sign at his feet glowed with a faint green light, making the area look like a ghostly realm.

Lu Bai let out a breath and rushed through the space in three steps, running up to the rooftop.

"Who are you?" Old Song stared at Lu Bai, who had suddenly appeared, and was stunned.

Having learned from past experience, Lu Bai didn't let his guard down.

Without a word, he first swung his sword at Old Song.

"Go!"

However, the moment Guo Mi saw Lu Bai, she quickly lit a cigarette.

[Floating Like an Immortal (Silver): While smoking, you can reduce your own mass, down to a minimum of one percent.]

She didn't hold out any hope, and immediately flipped sideways over the railing.

"This is the tenth floor..." Seeing this, Lu Bai felt a headache coming on.

Although he figured he could probably survive if he jumped down with her and didn't land on his head, the risk was still considerable: "...No need, no need."

He turned and glanced at Old Song, who was barely breathing. He decided to go back and finish Old Song off with another sword strike, ending his suffering.

[Points +1, Current Points: 6, Current Rank: 1/200]

A mechanical voice sounded in Lu Bai's mind almost simultaneously. He had heard this voice several times before and was very familiar with it.

However, this time the prompt didn't end there.

A series of equally mechanical prompts followed.

[Ding!]

[The elimination rate of current Deathmatch Participants has reached sixty percent.]

[Notice! The second round of Ability Pools has been activated. You may now make your selection.]

"Three."

"Six."

"Pair of Twos!"

"Pass." "Pass."

"Pair of Threes."

"Damn it, can you even play? Is that how you want to play?!"

In a reception room, three men in black suits and sunglasses sat around a table playing Dou Dizhu.

Compared to the furtive behavior of most Deathmatch Participants, these three were as relaxed as if they were on vacation.

Suddenly, all three fell silent.

After a moment, one of them, a bald man, looked at the man opposite him and said, "Boss, I'm out of first place."

"Didn't you already take down five of them?"

The boss raised an eyebrow. His sunglasses hid his eyes. "Were there guys like this in the initial round? Could they also be here to farm kills?"

The teaching building, first-floor restroom.

From a corner stall, an uncontrollable burst of laughter echoed.

"Hahaha! I got it! I'm taking off!! Woohoo!!!"

On this guy's Ability Pool, there was a line describing his ability.

[Three-Surname Slave (Silver): No familial affection, but you can legitimately become everyone's adopted son.]

Honestly, just looking at this ability description, not many things could be more useless than this.

Even without this ability, if he was shameless, he could just call everyone "Dad."

However, he wasn't excited because he had gone crazy.

It was because in the second round's Ability Pool, he had found another useless ability.

[Unemployed Youth (Silver): When your parents talk with others, they will automatically avoid topics about you, deliberately ignoring your existence.]

"Haha, there are no useless abilities, only useless Deathmatch Participants! Even with just Silver-tier abilities, I can use them like Gold-tier!"

"Huh? Why is it gold again."

Lu Bai sat with his legs dangling outside the railing of the rooftop, a gentle breeze blowing, feeling quite comfortable.

Although Guo Mi had escaped, resolving three Deathmatch Participants was not a loss in his opinion.

Anyway, there was no need to rush, so he decided to wait until the next round's positioning was announced before taking action.

Taking advantage of this free time, Lu Bai felt he could properly consider what his second ability should be.

Just like the first round's Ability Pool, the second round's Ability Pool also offered three abilities for him to choose from.

[Great Fireball Technique (Gold): Consume a certain amount of stamina to spew a giant, high-temperature fireball forward from your mouth.]

[Blood Rage (Gold): Consume blood to exchange for a certain degree of combat power increase.]

[Sign-in System (Gold): You can sign in once daily to randomly receive a reward.]

Lu Bai had been hesitating over these three abilities for a long time.

The first time he chose an ability, he was more in a state of doubt; it would be great if it worked, but it wasn't unacceptable if it was useless.

But after personally experiencing [Super Regeneration] and knowing how exaggerated these abilities could be, he found it harder to make a decision.

After all, judging by their descriptions, all three abilities seemed pretty good.

After much deliberation, he eliminated the [Sign-in System] due to its excessive randomness.

Lu Bai slowly stroked his chin, "The remaining two seem like they can both be used as ultimate moves, so... I'll choose this one."

There was no helping it; the description for [Great Fireball Technique] was a bit too supernatural, making him vaguely feel like it wouldn't kill anyone.

[Blood Rage], more or less, felt a bit more compatible with [Super Regeneration].

Lu Bai's pupils unfocused, and his own personal panel appeared before his retinas.

[Deathmatch Arena Number: 87****0023]

[User Initial Name: (Unavailable)]

[Title: None]

[Talent: 8]

[Current Points: 6]

[Current Rank: 1/200]

[Abilities: Super Regeneration, Blood Rage]

Compared to the beginning, this simple personal panel hadn't changed much.

He wondered when that user initial name would become available.