"Of course. There was another guy who wore some mage robe he'd picked up somewhere and used these mushrooms to fight the boss. Too bad..."
Li Hang gave the Survivor with the same surname, Li Chou, a disdainful laugh. He spoke as if he'd beaten the other man himself. "He died a miserable death."
"Then I was shortsighted. I met that man yesterday and worked with him briefly. He was pretty capable, but he wasn't a good person. After we killed that Aberration, he tried to attack me, but I got away. It's great that he got killed."
Li Chou spoke as if he'd just breathed a sigh of relief. "Good thing you're here, Brother Li Hang. I joined you early, so I didn't make a terrible mistake. Hmm, if you managed to kill that guy, the boss must be really strong."
If he remembered correctly, that man really could use a "troop-spawning" strategy. He'd been incredibly difficult to deal with.
He couldn't believe the man had been killed.
Beside him, Li Hang recalled that "mage" and nodded in agreement. "Exactly. He actually dared to scheme against the women around the boss. He deserved to die.
"But the boss... well, he didn't even need to act. The problem was already taken care of. That was when I realized there was a future in following him."
Li Hang tried to "brainwash" him. "Look, there were a thousand people in each region, and after yesterday, only a little over five hundred were left. By now, there are probably only a little over four hundred.
"Every region will eventually have a lord become its overlord. We don't stand a chance, so it's better to live on miserably than die, right?"
The Hurricane Lamp, Parchment, Synthesis Table, and the "dangerous items" in his Inventory had all been confiscated.
Li Hang no longer thought his young friend Li Chou had any chance of turning things around. They'd just dealt with four Survivors, and now they'd captured three more. He was feeling confident, and had become a little more talkative.
Besides, this information wasn't exactly a secret.
"Yeah, yeah."
Li Chou nodded, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.
"From now on, no talking!" Number Two sensed that something was off, but couldn't tell what, so he could only bark at them.
"Sure thing, Brother Number Two," Li Hang said with a smile.
If this guy could turn things around in a situation like this, Li Hang would eat this watermelon-sized Synthesis Table on the spot.
Turning things around in a desperate situation required the right conditions. Without them, all you could do was wait to die.
Otherwise, Survivors wouldn't have died in such numbers.
Before long, they returned to the outpost. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Li Hang felt like someone had moved the tables, pots, and other things here.
And the way those people were looking at them seemed a little... strange?
It was probably just his imagination.
Li Hang was about to hand the prisoners over as he'd done earlier, then wait for Colin to give them away and set up an ambush.
But something unexpected happened.
Li Chou suddenly flicked a metal triangle out of his long sleeve and into his palm, then pointed it at Colin, who was chatting with Shana.
"Under the witness of the Shield of the Just Knight, I request a fair and impartial fight to the death with the man before me."
He spoke quickly, his voice solemn.
The next second, Colin suddenly felt himself growing farther away from Shana and the others, as if he'd been pulled into a hundred-square-meter area.
But the surroundings hadn't changed. Colin was still where he'd been; only space had warped.
The change happened in an instant, but Shana noticed just as quickly. She reacted immediately, using the Sun Bible to activate the Meteor Hammer skill and hurl it at Li Chou.
But it seemed everything was already too late.
When Li Chou aimed the Shield of the Just Knight at his target, no one outside the arena could attack him.
A flash of white light, then a clang. The Bible seemed to strike an invisible barrier and bounced away.
"Sir Colin, be careful!"
Shana and the others realized that even though they hadn't moved, Colin had been pulled farther away from them.
Reality had warped somehow.
"I'm fine."
Colin nodded to reassure everyone, then looked ahead. He recalled what the other man had just said: a request for a fair and impartial duel?
After saying those words, the man hadn't immediately done anything else.
But Colin could clearly feel that something had locked onto him and confined him to this roughly hundred-square-meter "space."
Was this... some kind of Duel Arena?
And yet...
It didn't seem to have affected him at all.
[You realize your opponent is using a mysterious item, and that it possesses a high rank.]
Colin held his axe and studied the man, noticing that the item was an equilateral triangular shield covered in verdigris.
It was very small, like the shoulder insignia on some suit of armor. Its corners were curved, and it was about the size of a palm. Although it was covered in rust, neat lines and patterns were still visible on it.
Li Chou glanced at the axe in Colin's hand and gave a strange smile. He didn't sense any threat from the other man.
After slowly taking in his surroundings, he admitted there was some risk involved.
But he was sure he'd made the right bet.
This striking man was the leader here—the boss Li Hang had kept going on about.
"Heh, you've picked up some decent things. But from now on, they're mine."
Holding the Triangular Shield, Li Chou sneered. Ignoring Colin's stare, he continued in a solemn voice:
"In this fair and impartial duel, we will abide by three principles.
"I pledge to give up using weapons in this fight. To make things fair, my opponent won't be able to use weapons either.
"I pledge to give up blocking in this fight. To make things fair, my opponent won't be able to block either.
"I pledge to give up using mysterious items in this fight. To make things fair, my opponent won't be able to use mysterious items either."
As soon as he finished speaking, some invisible rules took effect. Breaking them would bring a severe punishment.
The fight would officially begin in three minutes.
But that wasn't the important part.
What really left Colin dumbfounded came next.
The man before him began pulling rust-covered metal armor pieces from his Inventory and strapping them onto himself.
It wasn't hard to imagine what Colin would be facing three minutes later: a man clad in full steel armor.
He couldn't block, couldn't run, and couldn't use weapons.
How the hell was that supposed to be a "fair and impartial" duel?
"That's one hell of a cheap trick."
Colin stared blankly as the man put on his gear, piece by piece.
Just then, there was a sharp crack. Colin felt something lash across his back like a whip. The pain and impact burned, and he staggered forward a couple of steps.
He turned to look behind him and saw that the blow had broken his skin. Blood seeped out, leaving a mark on his clothes like a whip strike.
The sudden blow was punishment for not putting down the weapon in his hand.
He had broken the rule against using weapons.
And the damage was real!
"Next time, your head."
An invisible voice echoed in Colin's ears, telling him what would happen if he broke the rules again.
P.S.:
I'm looking for all kinds of cameo characters and mysterious items and so on. You can share them in the readers' group.
Before you continue