Nightmare

World Area 44.

This was a vast forest. The dense vegetation and lush, towering trees blocked out the light of the star, making the entire environment feel incredibly deep and secluded. At this moment, the figure of Lu Yan'an appeared out of thin air.

"The gravity is about 20,000 times that of Earth." Lu Yan'an felt it out and found it acceptable. His Star Level 9 body felt no discomfort in this environment. Furthermore, he had trained in various environments within the Killing Space, so his body was well-adapted to gravity levels different from Earth's.

He raised his wrist, where a screen was embedded in his bracer. This screen would automatically receive the various messages transmitted by the organizer, the Virtual Universe Company.

Participant: Lu Yan'an (Black Dragon Mountain Empire)

Points: 0

Ranking: None

Current World Area: World Area 44

Time: The preliminary elimination round will last for 30 days. When time is up, the entire preliminary round ends, and the winners will be determined based on the final point rankings.

Note: World Area 44 is a wetland forest environment simulated after the appearance of the 'Senmo Planet' in the real Ganwu Universe Country. The entire map is covered by forest. The soil subsidence varies in different regions; participants should pay attention to environmental factors. The hardness of soil, trees, etc., has been adjusted to C7 grade.

Point Rules: Killing a participant earns one point, and you also receive half of the opponent's points!

Ranking Rules: Those who die still have a ranking. If your points are high enough, even after losing half, you may still be ranked within the top 1,001.

Supplementary Rules: Participants killed by the environment due to subjective reasons will have their points reset to zero. (Note: Being able to utilize the environment is also part of your strength.)

Solemn reminder: Everyone has only one life. After being defeated and dying, the preliminary round ends, and you lose half of your points.

Detailed ranking lists are attached below.

Lu Yan'an was reading the information sent by the Virtual Universe Company.

Suddenly—

Without a sound, a phantom lunged from behind. A beast resembling a lion opened its blood-red maw, aiming to bite his head off. Lu Yan'an's mind stirred, and his spiritual force surged outward, plunging everything around him into an illusion. At the same time, a binding force surrounded his body, and the beast was also restrained in mid-air by his power; one could even see the two rows of sharp, serrated teeth in the beast's mouth.

His left hand moved, and with a single strike, the beast was decapitated! Without bothering to examine the beast he had just dispatched, Lu Yan'an turned and walked toward a large tree behind him. Sure enough, a participant was hiding there, though at this moment, affected by Lu Yan'an's illusion, the person had already lost consciousness.

Snap!

Lu Yan'an reached out and grabbed the man's neck, then twisted his right hand with force, snapping the neck instantly.

Despite the intense pain, the participant only let out a muffled groan before falling silent, quietly transforming into points for Lu Yan'an.

"To be able to find a beast and launch an attack within five seconds of entering the world area, your combat thinking and luck are quite good!"

Lu Yan'an smiled. "But it's a pity you ran into me."

He gave a cold laugh. "Beast Tamer..."

Controllers, Illusionists, Beast Tamers, Puppeteers, Hunters, Martial Artists, Pharmacists... Martial Artists and Spirit Readers were merely broad categories. Within them, there were various schools of thought. For instance, Lu Yan'an also held the identity of an Illusionist, specifically an "Orthodox Illusionist."

This participant followed the Beast Tamer path, which was equivalent to a traditional "Summoner"—a late-game class that excelled at using numbers to overwhelm opponents. In Lu Yan'an's estimation, this guy's luck and strength were actually decent, but he had the misfortune of meeting him.

What Lu Yan'an had just displayed was the second level of the illusion technique "Huo Shen," known as Huo Xin. The effect was quite impressive; all flesh-and-blood life forms within a hundred-meter radius of him were affected and lost consciousness.

This was an area-of-effect soul attack that didn't even require his conscious effort to control precisely, easily covering an entire area.

It could be said that Lu Yan'an had easily killed his opponent without revealing any of his strength as a Martial Artist.

"Points..." He looked down at the screen on his wrist; the text on the screen had changed.

Participant: Lu Yan'an (Black Dragon Mountain Empire)

Points: 1

Ranking:

"The entire preliminary round will last for a month. Everyone has just entered the world area, so the points gained from killing an opponent are just the basic 1 point. By the later stages, killing one person could easily net millions or tens of millions of points."

"However, there are many people now. Over ten billion people have been dropped into this world area, making it incredibly dense, and the slaughter will be extremely brutal."

"The environment of World Area 44 is particularly conducive to hiding. Oh well, I'll wait until the later stages. Killing them one by one now is too much of a waste of time!"

Lu Yan'an pondered in his heart, a flash of light in his eyes.

"Then I'll just wait. I'll start hunting in half a month!"

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

Roaring sounds were erupting almost everywhere.

Everyone possessed a Star Level 9 body; ordinary planets could not withstand such devastation. A single outburst from a Star Level 9 could easily destroy a city, let alone ten billion Star Level individuals fighting each other!

That was why the Virtual Universe Company had specifically set all the environmental materials in this world to C7 grade, so that the world could withstand the month-long combat of so many Star Level 9s.

After a brief period of exploration and preparation, battles broke out all over the world area.

Not far from Lu Yan'an, a chaotic battle involving over a thousand people had erupted. Even he didn't know how they had managed to start fighting under these circumstances. Even though the density of people was high at the start of the preliminaries, it wasn't easy to get over a thousand people to fight in a real frenzy in this forest map. At the very least, Lu Yan'an was quite curious about how they had managed it.

Although he didn't want to work for nothing in the early stages, he knew how to pick up the scraps! Once the commotion of the chaotic battle over there had completely vanished, Lu Yan'an slowly made his way over.

What met his eyes were trails of destruction carved into the ground.

Trees had collapsed, and corpses were splattered with blood everywhere.

At this moment, only a dozen or so victors remained on the field! The instant Lu Yan'an appeared, they simultaneously locked their gazes onto this uninvited guest.

"Heh, so someone really is trying to reap the rewards of our struggle."

One person let out a cold sneer.

Everyone on the scene was an expert who had survived a chaotic melee of over a thousand people, so they naturally stood on the same side when faced with an outsider like Lu Yan'an. Thus, everyone was now united against the common enemy, intending to band together to eliminate a "camper" like Lu Yan'an.

Boom!

In an instant, over a dozen spirit weapons shimmering with light surged toward Lu Yan'an in a massive, overwhelming wave!

Yet, Lu Yan'an's expression remained as calm as an ancient well, and he didn't even care about the incoming attacks. He simply reached out his right hand and clenched it in mid-air, causing the mental energy of his secret technique, Huo Shen, to surge forth. In a split second, an illusion enveloped everyone present!

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"

Having lost consciousness, the group could no longer maintain control over their spirit weapons, and the weapons fell from the air one after another.

The screen on Lu Yan'an's wrist suddenly flickered.

Participant: Lu Yan'an (Black Dragon Mountain Empire)

Points: 685

Ranking: 1

"I'm impressed by this efficiency, but whatever, I'll just take a good rest for now. I'll come back out to hunt the strong when the later stages arrive; that will be much more efficient!" Looking at the points on his wrist screen, Lu Yan'an suddenly lost the desire to keep camping. He didn't even bother with the real campers hiding around the battlefield; he simply kicked aside the corpses at his feet and headed deeper into the forest!

Once Lu Yan'an had walked far away, some of the true campers hiding in the area finally emerged. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief; heaven knows how terrified they had been when they witnessed Lu Yan'an's seemingly invincible illusion technique. Fortunately, Lu Yan'an had not wiped out everyone hiding in the vicinity.

"This illusionist is terrifyingly strong; he must be among the top tier of geniuses! With just a single clench of his hand, every spirit master on the field lost consciousness. Such strength is truly like a Nightmare!" one of the participants muttered, cold sweat dripping down his face, his words resonating with everyone present.

From this point on, Lu Yan'an left behind the legend of the "Nightmare" in World Area 44!