The Nightmare

World Area 44.

It was a vast forest, dense with vegetation. The towering trees blocked out the light of the stars, making the whole environment seem unfathomably deep and shadowy. At that moment, Lu Yan'an appeared out of thin air.

"Gravity's about twenty thousand times that of Earth." Lu Yan'an tested it and found it manageable. His Star Level 9 body felt no discomfort in this environment. Besides, he had trained in various environments in the Killing Space, so he adapted to gravity unlike Earth's with ease.

He raised his wrist. A screen was mounted on his right bracer, and it automatically received the various messages sent over by the organizers, the Virtual Universe Company.

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

Points: 0

Rank: None

Current World Zone: World Zone 44

Duration: The Preliminary Elimination Tournament will last 30 days. When time is up, the preliminaries will end, and the winners will be determined according to the point rankings at that moment.

Note: World Zone 44 is a simulated wetland forest modeled after Senmo Planet in Ganwu Universe Country. The entire map is covered in forest, and the degree to which the soil gives way varies from region to region. Contestants are advised to pay attention to their surroundings. The hardness of the soil, trees, and other materials has been adjusted to C7.

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

Leaderboard Rules: The dead remain ranked. If their score is high enough, they may still place in the top 1,001 even after losing half their points.

Additional Rule: Contestants killed by the environment due to their own actions will have their points reset to zero. (Note: The ability to use your surroundings is also part of your strength.)

Important Reminder: Each person has only one life. Once you are defeated and killed, your participation in the preliminaries ends, and you lose half your points.

A detailed leaderboard is attached below.

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

Suddenly—

Without a sound, a blurred figure lunged from behind. A beast resembling a lion opened its jaws and snapped at his head. With a thought, Lu Yan'an unleashed his Spiritual Force, and everything around him fell into an illusion. At the same time, a force of restraint enveloped him. The beast was bound in midair, its two rows of sharp teeth clearly visible.

His left hand moved. With a single strike, the beast was decapitated! Without even looking closely at the beast he had just dealt with, Lu Yan'an turned and walked toward a nearby tree. Sure enough, someone was hiding there. But under the influence of Lu Yan'an's illusion, the contestant had already lost consciousness.

Crack!

Lu Yan'an reached out, grabbed him by the neck, then twisted his right hand sharply and snapped it.

Despite the excruciating pain, the contestant only let out a muffled groan before falling silent, quietly becoming points for Lu Yan'an.

"To find a beast and launch an attack less than five seconds after entering the World Zone—you've got good combat instincts and luck!"

Lu Yan'an smiled. "Too bad you ran into me."

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

Controllers, Illusionists, Tamers, Puppeteers, Hunters, Fighters, Alchemists... Warriors and Spirit Readers were just general categories, each with various schools beneath them. Lu Yan'an himself had an Illusionist identity, and he was even an "Orthodox Illusionist."

This contestant followed the Tamer school, essentially a "summoner" in the traditional sense. It was a late-game school specializing in outnumbering the opponent. In Lu Yan'an's view, the guy's luck and ability were actually pretty good. Unfortunately, he had run into him.

What Lu Yan'an had just revealed was the second layer of the illusion secret art Huo Shen: Huo Xin. Its effect was excellent. All flesh-and-blood lifeforms within a hundred meters of him were affected and lost consciousness.

It was an area-wide Soul Attack, and it could cover an entire region with ease without requiring him to carefully direct his consciousness.

In other words, Lu Yan'an had killed his opponent easily without revealing any of his abilities as a warrior.

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

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

Points: 1

Rank:

"The preliminaries last a month. Everyone's only just entered the World Zone, so the points you get for killing an opponent are just the basic one point. Later on, it'll be easy to gain hundreds of thousands, even millions of points from a single kill."

"But there are a lot of people right now—over a hundred billion have been dropped into this World Zone. It's incredibly crowded, and the fighting will be brutal."

"The terrain in World Zone 44 is especially good for hiding. Forget it. I'll wait until later. Hunting people one by one right now would be a waste of time!"

Lu Yan'an considered this, a glint flashing in his eyes.

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

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

Explosions rang out almost everywhere.

Everyone had a Star Level 9 body. Ordinary planets couldn't withstand the damage they caused; a Star Level 9 fighter could easily destroy a city when unleashing their power. And now, a hundred billion Star Level fighters were battling one another!

That was why the Virtual Universe Company had set all the environmental materials in this world to C7. Only then could it withstand a month of fighting among so many Star Level 9 fighters.

After a brief period of exploration and preparation, battles broke out all across the World Zone.

Not far from Lu Yan'an, a melee involving over a thousand people broke out. He had no idea how they had even started fighting in the first place. Even though the contestants were packed together at the start of the preliminaries, getting a thousand people to fight with such ferocity on a forest map wasn't easy. At least, Lu Yan'an was curious how they had managed it.

He didn't want to work for nothing in the early stages, but he knew how to take advantage of a situation. Once the sounds of battle had completely died away, he slowly made his way over.

Scars crisscrossed the ground as far as the eye could see.

Trees lay toppled, and bodies drenched in blood were scattered everywhere.

Only a dozen or so victors remained. The moment Lu Yan'an appeared, they all locked onto the uninvited guest.

"Heh. Someone really did come to pick up the scraps."

One of them sneered.

Everyone here had survived a melee of over a thousand people. Faced with an outsider like Lu Yan'an, they naturally banded together. Now they were all united against him, ready to eliminate this Old Six.

Boom!

In an instant, over ten Spiritual Force weapons gleaming with light swept toward Lu Yan'an, their momentum overwhelming!

Lu Yan'an's expression remained as calm as still water. He didn't even react to the incoming attacks. He simply raised his right hand and clenched it in the air, unleashing the surging Spiritual Force of his secret art, Huo Shen. In a flash, the illusion engulfed everyone present!

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

The contestants lost consciousness and could no longer control their Spiritual Force weapons. The weapons fell from midair one after another.

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

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

Points: 685

Rank:

"This is ridiculously efficient. Forget it, I'll take a good rest for now. I'll come out and hunt the strong ones later; that'll be much more efficient!" Looking at the points on his wrist screen, Lu Yan'an lost all interest in playing the Old Six. He didn't even bother with the real Old Sixes hiding around the battlefield. Kicking aside the corpses at his feet, he headed deeper into the forest!

After Lu Yan'an had gone far away, some of the real Old Sixes hiding nearby finally came out. They all let out a quiet sigh of relief. Who knew how nervous they had been when they saw Lu Yan'an's seemingly invincible illusion technique? Fortunately, Lu Yan'an hadn't slaughtered everyone hiding in the area.

"That Illusionist is terrifyingly powerful. He must be among the strongest geniuses! He just clenched his hand in the air, and every Spirit Reader there lost consciousness. That kind of power was like a nightmare!" one contestant murmured, drenched in cold sweat. His words struck a chord with everyone present.

From then on, Lu Yan'an's name became a legend in World Zone 44: the Nightmare!