Chapter 198

This certainly created a buzz, but the haste made it difficult to conceal.

Across the street stood members of the Cult, three in black and one in red, guarding the area and preventing the player from leaving. Yuki showed no intention of forcing his way in.

Ironically, it's now the apostle that's ensuring our safety, requiring players to attend tomorrow's grand ceremony at a set time. Any unusual activity is testing our already limited patience.

Yuki glanced at them, didn't close the door, went back inside, and pointed to the street.

"They seem to be in a hurry?"

"Indeed, they even led us away from the deathmatch arena and back to the original rest room, as if we were hiding from something." Hiyori pursed her lips, unconsciously fiddling with her long, gray-blue hair.

"I suspect there's a problem with Adam. You and he are both key figures now, and judging from Adam's behavior, he doesn't seem like the type to just wait until tomorrow."

"Adam is indeed difficult to control, but neither he nor I can die, so we can only accelerate the process." Yuki nodded slightly; this speculation made a lot of sense.

The current situation is very simple:

Twenty-four hours later, Yuki will face Adam in a final battle. He will ignite the audience's emotions with his own life, and this frenzy will create a chain reaction, activating the city and the entire instance to fulfill some of the apostle's wishes.

This is hardly good news. According to Yuki's original plan, the standoff should have lasted for two or three days.

Two-Gun Zhang, is in the shadows while he is in the open; together they'll pull off some sneaky maneuvers to increase their chances of victory.

It seems there's no chance now. Those black cars are speeding past on the road, clearly heading to ambush and kill Two-Gun Zhang. He definitely won't last that long.

"Breaking news, Mr. Zhang has confirmed that the members of the Cult must also follow Prompt 4." Hayasaka Ai walked over quickly, a Spirit Particle Communicator in his hand, which she was responsible for making contact with.

"How do we abide by the law?" Yuki with great interest. Two-Gun Zhang was the one responsible for breaking the ice and scouting ahead.

"After the war began, several groups of Cult fought him in turn, establishing a rule similar to a random instance."

Random dungeons? That means it's calculated per session. But wouldn't that allow him to exploit bugs to buy time?

Yuki hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. This couldn't be delayed. Not to mention that the dungeon characters were extremely crazy, even if they were restrained by some skill, they would still self-destruct like the Golden Skull.

"What about the civilians caught in the crossfire? Will they join the fight?"

"No, they'll just watch the battles between players and the Cult. Even if they get killed by mistake, they won't participate." Hayasaka paused slightly, then continued, "Unlike us players, who can break the rules as long as they can bear the consequences, the people here won't."

"Okay, I understand."

Yuki quickly formed a concept in his mind: this was a cooperative operation between two player teams, and Two-Gun Zhang was clearly showing his sincerity.

That's normal. It would take him a lot of time to find all this information, and Yuki wouldn't let other players get it for free.

To survive, everyone has to fight tooth and nail.

"Another tactical problem solved. Now, the only remaining question is where to start the battle." Yuki rapidly; every second was precious, and it was time to combine all the clues everyone had gathered.

"Right, no deathmatch arena can possibly accommodate all the spectators." Kaguya realized this problem, then recalled her discovery at the beginning of the dungeon, "Could it be that we're just going to fight in the city? But how will the audience watch?"

"I don't know, and it doesn't look like there's any broadcasting technology here, but I've made a new discovery." Hiyori Lightness stood up, took out paper and pen, and scribbled randomly. Everyone gathered around, but for a moment they couldn't make out what she was drawing.

Eight circles, eight thick lines— Yuki suddenly glanced at the street outside.

"Hiyori, are you drawing a city map?"

"Yes, each deathmatch arena corresponds to a black building, arranged in an arc, with an error margin of less than one hundred meters. Also, Mr. Yuki, have you noticed what this layout resembles?"

Yuki thought for a moment, then clenched his fist and lightly tapped the table. "The eight pillars surrounding the arena."

A very important discovery was Yuki Yuuki, who rarely left the deathmatch arena, would never have noticed, while Hiyori had spent a full three days wandering around the city.

The city was huge and chaotic, with no map or vantage point.

Being in the city makes it difficult to observe this; it requires finding a reference point and then continuously taking measurements.

It occupies almost two-thirds of the city's area, encompassing those messy residential areas as well.

"So, it's not just Adam and me inside that giant arena." Yuki suddenly remembered what Wu Raian had said: a group of people fighting inside, with the two strongest being the focus of everyone's attention.

He must have reached this point and could not go any further, which indirectly proves that Hiyori's prediction was correct.

Solving a strategic problem instantly Yuki's spirits; now, only one problem remained that had been troubling him and proving unsolvable:

Will defeating Adam really allow me to complete the first main quest and return safely?

[Hint 1: This is the world of deathmatch. Players will participate in deathmatch as individual teams, and the strongest will be the champion.]

This hint has been read hundreds of times, and that seems to be the case on the surface, but the apostle explicitly stated that he was the strongest, which adds a layer of ambiguity to the hint.

Forget riddles, no way. I need to prepare for the worst.

Thinking of this, Yuki turned his head expectantly. "Kaguya, how's the investigation going with that clue?"

While he was fighting Wu Raian, Kaguya Shinomiya was in charge of testing ways to escape the deadly battle.

This can only be handled by her. When a character in the instance is unable to continue fighting, they will self-destruct, and when there is no chance of winning, they will burn themselves. This prevents the strong from bullying the weak or using control skills.

Kaguya isn't particularly strong, but she's equipped with skills that excel at stalling for time.

Triggering a deathmatch with a sniper shot from thousands of meters away will draw the enemy's instincts and make them come looking for her. This does indeed leave no room for stealth skills, but the chase itself takes a lot of time, and Kaguya also has control skills such as Freeze and Tidal Vortex.

So she fled while trying to seduce people, failing several times in the process. But with an endless supply of citizens, she had plenty of material to try.

"I finally figured it out on the fifth try." The girl paused, noticing Yuki's focused expression, and tidied her messy hair.

"Two hours and twelve minutes—that's the Limit for this deathmatch. Beyond that time, the enemy won't be able to find me, which is equivalent to breaking the combat bond."

Thump!

Yuki slammed his fist on the table, his eyes gleaming.

"With all the conditions met, we are now qualified to launch the final battle."

He couldn't help but be excited. He went through the dungeon word by word as soon as he entered and confirmed that hint 4 was the key. But the enemy was too fierce, Yuki had no time to test him.

It's difficult, but not absolute. There's definitely a problem, either distance or time. It's most appropriate for Kaguya Shinomiya to test the waters.

"You've had a tough time," he said sincerely. The passerby was no weakling; fighting for two hours while maintaining perfect timing was indeed quite grueling.

"Just be less mean to me in the future." Kaguya lowered her head, her bangs obscuring her expression. She was actually quite happy and enjoyed the process of unraveling the mystery.

When have I ever been mean to you?

Yuki wanted to explain, but there was no time now. He paced around the room with his hands behind his back, summarizing all the information he had gathered over the past few days.

This information came from his own investigations, the painstaking explorations of Mai Sakurajima and others, the tireless analysis of Shiina Hiyori, the information provided by Wu Raian before his death, and the full support of Two-Gun Zhang.

"Hiyori 'll summarize, and you can add to it."

"Okay." The girl put down her notebook, her eyes shining brightly. They had finally reached the final deductive analysis part of the 'murder case'.

"The enemy is Cult, led by the 'Apostle.' Their members are irreplaceable, and they use Slaughter Cycle to perform rituals, aiming to ignite fanaticism and achieve a certain goal. Players, as seeds, are a crucial pathway to achieving this goal. After several days of fighting, only Adam and I remain as seeds."

"To be precise, you and Adam are like yin and yang, the best seed. This ritual must have been performed many times, and this time the hope is the greatest. That's why it has been patient, even at the cost of breaking the rules it set for itself," Hiyori added gently, as if filling in the gaps in a story.

Yuki nodded slightly, having considered this many times before, and continued pacing, "The seed and the fanaticism are both indispensable. It is known that the fanaticism originates from the 'audience,' so to disrupt the ritual, we must start with the audience. However, based on the deduction just now, if the final battle takes place inside the city, we cannot harm the audience outside the eight 'pillars.'"

"So we have to step outside, just like when my senior and I investigated the city, the team members don't all have to stay inside the 'ring'."

"But how do we deal with the Cult's fighting strength? They'll definitely hold onto those eight deathmatch arenas." Yuki turned his head, his eyes blazing.

"Draw their attention and make them focus their defenses on the 'ring,' so that once the championship match begins, they won't be able to get out."

How to attract them?

"They're playing the time difference. Since the championship match is scheduled for 23 hours later, they'll do everything they can to prevent you from meeting Adam." Hiyori's eyes gleamed, clearly having activated her 'Future Deduction':

"It can't be too early, or the apostles will take action themselves; it can't be too late either, or if the 'arena' opens, we won't be able to get out, and you'll have to be under surveillance."

Of course, only Yuki can do it. If he dares to disappear now, the Angels aren't stupid; they'll definitely take countermeasures.

"But the gap in combat power is insurmountable. Even if I use hint 4 and fight round after round, how will I have the strength to face Adam?" Yuki asked again, and this time Hiyori, who had been answering fluently just now Hiyori, paused.

Adam would never cooperate with his act; a confrontation would undoubtedly be a life-or-death battle.

Hint 4 applies to every character in the instance. The deathmatch ends when one side is killed or the fight drags on for two hours. It cannot be intervened before the end.

Yuki can catch someone and beat them half to death, but he can't control the opponent's self-destruction. If one person dies, another will take their place, and it will never end.

"You're not the only one facing this problem."

Mai Sakurajima's voice rang out, and everyone turned around. It turned out that she had appeared in the lounge at some point, her hair sticking to her forehead, clearly having run back at breakneck speed.

"Adam has lost control and is currently being held back in the deathmatch arena by the Cult."

"You mean the Cult will personally stop him?" Hayasaka Ai sat beside him, lightly swinging her brown leather boots. "Isn't that unnecessary? Those people can't be brought back to Resurrection. Would they really be willing to do that?"

"There's probably nothing we can do about it. The warriors in all the deathmatch arenas must have been exhausted long ago, so they have no choice but to take matters into their own hands," Shiina Hiyori immediately chimed in. After a moment of thought, the group realized that this was indeed the case.

Warriors are selected through duels, a process that is a drain on their resources. Then, they learn from Wu Raian that warriors can Resurrection, thus perpetuating this Slaughter Cycle indefinitely.

But warriors are different from city dwellers; their resurrection speed shouldn't be that fast. Apart from the Arena IV where Yuki is located, the other arenas are littered with corpses.

In a way, we have to thank Adam.

Yuki narrowed his eyes. He would find a way to take advantage of the situation. Adam, that madman, would not hold back. Anyone who dared to challenge him would be killed. And the apostles would not dare to actually kill him.

So you've gone from being single-minded to having two blocked ends, haven't you?

He discovered that, under the combined influence of Tip 4, the simple folk customs, and the champion ceremony, the Cult's strength was both dispersed and rapidly depleted; of course, he wouldn't truly thank Adam.

If they were normal players, the problem would have been solved long ago if both sides had teamed up to put on an act.

"I must meet with him; I must leave hope for that apostle, so that it can fully devote itself to the ritual."

"But you can't beat him," Mai Sakurajima reminded him.

"Not necessarily. His methods will definitely consume more energy than mine, and don't forget, there's a third group of players." Yuki seemed very confident, standing solemnly in the room, closing his eyes, and beginning to frantically deduce the possibilities.

The location of the decisive battle is roughly determined, the battle strategy is outlined, and we have an idea of who we need to eliminate.

We cannot retreat; we have no opportunity to find other routes. We cannot refuse; that apostle is even more terrifying than Adam.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes and looked at Hiyori, whose breathing was slightly rapid.

"Where is the battle taking place?"

"The urban area within the 'cylinder'."

"Target of combat?"

"Adam and the Cult, especially the audience."

"Combat objective?"

"Bet on both sides, fight for the championship, and disrupt the final ceremony."

"Way?"

"Using tip 4 and the simple, honest folk customs here, the former will be hosted by you and Mr. Zhang, and the latter by Mai Sakurajima. No matter which side wins, we can return."

In a rapid-fire Q&A session, Yuki closed his eyes again. In truth, he and Hiyori had many unspoken concerns.

Does defeating Adam truly make one the champion? Why does the apostle claim to be the strongest?

Adam has more than one other player with him. What should be done with them?

The Cult will surely defend those eight deathmatch arenas; can they really draw all their attention to them?

Even if everything goes smoothly, how many spectators would need to be killed for the ritual to fail?

And Two-Gun Zhang, with his all-in spirit, will he be able to maintain it until the end?

These unresolved details were causing some panic, even for Hiyori. The Cult was in a rush, and so were they; they had no time to prepare one by one.

Her head was throbbing when a warm hand was placed on her cheek.

"Hiyori, I really want to give you a feather fan." Yuki felt the delicate touch and suddenly opened his eyes.

"Dry!"

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Attack Speed Maxed Out

Everyone is present for this instance.

Shiina Hiyori was in charge of designing the strategy, and any problems he couldn't solve were naturally handed over to Yuki. When it came to tactical adaptability, no known player could rival him.

Yuki knew that a dungeon was like a chessboard, and there was no way he could make a move by himself, let alone in this game where there were four players.

The apostle, Adam, him, and that Mr. Zhang each had different demands, and he didn't even know what Wu Raian meant by 'sacrifice'.

To whom were the sacrifices offered, and why?