Chapter 318
Admittedly, some players might have their companions hide and act alone, but once inside the tower, the entire team can only move in and out together, while he's wandering around outside alone. Combined with what the broker said...
They had barely dabbled in each tower when they left; they were looking for someone, searching for someone with very specific characteristics—a lone wolf.
Yuki was somewhat confused. He had many enemies, but these two were definitely not people that Dayu could persuade to help. Besides, Zhou Ye know his true identity.
Aether Particles? Impossible. These two are clearly from another camp, so they can't be categorized as Aether Particles at all.
Yuki 'knows' them, so there's no need for wild guesses. If he's not mistaken, those two went to the Tower of Asura. They must be very powerful to dare to follow him; the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons might not be able to stop them.
"Furthermore, why didn't you use any control skills on the characters in the instance? Was this carelessness, or a deliberate trap?"
Yuki all his mental energy and did not release a trace of killing intent, because he had already been exposed and could not possibly kill everyone along the way.
Investigate who is looking for me.
The thought was quickly dismissed; a true schemer should abandon all curiosity and obediently remain behind the scenes.
As for how to handle it, Yuki already had a contingency plan.
"Does the Broker Guild any guidelines?"
Conquering dungeons involves more than just killing; sometimes players have to humble themselves and follow the dungeon's rules.
"Concealing information costs 500 Soul Crystal, spreading false information costs 1,000 Soul Crystal." The broker immediately quoted a price, also surprised that the chosen tower explorer did not choose to silence him.
It truly is a comprehensive, professional service.
Yuki smiled, thankful that he had become familiar with the rules of the Red Earth Continent over the past few days and hadn't acted like a player who was a mobile scourge, arbitrarily deciding life and death.
Yes, these brokers are as weak as ants, easily wiped out with a breath, but they want money, so why take their lives?
"What if I ask you to spread the truth and lure them to me? How about that?"
The broker was immediately speechless. "Do we even need to spread this information? Your intelligence is probably already everywhere."
"To be precise, we used false information to conceal the truth for two days, and then spread the real information to lure them over."
"Your request is rather complicated and will require a great deal of resources."
"Stop talking nonsense and name a number."
"Uh, 1500 Soul Crystal, and success isn't guaranteed, but please trust the guild's professional ethics; we will definitely do our best."
"Make a deal."
Yuki immediately pulled out Soul Crystal. After mastering the Tower of Asura, he had spent several days traveling and knew more about the Red Earth Continent than any other player. These brokers were incredibly powerful, like another Alliance.
"Thank you for your patronage. I'll make the arrangements right away. Within half a day, the news of the discovery of the lone chosen explorer in the Empty Realm Tower will spread to everyone. This is the only information available for purchase on the market; only the guild's higher-ups know the true situation."
The broker nodded and hurriedly left, and in an instant, the mercenaries, merchants, and even swindlers who had been surrounding the tower scattered.
Damn it, could it be that I also bought fake information?
Yuki recalled those blurry portraits and felt a pang of emotion. These people weren't even wizards, possessing no Transcendental Grade powers, yet they played a significant role in the story, potentially forming a route for romance.
Fortunately, I traveled across the continent, actively searching for traces of other players.
Yuki shook his head slightly. He didn't know if the two were looking for him, but he was taking precautions anyway.
He walked up the tower, not afraid of his identity being exposed, because the players of 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons' could testify that Yuki's 'faction' was a two-person team, not some lone wolf.
"As long as you don't connect the me who entered the tower with the me in the Tower of Asura, it'll be fine." Yuki touched the mask on his face, thankfully he had been careful enough.
Feeling the watchful eyes of those in the shadows, he had no faith in the broker's professional ethics; the news of a player entering the tower alone was definitely worth a fortune.
A familiar sensation came, and the cold, hard tower walls pulled my body in like soft mud.
Come find me if you dare.
"Hey, Mr. Fourblade, I've gotten the latest intelligence from those informants: lone players have appeared in the Empty Realm Tower."
A lively voice rang out from the forest, and the blond Deidara strode over.
"Behind us? We've already been to the Empty Realm Tower." Ulquiorra glanced at the Tower of Asura not far away, where the most formidable structures were surrounded by thousands of troops, as solid as an iron barrel.
No one is allowed to approach; recruit tower explorers to form a punitive expedition.
"Perhaps we missed it. Those brokers' intelligence is very accurate, and they've never had any problems. I've tried mind control, and they weren't lying," Deidara replied nonchalantly.
They deliberately didn't hide their whereabouts, since anyone who knew someone was looking for them would be curious, and by investigating in reverse, they could catch them red-handed.
"It could also be fake news, just to fool us." The pale-skinned boy shook his head slightly, expressionless. "Even the prophecy of the Hundred Eyes of True Knowledge can be wrong; anything can be faked."
"I'm not worried about that. The fact that we've started the 'Judgment Mission' proves we've come to the right place. The key target is... 'Surrounded by mist,' 'using a knife'... that's too broad a term."
Deidara sighed. He hated business trips, especially when the target was abstract and dangerous.
"That player is connected to 'Taiyi,' and the higher-ups take it very seriously." Ulquiorra's voice was flat and lifeless, like that of a dead man. "So the mission is for us to kill him, and all the players who cooperate with him."
"Is 'Taiyi' really an organization? The records say..."
"I don't know, I wasn't part of the Reincarnation Game back then." Ulquiorra interrupted him, looking around at the woods. "There's a tail following us, it's a player."
"Curiosity killed the cat. They think we're running around off-topic and must have stumbled upon some secret." Deidara remained nonchalant, snapping his fingers lightly.
Boom boom boom boom--
Something in the air was detonated, like a series of bombs exploding, sending dozens of fireballs soaring into the sky.
Several dark figures emerged somewhat disheveled from the fireball. The one in the lead was impeccably dressed, wearing sunglasses, and his full head of blond hair was neatly combed back.
His tattered trench coat was bleeding, and his eyes were filled with apprehension. He couldn't understand why the air had exploded, but the heavy sense of oppression made him change his mind.
Having escaped the Purgatory Tower, time is running out; he must complete Prompt Three before the tower activates.
"I'm Wesker from the 'Survivors' faction. May I ask your names?"
No one answered. The blond youth wore a mocking smile, while the inhuman player had a cold expression.
Wesker lowered his stance further, extending his right hand. "I apologize for following you both. We have no hostile intentions and wish to cooperate with you."
"Bypassing the hint is impossible; give up now."
"Oh, so you're going to join the players in the Tower of Asura."
"No."
"That is to wipe them out and take control of a tower for ourselves." Wesker looked knowing and ambitious. "To be honest, we have the same plan. With the Alliance's order to subjugate us, we're sure to reach the top..."
"No."
The response remained cold, instantly spiking Wesker's biological CPU. Unable to bypass prompt three, and not intending to take action against the Tower of Asura, he continued wandering outside.
Is this guy here to commit suicide in a dungeon, waiting to be killed by the game?
"Forget it, there are too many troublemakers here. Let's go check out the Empty Realm Tower." Ulquiorra didn't want to answer anymore and turned to leave, "The leader just entered the 'Monster' level. You have two minutes to take them out."
What did you say!
This domineering attitude enraged the 'Survivors'. They had already bowed their heads and admitted their mistakes, yet they still wanted to exterminate them all?
No one gave them a chance to explain. Deidara stepped forward with a smile and snapped his fingers as Wesker mutated and swelled up like a monster.
Smack
Without any warning, the clay that had been spilled from his palm rapidly expanded, causing Wesker, who had grown giant claws, to raise his head and open his mouth wide.
Shadows enveloped him; a colossal ship, over ten meters tall and made of clay, blocked out the sunlight, its countless cannons pointed and aimed at the 'Survivors' and the hundreds of wizards who had come upon hearing the news.
"Welcome to the art of explosion." Deidara snapped his fingers again, watching as the mutated player charging towards him inhaled clay particles from the air before even getting close, and then exploded from the inside out.
"One and a half minutes is enough."
Chapter Fourteen: War Orphans (6K)
Is this the War Tower?
Yuki entered the tower and found it to be a completely different space from the Tower of Asura. The sky above was filled with symbols of swords, spears, and halberds, while the ground was like a chessboard, divided by black and white squares.
Yes, it's a chessboard like a chessboard, with nothing else on it, making the tower seem very small. The distance from one side of the chessboard to the other is only a hundred squares, or a kilometer.
But Yuki tried it, and he couldn't jump directly to the opposite side with a standing long jump. He could only move one space according to the 'meter' shape.
Once inside, these blocks will transform into various battlefields, such as hills, plains, or mountains. The person entering the tower will become a chess piece, playing against the War Witch Spirit.
This game contains certain rules, and the Spirit Particle Communicator has also stopped working, clearly indicating that there are spatial barriers between the blocks.
Unlike the strategy guide, Yuki did not receive a quest from the Witch Spirit.
"Could it be that I've mastered the Tower of Asura and am on the same level as it, which is why I can't get any missions?"
Yuki stood on the head of a steel rhinoceros. It was this thing that had led a group of Witch Beasts out of the forest just now. It was a very clever ambush. First, they suppressed the enemy with javelins, then the witchcraft turned the earth into Swamp Country, and the Witch Beasts, like armored cavalry, advanced like a forest. And then, nothing happened.
Absolute power can render any tactic ineffective, especially since the Witch Beasts here are weaker than those in the Tower of Asura.
"No, I should say I've become stronger; I've broken through my bottleneck."
Realizing this, Yuki became bolder. The grid was like a maze, and there were no 'stairs' or other directional objects. Without analyzing the pattern, he was stuck in a dilemma.
Yuki no longer needed to look for patterns. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. He trampled through all the dozen or so squares around him like a road roller, then slowly bent down, chopped off the steel rhinoceros's head, and tore off a piece of its arm.
Unlike the Tower of Asura, which carelessly discards enemy corpses, the War Tower's Witch Beasts devour people. Yuki's expression was tense, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the arm was strong and powerful, belonging to a certain wizard. He pried open the arm to reveal the silver earphone inside.
The Spirit Particle Communicator was used by Yuki to sense when people stepped into the same cube. It was clear that there had been infighting within the team, with one of the wizards having stolen the communicator and then been killed by the Witch Beasts. Yuki was very familiar with this tactic of using others' strength to his advantage.
[Mr. Yuki, we've entered a strange battlefield. Our mission was to catch the traitor, but those noble tower raiders have decided to terminate their cooperation and answer the Alliance's call.]
[Don't worry, I went along with their wishes. I figured if you came, you might run into them on the way.]
[They just so happened to be very interested in things like Spirit Particle Communicator, which allow real-time communication within a space, so I deliberately let the assassin steal it.]
The Spirit Particle Communicator has a recording function, and when a clear voice came through, Yuki immediately smiled.
Having Shiina Hiyori is so convenient. She anticipated her arrival, but couldn't abandon her progress in the game, so she simply used an NPC to deliver a message. Since they weren't players, they couldn't hear the recording inside.
If you take it out of the tower, Yuki will sense it immediately; if you can't take it out, it doesn't matter, you'll eventually run into him along the way.
[All players entering the War Tower start at a single point, and then proceed in different directions based on the color of the corresponding square.]
Yuki focused; Hiyori must have gone very far, so he didn't need to analyze it himself.
[We can think of this as a chessboard. Each piece has different rules for movement. Of course, all pieces can reach the back rank, but if you want to join us, please follow these rules.]
The mountains and forests have vanished, Yuki stands once again on the chessboard.
"Using the white square at the very center of the end of the chessboard as a reference point, should we select all white squares and move along a zigzag path?"
He leaned on his knife and laughed with satisfaction; his senior classmates were surely fighting hard in one of the squares ahead.
"Okay, please wait a moment."
"Why would you desert?"
The valley was filled with the corpses of the Witch Beasts, and a circular defensive array was being rapidly devoured. The once stable circle was missing Ikkaku, which triggered a chain reaction that made the entire array teeter on the brink of collapse.
The blindfolded man, exuding a terrifying and oppressive aura, was growling, his military knife trembling slightly. However, hundreds of Witch Beasts kept him at bay, forcing him to kill them with his gaze alone.
Across the valley stood Alliance Tower Explorer dressed in black, carrying a coffin. Because they had actively allied with the nobles, the War Tower was being raided as a group, with the Thorny Rose, War Orphans, and Alliance nobles working together.
Although they didn't know what was in the coffin, the Alliance Tower Explorers were an indispensable force. But just now, they suddenly retreated, leaving the rest of them in the beast horde.
"I apologize, Lord Bradley, but we have no choice but to obey God's command and go to the Tower of Asura to subdue it." A man bowed slightly, his aged tone devoid of any apology.
"You're afraid we'll also capture the second tower, right? Then it'll be even more uncontrollable." Bradley saw through him immediately, but put down his saber and didn't press the matter further.
This is pointless. The game gets harder as you go further down the board. Reaching this point is already very difficult. Now we should try to retreat and use the brief moments of peace in each square to recover our strength.
The Alliance explorers continued to retreat, using the coffins to hide in the shadows, while endless Witch Beasts surged in from both sides of the valley, nearly driving the already small number of mercenaries to the brink of collapse.
As soon as these grunts scattered, the players were exposed and forced to face the enemy's firepower. The man's eagle-like gaze swept over them, and he frowned.
The War Orphans suffered heavy losses, with only the priest and Miss Violet surviving. The Thorny Rose, on the other hand, were somewhat unexpected; despite being weaker, they had managed to hold out without losing any members.
"Complementary skills and skillful teamwork—could it be that this fixed team has completed more than five dungeon missions?"
Bradley didn't quite understand. Usually, teammates aren't fixed; they'd bring along a few newcomers so the team could improve together.
But they had already done their best, and there was no more hope.
He has a sharp eye; he can instantly tell who's slacking off and who's putting in the effort. But these Witch Beasts are too troublesome.
Suppressive fire was coming from the hilltop, and spears rained down like bullets. These weapons were comparable to heavy armor-piercing shells, and the defensive magic was torn apart as easily as paper.