Draw and Slash the Cup

After reading the announcement, Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then temporarily put the proposal aside and opened the forum instead.

After gamification.

She already knew that all countries and regions in the world were isolated from each other when she was building the second copy.

Moreover, it wasn't just a physical barrier—people couldn't get there—even messages couldn't be exchanged.

The only way to get information from other regions is to browse forums in another region.

However, since they are not local players from the same region, they cannot post or reply on the corresponding forums when browsing across regions.

You can only look at it.

This is also why some high-ranking officials in the Coordination Bureau knew that other regions had opened up the front lines.

Lu Xiu first opened the Nine Provinces forum.

really.

The forum is usually filled with discussions about dungeon strategies, buying and selling items, or venting about Lu Xiu's posts.

Everyone is currently discussing the special event that just ended.

The number of posts in the entire forum is being refreshed at an alarming rate.

[Holy crap! The world rating has dropped to Category VI?! What on earth is happening out there?!]

[We won! Nine Provinces held firm! One of only two victories in this special event! The Coordination Bureau is awesome!!]

[Terrifying! Hearing that Shen Nian killed the enemy Architect, I thought my Lu Xiu was going to die too. Although she's a bit neurotic, thankfully she's alright!]

[You traitorous dog!! Zhang Chongshan!!! Are you even human?!]

[It felt like we won so quickly. It wasn't long before our side was over. Why did the other regions lose? Our world ranking dropped. I have a vague feeling of unease—but the Strategy Group of the Coordination Bureau is still awesome. I'm not in Chen Capital. Is the Architect in Chen Capital? Can anyone tell me what happened?]

[It ended really quickly here, and we even had an enemy player betray us. The only downside is that someone on our side also defected, and we didn't expect to lose in all the other areas.]

[I'm in Chen Capital, and you might not believe it— the Lu Xiu you call a lunatic seems to be a young girl, and apparently incredibly strong in combat.]

[Really?]

[How could that be? That's bullshit!]

[----]

In the forums of Nine Provinces, silly players are as common as ever.

Besides discussing world rankings, they also criticized Zhang Chongshan for betrayal, inquired about the specific battle situation on the front lines, and learned about Lu Xiu's true identity.

However, due to Zane's isolated domain and the Coordination Bureau's blockade, most ordinary players had no idea what outrageous things had happened on that Maple Leaf Avenue.

As for those who had the opportunity to watch Lu Xiu fight from the front lines, they wouldn't gossip about it now, and very few would mention Lu Xiu's identity or the battle situation.

It often starts with hearsay—and very few people actually believe it.

After reading the Nine Provinces forum.

Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then used the system's cross-region viewing permissions to open a forum in a foreign region that had been defeated in this special event.

The moment you switch over, a suffocating sense of despair and desolation washes over you.

Unlike the bustling activity on the Nine Provinces Forum.

The forum in this defeated zone was particularly depressing, filled with cries of despair.

[It's all over—all the core Architect have been killed! The new version is definitely going to be a disaster! Basically all the decent community dungeons have been wiped out!]

Why is this happening? Didn't those big guilds say they would cooperate sincerely? Why are almost all the Architect being killed?!

[It's over—of the twenty players who went to the other world, eleven chose to betray us! Henry! Remy! Why did you betray us! You had the most Survival Points, the best equipment and skills in the entire region! Why did you betray us!]

[Because they're afraid of dying! Afraid of losing everything! Those bastards abandoned us to protect their High Sequence and top-tier equipment! For a better future!!!]

[Not only that, but in their eagerness to prove their loyalty, they killed our own people even more ruthlessly than the players from other worlds! Most of the remaining nine were killed by them!]

[Nine Provinces and Franca were the only two victors in this special event— Franca's victory was a Pyrrhic one, basically a fight to the death, but Nine Provinces was different. The Nine Provinces organization called the Coordination Bureau actually managed to protect its own Architect and even seemed to have killed the opposing Architect.]

[They're really bold! Didn't they produce an extremely outrageous Architect in Nine Provinces? Although they seem to be constantly criticizing him, I'm genuinely envious of the dungeon rewards. In this situation, they still dared to send people to another world and even killed the opposing Architect. Truly, centralized power is the only way to succeed.]

[They've been on the front lines since the game's inception, holding off the monsters. And look at our top players—it's ironic.]

We're doomed!

Looking at these words filled with despair, collapse, and undisguised envy of Nine Provinces.

Lu Xiu frowned slightly.

Objectively speaking, while the death of the core Architect is terrible, it's far from the end.

The Architect Association is not unique to Nine Provinces.

It's just that this foreign land didn't choose to keep the monsters at bay on the front lines.

Under immense pressure and life-or-death situations, the Architect Association over there have actually unleashed some of their potential, and it's said that the quality of their unofficial dungeons is slightly better than that of the Architect in Nine Provinces.

Of course—it doesn't seem to be much better, though.

But that's not the point.

The key point is...

The core Architect was killed.

It's true that we'll be at a disadvantage in the new version.

But it was only one version; it was far from being utterly hopeless.

Under pressure, new core Architect can always be cultivated.

What's truly devastating now is the screen filled with wails and despair. More terrifying than the loss of the dungeon's foundation is the complete collapse of the morale and cohesion of all players in a region.

Top-tier combatants, in order to protect themselves, frantically defected, even turning against their own people and slaughtering their own comrades—the trauma caused by such betrayal is devastating.

Once the morale of all players in the entire region is broken, and their backbone is ripped out by their own people, they may not even be able to get back on their feet.

Looking at those posts filled with despair, Lu Xiu couldn't help but think further ahead.

The game version will likely be continuously updated. This time it's Hunt and Watch, so there will definitely be newer and more brutal crossover events later on.

What should be done about this disorganized region now?

Even worse is----

What if one day the system completely removes this so-called physical isolation and border closures?

If the entire world is to be considered as a whole to match the opponent----

Looking around, apart from a few exceptional regions like Nine Provinces, the rest were all fragmented areas, their morale shattered and devoid of fighting spirit by their own people. How should this situation be handled? Should Nine Provinces alone fight against the combined invasion of countless other worlds?

Thinking about this, Lu Xiu felt a bit overwhelmed.

----This feels awful.

She shook her head vigorously.

"Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore."

The girl put aside all the heavy speculations in her mind about the world structure and the direction of the future version.

These massive global crises seem beyond her current capabilities to resolve.

Moreover, worrying about things that are about to happen at this moment is pointless, and being anxious is even more useless.

Her shoulders are so small—she can't bear such a big responsibility.

These are not things she should be considering.

She currently only has one primary job.

Lu Xiu took a deep breath, her thoughts gradually gathering in her eyes. She closed the forum and then pulled the window next to her back.

"Let's strengthen ourselves first----"

Lu Xiu's fair fingertips landed lightly on the virtual keyboard again, regardless of what mess the world would become in the future, regardless of whether border blockades would disappear.

At the very least, you must ensure that you can survive no matter what.

Coordination Bureau.

Yan Fushou sat in the chair, touched his bald head, and looked helpless.

He actually understood it very well.

Since Lu Xiu herself strongly resisted living with others, and her strength had now been proven in actual combat.

There's absolutely no need for the Coordination Bureau to forcibly arrange any close protection.

After all, forcing her to make arrangements might unnecessarily provoke her resentment and damage the tacit understanding that the Coordination Bureau and she had worked so hard to build.

In Yan Fushou's opinion, the best way to handle this is to have someone stand guard at Lu Xiu's door to help her with daily chores and handle emergency contacts.

He tried his best to explain to Jian Li, but Jian Li just looked at him quietly and then started to daydream.

at last.

Yan Fushou had no way to persuade her, and indeed had no way to deal with this girl, so he could only surrender and let Jian Li persuade Lu Xiu herself.

Jian Li then left.

What kind of people are under my command?

Yan Fushou rubbed his throbbing temples, took a deep breath, and struggled to gather his scattered thoughts before looking up at the players returning from the Otherworld Prison Rock.

Of the twenty pioneer slots for this voluntary hunt in the other world, the Strategy Group occupied ten.

Although some results were achieved, the process was extremely brutal.

After all, it's impossible to escape unscathed when you're on someone else's turf, facing heavy encirclement and Architect.

Of the players in this Strategy Group, only five returned unscathed.

It's slightly better than Prison Rock.

All five, including Shen Nian who had completed the beheading, looked exhausted.

As for the other five players who lost all their skill equipment, they have already taken the equipment and items from the Coordination Bureau's inventory and gone to farm dungeons, preparing to get back into the top tier as quickly as possible.

Thank you all for your hard work.

Yan Fushou looked at the five members in front of him who still carried a faint killing intent. His gaze lingered for a moment on Shen Nian, who had only recently joined the Coordination Bureau but had already killed the enemy Architect.

Then, getting straight to the point, he asked, "Now that you're back, tell me in detail, what's the overall situation with Prison Rock?"

Upon hearing Yan Fushou's question, the five people who had returned unharmed exchanged glances.

Finally, Shen Nian spoke first.

The girl, who had only recently joined the Coordination Bureau, still had a gentle and graceful demeanor, but perhaps because she had just experienced a fierce life-or-death battle, a faint killing intent lingered around her.

"The environment around Prison Rock is very harsh, like some kind of wasteland."

Recalling the scene she had witnessed not long ago, Shen Nian gently adjusted her glasses with the back of her hand and said softly, "As for the players' strength, their overall stats and skill levels are not much different from those in our Nine Provinces; there is no absolute gap."

"But their fighting style is more reckless, or rather—more insane, often trading injury for injury without considering the consequences."

Yan Fushou nodded, then continued, "So how did you manage to kill the opposing Architect under those circumstances?"

"It's mostly based on luck."

Shen Nian gently shook her head, not boasting about her achievements. "I died too many times in Lu Xiu's Sekiro dungeon—and the first thing I learned there was how to survive, how to kite, hide, and maneuver when surrounded by several high-level monsters."

"The players on Prison Rock were indeed well-prepared, and their fighting style was quite aggressive, but in terms of the oppressive feeling of a siege, they were still lacking compared to a dungeon where one's own abilities were completely limited—"

"With the help of my teammates who risked their lives to break through my defenses and create a momentary opening, I was able to seize the opportunity and deliver the fatal blow."

Speaking of which...

Shen Nian sighed, "But unfortunately—once the opposing Architect died, the players of Prison Rock went completely mad. From then on, we were basically powerless to do anything but endlessly flee and be hunted down until the passage closed and we were forcibly teleported back."

Yan Fushou nodded slowly, then asked again, "What about Zhang Chongshan? What exactly happened to him?"

"We don't know either."

Shen Nian frowned her beautiful eyebrows, then shook her head. "They didn't act with us. Those ten of them wanted to kill Helag's ranked number one in influence—"

Do you know their IDs?

Yan Fushou continued to ask.

Shen Nian said she didn't know him.

However, the other members of the Strategy Group clearly remembered them and started reciting the player IDs they recognized.

Yan Fushou nodded, noted down the IDs one by one, and then looked at Shen Nian again. "So, what level of reward did the system give you for killing the core Architect of Prison Rock this time?"

It seemed they were afraid Shen Nian would overthink things.

Yan Fushou thought for a moment, then added, "Don't misunderstand, that's your personal gain. The Coordination Bureau won't ask you to hand it over. I just need to know what you got—especially what was mentioned in the system announcement, what kind of effects did the Title and skill you obtained have?"

"I got so many Survival Points and items. It's the first time I've ever gotten so much stuff. As for the Title— "

Shen Nian replied truthfully, "It granted me a skill that allows me to enter a void-like passage, where I won't be harmed or locked onto by attacks from any regular space for five seconds. Moreover, it provides a damage bonus for assassinations."

"Are we moving in the void?"

Yan Fushou raised an eyebrow slightly, silently elevating Shen Nian's importance in his mind.

Based on the description, it's extremely useful for both survival and infiltration.

As for skills----

Shen Nian thought for a moment, and this time she didn't explain it directly with words.

Instead, she reached out her slender hand and pulled the weapon directly from her backpack.

A flash of light.

An extremely exaggerated long sword, almost as tall as her, appeared out of thin air in her hand.

The overall shape of the sword is somewhat like a nodachi—but the dark red scabbard is covered with intricate patterns, making it impossible to tell whether it's a weapon from the Prison Rock region or a weapon from Nine Provinces.

Shen Nian held the extra-long sword, which was completely out of character for her gentle and refined demeanor, horizontally in front of her.

Then.

As her pretty, shoulder-length short hair swayed slightly in the still office, she gripped the knife handle and slowly drew it out.

A crisp and sharp clang of a blade suddenly rang out.

The moment the blade is drawn from its sheath.

The space seemed to be torn apart, and the surrounding air trembled slightly.

The next second.

No one in the office saw Shen Nian swing the knife; they only saw a very thin, pure black line appear in the air.

Next.

Click.

A soft, crisp sound.

The ceramic teacup in front of Yan Fushou suddenly split into two pieces without warning.

The upper half of the cup landed on the table.

The tea spilled out instantly.

The sharp wind continued to blow forward, passing the person sitting in front of the cup.

Yan Fushou's stubbornly thinning hair on both sides of his head was severed in large clumps by the wind, then scattered away.

The others had clearly already seen this move before, and their expressions remained relatively calm.

As for Yan Fushou ----

He touched the side of his ear, then silently lowered his head, glanced at his beloved cup that had been split in two, and then at the table soaked with tea. The words of praise he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

He abruptly raised his head, looking at the girl wielding the long knife with a hint of despair. "No way—if you're going to show off your skills, then show them off, why are you cutting my cup?!"

"Ah!"

Just a second ago, Shen Nian was exuding an aura of unparalleled power, like a peerless swordsman cleaving through space. Suddenly, he came back to his senses.

Seeing the horrific scene on the table, she panicked and shoved the long knife back into her backpack.

Then, she stepped forward, her gentle face filled with embarrassment and apology. "I'm so sorry! Director, I just wanted to demonstrate my skill to you—"

Watching Shen Nian frantically searching for tissues to help wipe the table.

Yan Fushou leaned back in his chair, feeling utterly exhausted, and rubbed his smooth forehead in pain once more.

Jian Li is completely unwilling to listen to advice.

Wei Yidong someone who is usually disliked by everyone and is loud and boisterous.

Now there's another one: Shen Nian, who looks gentle and honest, but will draw her sword and smash her boss's cup and the few remaining strands of hair at the slightest provocation.

What kind of people are working under my command?!

Sorry, the next chapter will be an hour later.

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