Are You Messing with Me?!

Lu Xiu was completely unaware of the commotion outside.

now.

She has already entered the arena.

It wasn't easy—after all that effort, we finally made it to the ring.

The transmitted Bai Guang faded away.

Lu Xiu took in the surrounding scene.

The narrow, cramped passageway, the moldy, peeling paint on the walls, and the brightly colored street graffiti covering both sides of the walls.

This is a scene from the Sifu's instance.

According to the rules of the recapture operation.

The same instance used as the arena during the initial capture will be used during the recapture battle.

"Sifu ----"

Looking at the all-too-familiar the Squats, Lu Xiu felt a pang of nostalgia.

Although not much time has passed since she created this instance.

But she really rarely enters the same instance multiple times.

Generally speaking, if the dungeon doesn't offer any rewards that particularly interest her.

Once she verifies that she has cleared a dungeon, she won't go to the same dungeon again.

After all, with more skills, she wasn't as lacking in skills as she was when she played Sekiro, and as Architect, she was extremely familiar with the dungeons she built.

----After a moment of reflection.

Lu Xiu slightly turned her wrist, took out the Nameless Blade from her system inventory, and then walked towards the depths of the alley, increasing her blinking frequency and beginning to use her Reverse Visual Imagery skill to sense her surroundings and search for the Prison Rock player.

Fighting is important.

But she didn't forget her main purpose: to see how the instance functioned as an arena.

Let's go and see.

And then they crossed a fence blocking their way.

Lu Xiu spotted a familiar enemy from the instance—the man was wearing a black vest and had tattoos all over his arms; he was clearly a low-level henchman guarding the gate.

That was the first enemy at the Squats checkpoint.

At the same time.

The henchman also saw Lu Xiu.

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever tried fighting dungeon monsters without using a character class—"

Lu Xiu looked at the familiar enemy, an expression of interest appearing on her face. She eagerly raised her knife, ready to give it a try.

However.

When the henchman met Lu Xiu's eyes, he didn't yell and deliver a superpowered straight punch like in the dungeon.

Instead, his body suddenly stiffened.

Then.

A look of fear suddenly appeared on his face, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight. He swallowed hard, instinctively took a step back, and turned to run away!

"White-Clad Shura!"

"The White-Clad Shura is here again!"

Accompanied by terrified cries.

The henchman, who should have been fearless, scrambled and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

He was running so frantically that he even bumped into a trash can.

Seeing this scene...

Lu Xiu, who was holding the Nameless Blade and ready to fight, froze in mid-air.

A question mark slowly appeared.

no.

Is this how dungeons function as arena settings?

And what exactly is the White-Clad Shura?

Where did I get such Title!?

Before she could think about it further...

I blinked again instinctively.

Through Reverse Visual Imagery, she saw "someone rushing towards this place at a terrifying speed."

Lu Xiu's heart skipped a beat. She immediately suppressed her doubts, turned around, and looked behind her.

Boom!

One side of the mottled brick wall shattered as if it were made of paper.

Amidst the flying dust and flying pebbles, a towering figure, as imposing as an iron tower, appeared before Lu Xiu, accompanied by a suffocating gale.

The guardian of Prison Rock, Blood Dusk, Sequence 20.

He was over two meters tall, clad in dark red armor, and wielding an exaggerated, serrated broadsword.

Just standing there.

The pressure is immense.

Especially considering that Lu Xiu, standing in front of him, didn't have much visual intimidation, the contrast was even more striking.

Blood Dusk was taken aback when he saw Lu Xiu.

He had expected to see a male warrior from Nine Provinces, but to his surprise, standing before him was a woman with a high ponytail, wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans, and with a graceful figure.

"Female?"

The excitement in Blood Dusk's eyes was replaced by astonishment.

They even forgot to take action.

He looked down at Lu Xiu, his rough voice filled with disbelief. "You're the core Architect of Nine Provinces?"

Although Helag of the Prison Rock is also a woman.

But the person in front of him was far too thin—more importantly, after experiencing those dungeons yesterday, the image of Architect that he subconsciously etched onto him didn't match the person in front of him at all.

"No, Zane and Ray seem to have said—you are a woman."

Blood Dusk casually rested his heavy serrated greatsword on the ground, recalling something he had previously considered unimportant. "----But are you sure there's no mistake? You defeated Zane and Ray? Are you kidding me? Those two idiots would say anything to cover up their defeat!"

Lu Xiu was also curiously observing the Prison Rock player in front of her, but she didn't reply.

Instead, he directly pulled out [Copper Coin - Real] from his backpack.

This ID wasn't mentioned in the information provided by the Strategy Group.

"Are you scared out of your wits? You don't even dare to speak?"

Lu Xiu ignored his question.

Blood Dusk was somewhat disappointed. "As expected, I really don't understand what those two idiots, Zane and Ray, were thinking—telling such an easily exposed lie. No matter how talented you are at Constructed Instance, the sequence can't lie. With such a huge difference in base attributes, even if you hone your combat skills to perfection, you still can't possibly beat Zane and Ray."

"What a farce—the information obtained from the last special event was probably all wrong; the royal family needs to reinvestigate it."

Seeing that Lu Xiu still remained silent.

Blood Dusk shook his head, seemingly finding it somewhat boring. "Forget it, let's end this commotion as soon as possible—"

But he hadn't finished speaking.

Lu Xiu moved.

----Sequence 20.

This ID wasn't mentioned in the information provided by the Strategy Group.

I don't know what skills it has or what its attributes are.

Let's play it safe for now.

They've revealed all their cards!

Lu Xiu looked at the Prison Rock player in front of her, thinking as she flicked her finger lightly.

A crisp sound rang out.

The copper coin traced a graceful arc in mid-air.

The moment it hovered, the ripples swept across the surroundings.

[Item Name: Genuine Copper Coin]

[Effect Description: The effect activates the moment a coin is tossed into the air and falls to its lowest point. Within a 15-meter radius of the user, the spacetime velocity is reduced to one-tenth. The user remains unaffected, and the effect lasts for three seconds.]

Blood Dusk, who had already raised his serrated greatsword, suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Not only him, but the dust flying all around, the mosquitoes hovering above the trash cans, and even the movement of the air all became strangely thick and slow at this moment.

Three seconds.

Lu Xiu silently counted down in her mind while activating her skills one by one.

"Audience" - Pull Blood Dusk into the Audience state!

Atypical Courage, high Mental Strength attribute is converted into an equivalent amount of strength and agility!

Extraordinary - Crippled, Fire Enchantment, prevents the opponent from having 100% physical defense.

Effect and Cause Severance and remove the currently active buffs from Blood Dusk.

Secret Technique: Dragon Flash. Let's see how high his defense is by striking him first.

On the other side.

Blood Dusk's mind was still functioning, but his body felt as if it were stuck in quagmire, extremely sluggish.

He stared wide-eyed in horror as the Posture Bar appeared above Lu Xiu's head.

Immediately afterwards, they discovered that the skill buffs on their bodies were suddenly severed and erased by some force.

Suddenly, a scorching flame rose from Lu Xiu's empty left hand.

Finally, he watched helplessly as Lu Xiu slowly sheathed her long sword in the empty scabbard beside her.

Blood Dusk's pupils began to tremble violently.

What happened? What happened? What happened?

outside world.

Players were still discussing the first recapture battle, and the absurd Sequence 2 vs. Sequence 20 matchup.

But soon...

They didn't bother with the discussion anymore.

because----

[System Announcement: The "Recapture Battle" in Area 05 is now open for spectators. All players can spectate by clicking on the battle area on the situation map.]

The moment this announcement appeared, all the players who hadn't yet been matched into the arena were stunned.

Then everyone immediately opened the situation map.

Even many players who were fighting in the arena kept their distance and turned to watch the battle.

Because everyone was curious.

What exactly are the core Architect of Nine Provinces doing?

Such a large sequence difference----

[Quick, quick, quick! This is the first time we've seen Lu Xiu fight someone!]

How am I supposed to fight this?

[There's even a live stream? Isn't that like a public execution???]

[----]

moment.

Countless people opened the spectator window.

However.

None of the players who opened the spectator window saw anything.

Everything was pitch black.

All I saw was a black screen.

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten seconds.

There's still no picture.

"?"

"??"

"?????"

forum.

[What does this mean? Is it loading? It's been almost half a minute and there's still no picture?]

[Damn it! System, are you kidding me?! You said I could spectate, where's the video?!]

[Yeah, what's wrong with the system?]

[Wait, what is this? The screen is black when I click on it?]

Just as countless players were cursing at the dark spectator window.

The system notification sound rang again.

[System Announcement: The recapture operation has ended.]

[Challenger: Nine Provinces · Lu Xiu (Sequence 2) - Victory!]

[Defender: Prison Rock Blood Dusk (Sequence 20) - Defeat!]

[Congratulations to the Nine Provinces faction for successfully retaking Area 05!]

[All players in Nine Provinces gain a 1% increase in all attributes; all players in Prison Rock lose a 1% decrease in all attributes!]

Everyone:

This will happen.

Gran isn't even dead yet.

He stared incredulously at the system announcement that followed the "observable battle" notification, declaring the end of the recapture battle.

What's the meaning?!

Just said we could watch the game----

And then they immediately said it was over?!

It was over in seconds?!