Finn

Lu Xiu stopped in her tracks.

She had reached the edge of the enormous terrace, beyond the wall, where a churning, hazy sea of clouds and a bottomless Abyss lay before her.

The transportation hub, which should have been a strategic point and heavily guarded, was now completely empty, without a single person in sight.

Clearly, those players who were originally fighting here or planning to set up camp left immediately after learning that she was coming.

"Perfect timing, no one's competing for Didi's ride-hailing service."

Looking at the empty terrace, Lu Xiu quickened her pace again, while casually putting the [Nameless Blade] back into her system inventory.

Behind her, a deafening roar, like an earthquake, grew ever closer.

to be honest.

----That's actually a bit scary.

Although Lu Xiu was thinking this, she didn't turn her head back. Instead, she lunged forward and grabbed the little Demon's leg.

"Sifu! Let's go!"

The little Demon, already terrified by the grand spectacle behind Lu Xiu, flapped its wings and immediately took to the air.

Lu Xiu was also lifted into the air, soaring straight into the sky.

Boom!!!!

At the same time.

Ornstein's Dragonslayer Spear and Smough's giant hammer collided with a deafening crash at the edge of the terrace where Lu Xiu had been standing!

The terrifying energy explosion directly smashed half of the sturdy suspended terrace, sending countless huge boulders, accompanied by smoke and dust, crashing into the bottomless Abyss.

The gale subsided.

Lu Xiu lowered her head slightly in mid-air, looking down at the scene below.

At the edge of the broken terrace, two top-tier bosses, resembling demons, roared furiously at the sky, having lost their targets.

Behind them was a densely packed army of monsters that filled the entire terrace.

The system's live stream camera very considerately gave Lu Xiu a close-up view from above, then slowly pulled up, escorting her as the Demon steadily led her into the depths of the dim, yellow sea of clouds.

At the same time.

Those players from Prison Rock and Nine Provinces who had been lingering far behind Lu Xiu, not daring to approach but simply following, whether waiting for Lu Xiu to exhaust herself or for her to be forced to stop, finally arrived at the edge of the outer city, panting heavily.

Then, the leader, Prison Rock, and the High Sequence players from Nine Provinces witnessed a hellish scene.

"This—this is—"

The suspended terrace connecting the Anor Londo to the outside area was now completely filled with two berserk top-tier bosses, as well as countless Silver Knight and Anor Londo giants.

Because of Lu Xiu's departure, the monsters instantly lost their target of hatred. Like a swarm of headless flies, they all crowded around the key transportation hub, pacing back and forth restlessly, completely blocking all paths.

"Damn it!!! She's brought all the monsters from the entire Anor Londo here to block the road!!!"

"She's kept us locked up!"

"You're insane!!!"

"I'm here to fight, not to go to jail!"

The players in Prison Rock screamed in despair.

I'm devastated.

All exits from the entire Anor Londo were completely blocked.

Now, if they want to leave the Anor Londo, they only have two choices: either fight their way through this army of monsters!

Or...

Engage in direct PvP battles within the Anor Londo to seize a rare, possibly unique, Lordvessel.

More importantly...

----They probably don't have any foreign aid yet.

Because all the players who want to come to help land on this terrace.

The terrace was now packed with people. As soon as the players landed, they were greeted by Smough's giant hammer, Ornstein's spear, and hundreds of Silver Knight lining the way.

Who could withstand this!

We can't get out.

I can't get in.

Furthermore, the most outrageous thing is!

Lu Xiu just killed a bunch of Prison Rock players, including two Chosen Player!

They even lured the monster away!

The Anor Londo was now half-empty, leaving little room for maneuver.

The balance of power between the two factions in the entire Anor Londo is now unbalanced.

Tessa, the leader of the Prison Rock faction who replaced Ray and Enoch and led the Prison Rock Prison Rock players to catch up, saw this scene and stiffly and slowly turned her head.

"Hey-hey."

Fan Lixin noticed Tessa's gaze, chuckled, and behind him, the Nine Provinces players, whose numbers far exceeded those of Prison Rock, began to rub their hands together in anticipation.

"Run!"

Without any hesitation, Tessa shouted it out.

Then, leading the remaining players from Prison Rock, he started running deeper into the Anor Londo, shouting as he ran, "Get Zane over here! Use his Chosen Skill to block the monsters! Then come and provide support! Otherwise, you're doomed!!!"

We're trapped!! We can't enter the Painted World even without the Eerie Puppet! What kind of crazy plan is this! What kind of crazy plan is this, Prime Minister! When you were making this plan, you should have thought about what the Architect of Nine Provinces would do!!"

"Chase!"

Upon seeing this, Fan Lixin waved his hand.

The players from Nine Provinces roared and chased after them.

The battle royale has begun.

Um.

Players from Nine Provinces are following.

The player Prison Rock escaped.

[Nine Provinces Live Room]

They watched helplessly as Lu Xiu took to the air, leaving behind a bunch of monsters, and then the battle royale began.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the player burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha----What the heck? How did it suddenly turn out like this?"

"Awesome! He single-handedly blocked off the Anor Londo Anor Londo and trapped all the players inside."

"The most outrageous thing is that they even created a numerical advantage, and the chase begins----"

"That's absolutely incredible! It's foreseeable that without external assistance, the Anor Londo will be completely wiped out by the Nine Provinces from the Prison Rock!"

"Hahaha! Look at the expressions on Prison Rock Yan's group's faces, they probably wish they were dead right now!"

"Who would have thought that in less than half an hour, Lu Xiu would bring such a huge advantage? This is the Architect of our Nine Provinces! Beautiful! And has a great figure! Beautiful! And has a great figure!"

"She's not going to put on an act anymore? What does that have to do with her actions?"

"Awesome."

[Prison Rock's Livestream]

The atmosphere grew even more tense.

Especially seeing Tessa leading the Prison Rock players being forced to run away by sheer force.

The already limited confidence of the players in Prison Rock.

It suffered another major blow.

We can't win.

There's no way we can win.

Forget about the "Chosen Player.

There's no way to deal with such a Architect —there's simply no way to deal with him.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Prime Minister, equally powerless, slumped back into his large chair.

He was starting to feel discouraged.

On the other side...

Lu Xiu was unaware of the cat-and-mouse game unfolding in the Anor Londo at that moment.

However, the consequences of luring the two bases and most of the monsters in the Anor Londo to the terrace to block the road were significant.

She had thought about it.

However, based on what she had seen and heard along the way, she roughly knew that in the Anor Londo, after the group of Prison Rock players on the steps were killed, the Nine Provinces players had the advantage in numbers.

As long as Fan Lixin and other High Sequence players from Nine Provinces aren't completely brain-dead, they could absolutely take over the Anor Londo with overwhelming force.

Since that's the case.

To prevent players from the Prison Rock from catching up and causing trouble, let's just block the road.

Whether the players trapped inside the Prison Rock would have a mental breakdown was not within her consideration.

As Lu Xiu's thoughts drifted, the howling wind in her ears gradually subsided.

The little Demon threw Lu Xiu down.

Lu Xiu snapped back to her senses, landed steadily, and then slowly straightened up, her high ponytail swaying gently in the breeze of the ancient city.

This is the very top of the Sen's Fortress.

In stark contrast to the magnificent and resplendent architecture of the Anor Londo, this ancient city was much more dilapidated.

There are no players yet.

But thinking about it, it makes sense.

If you're located at the top of the Sen's Fortress, it's better to go straight to the Anor Londo than to turn back and face the rolling stones and the boys and girls rushing forward.

After all, the mechanisms of the Sen's Fortress were far too sinister.

"So----"

Lu Xiu glanced around. "Next, let's run to the Darkroot Garden as fast as we can."

1

Next, she had to run down from the very top of the Sen's Fortress, level by level.

Bypassing the snake-man guards, dodging the rolling stones that could crush a person into mincemeat, and navigating the Great Axe traps swaying across the log bridge—

to be honest.

The journey was quite long.

but.

It is a bit long.

But it's not exactly difficult.

Lu Xiu stood atop the fortress, hopped lightly twice, and then strode down the stone steps toward the Sen's Fortress.

She began to follow the original route on the map, running into the perilous ancient city in the most conventional way.

Then, countless viewers in the live stream witnessed what it truly meant to be outrageously skilled.

A narrow stone bridge, less than half a meter wide.

Four heavy swing axes, stained with dark brown blood, were wildly slashing and cutting with an extremely irregular, hellish frequency, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound.

Any player would have to stop here, stare at the trajectory of the swinging axe, and calculate the fleeting opening in their mind.

But Lu Xiu did not.

Without even stopping, she maintained her steady running pace and stepped directly onto the stone bridge.

Swish, swish, swish!

The heavy swinging axe whistled past.

She had just run past when the first axe fell; the second axe swung by, and she stopped abruptly and adjusted her pace with remarkable ease; the third, the fourth—

She didn't make any unnecessary evasive maneuvers; she simply relied on her control of the route and her body to pass through very quickly.

Not even the hem of her clothes was touched.

Just after crossing the stone bridge, at the corner of the passage, a tall snake-man guard roared and pounced out, his greatsword slashing down with a stench!

As if she had a premonition, Lu Xiu decisively performed a forward roll.

Using the brief invincibility frames during her roll, she deftly rolled past the snake-man guard as if she were piercing through a sword blade.

He got up and, without the slightest hesitation, continued running down the stairs.

Before the snake-man guard could even turn his bulky body, Lu Xiu's ponytail had already disappeared around the corner.

Rumble rumble rumble----

As soon as I ran down the stone steps, a dull rumble came from the depths of the passage.

Huge, round boulders rolled wildly down the narrow slope with the force to crush everything in their path!

Despite the unavoidable trap, Lu Xiu did not slow down.

She ran downhill against the rolling stones, and just as she and the stones were about to collide, she suddenly took a step toward an inconspicuous groove in the right wall of the slope, her body slightly leaning inward.

Boom!

A huge boulder whizzed past her shoulder, the gust of wind whipping up her high ponytail.

As soon as the rolling stone passed, Lu Xiu immediately stepped back onto the main path and continued running down the slope.

Run, roll, sidestep, dodge.

The whole process was smooth and seamless.

She didn't kill any monsters, nor did she show off any amazing skills; she was simply running around the map.

It follows the original game flow exactly, a monotonous map-running experience!

But it was precisely this pure, extreme map running that brought an even more exaggerated shock to the viewers in the live stream than the previous two basic moves.

Nine Provinces Live Room, including Prison Rock's Live Room.

Seeing this scene...

After a brief pause, the comments section exploded with a deluge of messages.

"----That's it?"

"It's so smooth—it really is so smooth, without the slightest bit of stiffness. Every step, every roll, feels like muscle memory etched into our DNA."

"Is this what Architect is? Now I finally understand why Lu Xiu's dungeon constructions were so torturous—because for her, they really weren't torturous at all!"

"The Sen's Fortress —is it really that simple? Why does this place suddenly not feel like the underworld anymore?"

"That's because the one running the map right now is Architect! Architect from Nine Provinces!"

Watching the girl on the screen, moving with ease and leisurely through the traps and monsters.

The same thought crossed the minds of all the audience members.

This is hardly a survival exercise in a perilous ancient city.

This guy's probably just strolling around his own backyard!

Less than ten minutes.

Lu Xiu had already appeared at the exit of the lowest level of the Sen's Fortress.

Players in both Nine Provinces and Prison Rock's live streams fell into a long, deathly silence.

Only a few scattered comments appeared.

"Did we really clear the same dungeon as her???"

no way.

It's so smooth!

In the past, countless High Sequence players have struggled and died in this ancient city filled with malice and hellish traps.

But now, the Architect is telling them that they can actually complete the game in ten minutes.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, who would believe that I could run that far from the Sen's Fortress?

If this is the level of Architect...

----It's not like the other people haven't seen other Architect before!

How could someone be so skilled!

Inside the arena, Lu Xiu was unaware that countless spectators outside were questioning their very existence because of her speedrun performance.

She stepped out of the dark and oppressive ancient city gate and arrived at the stone-paved passageway connecting the two areas.

Although the light outside was still dim, the air here was much fresher than the suffocating smell of blood and dampness inside the fortress.

This is probably because the Sen's Fortress has many traps and mechanisms.

The monster couldn't catch her.

This time, unlike in the Anor Londo, there wasn't a bunch of little tails following behind.

Good thing.

Lu Xiu looked up, let out a long sigh of relief, and continued forward.

soon.

Ding ding ding.

A rhythmic and regular clanging sound came from the underground staircase not far ahead.

The instant I heard that sound.

Lu Xiu relaxed.

Any player familiar with this instance knows what that monotonous clanging sound means.

This is simply the most beautiful melody in the world.

It means safety, it means Bonfire, it means no monster will suddenly stab you in the back.

Lu Xiu walked down the stairs with light steps.

In the dim underground, the firelight flickered.

A tall Blacksmith was intently wielding his hammer, striking the red-hot iron block on the anvil.

Lu Xiu jumped down.

The Blacksmith paused in his work, then glanced at Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu didn't mind; this was a friendly boss.

I definitely won't attack her.

Besides, she was just passing through.

She skillfully bypassed the Blacksmith and turned to head towards the Darkroot Garden.

Under normal circumstances.

I left the Blacksmith's workshop.

You will encounter a headless Demon wandering around.

Once she got past the Demon and stepped out the door, she would reach her destination: the border between the Black Forest and the Darkroot Garden.

However.

When Lu Xiu stepped out of the stone door and entered the room where the Demon was,

But then he suddenly stopped.

The room was empty, devoid of Titanite Demon, with only a pool of black ash on the floor that hadn't fully refreshed yet.

And next to that pool of ashes, where the Demon should have stood.

At this moment, there is a person standing there.

A tall man, bare-handed and also with a ponytail.

Hearing Lu Xiu's footsteps, the man slowly turned around.

The dim firelight illuminated the red enemy faction ID above his head.

[Finn, Sequence 31].