"Master, are you all right?"
After pinning the ferocious beast down with gravity, Issho turned to check on Lin Xiaoran. He could hear her rapid breathing and heartbeat, clearly her body's instinctive reaction to being frightened.
"Phew! I'm fine!"
Lin Xiaoran steadied her breathing and gradually calmed down.
She could be forgiven for being an ordinary person who actually had to experience and face something this dangerous. In her previous life, something like this would have been simply unimaginable!
But Lin Xiaoran knew that if she wanted to keep going in the National Fortune Survival Game, this was something she had to work hard to face and adapt to!
That included killing other competitors!
Because the National Fortune Game would not give Lin Xiaoran another chance. If she made even one mistake, she would really die!
She had no idea whether she could get another chance to transmigrate, so Lin Xiaoran had to learn and master the means of surviving in this world as soon as possible!
"Uncle Issho, sorry for the trouble. Please finish it off."
Lin Xiaoran gazed seriously at the ferocious beast pinned inside the large crater, unable to get up and only able to roar incessantly, and signaled for Issho to act.
"Leave it to this old man."
Issho drew his Cane Sword, intensified his power, and swung forward. "Hell's Journey!"
Boom!
Overwhelming gravity descended on the ferocious beast's body, crushing it along with the entire crater, shattering everything into fragments!
Afterward, a deep pit appeared before Lin Xiaoran, so deep its bottom was invisible, as though it led straight to the heart of hell!
In theory, Lin Xiaoran should not have been able to see the extremely bloody scene of the ferocious beast being crushed into fragments, because it happened too quickly. But she had kept her Observation Haki perception active, so she witnessed the entire process of the beast turning into fragments with perfect clarity, as though in slow motion.
It looked just like a tomato being squeezed hard in someone's hand, bright red tomato juice bursting straight out. The sight made Lin Xiaoran's stomach churn.
"Urgh!"
Lin Xiaoran turned away to vomit.
[Oh my god! What terrifying power!]
[You actually can't even see the bottom of that pit!]
[Uncle Issho is amazing!]
[Speaking of which, isn't this the strongest Heroic Spirit ever summoned in terms of combat power?!]
[Lin Xiaoran is so lucky! She summoned an incredibly powerful Heroic Spirit!]
[Uh, what's wrong with Lin Xiaoran?]
[Obviously, she must have been frightened by that ferocious beast suddenly appearing! She's only an eighteen-year-old kid, after all!]
[Lin Xiaoran, stay strong!]
[That's right! Student Lin! This is the National Fortune Survival Game! You need to adapt quickly!]
The viewers from Country L all cheered excitedly, applauding Issho's performance and encouraging Lin Xiaoran, even though the two could not see it!
But the viewers from other countries who had come to watch Lin Xiaoran's livestream were not so happy, especially those few who had made the biggest fuss. Now, not only had they fallen completely silent, they immediately rushed back to their own challengers' livestreams to spread the news.
The U.S. challenger's livestream:
[Bad news! Country L's Master summoned an incredibly powerful Heroic Spirit! He can control gravity! He has superpowers!]
[What?! They're that lucky? Who's the challenger?]
[An eighteen-year-old, really pretty JK girl!]
[Who the fuck asked you that?!]
[Her name is Lin Xiaoran!]
[Come on, let's go! Head to Lin Xiaoran's livestream!]
E Country's challenger's livestream:
[An incredibly powerful Heroic Spirit?]
[What's there to fear?! Our great hero Andrei's Heroic Spirit is no slouch either! He's the Barbarian King!]
[I believe Andrei will lead us to victory again!]
Although many people said that, quite a few still silently went to Lin Xiaoran's livestream and watched closely, afraid that Lin Xiaoran's Heroic Spirit might surpass Andrei's.
Soon, Country L's viewers noticed the explosive increase in the viewer count. Fortunately, every incoming viewer automatically had their country's name added in front of theirs.
Country L: [Tsk, tsk, aren't these the people from Country R? You were talking so big just now. Why aren't you saying anything now?]
Country R: [Hmph! It's just a mere F-rank ferocious beast. Our Tanaka Ning could kill it too! She just hasn't encountered one yet!]
Country L: [Where are E Country's viewers? Didn't you say our challenger Lin Xiaoran had no sense of national honor? Hey, has your great hero killed a ferocious beast yet?]
E Country: [I admit Lin Xiaoran's Heroic Spirit is powerful, but she's just a little luckier!]
Country L: [Heh, just wait and see! The time will come when you can't keep talking tough!]
Inside the game instance.
[Announcement: Challenger Master Lin Xiaoran from Country L and her Heroic Spirit Fujitora Issho have successfully achieved the first kill of an F-rank ferocious beast, earning one F-rank treasure chest! Points +5!]
As soon as the first kill announcement appeared, all the challengers silently stopped to check the information.
After reading the information, Andrei, the previous round's winner, smiled casually. "Someone snatched the first kill? That's fine. First place will still be mine!"
In the previous round, his Heroic Spirit had only been a bear-headed man, but this round, his Heroic Spirit had become the Barbarian King!
Several times stronger than the bear-headed man! There was no way he could lose!
Many people had little reaction to the announcement. After all, it was only an F-rank ferocious beast.
But many other challengers grew even more nervous, because the Heroic Spirits they had summoned might not even be a match for an F-rank ferocious beast! Naturally, that meant they would be no match for this Master from Country L either!
Nothing but cannon fodder!
[Announcement: Challenger Master Grelis from Country LMJ and his Heroic Spirit have been killed by an E-rank ferocious beast, the Gale Snake, and have been eliminated!] [National fortune penalties: 1. The rate of increase in disease among all residents of LMJ Country rises by 5%! 2. Ten thousand E-rank ferocious beasts, Gale Snakes, will be randomly deployed across the country!]
[Announcement: Challenger from Country RL...]
As the game got underway, challengers began to be eliminated.
Usually, this happened because the Heroic Spirits summoned by the Masters were too weak, since all challengers started at the outermost edges, where the dangers they encountered were not that great.
Unless a very few individuals were particularly unlucky and started directly within the territory of a ferocious beast's lair. Their survival rate was virtually zero!
After vomiting for a while, Lin Xiaoran also noticed the notification from her silver bracelet. She opened the light screen and glanced at the current game instance's points ranking. There were 200 people in total, and unsurprisingly, she currently stood at the top.
At the very bottom of the rankings, two or three names had already turned black, indicating that they had died.
This was the cruelty of the National Fortune Game. The weak who lacked strength and luck would be mercilessly eliminated.
Had Lin Xiaoran not been lucky enough to obtain a transmigrator's golden finger, she would probably have been in a different, miserable situation now. Perhaps she might already have died.
"Master, come take a look. There's a treasure chest here," Issho called to Lin Xiaoran.
"Coming!" Lin Xiaoran pulled herself together and went over to Issho's side, where she saw a chest beside the abyss that Issho's move-Hell's Journey-had smashed into the ground.
An F-rank treasure chest!
This was the first kill reward!