Chapter 15 System Anomaly

“You guys noticed that the ‘commentary’ disappeared, right?” Gui Xiao continued.

“Yes…” Uncle Worthless replied, “But… compared to that, the current situation is much stranger.”

Gui Xiao followed up, “The nature is the same; both are system anomalies.”

“How is that possible?” Corpse Blade the King said, “Maybe these are just special settings for the Pinnacle Showdown? Like… after a player dies, the corpse is preserved, but the person is actually back in the login space.”

“Heh… at first, I thought so too, but…” Shiva said with a wry smile.

Gui Xiao took over, “But, we discovered that even the operation to voluntarily exit the script cannot be performed.”

“What?” Uncle Worthless turned his head in surprise.

“Ha! I won’t fall for that!” Corpse Blade the King sneered, “You think that if you say a few serious-sounding sentences, I’ll voluntarily try to ‘exit the script’?” He shrugged. “Isn’t this trick too childish? It’s the same as back in the game when people taught others to press ‘Alt+f4’ to start a cheat, or enter ‘disband guild’ to transfer the guild leader position. If I try it, it’s like being tricked into exiting the script.”

“In the game menu, the option to exit the script needs to be ‘confirmed’ before it can be executed,” Gui Xiao continued. “You wouldn’t not know that, would you?”

“Hmm… indeed… no confirmation window popped up after selecting it,” Uncle Worthless muttered from the side, seemingly already trying it.

“Besides… if the two of us wanted you out of the script, would we need to use such methods?” Shiva said, “Killing you would give us points; what good would it do to trick you into quitting yourself?”

Although these words weren’t very polite, they were the truth. Corpse Blade the King pondered for a moment and immediately opened the game menu to try the option to exit the script. The result… indeed, there was no response, and the window for “confirming” the exit operation didn’t pop up at all.

“The most ridiculous thing is… even the option to directly disconnect the neural connection is malfunctioning.” Gui Xiao saw Corpse Blade the King’s shock value increase from a data perspective, so he added another blow.

“Hey… doesn’t that mean…” Corpse Blade the King’s face became extremely unsightly.

“…we’re trapped in the game and can’t get out,” Uncle Worthless finished his sentence. Even beads of cold sweat were streaming down his forehead.

…

Beside the dried-up blood lake, a blurry shadow slowly approached.

The shadow was about two meters tall, and the outline suggested it was a person, but on both sides of its forehead, at the temples, grew a pair of large ram horns, curved and pointing forward.

Its body was constantly absorbing the surrounding dark energy, and a radius of fifty meters around it was enveloped by an invisible, chaotic power. Even the moonlight couldn’t completely penetrate this barrier, so its figure was always a blur.

At this moment, Drunk and Melancholy, Raw Fish Fillet, and Wusi Canxuan, who were watching from a distance, all wore solemn expressions, as if facing a formidable enemy. Because they already knew the identity of this shadow; it was [Head of All Demons], one of the Four Pillar Gods.

Of course, they hadn’t fought this monster, but they had seen a CG cutscene about the ancient war of the gods in a previous script.

“That giant blood zombie looked fierce enough, but I didn’t expect that three-headed, six-armed, half-human, half-snake monster to be even fiercer…” Drunk and Melancholy muttered.

“I thought that half-snake person who instantly killed the blood zombie was already insanely fierce…” Raw Fish Fillet couldn’t help but complain, “I didn’t expect it to flee in such a panic.”

Wusi Canxuan added, “Combining the half-snake person’s reaction, and that sentence in the script description, ‘Blood rain falls, the demon head comes’… the shadow over there right now is undoubtedly the Head of All Demons…”

“Mmm…” The three of them voiced a long, drawn-out groan in unison.

“Now, reanalyzing the rules of the final… the last two sentences are quite intriguing…” Raw Fish Fillet repeated thoughtfully, “[Kills completed with the help of forces within this world will grant one point. When only two players remain in the script, killing the opponent by any means will grant five points]… these two sentences themselves provide players with a tactical approach.”

“That’s right… under the setting of a battle royale, apart from us in the same guild colluding like this, the fifty players in the final are essentially fifty opposing individuals.” Drunk and Melancholy continued, “Everyone’s survival value and stamina value are limited. As the saying goes… ‘Even if your body is made of iron, how many nails can you hammer?’ Even that kid Gui Xiao, on such a large map, can only encounter and kill so many opponents. Following the conventional approach of wandering around the city to find targets to fight, getting more than ten points in a single match would already be very impressive. By then, even if you don’t die, your opponents will have died quite a bit.” He paused. “However… if you can get the help of the Four Pillar Gods, the situation will be very different. Let the NPCs act as assassins, while you hide in the shadows, on guard. It seems that the point gains are not as good as personally going into battle, but think about it carefully; from the perspective of safety and consumption, it’s very profitable. Moreover, every point you gain means the other competitors lose two points. In this way… if you can successfully survive to the end, you can also get an extra five points in one go.”

“A strategy of inciting infighting, killing with a borrowed knife…” Wusi Canxuan muttered, “Should we… go over and negotiate with this deity?”

…

City North, on the rooftop of the shopping center.

Guided by the Penitent, Feng Bujue arrived here.

On the edge of the rooftop, a huge skeletal spirit was floating in mid-air, seemingly waiting for Jue-ge’s arrival.

And beside the Spirit Thief, stood (let’s just assume it’s standing) a half-human, half-snake monster with three heads and six arms. This was naturally the Bloodthirsty Demon who had fled from the blood lake to report.

“Hi, hello to both of you.” Although Feng Bujue didn’t like interacting with people, he could instantly display Wei Xiaobao-like diplomatic skills when necessary. “The moonlight is lovely tonight, and you two big brothers look great. The wind is a bit noisy today…”

“Mad Detective Feng, I’ve heard many rumors about you…” The Spirit Thief interrupted him. “Some say you are frivolous, some say you are cautious, some say you are clever, and some say you are a madman…” Using parallel sentences usually indicates that this NPC’s thinking is very clear and not easily tricked. “So, you don’t need to pretend to be flattering in front of me. Nor do you need to try to provoke me and make me lose my cool judgment.” With just a few words, it sealed the two most powerful weapons (performance and mockery) in Jue-ge’s diplomatic arsenal.

“I hope our conversation can be more candid.” The Spirit Thief turned around and stared at Feng Bujue with its empty eye sockets. “Let’s get straight to the point… your purpose…”