Chapter 41
Chapter 41
In the Horror Game Grand Slaughter Instance, each country’s designated defense point was assigned at random, but the map itself was finite.
With Full-fledged Player operatives from several countries conducting a coordinated search, the Hua Nation Base was discovered in less than an hour.
But the instance would last for three full days.
Each country could send in one hundred Full-fledged Player entrants. Hua Nation’s contingent included eight S-rank fighters, seventy A-rank members with combat-oriented skills, and twenty-two B-rank Player members. Every one of those twenty-two, however, possessed an Exclusive Skill.
Standing behind Yu Lingling, Xiao Zhang quietly briefed her on what had happened before her arrival. “The Chief Commander and the others didn’t choose to keep everyone at the base. Of our eight S-rank fighters, four stayed behind, while the remaining four each led a separate squad. Every squad had ten A-rank members with combat skills and four B-rank Player members with specialized abilities. They went out to raid the other bases.”
“The force defending the base consists of four S-rank fighters, thirty A-rank fighters, and six B-rank Player defenders.”
“Your brother is among those who stayed behind.”
What Xiao Zhang did not mention was that some had opposed this strategy from the start, believing it far too risky. They had recommended keeping everyone at the base to defend it, but when the final vote was held, the majority still chose to take the offensive.
Although Yu Lingling had kept her eyes fixed on the screen showing Yu Huan, she had also been monitoring the other screens. “Those sixty Full-fledged Player operatives who left the base have almost no chance of surviving.”
Even that was putting it mildly. The mission given to those four fifteen-person squads was effectively a death sentence. They were to destroy the bases of other countries at any cost before the Hua Nation Base was overwhelmed and destroyed.
As long as three squads succeeded, Hua Nation would be safe.
Yu Lingling looked at a blond-haired, blue-eyed Full-fledged Player wearing the insignia of H Nation. “The rules of the Horror Game Instance allow players to change their nationality.”
Xiao Zhang forced herself to remain calm, but as she watched Hua Nation’s Full-fledged Player operatives die one after another, her eyes still reddened and her voice choked with emotion. “Yes.”
Those countries had conspired in advance to join forces against Hua Nation. Before the Grand Slaughter Instance began, their players had secretly changed nationalities.
Yu Lingling watched them besiege the base where her brother was stationed. Hideous kappa, daitengu, and other creatures took turns attacking the base.
Zashiki-warashi and Yamata no Orochi attacked her brother’s Nine-Tailed Four-Eyed Orange Cat. Later, werewolves and Slender Man joined the assault as well.
The Nine-Tailed Four-Eyed Orange Cat was powerful, but it had only just hatched and had not yet matured. Every time it died, one of its tails disappeared.
Only an hour had passed since Yu Lingling arrived, yet it had already lost two tails. Even so, it had torn three of Yamata no Orochi’s heads to pieces, bitten two hideous kappa to death, and smashed Slender Man apart once.
Given a little more time, it would undoubtedly grow into an even more powerful being.
But time was precisely what they lacked.
Yu Huan rarely made a move himself. With one S-rank fighter and two A-rank fighters protecting him, he had not been injured yet.
But Yu Lingling knew that was only temporary.
By evening, one squad finally destroyed Y Nation’s base. Everyone was elated at first, but not a single person could bring themselves to smile.
All fifteen members – one S-rank fighter, ten A-rank fighters, and four B-rank members, each with an Exclusive Skill – had been killed.
They had only managed to destroy the base because the S-rank and A-rank members fought with their lives to carve open a path. The B-rank members then each activated an Exclusive Skill, taking the enemy down with them.
And that squad’s annihilation was only the beginning. The other three squads did not fare nearly as well. Once Hua Nation’s plan was discovered, Full-fledged Player forces from many countries rushed back to defend their bases. The two squads closest to one another immediately merged, sacrificing almost every member of both teams to destroy another base.
The final squad fought to the last person, but Full-fledged Player forces from several nations still joined together to stop them. They deployed four S-rank fighters and more than a hundred A-rank fighters to surround and kill Hua Nation’s fifteen-person squad.
Despite having only one S-rank fighter, ten A-rank fighters, and four B-rank Player members, the Hua Nation squad killed two enemy S-rank fighters and thirty-seven A-rank fighters.
But they still failed to complete their mission. When the last member of the Hua Nation squad died, tears of blood streamed from her eyes. As her teammates had done before her, she activated every Horror Game item in her possession and self-destructed, severely wounding an S-rank enemy.
Yu Lingling watched one livestream screen after another go dark. At last, she thought she understood what her brother had meant when he’d said, “Someone has to do it.”
Was this what her brother had chosen as well?
In truth, Yu Lingling didn’t need to keep watching to know how this would end. They weren’t going to hold the base.
The Hua Nation Base had only three S-rank fighters left. Even the Full-fledged Player contingents from countries that had previously been wavering began attacking the Hua Nation Base under the conspirators’ coordination. After all, the Horror Game Grand Slaughter Instance would only punish the bottom three finishers.
As long as Hua Nation was eliminated, they would be safe. They might not earn much in the way of rewards, but at least they wouldn’t be punished.
Even those on friendly terms with Hua Nation were already honoring their old ties simply by refusing to kick it while it was down.
One Full-fledged Player after another at the base died.
Yet Yu Huan still did not act. The one S-rank fighter and two A-rank fighters who had been ordered to protect Yu Huan with their lives stared with bloodshot eyes. They gritted their teeth, trembling from head to toe with hatred, but not one of them questioned him or voiced a single complaint.
Yu Lingling saw her brother speak on the livestream.
She could tell what he was saying from the shape of his lips alone. She also knew exactly what he would do after saying it.
Yu Huan looked at the players destroying the base. “Go.”
After one last look at Yu Huan, the S-rank and A-rank players said only, “Take care.”
Then they charged into the crowd.
Compared to the massed players of the allied nations, the two of them were no more than drops of water cast into the sea, swallowed up in an instant.
Yu Lingling rose to her feet. All she could see now was her brother.
On the third day, the Hua Nation Base was breached.
Just as the Hua Nation Base’s core was about to be destroyed, Yu Huan finally moved. He gripped the Soul-Severing Chain in both hands as eighty-two streams of blood took the form of dragons and converged upon the chain.
At the command center, someone stared at the scene and asked hoarsely, “What is that?”
In truth, everyone present had already guessed. They simply refused to believe it, and no one wanted to answer. Even the person who had asked the question had only done so because they could not accept what they already knew.
Yu Lingling’s voice rang out. “They’re the eighty-two Hua Nation players who died.”
Someone finally broke down in tears, but no one dared let it delay their work for even a second. They wiped their tears haphazardly with their sleeves while continuing to document everything they saw.
After all, the feed from a Horror Game Instance’s Livestream Room could neither be recorded nor replayed.
Yu Lingling stood there in silence. Unlike before, when her eyes had burned with murderous rage, she was now terrifyingly calm, like an inhuman observer watching from the sidelines.
When the eighty-two blood dragons gathered together, the players from the other nations finally noticed them as well.
“Stop him!”
“Kill the man with the scythe!”
“Soulbreaker? Wasn’t he dead?”
“Soulbreaker Qin Shu!”
The players who had begun celebrating early in anticipation of the Hua Nation Base’s destruction could no longer spare a thought for anything else. Every S-rank and A-rank player from every nation rushed toward Yu Huan.
The Hua Nation Base’s only remaining forces consisted of two S-rank fighters, eleven A-rank fighters, and three others, each a B-rank Player. All of them were staking their lives to protect Yu Huan.
“The numbers don’t add up. Eighty-two are dead, and there are seventeen people still alive at the base, counting Yu Huan. One person is unaccounted for.”
Someone quickly calculated the number of survivors.
The moment they finished speaking, someone else answered, “One B-rank is still alive. That player was part of the squad that destroyed the second base, but they’re barely hanging on.”
Someone asked in a trembling voice, “Why? Why didn’t Yu Huan act sooner?”
There was no need for anyone else to answer. Yu Huan, inside the instance, had already given them the answer.
More people died within the base, and the dead likewise became blood dragons.
When the players besieging the Hua Nation Base realized they could not kill Yu Huan quickly, they immediately changed targets.
“At all costs, destroy the Hua Nation Base’s core!”
The Nine-Tailed Four-Eyed Orange Cat had only a single tail remaining. Though it lay collapsed at Yu Huan’s feet, it struggled to move, curling its body around him and holding him in its embrace.
Yu Lingling counted silently, “Eighty-three, eighty-four, eighty-five… eighty-nine.”
When Yu Lingling reached eighty-nine, an announcement that the Hua Nation Base had been destroyed rang throughout the Horror Game Grand Slaughter Instance.
“The Hua Nation Base has been-”
Before the announcement could finish, Yu Huan finally activated his last skill.
“Survival from Certain Death.”