Chapter 47
Chapter 47
Yu Lingling had discovered a new use for the item meant to help newcomers clear instances, and she had mastered that new use to perfection.
Rather than a register used to confiscate an entire clan’s property and exterminate the family in ancient times, it was more like the Book of Life and Death in King Yama’s hands. It carried the unmistakable air of the old saying: If King Yama says you’ll die at the third watch, who would dare keep you alive until the fifth?
While Yu Lingling went door to door hunting down aberrations, many others were discussing the situation in the instance as well.
In the command center, the white-haired woman said, “She figured out the instance’s rules faster than we did.”
In the past, players had never dared violate the rules of the Horror Game. Most of them simply tried to find a way to clear an instance within those rules.
In fact, the Special Department had also discovered that aberrations were bound by certain rules. In some situations, they even took advantage of those rules to ensure their own safety.
But using the rules to trap and kill aberrations?
The white-haired woman said solemnly, “This may be another path open to us.”
“Not everyone can take that path. Yu Lingling has the strength to pull it off. Even if someone else made the same discovery, they might not be able to deal with this many aberrations.”
That was also true.
“Ordinary players may not be able to use the rules like Yu Lingling does, forcing their way into aberration territory and hunting them down, but we can improve their clearance rates by studying the rules that govern both players and aberrations in different instances.”
The moment Yu Lingling turned the Security Guard Rules against the aberrations, confining them outside the residential compound while clearing out those inside the apartment buildings, they knew it was only a matter of time before she cleared the instance.
The staff only needed to record the details of how Yu Lingling and the other players tackled the instance.
The people in the command center no longer needed to watch with their full attention, so they moved to the office next door.
The young man in the black baseball cap remained seated in the corner. As soon as everyone had settled in, however, he looked up at the white-haired woman.
“Chief Commander, are we just going to let this go?”
The room instantly fell silent.
Everyone turned to look at the white-haired woman.
Despite her head of white hair and the fact that she held one of the Special Department’s Chief Commander posts, she was only forty-three years old. Her hair had previously gone gray due to matters involving the Horror Game Instance, making her appear older than others her age.
After the Grand Slaughter, her hair had turned completely white, and fine lines had appeared at the corners of her eyes.
When she did not answer, the young man in the black baseball cap asked again, “Chief Commander, are we really going to let it go after they joined forces to secretly initiate the Grand Slaughter?”
This time, he stated the matter outright.
“Let it go?”
The woman who had always treated Yu Lingling so gently suddenly radiated a razor-sharp presence, like a sword drawn from its sheath. Though she was only an ordinary person, everyone could clearly feel the grief and hatred she had suppressed within her.
“How could we possibly let it go?”
At the Chief Commander’s words, even the civilian staff present wore fierce expressions.
The deaths of their eighty-nine comrades were a wound in their hearts and a hatred they could never relinquish.
A display behind the Chief Commander was showing the Horror Game Instance Livestream Room. She called out, “Xiao Zhang.”
Xiao Zhang was the Chief Commander’s secretary and the person she had specifically assigned to look after Yu Lingling. Her competence was beyond question. Even without explicit instructions from the Chief Commander, she always knew what needed to be done and when. She took out a laptop and connected it to the projector.
The Chief Commander raised her wrist and checked the time. “It’s not yet the time I arranged with them. We’ll wait for now.”
Although no one knew whom the Chief Commander had arranged to meet, no one present urged her to hurry.
When the appointed time arrived, the Chief Commander nodded to Xiao Zhang.
Xiao Zhang started the video conference, and familiar and unfamiliar faces appeared on the screen one after another.
The moment everyone saw the emblems of the various guilds behind those people, they fell silent. Everyone who had been sitting rose to their feet. Only members of the Special Department and the military were permitted inside this conference room, and all of them were in uniform. They removed their caps and placed them on the table.
The people on the other side of the video stood as well.
The Chief Commander came to attention and saluted. Everyone else in the conference room followed suit.
No one spoke. Sometimes, words were simply too feeble.
The eight people on the other side of the video call were equally silent.
The final list of survivors from this Grand Slaughter had already been compiled. Only one S-rank, five A-ranks, and four B-ranks had survived.
Eighty-nine fallen players had transformed into horrors and ultimately held the base, securing first place in the Grand Slaughter for Hua Nation.
Yu Huan had been the ninetieth casualty.
Ninety percent of Hua Nation’s players had died in this Grand Slaughter.
The A-ranks appeared to have the most survivors, with five still alive, but seventy had participated in total. Their death rate was approximately 92.9 percent.
Twenty-two B-ranks with Exclusive Skills had participated, and four survived, putting their death rate at approximately 81.8 percent.
Eight S-ranks had participated, and only one survived, for a death rate of approximately 87.5 percent.
There was an established rule in the Horror Game Instance: any player who reached S-rank was guaranteed to possess an Exclusive Skill.
Every A-rank selected for the mission had been combat-oriented. Even those without Exclusive Skills possessed tremendously powerful combat abilities.
As for the twenty-two B-rank players, each of their Exclusive Skills had been exceptionally unusual. Every one of them had the potential to advance to S-rank.
And then there was Yu Huan, who had possessed a one-of-a-kind skill.
This Grand Slaughter had dealt a devastating blow to Hua Nation’s high-level combat forces in the Horror Game Instance.
The other nations had also lost quite a few S-ranks and A-ranks, but they had struck with careful planning against an unprepared enemy. Multiple nations had joined forces as well, so although their combined losses were considerable, the burden was divided among them. None had suffered anything close to Hua Nation’s devastation.
Under these circumstances, no country believed Hua Nation would dare retaliate, much less seek revenge.
Everyone took their seats again and turned to the Chief Commander.
The Chief Commander called for Xiao Zhang.
Xiao Zhang operated the computer and sent eight separate lists to the representatives of the eight guilds on the other side of the call.
Three S-rank guilds and five A-rank guilds had been invited to this meeting.
The targets had been carefully selected and divided among the guilds according to each guild’s strength and the attributes of their players’ skills, ensuring that every target was assigned to the guild best suited to assassinate them.
The highest-ranked targets on the eight lists were A-ranks, while the lowest-ranked were rookies who had only just become Full-fledged Players. The one thing they all had in common was that they had attacked Hua Nation during the Grand Slaughter.
Each player’s skill intelligence was included beside their name. Every low-ranking player on the lists possessed an Exclusive Skill and tremendous potential.
The current leaders of the eight guilds studied the lists before them. Each guild had members capable of countering the targets assigned to them.
Only after they had finished reading did the Chief Commander say solemnly, “I’m not making this request in my capacity as Chief Commander of the Special Department. I, Wen Ling, am approaching you as a private individual to commission your services and strike a deal. I want everyone on these lists dead. As for the payment-”
Before Wen Ling could finish, Jiang Xubai, the Guild Leader of the Spirit Suppression Guild, interrupted her.
The sole S-rank survivor of this Grand Slaughter Instance was the Soul Suppression Guild’s Vice Guild Leader. It was not because the enemy had shown mercy, but because the S-rank who entered the instance possessed an Exclusive Skill called Undead Apostle.
Undead Apostle allowed its user to control the undead, but its primary function was to transform the player into an undead being after death. This undead state could be maintained for ten hours. If the instance was cleared within those ten hours, he would survive. If not, he would truly die.
That S-rank had survived entirely because of the unique properties of his Exclusive Skill. However, the skill also came with severe side effects. For the next three months, not only would he be unable to use Undead Apostle, he would not even be able to control the undead. He would become an ordinary player completely devoid of skills.
Entering another instance in that state would put him in grave danger.
An S-rank Full-fledged Player had to enter an instance at least once every three months, and the Grand Slaughter Instance did not count toward that requirement. His next instance was only a month away, leaving him no chance to recover in time.
There was still one solution. Jiang Xubai could personally lead the team and protect him while he completed next month’s instance mission.
Because of his Exclusive Skill, Jiang Xubai possessed a sinister aura despite his handsome, sunny features. He declared, “They wounded my Vice Guild Leader and slaughtered the core members of my guild. I will make them repay this blood debt in full!”