Chapter 45: The Fight
Xing Ye didn’t stop Di Kuang. He and Cao Qian stood by the side, focused on observing Di Kuang’s ability.
Their plan for today was to stay back until a conflict between the two sides broke out. They would let Di Kuang’s group clash with the game world’s characters and then act at the crucial moment.
Using a QR code right now wouldn’t be wise. Di Kuang had already revealed his starting skills earlier, so he didn’t hide it from Xing Ye now, once again using his extra arms ability.
Just as Cao Qian said, opposing fate players generally had more physically-inclined abilities.
One of Di Kuang’s starting skills was the ability to grow more arms. Xing Ye noticed that the newly grown arms Di Kuang used to restrain Zhang Feiming had become longer. Di Kuang always seemed to hide this ability. Without careful observation, one wouldn’t be able to tell.
He could grow new arms and the newly grown arms could grow longer. It wasn’t clear how much longer he could make his arms, but it definitely couldn’t be too long. It should be around a short to mid-range attack. They had to stay alert against surprise attacks and their phones being snatched when the time to fight drew nearer.
Xing Ye had already deduced a number of possible scenarios in the later battle from just that one interaction between Di Kuang and Zhang Feiming.
After obtaining the human head, Di Kuang played dumb. “This should be the head Liu Muqing was looking for. Should we go to the girls’ dormitory now? The three-day time limit is up, so we can return this to her.”
He had actually found the human head in the gym last night, but was worried that something unexpected would happen on the night of the new moon and thought that the head could only be used if it was directly obtained from the youth’s hands. As such, he put the head back and it was found by Xing Ye.
Hm? Xing Ye suddenly thought of something. To confirm the head in the basketball, they had to dismantle it. Zhang Feiming was good with his hands and he only took it out once a month before hiding it back in at dawn. It wasn’t much trouble for him. However, how did Di Kuang’s group put the fake head back into the basketball after they found it?
Someone in their team should have an item restoring or time reversal ability. Hopefully, it was the former. Otherwise, the latter would truly be frightening.
Cao Qian: “I already opened the dormitory’s bathroom window while I was washing up.”
It was actually the dormitory nanny Zhang who helped them. However, they still needed to hide their relationship with Aunty Zhang, so Cao Qian claimed she did it.
The six entered the girls’ dormitory. Cao Qian led the way, directly jumping to the second floor before turning to pull Xing Ye up. Di Kuang was holding the human head, but with his several arms, he didn’t need to worry about getting upstairs.
Xing Ye wasn’t worried about being attacked while going up the stairs. The questline still wasn’t clear. Di Kuang was a careful person- he wouldn’t flip out until it was the last step.
At 12 o’clock, they stepped on the 13th step and entered the mission space.
This time, there was even more blood on the third floor. It was already almost knee-level, almost like a river of blood. The human head was floating around the river, her movements growing faster and faster.
“It’s better if we stay by the staircase. There’s too much blood here. If something happens, at least we’ll have leeway to escape here.” Xing Ye proposed, “Somebody should take the human head and meet Liu Muqing in the corridor. Otherwise, it’ll be dangerous if the human head goes mad.”
In Di Kuang’s eyes, the human head was an important prop, so there was no way he would hand it over to Xing Ye. However, he found that Xing Ye’s words made sense and turned to Wu Yu. “I’ll leave the human head to you.”
After all, the three who accepted the quest earlier were Wu Yu, Cao Qian, and Xing Ye. The one to hand over the human head should be somebody from their group.
Wu Yu’s legs trembled. “I only have 200 points and a life-saving QR code, yet you want me to face the human head?”
He was chosen as the sacrificial victim in case they failed the quest, so Di Kuang naturally wouldn’t let him have too many items, or it’d all be wasted.
“I’ll go with you, alright?” Di Kuang said. He needed to stabilize his teammate’s mood, “We’ll go together.”
Hence, Di Kuang and Wu Yu went to hand in the head while Guan Ling and Mr. Deng stood with Cao Qian and Xing Ye.
Wu Yu had already shown his incompetence and Mr. Deng… hahaha, he was still trembling just looking at Cao Qian, afraid the girl would dismantle the staircase and throw it at him.
They both had mediocre fighting strength. The ones Xing Ye and Cao Qian really had to guard against were Guan Ling and Di Kuang. Right now, Guan Ling was staring at the human head nervously.
Di Kuang gave the human head to Wu Yu. The moment Wu Yu took the human head, Guan Ling’s attention scattered for a second and shifted to Wu Yu.
Xing Ye signaled Cao Qian with his eyes and Cao Qian swiftly tapped her phone, activating Hippity Hop Ping Pong Ball. The whole third floor was suddenly filled with ping pong balls. Cao Qian deftly took advantage of Guan Ling’s moment of shock to kick him down the stairs.
Before Guan Ling could even touch his phone, he was kicked straight down the stairs with a group of ping pong balls.
Xing Ye had already activated Impression Eye and Redrawing Pen, using the fifteen seconds to draw a piano, controlling it to smash into Guan Ling at the bottom of the stairs.
Guan Ling had fallen to the bottom of the stairs, between the third and second floors. Seeing the piano drop from the air, he could only force himself to roll away. However, with the ping pong balls sliding under him, he slipped and fell directly to the second floor.
“What are you doing?” Di Kuang snarled at Mr. Deng, “Stop them!”
Mr. Deng’s starting abilities had no offensive ability to begin with. After kicking Guan Ling down the stairs, Cao Qian casually broke Mr. Deng’s arm with another kick, leaving him unable to use his phone or his QR codes.
The surprise attack was finished in 30 seconds. Di Kuang and Wu Yu stood in the corridor, surrounded in blood with the human head still in their hands. There was nothing they could do to help.
While Xing Ye was drawing the piano’s QR code, everyone’s attention had been focused on Guan Ling being kicked down the stairs. He hid behind the Selling-Friends-for-Glory Mr. Deng as he frantically brandished Redrawing Pen, taking advantage of Mr. Ding’s body to hide his movements.
Mr. Deng had seen Xing Ye’s ability, but did he dare to say it? If he did, Xing Ye would just tell Di Kuang about his starting ability, Selling Friends for Glory. Even if Di Kuang didn’t kill Xing Ye, he’d definitely get rid of a dangerous factor like Mr. Deng.
It was originally a 2v4, but in the blink of an eye, Guan Ling was forced to the second floor and Mr. Deng had lost all his fighting strength. The battle was now a 2v2, and since Wu Yu had no points or QR codes, Cao Qian and Xing Ye only really needed to defeat Di Kuang. The tides had completely turned.
“Guan Ling, if you’re fine, run upstairs.” Di Kuang shouted.
However, he didn’t expect Guan Ling to reply with a shout from the second floor, “Quick, come downstairs, Bai Xu tricked us! I can’t come up anymore!”
Cao Qian glanced at her arm, now with a dark green bruise.
When Guan Ling was rolling down the stairs, two of Di Kuang’s arms suddenly stretched out, trying to grab Guan Ling. Although Cao Qian blocked him with a few hits, her fighting strength was still reduced. Di Kuang’s arms were abnormally strong and his second starting ability was still unknown.
“My head? Where’s my head?” The dazed Liu Muqing glared at Wu Yu and Di Kuang fiercely, “Give me my head!”
“Are you sure you want to give it to her?” On the staircase, Xing Ye asked calmly. “If you really give it to Liu Muqing and let her ascend in her dazed state, we’ll all be done for. Want to go see what kind of ghastly appearance Bai Xu has right now?”
Liu Muqing hopped up, biting at the fake human head’s hair. Xing Ye held his phone, hesitating on whether he should use Peaceful Spirit’s Tune.
No, he couldn’t use it now. He had to save the original Peaceful Spirit’s Tune to deal with Bai Xu at the end. Otherwise, the copied Peaceful Spirit’s Tune might not be strong enough to control her!
Di Kuang really wanted to kill Xing Ye, but Cao Qian’s strength was too shocking. After trading blows with Cao Qian just now, his arms were numb and could no longer be used.
He was afraid of Xing Ye and wanted to use his QR codes, but when he touched his phone, Hippity Hop Ping Pong Ball just so happened to hit his wrist, making his phone drop into the bloody river.
Apart from obstructing the enemy’s movement, Hippity Hop Ping Pong Ball had another ability- namely, a chance to destroy the opponent’s cell phone and delay QR code usage. Although the chances were virtually none for following fate players, it was pretty much guaranteed for an opposing fate player like Di Kuang.
So while Xing Ye was planning, he had accounted for Hippity Hop Ping Pong Ball’s effect for each of them. The following fate player would be pushed down the stairs, where Bai Xu would deal with them. The opposing fate player’s phone would all be destroyed, leaving them to stake it all on their starting abilities. Di Kuang’s starting abilities were all based on physical attributes, so he might not necessarily be able to beat Cao Qian.
With his phone gone, Di Kuang had no way to use his QR codes. A fierce expression appeared in his eyes as he vowed to kill Xing Ye and Cao Qian.
“Go upstairs!”
Xing Ye stepped on the steps to the fourth floor, avoiding the bloody river as he grabbed a taser. He turned it onto the maximum voltage before plunging it into the river of blood!
Everybody knew water and the human body were both conductors of electricity. If this world followed the rules of physics, the electricity should be conducted through the bloody river!
Xing Ye noticed the blood level rising when he entered the third floor last night and thought of this, so he spent the day charging the taser to max.
Of course, even if it conducts electricity, much of the current would still be lost so it wasn’t enough to stun them. However, it could briefly paralyze them and slow their brains, leaving them temporarily incapable of using QR codes and special abilities. Even if it only lasted for half a second, it was enough.
In that half second, Cao Qian with her agility boost activated had a tacit understanding with Xing Ye and jumped upstairs in an instant, avoiding the bloody river. Taking advantage of Di Kuang’s paralysis, she whipped out her Hundred Shot Gun and fired two bullets, one at Di Kuang’s heart and another at Wu Yu.
Wu Yu still had his cellphone and wasn’t affected by the ping pong balls. However, his fighting awareness was simply too low. Di Kuang never gave him the chance to grow, so there was no way for him to react in time. He had just thought of activating a life-saving QR code when he was shocked with Di Kuang, his body turning paralyzed.
The bullet pierced through Wu Yu’s skull. He was holding his phone and hugging the human head, Liu Muqing still gnawing on his neck as his body fell heavily into the bloody river.
At the same time, Cao Qian received a notification: she had won 100 points.
Seeing Wu Yu die just like that, Mr. Deng, who had been standing by the staircase watching everything, was so scared that he ran upstairs screaming and hugging his broken arm. Now, there was only Di Kuang, Xing Ye, and Cao Qian left on the third floor.
Cao Qian definitely hit Di Kuang’s heart, but the bullet didn’t penetrate his flesh. Di Kuang’s body had turned into a metal color in a flash, looking similar to the Shaolin Temple’s 18 bronzemen.
It should be a body strengthening defensive ability that could protect against physical attacks. Di Kuang’s starting abilities really weren’t bad. He could grow more arms and extend them to attack with strength at the same level as Cao Qian’s Extraordinary Strength skill. Furthermore, his second starting ability was strong enough to reflect bullets, giving him both strength and defense.
Being able to use his starting ability the moment the paralysis wore off also showed his strong fighting awareness.
Unfortunately...
Xing Ye hadn’t been idle. While one hand attacked with the taser, his other hand was drawing with both Impression Eye and Redrawing Pen activated. 15 seconds later, a piano appeared over Di Kuang’s head, smashing onto him.
Of course, with Di Kuang’s copper skin, there was no way it could kill him. However, his ability wasn’t extraordinary strength.
Xing Ye still didn’t stop. He wasn’t stingy with using his starting abilities at all- in 2.5 minutes, he had drawn ten pianos. Even though each one was only half the size of an ordinary piano, it was still enough to crush an ordinary person to death.
He still targeted the arms. Di Kuang had eight arms in total. Two of them were injured by Cao Qian, leaving six remaining. Xing Ye didn’t know if the ten pianos were enough, so he clenched his teeth and drew another ten, blocking the whole hallway. The human head, Liu Muqing, hurried to jump out of the pile of pianos. Even she seemed a little frightened.
When she saw Xing Ye and Cao Qian, she faintly remembered the two of them promising to find her head and her expression immediately turned sinister. This time, Xing Ye shouted, “Lin Jingxue!”
Liu Muqing immediately calmed down.
In that split second, Xing Ye and Cao Qian ran down to the half flight between the second and third floors. Xing Ye shouted as he ran, “If Di Kuang crawls out from the pianos, please help block him for me. I’ll deal with Bai Xu and take revenge for you and Lin Jingxue!”
It was unknown whether Liu Muqing understood or not.
There was no way Di Kuang died. Xing Ye hadn’t heard the points notification, so he should just be blocked by the pianos. Hopefully, the pianos could restrain him there.
The fighting on the third floor didn’t impact the second floor at all. Even the bloody river looked like it was restrained by something and couldn’t flow down to the second floor.
When Xing Ye and Cao Qian arrived downstairs, they saw Guan Ling screaming as he frantically tried to escape Bai Xu’s attacks. Bai Xu looked nothing like a human now. The skin on her face was all soft and mushy. Her mouth was split open, her teeth like a shark’s and her tongue was half a meter long. She almost resembled the slit-mouthed woman in the legends.
Guan Ling used QR code after QR code to protect himself, his injuries quickly regenerating as he moved. It looked like the one who restored the basketball was him.
Xing Ye found that the two starting abilities always matched up. For example, Cao Qian’s Extraordinary Strength and Agility Skill were both attack-orientated, while his Impression Eye and Redrawing Pen complemented one another. Mr. Deng’s A Crafty Rabbit Has Three Burrows and Selling Friends for Glory were both life-saving skills, so Guan Ling’s should also be as such.
His first starting ability was either healing or restoration, meaning the other ability shouldn’t be an attack type ability. There shouldn’t be too many people like Di Kuang, who had both offensive and defensive abilities. Furthermore, somebody as controlling as Di Kuang definitely wouldn’t let another person with offensive abilities join the team. He wanted to hold absolute authority, which was why everyone else had support type abilities.
Guan Ling’s ability was most likely a survival skill and was strong enough to impede Bai Xu.
Xing Ye glanced at him as he went down the stairs, inwardly cheering for him as he ran down to the dormitory nanny’s room while Guan Ling was holding Bai Xu off.
Nanny Zhang heard all the noises on the second and third floors and was in a state of nervousness. When she saw Xing Ye and Cao Qian arrive, she finally relaxed a little.
“What’s happening?” Aunty Zhang asked.
“Aunty Zhang,” Xing Ye said, “Are you brave enough to make a gamble?”
“What are you trying to do?” Aunty Zhang asked.
“Bai Xu’s already gone mad. We need to give this landscape painting to Liu Muqing and have her help us fight Bai Xu. However, I fear that just us won’t be enough to awaken Liu Muqing’s consciousness. We need you.”
Xing Ye believed that there must have been a reason for her to be here. If they didn’t need Aunty Zhang and the plot just needed them to find the landscape painting, there was no need for Aunty Zhang to have become the dormitory supervisor.
They must need Aunty Zhang’s power in the final battle. That was why she persevered here for two years.
For her daughter, a mother could be extremely strong. Aunty Zhang’s body trembled, but she hugged the landscape painting firmly and nodded, “Alright, I’ll go upstairs with you.”
On the first floor, Xing Ye took a deep breath and said, “If you take the landscape painting out of this office, Bai Xu will definitely turn crazy. While we block her, Aunty Zhang has to go upstairs and give the painting to Liu Muqing!”
Cao Qian’s foot was wounded and her arm was broken. She truly wasn’t in a good state. However, she was very tough and didn’t let out a single cry of pain despite her serious injuries, just giving a simple ‘En’ in understanding.
When the three walked out of the office, they suddenly heard a mournful shriek from the second floor. It was Bai Xu- she sensed the landscape painting!
A red figure rushed down from the second floor, charging straight at Aunty Zhang like a tornado!
In that split second, Xing Ye didn’t hesitate to take out his phone, using the original Peaceful Spirit’s Tune for the first time!
Cao Qian stood in front of Aunty Zhang, using both hands to grab Bai Xu’s head. Xing Ye activated the taser, ruthlessly striking Bai Xu’s head.
Under Peaceful Spirit’s Tune, Bai Xu’s madness weakened. However, she was still very strong, and it would be difficult for the two of them to deal with her.
Cao Qian and Xing Ye shouted to Aunty Zhang at the same time, “Run!”
Holding the landscape painting, Aunty Zhang charged upstairs!
~~~
18 Bronzemen: