Chapter 467: Chapter 464: "Do you understand what I talked about?
Significant changes in an era can sometimes occur in the most inconspicuous places.
... such as an uninhabited house, or an unknown basement.
Since these people had organized a "Peak Alliance," later, things like a "World Alliance" or a "Union Alliance," a "Top Player Alliance" could emerge like mushrooms after the rain.
The future was still unknown, and even Su Ming’an himself was not clear on how the emergence of the Top Player Alliance would change the world.
He felt that he had just stood at a crossroads of an ending, one side being the "solo route," and the other the "alliance route." Whether he nodded or shook his head could lead to different endings.
As for this ending, whether it was HE, TE, NE... or BE, no one knew.
After standing at the factory entrance for a while, Su Ming’an restarted his livestream.
The audience, who had been suppressed for a long time, immediately surged in. The moment Number One Player closed his stream, many felt as if they had lost the meaning of life, experiencing withdrawal reactions outside the screen.
[Finally released, this stream room was shut down without a warning... really unexpected.]
[When has Su Ming’an ever cared about you guys? Save it.]
[Is Lu dead? He hasn’t streamed today, he must be dead, right? Who could escape the Number One Player with five times the strength?]
[Are you blind? There are still 11 Black Sheep Players above, none are missing, put on your glasses before you comment.]
[What did Su Ming’an and Lu talk about? Before closing the stream, Lu seemed to say something complicated.]
[Who cares, the two Adventurer Players, what else could they talk about? Probably discussing about upcoming instance cooperation.]
[Eh? Brother Lu is going to storm the instance with Brother Ming’an? That’s great, I like them both...]
Su Ming’an deliberately slowed down the scrolling speed of the chat and watched it for a while.
These audiences were still discussing useless things or speculating potential interactions between him and Lu as if they were celebrities.
Immersed in entertainment, they did not know that the future world order had changed following a conversation just moments ago.
"...Su Ming’an, what are you doing standing here? Aren’t you cold?"
Su Ming’an turned around and saw Xiber catching up to him.
"Did you understand what I just talked about?" he asked.
"Ah," Xiber narrowed her eyes. "You just greeted someone, and he even escaped."
As expected.
Su Ming’an realized that NPCs automatically blocked topics like "Player" or "Game." Even if he had a deep conversation with Lu about unimaginable topics, Xiber was not curious and acted as if she hadn’t heard anything.
"Let’s go find someone now," Su Ming’an changed the subject.
"Yeah, we haven’t searched over here yet..." Xiber turned right.
They walked past the large factory, through fields of corn, and Su Ming’an found a [Flash Bomb] prop inside a passing box.
This seemed to be a prop of the Black Sheep Players, left here by someone unknown. When he bypassed the flash bomb, he saw black blood on the ground.
...He did not know what had happened among this group of Black Sheep Players, but they seemed to lack unity.
He slowly approached the nearest altar, faintly hearing a series of sizzling and popping noises.
Xiber also put away the glowing Soul Stone, carefully following behind him.
A chilly, damp mist clamped onto his body, causing Su Ming’an’s throat to itch with a coughing impulse. Wandering outside at night without a Soul Stone was truly uncomfortable, but he had to endure it to avoid alarming anyone.
The altar glowed red in Su Ming’an’s eyes, and the shadow projected next to it, illuminated by the dim bloody light, was particularly pronounced.
It was a woman’s shadow, her long hair draped over her shoulders, fluttering slightly as she sketched on the altar. She probably hadn’t acquired the "Keen Perception" skill, given that they were already within ten meters of each other.
Another shadow came through the bloody light. The woman Player’s Guide was also sketching alongside her. With one pen each, the progress of the altar was increasing rapidly.
"These patterns are so ugly; they’re an insult to my aesthetic taste," the Player seemed to be immersed in her artistic creation.
"Chunzi, focus. I don’t want you to die here," the Guide said.
Upon hearing the Guide’s voice, Xiber nodded at Su Ming’an and made a gesture.
Su Ming’an knew—the target was found.
He immediately got up, a glimpse of JingXue Chunzi’s black hair entering his field of view, which met the activation conditions for Judgment.
He stretched out his hand, his gaze locked on JingXue Chunzi, and activated—
A nearly transparent, inconspicuous wave of light flashed through the air, and a bloody scale pattern emerged on the back of Su Ming’an’s left hand as he activated Judgment.
"Huh—"
A slight breeze blew, and Judgment was activated silently and stealthily, with almost no sound or light effects, making it an ideal tool for assassination.
"Chunzi!" The Guide realized JingXue Chunzi had been attacked. She immediately raised her paintbrush, and a swift black line lunged toward Su Ming’an, just across the low wall.
The progress of the altar in front of them had reached 96%, with the help of Li Yujie’s paintbrush; their efficiency was incredibly high.
Su Ming’an ignored the black line. His fingers slightly contracted inward, the pre-action for Spatial Vibration already completed. This time, he injected 1200 Mana Points, nearly a third of it.
"Boom—!"
A loud explosion.
The dirt wall in front of him burst instantly, solidifying on the ground like melting butter, and the straw bales exploded like scattered popcorn.
Xiber immediately backed away, as Su Ming’an’s Spatial Vibration did not differentiate friend from foe. Her hood was blown backward by the aftermath, and the intense wind nearly made her fall to the ground.
A milky white light appeared abruptly.
It flowed like a stream of white fluid, swirling and solidifying in the darkness, firmly protecting JingXue Chunzi and Li Yujie. The intense wind only pushed them back several meters but didn’t tear them apart.
"Splash—"
The water shattered, and the white shield burst apart. The two, barely standing, had their hair disheveled and their clothing showed bloodstained rips.
JingXue Chunzi had regained her senses from the control effect, her condition visibly worsened compared to before, her complexion pale and her steps unstable, apparently affected by the "Weakness" effect of the Judgment Skill.
"No, this strength is wrong..." she murmured softly, sensing that something was off.
The shield she had just released was an automatic counterattack shield, supposed to block attacks from Combat Powers below 2500. However, Su Ming’an’s Combat Power should have been over four thousand by all accounts, and she should not have been able to block it at all.
Why... hadn’t she died?
Su Ming’an didn’t give her time to think. He leaped over the low wall and activated the Gravity Suppression skill.
With this skill, he aimed to suppress the opponent’s movement rather than cause direct harm, and did not infuse too much Mana Points into it.
As the pressure around her intensified, JingXue Chunzi was just about to lift her brush when her hand was suddenly forced to the ground. It was as if someone was pressing down on her back with force, driving her feet into the muddy earth.
The black line that had leapt in front of Su Ming’an then collided with a streak of golden light.
Noah’s Chain activated, and a dark, gaping hole inexplicably burst open in Li Yujie’s chest. With a look of shock on her face, she fell backward like a leaf in the wind.
The next strike, 1200 mana points injected—
"Boom—!"
Xiber immediately jumped back a few steps, clutching her head to move away from the area filled with flying grass blades, narrowly avoiding the golden straw poking into her eyes.
"To kill with such a grand display..." She brushed the straw off her hood, discovering it had torn.
Ahead, Su Ming’an took a step forward and reached out his right hand, accurately aiming for JingXue Chunzi’s neck.
JingXue Chunzi’s body shimmered with an oily texture that enveloped her from head to toe like condensed amber, presumably her final life-saving skill.
As Su Ming’an’s hand approached, her face showed despair:
"—Su Ming’an! You don’t have—" five times the augmentation strength!
She never finished her sentence.
Su Ming’an’s hand had already reached her fragile neck, and with an annihilating exploration, he precisely severed her carotid artery.
Her frail body naturally fell backward, and Su Ming’an withdrew his hand, glancing at his nearly depleted mana points.
The entire kill took no more than 10 seconds.
To ensure no message was sent out while killing two people, he had to go all out the entire time; excessive mana consumption was inevitable.
He currently had 3080 mana points in total, recovering 60 points per minute; it would take fifty minutes to fully recover. For the next several minutes, he would need to avoid the Black Sheep Players.
Just as he was about to check the equipment JingXue Chunzi had dropped, he suddenly saw Xiber step forward and point her gun.
"Bang!"
A crisp and clear gunshot rang out—the motionless Li Yujie on the ground convulsed once more and then was still.
Xiber retracted her hunting shotgun, the barrel emitting a wisp of gray smoke: "Guide number eighty-nine, Li Yujie. In her youth, she met the ’Black Sheep’ spirit of Bai Shen in Qiongdi, acquiring a very weak protective power. She just used this power to shield her heart, which is why she didn’t die immediately."
She stepped forward, kicked Li Yujie’s corpse to confirm her death, then turned back.
The light of the Soul Stone brightened between her fingers; she held the increasingly small stone between three fingers, her pale cheeks bright under the light: "...Remember to make sure they’re dead, Su Ming’an. Prey can bite back when dying."
"Thanks," Su Ming’an smiled.
This Xiber truly possessed all the capabilities of a hunter in the woods, even confirming the death of the prey to the very end. Her cautiousness was uncharacteristic of a fifteen-year-old girl.
Above his field of view, the numbers jumped again.
...
[Current Altar Count: 0, Current Surviving "Black Sheep": 10/12, Time Until Dawn: 5 hours 23 minutes.]
...
He picked up the equipment JingXue Chunzi had left behind.
This piece of equipment, made of silk fabric, was light blue, tailored to fit perfectly with a narrow top and wide bottom. Small, exquisite pearls scattered in various corners of the blue fabric, lifting up cream-like blossoms. It looked extremely elegant.
It was a long dress with a distinct Western European style.
...Another skirt.
He did not know why he was so destined with skirts, as all the lower body equipment he had found so far were skirts... This was already the third time.
This was also a skirt that enhanced damage from elemental spells, which was of no use to Su Ming’an, but it was the prettiest of the three and might be given to Yamada Machiichi.
He stuffed it into a compartment of his backpack.
His current equipment setup consisted of the "Rose Hat (Hidden)" that resisted fatal blows, the "Heart of the Future (Purple)" which triggered the gravity suppression skill, the "Luo Yihang’s Skirt (Blue)" that reduced charge time, the "North Wind Long Boots (Blue)" that increased running speed, the "Aurora Ring (Purple)" that converted Mentality Points, the "Noah’s Chain (Gold)" which transferred damage, and the "Lighthouse Chain (Red)" that enlarged the spell range.
As for weapons, he had a sword and a knife, as well as two guns. Currently, if there were no particularly useful pieces of equipment, he had no need for more.
The situation for Peak Players was an issue of nine months later. For him, it was better to concentrate on achieving a Perfect Pass at present.
Lu’s proposal was actually very prescient. His idea broke through the status quo that "Adventurer Players don’t have the energy to create forces" and proposed an alliance among Adventurer Players. And the reason Su Ming’an agreed to join that alliance was because he was also thinking about other people.
Like... Lv Shu, Lin Yin these Players.
Leaving aside what was said on the forums about being a "world-class bootlicker," if he could pull Lv Shu into this alliance, then, by the end of the game, Lv Shu, without a family, could have some security and a voice, rather than running around alone like a lone wolf.
The same applied to Lin Yin, who was with Lv Shu, as her nature still seemed that of an ordinary person, not cunning enough, and she might be betrayed and deceived by others.
Of course—this was all predicated on his ultimately being successful and Zhai Xing being redeemed. If Zhai Xing was still under high-dimensional control afterward, all these arguments would be moot.
And... Yuanyuan.
If the Observer could come back, if she could safely return, he hoped to provide her with a more secure and stable environment. Instead of having to face being driven away, ostracized, and targeted upon her return. Having a collective that could accept her would certainly be far better for her than being homeless.
Though he had not seen her for a long time, the last time he saw her was in the Fifth World Ming Hui.
He wondered what world she was now living in.
"...Look, there seems to be a secret door here."
Xiber’s voice suddenly came from the right side.
She was crouching under a grape arbor inspecting something, her red robe still dotted with a few glittering grapes, looking a bit dazed and cute.
She turned her head and looked at Su Ming’an. A grape rolled off her head and hit her on the nose; she inhaled sharply and crushed it underfoot.
"Pfft".
A soft noise.
The grape burst into pieces.
Her brightly red robe, like fire, gradually faded into the dark shadows.
...
[...]
[She said we live in a destiny that cannot be crossed.]
[Doomed that no one can save another.]
[——"Jiu Shen·Reincarnation