Chapter 1 Early May

During early May, aside from the matches, Xiao Tan didn't spend much time leveling up during the day, nor did he grind diligently at night. As a result, his level was now one of the lowest in the Thriller Paradise's frontline.

Currently, the highest level in the Community still belonged to Feng Bujue. Although he had wasted quite a few opportunities to gain experience by feeding that坑货 (kēng huò; useless thing) [Zero-Type Magic Destroyer], he had still reached level thirty-seven. This was the benefit of having a lot of free time... Thanks to his efforts at the end of last month, he had successfully submitted his manuscript this month, so he had plenty of time to play games recently.

The second highest level belonged to Si Yu, at thirty-six. Her strength went without saying, and her script clearance rate was also not low. Besides, she sometimes used a few double experience cards.

Bei Ling and Xiao Tan were the same level, both thirty-five, but Bei Ling had been online more often recently, so he was far ahead in terms of experience points and was very close to thirty-six. Xiao Tan, on the other hand, still needed nearly two million experience points to level up.

In the [Cocoon War], which was full of strong players, level thirty-five didn't offer much of an advantage. Players who could make it to the second round had basically all leveled up to thirty-five or higher over the past half-month. There were also some players above level thirty-eight, but they were relatively rare.

However, Thriller Paradise wasn't a game where you could judge who was stronger based solely on level. Specialization, titles, skills, equipment, strategy, technique, on-the-spot performance, and so on... There were many factors that could influence victory or defeat.

Before the start of the second round, let's take a look at Xiao Tan's current character attributes:

ID: Wang Tan Zhi, Level: 35.

Title: [Swift Nightmare], Title Ability: [Nightmare's Trace]

Experience Points: 1580000/3500000, Skill Points: 10100, Game Coins: 3765000.

Specialization: General C, Machinery D, Investigation C, Fighting B, Shooting D, Medical E, Spiritual E, Summoning nA

Inventory (10/20): Miner's Hat, Winchester Shotgun, Rock Debris Crystal, Survival Supplement (Large) *5, Survival Supplement (Medium) *5, Hemostatic Bandage *5, Antitoxin Mixture *5, Antifreeze *5, Burn Ointment *5, *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Skill).

Equipment: Energy Storage Three-Edged Military Dagger, Nyan Star's Fury, Withered Armor, Deerskin Boots, Wolf Mane Leggings, Hidden Blade, Sleeve Dart.

Storage Room (2/10): Double Experience Card (24 hours) *30, Double Game Coin Card (24 hours) *30.

Skill Bar (5/12): [Demon Bat Wraith Shadow], [Ke Ji Wu Gen Mo Lang You], [Feng Zhu Chen Xiang Hua Yi Jin], [Reverse Blade Spinning Slash], [Bu Ying Zhui Hun].

This was the configuration of a rich person; regardless of whether it was necessary, the inventory was upgraded to twenty slots first. The bag was full of consumables that could remove various status effects, all of which were store-bought and could be bought again when they were used up.

What needs to be mentioned here were the "Double Experience Card" and "Double Game Coin Card." These were both special items that could be stacked infinitely when stored. Even if you bought three thousand of them, as long as they were the same type, they could all be stacked in one item slot...

In addition, as you've probably seen, there was something quite eye-catching in Xiao Tan's inventory... *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Skill). This thing wasn't an ordinary skill card; its appearance was that of a martial arts manual. The learning conditions were extremely harsh: requiring Fighting Specialization B-grade, and Spiritual Specialization C-grade, and the character must be level 30 or higher.

It had been almost a month since he obtained this untradeable skill in the Cang Ling Sword Debate script. Because the inventory was spacious, Xiao Tan had always carried it with him and hadn't put it in the storage room.

In the recent fifty [Insect War] matches, Xiao Tan had already raised his Fighting Specialization to B-grade, but his Spiritual Specialization hadn't shown any signs of improvement. But this was also reasonable; he didn't even have a single Spiritual skill, so naturally there was no way to improve it. The current E-grade was still accumulated slowly from his ghost-encountering experience in paranormal scripts...

Feng Bujue had also given Xiao Tan advice, wanting him to improve his Spiritual Specialization a bit, but unfortunately, Spiritual skills were just as rare as Summoning skills. The ones that could be found in the auction house were truly坑爹 (kēng diē; trash), expensive and useless. And the Spiritual skills in the Surprise Box, considering their price, characteristics, level, and other aspects, it was really difficult to pick one that was suitable for Xiao Tan. After all, Skill Points couldn't be bought with money, so doing it on purpose would be somewhat not worth it. Besides, Xiao Tan couldn't be like Jue-Ge... hoarding Surprise Boxes, watching hours of equipment continuously, memorizing and filtering while watching, and then going back to pick out the most suitable one after watching everything...

In short, due to Xiao Tan's lack of Spiritual ability, *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Skill), which looked super strong, had become a decoration that was shelved... like the heroine in a harem manga; it was clearly something being offered to him, but he couldn't eat it. He couldn't give it away, couldn't force it down, and couldn't bear to throw it away. The feeling was beyond words.

Of course, even if he had never gotten this skill, Xiao Tan was still a fairly strong player. He didn't have many skills, and none of his equipment was perfect grade or higher, but he could still make it all the way to the second round, which showed his talent in combat.

…………

[The first round of the Cocoon War is about to begin. Your data will be loaded in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the login space.]

[Ten-second countdown before loading, nine, eight, seven... two, one.]

As the system voice's countdown ended, the elevator Xiao Tan was in began to move.

"Deep forest obscurity, three sleeps in a cocoon, finger-wrapping softness, hundred refinements of steel." An opening line that he had never heard before echoed in his ears.

[Loading is complete. You are currently participating in Peak Showdown - Cocoon War.]

[This mode has no script introduction, no side hidden quests, and no special world view.]

[Script victory reward: Enter the winner's bracket]

[Main quest triggered]

[Kill your opponent]

*Kuang*—*Wēng*—

As soon as the system's prompts stopped, the elevator made two strange noises, followed by a bizarre shaking.

Xiao Tan staggered a couple of steps, then quickly stabilized himself. Now, his movements were nimble, his steps were silent, and he could move and dodge with ease. Even if he were standing on a lonely boat in a raging sea, he could stand firm. He wouldn't be flustered by the elevator shaking a few times.

*Chi*— The elevator door opened.

A gust of cold wind rushed in, like a knife scraping bone. Outside the elevator was a expanse of frost and white.

Xiao Tan quickly raised his hand, grabbed the hood behind his neck (the assassin's jacket had a hood behind the neck), put it on his head, and stared outside...

The environment of this script was actually on a snow mountain. This mountain had undulating peaks and a majestic aura. Between the ice and snow, the wind and snow howled. The invisible gale was like an out-of-control beast, venting its excess energy in this remote location at an altitude of more than two thousand meters.

Xiao Tan poked his head out to confirm, and as expected... the elevator he was riding was suspended in mid-air.

Without hesitation, he immediately reached out and grabbed the edge of the top of the elevator, flipped over, jumped onto the top of the elevator, and then squatted on it to look around.

A rather bizarre scene appeared in his sight... In this snowy mountain, there was actually a black steel cable as thick as a bowl, and two elevators were suspended on the cable. One was the one under Xiao Tan's feet, and the other was hanging about fifty meters away from him. The two elevators were like two bells hanging on a rope, swaying in the wind...

Under the cover of wind and snow, it was no longer clear where the two ends of the steel cable led to. What was certain was that it was very far from the ground, and if he fell... whether he landed on the snow or crashed on the moraine, the result would be certain death.

"Could it be that we're supposed to fight on this steel cable..." Xiao Tan thought to himself, "That's too exaggerated..."

At this moment, a person came out of the opposite elevator as well. That person's reaction was the same as Xiao Tan's, also flipping onto the top of the elevator. It was just that he came out a dozen seconds later than Xiao Tan, probably struggling with his thoughts, afraid that he would be shot as soon as he came out or something.

Xiao Tan didn't worry about that kind of situation. When he realized that the elevator was hanging in mid-air, he judged that the opponent couldn't be a shooting specialization player. The reason was simple: if one of the two players could fly, glide, or had powerful long-range killing abilities, the system wouldn't generate such a map.

At this moment, the two players looked at each other from afar on top of their respective elevators, and their inner thoughts were consistent: "That guy on the other side is indeed a close-combat player, right..."