Chapter 18 You Must Be Thinking...

"Heh... this is really..." Facing the palm that was hurtling toward his face, a smile actually appeared on Link's face.

*Boom—*

In the next second, his crown was shattered by Xiao Wen Cang Tian's palm, his head exploding like a watermelon.

If this were a battle between players, the fight should have ended here.

But a Derivative... especially a super Derivative like Link, things definitely aren't over until he's completely obliterated.

Xiao Wen Cang Tian knew this too, so his attack didn't stop.

In terms of hand-to-hand combat, he was undoubtedly a top expert in the game, capable of tearing apart a Gundam with his bare hands. Tearing apart a standard-sized humanoid creature... that was even easier.

In an instant, palm shadows filled the sky, and Battle Qi surged.

Xiao Wen Cang Tian quickly split Link's body into hundreds of pieces about the size of tennis balls, and as those pieces scattered and fell, he spun and retreated, creating some distance.

Kuang Zong Jian Ying's cooperation with him was very tacit, and it was clear that the Guild Leader had left him room for attack. He immediately followed up with three moves without hesitation.

As the saying goes, the sharpest edge of the ages, the shadow of the sword, the ultimate move like fire, the Yang burns the heavenly gate.

The three moves of [Four Yangs Burn the Wilds], [Five Yangs Scorch the Plains], and [Six Yangs Burn the Night] were unleashed in succession, instantly burning Link's flesh into nothing, leaving no residue behind.

"Huff... was that successful?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying muttered, panting.

He had used six moves of the Nine Yang Divine Skill in a short period, and had to use movement skills to stay in the air at the same time, so his stamina was clearly a bit strained. However, after this round of attacks, he didn't immediately deactivate his skills.

Xiao Wen Cang Tian on the other side was the same, with no intention of returning to the ground.

Because both he and Jian Shao were asking themselves the same question: "Could it be that easy?"

"Heh heh... are you thinking..." Sure enough, a few seconds later, Link's voice rang out again, "'Could it be that easy?'"

"There!" Xiao Wen Cang Tian and Kuang Zong Jian Ying reacted with surprising synchronicity, both gathering their strength and rushing toward the direction of the voice the moment they heard it.

However, when they looked up, preparing to attack upwards, they couldn't help but freeze.

They saw five figures floating seven or eight meters above their heads; five identical Links, and the one who spoke to them... was one of them.

"Indeed, it won't be that easy." Two seconds later, Link continued with a smile, answering his own question, "Let me be clear... with your abilities, you can't kill me." He spread his hands, explaining with interest, "Among the 'Three Giants' of Origin, I should be the weakest in terms of data strength, but even Ed cannot eliminate me." He spoke unhurriedly, his leisurely attitude giving people a creepy feeling, "As my name 'Link' suggests, the 'me' you 'see' is just one link in a chain. You can't imagine how long this chain is."

"A clone ability..." Xiao Wen Cang Tian muttered after seeing this, "In that case, the one we destroyed just now was a fake."

"These five might not be real either," Kuang Zong Jian Ying added, "I just don't know what percentage of the main body's strength the clones have."

"Clones?" Link laughed, "Heh heh... you think of my ability as so superficial, I'm very disappointed."

After saying that, the "five Links" moved in response, rushing back toward Xiao Zhu and Jian Shao at the same speed.

These Links were still using simple fist and kick attacks, with nothing special about them. However... each of them possessed the strength and speed of a level-one martial arts Derivative.

"What's going on?" Xiao Wen Cang Tian thought to himself in shock while fighting three of them at once, "These three have completely identical martial arts abilities, this... is just a clone?"

Not far away, Kuang Zong Jian Ying, fighting two of them, also discovered this problem after only three or four moves.

"Is this guy's ability self-replication?" Jian Shao thought.

They weren't troubled by the questions before them for too long, because they soon had no energy to think about other things...

Even top players wouldn't be much stronger than level-one Derivatives in terms of martial arts alone. In this situation of fighting two or three opponents at once, they were bound to be at a disadvantage.

"This won't work! Quickly return to the ground!" Before ten moves had passed, Xiao Wen Cang Tian quickly shouted to Jian Shao.

He understood that continuing to stay in the air was very disadvantageous for them. As the saying goes, strength comes from the ground. Staying in the air not only requires extra stamina but also makes it difficult to borrow strength. Continuing to entangle like this would lead to certain death.

"Okay!" Jian Shao's aerial combat ability was mediocre, and he was already stretched to his limit. Hearing this, he took advantage of the situation and swept out a sword Qi, taking advantage of the enemy's retreat to turn over and plummet straight down.

"Hmph... you can be considered clever." Link, or rather, the "Links", didn't intend to chase the two Jianghu masters, because at this time he already had a better idea.

Two seconds later, he turned his head and said to Infinite, who was confronting Xiao Tan, "Infinite... let's switch."

His words were abrupt, with only one key word: "switch", but Infinite understood as soon as he heard it.

"That's what I was thinking too," Infinite replied with a smile.

After the two finished communicating, they immediately took action. The five Links stepped into the air, turned around, and flew straight toward Xiao Tan; while Infinite ascended again, casting his gaze down.

"Attention! It's coming again!" In less than half a second, Qiu Feng Se in the crowd howled, reminding everyone around him to prepare for a new round of bombardment.

Pikachu could be considered a strategist. He immediately realized that the meaning of Link's "switch" just now was: he would deal with Wang Tanzhi, who possessed the Black Flame ability, while Infinite would continue to slaughter the other players—this was undoubtedly a "more efficient" and more "reasonable" distribution.

For most players, Infinite's instant "finger snap bomb" was simply a nightmare. To use a fighting game move as an example, this move belonged to the type of remote, large-area ultimate move that goes off in zero frames (damage calculation begins as soon as the action is performed), leaving the attacked party with almost no reaction time.

Of course, in theory, there was still a time difference of a few tenths of a second between Infinite "preparing to snap his fingers" and "snapping them." During this process, players could judge whether he was going to snap his fingers by observing the subtle movements of his fingers, and then make some kind of response.

But... even if someone could perform the above-mentioned extreme operation, they still had to "guess" the area that Infinite's finger snap was going to detonate in order to make an effective response.

In short, the difficulty of realizing this hypothesis was outrageously high.

*Bang—*

One second later, another explosion occurred.

Qiu Feng Se's reminder was timely, but it couldn't change the grim situation.

Along with the sound of the explosion, dozens more players gloriously sacrificed themselves. Fortunately, the crowd was now relatively dispersed, otherwise, this attack would probably have caused more than a hundred casualties.

"Heh heh... Old Brother Qiu Feng..." Yu Zhong Ji Chang, whose leg had been blown off, crawled to Qiu Feng Se's side, who was on his last breath, as the smoke had not yet cleared. He said with a miserable smile, "Don't waste your energy." He shook his head, "In this situation... I'm already out of ideas anyway."

"Cough... pfft..." Qiu Feng, lying on the ground, spat a mouthful of blood on the ground, and then also revealed a bitter smile, replying, "Yeah... knowing when to give up is also one of the basic qualities of a strategist."

"Hmph..." At this time, Yu Zhong Ji Chang's expression changed slightly, "It's a little embarrassing to say... at this time, I suddenly began to miss certain guys who don't play by the rules, never give up, and can still complain and joke even in desperate situations."

"Yeah..." Qiu Feng Se said wistfully before taking his last breath, "Although I don't really like that crazy guy who mocks people at every turn... but at this moment, I sincerely hope that that bastard can come out and punish that so-called perfect life form in the sky... the..."

Qiu Feng Se didn't finish his words before dying from his injuries, turning into white light in the blink of an eye.

In that final moment, his mood was regretful... the large group of surviving players led by him and Yu Zhong Ji Chang, who had successfully resisted the redundant troops, had almost been wiped out in the past ten minutes. The efforts of the two strategists had been reduced to nothing by Infinite's mere finger snaps.

"Sigh... Brother Qiu Feng." Watching the fading white light, Yu Zhong Ji Chang shook his head helplessly, "You go ahead first... I guess I'll be coming soon too."