Chapter 10 The Staked Tower

Ten minutes later, in the center of the Desert Fortress, the Staked Tower.

This tall tower occupied about five thousand square meters and had seven stories. It was the most solid building in the entire fortress. Its main structure and outer walls were all made of metal, and it was clearly high-quality metal, incomparable to the scrap metal used for the outer walls of the fortress.

Without a doubt… this tower was the residence of the ruling class here.

The four members of Corpse Blade Squad 2 had been "escorted" to the front of this tower.

Of course… "escorted" was just a figure of speech. In reality, they had not been subdued; they had simply "surrendered" willingly at Rebirth as King's suggestion and followed the Rabbitfolk guards.

Squeak—whirr—

Accompanied by the sound of metal grinding, the heavy tower doors were pushed open, and the scene inside the tower appeared before the four players.

Behind the door was a rectangular room filled with a faint smell of blood, and the metal walls on both sides were stained with obvious bloodstains.

From the outside, the tower was cylindrical and much larger than the space in front of them, so there should be other rooms on this floor. However… the person Corpse Blade Squad 2 wanted to see was waiting for them in this room.

He was also a very burly Rabbitfolk (so was Qiūqiūqí the Great King), and his style of dress also adhered to the apocalyptic rock style.

Just one glance at him… and you could feel that he was different from the Rabbitfolk grunts.

In this world, anyone who has been in a killing field for a long time will have a unique aura.

It could be the lingering stench of blood, the indifference to life and death, or the faintly intimidating fierceness… different personalities and experiences would shape different auras. And this Rabbitfolk in front of them clearly belonged to the domineering, undisguised, violent type.

“Lord Siming, the people have been brought here.” As soon as they entered the tower, the Rabbitfolk grunt leading the way reported to the burly Rabbitman.

“Alright, you can all leave.” The strongman called "Lord Siming" replied and casually waved his hand at the grunts.

“Yes!” Without questioning or hesitating, the grunt rabbits turned and left after receiving the order, not forgetting to close the door behind them.

They didn't seem to mind leaving the four completely unrestrained Earthlings here alone with their superior… which immediately made Rebirth as King feel a sense of strangeness.

“Listen well, Earthlings.” After a moment, the burly Rabbitfolk spoke, “I am one of the Six Heavenly Officials of the Long-Haired Sacred Fist… Siming Xingjun Xixi Man.”

Hearing his self-introduction, many viewers watching the match laughed again.

But… the four members of Corpse Blade Squad 2 did not laugh.

Even putting aside the drug factor, they couldn't laugh. Because… not only Rebirth as King, but also the other three members of the team, all felt to varying degrees that the NPC in front of them was very strong.

“I will ask you again solemnly…” After Xixi Man finished his self-introduction, he went straight to the point, “Did you kill Qiūqiūqí?”

The four exchanged glances, and then the captain, Sanyu Striker, stepped forward and replied neither humble nor arrogant, “That’s right, we did it.”

“Ha! Hahahaha…” Xixi Man immediately changed his face and laughed out loud, “Very good… I’ve long disliked that trash.”

His response relieved the members of Corpse Blade. It seemed that this big shot was on bad terms with Qiūqiūqí and probably wouldn't seek revenge for the latter.

However… in the next second, Xixi Man's smile instantly turned into a sneer, and his tone changed abruptly: "But… that trash was at least a scout captain on our side. Without him and his scout team searching for resources and slaves outside, our fortress will suffer a great loss…" His eyes sharpened, and his tone turned cold, "How are you going to be responsible for those losses?"

The members of Corpse Blade had seen many similar negotiations. The question raised by the other party was not a real "question" at all, and they didn't need to answer it seriously.

Therefore, Sanyu Striker's response was, "Why don't you tell us… what do you want?"

“Hehe…” Xixi Man smiled, “It seems you are smart people.” He paused, “Then I’ll be frank…” He took a few steps forward, came to the players, and looked down at the four of them, “I’ll give you two choices…” As he said this, he held out one finger, “First, until I find someone (rabbit) to replace Qiūqiūqí, you few will be responsible for the work of the scout team; if you perform well, then after compensating for the losses of this city, I can let bygones be bygones and let you decide whether to stay or leave.” Then, he held out a second finger, “Second… I will cripple you right now, and then you will be slaves for the rest of your lives.”

It was less of an offer of choice and more of a pure threat…

But the members of Corpse Blade all looked calm and unperturbed, with no great change in expression, which made Xixi Man a little confused.

“We need to discuss it.” After a brief consideration, Sanyu Striker replied two seconds later.

“Alright.” Xixi Man said, “Don’t keep me waiting too long.” With that, he turned around, feigned a few steps into the distance, and pricked up his rabbit ears…

“Rebirth, what do you think?” Sanyu Striker first asked the team's strategist.

“Well… the situation here is much more dangerous than I imagined…” Rebirth as King said, “The guards we saw after entering the city, regardless of their weapons, equipment, discipline, or basic physique… are stronger than the lackeys of that ‘scout team’; also, this ‘Long-Haired Sacred Fist Six Heavenly Official’ in front of us… is undoubtedly a Boss-level character. If there are five NPCs of the same level as Xixi Man in this tower, I'm afraid we won't be able to gain any advantage in terms of force. Even if we can quickly kill the Xixi Man in front of us, it is impossible to retreat from this fortress unscathed afterwards…”

“Yeah… I feel the same way.” Sanyu Striker nodded in response, “To be honest, after encountering Qiūqiūqí, I was a bit blindly optimistic. I originally thought that by following the direction he appeared in, we might find a stronghold similar to a ‘mountain village’. Then, as long as we took down a mountain village boss slightly stronger than Qiūqiūqí, we could take advantage of the situation to become kings of the mountain and borrow the momentum…” He shook his head, “Now it seems… the ‘momentum’ in this script is not so easy to control…”

“Hmph… the stronger the ‘momentum’, the more difficult it is to control.” Rebirth as King snorted at this time and continued, “Captain, I have a plan… in a moment, I will negotiate with Xixi Man…”