Chapter 1 He Had No Intention of Snatching It From the Start

From the very beginning, Feng Bujue hadn't planned to snatch the "Sword Dance Manuscript."

Because the moment he saw the main quest of this scenario, he immediately gleaned a very important hidden piece of information.

【Obtain the "Sword Dance Manuscript" before any other player and maintain ownership for one hour.】

At first glance, this was a very simple and straightforward task. After reading it, most people would immediately note two things: first, snatch the Sword Dance Manuscript; second, keep the manual on their person for an hour.

Then, they would start thinking about their next move, or go do something else entirely.

But Feng Bujue's thought process wasn't like that. After seeing the quest, the two words that concerned him the most were—"before any other."

From a subjective point of view, the hidden meaning behind these two words could easily be overlooked, but if one were to examine the meaning of these two words from the perspectives of opponents and onlookers, there was much more to it...

First, from the most basic settings...this newly launched "Team Melee" mode was essentially still a "killing game." Since it was this type of scenario, then regardless of the side quests and hidden missions, the "main quest" given to each participating team by the system had to be the same.

That is—all teams received a quest description like "Obtain the Sword Dance Manuscript before any other player."

So, here's the question...

Although it was right in front of them, a very obvious fact, very few people realized one thing—the team that could truly obtain the Sword Dance Manuscript "before any other" was, and could only be, one.

Because only the first team to get the Sword Dance Manuscript fulfilled the concept of "before any other." When the members of that team obtained "ownership" of the item, even if other teams snatched it away, they would be acquiring it "after."

And "acquiring the Sword Dance Manuscript after other players" obviously did not comply with the quest description.

In other words...

Once the Sword Manuscript fell into the hands of a team, that team would have completed "half" of the main quest. As for whether they could complete the "other half"...that was another matter. The key was...from that moment on, all other teams, hostile to this team, lost the possibility of fulfilling the condition of "before any other player."

At that point, the system would naturally prompt those people "Main Quest Failed," and they would certainly belatedly discover the hidden meaning within the quest description.

From then on, those people lost the path to "winning by completing the main quest," and were left with only one other way to win—kill all opponents.

If the main quest had been set up like this from the beginning, that would have been fine; there would have been many strategies to achieve this goal. But...in this scenario, there would also be a team "holding ownership of the Sword Dance Manuscript," and if they were left alone, they would win through the "main quest" after an hour, and the scenario would end.

In this way, everyone, while being enemies to each other, also had to find a way to wipe out the team holding the Sword Dance Manuscript within an hour. Moreover...wiping out that team might not solve the problem permanently, as no one could say for sure whether the change of ownership of the "Sword Dance Manuscript" would trigger a new main quest.

In short...after this analysis, Feng Bujue quickly understood—this seemingly simple main quest was actually incredibly perverse.

Even if he didn't know at the time that the Sword Dance Manuscript was on He Yang Xinci, such a super-strong Boss, he didn't intend to do that main quest...

And later developments confirmed his thinking.

Those players who, after reading the quest, were pondering "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," like Kuang Zong Jian Ying and Cai Bupa Ne, who had been hiding in the dark until now and hadn't made a move...they undoubtedly underestimated the system's cunning and planning ability.

Including Juan Menghuan, who had discussed with Bi Laoshi to have him lie low and "snipe" an opportunity, the Warring States duo who foolishly stood on He Yang Xinci's side, and even Xu Nüshen...everyone took it for granted that this was a scenario centered around "snatching the Sword Manuscript."

But in reality...compared to that method of winning, those who planned from the beginning to "kill all opponents to win" would have more of an advantage.

That person...was Feng Bujue.

The focus of his plan today was on how to use the other players' obsession with the Sword Dance Manuscript and the deviation in their interpretation of the main quest...to use He Yang Xinci as bait to force the players out one by one.

As long as everyone was out in the "open," Feng Bujue had a hundred ways to kill his opponents...

Therefore, Jue-ge didn't mind showing himself early, nor did he care who got the Sword Dance Manuscript first. He dispersed and restrained the combat power of He Yang Xinci and others, let Ruo Yu go to duel with He Yang Xinci, and made a show of snatching the Sword Dance Manuscript...the fundamental purpose of these actions was to balance the power of the various parties and make the situation even more chaotic, so that the players would kill each other for different purposes.

Of course, some accidents occurred during the course of this plan. First, it was "He Yang Xinci" himself.

This Boss was indeed not simple...whether it was his strength or his reaction to threats, it was all above Feng Bujue's estimate, and he could be said to be quite troublesome.

Fortunately, Jue-ge's miscalculation also had a "second" factor...which was the [Void Thorny Beast EX] that Hama Man and the others had sent.

Jue-ge originally thought that those heroes had only sent him a set of equipment similar to the Tin Foil Man's battle armor; using this kind of high-tech stuff to bully the NPCs of the martial arts world should be just right, at least in the initial confrontation, the other party was very likely to be directly crippled by those machine guns, beams or missile weapons that they had never seen before.

He never expected that the three big shots of the Uprising League would be a little serious...

Maybe they felt that, anyway, Poker Man would also take this thing to other universes, and if something went wrong, it wouldn't harm their own territory, so...the Tin Foil Man, who was in charge of the "hard technology" part, "enthusiastically" made the volume and physical combat power of the battle armor into about the same specifications as the "Anti-Hulk Armor" of a certain universe; and Hama Man, who was in charge of the "soft technology" part, added many "experimental" black technology weapons to this battle armor...the kind of things he didn't dare to use casually in his own universe; finally, Dr. Eternal, who was in charge of "additional functions", probably because he was also a "human being on Earth"...he also very "considerately" sent the powerful Buffs of various "magic-based technologies" to his fellow villager's battle armor.

In this way...a humanoid mech with infinite energy, both physical and magical, amazing combat power, and only a slightly strange shape was born.

And the first experimental subject of the [Void Thorny Beast EX] after its debut in the scenario world was...Leng Yuqiu.

What exactly happened in that small forest will not be described in detail here...anyway, Leng Yuqiu is now nowhere to be seen, whether alive or dead...everything happened very quickly, and you can imagine the specific process yourself.

Let's say that at the moment, Feng Bujue fired a positron cannon...overwhelmingly, unstoppable.

At this moment, the advantages of the players came to the fore...

Basically, when they heard Jue-ge say the words "Fourth Industrial Revolution", they had already instinctively felt the danger.

Oda Ai, Sasaki Mei, Juan Menghuan, Bi Laoshi...the four who were closer to Jue-ge began to run away before he finished saying the word "profound meaning".

At this moment, they had no intention of attacking each other at all, and the same thought arose in their minds—"No matter what Feng Bujue is going to do, I always feel that if I stand still and wait for him to finish reciting the name of this move, I might die..."

On the other hand, Ruo Yu, who was standing farther away, knew Jue-ge better than others, so when she heard the sentence "I choose you", she had already turned around and slipped away.

While running, she also confirmed the positions of Wang Qiong and others, and was relieved to see that they had all run away.

At this point, you must have seen it...

At the moment when Jue-ge launched his attack, the only living person standing on this main street of Linlu Town was He Yang Xinci.

He didn't know what a "positron cannon" was, so he didn't run away in the first place.

It wasn't until the surface of the energy furnace on the chest of the [Void Thorny Beast EX] suddenly flashed red that he realized something...

Boom—

With a roar, a red beam of light pierced through the street, and its terrifying power was unprecedented to the people of this world; all objects touched by the beam (mainly corpses and scattered weapons), even if only grazed by its white energy edges, would be annihilated.

After the bombardment, a ditch-like trace was left in the center of the street, and the temperature of the entire street rose by at least twenty degrees.

And He Yang Xinci's figure...had disappeared.

"I'll go...Boss was bombed into nothingness..." Bi Laoshi couldn't help but murmur as he poked his head out to look.

Most people would make this judgment when they saw this scene.

However...

"Tch...did he run away..." Feng Bujue, riding in the battle armor, had already begun to search for the enemy's whereabouts.

If He Yang Xinci hadn't dodged this move, he would have been reduced to ashes; if He Yang Xinci was reduced to ashes, the Sword Dance Manuscript would have to be buried with him; if the Sword Dance Manuscript was gone, the main quest would fail; if the main quest failed, the system would give a prompt...

To sum up, since the system prompt hadn't come, He Yang Xinci must have dodged the attack of the positron cannon.

In an instant, this chain of deductions had formed in Jue-ge's mind, and formed a conclusion.

If geniuses are those who surpass thinking with instinct, then Feng Bujue is the one who transcends instinct with thinking.

His accurate and rapid judgment allowed him to react to the scene that followed faster than anyone else present...

"God-Given Extreme Sword Style Profound Meaning..." After a breath, He Yang Xinci, holding his sword, fell from the extremely high sky with the force of a thunderbolt, "...Heavenly Tribulation Slash!"

"Ha! Seeking death!" The corner of Feng Bujue's mouth curled up in a smile, and his eyes and hands moved across the console with astonishing speed, immediately making a response, "Fourth Industrial Revolution Defensive Style Barrage Cover!"

Although what Jue-ge did was just to let the mech open the hatches on its shoulders and release a barrage to sweep the sky, he was still stubbornly shouting out a newly compiled move name to the other party through the loudspeaker.

Although his method was a bit bullying, it was indeed effective; technology-oriented weapons were very restrained against the characters in the martial arts world, even if it was a Boss-level existence like He Yang Xinci, it would probably be finished if he insisted on coming hard against this attack.

"Mr. He Yang! I'll cover you!" Unexpectedly, at this moment, Sasaki Mei suddenly rushed out from the side.

This only male member of Team Warring States in the s2 season, although he had always displayed a sickly state and was not very conspicuous in personality...but in terms of hard power, he would not be at a disadvantage even against Kuang Zong Jian Ying.

Most importantly, Sasaki Mei's ability to analyze and grasp the battle situation has always been extremely outstanding, and he can always inflict the most effective damage on the enemy when they are most uncomfortable. For example, now, he rushed closer at high speed while the barrage attack of the [Void Thorny Beast EX] was still being fired...

This move can be regarded as seizing Jue-ge's flaw.

Because the action of "barrage cover" needs to be carried out continuously, usually waiting for the enemy's attack to end before stopping, otherwise the effect will be discounted. Therefore, Jue-ge, who was releasing a barrage to He Yang Xinci in the air, could not respond to Sasaki Mei's attack at the same time.

"[Sick Sword Bamboo Dragonfly]!" Sasaki Mei seized the opportunity, spread his arms, and spun around like a bamboo dragonfly, attacking the [Void Thorny Beast EX].

Although the appearance of his move looks a bit childish and ridiculous, its power is no less than those of the conventional fighting moves, especially when dealing with this kind of "large enemy", the lethality is amazing.

"It seems quite interesting, I'll also try to see if I can chop this guy..." Two seconds later, Oda Ai also killed with Sasaki Mei.

Her ability to interpret the battle situation may not be as good as her teammates, but her reactions and movements are very fast. Seeing Sasaki Mei's actions, she immediately understood that this was a good opportunity and took advantage of the situation to attack.

"Ah...they really know how to play..." Feng Bujue muttered with displeasure when he saw this change.

He also knew that these two Warring States guys were also characters who could "dismantle Gundam with their bare hands". Even if their instant destruction ability was not as good as He Yang Xinci, they couldn't ignore the fact that they killed together.

"It's time for you to see the real operation..." In the next second, Jue-ge once again showed an Apm that surpassed ordinary people and looked like he was just randomly mashing the keyboard, and the [Void Thorny Beast EX] quickly ascended under his operation.

Relying on the powerful propulsion device at the bottom of its feet, this mech can take off vertically without changing its posture, and can reach a maximum flight speed of Mach 2; even when it is just taking off, the acceleration time from zero to Mach 1 is only about four seconds.

Of course...these are just theoretical values, and in actual use, you will encounter many problems, such as...energy output problems.

No matter what the mech does, it needs "energy"; although the "Super Ark Energy Furnace" of the [Void Thorny Beast EX], which combines the advantages of various technologies, is "infinite energy", the total amount that this energy can output within a certain period of time is limited.

Not long ago, the positron cannon used by Jue-ge was an extremely energy-consuming attack method. After using such an attack, the peak output of the energy furnace would decrease for a period of time, which would affect other performance of the aircraft.

As a result, the ascent of the [Void Thorny Beast EX] was a little bit slower...

And this "tiny bit" of time was enough for Sasaki Mei and Oda Ai's attacks to come to fruition.

Zeng zeng zeng zeng—

Soon, Sasaki Mei's ultra-high-speed continuous slashes hit the mech's knees, making a sound like a circular saw cutting metal.

Oda Ai also followed up, although she started a few seconds slower than her teammates, she was almost at the same level as Sasaki Mei when she rushed to the mech.

"[Iai Nocturnal Cry]!" Oda Ai's attack was even more fierce, and with one move, she made a heaven-splitting horizontal slash, trying to cut the [Void Thorny Beast EX] in half.

Crack—

Then, there was a strange noise, and the part below the waist of the [Void Thorny Beast EX] really broke away from the upper body...