Thriller Paradise

At 2 am on the 17th of May, the result of the first round of Battle of the Cocoon and the name list of the redemption rounds had been announced. Since this was in sleeping mode, ten full hours of in-game had passed between 1 to 2 am in real life. For so many participants, all the matches should be finished already. During the remaining time left before 2 AM, the system was completing the calculations, and the employees were organizing the information.

Xiao Tan had just finished a scenario and had returned to the log-in lobby. He received the system notification that told him he had advanced to the next round. Looks like Laughing Sound's analysis was not unfounded. Even among the winner's group, he achieved 42 wins. That ensured that he was not at the bottom. In the next two days, Xiao Tan, who had more of a breather, was accompanied by Laughing Soul to conduct focus training on his Sorcery Mastery. He also finally found a Sorcery-type skill that he could use. It was priced nicely at the Thriller Box.

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Name: Drawing a Cross to Curse You (Will be known as Cross Curse from here on)

Skill Card Property: Active, Permanent

Skill Type: Sorcery

Effect: Curse a target so your next attack on the target will cause 10% additional damage (The target can only be a non-friendly character within your sight and within 50 meters; the target will know that he has been cursed; the same curse can be applied on the same target multiple times but the effect will not stack)

Exhaust: 2 Sorcery Points (Cooldown timer is 5 minutes. It will last forever until the effect is triggered.)

Learning Requirement: Sorcery F

Remark: The most basic sorcery skill from the passage of I from Seven Psalms of Gui Guzi. This skill was created by the 250th direct descendant of Gui Guzi. Whenever he ran into people he disliked, he would use this skill to annoy them and to make them believe that they are being haunted by spirits. He would then lure the target to his own "Supernatural Detective Agency" to ply his own service, scamming and pranking the target at the same time.

———

This skill was immensely helpful in helping Xiao Tan train for his Sorcery Mastery. A player at Level 35 with 350 Sorcery Points and the consumption of 2 Sorcery Points was almost negligible. Xiao Tan's sorcery mastery was Level E, and the success rate of activating any Sorcery Skill was at 40%. Assuming he would be successful once every three trials, on average, he needed to expend 6 Sorcery Points to use the skill once. The skill would not go into cooldown if it failed to activate. Therefore what Xiao Tan needed to do was to spend 2 to 6 Sorcery Points every five minutes and use this skill at least once. This way, within one hour, he would expand 72 Sorcery Points at most, and his Sorcery Points would be at zero after 5 hours. During this period, he would have used this skill at least 50 times already.

The actual situation in the scenario was naturally much better than on paper. Basically, whenever Xiao Tan entered a long scenario, he could guarantee a skill activation every 5 minutes for 8 hours. This skill had no limitations as regards the target, as long as it was 'non-friendly.' In other words, the target could be the crow on the tree, the fish in the river, or anything else. Therefore, in the recent scenarios of the past two days, the other players who were in the same group as Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul would see a scene like this often. There was this guy known as Kuang Tanzhi, and he would focus his eyes on some living object every five minutes. This living thing could be an ant, a monster, or a passing NPC. After the target was selected, Brother Kuang would silently draw an X on his palm. He would mumble, "I am cursing you."

With this focused training, on the afternoon of the 18th of May, Xiao Tan raised his Sorcery Mastery to Level D…but that was all. He failed to raise it to Level C before the start of the second round of the Battle of the Cocoon. On the night of the 19th of May, Xiao Tan's level had reached Level 36, and he gained a new fighting skill from the scenario.

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Name: Binding Jaws

Skill Card Property: Active, can only be used twice

Skill Type: Fighting

Effect: Use the palms to unleash a giant jaw-like impact to bind the target to the nearest surface (Cooldown is 30 seconds, and the target needs to possess a corporeal body)

Exhaust: 300 Stamina Points

Learning Requirement: Fighting Mastery C (The skill card cannot be traced after obtaining it)

Remark: A skill that was common to most beast-like summoned creatures. The first summoned creature that used this in record was the leader of the Ursa, Loui Striker. From various documents, it was clear that Loui was a known sorcery genius. He was not only familiar with druid spells, but he had also dabbled in necromancy. He was a sorcerer that was unique in that he was familiar with both schools of magic that dealt with the contradictory forces of life and death.

———

For the past two days, Brother Jue purposely had Xiao Tan queue up in games with Laughing Soul because they were close in terms of level and power level. The effect of the training would be optimum. If he joined in, who knew what the scenario would become?

From the result, Brother Jue's decision was not wrong.

Finally, at 1 AM on the 20th of May, the second round of Battle of the Cocoon started as scheduled.

…

"The first round of Battle of the Cocoon will start soon. Your data will be input in 30 seconds. Please do not leave the log-in lobby. Ten seconds countdown before logging in. Ten, nine, eight, seven… two, one."

Unlike last time, Xiao Tan was transported out of the elevator.

"The pupa curls in the cocoon and hibernates for three nights in the forest, spinning the smoothest silk spun into the hardest carapace."

The opening song and a bright light blinded Xiao Tan, causing him to close his eyes.

"Download completed. You are currently playing Tournament for the Best—Battle of the Cocoon. This mode does not have a scenario introduction. There are no side/hidden quest or unique world views."

"Reward for winning the scenario: Join the winners' group."

"Main quest has been triggered."

"Kill your opponent."

A series of announcement windows appeared and then swiftly disappeared. Xiao Tan gained access to mobility afterward. He opened his eyes and realized that everything was quite dark. There were only a few dim light sources. At that moment, he was inside a tunnel. On the wall that ran down his left side, there was a dim light bulb at every 10 meters. The bulbs were about 3 meters off the ground, and they reached infinitely down the tunnel. Using these lights, he could barely see the situation inside the tunnel.

Xiao Tan observed his surroundings and believed he was standing on a railway track. For one, he was stepping on an iron rail. Secondly, the rail was not electrified, and there were peddles littered around the rails. Furthermore, the rails were arched, and it was only wide enough to fit one train. Also, there was only one track.

So, the obvious question was… what would happen if a train came barreling down the tunnel?

Based on the game's usual wicked arrangement, since the players were placed inside a tunnel, something would throw the players off balance. It could be a fast train barreling down a tight tunnel. It could happen sooner or later.

"Hmm… I should see who my opponent is first." Xiao Tan looked around but could see not another person other than himself. He walked to the nearest lightbulb, leaned against the wall, and opened the game menu.

"Ah? Brother Long?" Xiao Tan glanced at the menu, and the ID of his opponent was Long Aomin. Long Aomin was the first in-game friend Xiao Tan and Brother Jue made. They kept in touch even though the writer did not shed light on their communications. Xiao Tan had just queued up with Brother Long five days earlier. At that time, Long Aomin joked that they might end up fighting each other in the semi-finals. Who would have thought that it would happen?

This is not good, Xiao Tan thought. He was very familiar with Long Aomin's skill, title, and fighting skills. Of course, that was when they were teammates. He had no idea how Long Aomin would act in a competitive scenario.

Other than that, the news that Long Aomin had beaten Zen Dream had spread all over the forum and game. Even though Zen Dream still returned to the winner's group through the redemption rounds, Brother Long had leaped into fame through that one match. Facing this familiar yet unfamiliar opponent, Xiao Tan greatly felt pressured. He understood how powerful Brother Long was, and he was overwhelmed by helplessness. He understood why Zen Dream would lose. Similarly, as a player who focused on accuracy, speed, and agility, Xiao Tan could not figure out how to break through Long Aomin's defense.

Brother Long should be a player at the same level as Seven Kills. Looks like I'll have to take great risks if I am to win this battle. Xiao Tan started to strategize in his mind.

But from the other side of the tunnel came a familiar shout.

Long Aomin was not going to hide in the dark. He opened his throat and yelled, "I am here! Come and get me!"