Thriller Paradise

At the same time, at the other end of the city, Ambitionist and King of Shadow were still fighting. They felt that sudden soundwave crash too.

"What's happening?" Ambitionist's hold on his longbow shivered, unleashing a volley of light arrows that missed. Using the rebound, he jumped backward. King of Shadow, who stood behind the Stone Golem, titled his head and replied, "You mean the soundwave?" He shrugged and said matter-of-factly, "It's probably nothing important. It's an ultimate from another player battle."

"No." Ambitionist pushed on his glasses. "I mean... why did the narration stop?"

"Emm?" King of Shadow was startled when he realized. "That's right." He scratched his chin. "But that doesn't affect our fight, does it? Haven't you been complaining about how annoying it was?"

"My perfect preference does not matter in this case." Ambitionist analyzed the situation calmly. "Based on my observations, in this scenario, when there is a fight between players, there has to be a narration." He paused. "Considering this is a battle royale finale, there would have to be multiple broadcasts. So I believe the narration is the official commentary provided by the system."

King of Shadow thought about it. "Hmm… Yes, since it's official, it shouldn't have stopped just like that."

Ambitionist said, "We have been fighting, so we can't tell for sure when the narration stopped."

"It was right after that soundwave," King of Shadow said. Ambitionist moved his gaze to the source of the soundwave and said, "Something must have happened there."

"Even if your analysis is right, does that change anything?" King of Shadow asked. "Are you suggesting we stop fighting and go over there to investigate?"

"Why the hell not?" Ambitionist shrugged. "At this point, neither of us is getting an upper hand, so why not a little pause?"

"You have a point there." King of Shadow scoffed. "At least no one is missing out from the surface." He did not finish the sentence. He was about to say, "Neither of us knows how much power we are holding from the fight."

Near the blood pool, the twelve players had not noticed that the narration had stopped, because they had focused all their attention on the giant monster before them. The experts of the four guilds formed a consensus at the same time—"Time to leave."

But before they could do that, something happened.

"Hah…Finally something of a challenge," an eerie voice spoke. Even though the voice was soft, everyone at the lakeside heard it clearly.

"Hey, something strong is coming from behind us." Ming Zi, who retreated first, saw the newcomer immediately. It was a red monster with a green face, large fangs, three heads, and six limbs. It had a human body and a snake's tail. It was slithering towards them.

Qu Ming Nan was the quickest of the four groups to retreat, but they were the unluckiest because Blood-crazy Shade was coming from their side.

"We're stuck between a stone and a hard place," Qu Ming said. "At least the one behind us is not that physically large."

Zhen Nan said, "But size does not equal power. From the attitude of this half-snake monster, he is probably stronger than the large blood zombie in the pool." While the three were hesitating whether to engage in battle or not, a shadow slithered past them.

"Travellers from another world?" When Blood-crazy Shade passed them, he thought condescendingly to himself, They're much stronger than the monsters in the city, but before me, they're so slow, as if they not even moving.

And the three from Hyotei only realized what had happened when the shadow slipped past them.

"What was that?"

"That was fast."

"Thankfully, it did not attack us, or else…"

They felt frightened. All three broke out in cold sweat. They should be thankful. Blood-crazy Shade was hungry for battle, and he was a cruel battle master. If not for the warning from Snared Soul, he would have killed all the players and monsters he crossed along the way. Even if he had met an Anomaly, he wouldn't have minded getting into a fight.

Roar!

The giant blood zombie sensed the shade's presence. It turned its face around and roared, as if trying to scare away the approaching threat.

"A blood zombie of this size is quite rare." Blood-crazy Shade was not affected by the roar. He was confident in himself and continued to push forward. "Just perfect for the main course for tonight. It even comes with a lake of soup."

On the northern side of the city, as a white light dispersed, a player was killed and eliminated, and his opponent was Wang Tanzhi. Xiao Tan was lucky. After the competition started, he had met and killed two players. Even though they were not seed players, he had earned four points.

"Phew…That was not easy. The opponent was quite tough." After leaving the battle, Xiao Tan sighed to catch his breath.

"You're the one that's quite tough. I am mightily impressed," said a voice behind Xiao Tan. The blade moved as the sound vibrated through the air. As the voice finished speaking, Xiao Tan's thorn had already reached the speaker's throat. He did not slash the throat because the speaker was a half-translucent illusion. The illusion had the appearance of a blonde woman with a voluptuous body. She wore a jacket and jeans. She looked pretty, and her voice was melodious. She was the perfect candidate for the main character of a romance web novel.

An illusion wouldn't speak, would it? Xiao Tan thought quickly. Or is this a summoned creature? A ghost? Or something else?

He retreated swiftly and looked around to find the controller of this illusion.

"Handsome little guy, I'm talking to you. Why aren't you answering?" the illusion said again. "I've been watching you for a while now. I know you are not mute."

Xiao Tan turned to the illusion again, and this time, he noticed the guild logo on her jacket.

"Mountain River?" Xiao Tan frowned. "You're also a player?" But he was not that surprised. After all, there were all kinds of skills in Thriller Paradise. The opponent might have used some kind of ninja skill or transformation skill to change herself into a half specter.

"She is Matcha Cookie from Mountain River," said another voice. This voice was familiar to Xiao Tan—it was Brother Jue. When Brother Jue had spoken, the illusion of Matcha Cookie disappeared. Then, strange things continued to happen. Xiao Tan was extremely confused by it. He quickly turned to the voice and saw a beautiful blonde being pushed out from an alley. Behind her was a man with a horrible hairstyle.

Seeing this, Xiao Tan asked, "Brother Jue, what is happening?"

At that moment, Feng Bujue had one hand on Matcha Cookie's shoulder. His other hand held a Death Poker by her neck, and he pressed her forward. Feng Bujue said, "What's happening is that when I was running away, I noticed she was following and observing you in the dark, so I decided to follow and observe her." He paused. "Just now, she probably felt like the timing had finally arrived, and she planned to kill you. She did not expect that something more dangerous was stalking her while she was stalking you."

"Erm… Actually, what I meant was… why did you keep her alive? Wasn't it easier if you just killed her?" Xiao Tan asked.

"Hehehe…" Feng Bujue laughed salaciously. "That is because I have something in mind. She might be of use to me."

"Are you sure it's fine for you to say something like that with an expression like that?" Xiao Tan said in a mocking tone.

Matcha Cookie, though, was surprisingly calm considering the situation. "I am not worried about you doing anything over the line, but are you sure you can hold me hostage for that long?"

"Based on what I learned in my research before the match, and based on what I had seen by watching you for almost ten minutes, I can confirm with confidence that you are a rare player in the sense that you focus on the mastery of workmanship. Even though you're not a bad fighter in any way, you would not hold up in a fistfight. Forgive me for my directness. If your fighting mastery hasn't reached Level B, there is no way you could escape from my devilish claw."

"Fine, fine. I surrender," Matcha Cookie said as she shrugged weakly. She turned her head around and winked seductively at Brother Jue. "What do you want from me? I'm all ears."