“Feng Bujue, level 15.

“Please select the game mode that your team wants to join.

“You have selected the Killing Game (1 Versus 1), please confirm.

“Confirming, adjusting nervous connectivity, generating the scenario…

“Please wait a moment. Downloading.”

Then, Feng Bujue’s sight was filled with darkness. A series of words floated up into his vision. The system read them out loud as the words rolled upward.

“The core of Killing Game is for players to fight one another. Said mode will thus decrease the fear factor, the possibility of encountering the formation of world-building, mission trigger rates, and the size of the map of the generated scenario.

“You can observe your teammates’ and opponents’ IGNs, levels, and statuses via the game menu.

“The rules governing the players’ behavior in Team Survival Mode are applied here as well. If you are unfamiliar with these rules, please clic.k the following link to take a look. These reminders will only appear the first time you enter the Killing Game. Have an enjoyable game.”

After reading through the reminder, Feng Bujue was not greeted by a voice that said, “Welcome to Thriller Paradise.” Instead, a voice that contained a Taiwanese accent said, “Make your opponents cower in fear. Have them understand the true meaning of terror!”

So, the greeting for Killing Game was different. After that was over, the next system announcement continued.

“Download complete. You are currently in the Killing Game mode.

“This mode comes with an introductory cinematic and the chance to unlock side

/hidden quests and special world-building.

” Victory Reward: Fifty Skill Points.

“The introductory cinematic is going to begin soon. The game will start immediately after the cinematic is over.”

The introductory cinematic thus appeared before Feng Bujue’s eyes. It was a spacious and dim environment. Under his feet was a smoothed-out plateau with a rocky cliff face to his right. The cliff was hung with plenty of dried carcasses and skeletons like ornaments. A blurry moon in the sky was the single witness of this creepy scene. Then he heard a hard-to-believe introductory cinematic…

“The demonic world corrupted the realm of God, Masters of the Xuan travel the world. Xuan Yuan wishes for nothing but one loss. With the world so scarred, can humans still rebuild?”

What the hell… This is theme song for Pili Shen Zhou: The Turbulent Homeland… Feng Bujue had a bad feeling rising in his heart.

“Tonight, ye moon is swollen, radiating a faded sheen that spoke of melancholy and sadness. The stars pale swayed by its mood. They shone at the brief candles of life! Eerie and dark, visions of ghosts, the world is naught but like a scene from hell! Under the Hanging Cliff, the wind buffeted, stood two who came from another dimension. One was worried with anticipation while the other stood patiently with his sword in tow.

“Who will win? Who will lose? Who will live? Who will die?”

So, I was unfortunately correct… Feng Bujue thought. Based on these words, it’s going to lead directly to an encounter, right?

Indeed, the man was correct. That was the end of the introductory cinematic. After it was over, Feng Bujue obtained his mobility. He instantly turned to observe his surroundings and noticed that a man was standing several meters behind him. Like him, the man had also just turned around.

“Main quest triggered.

“Kill all the members from the opposing team.

“Hidden quest triggered.

“Come up with a heraldry that is uniquely yours to obtain a corresponding unique Sorcery weapon.”

The system issued announcements in quick succession. Facing this scenario, Feng Bujue was speechless. The hidden quest was triggered just like that, and from the description, one could obtain the reward while still inside the scenario—that had never happened before.

Actually… this setting was the system’s way of providing a player like Feng Bujue with some leeway.

The Killing Game, the 1v1 type, would not normally be too complicated. For the most part, the fighting would start right away. The victor could be decided in mere minutes. Therefore, the reward for the victor would be understandably small, and it would be understandably worse for the loser. Other than the small Skill Points earned through combat, there would be nothing else. But under some rare circumstances, there were 1v1 matches that could last days—for example, when two marksmanship specialists were abandoned on a large island. The system decorated the island with deep jungles, secret labs, pirate’s dens, and so on… In that example, there would be plenty of side quests, and thus, the reward for victory would be more bountiful.

In 2v2 or 3v3 Killing Games, the scenario and its plot would normally be more complicated. The system might assign the players into different forces or abandon the players into a free-roaming environment and then come up with strange limitations like what had happened in the scenario for Ye Jie Elite Academy so that strategist-type players had more chance to shine.

However, since this was a 1v1, the scenario was much simpler than most. Understandably, combat-focused players had an upper hand, one that was undeniably huge, while puzzle-solving players… To take Feng Bujue as an example, if the system did not offer him this hidden quest, the chance of him winning was zero.

Now that there was an opportunity, it depended on whether the man could seize it or not.

Of course, this quest triggered for both players for the sake of fairness. If Feng Bujue’s opponent was a master of both brains and brawns, there was nothing to be said; he had earned the victory. A strong player armed with both strength and intelligence beating a player that specialized in puzzle-solving or fighting in a 1v1 scenario was quite reasonable.

And such was how unlucky Feng Bujue was. He happened to run into such a player. The man’s name was Flashes of Sword from the guild ‘Jiang Hu’. He was one of the star players from Jiang Hu. Together with Jiang Hu’s guild leader, World’s Enigma, and the guild’s other star player, Bladeless Swordsman, they were known as the triumvirate of Jiang Hu.

Speaking of these three, even Brahman, who specialized in combat, had to admit to their capability. In reality, both Brahman and Regulation, the two largest gaming studios in the business, had reached out to these three before, but their offers had been rejected every time. Regulation had even come up with a plan that intended to swallow up the whole Jiang Hu studio, but that plan eventually fell through. After all, this was a business. To purchase an entire company for three players was something that the business folks would never approve of. What if the three decided to defect from Regulation after completing their contract? Then Regulation would lose more than they had gained.

With Flashes of Sword’s ability, squeezing into the top twenty combat ranking was as easy as ABC, but currently, he was not on there because he did not log into the game during closed beta once he created his in-game character. He only started to focus on leveling after the game entered open beta. Similar to Feng Bujue, he had also just reached level fifteen, and this was his first Killing Game.

However, different from the star players at Regulation, the reason Flashes of Sword started the game late was not because he did not want to play the closed beta but because he was unable to. Jiang Hu gaming studio was a grassroots company in real life. When it started, it was no bigger than Hyotei now. World’s Enigma, Bladeless Swordsman, and Flashes of Sword were all the staff that the company had at the beginning. None of them had the family background like Atobe-sama. After all, if this venture failed for Atobe-sama, he would at most lose some miniscule part of his allowance while these three borrowed money from the bank and their relatives to start this business. If the gaming studio failed, the most likely outcome was that their family would need to go homeless and run away from their debtors.

Thankfully, they had found some success. Relying on nothing but their own talent and ability, the three managed Jiang Hu to the scale that it was that day, one of the upper gaming studios. After clearing their debt, the company moved into an office building, and they now had more than one hundred employees. In a way, they were young gamers who turned into young entrepreneurs.

However, in the world of competitive gaming, one’s retirement age was not decided by oneself. This world was incidentally like the Jiang Hu, the martial world, the masters could not just disappear from it simply because they wanted to. That was not to mention how many were willing to retire at the height of their career?

Therefore, the three leaders of Jiang Hu still personally involved themselves in the game. Not only did they have to manage the company outside of the game, they also had to manage the guild inside the games. During the closed beta, they did not have the time to game at all. Since Thriller Paradise was a new game that the company was expanding into, there were too many things to manage. Actually, the work was still piling up. Before things entered a relatively stable state, they could only go online at night in sleeping mode.

Back to the Killing Game…

Feng Bujue had been matched with Flashes of Sword, which meant one thing. The system thought that the two were roughly equally matched.

The biggest level difference of players in Killing Game was five levels. In a scenario, be it among opponents or teammate, the level difference would not be bigger than that. If the team contained players whose level difference was bigger than five, the whole team would not be allowed to queue up for Killing Game. In Battle Royale, the system would try its best to assign two teams of equal power to fight it out and in one-on-one combat. The system would never set two drastically different power-wise players to fight one another.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, for every Killing Game, either side had an equal chance of winning, including this one.

“Hmm… at first glance, my opponent appears to be one who specializes in combat. This is not good,” Feng Bujue mumbled to himself. He narrowed his eyes at Flashes of Sword. The man had a dark-colored cotton robe on, the kind worn by swordsmen in wuxia films. His long hair was tied into a ponytail, and the sword in his hand had already been unsheathed, glinting dangerously in the moonlight. Combined with this opponent’s IGN and the statement ‘the other stood patiently with his sword in tow’ that the CG mentioned, Feng Bujue had grasped many things.

However, as Flashes of Sword studied Feng Bujue, there were many things that eluded our star player. The man who stood far away was wearing a purplish suit, attempting a cheap cosplay of the Joker from Batman. The weapons that he was holding were a pistol and a wrench.

Flashes of Sword could not help but wonder, What is this man up to? He doesn’t look like a combat-specialized player. The close combat weapon he’s holding is a plumber tool, but at the same time, he’s also holding a long-ranged weapon. Is he training both workmanship and marksmanship? The ‘One was worried with anticipation’ that the CG mentioned should refer to him… In other words, he is more concerned than he appears?

The stalemate between the two did not carry on for long. Flashes of Sword was the first to make his move. He still had more confidence in his ability. He decided to test his opponent out first. After all, that was not going to exhaust much of his energy. If the opponent died from one hit, he was just that lucky.

“Ha! An aura of sharpness gathers around Flashes of Sword as he leaps into the air. The murderous air cuts into the clouds, causing the weather to shift and groan. The night clouds move as if shielding the moon from the blood that is about to be shed,” the Taiwanese-sounding narrator said.

“Huh?” Both Feng Bujue and Flashes of Sword reacted the same way. There is narration to fighting in this scenario?

Following the narration, the sky really did darken. The wind picked up, and the clouds hid the moon.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Feng Bujue turned and fled. After hearing that narration, he lost all desire to fight his opponent head on and decided to escape.

Seeing that, the confidence in Flashes of Sword grew. This was his first experience at a Killing Game and his first combat with another player inside Thriller Paradise. Initially, he was cautious of his opponent, but since Feng Bujue started running, that caution was quickly abandoned. Flashes of Sword followed up on his attack, picked up his speed, and started to attack with more power and aggression.

“His body slithers away like a dragon parting the waves. Gaining a pair of wings, the man seems to float above the ground, making little contact with the ground as he moves toward the horizon. Run! Run! Run! Feng Bujue turns and flits away.

“Sword flowing like water, aura as encompassing as waves, the waving sword seems to move the sea with its every move! Flashes of Sword continues the assault, his desire for blood growing with every second. The ground trembles under his feet, bending the will of the world under his desire!”

“What is wrong with the narration? Why does it sound so epic when I’m just running away?” Feng Bujue screamed as he made his swift escape.

Flashes of Sword was ten meters behind him, and he laughed. “Friend, once you accept this setting, it is quite interesting.”

Bang!

Feng Bujue did not reply. He turned around to fire a shot and used the last bullet in his M1911A1. Then, he removed the magazine and continued to run without slowing down while replacing the empty magazine with the full one from inside his coat pocket.

“Looks like you’re not that good a marksman,” Flashes of Sword commented coldly. The bullet barely grazed him, and he was continuing the hunt. Even if Feng Bujue had been standing still, he would have had a hard time hitting his target, much less when he was running. Actually, his aim was not to hit his target but to see his opponent’s reaction.

And Flashes of Sword’s reaction was… not good, very not good… at least for Feng Bujue.

Flashes of Sword did not even attempt to evade once he heard the sound of gunfire, and he did not slow down. This explained two things. One, he was a stringent hunter. At least in game, he could overcome some natural human instincts. Two, and this was one of the conditions for him to accomplish one, he had to have something that would shield him from fired bullets.

To make matters worse, he even mocked Feng Bujue’s marksmanship. To be able to drop a comment like that while keeping up with Feng Bujue, who had the Jazz Shoes’ buff, this man’s Stamina was unbelievably strong.

Heraldry, heraldry… Feng Bujue urged himself to think faster. I have to come up with one soon… or I’ll die.