Bai Liu did not stay long. He calmly wrapped Tawil’s body, placed it on the cart, and turned to look at the crowd behind him. On his face was the hypocritical smile that Mu Shicheng, Mu Ke, Liu Jiayi, and Tang Erda could recognize at a glance. Then he said softly:
“Now, let us overthrow this sinful Rose Factory.”
—
Game Lobby, Grave Dancing Area.
No matter how Mu Ke and the others tried to hold on, no matter how they grabbed passing audience members and begged them to give Bai Liu a like or a bookmark, under the foreign guilds’ high-pressure blockade, Bai Liu’s small television still inevitably fell into the Grave Dancing Area.
Whether it was Mu Ke, who had been born into a pampered, superior background, or Mu Shicheng, whose family circumstances had always been excellent and who had never lowered his head since childhood, not even in the game, both of them had now thrown away things like self-respect and dignity. One by one, they went to pull at passersby, doing everything they could to help Bai Liu buy time.
Seeing that the game on Bai Liu’s small television had finally reached its ending stage, both of them let out a weary sigh of relief.
—This tug-of-war against an opponent like the Kings Guild had been fought too strenuously.
But now, they could let Bai Liu fall into the “Little Black Room” once, then pay the ransom to get him out. The time in between should be enough for Bai Liu to clear the game no matter what.
“...Queen, if this continues, Bai Liu might really clear the game smoothly...” Someone leaned toward the Queen’s shoulder and whispered with a grim expression, “It’s Support Season right now. If we fail to block him after two attempts, it will... be far too humiliating. Our guild’s battle team support rate will be affected...”
“It won’t fail.” Queen of Hearts crossed her arms and unhurriedly lifted her eyes to glance at Bai Liu’s small television. “This blockade will end soon.”
The person beside Hearts was stunned.
Soon, someone ran over, unable to hide the excitement on their face. They stopped in front of Hearts, bowed respectfully, then looked up and reported, “Queen! Our battle team’s [Shield] just cleared a game and left the game pool! Should I have him come over now?”
Hearts nodded slightly. “Let him come.”
The member who had been worried just a moment ago instantly changed expression. They looked at Hearts in disbelief, then moved closer to the reporting member and asked again, joy written plainly across their face: “A formal member of the battle team? [Shield] is coming over?”
The joy on the reporting member’s face could no longer be contained. They nodded again and again. “Yes! He came straight here as soon as he left the game pool! He’s already on his way!”
“Once [Shield] arrives, this blockade will end immediately!”
Mu Shicheng frowned as he looked at the commotion among the Kings Guild members in the small television area. “What are they shouting about? Have they gone crazy because they can see they can’t block Bai Liu?”
“Probably not.” Mu Ke had a faint, ominous premonition in his heart. “...They’re all laughing.”
Mu Ke did not expect this group of Kings Guild members to tell them what the hell they were laughing about. He quickly opened his system panel, entered the forum, and rapidly searched for the information he wanted—
—Soon, a post highlighted in red caught his attention.
—[The Kings Guild’s (Shield) has left the game pool and seems to be joining the blockade. Hearts’ move this time is too big!]
“...What is [Shield]?” Mu Ke asked with a frown.
Mu Shicheng also opened the forum. The moment he saw the title, his expression darkened, and he explained quickly to the newcomer Mu Ke: “It’s one of the positional titles in a battle team.”
“The regular functional divisions for a five-person team in the League are [Attack], [Shield], [Roamer], [Control], and [Tactician].”
“I haven’t watched the Kings Guild’s matches, but I’ve heard that their battle team is a double-[Control] team. Both [Control] players are extremely outstanding—one of them is Hearts, and the other this year is said to be the Little Witch.”
“Good [Attack] players are hard to find. Hearts hasn’t found a suitable rotation, so the quality of the [Attack] players on their team is quite poor—”
Mu Shicheng raised his eyes, which were full of gloom.
“—But to make up for this flaw, their team’s [Shield] is extremely strong.”
A heavy sound of footsteps, so heavy they seemed to shake the ground, came from the distance. Mu Ke turned to look, and for an instant, the expression on his face and even his breathing froze—
A giant had appeared. A towering monster so tall that Mu Ke could not even see the top of his head. This person wore heavy brass armor on his hands and feet, and several rings of spiked shackles circled his wrists and ankles. As he moved, they clashed against one another with ringing metallic sounds. When he walked, it felt as though the dimensional space partitioned by the system was vibrating along with him.
This person’s limbs were extremely long. He brushed aside the audience and the crowds trying to block him as easily as if he were brushing aside ants, or weeds growing along a country road. No one could stop him at all.
Then he slowly walked to Hearts, who stood at the center of the small television area. He lowered his head, placed his left hand over his heart in salute, and came crashing down on one knee. His voice was thick and echoing, like the boom of a cannon, vibrating so hard that it made people want to cover their ears and kneel:
“Queen, Titan is here.”
Hearts lifted her skirt and returned a slight bow. Then she placed her hand on Titan’s massive finger, allowing Titan to clumsily press a kiss to it.
“Titan, do me a favor.” Hearts turned to look at Mu Ke, who stood at the edge, and smiled with lowered eyes. “Beat them, as usual.”
In that moment, her smile bore an indescribable resemblance to Bai Liu on the small television.
Titan stood up and turned to face Mu Ke and the others. He stretched out a palm roughly the size of an adult’s head and opened it, looking down condescendingly at the wary Mu Ke and Mu Shicheng as they retreated.
“Yes, my queen.”
[System Notification: Player Titan has used personal skill (Dimensional Shield) on the entire spatial area of Bai Liu’s small television.]
[After this skill is used, different spaces will be severed and will enter different time-space dimensions. Whether biological or non-biological, nothing can enter another space. Light and sound can no longer propagate. The space where the skill is implemented will no longer be integrated under the same multi-dimensional space, including the Game Lobby.]
[Duration: One Dimensional Hour.]
In just an instant, the entire area where Bai Liu’s small television was located vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a pitch-black sphere that could not be approached.
Inside the pure black sphere, which was as large as the viewing area, many tiny flickering particles of stardust hung suspended and rotated, like a corner of the universe.
Mu Ke staggered two steps back, despair surfacing on his face—one dimensional hour. Without their support from outside, that was enough for Bai Liu to fall straight into No-Man’s Land!
Unless Bai Liu cleared the game before he fell...
On their side, there was already nothing more they could do.
—
Gambler’s Club Guild, Chairman’s Office.
Charles leaned back in a wide executive chair with his eyes closed. His hands rested loosely on the leather armrests on either side. As though he were thinking about something, his right index finger, wearing a large, glittering diamond ring, tapped rhythmically against the armrest with dull thuds.
Wang Shun sat stiffly across from Charles, his hands placed properly on his knees and his body leaning forward—this was the standard posture of someone asking for a favor, someone in a weak position.
As the person being asked, Charles’s relaxed reclining posture already showed that he was not thinking very seriously about Wang Shun’s request.
“Chairman Charles.” Wang Shun raised his voice slightly, trying to wake this chairman who looked as if he had already fallen asleep. “I have already shown you the recordings of several of Bai Liu’s games. He has great potential, strong ability, and fits your requirements for choosing a dark horse. Please consider him!”
Charles lazily opened one eye to look at Wang Shun. The smile on his face carried an obvious teasing intent. “He is indeed to my taste. If this were ten minutes ago, I might have been persuaded by you—but now?”
He slowly sat up straight and wagged his index finger left and right.
“No, no, no. I do like dark horses, but I don’t like ‘betting horses’ that have already been sabotaged.”
—“Sabotaged” meant that before entering the race, someone had deliberately tampered with the horse. For example, they might put small nails into its horseshoes so that the horse could not achieve good results on the track, or might not even be able to enter the track at all.
Bai Liu’s current situation, in Charles’s eyes, was a case of being sabotaged by the Kings Guild.
With a trace of regret, Charles rummaged through the materials Wang Shun had organized about Bai Liu on the desk. He lightly caressed Bai Liu’s face on the paper twice with affection, then heartlessly threw it into the trash can under the desk.
“I won’t tell your boss, Hearts, that her confidant came to me to recommend a newcomer.” Charles swept his gaze over the nervous Wang Shun with a half-smile. His white-gloved hands slowly interlaced over his lower abdomen as he added the second half of his sentence: “—A newcomer who is currently being targeted by her.”
“But you wasted about...” Charles lifted his hand, pulled back the edge of his glove, and glanced at the wristwatch that was also encrusted with diamonds. “Thirty dimensional minutes trying to convince me to accept a newcomer who is about to become completely worthless.”
“My time is very precious. Since you wasted it so casually, you must pay some price.”
Charles looked up at Wang Shun. He picked up the walking stick leaning against the chair leg and stood unhurriedly. He walked behind the tense Wang Shun, then placed both gloved hands on Wang Shun’s shoulders and slid them down, his tone suggestive:
“No one comes to my place and leaves without leaving something behind.”
“—Give me some information that only you know, my lovely Mr. Encyclopedia.”
At some unknown point, the walking stick had pressed against Wang Shun’s neck. As Charles slowly increased the upward pressure, Wang Shun began to feel suffocated, and the urge to struggle rose in him—but Wang Shun forced himself not to pull at the walking stick.
Right now, he was only being threatened. If he touched it, then he really would die here today!
Charles hated it when other people touched his accessories and magic props—things like his diamond watch, his rings, or this walking stick made of some unknown rare wood.
“Cough, cough—” Wang Shun was being strangled so hard that the blood vessels in his eyes began to bulge. He tried his best to lean back against the chair to reduce the pressure of the stick on his trachea. “You really won’t regret investing in Bai Liu—”
“I know a prophecy about Bai Liu from the Inverse Cross Apostle—”
The walking stick was instantly withdrawn, and Wang Shun clutched his neck, coughing violently.
Charles pulled an exquisite silk scarf from his pocket and wiped the walking stick that had strangled Wang Shun from head to end. He tossed the scarf aside, then turned to look at Wang Shun thoughtfully.
“—Inverse Cross Apostle? That fellow ranked third on the total points leaderboard? I remember he used to be called—”
“The [Inverted God’s Judge]—this year, cough cough, after transferring from the sixth-ranked guild, [The Deer Hunters], to the first-ranked guild, [Killer Sequence], he changed his name to [Inverse Cross Apostle].”
Wang Shun wiped away the tears forced out by the strangulation with his palm. After taking two large gulps of air, he finally regained enough composure to look at Charles.
“You know what the skill of the player [Inverted God’s Judge] is, right?”
Charles glanced at Wang Shun indifferently.
“Prophecy.”
“To be precise, the name of his skill is [Listening to the God’s Fragments of Words].” Wang Shun was still panting as he spoke. “I previously detected one of his inner prophecies, and it is related to Bai Liu.”
Charles tapped his walking stick against Wang Shun’s chest and made a polite gesture for him to continue, smiling innocently.
“I’m all ears.”
—
Author’s Note:
Attacking skills cannot be used in the lobby. For example, [+1]’s [Poison and Antidote] and [4]’s [Monkey’s Paw] cannot be used in the lobby. However, [6]’s trading skill and Mu Ke’s blink skill can be used.
