Chapter 58: Chapter 58: The Game Continues
"This should be the place."
Standing in front of the abandoned hospital, the Lone Ranger murmured to himself.
Today was definitely his lucky day.
His Life and Death Intuition, which might not even trigger once in a normal instance, was going off constantly today, filling his ears with an endless stream of system notifications.
He had even received crucial intel like "Little Fatty hacked the surveillance system," which made him feel invincible.
For the Lone Ranger, when it came to playing games, the most important thing was the temperature of his earlobes.
When his earlobes were cold, his touch was off, his awareness was dull, and he could even screw up against opponents much weaker than himself.
But if they were hot, he would feel at one with the machine, as if the stars themselves were shining for him, the entire world prostrating itself to protect him on his path, making him feel like he could do anything.
The temperature of his earlobes had been average at the start of this instance, but as the notifications kept ringing, he felt them getting hotter and hotter. Now, they were practically scorching.
The hospital doors were locked, but the automatic glass doors had been smashed by someone.
Slipping through the hole in the door, the Lone Ranger paid no mind to the shattered glass on the floor and walked straight ahead.
Every single step he took just so happened to land on a spot clear of glass shards.
This wasn’t something he was doing deliberately; it was just a result of following the heat.
He had only taken a few steps when a nearby walkie-talkie crackled with static, and a raspy voice spoke from it: "Lone Ranger, I want to play a game."
"Saw... I’m actually a big fan of the *Saw* movies. Duan Someone, you really do have the ability to control urban legends. Is your Profession Sect Leader, or Missionary?"
"You are an insidious, despicable, and cunning little man. You hide certain truths about yourself by playing the part of some homicidal maniac. I have to say, you play the part so well that even you have started to believe you’re that kind of person."
The Lone Ranger felt his blood run cold. The heat in his earlobes began to fade, and the feeling of his body being fully charged started to disappear.
Forcing himself to stay calm, the Lone Ranger sneered, "What are you talking about? I don’t understand. I’m just here to slaughter Little Fatty and teach him that it’s not nice to talk about people behind their backs."
"If he was your target, you shouldn’t have let him go at the beginning. Even more, you shouldn’t have mentioned Duan Someone as soon as you came in, instead of Little Fatty. Why do you hunt players? What benefit do you get from it?"
"Boring."
Even though a tempest was raging in his heart, the Lone Ranger feigned composure and started up the stairs, preparing to eliminate this whole group of players.
’This Duan Someone is far too dangerous.’
’Especially if he’s teamed up with Saw. That would raise the danger level even higher. They have to be eliminated.’
Watching Little Fatty’s computer, Duan Fei put down the walkie-talkie. He knew he’d given the Lone Ranger enough hints.
There was no Saw, only Duan Fei.
He just had Little Fatty use a voice changer to lower his pitch and imitate Saw’s high-and-mighty, judgmental tone, and presto—he had his very own Saw.
Once his opponent believed Saw was present, he would inevitably become wary of "Saw," creating more psychological pressure and, consequently, more openings.
Picking up a pen and paper, Duan Fei wrote: "He hunts players for profit."
Now, it was time to show off his real skills.
With a flick of his hands, Duan Fei changed the Lone Ranger’s name.
Now, he wasn’t the Lone Ranger anymore. He was Duan Someone.
The first urban legend Duan Fei encountered after entering the instance was *Death Comes*.
That thing was basically unbeatable. Once the Death God had its eyes on you, you would suffer a series of accidents until you died an unnatural death.
The movie series has six installments, and not a single protagonist has survived to date.
Even if a protagonist could see the future with powerful precognition, they were still as fragile as a child before the Death God.
However, this instance wasn’t a *Death Comes* main event; it was a world created by some Evil God to obtain sacrifices.
Under the Evil God’s control, the Death God had been replicated here in some fashion. The method to evade it was quite simple, and Duan Fei had used it right from the start.
Change your name.
After changing his own name to "Duan Someone 2," he was no longer harassed by the Death God. He figured the Death God must be a bit deaf and blind, unable to see such a big player right in front of it.
Now, after changing the Lone Ranger’s name to "Duan Someone," the Death God had finally found its target.
All its accumulated resentment finally erupted at this moment.
The Lone Ranger, who was walking up the stairs, suddenly felt the step give way beneath him. The staircase abruptly collapsed, sending him falling from the second floor to the first.
Where he landed, a broken steel rebar jutted out, its sharp tip piercing straight through the Lone Ranger’s chest, causing him to let out another low gasp.
The instant he was impaled, a puff of smoke rose from the Lone Ranger’s position. An identical physical body appeared on the rebar, while his true self turned into a shadow and instantly flashed back onto the stairs.
Watching the struggling Doppelganger below, the Lone Ranger felt his opponent was truly despicable.
’Saw is an intelligence-based boss to begin with. Paired with an intelligent player like Duan Fei, it’s doubly infuriating.’
’But he would make them understand that in the face of absolute Power, all schemes are useless.’
Readying his Sleeve Sword, he hurried upwards, not caring that the stairs were continuing to collapse, and just kept dashing up.
[Little Fatty, Bald Qiang, and Jinghong are on the third floor].
Hearing the voice in his ear, the Lone Ranger ignored everything else and continued upward.
’I have to take care of Duan Someone, get him out of this instance, so he’ll stop prying into my affairs.’
’He might still be able to figure some things out, but it’s much better than letting him analyze things together with Saw.’
’As long as I can kill Duan Someone, this instance will be a victory.’
Just as he reached the third floor, several bare electrical wires whipped towards his face, arcing with electricity. This was not something one could easily dodge.
But the Lone Ranger simply wrapped his cloak around himself, instantly transforming into a cloud of black smoke, and slipped past the wires to continue his charge.
The piercing sound of a chainsaw revved up. A burly man in a mask smashed through a nearby wall, swinging the sharp chainsaw at the Lone Ranger, who had just solidified. But the blow was blocked by the Sleeve Sword in the Lone Ranger’s hand.
The Sleeve Sword looked incredibly fragile, but it was a purple-grade weapon. Its sharpness was even greater than the chainsaw’s, and it shattered all the saw’s teeth.
Seeing his weapon was useless, the masked man simply transformed the chainsaw into a Heavy Hammer and smashed it viciously at the Lone Ranger, yelling, "For mother!"
Knocked to the ground by the heavy hammer, the Lone Ranger propped himself up with one hand. Blood flowing from his head turned into black mist, making him look like a Demon emerging from Hell.
Staring at the masked man, the Lone Ranger let out a cold laugh.
"I’m really being underestimated."
A dense mist billowed from his body, as if the Lone Ranger himself were a Monster made of fog.
The mist shot out and began to wrap around the masked man. The formless black fog completely engulfed him, rendering his struggles useless.
Finally, the masked man’s entire body exploded, and the Lone Ranger, covered in pixels, climbed out from within the masked man’s body and walked step-by-step toward the projection room.
The masked man had an Undying Body. Ordinary methods couldn’t deal with him, so the only option was to temporarily throw him into the Shadow Realm.
This was the Lone Ranger’s ultimate move; he never expected to have to use it so early.
Moreover, after using it, all his own Attributes were halved, and most of his Shadow Assassin Skills became unusable.
But he was confident that he could still take care of the other players.
Pushing open the door to the projection room, he saw a movie playing on the screen. Several players were sitting in chairs, watching the film, seemingly unaware of the Lone Ranger’s arrival.
Sensing something was wrong, the Lone Ranger rushed over, only to find that they weren’t players at all, but corpses dressed in players’ clothing.
These corpses sat blankly in their chairs, staring blankly at the movie, no different from actual dead bodies.
Just then, the voice of his Life and Death Intuition sounded, plunging the Lone Ranger into confusion.
[Little Fatty, Bald Qiang, and Jinghong are far away.]
Suddenly, a cell phone nearby started ringing.
On instinct, the Lone Ranger picked up the phone from the floor, answered it, and heard Saw’s voice: "The game isn’t over yet. Please continue."
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