After being sucked into the burning black hole, Guan Tong's vision plunged into complete darkness, and his body felt as if it were suspended in mid-air.
After about seven or eight seconds like this, his sight finally brightened again. Guan Tong was astonished to discover he was floating high in the sky, with a massive, vibrant-looking island spread out below him.
At the sa ti, he noticed many other figures floating in the air just like him, presumably other participating Ascendants.
However, looking around, each person's body was enveloped in a layer of gray mist, making their faces and physiques indistinguishable.
But very few stood alone like Guan Tong; most of the other figures were gathered in groups of three to five, clearly teammates participating together.
[This is the competition venue for the First Ascendant Challenge Tournant, Holy Grail Island.]
The Fire Thief's voice now echoed in the mind of every participant.
[The tournant rules are as follows:
All Ascendants, after undergoing appearance obfuscation, will be randomly deployed at various locations on the island. Competition will be conducted on a team-versus-team basis.
Each ti an opponent is defeated, the victor will gain 1 point and seize all points the opponent has already accumulated. Defeated Ascendants will not die but will be imdiately eliminated.
During the competition, all participants will receive a [Temporary Backpack] in which they can place items randomly spawned across the island. Proper utilization of these items will significantly increase survival rates.
The competition lasts 24 hours. Every 2 hours during this period, the safe zone on the island will shrink by a portion. Ascendants outside the safe zone will be directly eliminated.
After 24 hours, all teams not eliminated will be ranked based on their team's total points. The team with the highest total score will receive the First Prize. Teams with the second and third highest totals will receive the Second and Third Prizes respectively. Teams ranked fourth through tenth will receive the Fourth Prize. Teams outside the top ten will receive no reward.
You now have five minutes to prepare. Random deploynt will begin in five minutes.]
After hearing the rules, Guan Tong imdiately understood this challenge tournant was purely a team versus team battle.
Defeating a mber of another team earned 1 point, plus you could take all the points they had accumulated. After 24 hours, all surviving teams would be ranked by total score.
"Looking at it this way, a solo team like mine is at a big disadvantage."
Since the final ranking was based on the team's total score, for Guan Tong to achieve a high rank, he would have to earn more points by himself than a full five-person team could accumulate combined.
This was undoubtedly a significant challenge.
As Guan Tong pondered this, a thought suddenly struck him.
The Fire Thief had just explained the tournant rules... I wonder if this challenge tournant also has Hidden Rules?
He tried opening the Terminal and selected the option to view the challenge tournant rules.
After concentrating and staring for a mont, the content of the rules actually changed!
Guan Tong's breathing imdiately quickened slightly as he carefully examined the newly appeared Hidden Rule.
[Hidden Rule · Holy Grail's Trail]
[Hidden Rule Content: Legend says a Holy Grail is hidden within the Holy Grail Secret Realm on Holy Grail Island. The team that finds and obtains it is certain to receive an extraordinarily rich reward.]
[Note: Once the Holy Grail is obtained by a team and held continuously for 30 minutes, ownership of the Holy Grail will be permanently fixed to that holding team. At that mont, this challenge tournant will imdiately end.]
The Holy Grail!
After reading the Hidden Rule, Guan Tong's breathing beca even more rapid.
Without a doubt, that "extraordinarily rich reward" held imnse attraction for him.
Moreover, this Hidden Rule might only be visible to him, giving him a massive advantage over other teams.
He absolutely had to find the Holy Grail!
Guan Tong steeled his resolve. This was an extrely rare opportunity for him; he absolutely could not let it slip away.
[Ti's up. Deploynt begins.]
The mont the Fire Thief's voice faded, countless figures in the sky plumted downward!
Innurable Ascendants were randomly deployed across various parts of the island. The entire island, whose size was unknown, actually managed to accommodate participants from all over the world.
After landing, Guan Tong saw another group of five land not far from him.
The distance between them was less than ten ters. Guan Tong spotted them, and they spotted Guan Tong.
Due to the appearance obfuscation, teams couldn't discern each other's faces. However, the delight evident in the blurred expressions of these few was unmistakable and impossible to hide.
One of them said excitedly, "What luck! We just landed and already ran into a loner!"
Without a word, Guan Tong raised Silver Hunt and fired a Type 3 high-explosive round at them.
Since this was a competitive challenge, he naturally wouldn't hesitate or show rcy.
"BOOM!"
[Points 5]
Guan Tong: "..."
He was montarily stunned, not expecting that a full five-person squad would be wiped out by a single Type 3 round from him.
"Seems like I'm the lucky one... running into a weak team right off the bat."
Even as he said this, Guan Tong knew that at this stage, there probably weren't many Ascendants who could withstand a direct hit from a Type 3 round head-on. In fact, forget Type 3 rounds; even defending against a Type 2 slug round or a Type 1 buckshot round wouldn't be easy for most.
After dealing with the five, he imdiately surveyed his surroundings.
He had been randomly deployed on a hillside, with the sea behind him, indicating he was at the edge of the island.
This ant he needed to move inland quickly because the safe zone would shrink every 2 hours, and he didn't want to be eliminated for being outside it.
But he couldn't just pick a direction at random.
"I need to first determine the Holy Grail's location."
Searching for the Holy Grail on such a massive island without any clues would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Guan Tong thought there might be clue information sowhere on the island. But after a mont's consideration, he first found a hidden spot to take cover, then retrieved an item from his Storage Box.
It was the [Guiding Flashlight] he had obtained from the survival treasure chest reward after the fourth rule.
"Not sure if this will work..."
Guan Tong selected to use the item, but a prompt indicated failure. He needed to silently na the target location in his mind first.
He vaguely rembered the Hidden Rule seed to ntion location information. Opening the Terminal to check again, sure enough, the rule stated the Holy Grail was in the island's "Holy Grail Secret Realm."
"Guide the way to the 'Holy Grail Secret Realm'," Guan Tong silently recited in his mind and tried using the item again.
Click!
The flashlight lit up, projecting a dazzling yellow beam of light that spread across the ground like a path marker, extending into the distance and pointing the way to the "Holy Grail Secret Realm."
Success!
Joy surged in Guan Tong's heart. He had initially thought "Holy Grail Secret Realm" might not be recognized as a place na and could fail, but it actually worked.
Looking at the bright yellow light path on the ground, he now had a clear objective. As long as he followed it, he could find the location of the Holy Grail Secret Realm and the Holy Grail itself!
Guan Tong set off imdiately.
If possible, he would have loved to sprint there in one go, or even use the grappling hook for accelerated movent—but doing so would undoubtedly be too dangerous.
The island was currently teeming with Ascendants, all potential enemies to each other. He had to proceed with caution and also watch out for traps.
With a thought, Guan Tong took out the [Corpse Whistle]. Consuming 20 points of Mind Power, he blew it gently. Imdiately, three living dead with faint red light glowing in their eyes crawled out from the ground.
"You, walk ahead. You, take the left. You, take the right."
Guan Tong issued commands to the three living dead, dispersing them around him. With himself in the center, he would have so buffer if any sudden crisis arose.
The three living dead, receiving their orders, imdiately positioned themselves around Guan Tong and advanced alongside him.
They hadn't gone far when Guan Tong noticed activity not far ahead. He imdiately directed the three living dead to crouch down and hide with him, observing covertly.
He saw a wooden cabin standing not far away, with a chaotic lee of over a dozen Ascendants fighting around it!
"One team, two teams, three teams..."
Analyzing their stances, Guan Tong could tell there were three teams total. The fighting among these three teams was completely chaotic, with no discernible tactics—everyone just attacking whoever was in front of them.
Soon, people started getting defeated and eliminated. One team was the first to collapse and be wiped out completely.
Of the remaining two teams, one mostly wielded cold weapons and fought fiercely. The other team was no match and was quickly reduced to just two mbers. Those two, seeing they were outmatched, exchanged a glance and simultaneously turned to flee. The team with cold weapons wasn't about to let them go and gave chase.
The two teams quickly ran off into the distance. Just as Guan Tong was about to erge, three figures beat him to it, appearing stealthily from the other side of the hill and creeping towards the cabin.
So I'm not the only one observing from the shadows...
Watching that three-person team, Guan Tong issued a command, and the three living dead imdiately moved towards them.
Those three, thinking no one else was around, had let their guard down. Just as they were about to enter the cabin, they saw three figures lunging at them!
"Watch out!"
One person shouted a warning, a sandbag materializing in his hand, which he hurled forcefully.
The sandbag seed to be his Mind Power item. It enlarged to the size of a basketball mid-air and thumped one of the living dead to the ground.
The other two also pulled out their own items to face the threat, but upon noticing the red glow in the eyes of their attackers, they were sowhat stunned.
"These aren't Ascendants! These are... living dead?"
"What the hell? Why are there living dead from the fifth rule on this island?!"
While the three were bewildered, two sudden gunshots rang out from behind them.
They didn't even have ti to turn around before feeling a surge of pain and then losing consciousness, eliminated from the tournant.
[Points 3]
Guan Tong lowered the muzzle of Silver Hunt. He had used two Type 1 buckshot rounds to ambush and eliminate the three from behind.
"Didn't expect using living dead as bait to distract enemies would be such an effective tactic."
Thinking this, Guan Tong slipped into the wooden cabin.
The ground floor was empty, with nothing inside. He went up the stairs to the second floor, where a gray box sat in a corner.
"This must be the item box the Fire Thief ntioned in the rules, the one that randomly spawns on the island."
Guan Tong wasn't entirely sure and worried it might be a trap, so he ordered the one surviving living dead to go open the box. It couldn't open it.
Guan Tong stepped forward himself. The mont his hand touched the box, he saw a prompt.
[Opening a Map Supply Box requires consuming 1 Key or 1 Multi-functional Lockpick.]
"So the Multi-functional Lockpicks sold in the shop are for this," Guan Tong thought. "As for Keys, I guess they have to be collected on the island itself."
He didn't have a key right now, but he had 6 lockpicks in his Storage Box. Not being stingy, he used one to open the box and obtained the item inside.
[Jamr]: When used, interferes with enemy drone scans for 3 minutes. One-ti use item.
Seeing the item's effect, Guan Tong thought it was pretty good. He stored it in his "Temporary Backpack" and then quickly evacuated the cabin.
He had figured it out: the probability of random item boxes spawning inside buildings like this was likely higher than in the wild, which was why Ascendants were fighting over them.
Two minutes after Guan Tong withdrew, the team that had chased earlier returned. Upon entering the cabin and seeing the opened box on the second floor, they were dumbfounded.
"Damn it, soone stole the item!"
"Pisses off! We worked so hard to wipe out two teams!"
"We got carried away chasing them. Should've left soone behind to open the box first!"
"Chase them forward!" one person said angrily. "The thief can't have gotten far. Catch up and finish them!"
"Let's go!"
The group, filled with resentnt, ran out and gave chase towards the island's center. However, Guan Tong at that mont was steadily following the route indicated by the [Guiding Flashlight].
That route wasn't heading towards the very center of the island, but rather to the west of the central area.
Guan Tong followed the guidance for a while. He also encountered Ascendants fighting along the way, but unless they were right in front of him, he tried his best not to get actively involved.
For him, rather than fighting other participants for points, it was better to find the Holy Grail as quickly as possible—that was the real grand prize!
But soon, he realized reaching the Holy Grail Secret Realm wouldn't be so easy.
Because the path ahead indicated by the guiding light led straight through a small town with clusters of houses. Following the route ant traversing it. Choosing to detour would add far too much extra ti.
"A place like this must be packed with Ascendants. More houses an more items, so the competition must be extrely fierce..."
Guan Tong checked the ti. There were about forty minutes left before the first safe zone shrinkage. Not knowing how much it would shrink, if he detoured horizontally and ran out of ti, getting stuck outside the safe zone would an all his effort was wasted.
Given this, he had no other choice. He had to pass through the small town!
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