...
"Coordinates (298, 198, 2), Eastern District critical line, Flower Street Building No. 2 (code word)."
Under the night sky, a person in a white robe squatted in the snow, his flaxen hair drenched with unlted snow.
In his hands, a dark communicator lit up with a red light.
"Target confird."
In a diagonal direction sixty degrees from him, on a dark building, a sniper rifle was quietly positioned.
The sniper, clad in black, had already spotted the faint figure inside the Flower building through the scope.
"Hey, they are still by the fire, the rules were just announced, and yet they are so relaxed," ca another voice from the communicator.
"Listen well, this assassination can only succeed, not fail," the man in the white robe said. "I have already found a clue; that guy inside is the key mission for the entire instance. Even the tulip princess has his portrait; there must be sothing problematic about him."
"... But I heard that the player of this character is Su Ming’an..."
"Do you think I don’t know that?" the man in the white robe scoffed. "What else do you want? To not act tonight and wait until the end? Wait until this man kills us all?"
"..."
"Listen carefully, Ax," the man in the white robe said into the communicator. "I know you have Combat Power of the Ninth Level in firearms mastery. If later you deliberately miss because you are scared of offending him, I will have Storm Science punish your family."
"... Please do not do this, I will try my best."
"And you, Luna," the man in the white robe turned his head towards the diagonal direction.
There, a faint silhouette stood, the figure slender, with flowing long hair, resembling a crescent moon standing in the snow.
"You must act too, three minutes from now, at the critical mont when they discuss the rules, burst in and use your prop."
"I will," said the ethereal silhouette.
"This is our best chance for a successful assassination," the man in the white robe said into the communicator. "People from Berg Island have already done reconnaissance here for . They only brought two people with them, no other npc armies. Now is our best opportunity. If you disobey orders and ss up Storm Science’s plans, I will make you regret it in subsequent instances."
"..."
"Rember your targets, don’t complicate things. After succeeding, imdiately escape; do not engage in a prolonged fight, do not pick up equipnt, understand?"
"Understood."
From the communicator, several echoes responded.
"Hmph." The man in the white robe lightly humd.
He leaned against the cold wall to stand up, snowflakes falling on his face, he shook his hand, his palm covered with a layer of eerie green energy.
He kicked a person beside him who had passed out coldly, his tone filled with disdain: "Damned guy, to think you ca here, if it weren’t for the tracker on you, we wouldn’t have found out..."
His voice gradually faded away.
"Three minutes from now, begin the operation." He issued the final command.
"Beep beep."
The red light on the communicator dimd down.
Snowflakes swirled, in a corner, a woman with teal hair saw a red light glow in her hand.
As the light began to gather strength, burning marks also began to appear on her body, her expression turning to pain.
"Locking... target," she said softly, her eyes full of hatred looking towards the direction of the second floor:
"The guy in that house, I will definitely make you pay..."
...
"...A good rule? Where is this rule good?"
In the flickering firelight of the room, Lin Yin stood up, puzzled:
"A 100% increase in combat power, wouldn’t the weaker teams revolt at such news?"
"Lin Yin." Noel spoke.
The firelight danced on his sowhat youthful face, his eyes brimming with amusent:
"No matter how strong an ant becos, it’s still just an ant."
"That remark of yours..." Lin Yin muttered.
"So why do you think they ended up as a weak team?" Noel spread his hands. "Bad luck? Lack of observational skills? Or not smart enough to solve tough problems? None of the above, in my view..."
He paused for a mont, and said calmly:
"They are weak simply because they lack a vision for the bigger picture.
Imagine an ant suddenly gaining imnse strength, what do you think they would do?"
"Rebel, besiege those teams they previously didn’t dare to challenge," responded Lin Yin.
"So teams indeed might," said Noel. "But if the strong teams remain untouchable, where would these suddenly empowered people focus their attention?"
"..."
"Humans are always good at infighting." Noel leaned back, resting on the couch. "And what restrains them is rely power. They have ambition but no foresight. Even if these people were given power, they wouldn’t be able to control the situation. Human empowernt is built on their aspirations for the future, but this group would only instigate profitless battles, turning their weapons on themselves, failing to see the key points of this ga."
"But we are different." His eyes and brows curved, his fingers interlocked, looking pleased: "...We have a person with a great sense of the bigger picture. He always leads us to victory, no matter the conditions, even if those weak teams beca many tis stronger."
Lin Yin’s brows furrowed slightly.
She felt uncomfortable listening to Noel’s words. Noel seed to forcibly separate ’humans’ from himself, judging others from the stance of a third party.
...Was he ashad to be human?
Or did he consider himself a more noble human than others?
Previously, Lin Yin hadn’t thought so, nor had she sensed any latent arrogance in Noel, just that he was a highly emotionally intelligent and gracefully mannered second player.
But now... she was gradually picking up on the arrogance and exclusion in his tone.
In contrast, Su Ming’an, whom she always thought very arrogant, behaved no differently from an ordinary player in front of her, without any superior air, even reminding her of the ordinary tis she spent with her classmates.
...These two really seed not to belong to the sa world.
Yet, ironically, the number one player and the second player were aligned. And it seed, the second player had much heavier thoughts.
She did not intend to cause trouble at this mont, as Su Ming’an had his own judgnts. She was just a healer, and there was no need for her to get involved in the relationships among top-tier players.
She just frowned, expressing her dissatisfaction with the conversation through her expression.
"Humans have always been good at infighting and deftly navigating between powers... Even if they were given strength, they would only stand out awkwardly, and we have our own ways to restrain these people..." Noel was still speaking.
"...But the good rule I was referring to isn’t this one."
Su Ming’an finally spoke.
He seed to have been focused on the rules all along, only beginning to speak after Noel had talked for a while.
"Ah?" Noel was clearly taken aback.
At that mont, Noel’s long critique of humanity abruptly ca to a halt.
"You don’t an that?" Noel widened his eyes.
"No," Su Ming’an said. "I ant the rule below is good, not the one you ntioned about increasing combat power."
"...Is that so?" Noel blinked.
"Giving others a 100% increase in combat power is definitely not good for us; there’s no question about it," Su Ming’an said.
Noel’s expression froze.
Hise face had been wearing a mocking smile, as if to accompany his cynical remarks about human nature.
But now, that smile completely stalled.
...Had he misunderstood?
Lin Yin with a frown: "..."
"So that’s what you ant." He nodded, his deep blue eyes innocently looking at Lin Yin: "Miss Lin, you can pretend I never said those things."
Lin Yin, frowning even more: "..."
Her body, which had been standing straight, softened, and the slightly stiff atmosphere around them began to relax.
Lv Shu stared straight ahead, like a telegraph pole looking at the rules, seemingly oblivious to the situation here.
A silent confrontation was instantly dissolved at this mont.
Even within such a team, many contradictions existed.
"Look at the rule below."
Su Ming’an didn’t even lift his head, as if he also wasn’t paying attention to the situation here.
This large instance, constructed by specific rules, was their first encounter, and they should scrutinize every little detail of the rules.
...
[Rule 06: (*Additional Victory Condition) During the Mariti Banquet, Pulaya will witness so special occurrences such as hidden treasure chests, special identity instances, attacking sea monsters, special NPC tasks, etc. These bear a shocking secret about the "Mariti Banquet."]
By interacting with them, players can earn extra clues to increase their exploration degree. Once the "Exploration Degree" accumulates to 100%, the player’s team will directly win.]
...
"So, besides occupying points and killing, there’s also this special victory path..." Noel realized, "I see—among these three thousand players, if one, before the Mariti Banquet ends, pushes their exploration degree to 100%, then they win directly, regardless of how many points we’ve scored in these three days, because our points are settled after the Mariti Banquet ends, and by that ti, he would have already won."
"Yes," Su Ming’an said. "I guess this way of winning is directly related to a perfect pass."
Noel lifted his eyelids.
The firelight danced in his deep blue eyes, his expression sowhat obscure.
Lin Yin’s breathing also slowed down.
She twirled and re-twirled the map in her hands, making a crisp crackling sound of the paper.
The atmosphere suddenly beca tense.
"...I won’t compete with you for the perfect pass."
In the silence, Noel suddenly said, "Then this spot is yours."
"Okay," Su Ming’an said.
Lin Yin looked puzzled—what were these two talking about?
"This ans, our team must assign soone to explore these," Noel explained, seeing the situation. "Otherwise, we can’t prevent the possibility of soone really pushing their exploration degree to 100% within three days. Once that happens, no matter how many points we score, it’s useless."
"Although I think, the victory condition written in the rule is likely hard to achieve, just an ideal path prepared for lone wolves without teams, to keep them occupied amidst the rivalry between two groups. The real winners should still be from these groups," Su Ming’an said. "But we can’t let go of any potential chance... I must push to 100% before anyone else."
"...Then won’t we be one person short?" Lin Yin chuckled sourly.
"A person with 600 combat power getting a 100% increase, and a person with 1500 combat power getting a 50% increase, these two concepts aren’t the sa," Su Ming’an said. "With Sevya and Shadow helping you, it’ll be fine. I believe Noel also has the ability to lead the teams. Besides, in the early stages of point occupation, I’ll still be with you."
"So that’s all the rules there are to it."
Noel stood up, stretching lazily: "Then we..."
Archilev, who had been silent until now, suddenly raised his head.
"Wait..." he spoke up, lifting his staff.
The warmth of the room instantly surged in temperature.
Several people stood up at once.
"Bang—!"
A violent roar instantly drowned out Archilev’s warning.
Firelight burst forth, leaping from the wooden door in an instant, sweeping over like a flood, engulfing the room entirely in re monts.
From a distance, the small two-story building was enveloped in a red glow, like a vivid red firework against the snowy night sky.
...
"Oh... my God."
A sniper in the distance exclaid, "Esralda’s explosive fla is really frightening... Although the cost is great, that flare was overly romantic..."
"Watch for sniping," ca the reminder through the earpiece.
"What? No one died? Who survived?" The sniper quickly pressed his eye to the sniper scope.
In his sight, the house was already collapsing, the brilliant firelight covering that narrow area made it seem like, in his view, not even God could save those inside.
"No kill notifications... not a single one..."
A voice tinged with bitterness ca from his teammate.
The sniper took a deep breath.
The chilly temperature dissolved in his mouth as he focused on the house, suddenly spotting a ghostly figure.
...They had made their move.
...
Firelight blazed.
The sofa and wood table lted in the high temperature, torn to shreds by the fierce turbulence, a figure in a white robe suddenly charged through the fire.
Flaxen hair stuck to his cheek, his pale face amidst the firelight like a suddenly appearing ghastly face.
His eyes bulged, swirling with gray energy, as if searching for sothing. Upon seeing a na jump in his view, he charged toward that direction without hesitation.
...This was his skill, a reconnaissance-type skill, "Target Lock."
It allowed him to see other players’ nas, regardless of where they hid or whether his view was obstructed, as long as they were within five ters of him, he could see their nas.
And at this mont, an exceptionally conspicuous na appeared in his eyes.
[Su Ming’an].
In his hand, green energy suddenly burst forth, rushing forward like a great snake.
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