As Gu Luoxin grappled with a thick sense of disbelief, he heard Jin Jiuchi chi in beside him, his tone extrely casual, "Oh, she’s here too."
"Of course," Shen Nianzu replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "This Cycle is open to all players, so it’s natural for us to bump into her."
Still wide-eyed, Gu Luoxin whipped his head toward his teammates. "You... You guys know each other?!" he exclaid in shock.
"Uh, no?" Jin Jiuchi tilted his head, humming thoughtfully. "I wouldn’t say ’know’... oh, she’s looking in our direction! Should we say hi, Nian’er?" No sooner than he said those words, the little girl – Qian Hui – abruptly turned her back on them, her tense posture radiating a clear ’don’t talk, don’t approach ’ aura. If not because they were required to be on standby in front of their buses, she might have even run away just to put as much distance between them as possible.
Gu Luoxin narrowed his eyes at Jin Jiuchi, suspicion evident in his expression. "What have you done to her, Da Shen?"
"M–?!" Baffled, Jin Jiuchi pointed at his own nose, offended at the baseless accusation. "I did nothing! She’s the one who—"
"Ahem!" Shen Nianzu cleared his throat loudly to prevent Jin Jiuchi from blurting out anything he wasn’t supposed to say in the middle of the crowd. They wouldn’t know who might be listening in at the mont. "Just say that... thanks to her skill level, she’s able to see through Da Shen’s real nature." His pale purple eyes glimred with amusent as he explained.
Gu Luoxin let out a soft ’ah’ of realization. No wonder... if he hadn’t been with Jin Jiuchi all throughout the man’s first Cycle until now and witnessed all of his dorky shenanigans, he, too, would have been terrified out of his wits upon discovering that a nightmare creature had sohow infiltrated the Earth and mixed into the group of human players. After all, it was a nightmare creature they were talking about – their number one enemy in the Nightmare Cycle!
It was perfectly understandable for her to be on her guard. Perhaps the fact that she hadn’t openly shown her hostility and engaged Jin Jiuchi in a life-and-death battle was already solid proof that she tolerated his presence sowhat.
Though this ca as a huge surprise for him. He had of course heard various rumors about the Harbinger of Doom, but who could have guessed that she would really be a child?
"Umm..." he sidled closer to Shen Nianzu and lowered his voice into a hushed whisper, "Is that really... her actual age? She is not using a prop to change her age like you do?"
"Indeed," Shen Nianzu responded with a solemn smile. "Unlike , she’s just a little girl."
A surprised gasp escaped Gu Luoxin. S–So young! She was practically still a child! And yet, she was the one who sat at the top of the leaderboard, and just the re ntion of her na was enough to invoke fear and admiration.
"I thought that this would be a relatively easy Cycle, but damn... how are we supposed to survive with her around?!" a nearby player lanted.
Another echoed their support, "That’s right, there’s no way we can win against a Legendary player!"
"This is an extrely unfair battle! Shouldn’t they put a limit on her power?"
"I heard that in every Cycle she was in, she always wound up as the sole survivor..."
"Gasp! Are you saying that she’s eliminated all the others?!"
Doubt, fear, wariness, skepticism— surrounded by players who regarded her in such a manner, Gu Luoxin couldn’t help but feel like she was akin to a little white rabbit in the midst of a group of tigers. But before any trace of sympathy could erge in his heart, he hastily slapped himself on the cheeks.
Snap back to your senses, Gu Luoxin! Who are you to pity her? She’s waaay more powerful than you could ever be! Don’t underestimate her just because of her age!
Before Gu Luoxin could continue to ask his teammates about how she ca to discover Jin Jiuchi’s identity, a familiar hearty laughter reverberated in the air, sounding like it had been amplified by a gaphone. "Ohoho, rry Christmas, everyone! Are you ready to play this fun ga with ?"
In front of them, hovering in midair, appeared a gigantic hologram figure of the bus officer, capturing everyone’s attention. The hushed chatter and murmurs across the field simred down into silence as all eyes were fixed on him.
The bus officer bead brightly as he addressed the crowd. "Allow to give you a brief overview of the ga. As you can see," he gestured at the parked helicopters, "you will be heading to the Suicide Forest on those. Be extra careful in choosing your landing spot, as you never know what’s waiting for you down below!"
The players gulped in nervousness, which only seed to widen the officer’s smile.
"Now, there are a few important announcents I’d like to make," he elaborated cheerfully. "Firstly, all skill cards and props will be disabled for the first hour, with the countdown starting from the first child who jumped down from the helicopter!"
He suddenly lowered his voice to whisper, "One little advice from : jump as soon as possible before the hour is up and quickly secure the first round of available resources! You wouldn’t want to be sniped in midair, would you? Oh, imagine the shower of blood from a body that exploded in midair..." he clasped his hands in malicious excitent. "How beautiful!"
As soon as he said that, murmurs and discussions erupted throughout the field. So people panicked, while so rejoiced in the opportunity presented by this arrangent.
"Well, it’s not as if I’d never seen this coming," Shen Nianzu comnted with a sigh. "Though I have to admit, his thod is really insidious. He said that it’s advice, but in reality, he’s pitting us against each other even before we board the helicopter."
With this warning from the officer, players would undoubtedly be on high alert for fear that they would be killed before they could even get their hands on the revival potions. So might even start a killing spree to reduce the number of rivals.
With all skill cards and props disabled, the first hour was the golden ti to get rid of players with powerful skill cards. It was the one and only opportunity for the weak to band together and devour the strong.
That’s right, a strong player such as... Qian Hui.
"Don’t worry, Nian’er. I will protect you!" Jin Jiuchi patted his chest with a determined harrumph. anwhile, Gu Luoxin shuddered at the ntal image of a dead, mangled body being carried by the parachute.
Having stirred up the reactions he wanted, the bus officer moved on to the next topic, "Now look at these!"
Three black tal boxes popped up beside him with three different colored buttons – red, green, and black.
"These are the supply boxes scattered throughout the forest, and also the ones we will drop on hourly intervals from the helicopters," he explained. "Red is for potions, weapons, or ammunition. Green is for food, water, or dicine. As for the black..." he paused, a glint of mischief dancing in his murky eyes.
"Oh well, where’s the fun if I reveal everything directly? Please find out about it yourself! Have you morized them all, my dear children?"
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