Chapter 29: Showdown in the Devil City (6)
Meng Yufei was dead.
Amid deafening cheers, gifts rained down one after another; some spectators even tossed down pixel cubes directly—green ones, red ones, and blue ones.
The remaining players watched with itching desire, yet none dared step forward to snatch them.
“Don’t get distracted,” Peng Mingfan warned, standing back-to-back with Qian Wei. Qian Wei hastily snapped back to attention. While marveling at the big boss’s sheer badassery, he continued fighting the mobs. Envy was inevitable, but he didn’t dare covet.
It was true for Qian Wei, and even more so for the others. The entire arena suddenly fell silent, save for the little imp who continued chattering excitedly, looking at Jin Cheng as if staring at some priceless treasure.
Number 10 and her group subconsciously kept their distance from Jin Cheng.
Tang Cuo also moved a little further away from him.
Sometimes Jin Cheng genuinely had no idea what went on in this disciple’s head. “What are you backing away for?”
Tang Cuo: “Following the crowd.”
Jin Cheng: “Get over here.”
Tang Cuo: “Oh.”
Jin Cheng was provoked to laughter by his antics. Dispatching a few mobs closing in with swift strikes, he pointed to the loot on the ground and told him to pick it up. Tang Cuo asked nonchalantly, “Is there anything among these that cures poison?”
Jin Cheng: “You’re poisoned?”
Tang Cuo: “My max HP dropped to 40%.”
Jin Cheng: “Did you come in here specifically to piss me off?”
Tang Cuo genuinely hadn’t done it on purpose. It was just this trashy competition—things simply ended up like this as the trials progressed. Even without righteousness on his side, he remained completely unapologetic. But among the pile of loot before them, there truly was nothing that cured poison, so Jin Cheng fished out an antivenom potion of his own and handed it to him.
This potion sold for three points at Evernight City’s official apothecary; Tang Cuo hadn’t been able to bring himself to buy one.
After drinking the potion, Tang Cuo’s max HP slowly recovered, and he obediently gathered the items. Jin Cheng took the green and red cubes for himself and left the blue one for Tang Cuo, which granted bonus defense.
As for the items scattered on the ground, neither inspected them closely, grabbing whatever could be picked up before turning back to carve into the swarm of mobs.
By now, Qian Wei and the other eight players were still steadily pushing forward at the front, while Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo stayed behind to bring up the rear. Lacking wide-area ultimate skills, Tang Cuo was mainly responsible for… picking off stragglers.
Cleaning up stragglers was also a technical skill: intercepting every fish that slipped through the net without interfering with your teammate tested both his tactical agility and their mutual coordination.
The team continued their advance.
For a full half-hour, Qian Wei and the others fought without having to worry about their backs.
Yet the endless slaughter left everyone utterly exhausted.
“When is this going to end…” Number 9 panted, his scalp tingling with dread as he gazed down the endless road and the swarming mobs.
The girl at Number 10 summoned her paper-boat item once more, attempting to fly across with her teammates. Flight wasn’t restricted here, but the moment the three boarded the vessel and took off, they drew all the aggro from the mobs. The goblins’ eyes flashed red as they hurled their blades in unison at the flying craft. Not stopping at throwing weapons, they swarmed together into a human pyramid, piling into a mini mountain as they desperately dragged the ship down.
In less than three minutes, the boat crashed, landing right in the thick of the mobs.
Watching them get swallowed like a tidal wave, cold sweat broke out across Qian Wei’s back. By the time Number 10’s trio fought their way out of the swarm, even if they hadn’t died, they had been stripped of a layer of skin, their combat strength severely diminished.
“What do we do?” Qian Wei looked at Peng Mingfan. “Should we use that?”
Peng Mingfan’s condition was slightly worse than his, but his expression remained relatively calm. “Wait a bit longer.”
Another ten minutes slipped by, and the group’s advance visibly slowed.
There were forty-five minutes remaining until the three-hour requirement of the quest was met.
Shouldering his rocket launcher, No. 6 in the ghillie suit had trembling hands, his rate of fire steadily dropping. “I can’t hold out much longer! Energy is running dry!”
Another green cube rose from among the mobs. The girl at Number 10 claimed it, calling back over her shoulder, “There’s no place to rest here! Hang in there a bit longer!”
“Looks like everyone is approaching their limits!” The little imp looked down from above, savoring each exhausted, disheveled face with satisfaction, drawing out its words: “How much longer until the finish line? Take a guess: will I tell you? Hahaha, I won’t tell you!”
“Keep killing!”
“Keep fighting!”
“A pet of Devil City must possess the sharpest claws and fangs, the fiercest posture! Only those who endure until the bitter end can earn lavish rewards! Only they deserve the most thunderous applause!”
“Everyone!” The little imp soared high into the air once more. “Let us look forward to it together!”
The audience boiled over. The more agitated the spectators became, the more frenzied the mobs grew. Pairs of crimson eyes locked onto the players as the creatures lunged at them with mounting madness.
It was then that Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo surged forward in wide strides, swapping positions with the rest of the players once more. In doing so, the two of them became the vanguard leading the charge.
Jin Cheng drew his bowstring taut, his expression uncharacteristically solemn.
Twang—! The note resonated like a zither, carrying a tragic solemnity reminiscent of chilling winds across ancient plains. As the string sliced his finger and drops of blood shattered, the acoustic wave amplified a second time.
It was an attack as surging and tempestuous as ocean waves.
In an instant, the mobs were sent tumbling head over heels, blasting clear over ten meters of empty space. And because more mobs kept surging in from ahead, those hurled back by the sonic wave crashed into those rushing forward, piling up into a literal wall.
Screeching and howling in agony, bright crimson blood dripped down this wall of flesh. Tang Cuo vaulted over the barricade swiftly, a blade in each hand, cutting down everything in his path with clinical precision.
Jin Cheng followed right on his heels, but didn’t linger, pressing forward alone to repeat the tactic.
Wall after wall of monsters was erected, occasionally resembling small mounds of earth. The dead crushed the living, and the front rows blocked the rear, carving the swarms into isolated pockets that Tang Cuo swiftly reaped.
Qian Wei’s mouth opened into an ‘O’ shape.
Peng Mingfan was stunned as well, but being naturally composed, he slapped Qian Wei’s shoulder hard. “Don’t space out, there are more behind us!”
The others snapped to attention as well. The rear mobs had been significantly culled by Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, but with the endless respawns, clearing them completely was impossible. Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo’s fierce charge revitalized them, lifting their flagging morale once more.
“Kill, aaargh!” No. 6 pumped himself up. As he fought, his rocket launcher died, leaving him no choice but to engage in close combat himself.
Twenty-eight minutes remained before the three-hour mark, and the finish line was still nowhere in sight.
The monster spectators watched with relish, tossing down gifts and pixel cubes here and there, though most were useless junk. Fighting for their lives while having to strain their wits to identify the items gave the players pounding headaches.
Peng Mingfan managed to scavenge something useful with great difficulty: a basket of black, briquette-like objects of unknown material. The girl at Number 10 wielded fire powers, and when a stray spark landed on one earlier, the briquette had exploded.
“There are explosives! Come over and help!”
At the mention of explosives, everyone’s spirits lifted. Gathering together, they formed a defensive line centered around this basket, hurling them wildly into the monster swarms.
Bang, bang, bang!
The goblins rushing from behind were continually blown away. The defensive line held, but the stench was foul. Qian Wei’s face turned green, and he couldn’t help muttering, “This basket wouldn’t happen to be some monster’s dung, would it?”
The girl at Number 10: “Shut up.”
Qian Wei shut his mouth. He felt he was probably born under a star cursed by women.
Up ahead, Tang Cuo brought out an item of his own, selected from the loot he had picked up earlier—an ink-wash card: Falling Meteors Swift as Wind.
Holding the card vertically between two fingers before his chest, a thought crossed his mind, and the card flared with light. A shower of shooting stars cascaded from the heavens like torrential rain, trailing brilliant, dazzling tails of light into the swarms of mobs, reaping countless lives.
This was the method of activation Tang Cuo had deduced after observing Meng Yufei: cards did not need to be thrown to be activated.
Of course, Meng Yufei had been far more seasoned; with a casual wave of his hand, a skill triggered almost instantaneously, with hardly anyone noticing where the card even was.
Cards in Evernight City were consumables, but their usage counts varied. When Tang Cuo first obtained the Tarot card, it had only one use remaining, something directly sensed upon physical contact.
The Ball Lightning Meng Yufei took from Cheng Ke had more uses, though Tang Cuo didn’t know its initial count.
This ink-wash card, Falling Meteors Swift as Wind, had a remaining count of: 3.
Good steel must be used on the blade’s edge; Tang Cuo put away the card and charged forward once more alongside Jin Cheng.
Relying on the basket of “explosives,” the trailing players successfully bought themselves breathing room. After consuming several pixel cubes, they regrouped and continued pushing forward.
At this point, thirteen minutes remained until the base objective of three hours.
Number 9 was nearing his breaking point. Having slipped twice during the tightrope stage, he had expended far too much stamina, and his combat ability was already mediocre. An hour and a half of ceaseless monster-slaying had not only drained him physically, but also left him covered in wounds.
Healing potions and pixel cubes kept his HP afloat, but frequent injuries eroded not just his body, but his willpower as well. Mental exhaustion was something that could rarely be wiped away.
Thud. Number 9 collapsed.
As his teammates, Numbers 2 and 11 scrambled to haul him up, sparing him from being swarmed by mobs. Frantically dragging Number 9 behind them, their nerves were frayed to the absolute limit.
“Hang in there, Ge, we’re almost there!” Passing by, No. 6 in the ghillie suit was exhausted as a dead dog; rather than encouraging them, he was cheering himself on.
Everyone gasped for breath, sweat trickling down their cheeks and stinging their open wounds.
Tang Cuo’s sideburns were drenched with sweat as well. Gripping a blade in each hand, he caught his breath for a moment, his eyes remaining icy and sharp. A question occupied his mind: “The finish line hasn’t appeared yet. When the three hours are up, will the game actually end?”
Jin Cheng: “Perhaps not.”
Tang Cuo pressed his lips together and fell silent.
Jin Cheng glanced back at the players behind them and remarked, “The condition to clear the instance might require someone to reach the finish line.”
A hallmark of Evernight City: clearing an instance was always a guessing game.
“You’re going?” Tang Cuo raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t want to come with me?” Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow in return. “If the instance isn’t cleared after three hours, those people behind us will probably collapse.”
Tang Cuo’s hands never stopped moving, cutting down several mobs in succession, completely unbothered: “You’re faster on your own.”
Jin Cheng smiled. “That’s true.”
The combat style in Evernight City differed from the real world. With Tang Cuo’s current capabilities, tagging along might only hold Jin Cheng back. Neither was fond of wasting words, nor were they inclined to any sappy “you jump, I jump” drama. Once a decision was made, their paths diverged.
Jin Cheng pressed ahead at full throttle. No longer concerned with paving the way for those behind him, his speed was naturally far greater. Tang Cuo fell back slightly to rendezvous with Qian Wei and Peng Mingfan.
“Where is Dage going?” Qian Wei asked anxiously.
“The finish line,” Tang Cuo replied concisely. Sweeping his gaze across the rest, he added, “Surviving three hours might not clear the quest. Reaching the finish line offers ranking rewards. Do as you see fit.”
With that, regardless of what the others said, Tang Cuo paid them no further heed.
The girl at Number 10 grew thoughtful, deliberately glancing toward Tang Cuo while dispatching mobs. A few minutes later, she finally resolved to make a break for the finish line. She had always been driven; though her two companions looked hesitant, they handed over a certain item to her, covering her back as she dashed forward.
Number 2 panicked. “They all left, what about us?!”
Number 3 was anxious as well, but Number 10 was his teammate, so he naturally defended her: “What else? Keep fighting! If you have the guts, go compete for the rankings too!”
While they spoke, another wave of mobs lunged forward. Dodging and hacking, with two major combatants gone, holding the line grew even harder. Tang Cuo saw the situation clearly: these people weren’t particularly strong to begin with, and having expended so much energy, pushing forward wouldn’t get them very far anyway. Playing it safe was their only option.
Number 2 bit a mouthful of dirt while rolling across the ground. Seeing two mobs bearing down simultaneously, he scrambled to parry, suffering a deep gash across his arm. Screaming in pain, he shakily pulled out a healing potion and downed it. Before the wound could even mend, more mobs swarmed in.
“Fuck your mother!” Number 2 kicked out, but accidentally kicked a monster straight into Number 3.
“What the hell is your problem?!” Number 3 exploded in anger on the spot.
The endless tide of mobs cut short the infighting that had almost erupted.
No. 6 in the ghillie suit rushed between the two to separate them. At a time like this, turning on each other was utter madness, harming everyone involved. Yet everyone’s mental stamina was pushed to the limit. And right at this moment, the little imp overhead began laughing again—shrill and piercing.
“Hahahahahahaha, are you finally turning on each other? Dog-eat-dog drama is my absolute favorite! Spectators of Devil City, do you love it?!”
“Awoooooo!!”
“%*¥&@¥#!”
A tsunami of noise answered in response.
Five minutes remained until the three-hour base objective.
Tang Cuo had no interest in playing peacemaker. Raising his hand, he unleashed another Falling Meteors Swift as Wind to blast open a safe pocket, turning to ask Peng Mingfan, “Can you still fight?”
Panting, Peng Mingfan weighed the situation for a few seconds before answering with certainty: “We can, but twenty minutes at most. We still have an AoE trump card.”
Twenty minutes.
At Jin Cheng’s speed, it might just be enough.
Tang Cuo swiftly glanced at both sides of the avenue. “If you can’t hold out, jump into the windows to hide.”
Looking at the packed horde of monster spectators in the windows, Qian Wei felt dread in his heart. “Will that even work?”
Tang Cuo: “Give it a try.”
Qian Wei gritted his teeth. “Fine, try it is!”
Who says I’m not a warrior too!
The final struggle commenced. Five minutes was neither too long nor too short; everyone held their breath, waiting for the familiar chime to ring—yet none came.
Five minutes elapsed, and absolutely nothing happened.
“How long are we supposed to fight?!” Number 2 was on the verge of breaking down. Number 9, who had already collapsed once, was breathing more out than in, slumped on the ground unable to get up for a long time.
Too focused on listening for system announcements, Qian Wei nearly took a hit from a mob. A sudden spark of inspiration struck as he remembered Tang Cuo’s words, and he dove headfirst into a window by the roadside.
The monster spectators hadn’t expected this in the slightest, jostled apart by his entry amidst an uproar. Qian Wei himself broke out in cold sweat, with zero confidence, terrified of being pummeled.
He couldn’t understand their gibberish language, and the tactile sensations—some furry, some slimy—were utterly bizarre. Trembling in terror, his hair stood on end as he squeezed inside, muttering prayers in his heart.
A monster reached out a hand toward him. Jolted with fright, he inexplicably grabbed it and pumped it up and down vigorously: “Hello, hello! Long time no see!”
“What the fuck???” No. 6 in the ghillie suit was flabbergasted. What stunned him even more was that the monster audience in the window truly didn’t lay a finger on Qian Wei!
Way to go, Ge!
No. 6 scrambled to squeeze into a window right behind him, with Numbers 2 and 11 following suit.
The little imp panicked: “Hey, how can you do this?! That’s a violation, not allowed! The race isn’t over yet, how can you cheat like this?!”
Nobody paid any attention to it.
The little imp redirected its fury at Tang Cuo: “Number 12!!!”
With a leap, Tang Cuo caught onto a windowsill over three meters off the ground. With another heave, he let go, dropping into the swarm of mobs ahead. Kicking mobs flying one by one, he mimicked Jin Cheng by dancing across their shoulders.
Hopping and bounding, he leaped right onto another windowsill.
An entire room of monster spectators was blocked behind him, plunging the scene into total chaos. The little imp went berserk: “Number 12!!! Get down here! Get down!”
Tang Cuo was this bold because he had justification for it.
He had already tested it twice before: once when grabbing a monster’s long nose to swing like a pendulum, and once when tossing one as a meat shield for Meng Yufei. Across both experiments, the monsters in the windows had never gone berserk.
Even when the second one was killed by Meng Yufei, it hadn’t stirred up a major riot.
“Number 12!!!” The little imp was so infuriated it couldn’t yell anything other than “Number 12!”
Meanwhile, several kilometers ahead:
Jin Cheng finally caught sight of the legendary finish line, yet the moment he saw it, an odd expression crossed his face—because he had circled right back to the arena from Stage Two.
Number 1 was still sprawled in his lane like a dead dog, virtually unchanged from when Tang Cuo had departed. But he saw Jin Cheng returning. In that instant, thinking Jin Cheng had come to rescue him, a sliver of hope reignited, and he struggled to crawl to his feet.
Jin Cheng didn’t look at him, however. Stepping into the arena, he was surprised to find that the lane barriers were gone. In other words, he could freely enter any lane.
Where was the finish line, then?
Was Stage Three just doubling back on their tracks?
While he pondered, a light screen popped up above the arena. At the same time, a hollow pet toy ball containing a bell plummeted from the air, rolling briskly into the lane.
Jingle, jingle.
Initiating Championship Decider! The first to retrieve the ball wins!
The little imp seemed to have rushed over in a hurry, its silhouette appearing midair with a pop, reciting the rules on the light screen in a frantic frenzy. Afterward, it even shot Jin Cheng a glare, leaving Jin Cheng utterly perplexed.
Is this guy a distant relative of Mr. Crow? Why does their love come and go so capriciously?
“You disobedient pets deserve to rot in hell!” Flapping its wings, the little imp finally regained a shred of its arrogant demeanor.
A playful smile immediately surfaced at the corner of Jin Cheng’s mouth. Disobedient? Did that little bastard do something suicidal again?
Number 1, on the other hand, was struck dumb with amazement, because the toy ball had rolled and bounced until it came to a stop barely five meters away from him—victory, right within his grasp.
