The event labyrinth, fourth floor.
Bored out of their minds with nothing to do, Yu Xian and Chi Feihong simply sat down to play cards.
"I wonder when Mistress and the others will make it up," Chi Feihong said, exhaling a plume of white vapor. Glancing at the hand of cards he held, he resigned himself to defeat and tossed them down.
Yu Xian set his cards aside with a chuckle, remarking casually, "If they're lucky, probably tomorrow. If they're unlucky, the day after or the day after that. It shouldn't take more than three days."
With that, the two resumed playing. Yu Xian won most rounds while Chi Feihong rarely took one. Eventually, both grew sick of cards, so one turned to video games while the other spaced out.
Holding Chi Feihong's handheld console, Yu Xian worked his way through a level-clearing game. Since Chi Feihong had already beaten it, he simply leaned against the flank of a summoned beast, steadily puffing out thick plumes of smoke and mist.
He wasn't smoking tobacco.
The temperature in the labyrinth was simply so frigid that every breath naturally condensed into white fog.
"Man, this godforsaken place is boring."
Chi Feihong brought up the Class Information Exchange Forum, saw that nothing had changed in the listings, and promptly closed it again.
Within the event labyrinth, the forum's functions were restricted. Each floor was partitioned into an isolated sub-forum that could neither communicate with nor view the others.
For instance, while waiting on the second floor for his summoned beasts to gather chests, Yu Xian had attempted to make a post alerting the people on the first floor.
It had been entirely useless. His post was stamped with a '002' tag indicating he was on the second floor, which meant anything he posted was blocked from view. Class users on the first floor could not see it until they actually ascended to the second floor.
The problem was...
Once people made it to the second floor and saw how little time remained on its countdown, who would still be in the mood to read forum posts?
By that point, everyone would have only one thought burning in their heads: find three chests as fast as possible and scramble up to the next floor.
Furthermore, even if someone did happen to spot his post, it wouldn't accomplish much. Trust between strangers was far too fragile in the face of life and death.
Once the seed of suspicion took root, anything Yu Xian said would sound to them like a clumsy cover-up—or outright bullshit.
"Uh-oh, Master. Now that the leopard spirit is dead, will people mistake us for the villains trying to trap and slaughter everyone?" Chi Feihong asked, struck by the sudden realization.
Yu Xian gave him a thumbs-up and grinned. "Guaranteed!"
He had known from the start that if the other class users learned of his presence, they would treat him exactly as they would treat Mikhail.
Even so, he had no intention of running into any of them. On every floor, he stationed summoned beasts as eyes and ears, and once a critical mass of people arrived, he would simply move on ahead of them.
A great many people were bound to die in this event, but his conscience was clear.
Besides, he intended to keep Little Nora and the rest safely ahead of the curve until the event came to an end.
***
The event labyrinth, second floor.
After a vote, four class users stood out from the rest.
There was Xia Hai, who specialized in massive area-of-effect damage; the dual-swordsman Di Renjie, an expert in high-speed slashes; Cyber Dragon, who could summon mechanical life-forms; and finally Hart, the dragonman, who boasted the highest combat power of the group.
All four were preeminent figures in their respective fields. More importantly, their fighting styles did not get in one another's way, making them ideally suited to coordinate.
Once the pursuit squad was finalized, all the assembled class users began scouring the area for chests and handing them over to the four.
In just fifteen minutes, they had gathered enough chests for all four to advance to the next floor. Without delay, the squad teleported up to the third floor: the mirror labyrinth.
"Come forth, Steel Chariot!"
Upon arriving on the third floor, Cyber Dragon cast a summoning spell without hesitation.
A rugged, savage-looking off-road vehicle materialized out of a magic circle. Its chassis bristled with weaponry and steel spikes, clearly built for formidable ranged firepower and devastating ramming power alike.
The four climbed aboard, and the Steel Chariot immediately engaged autopilot, rumbling forward.
"Over three hours have already elapsed on this floor's timer. If we run into anyone, what do we do?" Cyber Dragon asked.
Xia Hai replied coldly, "Kill them without mercy, of course. Better to slay the wrong person than let the culprit slip away."
"Agreed. Our mission is to confirm that the timer on the floor above hasn't begun ticking yet," Hart said with a sinister grin, radiating heavy bloodlust. "Anyone on this floor is a suspect. The only answer is... slaughter!"
Di Renjie offered a mild smile. "Just over three hours have passed here. I don't believe the person trying to wipe us out could have already cleared this floor and moved on to the next. The culprit is almost certainly right here, and there can't be many people on this floor to begin with. The chances of killing an innocent bystander are actually quite low."
"Still, this floor is a real headache. Every single wall is a mirror," Cyber Dragon sighed.
Mirrors easily distorted one's spatial perception, forcing the Steel Chariot to maintain a modest speed to avoid smashing headlong into a glass wall.
"No need to rush. We're only slightly behind, and I'm sure we aren't far from our killer," Di Renjie said with a chuckle.
Suddenly, he pushed himself up from his seat, smiling. "I hear footsteps."
A fraction of a second later, he vanished into thin air.
In terms of sheer speed, no one present could match him.
The moment Di Renjie disappeared, Xia Hai leapt from his seat as well, gliding swiftly in the direction of the footsteps.
"Where are the chests, oh where can they be? The chests are waiting right down the alley for me..."
Not far off, Cheng Pi strolled through the labyrinth, humming a tune as he ate an ice pop and kept an eye out for chests.
He was never one to push himself too hard. As long as he could collect three chests within the three-day limit, he was more than satisfied. With plenty of time left on the clock, he felt relaxed enough to wander about at his leisure.
Suddenly, his ears twitched. He caught the sound of an engine revving.
*Wait, that makes no sense.*
*Where would a car come from in a labyrinth?*
In the next instant, he activated his Colossus form, his body rapidly expanding into the Stone Colossus.
His reflexes were undeniably swift. The moment his transformation took shape, he spotted a narrow-eyed man wielding dual swords emerge from around a corridor's bend. The stranger lightly tapped the tip of his boot against a mirror's surface, and in the blink of an eye, materialized directly in front of him.
"So fast!"
Startled, Cheng Pi instantly triggered his skill, Weight of the Earth.
Yet rather than slowing down, Di Renjie accelerated even further.
He closed the distance in a flash.
In a split second, both of his hands blurred into a dazzling flurry of blade light.
Individually, Di Renjie's strikes were not overwhelmingly powerful, chipping away only minute fragments of rock from Cheng Pi's frame. But his attack speed was terrifying.
In the span of an instant, every one of Cheng Pi's joints was severed, and his colossal form collapsed helplessly to the ground.
"Don't blame me!"
"Blame yourself for coming up too early."
Standing atop Cheng Pi's chest and looking down at him, Di Renjie smiled with narrowed eyes.
His right hand unleashed an endless cascade of sword strikes in a heartbeat, instantly wiping out Cheng Pi's health bar.
***
Aboard the Aska.
Cheng Pi materialized in the cockpit. He opened his eyes, ready to roar in fury, but the sight of the empty cockpit made him realize he had already been eliminated from the game.
"You bastard!"
Remembering Di Renjie's face, Cheng Pi clenched his fists, grinding his teeth in rage.
He refused to take this lying down.
He was going to log back in and get his revenge!
Chapter 559