The Players' Wild Imaginations

Looking at the motionless Tamura Pige, Yu Xian silently took out dynamite and alcohol. It was very obvious that Tamura Pige was a classic tank-type player. Although his score was quite low, Yu Xian guessed there was a high probability he had never actually lost a match. Instead, he had likely relied on his nearly invincible regenerative powers to grind down opponent after opponent. Otherwise, Tamura Pige couldn't possibly be confident enough to accept his wager. Yu Xian repeated his previous trick, swiftly tossing dynamite all around Tamura Pige. The moment time resumed its flow, a lighter dropped into the explosives. "It hurts!" Tamura Pige was instantly engulfed by flames, and only a single shriek came from within the fire. Then gravity intensified, and the fire's temperature began to climb. There was no need to go to such extremes as he had when killing Chen Lan; Tamura Pige merely had powerful regenerative abilities, but his defense wasn't actually that high. Yu Xian estimated that ten thousand degrees would be enough to kill him. "It hurts!" "If you've got the guts... fight me... hand-to-hand!" "Stop burning me, I surrender!" "Bastard, don't let me catch you outside, or I'll slaughter you!" "Aaaaargh!" Inside the flames, Tamura Pige's voice rang out continuously. Gradually, his cries shifted from frenzied and loud to weak and muffled, until finally there was no sound at all. After about ten minutes, Tamura Pige was completely burned to death. Yu Xian let out a small breath of relief. Fortunately, Tamura Pige's regenerative ability wasn't so absurd that he could endure for several hours or even an entire day. Of course, this was mainly because players' levels were still generally quite low. If Tamura Pige were allowed to keep developing until his level surpassed 200, killing him would likely be extraordinarily difficult. Yu Xian quietly opened his attribute interface and curiously checked what skill he had randomly drawn from Tamura Pige. The moment he saw it, his eyes went wide. [Hard to Kill, Hard to Die: The heavier the injuries you suffer, the faster your recovery speed. When suffering a fatal injury, your recovery speed doubles. The closer you are to death, the harder you are to kill.] Could this be Tamura Pige's core skill? Wouldn't Tamura Pige be crying his eyes out right now? Looking at the skill he had obtained, Yu Xian couldn't help but chuckle aloud. With this skill, even if he activated Time Stop later than Shenshang Chai upon encountering him, Shenshang Chai wouldn't be able to kill him. Originally, he had envisioned the key to fighting Shenshang Chai as who could activate Time Stop first; whoever went first would win. Now, with this passive skill, Hard to Kill, Hard to Die, everything changed. Even if he failed to activate his skill first, Shenshang Chai wouldn't be able to finish him off. Once Shenshang Chai's Time Stop ended, it would be his turn. [Congratulations to Contestant Yu Xian on achieving victory!] [Do you wish to continue competing?] Yu Xian closed his attribute panel and cheerfully chose to continue fighting. Unfortunately, none of the players he faced afterward accepted his wager. As a result, all he earned were cold, empty, lonely points, without acquiring a single additional skill. Night fell. Before long, it was nine o'clock. After finishing his match against his final opponent, Yu Xian returned to the inn. "Off the clock, off the clock!" Yu Xian plopped down on the bed, stretching lazily. Zhang Buyao had exited earlier than him. Seeing Yu Xian's cheerful expression, he knew it was another plain, unadorned day of consecutive victories. "What are we eating tonight?" Yu Xian asked, looking toward Zhang Buyao. Zhang Buyao sighed and replied, "I'm kind of craving Little Huangquan's World's Best Bun." "Little Huangquan is in the Zhen Realm too, but she can't make the World's Best Bun for you right now," Yu Xian said, his lips twitching slightly as he hurried to nip the idea in the bud. Even though the World's Best Bun was undeniably delicious, the side effects were truly terrible. "Fine, the usual then," Zhang Buyao said, looking thoroughly disappointed. The two left the inn and headed to a familiar eatery. After placing their orders, they opened the forum, each browsing whatever caught their interest. They were so close that even without conversation, neither felt awkward or uncomfortable. Instead, simply being together made them feel completely relaxed. Yu Xian first checked Shenshang Chai's performance for the day. Just as he finished watching the first match, however, Zhang Buyao let out an exclamation of surprise beside him, turning to Yu Xian. "Salty Fish, you're trending! You actually wagered skills against people? Aren't you afraid of running into Shi Bao?" "I'm trending?" Somewhat surprised, Yu Xian backed out of the thread about Shenshang Chai. Sure enough, right in the trending section, he saw a post about his skill wagers. [Shocking! Yu Xian is actually plundering other players' skills! Beware, everyone—under no circumstances should you accept Yu Xian's wager!] The moment he saw the headline, Yu Xian could tell the original poster had to be a hater. After all, he hadn't been the one to propose the wager in the first place; he had merely hopped on the bandwagon. Yet the person who started the thread didn't mention Chen Lan at all, clearly trying to stir up outrage. Yu Xian clicked on the post. Sure enough, it only included video clips of Zhao Tiehong and Tamura Pige being defeated, completely ignoring Chen Lan. This created the illusion that Yu Xian was the sole instigator behind it all. Curious about what other players thought, Yu Xian scrolled down to read the replies. Floor 1: There's actually an upside like this? Lesson learned! Floor 2: More like learned how to ruin yourself. Aren't you afraid of getting all your skills plundered? Floor 3: What's there to be afraid of? There's only one Yu Xian. Even if you count Shenshang Chai and the others, that's only about ten people. The odds of us running into them are practically one in a hundred million, whereas against other contestants, our chances are fifty-fifty at best. Looked at this way, it's basically gambling on luck. Ideally, I can get rid of skills I don't want in exchange for a useful one! Floor 4: Makes sense. Win once and you're in the black; win twice and it doesn't even matter if you lose once. Besides, a skill that's garbage in our hands might be godly in someone else's. Swapping among ourselves isn't a bad idea at all. Floor 5: I have a bold idea... Floor 6: I've got a trash skill! Who wants to trade? Come trade! Floor 7: There are so many players, how could you trade? Are you trying to match-fix? The problem is the probability of matching with the same person again is way too low. Floor 8: Moron, thousands of us—even tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of players—could form a mutual-aid society! We can display the skills we don't want, coordinate who throws to whom and who wins, and we'll eventually trade for the skills we actually want. Floor 9: That's actually a great idea. The only wild cards are Yu Xian and the top dogs, but the chances of success are definitely high. ... ... Yu Xian's expression turned rather peculiar as he watched more and more players chime in. Indeed, once the general public put their minds to work, their imaginations could pierce the heavens. Some were already discussing modifying the wager from a random skill to a designated one. That way, there really was a chance of trading for the skills they wanted while offloading the ones they didn't. Yet this development seemed... advantageous to him, and advantageous to all top combatants, for that matter. Since matchmaking was random, some unlucky soul would inevitably get matched with them and end up forfeiting their unwanted skills to them. At the same time, battles between top contenders would likely have even more unpredictable variables.