Chapter 323: 323, Snow Leopard’s Illusion Duel (First Part)_1
Snow Leopard followed the crowd through the teleportation portal.
After a dizzying moment, his surroundings changed and he found himself in a forest during the early morning.
It was quite a sparse forest with the distance between trees generally about 4 or 5 meters.
Since it was early morning, the light in the forest was not abundant and the grass and branches were still covered in morning dew.
Once he arrived in this unfamiliar environment, the first thing Snow Leopard did was turn into [Cheetah Form] and leap into the bushes, warily observing his surroundings.
Almost immediately, he discovered a target in the distance—a woman dressed in green leather armor, a spectacular figure, wielding a bow, standing about ten meters behind him.
Apart from her, there were no other visible targets in the vicinity.
Snow Leopard didn’t hesistate and immediately launched a [Pounce] at the woman.
With her pinned beneath him, he unleashed a series of moves, [Slanting], [Sweep], [Ferocious Bite]… one after another onto her.
“Ah! Ah!” The woman archer was so frightened that she started screaming.
She had barely steadied herself from the teleportation when a fierce leopard pounced on her and started tearing at her, frightening her almost into unconsciousness.
By the time she realized that the leopard was actually a player, it was too late for her to attempt a [Backflip] evasive manoeuvre.
During that time, Snow Leopard’s series of combo attacks had wiped out more than half her health.
Upon seeing her backflip away, Snow Leopard wasn’t going to let her escape. He activated his speed boost skill [Cheetah Sprint], instantly boosting his speed by 60%, and stuck to her like glue.
The woman was in a state of panic and tried to use the [Sliding Shovel] skill to create distance between her and Snow Leopard.
However, whether due to nervousness or something else, the woman archer faltered considerably in her control.
Instead of [Sliding Shovel] away from Snow Leopard, she moved 180 degrees toward him.
Thanks to her mishap, not only did she not put any distance between them, she ended up sliding right to Snow Leopard’s feet.
Snow Leopard: “???”
This was the first time he’d seen an archer voluntarily close the distance with a melee fighter.
If she wanted to be so polite, Snow Leopard was definitely not going to hold back!
He sidestepped the [Sliding Shovel] knockdown effect with a small jump, and once again unleashed a series of combo attacks on her.
As she fell to his onslaughts, with her health depleted, she vanished in a flash of white light from her spot.
Seeing this, the comment section of the live broadcast room exploded:
“Hahaha, that backward slide was hilarious, I can’t stop laughing!”
“That girl is awesome! As an archer, she actually dares to face Snow Leopard head-on!”
“I think that move should make it into the ‘Evolution Weekly Comedy Montage’. I’m going to submit it!”
“Boss Snow Leopard, you mercilessly ripped that poor girl apart. You really don’t treat ladies delicately.”
“But that girl has a great figure! I’m practically drooling!”
“Ah, no lies everyone, that’s my girlfriend, it looks like I’m going to have to comfort her tonight.”
“Hold up, boyfriend! Are you dreaming? The system has anonymized names and changed appearances. How did you recognize she was your girlfriend?”
When players enter the fantasy battle map, their name tags disappear and their appearances are forcibly changed into something else.
The same applied to Snow Leopard.
Originally his [Cheetah Form] manifested as a handsome, considerably large black leopard, but after being forcibly changed, he became a smaller speckled leopard with a golden coat and black spots.
Even if he were to encounter Mr. Li or Mr. Meng, who both had a close relationship with him, they wouldn’t be able to recognize him as Snow Leopard.
Back in Su Yu’s Mage Tower.
Morningstar watched Snow Leopard’s performance and nodded approvingly, “This kid has talent. It’s quite rare to see a druid exhibiting such proficient control over his attacks at this level of advancement.”
“That’s for sure!” replied Su Yu with a smile, “Just based on his current performance, he’s the second most capable out of millions of adventurers in our dimension. He’s definitely not weak.”
“And who’s first?” Morningstar asked curiously.
“Of course, that would be me!” Su Yu replied, a shudder passing over his lips, “Even a thousand of him wouldn’t be able to beat me.”
Morningstar palmed her forehead, “Oh right, how could I forget you…”
As she picked up a piece of dried beef and tossed it in her mouth, she spoke through bites, “In a few days, I can introduce him to many Great Druids from the Elf Race who have reached the Sanctuary level. I’m sure they won’t mind taking on such a talented disciple.”
“Thanks on Snow Leopard’s behalf!” Su Yu scratched the cat’s head.
The scene returned to the game.
Upon killing the archer girl, Snow Leopard immediately gained a buff—[Breath of Blood].
[Breath of Blood]: Increases all your properties by 5%, stackable without limit, loses effect after leaving the fantasy realm. At the same time, it makes you more susceptible to detection by competitors.
After seeing the buff’s effect, Snow Leopard immediately figured out that this was the game mechanic designed to encourage player battles.
Winning by hiding and trying to survive wasn’t really an option. You had to kill a considerable number of players to stack buffs and essentially steal the show.
With this thought, Snow Leopard activated [Stealth] and began carefully searching for his next target nearby.
Time passed slowly.
Thirty-five minutes later, Snow Leopard’s first round of the Secret Realm Duel came to an end.
The difficulty of the first round wasn’t high for top-tier players like Snow Leopard.
As all 100 players from the entire map were randomly selected by the game, most of them were like the female archer from just now, merely average players struggling with their gaming controls.
Some players have never even participated in PVP before and didn’t even know what abilities Snow Leopard had.
Even though the game mechanic equalized everyone’s equipment and skills, the gap in operating proficiency, situational judgement, adaptability, and ability to seize opportunities between ordinary players and top-tier players was just too immense.
Snow Leopard started a snowball effect, killing more than a dozen players and accumulating buffs along the way.
At the same time, he was lucky and looted two pieces of equipment from killing monsters and three pieces of Secret Realm equipment from the players he killed.
In the end, he swept past all his opponents with his overwhelming advantage and successfully advanced to the next round.
Of course, the audience in his livestream room wished to see him win. “666” comments filled the entire room.
After killing the last competitor with a [Ferocious Bite], Snow Leopard received the game notification:
“Congratulations on eliminating all competitors and getting the qualification for the next round. The countdown for the next duel begins: 24:47.”
“Battle settlement in progress…”
“Your performance in this round is rated as [SS], you received as a reward: [Random Rare Quality Skill Book (Druid)] x1.”
With the game notification, Snow Leopard’s figure gradually disappeared into the forest.
Not long after, he ended up back at the central square of Goldfinch.
Countless flashes of white light flickered around him as other players were also returned to the square.