Thankfully, Feng Bujue had drunk the life point recovery potion before using his skill, and that was how he survived the ordeal. Otherwise, there was a very high chance that he would have died from over exhaustion from employing such a powerful skill. However, his Stamina Points still dropped down to zero. Instantly, the overwhelming feeling of lethargy swamped over him, and his body collapsed to the ground like a log. At the same time, Void Light, whose power was doubled, had completely destroyed Pegasus Comet Fist and had consumed the whole body of Seven Kills with it.
“Oh my god… This is truly unbelievable…” Gordon put down the binoculars and gasped in shock as he looked at the black blast wave that burst through the clouds. Even Nightwing, who had seen his fair share of things, could not disguise the shock on his face. This time, even he thought that perhaps it was time to call for help from superheroes from outside of Gotham City.
“Captain! Did you see that? Oh my God!” The officers in the two helicopters had the front seat view to everything. At that moment, they were all talking through the walkie talkie and tried their best to describe what they were seeing. After the collision of the two extremely powerful ultimates, a deep grove appeared on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises, and the two people who unleashes these skills were now lying supine on the ground.
Seven Kills was facing up, gasping audibly for air. In the few seconds he was directly hit by Void Light, he felt like his entire physical body had been poured with running lava, and it felt like every cell in his body was about to evaporate. After the Void Light faded away, his Batsuit had become tattered and was about sixty to seventy percent broken. The gaming outfit that he wore underneath was practically unscathed and protected though. If Seven Kills’ Batsuit was purchased from the Thriller Box, then this legendary equipment would not have been ruined so easily. But for now, the Batsuit that he was wearing was obtained from the scenario itself, and it was a set of equipment that could not be brought out from the scenario. In other words, because this set of equipment belonged into its original DC universe, it was not protected by the system but had to follow the laws that governed this universe.
The same theory could be applied to the cold armor that was destroyed by the RPG. If the cold armor was the version that could be brought out of the scenario, then once the player put on this set of armor, even if they were hit directly by a rocket, it would probably not have shattered. Of course, the damage that was beyond the defensibility of the armor would be taken by the player as well. The version that could not be taken out of the scenario would have to follow the setting and world setting of the scenario that it was in. There was a threshold to the amount of pressure the material could support, and if the damage was way over this threshold, the armor would be destroyed.
“Hehehe… Hahaha…” After Seven Kills caught his breath, he turned his head up and laughed at the open sky. “You had such a trump card hidden all this while… hahaha…”
He laughed as he tried to sit up.
“God damn it…” There was a joy that came from his heart, which was weaving through his laughter. However, at the same time, there was more than a bit of helplessness. “It is really impossible to tell what is up with you.”
Pew!
A white light suddenly shot forward. Feng Bujue was lying on his side on the ground. He used the last ounce of his energy to use the freeze ray gun and shoot this attack.
His position at that moment could only be described as strange. His head was tilted to the right and dragging on the ground. His two arms were perpendicular to the rest of his body, his right arm stuck to the ground and his left arm placed over his right arm. Only in his position would he be able to shoot while lying on the ground.
“Tsk… You are one hell of a nuisance…” When Seven Kills was shot by the ice beam, he had not completely gotten off the ground. The ice beam hit him at his knee, and the freezing effect started to spread with that as its center. It meant that Seven Kills was frozen in a half-squatting pose. Things were not that good on Feng Bujue’s side either. This time, the pain that he felt was much deeper than last time his Stamina Points dropped to zero. If one had to describe it, it was like when someone was in a nightmare and they found themselves unable to use any energy in their body and could only wait anxiously for things to happen.
Brother Jue did not lie on the ground and shoot because he thought it looked more handsome that way but because, this time, he found it difficult to even sit up on the ground. He gathered his focus and summoned the last bit of energy that he could from all parts of his body, and it was just barely enough to pull on the trigger of the Freeze Ray Gun. All he could do now was keep the ice beam going and pray that through the spreading effect of the freeze ray gun, it would eventually encase Seven Kills in an ice block, and that would slowly kill the man from lack of oxygen.
But who would have thought… a situation that no one wished to see happen happened at that moment? After maintaining the ice beam for about ten seconds, the battery of the Freeze Ray Gun ran dry.
Two seconds after the light beam ended, with a splat, Feng Bujue let go of his grasp and allowed the Freeze Ray Gun to slip to the ground. In the night sky, the night breeze kept on blowing.
Seven Kills was in a half-kneeling position. From the bottom of his feet to his chest, he was sealed in ice. The only parts of the body that he could move were his head and the front part of his right arm. Meanwhile, Feng Bujue was splayed on the ground like a dead body, completely immobile. He used his extremely evocative eyes to repeat the same term again and again—F*ck!
“Fine. After the ice melts, I will deal with you,” Seven Kills said calmly, but it was hard to tell whether it was a forced calmness or not.
“When my Stamina Points recover, it’s you who will die,” Feng Bujue roared back, unwilling to lose. However, his voice was like someone who had just choked on wasabi, and it sounded tiring on the listeners.
“When the people in the helicopters see us in this state, they will definitely make the report to their superiors. Soon, the police and the superheroes will rush here to clean up the scene. Then, to capture me, they will have to break the ice,” Seven Kills said. “And when I break out of the ice, I will only need to rush to your side as fast as I can and then plunge a knife into you. Then, everything will be over.”
“You have very bad analytical power.” Feng Bujue found it difficult to speak, but at least his voice had recovered somewhat. “When the people come to clean up the scene, as long as I am lying here, acting like I have just been raped… before you are broken out from the ice, I will have been carried on the stretcher and sent in the ambulance to the hospital.”
“Fine… If you want to push it that far…” Seven Kills worked his right arm and tried his best to bend his elbow to have his arm reach as close to his body as possible. A white light flashed, and he took out a pistol from his inventory.
“Ha! You make it looks like you have a chance of even hitting me!” Before the man fired, Feng Bujue laughed. Actually, there was less than twenty meters between the two of them, but Seven Kills’ marksmanship mastery was only level E as the buff the Batsuit had already disappeared. Combined with the injury on his front arm, it was indeed very hard for him to hit his target.
“I would advise you not to push it too far. If you fire a bullet in that state, the rebound might cause the bone in your arm to break,” Feng Bujue mocked without fearing the consequences. “Based on my prediction, you only have one single mastery that is very powerful, and that is fighting. Your other mastery levels are not that high, but for masteries like marksmanship, training to level E is still not that hard as long as you have a gun and occasionally use it. You have already reached level thirty-one, so my guess is that your marksmanship mastery is indeed level E…”
When he spoke, he tried to push himself off from the ground, and he finally successfully did sit up.
“According to my understanding of the DC universe, the batarang has a homing effect, but it has to be done in conjunction with the triangulation system inside the bat helmet. The attacks that you did earlier were so accurate because of that, right? Now, however, seeing that your helmet has also been ruined… if you use just the strength of your arm to throw the batarang, even if you hit me somehow, I doubt it will be strong enough to kill me.”
Brother Jue took another few deep breaths and glanced at the game menu. The recovery rate of his Stamina Points was much slower than he anticipated, much, much slower. It seemed that when one’s Stamina Points reached zero, the damage caused was more than just a depletion data-wise. This was akin to a footballer in real life. When he ran out of physical energy on the field, he would have to pace himself to adjust his energy. If he kept on running with no regard for his store of energy, it might cause his energy to reach rock bottom, and in that situation, injuries were common, and in serious cases, he might faint.
Thriller Paradise replicated this real-life experience to a certain degree. In this game, recovering energy after complete depletion of Stamina Points and recovering energy when one had part of their Stamina Points exhausted were completely different thing. The last time this happened, it was after Brother Jue used Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon. If not for K2-Red Iron helping Feng Bujue heal up, he would have been lying there on the ground for a very long time before he was able to move again.
“Therefore, you have chosen to use the gun.” Feng Bujue continued from where he left off earlier. “But like I’ve said, in your current condition with a level E mastery, it’s futile.”
Seven Kills also sighed. “Phew… Looks like I should have spent some time training my gun skill in-game as well.”
“What?” Feng Bujue’s sleuthing nature would always made him do some instinctual reaction. When the man said that statement, one second later, Brother Jue concluded, “You are a police officer? A soldier? A member of the archery team or shooting club?”
Seven Kills was still in shock while Feng Bujue continued, “Looks like, from your expression, you do not wish for others to know about your real identity. Could it be that you are a killer? A spy? An old wizened veteran who has been bitten by the gaming bug?”
“Er…” Seven Kills was caught in a situation where none of the replies seemed appropriate.
“Oh well, it does not matter. I am not that interested in your life,” Feng Bujue said as he raised his hands with difficulty and took out the endless box of grenades from his inventory. When the opponent saw him take out the grenade, Seven Kills had a bad feeling rise in his heart. He asked probingly, “I say, Brother Feng, in your current condition, can you really toss the grenade over the distance?”
Feng Bujue took out the anti-gravity gun next.
“I do not even need to contemplate a question like that, I only need to calculate the timing between the pulling of the safety pin and the explosion, the speed of the grenade as it flies over the arc, and the distance between you and me. I only need to focus on these three elements.” He let out a long sigh. “The calculation that follows is so easy that even a primary school student would be able to do it.”
“What do you mean by that?” Seven Kills’ eyes were glued to the anti-gravity gun in the man’s grasp. Even though he had not seen the actual function of this thing before, hearing what Feng Bujue had to say, he could guess its function already.
“Haha… It means that you are in real trouble,” Feng Bujue commented with a smile. “After taking on my Void Light, you have not had the chance to take any life point recovery potion.”
He had found out the name of the randomized skill, Void Light, from the system notification.
As he spoke, he prepared to shoot. “If you somehow believe that you are able to take on the full damage from the explosion of two Mark II grenades at such a close distance at full health, I will give you the chance to drink the potion now, or else… I would advise you to save your game coins and resources.”
When Feng Bujue began his sentence, with his reminder, Seven Kills really did swiftly take out the blood potions, but when he heard the latter half of what Brother Jue had to say, he gave it some thought for a few seconds and then quietly put his potion away back into his inventory.
“Humph… Haha…” Seven Kills laughed with abandon. He shook his head. “Feng Bujue… this time, I will be sure to remember this ID.”
“Goodbye, my friend who has the philosophy of fight one-on-one,” Feng Bujue said as he pulled on the safety pin.
…
In real life, in City S, night had fallen. The park at night was deserted, with no one around, but the swing deep within the park was still swinging.
“Is it already over?” Vincent’s arms were hooked around the iron chains of the swing by his side as the swing swung back and forth slightly.
“Hehehe… There is an eighty percent chance that you are up to some kind of conspiracy when you use that kind of bored tone to converse with me…” Woody’s figure suddenly appeared two meters before Vincent. He did not answer the question posed by the man but looked left and right. Then, he used his pointing finger to point at the other swing next to Vincent. “That is so-called ’Death Swing’ right? You sat on the normal-looking swing and acted as casual as you could, which created this psychological pressure that would have attracted me to sit down next to you to chat with you. Then, I would be spun into small matter by the Death Swing.”
“Ha!” Vincent could not help but let a laugh escape from his mouth. “Sigh… Looks like this kind of con is only enough to trick someone like Sid.”
“But at the same time, I am indeed curious… Is this thing as powerful as the legend says it is?” Woody looked at the swing.
“Why else do you think I would have come here?” Vincent replied.
“Oh… Hehehe…” Woody smiled like he knew what was left unsaid. When he heard the question, he had already gotten the answer. “The person who was sent to recycle the swing last time was killed because he touched things that he shouldn’t, huh?”
“That’s why I wanted to lure you over here and test the power of this swing for myself,” Vincent admitted.
“Hehehe… this plan is as out there as your previous plan of attempting to assassinate me with the ’one-hit-kill tomato’,” Woody joked. “But let’s return to the bet. Feng Bujue has won. Hehehe…”
At the end of the statement, he could not help but issue his wicked laugh again.
“So, it is indeed him who won,” Vincent added calmly. From his expression, it seemed like he had predicted this result a long time ago.
“You must be feeling so proud of yourself now,” Woody said.
“Pride is a joyful emotion that is born purely from the heart. Isn’t that considered a luxury for the likes of you and me?” Vincent replied.
Woody realized that the man was shooting blanks with him, so he decided to state it clearly and place it right on the table. “Before I came here, I used about ten seconds to try to figure out the entirety of your plan. I believe this plan is mainly made up of two separate parts…
“One, through this compromise of forced disconnection of forty-eight hours, you can ensure that Li Ruoyu (Passing Rain) would have her power level maintain at an above-average state, and she would not enter the circle of the too powerful too early in the game. She does not go on the game that often, so the loss of two days is not big, right?”
Vincent had a small smile on his face, and Woody took that as a silent admission.
“Secondly, there has to be a reason that you gathered the people that we have bet on to have this battle royale,” Woody said. “The six powerful players gathered in this battle, and that is a good thing for their growth. Even for the losers, they will have gained something. Just the experience of fighting with the best of the best is better than many other things in-game.”
His expression shifted slightly.
“And the most key thing is that… in a scenario like this, the final victor will have a momentous increase to his gaming experience and state. Hehehe…” He laughed for a while. “Looks like you wished to borrow this chance to create someone who has a chance to equal Phantom Dawn.”
“What’s so bad about that?” Vincent fired the question back to Woody.
“Tsk tsk, just what kind of person would come up with a sinister plan like that? Hehe…” Woody’s laughter was evoked with layers of iciness. “Before the game enters the middle stage, shattering the framework that has settled at the upper layer of the fighting force, that is such profound preparation for the ’chaos’ to come.”
Vincent smiled. “Don’t tell me you wish to see a world where no one is able to stop Phantom Dawn.”
“Hehe… Well, that is not true, but if I were given a choice now, I would make the same decision like you and have my own bet stay behind the leading man. Then I’d find a position that is safer and more convenient and ensure his light does not shine too early,” Woody replied.
“Then you can’t blame me but Feng Bujue.” Vincent shrugged. “Even you have no idea how far this chess piece of yours can go, or can he still be considered a chess piece?”
“Humph…” Woody pushed on his glasses. “From the very beginning, I never considered him a chess piece… For someone like Feng Bujue, he is destined to be the chess player and not the piece to be played. He can be tested but not controlled.”
…
Several minutes later, in the city of Gotham in the gaming world, Feng Bujue shot out the two grenades and sent Seven Kills out of the scenario. Then, in the team tab, the status next to Seven Kills’ name turned to ’Dead’, and the system announcement came soon after. “Current quest complete. All main quest completed.”
The mission requirement ’Become the last survivor in this scenario’ had a tick next to it.
“You have completed the scenario. The auto teleportation will occur in 180 seconds.”
“Phew…” Feng Bujue stood up shakily and let out a long sigh while looking up at the night sky. His Stamina Points used the most glacial speed to recover to thirty points, and by then, he felt much better. At least he had no difficulty sitting up. It seemed that the number thirty was a threshold of some sort. After the player had depleted their Stamina Points, before they recovered thirty Stamina Points, it could be counted as a kind of hidden debuff state.
“Looks like you have already settled your differences. It is about time to calculate the debt that you with us.” Nightwing’s voice travelled over the wind. Feng Bujue turned back to look and saw about eight superheroes from the Network standing down a line, looking absolutely brilliant.
“Tim is not dead.” That was the first thing Feng Bujue said. “The recording was faked. He is still alive, and he is with Two-Face. Mr. Dent and I just wanted to play a prank on Mr. Penguin and light some fire under your bottom. This way, he can be the king of the underworld, and then I… could sneak into the Batcave and clean up the place while you people had lost your rationality and left the lair. Of course, that plan backfired on me.”
It was only a few sentences, but it contained plenty of information. When the superheroes heard him, there were different expressions on their faces. There was joy, surprise, and suspicion. Finally, it was the leading Nightwing who stepped forth to say, “Even if what you are saying is true, it is also true that you have killed the police and aided Two-Face. You…”
He did not finish the rest of his sentence because he was shocked by an action that Feng Bujue did. Brother Jue did not really do anything but took out a tattered cape.
“There are certain things that Bruce will never be able to teach you.” Feng Bujue did not put on the cape but held it by one of the corners and allowed it to flutter in the wind. “Do not come and think you can discuss the meaning of ’crime and sin’ with me.
“In this city, there are many who are viewed as mad by you lot. They are the ones who have been spreading the philosophy of anarchy and the road of madness. But as long as they still know the true meaning of anarchy and madness, they cannot still be considered pure madmen, and this bunch of people will still understand the meaning of ’crime and sin’.”
As he spoke, he slowly retreated to the edge of the rooftop.
“And me… I’m different from them.” He showed a strange smile. “My presence is the epitome of anarchy and madness.”
“What are you doing!” Nightwing appeared to notice something and hurried forward toward Feng Bujue.
“Criminals can be killed, but sin is permanent. Evil itself cannot be judged, and there will always be those who are corrupted by it.” Feng Bujue by then had reached the edge of the roof. Another step, and he would fall, but he still had a fearless smile on his face. He held the fluttering cape in one hand. “I had my opponent remove this cape because I did not want to fight someone who wears this.”
“Listen to me. If you fall from here…” Nightwing realized what Feng Bujue wanted to do, and he started to console him.
“Those who protect justice will inherit the responsibility and belief carried by this cape.” Feng Bujue took one last step back. “And those chasing chaos will eventually return to chaos.”
Nightwing bolted forward, wishing to pull Feng Bujue back, but he only grabbed hold of the cape that the man flung away. The maddening laughter echoed in the wind. As Feng Bujue fell, it slowly faded away. But in the end, there was no body that fell to the ground…
That moment of madness was branded into eternity.