Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Ji Shanqing was apparently well aware of his own value. After spending so much time walking through this Mirror Maze, the grand prize wasn’t merely an attractive reward. More importantly, it was the key to getting out. None of the players would reject an opportunity for them to “see the sky again”. Once Ji Shanqing trapped all his targets in a chamber and told that the winner would get to see the grand prize, he was pressuring them to fight.
After that first skirmish, there was bloodlust in everyone’s eyes.
As Ji Shanqing had hinted in his last sentence that Lin Sanjiu had a slight advantage, she became the primary target. Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath. She could feel her blood coursing through the arteries and veins in her body. Using the extraordinary control she had over her entire body, she kept her fingers in the same stiff position.
No one in the chamber dared to move hastily even seconds after Ji Shanqing had finished his announcement. The surrounding air around them seemed almost as heavy as soaked cotton. The tension around them was so thick that it almost made breathing difficult.
With every passing second, Lin Sanjiu grew more anxious. Even though no one else could see the black orbs around her, she knew she had to be very careful around the dozen over small black orbs.
If she didn’t move, the black orbs would just float in mid-air without doing anything. It was almost as they were Lin Sanjiu’s accessories. However, even if she moved her head ever so slightly, those black orbs would whir back to life and rush ravenously to the part of her body she moved. Despite not knowing the effects of these small black orbs, Lin Sanjiu detected a faint scent of explosive in her hypersensory state.
With the inevitable fight ahead of her, how could she remain motionless?
A few drops of sweat rolled down her back and touched the base joint of her wings before they seeped into her clothes.
“Miss Lin,” Geran was standing between the old man and the green jello. His face was pale when he let out a chuckle. “Some things can’t be forced.”
Lin Sanjiu did not even bat an eye.
“Where are your friends? Puppeteer? And that strange cat? Why don’t I see them?” Geran rubbed his hands together and sighed, “I think even if they’re here, they must be dead. After all, it’s all too easy to die in this amusement park, right?”
Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu’s heart sank. This was exactly what she feared. If Puppeteer managed to find the cat doctor and Souls using his puppeteering abilities and then decided to backtrack his way through the mirrors, they would all turn into that same bloody pulp that Lin Sanjiu was all too familiar with.
“Hey,” the short old man stared at Lin Sanjiu as if he suddenly had an idea. He smirked, there was still blood stains around his lips. “I think everyone would agree with me. We should get rid of that woman with the slight advantage first. After that, whoever gets the grand prize, it’s all fair game.”
“Sounds fair,” Geran replied. At the same time, the green jello-man quivered a few times.
“That’s great,” the old man let out a hoarse chortle. “Let’s go!” he said plainly.
Startled, Lin Sanjiu almost didn’t catch what had happened. “Damn it,” she muttered inwardly. Her [Tornado whip] was clearly not good enough for her to deal with her three opponents. She immediately held her [Vibroblade] card in her hand. As a current of air rushed toward her, she threw out her card.
When the card was a few meters away from her hand, it changed back into a blade. It sliced through her attacker’s body without any hindrance and cut through the air until someone caught it in his hand. Geran looked at Lin Sanjiu and smiled.
Lin Sanjiu cursed quietly. She didn’t expect that the green jello man would be the first person to attack her. As the jello-man’s gelatinous body was at least 1.5 times wider than a normal human’s girth, Lin Sanjiu’s Vibroblade sliced through the ‘jelly’ part of his body which did not contain his organs. The green jelly made a gurgling sound and his body merged back together as he wobbled. He stepped back as if nothing had happened to him.
His jello body was unflattering but it had helped him survive twice.
Before Lin Sanjiu could bemoan the loss of her vibroblade, she quickly turned her gaze to the little black orbs. After she noticed that they only moved a bit, she was relieved. However, her situation changed before she could even reorganize herself.
The old man had been hiding some distance behind the jello-man. He suddenly leaped down from mid-air.
The old man did not attack her physically. He did not even activate any Special Items. Lin Sanjiu’s eyes widened as she watched as a short, skinny, monkey-like old man stretched out his arms and jumped down, head-first toward her.
Lin Sanjiu did not dare to move her wings, she activated her [Mosaic Censorship] and hastily swung her palms toward the shadowy figure. However, all the small black orbs started to move at the same time. They swam toward both her hands with a whizzing sound. Before she could even touch the old man, she touched the black orbs first!
She cursed and swore inwardly as she shrunk back trying to pull her hands back. The shadowy black figure instantly blocked her sight.
Surprisingly, she didn’t sense anyone touching her.
“Where’s he?”
When her gaze swept through the confined mirror chamber, she couldn’t spot the old man anywhere. The old man had vanished like a burst bubble. Lin Sanjiu didn’t even know when he disappeared.
Before Lin Sanjiu could process her thoughts, her vision turned dark for a second. The petite figure suddenly appeared in midair as swiftly as he disappeared and landed back at the corner of the chamber with a thud. When he stood up straight, Lin Sanjiu recognized the old man with his saggy eyebags.
There was a hint of delight in his wrinkly triangular eyes as he stared at Lin Sanjiu and said, “You two, she is fully immobilized now.”
Lin Sanjiu felt a chill through her body. Her face froze as she felt Geran’s and jello-man’s gaze.
“Another player had used an ability to restricted her movement. Even though the person is dead, apparently her ability is still active.” For some reason, the old man spoke extremely confidently as if that wasn’t just a conjecture on his part. “No matter what she does, if she moves, she’ll be hurt by that ability.”
“Amazing!” Geran looked away from Lin Sanjiu, turning his gaze to the old man in awe, “So, you figured that out after just a few second of analysis?”
The old man harrumphed and laughed, “That’s not all. She has activated some sort of protection which is fueled by her by vigor. Furthermore, she even tried to counter my attack with an ability. Somehow, if she touches you with both hands, there will be serious repercussions.”
Lin Sanjiu was astounded. Guessing a person’s ability through observation wasn’t uncommon, but that old man had figured out her current condition and details about her abilities in that short fraction of time!
This sort of ability to collect enemy intel was just too fearsome!
At that moment, the three people looked at her as if she was already dead.
“Do you think I can’t move?” Lin Sanjiu forced herself to smile after she regained her composure. “Why don’t you guys test it out yourselves?”
Unexpectedly, the first person to act wasn’t Geran or the old man. The green jello suddenly shook violently. Over a dozen bolts of glaring miniature lightning suddenly appeared. For an instant, the mirror chamber suddenly became as bright as day. There was a chaotic interplay of light and darkness as the lightning bolts cackled. It was hard for any of them to even open their eyes. Utilizing every bristling follicle on her skin, Lin Sanjiu had to try very hard before she could sense the movement of the lightning bolts as they slithered through the air like living snakes.
The lightning bolts flashed rapidly. They disappeared into the darkness and instantly lit up again. The white light from lightning bolts was so bright that they covered everything in a white haze. At this point, Lin Sanjiu had to place aside her wariness toward the small black orbs and immediately crouched down. Lin Sanjiu felt a blast of hot air as a lightning bolt shot past her.
Before she could even catch her breath, the small orbs drew near her arms and waist like sharks to blood. Soon, they congregated around the two spots. Lin Sanjiu saw her own flesh and blood spraying into the air the very next second, even before she felt the pain. To make things worse, the small black orbs only looked slightly smaller.
Her blood seemed to further stimulate the intensity of the lightning bolts. They whizzed toward Lin Sanjiu consecutively and concentrated their attacks on her.
Lin Sanjiu didn’t have the time to even attend to her wounds; she did her best to dodge them and was successful. Unfortunately, the small black orbs blasted off other pieces of her flesh.
“Damn it!” Lin Sanjiu finally swore.
Even though the black orbs were not as powerful as those lightning bolts, she knew that she would die from these two ongoing ability-linked abilities if she didn’t do something quick!
“I need to think of a way out of this—huh?” Lin Sanjiu suddenly turned her full attention to something she noticed. Each of the small black orbs was like miniature bombs which could cause serious blast injuries to a human despite their stronger and durable cellular constitution. Some of the wounds that Lin Sanjiu had were so deep that she could see her bone. However, Lin Sanjiu discovered something very interesting when she looked down at herself subconsciously. Her wounds had stopped bleeding the moment they were created.
She froze for a few seconds before she suddenly realized that her wounds were wrapped by her higher consciousness.
“Thank you,” Lin Sanjiu thanked Mrs. Manas softly in her mind, “You gave me an idea.”
When a few white blinding lightning bolts shot toward her, Lin Sanjiu scrambled to one side unglamorous. “My grand prize!” she yelled.
At that moment, the indistinct figure on the other side of the mirror immediately reacted. He couldn’t wait any longer.
The others in the mirror chamber had been curious about the ‘slight advantage’ that Ji Shanqing mention. What if that ‘slight advantage’ was the grand prize itself? After all, Starry Carnival Amusement Park was a pocket dimension which referred to a place full of literal killer rides as a happy, family-friendly attraction.
When Geran saw the two other people rushing toward Lin Sanjiu, he finally had no choice but to follow their lead despite his doubts. When the bolts of lightning hit the surface of a mirror, they immediately created smoke. Lin Sanjiu stood amidst the smoke. She was in a pathetic state and was covered with wounds. When she saw the bloodshot eyes of the other posthumans, she finally flashed an earnest smile.
“Come,” she shouted. She ran up to them as fast as a cheetah, disregarding the black orbs. At that moment, it was as if Lin Sanjiu wasn’t afraid of the black orbs. When she was just about to start fighting, she leaped up in the air and tuck her legs while she opened her wings wide in one smooth motion. The small black orbs crowded around Lin Sanjiu’s torso but her wings quickly blocked them. They instantly changed their target to her wings. This all happened in a split second. The small black orbs exploded the next second, blasting off fragments of her white skeletal wings. Lin Sanjiu felt an excruciating pain. In just a second, Lin Sanjiu was already drenched in cold sweat. “Now!” Mrs. Manas shouted. Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and released her higher consciousness outward.
It was impossible to guess the total bone mass of Lin Sanjiu wings when they were now broken into countless fragments. For a moment, the bone fragments were like falling snow. However, unlike snow, each of these fragments was hard as steel and as sharp as a knife’s edge. Using her higher consciousness, she sent a storm of razor shapes toward her opponents.
For a second, everyone could only see a death-signifying white shroud.
In the end, Lin Sanjiu knew that her plan had succeeded because the bolts of lightning suddenly disappeared. Notwithstanding his jello-like body, the jello-man had turned into a puddle of slush being hit by such an intense and unrelenting attack. Once his gelatinous shell had been pared, his internal organs were riddled with holes like a hornet nest.
The green jello-man was dead.
The old man was no better than the jello. His saggy skin had been tore to pieces while the muscles on his face hung onto the skull in strips. White bone shards had pierced through both his eyes. His condition was so bad that no one would know that he was alive if he wasn’t making those dying throes.
Due to his cautious nature, Geran managed to defend himself in time. Although he seemed to have many cuts all over his body, they were only superficial wounds.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath. Ignoring Geran’s pale face, she turned her gaze toward the small black orbs around her. As her skeletal wings were large and very hard, the explosions could not damage it as effectively. Consequently, half the small black orbs had already been expended. However, there were still six—much smaller— black orbs floating around her.
“This is f*cking annoying,” Lin Sanjiu swore as she stood in the same position. However, when she noticed someone moving, she immediately looked in that direction.
Even though Lin Sanjiu’s previous attack had scared Geran so badly that his face was pallid, he had managed to compose himself. He moved to the old man’s side and touched him with his hand.
Lin Sanjiu was slightly stunned for a moment. Geran took a deep breath. Looking almost satisfied, he started to laugh.
“It’s down to both of us again, Miss Lin,” he said amiably. He shook a rectangular box in his hand, “Sorry, but it looks like the grand prize is going to me.”
When Lin Sanjiu stared at him without saying a word, Geran laughed again.
“This is my ace,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter whether you know what it is, so I’ll just be direct.”
“As you know, my combat capabilities are limited, but I came here alone only because I have this [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac]. With this, I can steal and use anyone’s fighting ability no matter who they are or how powerful they are, I just have to touch them with my [Empty-handed Kleptomaniac].” Geran stood up slowly. At that moment, Lin Sanjiu found the expression on his face more and more familiar. “No matter how powerful you are, it is all for naught if one’s too naive… You will soon find out how fearsome that person’s fighting ability is. Regardless, I managed to steal it from him with a bit of trickery…”
“Hei—Hei Zeji?” Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help saying soundlessly when she finally recognized Geran’s expression.
