Doomsday Spiritual Artifact Master

Chapter 41.2 – Bloody Ferrara (13)
◎ Battle Royale Action! ◎

 

Song Ke suddenly raised her head.

On the opposite side of the swamp, there was a five-person team in full formation. The short-haired woman among them had just retracted a soft net, which she had likely used as her ability. She was accompanied by four others, two burly men holding steel knives, and another two who seemed to be twins, bearing a striking resemblance to each other, with blood-red ropes tied around their arms. They didn’t seem friendly.

“Hey, this spot is taken by us. You should go elsewhere,” the short-haired woman arrogantly said, lifting her chin.

In the livestream room of Team 172, viewers who were watching the match were reveling in the situation.

“No way? These two are so unlucky, they encounter the ‘Bloodthirsty Duo’ at the beginning.”

“The ‘Bloodthirsty Duo’ consists of Ren Ting and Ren Li, both C-level awakeners in the weapon category. Do you think they’ll set the record for the quickest elimination? Light a candle in silence…”

“Yu Hong is quite strong in the D-level category too, her net is really hard to break.”

Team 172, known as “Lock, Lock, Lock You Up,” had a decent support rate in the preliminaries, at 76%, thanks to the team’s composition of an awakener with a net and two with ropes, earning them the nickname “Binding Combo.”

Song Ke kept her eyes on them but didn’t move.

She puffed her cheeks, trying to think of a suitable comeback.

Xu Xing knew that Song Ke wasn’t good at verbal confrontations and would definitely lose if asked to argue. So, he confidently stepped forward, serving as Song Ke’s mouthpiece.

“Why should we leave, are your names written here?”

“We’re the ones who killed those rats. Give them back to us!”

“So many adults like you, can’t you fend for yourselves? Always looking for a free meal, lazy and shameless!”

Although those zombie rats were not high-level creatures, it still felt unpleasant to have them snatched away by someone else. Also, maybe due to spending time with Zhuang Qingyan, Xu Xing’s ability to sarcastically taunt people had become increasingly sharp.

“You little brat!”

“Little brat, you haven’t even weaned yet, and you’ve come here to die?”

The twin siblings, not caring that Xu Xing was just a child, didn’t hesitate and immediately took action. Their crimson ropes snaked like venomous serpents, entwining and aiming directly for his neck, seemingly intent on strangling him.

The two burly men wielding steel knives also circumvented the swamp and headed toward Xu Xing.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Yu Hong swung her soft net once more, unleashing four consecutive strikes. Although she didn’t capture Song Ke, she managed to block her path, trapping her in place.

The group had a clear target—eliminate the mouthy kid first.

Xu Xing darted and dodged among the trees, occasionally rolling close to the ground. His special training had not been in vain. Despite looking a bit disheveled, his small stature and snake-like movements allowed him to evade the ropes.

Ren Ting sneered, showing disdain, and scoffed, “Oh, so you’re a king of words, huh? I thought you had some talent. Is rolling on the ground your only skill?”

Xu Xing kept his mouth shut and focused on escaping. At this moment, he wasn’t going to exchange words.

Song Ke smirked within the encircling soft net.

In the post-apocalyptic world, never underestimate any awakener.

They would soon learn the cost of underestimating Xu Xing.

Xu Xing led the two men wielding steel knives toward the vicinity of the swamp. Being lightweight, he easily leaped to the other side, while the two burly men were less fortunate. They sank into the swamp, and the black muck submerged their lower legs.

Ren Ting and Ren Li’s vision blurred for a moment as a sudden flurry of heavy snow descended around them. Sharp black ice shards shot out from beneath the swamp, slicing through their ropes, splattering mud all over them.

“Ugh!!” The twins spat out the mud from their mouths, their faces as black as coal.

The next second, both of them paled.

Xu Xing had disappeared.

Yu Hong anxiously shouted from behind, “He’s gone!”

Ren Li responded irritably, “Im not blind, I saw!”

“No, the girl’s gone too!”

The twins were taken aback and turned to look in the direction of the soft net.

Sure enough, Song Ke had vanished as well.

Suddenly, a fierce snowstorm engulfed the surroundings, and the biting cold wind made it impossible to keep their eyes open.

Gone? Gone?! The members of “Lock, Lock, Lock You Up” checked all four directions within their line of sight and found no trace of anyone.

Where did they go?

“Whoosh!” A blue light illuminated the sky.

A slender figure swiftly moved among the treetops, leaping into the air and somersaulting downward. Song Ke drew a pair of long and short spirit blades from her back and unleashed two consecutive strikes.

“Clang!” Yu Hong’s soft net snapped like paper, too fragile to withstand a single blow. With her ability destroyed, her mental strength suffered a heavy blow, leaving her brain in chaos. She slumped to the ground, falling into unconsciousness.

Arrogant, right in front of me, bullying us at range? Think I don’t exist?

Song Ke leaped to the other side, her blade relentlessly striking toward the twins. The azure dual blades met the crimson long rope head-on. Unexpectedly, the rope wound around the blade’s edge. Song Ke raised the tip of her blade, a glint of darkness passed, and the rope immediately shattered into pieces. She switched from backhand to forehand, attacking relentlessly, balancing her strikes between left and right, overwhelming the twins with a flurry of blade attacks.

Ren Ting and Ren Li had no way to counter this close-range assault. After taking several strikes head-on, they were heavily injured, sent flying seven to eight meters away, and collided harshly with a large tree.

Almost simultaneously with Song Ke’s attack, in another direction, several ice shards flew out from behind the trees, accurately targeting the swamp. “Plop!” Two burly men had their backs pierced.

Song Ke in a 1-vs-3 situation, and Xu Xing in a 1-vs-2 situation, wiped out “Lock, Lock, Lock You Up”!

All of them were incapacitated. Song Ke picked up their trackers and sent out the elimination signal. Soon, robots would come to clean up the battlefield.

“What the heck?! Who are these people?” The people in the 172 livestream room couldn’t help but curse. Who were these two? So powerful? They took down the Bloodthirsty Duo at first sight? Why didn’t we hear anything about them before? Some curious individuals checked the pre-selection support rate for V587 and were surprised to find it was only 61%. They barely made it through the preliminary rounds; this didn’t make sense!

After “Lock, Lock, Lock You Up” was eliminated, their five individual livestream rooms were simultaneously closed. Those who had previously supported them couldn’t stand the loneliness and switched sides, paying to unlock V587’s livestream room with the thought of, “I want to see how these two will die.”

However, when they entered and took a look, they were in for a surprise. The livestream rooms 161-1 and 161-2 were probably the most pathetic among all the participants. They had no sponsors, no popularity, and had less than 300 viewers.

What the heck? Those latecomer viewers, with a strange and unexplainable mix of emotions, settled into this cold and empty livestream room.

…

Song Ke used the tip of her blade to inspect the bodies of the zombie rats, but she didn’t find anything unusual. She walked back to Xu Xing and exchanged a high-five.

“Xiaoxing, you did great.”

“You’re amazing too, sister.”

Another round of mutual compliments was exchanged, and then Song Ke said seriously, “First, let’s leave this place. The commotion was too loud.”

In case another team heard the commotion and decided to converge on them, it would be troublesome. Song Ke wasn’t afraid of a fight, but she didn’t want to waste time. Their top priority was still to find the flag and ensure their advancement.

In the official livestream room, Ah K was enthusiastically commentating on another conflict.

At 20:22, in the eastern part of Mirror Lake, two of the favorites in this competition, “Three Grandsons and One Grandfather,” encountered “Shunxing Teahouse.”

The two teams of ability users faced each other at a distance, their expressions tense, and neither side made any hasty moves.

Duanmu Qi was the first to speak, “Old Xiang, the match is still long. There’s no need to have a few casualties here, right?”

Mr. Xiang’s eyes sparkled as he glanced around and diverted the topic, “Young Duan, how did I hear that you got injured?”

He snorted, “Since you’re already injured, why don’t you rest at home instead of coming out and running around? Be careful not to develop any other problems.”

Behind Mr. Xiang, a shadow hovered in the air, with a pair of ominous eyes fixed firmly on Duanmu Qi. Faint black mist drifted toward him, gradually closing in on the area around Duanmu Qi.

“Plop!” Thick thorns erupted from the ground, breaking through the soil. With a snap, they dispelled the black mist. Duanmu Qi laughed, “Mr. Xiang, you’re underestimating me.”

He raised his hand gently, and countless thorns grew wildly, surrounding the members of Shunxing Teahouse and pointing threateningly at them.

Duanmu Qi’s ability was at its peak, even more so than before.

Mr. Xiang stared at him for a couple of seconds, then chuckled, “Young Duan, you’ve misunderstood. This old man was just concerned about you. We’re heading north. Hopefully, we won’t encounter any unpleasant situations along the way. We’ll see you at the finish line.”

“That’s perfect; we’re heading south. We’ll see you at the finish line.”

Duanmu Qi understood the implied message in his words and smiled as he closed his hands, the thorns also retracted.

The two teams, one heading north and the other south, parted ways and continued their journey.

“Oh, they didn’t start a fight,” Ah K clicked his tongue, looking somewhat disappointed.

“It’s a wise decision,” Luo Qinghe commented. “The flag hasn’t appeared yet. Starting a conflict now would only deplete their strength, which wouldn’t bode well for the rest of the competition.”

“Qinghe is right,” Ah K agreed. “But we also see that rational leaders like Duanmu Qi and Mr. Xiang are in the minority. We’re 25 minutes into the game, and there’s no sign of the flag. There have been small-scale disputes and skirmishes among awakeners.”

“So far, 5 teams have miserably been eliminated.”

In the brutal format of the battle royale, being eliminated meant either death or severe injury.

“Let’s take a look at some highlights.”

The director cut to several exciting moments. Because there were too many teams erupting into conflicts, the footage of Song Ke taking down “Lock, Lock, Lock You Up” was mixed in and went unnoticed for less than two seconds, not attracting much attention.

…

In the depths of Mirror Lake, Song Ke and Xu Xing continued forward for another five to six minutes without encountering any other teams.

The night breeze rustled through the branches, causing leaves to brush against each other, creating a sound like a child’s whimpering.

Song Ke’s steps gradually slowed down until she came to a stop.

“Sister, did you find something?”

“Did you feel, feel anything strange?”

“What’s strange?”

Song Ke couldn’t pinpoint what was strange, but her intuition told her something was off.

If Zhuang Qingyan were here, he probably would have noticed by now. Song Ke recalled his calm attitude along the way. Although he seemed a bit unconventional, he was always quick to identify key problems, whether it was the insect swarm in Hua City or the later commission mission in Ferrara…

Wait, Song Ke’s train of thought abruptly stopped. She knew what was wrong.

“Where did, did the zombies go?”