Chapter 15 A Mutual Calculation

Ten minutes past ten PM, Feng Bujue, guided by Hillel, had retrieved Van Helsing's diary.

The stolen police car had been abandoned; they were now driving another car stolen from the parking lot, heading towards the castle.

By this point, Feng Bujue had successfully excluded all the main positive characters from the movie "Monster Special Task Force" from the main storyline; the "Gate of Purgatory" plot had nothing to do with them.

For him, the next challenge was... how to break through the police and military blockade and return to the castle.

...

Meanwhile, inside the castle, in the throne room.

"The paper that Tanlang is holding... could it be a map of the castle?" Xiao Ling said, watching the crystal ball.

"Their actions sped up after entering the library, and he first took out the parchment around that time..." Ruo Yu added from the side, "It seems... he deduced something at that point and realized the correct usage of that item."

At this time, they had been monitoring the situation for a long time. From their conversation, it could be inferred that... the crystal ball could only monitor the "visual" aspects of their opponents. As for what the Blade team members were saying, the crystal ball could not pick it up.

"It's indeed much faster than expected... In this one hour, they have explored the [Underground Waterways] and the [Underground Deep Palace], bypassed the [Purgatory Arena], and are heading straight for us," Xiao Ling paced a few steps, frowning, "And our captain... let's not even talk about whether he can make it back before midnight; even if he does... how is he going to break through the troops outside the castle?"

As she spoke, Xiao Ling walked to the window, stood on tiptoes, and peeked her little head out.

She saw... just on one side of the castle, there were dozens of police cars and military jeeps parked. Although those vehicles were parked far away outside the moat, the row of bright headlights was quite glaring in the night.

"You have a point," Dracula's voice suddenly sounded from nearby, adding a sentence.

Ruo Yu and Xiao Ling turned their heads and spotted the count in the shadows a few meters away.

"I've been tolerating them for a long time..." This vampire was elusive. After Feng Bujue left, he and his minions had all left the throne room, not knowing what they were busy with. And now, he had reappeared here like a ghost.

"Even though there's a barrier, blocking the entrance to the castle like this will definitely inconvenience Mr. Feng," Dracula said. "I think... I should go take care of it."

"Take care?" Ruo Yu's expression changed slightly. "Do you mean kill them all?"

"Not necessarily kill them all," Dracula said. "Just kill until they all lose their will to fight."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Ruo Yu continued. "In the past hundred years, the development of military technology in humanity has been more rapid than in the past thousand years. They have heavy firepower weapons that you've never seen before."

"Hmph..." Dracula snorted coldly. "Thank you for the reminder, but you're clearly overthinking it..." He replied confidently, "Even in Purgatory, I can still see the things of this world."

This line could be considered an explanation for why he knew how to drive, why he knew that UV-resistant film could block sunlight, why he could identify "Old House" as the former site of his castle, and other illogical situations.

"Dealing with those people outside is a piece of cake for me," Dracula said, then levitated in place, transforming into a bat with a wisp of smoke, and then... he flew directly out of the window.

After he flew away, Xiao Ling spoke again, "This Count seems to really regard the team leader as an ally..." She shook her head and sighed, "Alas... it's a pity, the 'side quest' dictates that we have to betray him..."

"Shhh... keep your voice down..." Ruo Yu immediately turned her head and gestured for Xiao Ling to be quiet, "Be careful of eavesdroppers..."

...

At the same time, at the [Highest Level of Castlevania].

"Huff... that was really troublesome..." Long Aotian hammered a huge demon-type monster to death with his shield and breathed a sigh of relief.

Not far away, Qisha and Tanlang had also just joined forces to kill a white-haired succubus with strange wings on its back. It seemed... their physical exertion was not small either.

"Haa... I didn't expect... even after speeding up, it still took so long..." Tanlang gasped for breath and said, "But... this should be the last area..." He took out the map again and glanced at it, "There's nowhere else to explore. According to my memory of playing Castlevania, the room in the middle of the [Highest Level of Castlevania] is the location of the Boss..."

"Speaking of the Boss..." Qisha continued, "Do you think the one we'll encounter later will be the Demon King Dracula mentioned in the opening CG... or Feng Bujue..."

"Well..." Tanlang had adjusted his breathing in these few seconds, "In my opinion... there's a high possibility that both are there. Also... don't forget that Hell's Front also has three other people besides Feng Bujue (the Blade team members still don't know that Xiao Tan is dead)."

"Then aren't we going to our deaths?" Brother Long was more straightforward and didn't like to beat around the bush. He immediately asked a very direct question.

"Not necessarily," Tanlang replied, "I've already explained the reason before. Feng Bujue's strategic focus is not on us at the moment, and that's the opportunity."

"According to your meaning... could it be..." Qisha casually continued, "...that when we break into the last room, we'll happen to run into Feng Bujue and the Boss fighting?"

"Yes, I'm betting on this situation." Unexpectedly, Tanlang nodded in agreement. "Let's review the overall situation again... First of all, at the beginning of the game, the sudden system settings were quite beneficial to us. Until I and Pojun were tricked by the enemy and almost double-killed by the Blood Corpse God... From then on, we fell into a disadvantage. Then, when the three of us joined forces, Feng Bujue had basically completed his leveraging of power... Next, for several hours from dusk to now, we have been exploring and fighting non-stop, while the whereabouts of the Hell's Front people are unknown..." As he spoke, he had already started to move forward, while gesturing for his teammates to follow, "Overall, Hell's Front is indeed one step ahead of us in all aspects, but this 'lead' must have a price; taking 'killing Pojun' as an example, the 'Blood Corpse God' is the price; taking 'leveraging power' as an example... leveraging the strongest 'power' of the script Boss must require handing over some kind of material or completing some kind of event. And Feng Bujue is so far ahead of us in 'time', which is undoubtedly unreasonable, therefore... I speculate that the 'power' he has leveraged is not truly reliable, and there must be some hidden danger..."

"What if... you're wrong..." Qisha's expression changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice, "If Feng Bujue really has the ability... to obtain a huge advantage with almost unreasonable efficiency?"

"Heh..." Before Tanlang could answer, Long Aotian laughed openly, "Is there even a need to ask? If that's really the case, we can only..."

Swoosh—

Suddenly, an abnormal sound rose abruptly, interrupting Brother Long's words.

In the blink of an eye! Accompanied by the sound, a transparent ray flew over, hitting Tanlang's heart directly.

Seeing this, Long Aotian decisively activated the skill—[Guardian Dash], instantly protecting his teammate.

At this juncture, if he wanted to save a skill, he might pay a heavier price... A player of Brother Long's level would not make such a mistake.

The next second, the [Orichalcum Shield]'s shield light flashed, and the ray that hit the shield directly dissipated. Long Aotian and Tanlang, standing behind the shield, were unscathed.

"Oh oh~ that was really dangerous..." Long Aotian said after retracting his move, "Launching such a deadly attack without any warning..."

Brother Long said this because he was very clear that the ray that had just hit the shield... had enough power to instantly kill Tanlang.

Don't look at the fact that the ray didn't cause any damage in the end, but in terms of attack power alone, this strike was definitely no less than a special bullet shot from a sniper rifle. The reason why it was perfectly blocked was undoubtedly due to Brother Long's strength.

Specifically... Brother Long not only used the defensive effect of the [Guardian Dash] skill, but also used two special effects of the [Orichalcum Shield]. The first was to use the "Orichalcum Barrier" to convert all of the ray's "propulsive force" and "penetrating force" into "vibrating force", thereby dispersing the power to the entire shield surface; the second was that the ray triggered "Orichalcum-Toritos"—the effect of having 300% defense against magic and all flying projectiles.

In other words, Brother Long completed this perfect defense by relying on one active skill, one passive special effect, and one subjectively fine-tuned triggering special effect.

A seemingly simple guard was actually a superb skill that only top players could achieve.

"You're thinking too much..." Qisha, who was a few meters away, laughed and continued after hearing Brother Long's words, "Do you think the other party looks like the type to greet us?" Saying that, he had already struck a fighting pose towards the enemy in the distance.

At this time, Long Aotian and Tanlang also poked their heads out from above and the side of the shield, respectively, and looked in the direction of the ray's attack...

In their eyes... standing there was a fish monster covered in crocodile armor with a face that looked like Benbo'er Ba. (a character from Journey to the West)

"Hey..." When Brother Long saw that monster, his expression immediately changed. "That ray just now... couldn't have been its spit, right?"

He would ask this because he had looked the other party up and down and didn't see any equipment that could be used for ranged attacks. Then... he could only assume that the other party was using its body to launch it...

Swoosh—

Two seconds later, the Gillman responded to Brother Long's question with action.

He pursed his fish mouth and sprayed another transparent ray, this time targeting Qisha on the side.

"Ha! Dream on!" Qisha dodged the attack with ease and said loudly, "Even if I turned into a child... I would still dodge this speed of attack!"

"Qisha, then I'll leave it to you." At this time, Tanlang, who was hiding behind Brother Long, suddenly turned his head and shouted at Qisha.

"Ah?" Qisha was stunned when he heard that. "What do you mean 'leave it to me'? This is obviously a small Boss-level enemy, and you want me to deal with it alone?"

As he spoke, the Gillman sprayed two more rays at Qisha, who dodged them while speaking.

"Because Brother Long and I are also very busy..." When Tanlang replied, he had already turned around and rushed towards the rear, and his target... was a mummy that was slowly approaching from behind the three of them.

"Then..." A second later, Brother Long also raised his head and looked at a chandelier high above. At this moment, on the chain of that lamp, a lithe werewolf was entrenched, "...my opponent is you?"

"Awoo—" The werewolf responded to Brother Long with a howl and pounced from the air.

"Hmph..." A smile appeared on the corner of Long Aotian's mouth. He raised his shield and swept his arm, "You're hitting a stone with an egg!"

After saying that, a [Shield Bash] had already been launched.

[Name: Shield Bash]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Mastered]

[Skill Category: Fighting]

[Effect: Swing your shield and bash your enemies (must be a shield-type weapon to activate, cooldown time is twenty minutes, all defense provided by equipment will increase the power of the shield bash)]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 600]

[Learning Conditions: Fighting Specialization A]

[Remarks: The most commonly used core damage skill by the defense warriors of Azeroth, combining offense and defense, solid and reliable, and will attract huge aggro after attacking.]

Duang~

The werewolf fell from the sky, unable to stop and change direction in mid-air, so it was firmly "fanned by a shield" by Brother Long.

Don't look at the fact that this strike consumed average stamina, but its power was truly amazing. Especially for a man like Brother Long, who was covered in defensive equipment like an iron wall, the damage from that shield bash was even more exaggerated than Jue Ge's [Nanto Flying Dragon Fist].

The werewolf's physique was already quite tall and strong, but it was smashed by Brother Long, a "child" of one meter and seventy centimeters, and flew horizontally for seven or eight meters... with a "bang", it crashed into the wall, smashing a huge dent in the thick gray stone wall.

"Ugh..." However, the werewolf twitched for a few seconds and quickly climbed out of the wall in a staggering manner, regaining its footing.

"Good... that's how it's interesting." Facing a strong enemy, Brother Long's fighting spirit gradually rose, inadvertently revealing an excited look.

On the other side... Tanlang had also rushed to the front of the mummy.

His weapon was a stone hammer, the appearance of which was as simple as a store-bought item, but its quality was legendary...

"Since you're already a dried corpse, you should lie properly in the museum for the children to visit and learn from. Running around is not right!" When Tanlang made his move, he did not forget to educate the other party. "...I'll hand you over to the state!"