The night in the dead of winter is very long.
Long enough to accomplish many things.
Such as killing.
Tonight, Linlu Town is undoubtedly a good place to kill.
Because no one can say for sure why the people killed here died.
They might be killed by enemies, or by others who want to seize the "Sword Dance Grass Notes," or perhaps… they wanted to kill others, but in the end, they themselves became the dead.
Even if there are "eyewitnesses," it's useless. In such an environment… who can guarantee that those who testify are telling the truth? They have every reason to lie for their own purposes. Why not do something like "just talking" to kill someone with a borrowed knife?
So, on this night, killing is relatively free.
The killing intent that is usually suppressed is stirring in people's hearts…
Those who are proficient in hidden weapons and nocturnal skills; those who have harbored grudges for a long time but dared not take revenge due to the other party's power; those who are plotting to replace their fellow disciples… for these people, tonight's opportunity is not to be missed.
And for the players in this script world, this "chaos" also provides them with favorable conditions to "overcome the strong with the weak" and "reduce opponents."
"After waiting for a day, I only grasped the whereabouts of three people. I always feel… a little miscalculated," Under the moonlight, Sheng Yu Pian (raw fish slices) stood on the roof of a building, looking down at the town below, and muttered to himself.
"Do you think… it's possible they bypassed your detection and entered the town?" Meng Jing Chan stood beside him, still looking lazy, with a wine bottle dangling in his left hand.
"The 'sound shells' scattered throughout the town are all functioning normally. My detection has no blind spots," Sheng Yu Pian replied confidently. "Whether they绕(rao) come in from the mountains behind the town, or jump in from the sky, or crawl in by digging tunnels from underground, as long as they enter the range of Linlu Town, I will definitely know…"
"Heh…" Meng Jing Chan smiled, "Then there are two possibilities. First, our opponents are only Jian Shao (Sword Young) and Bu Pa He (Not Afraid) Xu Huai Shang (Floccus Nostalgia); second, there are still an unknown number of hostile players who counter-detected us before we could investigate them… and then chose not to enter the town."
"I'd rather believe the latter," Sheng Yu Pian said, "At least… Xu Huai Shang should still have a teammate outside the town, shouldn't she?"
"That one…" Meng Jing Chan took a sip of wine, "Hmm… I don't think so."
"Don't think so?" Sheng Yu Pian asked suspiciously. "Hey, hey… you haven't figured out the rules of this 'combination melee' mode, have you? You have to team up with two people to…"
"I know," Meng Jing Chan interrupted him and continued, "What I mean is, her teammate probably already quit the script."
"Huh?" Sheng Yu Pian still didn't understand. "Why? What's the basis for your speculation?"
"Well…" Meng Jing Chan thought for a while, "It doesn't hurt to tell you…" He curled his lips and continued, "As far as I know, Xu Huai Shang's contract with Hong Ying is about to expire, and the two sides haven't reached an agreement on the renewal." He paused and further explained, "Since Xu Huai Shang's contract clearly states that her game account belongs to her personally, it means that if she eventually leaves Hong Ying, this game character that Hong Ying has cultivated will leave with her… Even if the contract restricts her from joining other studios for the next few months, she can still participate in various competitions as an individual professional player… Therefore, at this stage, Hong Ying has stopped providing her with various resources, and also uses the clauses in the contract to prohibit her from teaming up with other players. However, the rights and responsibilities of the contract are relative, and she naturally has her rights. Hong Ying can't make things too difficult for her… For example, using the terms to force her to be unable to participate in certain specific modes of scripts, that won't work."
"Oh…" Sheng Yu Pian was also a veteran professional player, and he had seen similar things before. Hearing this, he roughly understood, "So they just randomly find an account to double-queue with her, and quit immediately after entering the script, and then let her play alone… so it doesn't count as 'prohibiting her from playing the game normally'."
Meng Jing Chan nodded, "When I saw her entering the town alone today, I immediately thought of this… Judging from this, her termination of the contract with Hong Ying is basically a certainty."
"Wait a minute…" Sheng Yu Pian said, "Then where did you hear these news about the termination of the contract?"
"I'm familiar with the management," Chan-ge replied in a matter-of-course tone. "They've already been planning to sign Xu Huai Shang recently, and even offered the condition of paying her salary during the period she's affected by the 'non-compete agreement'; of course, that's all I know, I don't know how much they offered her for other unequal treaties and the 'signing fee', anyway, it's definitely much, much, much, much higher than what they gave us…"
"Look at your unbalanced look…" Sheng Yu Pian narrowed his eyes and complained expressionlessly, "Why don't you say eight 'much's'?"
"I'm not unbalanced, I'm just stating the facts… it really is a lot," Meng Jing Chan replied, "But… honestly, I think she's really worth the price. From the perspective of fan economy, I can understand if Xu Huai Shang's value is ten or eight times higher than ours…"
"Thank you for the compliment." The next second, a woman's voice suddenly sounded, replying to Chan-ge.
In that instant, Meng Jing Chan's pupils contracted, and every pore on his body seemed to be soaked in a cold current.
He turned his head slightly and looked at Sheng Yu Pian.
But he happened to see Sheng Yu Pian's head… sliding off his neck.
When the neat cut came into Chan-ge's eyes, Sheng Yu Pian also began to turn into white light.
Until that moment, the corpse was still standing, not falling.
This knife was too fast, so fast that Sheng Yu Pian didn't even realize he had been cut before he was judged to be dead.
"Huff…" Two seconds later, Chan-ge slowly turned around and breathed a sigh of relief, "I was careless…"
Meng Jing Chan rarely becomes careless when he acts alone. His carelessness this time stemmed from his trust in his teammates.
Even so, this can't be considered a mistake; because his teammate is Sheng Yu Pian, the player with the strongest reconnaissance ability in Thriller Paradise… without exception.
However, many times, the "strongest" place is actually the breakthrough point.
It's not hard to see from the conversation just now that Sheng Yu Pian has absolute confidence in his abilities. His sentence "My detection has no blind spots" is by no means an exaggeration.
But once someone finds a "blind spot" in this kind of detection, it will be fatal to the caster.
"This doesn't count as carelessness… I spent a whole day adapting to the detection frequency of those 'sound shells'," Xu Huai Shang said, her figure already appearing on the ridge above Meng Jing Chan's head.
At this moment, she no longer concealed her face as she did during the day.
Under the moonlight, her slender figure is like a flawless sharp blade; her bright eyes reveal a cold killing intent.
"I see…" Meng Jing Chan looked at her and continued, "Completely covering the surface of your body with energy to form a dynamic 'armor', and then keeping this energy layer vibrating at the same frequency as the sound shells, this way… you can become 'invisible' in Sheng Yu Pian's detection network…"
"Worthy of being Meng Jing Chan, you can deduce my technique just by listening to one sentence," Xu Huai Shang replied.
"Heh…" Chan-ge smiled, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one and lit it for himself, "Fuu--" He exhaled a puff of smoke and said leisurely, "You overestimate me too much, I'm not the kind of genius who can see through all kinds of complicated techniques with just a glance, and I don't have Feng Bujue's mind that seems to be able to think about a hundred things in a second…" He paused, "The reason I can guess your technique immediately is because… before today, I had thought about it—how to avoid Sheng Yu Pian's detection."
"So, this method is something you already thought of?" Xu Huai Shang asked.
"That's right…" Meng Jing Chan flicked the ash and replied, "Don't look at me like this… I'm actually a very competitive person. Even if they are teammates from the same studio, I will study how to defeat them." He paused for half a second and then said, "Of course… many things, being able to think of them doesn't mean you can do them. I said, I'm not a genius. To use an analogy… a genius can give twelve answers to ten questions, but I can only give one."
"So you think… I'm a genius?" Xu Huai Shang said again.
"Of course you are." Meng Jing Chan spread his hands, "You, Gui Xiao (Ghost Brave), Shiva, Wang Tan Zhi (Vain Sigh), Si Yu Ruo Li (Seems Like Rain), Wu Dao Ke (No Saber Swordsman), Qi Sha (Seven Killings), Fei Chai Shu (Worthless Uncle), Oda Ai… probably these few." He said as he thought, counting out these nine people, "In terms of combat, the talents of these nine people are the most outstanding among the people I know and have seen… However, having the highest 'talent' doesn't mean you have the strongest strength."
"You seem to have forgotten to include Feng Bujue." After listening, Xu Huai Shang's first reaction was this.
"Him…" Meng Jing Chan shrugged, "I can't evaluate someone who has already exceeded my ability to judge."
"So, you still know quite a bit about my strength?" Xu Huai Shang said.
"Heh… it's mutual," Meng Jing Chan said, "We both know why you only made one cut during your sneak attack just now…"
This sentence of his was not a bluff.
There was a reason why Xu Huai Shang's attack just now only targeted Sheng Yu Pian and did not attack Meng Jing Chan, who was only one meter away.
It wasn't that she didn't want to do that, but she didn't have the confidence…
It's not difficult to sneak attack Sheng Yu Pian, because Sheng Yu Pian has absolute confidence in his detection ability, and this confidence is directly proportional to "reliance."
When the strongest ability he relies on is found to have a flaw, his vain confidence makes him an unguarded target.
But Meng Jing Chan is different. Even if he is not wary of the surrounding environment based on his trust in his teammates… his martial arts instincts are much stronger than Sheng Yu Pian. The killing intent in that instant was enough to arouse his reaction.
If Xu Huai Shang had attacked two people at the same time, or changed to attacking only Meng Jing Chan, then her sneak attack might not have succeeded.
Although its success rate is still very high, perhaps eighty or ninety percent… but it would never be as certain as it was when she sneak attacked Sheng Yu Pian just now, with "ten percent" certainty.
Considering this, she will naturally choose the plan that is one hundred percent certain to succeed.
After all… she has no teammates.
Once the sneak attack fails, even if she can seriously injure one of them, she still has to fight two against one; she wouldn't dare to be careless even in a one-on-one fight against the two masters of Order, let alone with another person who could recover from his injuries and join the battle at any time.
"Since we all know each other's strength…" Two seconds later, Xu Huai Shang responded, "Then let's end the idle talk here…"
The implication of her words is—we've said enough, let's get started.
Meng Jing Chan also agreed with this suggestion; it would be very disadvantageous for both of them if they continued to stalemate like this.
Because confrontation… takes more mental effort than fighting.
Don't look at the fact that the two of them are standing there without moving, but during the course of this conversation… every second, they are looking for opportunities to attack, while at the same time guarding against the opponent's movements. This is a great test of concentration.
If they waste too much energy here, even if they win, it may have a negative impact on the subsequent battles against other players.
"Okay." When Meng Jing Chan replied, he casually threw away the cigarette butt (he had already put away the wine bottle before taking out the cigarette), "Then I… won't be polite."
Before the words fell, he had already drawn his sword.
He didn't include himself in the ranks of "geniuses," not out of modesty, nor to play the fool.
Just like Meng Jing Chan's analogy of geniuses…
He really can't answer "ten questions." Even if he spends time thinking hard, he can only answer six or seven at most.
Under normal circumstances, he can only answer "one question."
And that question is always about the "sword."
In the blink of an eye!
But seeing, the rainbow light flashed, and the figures had already passed each other.
The rustling wind came late.
This sword, the sword is faster than the sound, and the person is faster than the sword.
What's frightening is… after the sword strike, there was no sound of metal clashing in the night sky.
That only sound of breaking wind seems to be proclaiming the failure of the attack.
But in reality… it didn't fail.
In that flash of lightning, the saber and the sword did collide, but… one of them was cut off by the other in a "silent" state.
It's as if you suddenly cut a piece of tofu suspended in mid-air with a sharp knife. Naturally, it won't make any sound.
"Good swordsmanship." Xu Huai Shang stood in place, looked forward, and said in a slightly tired tone.
She didn't look down at her twin blades, because she knew… the [Fallen Flowers] and [Flying Floss] in her hands were already broken, and she also knew that a hideous wound had been cut under her ribs.
"Heh…" Meng Jing Chan, at this time, had already appeared behind Xu Huai Shang, facing away from her.
He smiled bitterly, and once again took out a cigarette from his pocket, put one in his mouth, "In terms of swordsmanship, I don't think I will lose to anyone." He struggled to take out a lighter with the same hand and light his cigarette, "What a pity…"
Just as he uttered that word "pity," the arm holding his sword actually fell off from his shoulder, just like Sheng Yu Pian's head that slipped off just now…
"Fuu--" Then, Meng Jing Chan comfortably exhaled a puff of smoke. At the same time as he exhaled, three very short but extremely deep wounds suddenly burst out on his torso; those three wounds also spewed out blood like "smoke," gathering into a cloud of blood in the air, "So I say…" He turned his head, still with that decadent look, "I hate fighting you 'geniuses'…"
After saying these words, he also happened to turn into white light and disappear.
It was not until this second that Xu Huai Shang relaxed slightly, knelt down on one knee, and quickly covered her wound with her hand.
She didn't rush to use items or skills to heal herself, but cast her eyes on a shadow under the eaves, and said coldly, "You don't need to hide anymore, I knew you were there from the beginning…" Her eyes were like torches, and her tone was firm, not at all like a person who had been seriously injured, "Since you can cooperate with them, then why not talk to me too."
After the words were spoken, after a moment, a man who had been frightened pale walked out of the shadows.
"May I ask… the heroine's honorable name…" Even someone like Fang Jin was speaking tremblingly at this moment.