Chapter 17 The Trap

It’s common knowledge that the members of the Order team get along well in private. Even if they trash-talk each other a bit during matches, no one finds it strange.

However, this duel is no ordinary one…

Against opponents like Deities, no team can afford to hold back. Every match, every player, has to go all out. Moreover, the unexpected loss in the vanguard match has already put Sashimi and Barcode, who are in the crucial middle game, in a situation where they can’t afford to lose… In this kind of situation, how could experienced players like them have internal strife during a match?

So… their “argument” just now was nothing more than—acting; a complete deception and trap.

Garuda paid the price for his youth in the face of this trap…

Of course, Garuda wasn’t a fool. He definitely considered the possibility that the opponents were “pretending to argue to lure him into attacking.” The reason he still chose to launch a surprise attack was naturally because he was quite confident in this action.

Garuda judged that even under the influence of double gravity, he still had a slight advantage in speed compared to Sashimi and Barcode. Even if the two were acting, trying to lure him in for a counterattack… he could completely withdraw and retreat the moment they exchanged blows, having taken precautions.

And if the two were really arguing? Wouldn’t he succeed then…?

Considering everything, this was a good deal.

Unfortunately… Garuda overlooked one thing.

Although the radius of Low-Frequency Zone was as Sashimi said—only about twenty meters, and he didn’t lie about the weakness… the limit of the Gravity Imposition ability was more than what he had just shown. The Double Gravity that Vishnu and Garuda had felt was actually the level Sashimi had intentionally reduced his ability to. If it was the full-power version of Gravity Imposition, it could inflict at least six times the gravity on the enemy.

This ability that Sashimi hadn’t mentioned in his words but had deliberately created a false impression of in his actions… was the key to the entire performance.

When Garuda rushed towards Barcode, who was standing on the edge of the Low-Frequency Zone with his back “conveniently” facing outwards, he wasn’t affected by the gravity pressure during his approach because he chose the most reasonable route around the side and rear.

It wasn’t until the moment he launched his attack that Garuda stepped into the Low-Frequency Zone, and by this time, he had already stopped moving and concentrated his power on the hand holding the blade… Even if he realized the problem with the gravity at this instant, it was too late. The action of swinging the blade was already in motion, and even though he had prepared in advance to withdraw his hand at any time, the unexpected gravity slowed him down by more than half, leaving him in a dilemma for a moment.

At the same time, Barcode, who had been waiting for this attack… at this instant when both sides were Prepared, his hand was obviously faster, and his mentality was more stable than his opponent, who was encountering a sudden situation.

Barcode didn’t even turn his head, but instead passed his right hand through his left armpit, stretching his index finger and thumb straight to form a right angle, making a “handgun” gesture, and pointed it backwards through the cloak on his back.

Instantly, a bowl-sized hole was torn open in the cloak printed with the word Order, and then, the invisible impact that passed through the clothing directly hit Garuda’s body.

This silent, invisible, and formless ultimate skill is one of Barcode’s major killing moves, named Handgun—a veritable Hand Gun; he only needs to make the gesture of a gun with his hand to Fire, without any ammunition or gunshots… but the effect of the shooting is all there.

After Garuda was hit by the Non-Existent Bullet at close range, his survival points were directly reduced by more than half, and a mouthful of hot blood spewed out. But that wasn’t the end of it… The subsequent impact of the massive force sent him flying backwards into the air, and he was temporarily unable to move his body at will.

Sashimi used his Hearing and Barcode used his Sight to confirm in an instant that their opponent was now in a prolonged state of Stun (referring to the continuous process in action games where a character cannot input commands after an action occurs); how could these two miss such a great opportunity to attack? Immediately, they launched a combined attack of Subsonic Finger and golden gun barrage, turning Garuda into a sieve.

In this way, with the two members of the Order team suffering almost no damage, one member of the Deities team had been eliminated.

All of this happened extremely quickly. From the moment Garuda dashed out to the moment he was shot to death, it only took six or seven seconds in total. Vishnu simply didn’t have time to do anything… After witnessing his teammate being tricked and counter-killed, he could only sigh and mutter to himself, “Ah… if I had known this would happen, I should have told him to unleash all his ultimate moves as soon as the fight started… At least he could have caused some damage.”

“Making arrangements right before the match… is a bit late,” Sashimi’s ears were sharp, and even though the other party’s words were very soft, he heard them and added, “Your side’s kid lacks match experience, not to mention their alertness and reaction to sudden situations. It’s clear that you guys don’t train hard enough usually…”

“I don’t think… even if we were harsher on them usually, they would be able to handle your kind of performance just now,” Vishnu replied, “Besides, your scheme wasn’t the result of a discussion during the break time, was it?”

Vishnu’s experience was much stronger than Garuda’s. His teammate’s sacrifice provided him with a lot of information that he didn’t know before the match. He had also realized that the cooperation between Sashimi and Barcode just now wasn’t an impromptu performance, but a premeditated one…

When Sashimi activated Gravity Imposition for the first time, the plan had already begun… He predicted that his opponent would definitely leave the Low-Frequency Zone when they encountered Gravity Imposition. Once that happened, he would immediately argue with Barcode according to plan, using language to distract his opponent’s attention. At the same time, Barcode would take the opportunity to slowly move and stand in a specific position on the edge of the Low-Frequency Zone, turning into a state facing the inside of the Low-Frequency Zone with his back facing outwards, in order to lure the enemy to attack… For him, a shooting specialist, the sense of distance was life. As long as Sashimi told him the core point and radius of the Low-Frequency Zone in advance, he should be able to stand in the exact right spot with just his eyesight.

In short, although this plan wasn’t very complicated, it definitely required prior communication before execution. The real difficulty wasn’t in the Arguing (of course, their acting in this area was true to life, and the completion was very high), but in how to complete the other links of inducement and deception without making a sound.

“No.” Unexpectedly, Sashimi actually denied Vishnu’s words and replied, “This plan… we didn’t discuss it during the Break Time.”

“Yeah…” Barcode said, “That kind of performance can only be used on your team’s rookie… If we met your Four Heavenly Kings, it would be meaningless. But before the teleportation, we didn’t know who you would send up for this match, so… how could we have arranged that kind of plan in the viewing space in advance?”

“That’s right!” Vishnu couldn’t help but think to himself, “Before being teleported into the battlefield, no one knows who the other side will send up next. Unless they were certain that Garuda would be in this match, there’s no reason to have agreed in advance to use this move…”

Yes, at first glance, this matter is unreasonable, but… the truth is actually very simple—they discussed it after entering the battlefield, in front of the two members of the Deities team.

During the thirty seconds of Preparation Time right before the teleportation ended and the fight began, Sashimi faced away from the two members of the Deities team, using the action of taking things out of his bag as cover, and told Barcode the plan using the Secret Sound Transmission method.

And Barcode, although he didn’t know the Secret Sound Transmission skill, he only needed to reply in a very light voice, so light that even he couldn’t hear it, because Sashimi could hear that frequency of speech.

So, these two are old foxes who start thinking crookedly when they see a young person on the other side (actually, they are only six or seven years younger than them).

Of course, this is also related to pressure… Normally, Sashimi and Barcode might not have used such a near-dirty tactic, but in order to avoid Ye Zhi’s poisonous hands, they were also going all out…

“Heh… so be it.” Vishnu thought about the question for a while, but didn’t come to an answer, so he simply dismissed the relevant thoughts. He didn’t want to be affected by the upcoming match because he was entangled in something that had already passed.

On the other side, the two members of the Order team would definitely not actively expose their method of secret communication… They might still want to use it in future matches.

“No matter how you did it, congratulations on switching to a two-on-one situation…” Two seconds later, Vishnu continued, “However, you should also be clear that I… am not that easy to deal with.”

“We know that kind of thing even if you don’t say it.” Barcode followed up on his opponent’s words, and at the same time put away the golden revolver in his hand, taking out a shotgun from his bag that looked a lot like a Remington m870, but with a lot of tentacles growing on the barrel.

The verbal exchange ended here.

This seemingly calm conversation was actually a short game of wits…

When Garuda died, Vishnu, who was in a one-versus-two situation because his teammate had died, would naturally not rush forward immediately as the weaker party.

The two members of the Order team, who had seized the initiative on the battlefield, also wanted to buy some time to let their skills cool down and their stamina recover.

Therefore, Sashimi seized the opportunity to take the initiative to talk to the other party.

Upon hearing this, Vishnu understood his opponent’s intentions, so he responded while probing… until he felt that he couldn’t get anything out of it, then he changed his tone.

At this moment, when Sashimi and the others heard Vishnu’s sentence “Not easy to deal with”, they knew that the other party didn’t want to talk anymore, so as the dominant party, he would strike first.

So, Barcode launched another attack. The destructive power of the Ancient God’s Finger in his hand was quite amazing at medium and short distances. It seemed that… after the attack power of the golden double guns was declared ineffective, he was still prepared to break through Vishnu’s orichalcum arm defense head-on.

At this time, whether it was the players on the field or the audience off the field, probably no one would have thought that… in the subsequent battle, the two-on-one Order team would usher in a bitter battle.