Chapter 118 - 112: The Fourth Condition of [Open and Aboveboard]

Chapter 118: Chapter 112: The Fourth Condition of [Open and Aboveboard]

[The Nether Land, 25th Floor]

As the new text popped up before his eyes, Yu Zhun was randomly teleported to a brand-new floor.

Looking at the eight pillars of light from the Teleportation Arrays shooting into the sky in the pitch-black world, Yu Zhun breathed a slight sigh of relief. They were all golden; there were no white ones. This meant that the mysterious player who was one floor ahead of him had not yet cleared this new floor. In terms of speed, he had managed to close the gap a little.

Suddenly remembering something, Yu Zhun took out the Divine Demon Compass. If he and that leading mysterious player were the only ones on the 25th floor right now, the Divine Demon Compass could very well pinpoint the other party’s location!

As Yu Zhun activated it, the needle of the Divine Demon Compass spun rapidly, eventually stopping to point in the direction of one of the Teleportation Array pillars of light. A clear number appeared before Yu Zhun’s eyes.

[94]

How many? Ninety-four Divine Demon Medals?!

Yu Zhun’s pupils constricted slightly. Up until now, he had only obtained 54 Divine Demon Medals in total. The other party had a whopping 40 more than him. Did an elder give them to this person beforehand? That was unlikely. It was far more likely that this person had not only maintained a lead the entire time but had also killed quite a few Alien Race players along the way. This was a formidable character!

Killing Dungeon Bosses and killing players were two entirely different concepts. Dungeon Bosses possessed health pools far exceeding normal values, making percentage-based damage talents incredibly effective against them. However, such talents weren’t actually all that overpowering when used against players of similar strength.

Pasol from before was a prime example. His talent was practically a cheat code against Dungeon Bosses, but against Yu Zhun, he couldn’t even break his defense.

By the same logic, some skills that seemed impossible to counter for players of similar strength were actually rather awkward to use against Dungeon Bosses. The most typical example was Marcell, the possessor of the SSS-rank talent King’s Way Manifested, whom Yu Zhun had encountered early on. The meager damage from a Dungeon Boss—which couldn’t even one-shot a player—was completely negligible when reduced by damage immunity and reflected back onto the Boss’s own absurdly high health pool.

Talents that could remain consistently strong against both Dungeon Bosses and players were in the minority. Yu Zhun’s talent was naturally one of them. And now, it seemed the leading mysterious player had one, too.

Just as Yu Zhun zoned out for a moment, the Teleportation Array pillar of light pointed to by the Compass needle suddenly changed from golden to white.

Yu Zhun was speechless. It seemed catching up to that leading player wouldn’t be easy.

Choosing the nearest Teleportation Array, Yu Zhun activated Swift Step and continued onward.

After repeating his previous method to stack tens of millions of shields, Yu Zhun arrived at the castle corresponding to the Teleportation Array. Before entering, he took out the Divine Demon Compass and activated it once more, only to watch helplessly as it pointed straight at the castle in front of him.

[47]

Someone had already entered the castle? A look of vigilance instantly surfaced in Yu Zhun’s eyes. After a moment’s hesitation, he decisively chose to charge in.

When teleporting from the previous floor to the next, the starting location was completely random. The only certainty was that one wouldn’t be teleported directly inside a castle. Although Yu Zhun had arrived very quickly, the player who came after him might have had better luck, perhaps teleporting much closer to the castle upon arrival.

With 47 Divine Demon Medals, it was worth sticking around to see who this person was. After being the prey so many times, he wanted to be the Hunter for once.

Skillfully using his combat state to maintain his current buffs along the way, Yu Zhun looked at the devastated landscape and made a preliminary judgment about the identity of the player who had entered before him. The other party should be a Mage.

Having successfully stacked his shields to over 20 million along the way, Yu Zhun kept Swift Step active the entire time. Finally, on the path leading to the main hall, he spotted the figure of another player in the distance.

It was a female player with short hair. Both her Magic Robe and the Magic Staff in her hand were the same bright, blazing crimson as her hair. Even the name hovering above her head was bright red, making her exceptionally eye-catching. In the dimly lit hallway of the main hall, she was as radiant as a ball of fire.

[Server No. 14029]

[Nivea, Lv 30]

Glancing at the Divine Demon Compass, Yu Zhun confirmed that the young girl before him was indeed the owner of the 47 Divine Demon Medals. Taking advantage of the fact that he had just entered an out-of-combat state, which allowed him to swap skills and Equipment, he temporarily replaced Shadow Punishment with the Assassin Profession’s initial skill, Lurking.

As an initial skill that regular Assassins could still put to good use even after their Second-Turn, the power of Lurking was unquestionable. Although this skill was mutually exclusive with Yu Zhun’s talent, there were still specific situations where he found it necessary to use it. Like right now.

Because, aside from its overt effects of reducing defense and increasing attack, the Lurking skill had two hidden effects.

First, while in the Lurking state, a player would continuously remain in combat, even if they were not actively fighting or were outside the combat range. This was easy to understand. Lurking was meant to prepare for the next attack, so it was naturally impossible to consider a Lurking Assassin as being out of combat. Strictly speaking, this was a negative effect. If Assassin players wanted to leave combat to refresh a one-time Equipment effect, they had to re-enter Lurking, abandoning any existing buffs they had gained from their previous Lurking. However, what Yu Zhun valued was precisely this point. Once Lurking was activated, the buffs from Asura and Pure Land could be maintained for a long time!

Second, if the locked target discovered the Assassin player’s presence, the Assassin player would immediately know. This was based on the skill description of Lurking: continuously accumulate stacks as long as the target remains unaware.