The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-126

Chapter 126: Bullets and daggers as payment

In order for this auction to broaden its international influence, the items they were selling were all premium objects. Although the auction items were mostly items that were officially certified and had professor’s signature, but the buyers were all wealthy aristocrats. Obviously they could not trust these ‘certifications’ and some of them invited the relevant experts to carefully examine and confirm the genuinity of these objects.

Sheyan had completely no interests in these objects, after appreciating the mystery of the nightmare realm, the present world’s riches had completely lost its attractiveness. After waiting for a while, the item Sheyan was seeking finally emerged. “Maotai 1950 Pulp liquor’, these few words rung in his ear, at that moment it was as touching as heavenly music. He also took note of the female in charge of this auction, she had a round buttocks and a flourishing chest.

This ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ had an extremely exquisite wrapping, but it was a jar made up of earthen pottery and wasn’t pleasing to the eyes. But when it emerged it actually stirred up a fierce battle amongst giants. A few bid competitively against each other raising the value from a mere 2 million to over 10 million. A feeling of eagerness surged in Sheyan’s heart, he wanted very much to charge up to snatch a mouthful. But currently, his innate ability ‘endurance’ was dormant, and he also could not carry out the equipments from the realm. If not he would actually have a great chance of succeeding. But for now, there was no need to take such a risk, after calculating it was best to stay low key for now.

Following the intense bidding, the two jars of alcohol soared to as high as 2.9 million Singaporean dollars, converting to over 14 million in RMB. After the jars were wrapped up nicely, it was instantly delivered into the buyer’s hands. Sheyan already remembered this cash cow’s name, ‘Lee Sian Hai’.

That was a middle age man around his forties, he had thick black eyebrows extending to his temples. He had an uncommon aura, and although he had just spent a fortune that an average person would never touch in their entire life, he seemed completely calm and unperturbed. He casually placed the two bags beside his legs, as if these two were appetising desserts before a meal, and the following was the real feast. Beside him were several well dressed bodyguards that stood perfectly upright, they looked like the elite forces from the army.

Following that, besides secretly observing this Mr Lee Sian Hai, his mind was swirling with plans on how to snatch a mouthful and successfully escape. Time sped by swiftly, he suddenly heard the emcee spoke out:

“The next auction will be the last, a rare treasure, ‘Qianlong Emperor’s ‘Jiu De bell imperial seal’.”

(TN: Jiu De means 9 virtue)

Sheyan did not place any emphasis on the auction, yet after hearing this name he couldn’t help but jolt up. Firstly, the nature of this object was an ‘imperial seal’, this meant that it was a royal heirloom. No matter what antique it was, after associating it with royalty, its value would soar to tenfolds. Furthermore, it was a widely prominent character in history, Emperor Qianlong! Jiu De these two characters weren’t praising the monarch, but it was hinting at the background of this imperial seal. Because it was crafted with the highest quality ‘Tiang Huang stone’ which had characteristics of ‘delicate, sturdy, warm, sleek, clean, tender, intimate, attractive, spiritual’ these nine special characteristics. Thus it was hailed as a Jiu De stone. This precious object explained in simple terms was, the imperial seal that QianLong Emperor used was crafted with the highest quality ‘Tian Huang stone’.

Gasps resounded amongst the audience, naturally these were all directed towards that item. The preciousness of this ruler’s seal need no further explanation, it held special sentiments to the Singaporeans within the crowd. The current Southeast Asia was known as the south seas in the past, many residing nobles had migrated here previously from Fujian Guangdong. They all had native sentiments, their ancestral story passed down from generations to to generations, and a deep patriotism was buried within them.

In the eyes of the entire world, ‘Tian Huang stone’ was only produced in Fujian longevity hill, this was also sacred to them. Therefore, after obtaining it, it would be exceedingly great to have it as good fortune or even bless it to their house elders. It carried great fortune and they could use it to flaunt their wealth!

Following that, wealthy figures consecutively invited experts to examine the genuity of it. Based on the intoxicated expressions of these experts, Sheyan knew it wasn’t counterfeit. That middle aged male, Lee Sian Hai, also sat up straight, wiping clean his golden spectacles in a cultured and refined manner, his gaze carried a tinge of thirst within. Obviously this thing was a necessary aspiration.

But at this moment, one of the examining ‘expert’ suddenly bend over, pulling out a bayonet from his trousers! This person’s action was nimble and agile, one look suggested the countless trainings and life and death experiences he had. He swiftly stabbed the people surrounding him. The swiftness of his hands plus the ruthlessly sharp nature of that bayonet, it instantly left deep bloodied holes in the people he stabbed. They were confused as fresh blood gushed out.

This ‘expert’ with his lightning fast speed picked up the yellow royal small box, and without much effort he consecutively cut down 3 guards who rushed up with truncheons. He seemed to be about to escape into a corner. “Chi Chi Chi Chi”, the sound of gunshots with silencers sounded, that expert hadn’t even taken 2 more steps as his entire body had been transformed into a honeycomb, and slumped onto the ground. His streaming blood formed a pool of blood in a flash

On hindsight, those patrol guards within the hall were only ‘decorations’, the real protection was hidden in the shadows. They only revealed themselves in this emergency situation, one strike and retreated! Absolute silence. The rate at which they open fire and kept their firearms were incomparably swift, even their earlier murderous expression had faded to normal. Even a person sitting near them may not notice. Sheyans’ five senses were far superior to an average person (Apart from spirit), therefore he distinctly identified the positions and appearance of those gunmen.The few gunmen were all different disguised, some were bidders, some media reporters, and there was even a janitor. If they didn’t reveal themselves to kill, then it would hard to determine their true identity.

But at this moment, Sheyan’s pupils contracted. Because of the killing, the entire hall was in an uproar, guards were trying their best to maintain order. Furthermore, 7-8 people had already seized the chaos to target the security gunmen who had revealed themselves. That image was like a shark that had caught a scent of blood and was currently charging towards its prey.

This process was extremely obvious, the initial display of robbing the jade ruler seal was just a facade, its goal was to draw out the hidden guards!!

At this moment, several assassins had already approached those gunmen, simultaneously pulling their daggers to land the fatal blow. Yet those gunmen put up a dying struggle, and couldn’t help but open fire in retaliation. Momentarily, an intense battle broke out, the hall was turning more chaotic. Shouts and screams repeated constantly. Five visible groups were segregated, containing an important personnel wrapped within like a nucleus, their surrounding bodyguards had their hands in their suits, completely unflustered as they tightened their defence. One of them, Lee Sian Hai had many bodyguards, his defence was mightily outstanding.

“Then, if I was the mastermind behind this….” a notion flashed into Sheyan’s brain like electricity. “Then the next step would be to clean up the remaining resistance left in this hall! All these wealthy individuals had elite bodyguards, they likewise had to be eliminated!”

Therefore, Sheyan immediately retreated several steps, standing against the corner as he covered his head with both hands like he was terrified. Yet his eyes remained tightly focused on the surrounding movements of Lee Sian Hai. To him, the more chaotic it was the better, his goal was merely the two bottles. Although the two bottles were exceptionally expensive, but treasures were plentiful in this auction. That ‘Qianlong Jiu De imperial seal’ had garnered the admiration of everyone, not to mention the painting from Milan before that. Those two bottles had long been forgotten in people’s heart.

Although those hidden gunmen had exceptional skills, in the end they could not resist the sudden assault of their concealed enemies and very quickly succumbed to their blades. The bodyguards of the ministers remained unyielding and stationary, tightly bundling up their sole protection goal. They would definitely not be distracted, in this moment their professionalism was greatly displayed. They simply could not be compared to those greenhorn bodyguards.

Lee Sian Hai observed the chaotic disorder, he discovered that the ‘Qianlong Jiu De imperial seal’ that he greatly desired had vanished. Creasing his brows, he bent down and lifted the bags containing the ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ and spoke out in a low tone.

“Let’s go.”

This person had a lofty status, yet his movements seemed rather vigorous. With every step, the surrounding bodyguards similarly took one step. These guards had already formed a protective square around him, their movements were like a marching contingent during national day. They tightly locked their protection goal up, not leaking out a single gap. Lee Sian Hai took big steps to the nearby corridor, as his surrounding guards paced themselves unanimously and similarly headed to that direction.

Those hidden assassins did not stop them, but they similarly did not dare slacken. The numerous bodyguards within the hall were at least 30, they were extremely professional. Although none of them opened fire yet, but once anything captured their attention, or someone made an unusual move, they would immediately face the wrath of bullets and be reduced to a corpse!

Chapter 127: A grenade triggering assault

Those bodyguards that acted out heroically were extremely unqualified, because their main responsibility was the safety of their employer. They had to treat their employer’s safety as priority, and even use their bodies to shield them! Those hostiles opening fire to murder were the responsibility of the police, they may not act out against the employers. If a bodyguard tried to play hero by opening fire and thus implicated their employer to lose his life, then in the future they had to give up working in this circle.

Surveying the scenery, Sheyan couldn’t help but frown, just the thought of the accurate marksmanship of these elite guards, he had no confidence of rushing against them. He had to nullify his earlier plan to steal the alcohol, and find another method.

Instead, when Lee Sian Hai and his group of bodyguards stumbled into the corridor, an accident was born!

Because the corridor connected the auction hall to a room, and no matter how wide the room was, the door could only allow two to pass at one go. It was impossible for a third to squeeze through. If the guards wanted to go through the door, they had to place Lee Sian Hai in the middle, thus the defensive model was segregated into front and rear.

In a flash, half of the bodyguards that were circling the wealthy or influential figures suddenly

became turncoats! Viciously issuing a lethal blow to their supposed colleagues beside them! Those distracted bodyguards still had their attentions on the few assailants in the crowd, but abruptly became a casualty themselves.

Sheyan was not the least bit concerned about all this. On the surface he was curling up in a corner, but actually he was constantly observing the bag Lee Sian Hai was holding on to. His greatest fear was a stray bullet hitting that bag. Once the two jars were shattered, wouldn’t everything he had done so far be in vain?

The gunshots were getting louder by the moment, but most of the people firing were unlucky victims of the sneak attack. In such close proximity, obviously daggers were better than firearms. If not for the constant pressure, who would use a gun to fight against a dagger in close proximity? At this point, some influential figures had already turned into victims. Furthermore, Lee Sian Hai who had previously left the auction hall was forced back by a slur of gunshots. His body was drenched in his bodyguard’s blood and had a horrendous expression on his face. The bag he held onto knocked against the wall several times, causing great anxiety in Sheyan’s heart.

Noteworthily, the bodyguards Lee Sian Hai chose were of a different class. Within the encircling squadron around him, none of them were traitors, and mostly those assailants were from other wealthy figures. A few of his bodyguards were even blonde haired westerners, even in this sudden twist of events, they started to counterattack without batting an eyelid. Although the aggressors currently held the upperhand, the situation gradually sunk into a deadlock. This niche advantage of the nation, as long as they could resist for a few minutes, the government military would arrive and completely turn around the situation.

But at this very moment, a smoking object was suddenly flung into the corridor. Grunting as it rolled a few rounds on the floor.

Grenade!

The assailants actually brought grenades in!

“Boom boom boom boom” Within the massive explosion sounds, the stubbornly resisting guards was instantly defeated! Moreover, within the core group of guards around Lee Sian Hai, there were actually two traitors! Raising their guns preparing to aim at Lee Sian Hai’s forehead. A disaster was imminent. Sheyan couldn’t wait for that fella to be eliminated, in case his ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ would be in danger. Furthermore, he wouldn’t even need to put in any efforts or leave any marks.

But the wealthy Lee Sian Hai was not meant to die yet. As the traitorous guards were about to open fire, one of them unexpectedly took a stray bullet to his head as his brain innards burst forth. The other person’s master shoulder was accidentally bumped by someone beside him, as the bullets skirted past Lee Sian Hai’s head! In a blink, the two of them got shot and the guards surrounding Lee Sian Hai were reduced to six people.

Faced with dangers all around and weakened by heavy casualties, one had to admit that those guards were outstandingly skillful. After signalling some hand gestures, the bodyguards all had a common understanding. Seizing the opportunity when the assailants were reloading, 7-8 of them uniformly charged out and open fire, forming a suppressing net momentarily. Concurrently, the few surviving employers took this opportunity to flee. Lee Sian Hai was no exception as he bent himself and sprinted to the entrance with two trusted aides escorting him.

Right at this moment, another grenade and a volley of gunshots came from the nearby corridor! The trusted aides were extremely valiant as they blatantly used their bodies to shield the bullets, collapsing to the ground without a sound. That smoking grenade had already rolled towards the leg of that stupefied Lee Sian Hai!

If a grenade was about to explode the next second beneath your leg, what would you feel?

Riding on your adrenaline and instantly kicking it away, or swiftly diving away were all fantasies. To an average Joe that hadn’t gone through any special training, his only reaction was to stay rooted on the ground, as his mind went completely blank!

Therefore, in everyone’s eyes, Lee Sian Hai, this wealthy figure in Singapore was doomed to die.

Yet the mastermind behind this killing made a wrong call about something:

Obviously a volley of bullets was enough, why would they add on a grenade?

Nevermind just a grenade, why did this grenade had to be thrown near the bag that Lee Sian Hai was carrying?

Once the grenade exploded, the two jars that Sheyan travelled thousands of miles for would shatter along with his hopes!

Sheyan’s heart stirred, suddenly dashing forward and executing a sliding kick only seen in a soccer match. He very accurately sent the grenade flying, and this immense storage of power flashed in midair, and swiftly smashed through the opposite window finally exploding. The shrapnel dispersed all around, as the surrounding glass walls simultaneously shattered. Two floors beneath also produced urgent screams and sounds of fleeing.

Presently, Sheyan was unable to wield any equipments, and although his agility was merely 7 points, but from the start of this chaos he remained in a corner and did not suffer any attacks. Thus, the bonus 28% movement speed of the ‘endless vodka’ had not vanished. Calculating, it was roughly the movement speed of 9 points in agility. In addition to his bonus speed from ‘basic footwork lvl 4’, compounding the several factors, his movement speed naturally exceeded an average person by an entire level. Furthermore, he was constantly secretly observing the scene, reacting once he encountered a grave emergency. Thus what others saw as an imminent conclusion, Sheyan simply kicked away with one foot!

But with this one sliding kick, it instantly implicated Sheyan in the heart of the crisis!

Every assailant was concurrently observing the situation at this side. But Sheyan was extremely clear, if it was impossible to obtain this ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ with stealth, then he didn’t mind exploding onto the scene. With this one kick, his intention was to protect the two national treasure alcohol, he placed no significance on Lee Sian Hai’s life…..but who would believe this even if he said it? Anyway ruining their great plan, those ruthless assailants would never believe him. This was evident as they impatiently swung their guns towards him.

Since that was the case, and since he already created a conflict between them, then why not protect this guy’s life at the same time. Sheyan never forgot one thing, that was even if he managed to sample this “Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’, he would have only completely a sixth of the milestone: ‘Alcohol master’! The remaining 5 alcohol types, don’t even mention drinking, he had not even heard of them before. Then why not borrow external help? Since this Lee Sian Hai dared to spend millions of RMB on these two bottles of alcohol, then finding the other alcohol types wasn’t something difficult for him.

Since Sheyan already set his mind on this, naturally he would do his utmost. He dragged Lee Sian Hai, and crashed his shoulder into the nearby door frame. Sheyan exerted his full strength in this, furthermore the door of this auction had more decorations and security. After knocking into it, dust filled the air. The door was rammed open and landed on the floor.

Sheyan seized this opportunity, instantly picking up this door to use as a shield, charging straight into that corridor! That imposing manner was like a fierce tiger, incomparably vicious. The broken off door was broad, and the door frame conveniently left a trail of broken corridor lamps along the corridor. “Piank piank ping piank” the shattering sound was morbid!

Some assailants were also stationed in this corridor, but they could only witness a broad door charging towards them like the raging sea. They randomly released their bullets, who knew where those directionless bullets would land. Even if the bullets pierced through the door and landed on Sheyan, its power would have lessened greatly, and carried not much threat.

After charging forward for 7-8 metres, a group of assailants started to catch up to him from the back, and started opening fire. Even if Sheyan would not die from taking a few bullets, in order to save Lee Sian Hai, he had to handle it cautiously. His perceptive sensing towered over others, as the pursuing assailants charged forward, Sheyan immediately halted and swung around. The ‘door shield’ he was holding onto naturally covered the front of the panting Lee Sian Hai, as he kicked open a door on his right!

Chapter 128: Colliding straight on

Although the door was sturdy, how could it resist Sheyan’s full force kick? The hinges rattled and broke off as dust emerged and the door flew inwards. A distinct wrecked dent was seen in the middle of this sturdy door, as it crashed to the opposite wall before landing down. Sheyan swiftly slid in with Lee Sian Hai into the room, and then into an internal bedroom. Blazing strands of bullets arrived too late, and created several bullet holes onto the carpet and the wall.

As they entered the room, there wasn’t a balcony but only a huge bed and furnitures. Sheyan had also suffered a few light injuries, and lost close to 30 HP. But this didn’t faze him, he fished out that ‘endless vodka’, and gulped a mouthful of it. Satisfyingly exhaling, he replenished his wasted life points and simultaneously activated the title ‘Intoxicated man’. Thus his explosive hit rate also rose.

(TN: The explosive hit rate refers to critical hit rate in games)

Presently, Lee Sian Hai had discovered his current perilous situation, his expression was terrible. Sheyan humbly smiled at him and said:

“Mister Lee?”

Lee Sian Hai hadn’t lost his mind, although his heart was in despair, he managed to force out a smile.

At this point, the assailants had already reached the entrance. For fear of an ambush, they carefully entered. Sheyan borrowed this buffer time saying:

“You should be able to tell I have no ill intentions right? If not, without me acting out, you wouldn’t even be alive.”

“Thank you.” Although he was in despair, he still had the manners matching his elegant demeanor.

Sheyan was meticulously thinking, naturally he could tell what Sian Hai was thinking. Shrugging his shoulders he gently said: “I’m 22 to this year, do you think I look like someone looking to die?”

Lee Sian Hai was shocked, but suddenly a smoking object was tossed into the room – another grenade. Earlier on, the assailant had witnessed Sheyan kicking away the grenade, thus he purposefully held onto the grenade for 3 seconds before releasing it. His goal was for the grenade to explode immediately, thus everyone within the room will inevitably perish.

These assailant had no clue about Sheyan’s outstanding perceptive sensing. The grenade could likewise threaten his life, thus he already sensed it earlier on. Leaping out, he spiked it like a volleyball player and returned the grenade back to them.

As Sheyan descended from mid air, an explosion ensued from outside the room followed by shrieks and screams. Sheyan smiled at Lee Sian hai, exposing his white teeth and ordered:

“Stay here quietly.”

Unknowingly, faced with a situation of life and death, after seeing Sheyan’s smile his heart formed an unexplainable chill. Sheyan pounced with both legs, suddenly darting outwards. After going out, screams rang out in scattered successions, and died down after a short 10 seconds. Complementing that was the raging gunfire from faraway, creating a surreptitious silence.

Not long later, drenched in blood, Sheyan led a blonde western bodyguard in. This bodyguard had suffered heavy wounds on his left arm, carelessly ripping his clothes to use as bandage and wrapped it around it. Once he saw Lee Sian Hai, he cried out in surprise.

“Boss, you’re still alive!”

After seeing a familiar face, Lee Sian Hai’s initial trepidation relaxed and smiled.

“Well done, Dick. Where are the rest?”

Lee Sian Hai had a particular sophisticated presence, he had a calm demeanor and unordinary people would never earn his praise. Dick was delighted from this praise, and his expression sunk when he heard the last phrase.

“They are all dead, if not for…..”

He tilted his head to glance at Sheyan. Momentarily unsure on what to address, he thought he was a hidden trump card arranged by Lee Sian Hai, his final trump card! He respectfully exclaimed.

“This gentleman suddenly assisted us, if not it be hard for me to escape death.”

Sheyan smiled, tossing over two mineral water bottles.

“Currently those assailants went off to chase after two other groups. Mr Lee please rest and drink this, Dick wrap up your wounds. I’m afraid there will be another fierce battle later.”

Dick asked in surprise:

“Since the assailants have left this area, why not take the chance to escape?”

Sheyan sighed and replied:

“Those guy’s are assassins, they aren’t seeking wealth, their real aim is lives! From the scope of this operation, it is obviously a carefully planned out action!”

At this moment, there were several corpses sprawled across the floor. Dick flipped those bodies over and scanned them, at the same time checking for any first aid kits. But after consecutively examining them, he lifted up his head with a serious expression:

“Boss, these guys are all Malays from the military!”

“So that’s the case…..” Sheyan suddenly understood. Normally people claim that America’s racial conflicts were serious, but actually the racial conflict in Southeast Asia was similarly ridiculous. The anti-chinese resentment in Southeast Asia had never expired, it only segregated into small groups. The reason behind this was a complicated one, influencing this massive anti-chinese bloodshed was obviously the representatives of the 1998 Indonesian- Chinese indonesian riots. Apart from that, there was the Shah Alam conflict, the Black May and so on. Several other small scale events and unrest had also occurred.

Singapore’s current political situation was also in turmoil, therefore, this attack that seemed to be a robbery may in fact be a result of internal strife. The defeated party wanted to take revenge and arranged this massacre!

Sheyan suddenly asked:

“Then, looks like Mr Lee should be one of their primary targets?”

Dick nodded his head saying:

“The newly appointed prime minister, He Jiren, is my boss’s cousin. If something happened to boss without leaving any last words, then the family would be bound to break into factions. After Prime minister He loses his family’s economic support, then he would be unable to carry on his term in the office and step down.”

At this point, a sound came from the entrance and a Malaysian militant intruded in while searching the room. As he was about to raise his gun to fire, Sheyan took off as he slid in front of him instantly. This guy was a trained soldier, knowing that his enemy would reach out for his gun, he immediately drew out a military dagger, and thrusted forward ruthlessly.

Sheyan’s current agility wasn’t high, this sort of close combat was difficult to dodge. But his grappling skill had been trained to level 2, with a flick of his wrist he gripped onto the incoming military dagger. After this dagger pierced into his hand, it got stuck! This malay militant was startled, unexpectedly feeling a huge burst of energy coming from his right hand as the dagger got forced out from his hand. Sheyan simultaneously struck up with his knee, and pulled forward horizontally with his left hand still gripping onto the dagger. This malay militant was pulled forward from the impact, and a smooth wound appeared on his neck. Scarlet red blood gushed out and sprayed onto the wall!

At this point, another militant charged in, raising his gun and took aim!

Sheyan easily grabbed onto the gun barrel, causing that guy to tumble as random gunshots sprayed out without aim from the barrel. Holes formed everywhere, and particles scattered out into the sky. Sheyan pushed his assailant forward gently causing the guy to topple to the ground. He laid there rigidly, with only two unwilling round eyes. Dick charged forward to quickly examine, and turned his head information Lee Sian Hai with a deep voice:

“He got stabbed from the back directly into his heart, dying instantly.”

Lee Sian Hai composedly asked:

“What do you think of his talent?”

Dick leaked out a reverential expression in his eyes.

“Extremely valiant, in all my years of service, only the special Delta task force military instructor can be compared.”

Sheyan turned around, gesturing his hand to follow him. Although Dick had a broken arm, he could still exhibit his high military qualities. He swiftly gathered the firearm and ammunition from the dead bodies, and tossed a rifle to Sheyan. Instead, after receiving it Sheyan tossed it back, shocking Dick as he listened to Sheyan whispering back:

“I have no use for that, bring Mr Lee and follow me”

After speaking, he bent down and charged out. Looking at his movement direction, it was actually towards the auction hall that they just slaughtered their way out of! The puzzled Dick could only follow, but in that auction hall only a few gunmen remained. Looking at their greedy behaviour, they should be looting from the dead bodies. Sheyan immediately charged forward like a fanatical ox. Enemies who suffered his attack flew back 1-2 metres, landing onto the ground groaning. Even if there weren’t dead, they should be crippled.

Riding on the confusion within the hall, Dick operated his rifle single handedly, spraying out waves of bullets. Hurriedly eliminating or injuring many, it was really as easy as firing in a practice target range. Sheyan smashed open a set of doors and similarly used it as a shield again while advancing, he really had an air of invincibility. Yet he did not charge towards the elevator but instead headed straight for the fire exit staircase. Dick was just about to support Mr Lee down the staircase but was stopped by Sheyan’s hand. He calmly explained:

“We head upwards.”

Dick was shocked but Lee Sian Hai’s eyes leaked out an admiration, making the final decision saying:

“Yes, we head upwards!”

Chapter 129: Borrowed might

Currently the government was still controlled by the chinese, these malay militants actually formed a small minority within the military. No matter how refined this ploy was, the battle within this building would never persist for long, strictly speaking it would only take 1 hour. This skyscraper was 40 storeys high, every floor had 3-4 thousand square metres. One full day was not enough to completely search the whole building. If that new prime minister did not react with countermeasures within an hour, then he truly wasn’t qualified to hold that appointment.

On the other hand, if the 3 of them fled downwards, there would be only a few escape points. The mastermind behind this terrorism would certainly have people to lock up the access points, and going down there would in turn be more dangerous. To think of this points wasn’t difficult, but to be able to consider this in such a tight-locked situation, it showed the qualities of composure, wisdom and courage.

Huffing and puffing they made it to the top floor, but not the roof. At the top, they chanced upon several wealthy individuals and their bodyguards. Lee Sian Hai was relatively familiar with them, after combining their forces, their defensive strength was enhanced. Not even 10 minutes later, the faint sound of shouts and screams travelled here. Sheyan went out to survey and saw a group of dark skinned local aboriginals rushing up. Within their hands were glimmering blades, iron rods and other pole like objects. They were wantonly robbing and killing.

This originally lofty and luxurious building had sunk into a wide scale riot, this was probably the methods used by the criminal mastermind to conceal the truths. Blending this deliberate assassination ploy within the facade of racial rioting. Those thugs were tangled up with a bunch of people wearing grey windbreakers. These people did not participate in the looting and killing, their expressions were solemn and their steps mighty. Their hands were stashed into their trouser pockets as they observe their surroundings. Obviously they were killers who were specially trained.

Once these assassins discovered a suspicious target, they would uniformly take fire, reducing their targets into a honeycomb. And this group of thugs left 30-40 people on every level to plunder while the rest continued ascending and searching.

Even the the current situation seemed hopeless, Sheyan did not carry any worries. This was because the two bottles of ‘Maotai 1950 pulp liquor’ were already placed inside the cabinet on the previous room they were in on the 17th floor. Even if those thugs search, they would mostly cover behind the door, under the bed and outside the window areas. Why would they even think of searching the cabinet for millions of dollar worth alcohol? To Sheyan, completing the milestone took precedence, regarding Mr Lee Sian Hai he was just a bonus item. Saving him was good, but if he could not, Sheyan wouldn’t even mind.

After Sheyan returned, everyone else including Lee Sian Hai looked rather apathetic. Only a wealthy man with the surname Huo from Hong Kong was fuming, loudly scolding vulgarities. After five minutes, those Indonesian aboriginal thugs had arrived at the level Sheyan was at. Their knives and poles carried no threat to Sheyan, moreover Dick who was supremely versed in firearms leading a few bodyguards sniping from the back. Instantly, casualties scattered everywhere. However once those grey windbreaker killers swiftly arrived, the tides quickly turned around, wounding Sheyan occasionally and Dick even took a severe bullet to his right chest.

Suddenly a whirling sound boomed across the atmosphere. Following that three helicopters swiftly landed onto the rooftop. 4-5 special forces in their camouflaging uniform stealthily crept down and proceeded to guard the access path to the rooftop in a flash. Afterward, elite soldiers started to rush down, although there were casualties, those grey dressed killers were ultimately unable to contend against the army, even the Indonesian aboriginal thugs were forced to retreat down the building.

These special forces were reinforcements called by Lee Sian Hai. Lee Sian Hai was a person steering the financial flagship of his family, undoubtedly he was one of the biggest pillar behind the prime minister. Naturally he had a mighty influence of a leader. Although he fell into dire straits, his attitude remained graceful and unyielding. Snorting he sat down on a nearby stool.

“You guys came quickly!”

Saying this sentence just when his protection squadron was nearly depleted, Lee Sian Hai was intentionally being sarcastic. The leader was a lieutenant colonel, his face was brimming red and steered his words clear of the trouble.

“Mr Lee, you’ve been startled. Please immediately ascend and leave the place.”

After speaking he reached out his hands. Lee Sian Hai who lived as a prince was also exhausted and startled, he naturally did not haggle on for long and prepared to ascend the chopper. The other wealthy figures also started boarding one after another. But at this moment, Sheyan raised his brows and obstructed Lee Sian Hai, he simply said:

“The aura of death around you is thick, the calamity is not over, if you really think that you have escaped the danger, then you are really stepping on the pathway to disaster!”

After hearing Sheyan’s completely unsubstantiated words, that lieutenant colonet immediately shouted out with an ashen face.

“Guards, get this lunatic out of my sight.”

The surrounding soldiers surged forward, yet Sheyan put up zero resistance. His lips curled into a chilling sneer as he looked towards that wealthy Hong Kong Mr Huo.

“Mr Huo, I can tell you are a righteous person. If you don’t wish to die, wait here for another half an hour.”

Lee Sian Hai halted his footsteps, hesitating for a while before waving his hands.

“Set off!”

Five minutes later, those three helicopters took off. As they started climbing to a higher altitude, a sudden blaze flashed across from the roof of the opposite building, it was 4 ‘Stinger’ guided missile! After 3 missiles flew out, the pilots tried their utmost to dodge it, but two of them got hit in the end. The other one knocked onto the skyscraper beside it, spinning unsteadily for a few rounds before exploding into a fireball.

Lee Sian Hai glanced through the window at this scenery, his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably. He currently changed to an army uniform, another soldier dressed as him by wearing his clothes and boarding the chopper. In the end the consequence was as such. The other wealthy figures apart from Mr Huo all lost their lives in the explosion. He looked at Sheyan with complete trust, and couldn’t help asking:

“This……friend, what do we do next?”

Sheyan laughed:

“Don’t ask me this question, you should seek a professional.”

At this point, half of the elite soldiers stayed back with Lee Sian Hai. Amongst them, a military officer was still unconvinced of Sheyan, stepping out of his ranks and exclaimed:

“Sirs! Our third reinforcements are coming, I reckon the best course of action is to stay and wait for back-up!”

In half a day, Lee Sian Hai had already knocked at death’s door twice. Furthermore, the recent helicopter incident had left him still in cold sweat, doubts had already arose in his heart towards the capability of the military. He shot an inquiring glance at Sheyan. Sheyan then took out his ‘Endless Vodka’ and drank a mouthful, smiling he said:

“I have no objections.”

Observing Sheyan’s compliance, Lee Sian Hai was reassured and nodded his head. Lee Sian Hai recalled the words Sheyan previously spoke, he was usually astute and circumspect and his heart a little apprehensive, he couldn’t help but ask Sheyan:

“May I know what’s the meaning behind this mister’s words about the aura of death?”

Although Sheyan had a mature appearance, one could tell he was roughly 24. By calling him mister, Lee Sian Hai was showing respect for the wise. Obviously Sheyan could not mention that his perceptive sensing allowed him to sense the nearby ambushers, thus he pretended to be a fortune teller. He merely shrug his shoulders, smiled and shook his head.

Lee Sian Hai observed Sheyan’s body language, and his imaginations started to run wild:

“Eh? Is it cannot say? Impossible to say? Or don’t know how to say?”

Sheyan calmly and determinedly replied.

“It’s cannot say. If I say, I will have to pay a severe price.”

Lee Sian Hai gasped, having an enlightened expression:

“I understand, I understand. Then how long do you think before we can leave this place?”

Sheyan’s lips slanted slightly, grimly replying:

“If the skin, flesh and blood of those assailants are not thoroughly smeared onto the walls, then you will never be safe.”

Lee Sian Hai deeply pondered, then with face of killing intent he turned to the nearby person and gave an order. Those special soldiers were already distributed into critical places. As long as any suspicious character approaches, a burst fire would follow, there was no such thing as law and order over here.

Within 4 hours, the reinforcements managed to round up the entire building and cleanse it. Lee Sian Hai allowed Sheyan to walk alongside him, this was giving Sheyan face but his hidden motive was to borrow Sheyan’s strength to protect him. Until Lee Sian Hai returned to his mansion and sat onto his sofa did he loosen up. He looked at Sheyan and sincerely asked:

“How should I thank you?”

Sheyan laughed and replied:

“Just treat me to a drink.”

……

……

6 hours later, Sheyan had already become an employer in this mansion.

His job scope was: Chauffeur.

Lee Sian Hai’s personal chauffeur.

Following their exchange, Lee Sian Hai would assist him in collecting the remaining alcohol types. Initially Sheyan wanted to request for him to help search for the whereabouts of Fuyuan boat, but as the words reached his lips he swallowed it back in. Because this matter was his only weak point in the present world, he would definitely not easily tell it to others!

Sheyan cushioned his head with his two hands and laid on the bed. Although his heart had a faint feeling of insecurity, this was still the most dependant method he could think of. He could effortlessly complete the milestone mission, and could personally search for Uncle Dasi. Singapore was small, but this pellet size country was able to enter the top 50 countries. One could tell its economic might was robust. Having such a reliable backing in Lee Sian Hai, even if Sheyan was like a fox exploiting the tiger’s might, it was much better in comparison to searching alone.

As Sheyan was about to fall into deep sleep, his chest suddenly started burning up. He immediately jolted up from the bed as his mind received a notification from the nightmare imprint.

“Please return to the nightmare realm from the present world within 24 hours.”

Chapter 130: The most unfavourable news!

After receiving the returning invitation, Sheyan inhaled deeply. He wasn’t in a hurry to return, and instead shut his eyes to enjoy a good sleep. This relaxed nature continued on the second morning, having a meal, taking a shower and getting a masseuse to give him a full body massage. Once his body was rejuvenated to its optimum condition, he then lazily strolled towards the nearby staircase.

Presently, this was Sheyan’s third time entering the nightmare realm, he was extremely familiar with the processes and reached back in no time. The realm gave off a slight reddish glow as usual which seemed to never be extinguished, giving an aura of bloodshed. After entering, his various equipments and items were either returned into his personal space, or automatically went back into his body.

At this hour, the crowd in the marketplace was huge. They were all shuttling back and forth between vending booths, indicating that they were of adequate combat status ranking. They had reached a stage whereby they could investigate on the next relevant movie world they would go to, and prepare certain relevant equipment or items beforehand.

In the Caribbean Sea world, undoubtedly that ‘Insight’ ability had given Sheyan the greatest assistance. Moreover his high perceptive sensing could further compliment the ‘Insight’ ability. Thus, although this was a temporal ability and required a usage fee, it was essential to Sheyan. In addition to his current combat ranking not being high, it was impossible for him to gather information on his next world much earlier beforehand. Therefore, whenever entering a movie world, Sheyan planned to utilize the randomization method of entering the world.

Something noteworthy is that even though ‘Insight’ was an ability that required usage fee, but randomizing entering the world carried an additional +20% reward bonus. After calculations, it would not generate much deficiency. After interacting with his nightmare imprint, he discovered that although his achievement level had reached 8 points, it had not much effects. He could only obtain a tiny report half an hour beforehand regarding his next world. Thus, he once again decided on randomization.

There was still a brief period of time before entering the world. Sheyan started to cruise around the marketplace. On one hand gathering price valuation information, and on the other he felt that he came across a certain medicine that was quite useful. Therefore, he wanted to specially collect them, but his current net worth was only 600 utility points. He was extremely limited in purchasing stuffs.

Just as Sheyan arrived at the end of the marketplace, an object caught his attention. He immediately pointed towards it to the picture and enquired.

“How much?”

That seller blinked his eyes, using a dispirited tone.

“500 utility points for one, manufacturing cost was 1000 points. No negotiation.”

“Sheyan scoffed and asked.

“How do you know the manufacturing cost? Unless this medicine is made by you personally?”

“Oh shit, can’t I? Before I count to 3 you better pay up your damned utility points or get lost! The further the better. God forgive me, I want to use vile languages to curse at these damned test tubes, spirit lamp and microscope!!”

“Even though your marketing has no appeal, I still intend to patronize your business.” Sheyan shrugged his shoulders saying. “Give me 3 of this medicine, you will receive 500 utility points as remuneration.”

“Bastard! You need me to repeat myself? 500 utility points for one, because their manufacturing cost are 1000 utility points. If you continue uttering rubbish, I will stuff your foot into your filthy mouth.”

“Then I’m sorry in inform you, the final destination of these medicines will only be out of your anus.”

“Wait, come back! Alright, alright. I’ve had enough of these damned medicines. Where is the agreed 500 utility points?”

Very quickly, Sheyan acquired 3 of these so called ‘Rotten Eyeball’ medicine. It had a greenish black appearance, and was roughly the size of a pea. Yet it gave off a peculiar odour, like liquid boiling within a spittoon. If eating it would cause one to recall that awful odour, then one would instantly vomit. Its attributes were as follows:

“Rotten eyeball.” (Condition: Bad)

“Classification: Indirect supplementary medicine.”

“Origin: Contestant personally manufactured.”

“Rarity: Blue.”

“Usage effects: Cause confusion to enemies.”

“Usage requirements: Nil.”

“Description: After learning the related prescription, defective product from post production manufacturing.”

“Specific usage effects: Using it will result in confusion, causing your enemy to make a wrong judgement of your capabilities.”

“Warning: After using the medicine, there is a 75% chance of causing the user’s various attributes to fluctuate. Causing the appearance to either weaken or strengthen. Duration lasts for 5 minutes.”

“Warning: A large portion of this medicine has already lost its effectiveness. Currently only the weakening camouflage can be in effect, this effect can only be used on contestants. If a contestant has a higher or equal perceptive sensing, there is a chance of seeing through the camouflage.”

“Evaluation: You definitely do not want to attempt tasting it.”

Sheyan wanted to purchase this sort of camouflaging medicines. Although these 3 medicines had already lost their ability to affect storyline characters, it still had some value. After acquiring the 3 medicines that another contestant manufactured, Sheyan then prepared a series of entering matters. Very quickly, he received the nightmare realm notification:

“You can obtain a report on your next movie world.”

“You can choose to randomly enter a movieworld.”

Clear of his decision long ago, Sheyan naturally selected random, the ‘Insight’ ability once again returned to Sheyan. Presently, Sheyan already had experience, waiting in the middle of the nightmare realm until an oval shaped glowing white door appeared. He then entered into it.

“Initiating nightmare world….”

“Initiating digitalization…..”

“Initiating randomly allocating world.”

“World selected.”

“Initializing assimilation of character into world…..”

“Entering world…..”

The mystery of magic is hidden from civilization, a fantasy race is mixed with the humans. The current era of technology is merely a mirage bubble, the dreadful spectre is searching for an opportunity to resurrect. A white haired old man is persistently supporting a society that is on the brink of collapse.

Waiting…..waiting for that boy with the scar to slowly grow up…..

Sheyan was woken by a noise.

He fought to open his eyes, the lethargy stubbornly spiralled in his brain like an infuriating alarm clock screaming at a working adult in dawn of the day. This place had a spotlessly white bed, clean floor and a flower pot standing atop the nearby table. Within were fresh carnations and eucalyptus. The entire room was neat and tidy, giving one a comfortable atmosphere.

Looking out of the nearby window, one could see a power cord extending horizontally across the sky, and hear the honking of cars. The pointy buildings from a distance were brimming with a european style. Sheyan remained calm as he rolled out of bed. Pouring a glass of water from the nearby electric kettle, he slowly drank it down.

A telephone stationed on the bedside cabinet. This telephone was constructed with an appearance of the start of the 20th century. From far, its material seemed top grade as though made with ivory and gold. But after feeling it, one would know it was artificial plastic. Suddenly, the telephone rang out loudly, it seemed like it would go on forever.

Sheyan calmly picked up the receiver, slowly placing it beside his ear. An indifferent tone emitted over.

“Contestant no.1018, welcome to the nightmare realm.”

“This is your third experience in a nightmare world.”

“You received a main mission: Audition”

“Mission summary: Follow your occupation manager for an audition.”

“Mission pointer: If you are unable to complete this basic series of main mission, then you will be penalized 5000 utility points. But your duration of stay in this world will be prolonged by a week. If until then you are unable to pay up the penalized fee of 5000 utility points, then you will be erased.”

“Pointer: You utilized the randomization method of entering this world, you acquired an ability : Insight.”

“Pointer: You can fulfil the following milestones in this world (Including other worlds)

“Intelligent: Accumulate learning of three special distinctive magical skill from this world. (Inclusive of passive skill)

“Fearless: Slaying a formidable legendary creature in this world upon any chanced encounter. (Inclusive of unicorns, cerberus, adult mountain beasts, Norwegian Ridgeback* etc), Your damage to the creature must exceed 10%).”

(TN:*A type of dragon in Harry Potter)

“Extremist: Slay 100 Muggles.”

“Spell breaker: Slay 50 wizards.” (Wizard’s ability powers must not be lower than a third grade student from Hogwarts)”

“Collector: Purchase 10 different wands from Ollivander’s Wand Shop.”

“Diplomat: Gain respect from any tribe of race. (Race includes: centaurs, giants, goblins, dragons)”

“I love Quidditch: Successfully obtain a Nimbus 2000 broom.”

“Due to inadequate achievement level, unable to view other milestone information.”

Sheyan observed this list of reports, his eyes formed a certain helplessness as he sighed. He knew which world he was in. But this was the world he didn’t want to enter the most! In this world, magic was even used for basic lifestyle necessities, it was the major factor here. Therefore, this meant that Sheyan’s innate ability ‘Endurance’ was completely negated! Comparing to the previous randomly chosen Caribbean Sea world, this world was basically a natural counter towards Sheyan!

“Magic is placed above all else in this world! Including swords, firearms, and even science and technology!”

“This is the magical world of Harry Potter!”

Chapter 131: Audition

After reflecting on the information he just received, Sheyan pushed open the door. The corridor was completely silent, the floor glossy and several oil paintings hung on the corridor walls. There was no difference from an ordinary five star hotel. A person stood at the end of the corridor. He was wearing a deerstalker dome hat, and holding onto an old western cane. Looking at Sheyan, he impatiently exclaimed.

“Hey! What time is it already, why are you all still in your rooms? This time’s meeting is very important, it is something our career helping centre took great efforts to acquire this opportunity. The audition is in one hour later. Five minutes, I swear on my dead father’s name we can only wait for another five minutes! The latecomers would have to walk there by themselves, and they wouldn’t refund a single penny for ya!”

The emotionless Sheyan shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m a person who values punctuality greatly, regrettably not everyone is like me, sir.”

Although Sheyan’s reply was quite appropriate, but undoubtedly his puny charm would give rise to negative disadvantages. This manager did not give him any face, and bluntly asked him to wait by the side. The rest of the contestants in other rooms weren’t dead people, after hearing the conversation, they naturally hurried up to assemble.

Within two minutes, 10 contestants gathered on this floor. Sheyan noticed that within the 10, at least 4 of them knew each other as they nodded and shot signals through their eyes at each other. It was obvious there belonged to a party. Following that, they obediently took the lift down. After every contestant assembled in the hotel’s main hall, Sheyan discovered there were close to 30 contestants. Within them were two parties, one part was relatively small while the other pretty huge.

At the this moment, Sheyan felt someone approaching and sitting beside him. He turned to look and gasped.

“It’s you?”

This person had a full beard across his face, he had a veteran and sharp look on his face. He was that cold blooded murderer Sheyan encountered in the Terminator world. The two of them even exchange milestone information and reports before, therefore, there was a certain connection between them. At present, both didn’t belong to a party, naturally they would possess a notion to collaborate.

Within the career helping center, there were a total of 3 managers. The three seemed like ordinary people, but they looked to be short of patience. After a several minutes, a brand new bus stopped outside the hotel. All the contestants straightforwardly boarding it, and the bus took off after.

As the bus started moving, every single contestant heard a clear notification in their ears:

Time: AD 1991, February 25th, Afternoon 1PM.”

“Location: Europe, London (Latitude north 51 degrees, 30’28. Longitude west 00 degree, 07’41)”

“Setting: Magical World of Harry Potter.”

“Difficulty: Easy (D Class)”

“Pain limiter: 50%”

“Additional capabilities bonus: 0%”

“Current scenario exploration rate: 0.00%”

“Additional explanation. This world has a freedom setting: contestant can bit by bit (Straightforwardly attacking/ being attacked by each other) to obtain the relevant combat log reports. During a battle with any contestant, if your perceptive sensing exceeds the opponent, you can create perceptive pressure on the opponent, and thus he will be unable to obtain the combat log.”

This world has a freedom setting: Killing off a contestant would give a 33% chance of obtaining loot (limited to a situation whereby a contestant kills another contestant). After contestants mutually assault each other, all damages will be weakened by 40%. (Above the worlds freedom setting, there was a prominent warning color) During a mutual combat between contestants, abnormalities like loss of sight, deafness, cripple etc will be reduced by 50%/ (For example, having your leg broken by a creature leading to a decrease of 70% in movement speed, by contestant’s decrease in movement speed will only be 35%).

“Pointer: After being attacked by a contestant, whenever a fatal attack is dealt (Life points reach zero), you will not immediately die but enter a state of heavy injuries. This state will preserve 10% of HP, movement speed will be reduced by 80% and every attribute be lowered by 50%.

“Warning: Any participation in killing off a contestant, will add 10 additional points to slayer value. Having slayer level would lead to higher chance of dropping a blood key when you die, thus becoming other’s hunting target.”

“Non-slayer contestants can attack/kill off slayer contestants without getting a slayer value.”

“After completing 1 main mission: Remove 1 point of slayer value.”

”

“After experiencing a world: Remove 10 points of slayer value.”

“Slayer contestants cannot conceal their own slayer value, any contestants can see it.”

“Slayer value will influence certain storyline character’s impression.”

“You automatically grasp the spoken language, free to interact with any character in this world. After leaving the world, you will unlearn it.”

“Accepted mission count: 1”

“Your appearance/identity has been altered, it will automatically be restored after returning to the present world. You can also engage in additional alterations with the nightmare realm. For any questions, please communicate it to your nightmare imprint, if u have the rights to the information then it will be answered to you.”

After receiving information, all the contestants surveyed each other. Within their eyes contained a thick menacing look. Undoubtedly, it was because of the phrase, “This world has a freedom setting: Killing off a contestant would give a 33% chance of obtaining loots.”

The bus continued to travel, not long later it halted outside a bar. From the exterior, this bar looked relatively ancient, Hyacinth flower hung down from its porch and its walls were made with rocks. A wooden bar signboard suspended from ontop, giving one the misconception of being back in the eighteenth century. Although the bar’s exterior looked ancient, it had an untainted and clean appearance. The bar’s signboard wrote the words “Leaky Cauldron Bar”.

A single file alighted from the bus, as the 3 managers started to enter into the bar. The audition location was actually in an old bar, it could be said to be rather shoddy. However, the contestants on scene were all elite characters, naturally they remained composed.

From outside, this bar looked very small, its area should not even reach 20 square metres. Instead, after entering one would discover the interior was extremely spacious. The thick and sturdy wooden tables were ancient. Even though it was during the day, white candles were still lit up on a candlestick. The surrounding walls were eroded from the wind overtime, it was extremely tattered and some areas even exposed its red bricks. The pillars had scars of being contaminated by termites. Several alcohol bottles were disorderly displayed as ornaments behind the bartender. The side window had a window frame design of the fifteenth century.

The 3 managers marched to the west of the bartender. A male was sitting upright, his body covered by a black cloak. His hair looked greasy and it extended to his shoulders. His nose had the special characteristics of a corsican. He had a cold and reclusive gaze, as though everything in this world was not worthy to be looked upon.

A manager walked up and said.

“Mr Snape, this is the latest batch of volunteers.”

The male nodded. Yet every contestant felt a tremble in their hearts, most of them knew who this male was. Because of that very reason, it formed a pressuring feeling on them. Sheyan had a slight impulse of using ‘Insight’, but after carefully considering he felt like it could trigger a severe consequence. Thus, he relinquished that impulse.

Snape raised his head, that cold heartless glare swept across the apprehensive contestants. Concurrently, the nightmare imprint released a notification:

“Main mission: Audition completed.”

“You received 1 achievement point.”

“You received another main mission: Certificate.”

“Hogwarts school is the most famous magic institute in this world, there is no other. The follow-up of the main mission will begin nearby Hogwarts school. You have an entire 48 hours to acquire a trust object, and use it as a certificate to enter Hogwarts school.”

“Mission pointer: If you are unable to complete the series of main mission, then you will be penalized 5000 utility points, but your period of stay in this world will be extended by a week. If within that you are unable to pay up your penalized 5000 utility points, then you will be eliminated.”

Snape observed the contestants for a long while, pausing for a while before using a dull and slow tone to speak.

“Within you guys, is there anyone who frequently encounters strange events in your lives?”

After a brief pause, some contestants glanced at each other and one of them spoke out probingly.

“Mister, sometimes tiny objects beside me would float up for no reason.”

“Oh?” Snape retrieved a soup ladle from the side and held onto it. He coldly replied. “Sit in front of me, look at this soup ladle and think of bending it in your heart. But only think, you cannot use your hands.”

Chapter 132: Two paths

This contestant sat down accordingly by the table, his hands obediently placed on his knees. Not even a second later, the soup ladle instantly bent! Snape was unconcerned, the soup ladle slightly swayed in his hand and returned to its upright state.

“Again.”

Snape declared indifferently.

This time, that contestant started to place more effort. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead before that soup ladle slowly bent. He panted as he wiped his sweat, once again looking at Snape expectantly.

“Again.” Snape continued to make him repeat his earlier actions.

Attempting the third time, that contestant required more effort. His entire body started vibrating slightly, as his eye socket looked like it was going to pop out. But after using full strength he was able to slightly bend the soup ladle. Snape persisted with his dead appearance, waving his hands as he pointed to that contestant saying.”

“Sit over there.”

That contestant had no clue on his performance result, as he helplessly went over to sit. At this moment, the beardy who was sitting beside Sheyan utilized his nightmare imprint to transit a message. This method no doubt would require utility points, but it prevented people from eavesdropping.

“That guy is called Jackson, he is a core member of the small party, the Banks syndicate. Rumour has it that his spirit has exceeded 25 points, and his known ability is called ‘fire tooth’. It is a flame type attacking skill, its might is relatively strong and can even cause burns.”

Presently, another contestant gathered up his courage and sat in front of Snape. Sheyan slightly nodded, sending another message over.

“Looks like Snape’s selection criteria is based on the contestant’s basic attribute: spirit and intelligence.”

Although Sheyan had pretty much figured out the intentions behind Snape and Hogwarts school, he still purposely asked Beardy.

“Heard Hogwarts only accepts those children with natural talent for magic? Then what is he accepting us for?”

A flash formed in Beardy’s eyes, his lips curling into a cold sneer.

“Magic is not limitless, it will also require the caster’s MP. After emptying out MP, if one wants to continue casting magic spells, then he would have to use his own life points as supplement. Hogwarts has a total of 4 schools. Even if students enlist when they are 10 – 12 years old, they would have to stay for at least 7 years. The entire Hogwarts school residence consists of at least 800 people, in total it will exceed over a thousand, yet the teaching and administrative staff only has 20 people!”

“Alright, even if there are countless magic and several house-elfs to support, the lifestyle of those little brats are definitely not an easy thing to support you know. A child under 14 years old would occasionally face certain difficulties in providing for themselves. Furthermore teenages would pose even more troubles, ‘Puppy love, sex, miscarriages, rebelling, jealous, drugs, fights, gangs’….. These are only the problematic issues faced by an ordinary school head. If these kids further possess destructive magic capabilities, then the problems it would bring would be twofold.”

“Therefore, they require several unskilled workers who grasp elementary magic. Their use would be the dirty and cumbersome jobs, while the venerable teachers would only require to move their mouths to teach them.” Sheyan was suddenly enlightened as he made a conclusion.

“Right, this world further possess magic which can completely erase people’s memories….this settles their ultimate worry. Once these temporary workers stayed for too long, they would then be awarded a considerable amount of remuneration and return to normal civilization after their memory wipe. Oh, wait, it is return to the Muggles society.”

While the two communicated, 7-8 others sat beside Jackson in succession. But after that, no one else went forward. Everyone understood their personal attributes and refrained from going up to lose face. Instead, those 3 managers stood at the side looking extremely nervous as they gritted their teeth. Probably the headcount that passed the audition would be related to their reward premium or even their year end bonus. Thus, they kept on displaying their flamboyant body language, trying their best to urge everyone try auditioning.

Under the awkward silence of the scenario, the 3 managers separated and started promoting. Unfortunately, Sheyan became their first target. Faced with this manager’s unceasing rambling of words, he wavered extremely quickly and shrugged his shoulders.

“Alright, I’ll try.”

Actually, Sheyan really hoped to interact directly with Snape. He wanted to find out how powerful, how patient he was and so on. His forbearance could be said to be the most valiant in the entire Harry Potter series, if Sheyan could gather a little information that would be not bad already.

When Sheyan sat down, he was leaning back on his chair with his eyes closed. When he realized Sheyan’s presence, his eyes slightly squinted open, using a probing glare to swiftly sweep through Sheyan and then displayed an extremely understandable action of waving his hand. Sheyan helplessly shrugged his shoulders as he stood up to leave. He was not surprise at this ending at all. Up till now, his intelligence was 5 points and spirit 4 points. Besides, the cruel fact was that ordinary people’s spirit would have even reached 5 points.

Snape’s audition concluded after 10 minutes. Two fortunate people managed to enter the honorary namelist at the end although they only managed to sway the soup ladle slightly. The remaining few were completely disregarded as Snape casually waved his black cloak. The guests within this bar seemed to be used to his sight, they only carried on drinking and whispered amongst themselves, not looking over here a single time.

Currently, Sheyan naturally sat together with Beardy. He introduced himself to Beardy as ‘Seaman’. Beardy introduced himself as Jack, and offered a significant phrase, ‘Jack as in Jack the Ripper.’

Jack was a fairly common name in western countries, it was roughly the same as China’s Qiang Ge. Apart from Captain Jack Sparrow, the other famous one was Jack the Ripper. He dismembered at least five women, plucking out their innards and even wrote a letter to challenge the police. More importantly, he never got arrested, and his name had long ago disappeared into history. Beardy adopting this name, naturally it contained a certain significance of ruthlessness and ferocity.

After exchanging their names, they shook hands and laughed. They also introduced their basic capabilities.

“I’m Jack, I can engage in mid range battles, obviously competent in close combat. Weak point is….. Unable to endure a prolonged fight.”

“I’m Seaman, good at successive high-speed attacks. Because I have high defensive capabilities, therefore prolonged battles are advantageous to me.”

“I sincerely feel, meeting you is really good luck.”

“Same here.”

The atmosphere inside the bar sunk into silence after Snape left with the selected contestants. The remaining people started whispering into each other’s ears, especially those that were already from a party. Currently, there were 12 contestants left, obviously they all inclined to attacks using physical force. They were abandoned and thus was feeling slightly grievance.

Instead Sheyan sat on his chair and shut his eyes to meditate. He was determined that the nightmare realm would never set such a high threshold from them. One primary main mission forcibly dumping away two-thirds of the people that came. Obviously, one cannot exclude the possibility of killing off one of those selected guys to rob them off their trust object. But the drop rate when a contestant dies is only 33%, if the motive was really that then wouldn’t the difficulty of this world be excessively overboard.

Thus, Sheyan could basically infer that there was another path from this nightmare realm, it was specifically arranged for these innocently unselected contestants. Since Snape had already appeared in this recruitment scene, then those physical fighters were vividly portrayed out. Suddenly, a thunderous booming of a motor engine stopping transmitted from outside. The doors of the pub were pushed open, that 2.5 metres tall, 2 metres wide door was thoroughly congested by an immense shadow. Even if that was so, that shadow still had to lower his head before entering the area.

This was a huge guy with thick beard and hair, he completely exceeded the height of an average person with his tremendous physique. Yet, his eyes sparkled with a quick-witted intelligence. His lips and nose were rather plump, ingeniously concealing the oppressive force from his immense body. After resting his gigantic and heavy butt onto a stool in the bar, that beech stool gave off a cracking groan but finally managed to bear the weight.

“Rubeus Hagrid.” Sheyan swiftly reiterated that name in his heart. “Father’s a wizard, mother’s a giant. He possess a gift for magic, but proficient in animal caring and can roughly tame any dangerous creature. He should currently be the key administration staff of Hogwarts, guarding the hunting grounds and more importantly he has gained the trust of Dumbledore.”

“Eh, Nick? Get me a glass of whiskey, don’t add ice.” Hagrid gestured towards the owner of the bar, and blissfully sipped the whiskey when it arrived. He then directed a resonant tone towards the remaining contestants and signalled to them.

“Lads, looks like I’m responsible for the rest of your audition. Firstly, please sit around me.”

Chapter 133: Strangely passing

Every contestant roughly knew Hagrid’s identity. They knew he was an important storyline character, as they picked themselves up and sat at Hagrid’s table. Hagrid raised his thick carrot-like finger and knocked against the table, clearing his throat he started:

“Gentlemen, passing my test just requires adequate strength. Apart from that, Hogwart’s caretaker Mr Filch is having a headache over those hyperactive and full of energy students. Coincidentally his doting wife Alice has fallen ill, thus Hogwarts has decided to recruit temporary handy workers to assist in their upcoming student enlisting. Alright, let us begin the test.”

After speaking, Hagrid started to search inside his huge moleskin coat, then instantly murmured:

“Weird, where is the item I borrowed from the Bloody Baron?”

But this half-giant’s expression quickly softened, he retracted his hand from his pocket and shockingly, he was holding onto another hand. More precisely, it was a translucent and light blue colored hand, it had a ghostly feel. Hagrid then loosened the translucent hand. It immediately floated up and constantly moved its fingers.

Hagrid heavily exhaled, raising his whisky up and twirling it, he faced the contestants and declared.

“Grab onto that hand, then press it down to the table. That’s how you will pass.”

This shocked the audience. That translucent hand purposefully teased the contestants by hooking its finger, provoking them greatly.

A contestant suddenly stood out, raising his voice:

“I’ll go!”

This contestant seemed to be very confident of his strength. Once he walked to the table, he grabbed onto that apparition hand and begun exerting force. It was clearly seen that the apparition hand was quickly pressed down and struck onto the table surface. Hagrid smiled and clapped, nodding his head saying:

“You’ve passed.”

Jack the Ripper lowered his voice and whispered:

“That guy is Venter, I’ve heard that his peak strength can reach 28 points. He uses a twol handed heavy sword, possessing great explosive strength. His specific capabilities are not known.”

At this moment, another contestant stood up, saying in a neutral tone:

“Mister Hagrid, I’m very interested in Mr Filch’s job. May I know what’s the test?”

Hagrid turned his head away to the bartender Nick and whistled to him.

“Nick, get me an open space.”

Bartender Nick was currently wiping a wine cup, he knocked it against the counter. Simultaneously, the vacant table and bench in the middle of the bar suddenly slid over, exposing a neat, 10 metre long space. Obviously, this bartender was not an ordinary person. Hagrid pointed at the empty space.

“Use your fastest speed to run from one side to the other. If you meet the time requirements, then you pass.”

Since this contestant dared to speak out, he naturally relied on something and easily passed the test.

Currently, adding his equipments, Sheyan’s strength had reached 13 points and his agility was merely 10 points. He naturally chose to wrestle with that apparition hand. Once he secured his grip, he concurrently felt a chilling sensation causing his body to tremble slightly. But that weird sensation quickly vanished. Sheyan started to exert strength to push down the apparition hand, however, he felt an immense resistance and had to exert great strength before pressing it down a little. Although he wasted much time, Sheyan still managed to pass the test.

Yet Jack the Ripper did not choose to compete against the apparition hand. He opted to take the sprinting test. He seemed like a person with high agility but yet his results couldn’t be considered good as he barely passed.

After Hagrid’s audition ended, there were still 3 contestants remaining. Sheyan could already conclude that in terms of strength, agility or spirit, they were all below 10 points and unable to pass. Then inferring, these people’s attributes should be based on charm, intelligence, physique or perceptive sensing.

Based on Sheyan’s previous understanding, people who possess these attributes had two possibilities. One was that the contestant had a purely high physique, his survivability was extremely high. The other was summoning masters who relied on summoning creatures to survive. Regarding these special ground, he believed that the nightmare realm would definitely have a separate arrangement.

Sure enough, after Hagrid counted his people, he turned to the three people.

“Gentlemen, very sorry that you don’t meet my requirements. But I feel that you have your redeeming qualities. Hogwarts train station is currently shorthanded, if you guys are interested you can try pleading with my beloved Nick to give you some work in Diagon alley.”

“Diagon alley!” After hearing that word, Sheyan’s heart skipped a beat. In this world, Diagon alley was the biggest marketplace for wizards. It had various rare magic items, living organisms, everything could be purchased there. Furthermore the biggest goblin bank Gringotts was located there. No doubt, it was a compensation for those contestants who gave up on the main mission. Although they were unable to enter Hogwarts school, they could still begin a new adventure in Diagon alley, a place brimming with opportunities.

The remaining 3 contestants glanced at each other. Two of them probably belonged to the same party, and chose to go to the train station. The other chose to work at Diagon alley.Hagrid drained the whisky in one gulp, he wiped his great beard and spoke to Sheyan and the rest.

“Let’s go, a few days later Hogwarts will welcome a huge amount of students. Nick! Can I use the fireplace on top?”

Nick was devotedly trying to blend a concoction of cocktails, without raising his head he replied.

“Hagrid, be careful, the Ministry of Magic might look for trouble with you.”

Hagrid ignorantly shrugged his shoulders.

“Time is tight, Dumbledore will allow this. You don’t know how terrible the state of Hogwarts is in now, it is like an overturned pot of cream of mushroom soup. You should have known, this year there is a new student with a special identity which is causing that person to become restless. Alright lads, follow me. There is a huge amount of work that needs completion. Of course, the remuneration will be significant.”

A single file strolled to the second floor of the bar, that little room was extremely congested. Hagrid sprinkled a handful of dust at the left side fireplace, that dust flickered with radiation as it scattered down slowly. Then this thing called Floo powder dispersed into the fireplace.

“Boom!” The flame inside the fireplace rapidly leapt up. Strangely, the surrounding people couldn’t feel any warmth. The colour of the flame rapidly changed and ultimately decide on dark green. Hagrid bent over, looking back and sincerely advising.

“Floo powder’s duration is only 3 minutes, if anyone misses it, then I regretfully inform you that you are fired.”

Following that, Hagrid entered into the fireplace, his massive built quickly disappeared into the flames. The rest of the contestants glanced at each other, but only Vanter led the way. Fiercely sweeping a look, he addressed the people beside him. “Lads, let’s go.” He then took the lead in entering the fireplace.

Since someone led the way, then naturally there would be others that followed. Sheyan was in no hurry to compete with others, he was the last to enter the fireplace. When that dark green flame roared at him, his subconscious mind shrunk back but yet he felt a warm wind breezing against his face. When he opened his eyes, it was pitch-black. After several minutes, a light glow appeared ahead, that light constantly became bigger just like a train that was about to exit a tunnel.

After that light turned into the entrance, Sheyan felt a strong force shoving against his back pushing him out as he stumbled a few steps ahead before regaining his balance. Looking back, the place he just exited from was an old fireplace. The place where he stood now looked like a scottish style wooden hut. The furnishing inside were all manufactured from logs, and it gave off a sweet resin fragrance. After exiting the hut he could see that the roof was painted red, like the hut was wearing a scarlet red cap.

The different huts were extremely organized here. They were arranged into a pocket-sized town. At the middle was a railway that directly meandered out to a faraway location. Looking at this scenery, Sheyan suddenly felt a certain nostalgia as though this was extremely familiar. This puzzle was instantly solved when he suddenly turned around! Actually, under the glow of the setting sun, there was a glistening vast lake. Beside the shore of this lake stood a castle that only appeared in a child’s fantasies, its grandeur was majestic!

The reality was that in a short span, he had already arrived by the side of Hogwarts school from the bustling London! Observing this environment, this was amazingly the final destination of the Hogwarts express from platform 9 and 3/4!

From a distance, a chatter travelled here. Hagrid was currently walking side by side with a male wearing a flax colored shirt. The two contestants who were recommended to work at the train station stood at one corner. It looked like the deal was done. Hagrid shook that guy’s hand, turning over and shouted.

“Guys come here, quickly! We still need to cross the black lake before daybreak.”

Chapter 134: Jobberknoll

As Hagrid spoke, Sheyan discovered that the group of agility specialized contestants hadn’t appeared, Jack the Ripper was similarly off the grid. Naturally those contestants that were part of a party started to realize this, Venter raised his brows and asked Hagrid.

“Mister Hagrid, may I ask where are the people selected by Mr Filch?”

Hagrid played with his beard and replied.

“They were directly sent to Filch through the fireplace. If there are no more questions, please hurry a little.”

Following that, they set off to cross the lake. However, Sheyan and the group of contestants naturally weren’t the main leads. They could only gaze at Hogwarts school from afar, and sailed towards the west. On the way, they went past a Quidditch court, then a lawn with extremely tall grass, where flying lessons took place. Finally they arrived near the strange and deep forbidden forest. Four towering and wide wooden houses stood here, this should probably be the housing that Hogwarts had arranged for them.

“Lads.” Hagrid clasped his hands and said. “Congratulations on being a temporary worker for the magnificent Hogwarts school. This will definitely provide you an unprecedented thrilling experience, and of course adequate funding. For your own safety, please remember by advice by heart.”

“The castle grounds are forbidden, you are not permitted to enter.”

“The woods behind you contain many dangers, similarly, you cannot enter there. There is a powerful magic formation covering the boundaries of the forbidden forest, you don’t have to worry about your safety here.”

“I believe you guys have encountered too many bizarre cases today. However in the time to come, you will definitely interact with more crazy circumstances that are seemingly impossible to be explained with science or words. But do not panic, you can look for me once you meet any problem. I stay in a little cabin roughly 200 metres from here.”

“If anyone seeks a little enjoyment or relaxation apart from work, my suggestion is to go fishing by the beautiful black lake, or maybe watch a quidditch match or something. A small rest room at the train station sells alcohol, beverages and even tiny and mystical toys. We will start work tomorrow, goodnight my friends.”

Gazing upon Hagrid’s massive figure slowly fading into the sunset, the remaining 10 contestants immediately divided into three different factions. Surprisingly,the faction with the greatest mancount was 5 people, its head was a contestant named Qiao Gun. The second group naturally had the 28 points strength expert Venter as leader, it comprises of 3 people. And the third group was naturally lone wolfs like Sheyan. Apart from Sheyan, there was another called Diaz. This contestant was cold and detached, folding both hands into his chest he seemed like the sort who was confident in his strength. That was why he could adopt a position to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight (Chinese idiom – taking a back stance while watching others fight).

Although Venter’s group of 3 had the manpower disadvantage, they remained calm and fearless when faced with Qiao Gun. The two groups were in a staring deadlock, but Venter laughed out coldly.

“Qiao Gun, I should inform you, the ‘Banks Syndicate’ is determined to get what it wants this time!”

Qian Gun smirked and replied.

“Banks Syndicate so what? Our Symbiosis sect invested greatly to purchase an assembling rock, allowing our entire party to enter the Harry Potter world. Although your power is great, where are you going to find reinforcement over here? If your Banks Syndicate wants to spoil our plans, then prepare for a blood bath!”

“Bloodbath? Based on you, Qiao Gun? HA HA HA!”

After speaking, Venter took off with his group, and teasingly knocked against Qiao Gun’s shoulder on his way out. They occupied the biggest wooden house. A flicker of craft and maliciousness glowed in Qiao Gun’s eyes, after a brief pause he then led his group to the other house.

There were 4 wooden houses here, every house could contain 5-6 people. The house interior was extremely tidy. The Banks syndicate occupied one house and the Symbiosis sect occupied the other. Two houses remained coincidentally for Sheyan and Diaz respectively.

Sheyan was fully aware that a tall trees attracts the wind, he constantly kept a low profile. When he slept, he did so cautiously in mind of the 33% chance of loot when a contestant dies. This itself gave contestants adequate motive! Fortunately, there weren’t any intense conflict between the contestants and thus it was relatively peaceful. A quiet night.

Early next morning, Hagrid already arrived here. He was holding onto a bag that was filled with 10 badges. Ordering that they had to always carry it as proof of identity if not there will be consequences. After receiving Hogwart’s ‘identity badge’, Sheyan received a list of notification.

“Main mission: Certified complete.”

“You receive 1 achievement point.”

“Continual main mission: Activate acknowledgement.”

“Mission summary: After welcoming the new students, gain the qualifications of remaining at Hogwarts school.”

“Mission description: You are currently on probation, once you commit any mistake you will get fired. You must receive Hagrid’s acknowledgement within the remaining 5 days, and earn a neutral impression with him.”

“Mission pointer: At present, Hagrid’s impression is cold (10/1000), you can raise your impression level by completing Hagrid’s tasks for you. There are also other methods of raising his impression.”

“Mission pointer: If you are unable to complete the series of main mission, then you will be penalized 5000 utility points, but your period of stay in this world will be extended by a week. If within that you are unable to pay up your penalized 5000 utility points, then you will be eliminated.”

Note: contestant’s relationship (impression) with storyline characters are separated into: Hostile, Cold, Neutral, Amicable, Respected, Revered and Worshiped.

There is nothing much to be said about hostile.

Cold: Storyline character will not be considerate towards you, and will not interact with you of their own accord.

Neutral: Storyline characters have some impression of you. If the storyline character offers a special product, one can pay twofold the price to first upgrade their relationship to an amicable one before being able to purchase the special reputable product.

Amicable: The storyline character treats you like a friend, you can purchase any special items from him. Unable to view special reputable products that requires ‘respected’ or higher reputation/ impression.

The rest are reasoned by analogy.

After everyone wore their badges did Hagrid start to allocate their respective jobs. Sheyan was pleasantly surprised as he was allocated as a maintenance crew for boats travelling on the black lake. The mission was: Because the following period will be the peak period of boats, therefore the state of wooden boats used to ferry students must be thoroughly maintained.

This job was undoubtedly bad news to the rest of them, but to Sheyan who even knew magnificent ships inside out, these little wooden boats were like a piece of cake. Hagrid gave time a timeframe of 2 days, but Sheyan completed it within an entire afternoon, he even accomplished it without a single blemish. After completing this mission, Hagrid’s impression towards him had risen by an entire 266 points! If not for Sheyan’s measly charm dragging him down, this job may have even propelled him to a third of his target!

Sheyan wasn’t the only lucky individual. Diaz received a pruning lawn job, he labored from morning till dusk and finally tidied up the flying lessons field completely! One must understand, lawn pruning is a physically intensive job, it also requires enough technique. Firstly, one must determine the temperature and humidity of the soil to determine the pruning strength, next one must understand the nature of the grass cultivating on the lawn. Additionally, after applying the fertilizer, if the requirements were stricter then one would have to further eradicate the weeds.

When a veteran gardener manages a lawn, no matter how vast it is there will not be any visible weeds that will grow out within 3 months. If a newcomer does the work, then batches of grass may even wither within a week. It will look like a person who had a bad haircut, extremely ugly. Furthermore, within a month weeds would start to spring up again. Diaz’s job scope was not in the least inferior to Sheyan’s one.

The other contestants had no clue that Sheyan and Diaz had certain advantages in accomplishing their mission. Yet when they submitted their job report, the wide smile on Hagrid’s face was definitely not bogus. Thus the way they looked upon Sheyan and Diaz was pretty cold. If the Banks Syndicate and the Symbiosis sect did not have any disputes, then they would long have noticed Sheyan and have their guards up against him. In the end, Diaz still appeared extremely unconcerned.

Early the next morning, Hagrid once again allocated different jobs. Sheyan had finally ran out of luck as he was tasked to capture a Jobberknoll at the edge of the forbidden forest. What was worse is that Sheyan had to capture it alive.

At least Hagrid provided Sheyan with some information. From it he could concur that the Jobberknoll had blue spots and eats tiny insects. It would not make a single sound its entire life until the moment where it’s life is threatened, only then will it give out a long cry. It’s cry would be the various sound that it heard of before, beginning with the nicest sound. Its feather can be used for truth serum and memory serum. Except the heart of the forbidden forest, it resides everywhere else.

Talking about catching birds, Sheyan was completely useless. Obviously, this set of missions is a way that the realm tests the cooperation of parties. If Sheyan had joined a party, then naturally a person with the relevant experience would assist him in catching birds, and Sheyan can relieve him of his other duty. Regrettably, under the strict hostility between the two parties, it was hard for Sheyan to feign complying and ask any party for help.

Chapter 135: Raging hatchet

After Hagrid finished allocating and left, Sheyan was suddenly obstructed by a contestant.

This contestant was a member from the Banks syndicate. His name was Sidang, his ability was….Sheyan already saw that his right hand was sticking underneath his armpit as he looked over with a pair of malicious brown eyes.

“Hey, blockhead, over there, now! If now i’ll blow up your ass!”

Hearing the word blockhead, Sheyan’s eyes twitched a little but his face remained still. However the muscles in his body instead started to tense up thinking of giving him a good one. But at this moment, from the side of his eyes he could see that Venter and the other contestant, Orlan, was currently coercing Diaz! His heart stirred as he took a step back, fuming out.

“What do you want?”

Sidang discerned Sheyan’s body language, he could sense that this person was showing strength but actually cowering inside. Laughing coldly he replied.

“Relax, as of now you are not worth the slayer value on me. Only, I saw you happily executing your work yesterday, so we want you to help us out with our job today.”

Sheyan felt for the metallic cup and fished it out, gulping down a mouthful as he faced the sky. As he was about to reply Sidang, he heard a loud ‘boom!’ and a large pit appeared in the ground. Black smoke was spiralling up, the grass and soil sprayed out everywhere! He only saw Venter and Diaz crossing their hands against their front, and swiftly retreating backwards. Obviously the two Banks syndicate members had agitated Diaz, causing him to outrageously take the first move!

Seizing the moment Sidang got distracted, Sheyan extended out both hands sharply! A flickering black hatchet appeared in his right hand. The shape of this hatchet looked concise but forceful, and the edge of the blade carried a trace of dried blood. It was reeking of blood and sorrow, that ‘butchering bone hatchet’!

A crows black glow flickered, Sheyan instantly swung down with his hatchet!

Sidang turned around in surprise! The reason they dared to look for trouble from Sheyan and Diaz the two lone contestants, was because Venter had already reached an agreement with the guys from the Symbiosis sect, and thus they wouldn’t interfere. He had predicted that Sheyan would resist, but he never expected Sheyan to resist with such ruthlessness! There was not a trace of fear, but instead he was brimming with mercilessness!

Sidang shrieked, and hurriedly leapt backwards. But that sharp axe blade streaked down his chest heavily, ripping apart his white leather jacket and a deep cut formed on the right hand he placed underneath his armpit. Shortly, his entire sleeve was soaked red.

Sheyan then followed up quickly with a stomp onto his left knee cap.

This guy screamed, but took the chance as he rolled on the floor to hurriedly pull open the gap between each other. If not for the regulation that ‘contestant damage to each other would be lowered by 40%’, this one chop and stomp would have done severe damage to Sidang. Even so, it had caused Sidang to break out in cold sweat.

At the instance Sheyan dealt this damage to Sidang, he had already received the notification:

“Your perceptive sensing exceeds your opponent, thus creating a perceptive pressure. Your enemy can only obtain basic information from their combat log.”

Even though Sidang tried his best to pull apart, Sheyan’s current advanced ability ‘Grappling’ was already lvl 2, furthermore his basic footwork was lvl 4 in addition to the movement bonus from the ‘endless vodka’. Based on speed alone, he already widely overwhelmed his opponent! Sidang crawled back up in a terrible state, pulling out half out his shotgun that was hidden beneath the armpit. Instead, Sheyan had already crazily pounced to his front, his right hand gripping tightly on the ‘butchering bone hatchet’ as he ferociously swung down again!

Blood spurted out, this hatchet had bluntly chopped onto Sidang’s right wrist. He let out a shrilling shriek, swinging a desperate kick at Sheyan’s belly. Although the might of the kick wasn’t great, it managed to block Sheyan’s advance and allowed Sidang to borrow the impact force and roll away. As he rolled away, his left hand fished out that shotgun (A M3 shotgun) as the black barrel aimed over. It was widely understood, that a shotgun was way more threatening in close proximity than long distance!

Sheyan’s expression did not waver, as though he completely disregarded the terrifying might of a shotgun and instead took a step forward, swinging out his hatchet fanatically! “Boom!” Sidang gritted his teeth as he pressed the trigger! The torrent of steel balls sprayed out towards its opponent crazily, splashing against Sheyan’s body as his blood and flesh blended against his shirt and smoke.

But simultaneously, that ferocious hatchet had arrived with a whistle, completely chopping against the crack between Sidang’s left middle and ring finger, swinging down with immense strength! At present, Sheyan’s ‘intoxicated man’ title was already activated, furthermore this ‘butchering bone hatchet’ gave a bonus 2% explosive rate. This one strike hatchet carried an explosive hit effect! It directly sunk into half of Sidang’s palm, and its unwavering might carried it further into the space between the Ulnaand Radius of his forearm before jamming to a halt. If not for the passive ability from the shotgun ‘Repel’, his one chop may have really chopped off half of Sidang’s arm!

(TN: * The two bones of a person’s forearm)

This was the problem of being too accustomed to a party. In a party everyone’s role is defined and they each fulfilled their given duty, furthermore Sidang’s party companions are now all inclined towards close range combat. The shotgun he used was a dark blue equipment, not only was its power immense, it even had a 100% effect of repelling the enemy. Therefore he would normally not bother much in collecting equipment or pumping attribute points towards physique, but instead placed more emphasis on strength and agility. The basic ability he enhanced would also be more inclined to basic long range combat.

To Sidang, strength can greatly enhance the range and stability of the shotgun, even if the shotgun fell back his strength could back him up. And agility was used to enhance his firing speed and pursuing an enemy, more importantly it gave him a higher chance of fleeing. Therefore, his physique was merely 8 points! Which meant that his life points were only worth 80 points, and the defence brought from 8 points of physique was a mere 4 points which amounted to reducing roughly 10% of damage.

Instead for Sheyan, his strength had already reached an impressive 13 points, adding the additional attack power of the ‘butchering bone hatchet’ and more important with his lvl 2 advanced grappling ability. Yet Sidang did not have a single advanced ability! Therefore, every time the axe head chopped down, from a reasonable point it would at least deal close to 50 points of damage. Even if the damage was reduced by 40% due to the contestant battling regulation, Sheyan had actually dealt a explosive strike! Although it was weakened by the regulation, and not for Sidang’s shotgun passive ability activating, that hatchet had already robbed him of half his life!

The heavily wounded Sidang screamed out in misery! He suddenly realized that approaching this guy so closely was such a foolish action! However, he was a contestant that had already survived through several worlds, he had faced such a dangerous situation before. Thus he didn’t get knocked down from the pain of his shattered limbs. He bit his bloodied teeth and concurrently activated a protective ability.

“reclining leap!”

Sheyan had already seen this ability in the marketplace, it belonged to a class of ability that required no prerequisites or vocation restrictions. After usage it can greatly raise the user’s jumping capability in an instant, and swiftly leap backwards by 5 to 8 metres. But its cool down duration was very long, but even if that was so, its price remained high in the marketplace. This Sidang actually possessed this ability.

Furthermore, Sidang was able to become a core member in his party, it was not merely relying on luck or eloquence. When he leapt backwards, he made a weird movement as a smoking grenade suddenly fell from his waist, and rolled between him and Sheyan. If Sheyan wanted to pursue and attack, then he would have to face this grenade head on!

Actually this scenario, was extremely similar to when he faced off with Cazider when he first entered the nightmare world! Although Cazider did not possess this ‘reclining leap’ ability, but his rich battle experience and wits were not in any way inferior to Sidang. When faced against Cazider, Sheyan actually retreated upon seeing the smoking grenade. But now, Sheyan instead chose to advance!

Fearlessly charging head on!

His body slightly leaned forward, his breathing steady as he every step he took carried extreme precision!

The explosive sound of the grenade rung by his side, a massive force surged against him. Sharp shrapnel sprayed out, spurting like a jet stream against Sheyan and forcefully ripping his skin apart. Boiling fresh blood fanatically gushed out, but from the ripped holes on his shirt, it leaked out a bronze and durable flesh outline which contained a fierce aggressiveness. The agony was ripping flesh was like adrenaline and produced a scorching sensation over Sheyan. His closely target locked pair of eyes exhibited a frenzied and boiling expression!

From Sidang’s perspective, he clearly pulled away 7-8 metres from his opponent, and even tossed out a grenade as deterrence. Instead when the smoke dispersed, only a dreadful black hatchet flashed in his sight just like a nightmare! This person was actually a lunatic who would charge towards a grenade! Following that, the completely stunned Sidang only heard two consecutive and oppressive bone shattering muffles. That was the sound of Sheyan’s hatchet forcefully chopping into his flesh and even reaching his bones. After that, he straightforwardly sunk into a near death state and fainted.

Chapter 136: Disguising as insane

Sheyan cut quite a sorry state at this moment, his face was blackened by the fumes of the grenade explosion, and his body had actually endured the explosive outburst of a shotgun! His clothes and pants were torn and tattered. Dozens of wounds covered his entire body as it leaked out blood. But after receiving the dozens of shrapnel from the shotgun, it actually activated the passive effect of his accessory ‘obsidian fossil anchor’! His physique soared to a terrifying 30 points, it was his pinnacle state!

Based on the combat log, receiving such a close proximity attack from a shotgun was reasonably 217 points of damage, and the explosion impact of that grenade was even higher nearing 240 points. But there was the regulating 40% of damage reduction, and thus the damage of the shotgun was reduced to 130 points, and the grenade to 144 points.

Adding the terrifying 15 points of defence due to his full force 30 points physique, that was an entire 37% of damage absorption. That attack damage from the shotgun once again declined to 82 points, and 90 points for the grenade.

And finally, Sheyan’s last layer of protection! That was his innate ability ‘endurance’, every physical attack would be reduced by 25 points of damage. Therefore after calculating, the two frightening attacks only amounted to a total of roughly 120 points of damage. Of course to Sidang, this was enough to deal a fatal blow to him. But to a monster like Sheyan who possessed 300 HP, that 120 points of damage was nothing much.

Actually for Sidang, if he wasn’t that careless, leveraging on the ‘repelling’ ability of his shotgun, coupled with the scope of explosion by the grenade in addition to his ‘reclining leap’ ability, he would be able to escape from Sheyan. But that was if he could pull apart a distance of 10 metres from Sheyan. If anything went wrong, he would then face the full consequence of his blunder.

Sheyan wasn’t in a hurry to kill off Sidang, he only trampled his feet on Sidang’s throat. This action prevented the remaining two guys from the Banks Syndicate from making any rash movements. He bent his back down, with both hands on his knees as he panted heavily. He then put up an act, as if he was trying to impatiently treat his injuries, just like an arrow at the end of its flight.

The nearby contestants initially trembled at the brazen and outrageous style of attacking Sheyan displayed, but looking at his current weak state their hearts were relieved. They had seen many individuals like Sheyan who seemed to be fearless towards death, as long as they held the manpower advantage, then reckless individuals like Sheyan were nothing to them.

Sidang was an unlucky brat. In the present world he was a fairly skilled mechanic, and his innate ability was somewhat related, named ‘preheat’. This ability can be shared to his allies, which will increase their damage by 30% after three consecutive attacks. Only his defeat was swift and sudden, and thoroughly lost before this activity came into effect!

The other battle had also reached its climax. The rumored strength overlord (28 points), Venter, wielding his two-handed broadsword swung his sword with formidable vigor. Even if the blade chopped against the empty air, the surrounding earth particles would disperse out violently showing off its incomparable might. Instead, the motionless Orlan had already collapsed far away, his condition unknown. Yet Diaz utilized an extremely peculiar weapon, a karabiner rifle.

This class of rifle could be said to be the ancestor of all modern day rifles, its model was created through many famous weapons organization in China. The rifles shooting speed was very slow, its magazine capacity was only 3-5 rounds of bullets. But it’s firepower was tremendous, possessing great killing force in addition to its attached bayonet and sturdy wooden butt. At this moment, the Karabiner rifle was releasing a faint, dark blue glow. Although Diaz had suffered a heavy slash on his back, he skillfully used this karabiner rifle to evade and counterattack. He seemed incomparably matchless, equally valiant in both far or close combat.

Observing that Diaz was gradually losing ground, the main leader of the Symbiosis sect,Qiao Gun, called out.

“Venter, Hagrid has already left the opposite bank and is about to return. What do you think he will do when he sees this situation? Honestly, I would be pleased to see your contract being terminated, but your actions can in fact implicate innocent parties like us and jeopardize our chances of passing!”

Venter suddenly lashed out with his sword, a blue glow flickered on his dual-handed broadsword as it heavily struck against the butt of Diaz’s rifle. Instantly, a profound dent appeared on that thick rifle butt. Instead, Diaz was pushed back by 5-6 steps, his face had turned pale as he spat out a mouthful of blood. Venter didn’t continue assaulting, he turned to Sheyan and shouted out.

“Kill him if you dare!”

Sheyan laughed, exposing his bloodied teeth displaying a plain cruelty.

“��û�֣���������������֫�ĵ��ӻ����еġ�”

“I don’t dare, but slicing off his limbs will do.”

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Venter’s facial muscles twitched and scolded back.

“��������”

“What do you want?”

Sheyan calmly replied.

“In the battle, I just used a medicine, and two items! Its worth is 3000 utility points. I don’t care who, but you better compensate me a little. If not just watch this guy turn into a cripple.”

Venter took a deep breath and shut his eyes. One could see he was gripping his sword so hard his palm had turned white. Then he reached his hand into his bosom, and took out something! Tossing it to Sheyan he shouted.

“Take it and scram!”

As Sheyan caught it, the nightmare imprint instantly transmitted information.

US army excellent battlefield bandage

Origin: California, San Francisco, Third medical facilities plant

Equipment rarity: Light blue

Materials: Cotton, flax and hemostatic dose

Bandage: After wrapping your wound, it can instantly stop loss of blood effect, and heal 60 HP within 30 seconds.

Pointer: Regeneration of HP effect will be broken by being attacked.

Pointer: After using the bandage and within 300 seconds, other medicines of the same kind would have no effect.

Description: ‘Excellent’ this word brings comfort to all.

Sheyan shrugged his shoulders, and finally lifted his feet from the neck of the now semi-conscious Sidang. Sidang finally had breathing space. Glancing at Qiao Gun, he held some gratitude in his eyes. Qiao Gun’s information was considerably fast and effective. Obviously within his party, there was probably a member who previously entered this world and climbed to a high position, and thus was able to promptly notify him. Sure enough, not even 10 minutes later, the massive figure of Hagrid clumsily appeared at his house entrance and then marched towards here. Looking at Sidang, he exclaimed in shock.

“Oh! Lord, did he just return from the Normandy war in France?”

Orlan was better off. He was only shot by a anaesthetic bullet, and woke up after several minutes. But Sidang didn’t have this good fortune, he was in a near death state and his right hand semi-crippled. His left arm had also suffered a fierce blow. Even if a contestant had a tyrannical physique, it was impossible to regenerate in such a short duration.

Nobody spoke, because the nightmare realm encouraged group coordination. Just like what Qiao Gun mentioned, if Hagrid knew that this bunch of ‘hired workers’ had internal strifes, it would no doubt influence the exploration rate or even mission score of every individual. To those that relied heavily on their parties, these two criterias were essential.

“Mr Hagrid.” Qiao Gun walked up, politely addressing. “An accident, our poor Sidang wanted to climb up the tree to complete his job, but unfortunately fell down. Unluckily, he landed on the axe beneath…..”

Hagrid glanced at the nearby tree, and then towards the semi-conscious Sidang. He then ruffled his messy hair and mumbled to himself.

“Strange, impossible, normally this shouldn’t happen…..”

As he mumbled on, his audience exhibited a sorrowful look. Hagrid shook his head as he lifted Sidang, he then apologetically shrugged his shoulders and said.

“School hasn’t started, Madam Pomfrey (The school doctor) is not in yet. Let me be in charge of his treatment.”

The crowd watched as Hagrid carried the 1.8 metres tall Sidang away, it felt like an adult carrying a little chick. 10 metres away, Hagrid suddenly turn his head and sincerely spoke.

“Injuries are injuries, but workers you still have to complete your work. Truthfully, I hate having to dismiss people. Also before the sun sets, I hope to see this pitiful lawn restored to its original state.”

Hagrid’s words were like whip lashing out swiftly against everyone. The contestants started to panic and carried out their work. Obviously, Hagrid’s meaning was, ‘injuries happen, but the work still has to be completed, if not he will dismiss them!

After the earlier battle, Sheyan had ingeniously gave off an impression of lunatic and fearlessness to others. This sort of courageous character was greatly welcomed in parties, but they died the fastest. But under this complicated circumstances, if anyone wanted to attack him, they had to first consider if it was worth the risk.

In contrast, Diaz’s strength capabilities attracted everyone’s caution. Fighting one against two was something many contestant could do, but soloing against Venter and Orlan was different, furthermore he even managed to take one down! Such strength, even a core member of the symbiosis sect would find it hard to achieve, why wouldn’t it attract the attention of others? Sheyan instead chose to lie low and quiet against notorious and arrogant characters like Venter, awaiting for an opportunity to arise.

Chapter 137: Bowtruckle!

The trees grew sparsely inside the forbidden forest. The trees on the edge of the forest were thin and the ground bare. Grass appeared rarely, and even the tree leaves had a layer of black on top. A dull fog floated adrift along the forest grounds, causing the vision to be limited. While circling the forest edge in search for a Jobberknoll, Sheyan caught sight of a massive and evil looking tree through the dense fog. Its roots occupied a square mile, its enormous roots were like the veins of a terminal cancer patient warping and intertwining each other.

Just by gazing at this tree, an immense horror formed in Sheyan’s heart. Obviously it was his perceptive sensing warning him intensely. Without hesitation, Sheyan turned around and fled, this was not a time to play hero. Based on his prior knowledge, the dangers lurking within were countless. Werewolves, unicorns, centaurs,the Acromantula Aragog, whomping willow…… Of course, the biggest danger was Lord Voldemort who was currently inside hunting the unicorn in order to absorb its blood!

Finally, Sheyan found the thing he wanted on a collapsed dead tree.

Four maggots.

This was the larva of an emerald green scarab. This sort of fatty maggot is the top-quality food for a Jobberknoll, just like how caviar is to a human. The maggot normally grows inside a decomposing log, it is completely obnoxious to bird species like the woodpecker, but since the food menu of the Jobberknoll includes insects, Sheyan had full confidence they would be extremely interested in his 4 dishes. Human’s die for wealth and birds for food, this phrase is a millennium year old chinese proverb.

The next step was to find a medium size and luscious tree, the best was to have an umbrella treetop. Jobberknolls loved to rest on such trees. Sheyan’s plan was to conceal a small noose along the tree branch, placing the maggot in the middle. Once the bird pecks on the maggot, the lasso would be tightened and be reigned in. Actually this snare could be easily shaken off, but Sheyan’s reaction was almost three times an average person. Therefore, he could trap the Jobberknoll in a flash, and had high confidence of accomplishing the day’s mission.

Time sped by, and Sheyan only found a tree that fulfills his requirements at noon. He carefully surveyed his surroundings for any danger, before approaching the tree boldly. Just when he prepared to climb the tree, suddenly the original serenity was suddenly broken. A dark figure pounced towards Sheyan’s head. That audacious sharp claws dug into the tree bark producing cracking sounds as wood splinters sprayed out! Sheyan faced up in astonishment, blood gushed out from his face as his eye area seemed to suffer a heavy blow!

That shadow was unstoppable, landing on the ground as the soil around him burst out. Within a second, that shadow once again pounced towards the bloody mess of Sheyan’s face. Yet Sheyan didn’t panic, he grabbed out ferociously with his left hand and managed to catch that black figure in mid air. The figure instantly gave off an unpleasant shriek. It sounded like a cicada that was stuck in his hand. Sheyan then gently opened his eyes, the corner of his left eye displayed out a 5 cm long cut, as blood streamed down. If one didn’t look carefully, he would really believed that his left eye was the victim.

That black figure was roughly the size of a palm. Its skin had a camouflage color, which looked to be formed with wooden bark and branches. It had a pair of small brown eyes, flat mouth and its teeth were a slight plant green. Yet its incisive claws were like that of a cat which could be retracted anytime, and extend out anytime. It looked rather comical, but looking at the state of Sheyan’s wound, it was definitely not as harmless as it appeared to be.

“What is this?” Sheyan was quite amazed.

Quickly the nightmare imprint transmitted a notification.

“You caught a unique creature to this world: Bowtruckle.”

“Its corresponding milestone is activated.”

“Biologist: Finding 11 different species of unique creatures in the Harry Potter’s world. Currently discovered: Bowtruckle.”

“Doting Man: You please 50 different Bowtruckles.” (Milestone cannot exist with ‘Cruel Man’ milestone)

“Cruel Man: Kill 200 Bowtruckles.” (Milestone cannot exist with ‘Doting Man’ milestone)

“British museum honorary member: Submit a Bowtruckle to London’s british museum.” (Warning: this action will incur the punishment of the Ministry of Magic)

“Warmhearted man: Separately complete the final commissions from the 4 magical shops in London. One of the missions, Final commission of Gringotts manager: Infiniti Franc. He wishes that you find a Bowtruckle’s gallstone. Normally, only a boss Bowtruckle has a small chance of growing a gallstone. (Mission has not been activated)”

Seeing the name Bowtruckle, Sheyan recalled several pieces of information he previously gathered.

A Bowtruckle is a creature that protects a tree. It mainly resides in certain forests in west England, South Germany and Scandinavia. It has a pair of brown eyes, small body (the biggest is roughly 8 inches), and its exterior is made from bark and branches weaved together, helping it camouflage.

A Bowtruckle is a gentle and shy creature, it only eats insects. But when it feels that the tree its protecting is under threat, it would immediately jump down and charge towards any lumbering worker that threatens its habitat. Using its sharp incisive claws to dig out their eyes. If a wizard offers a ground beetle to the Bowtruckle, it will calm it down for a long time and thus would be able to obtain wood from the tree and manufacture wands.

He suddenly recalled a few words spoken to him by Hagrid. He was enlightened, actually Hagrid wasn’t suspicious of the contestant’s speech, but he thought that the unlucky Sidang got assaulted by a Bowtruckle when climbing the tree. Hagrid was wondering why the tree would have a Bowtruckle, and not about the injuries on Sidang.

Going through the list of corresponding milestones the Bowtruckle provided, Sheyan pondered for a moment. Obviously, the only milestone in his scope of capabilities was ‘Doting Man’ and ‘Cruel Man’. But it seemed like the ‘Cruel Man’ could be completely more swiftly, but such a huge amount of 200 was enough to let others feel powerless. (Gamers would know, solo killing 200 creatures is a terribly excruciating mission)

In comparison, ‘Doting Man’ had a much friendlier headcount requirement. Furthermore, the requirements to please them wasn’t very high, just feeding them adequate beetles was enough to coax them. But where would Sheyan find so many ground beetles? Searching far and wide, he only found a few. Since the situation was hopeless, he released the Bowtruckle in his hand. That fella immediately ran off after suffering a little. Similarly, 7-8 other bowtruckles resting on the same tree fled as well, and thus would not foil Sheyan’s plan to catch a Jobberknoll.

After Sheyan devised his snare, he waited. Not even half an hour later, a Jobberknoll flew in. This bird was rather plump, it looked rather enticing. Plucking out its feathers, sprinkling spices onto it and roasting it, it would make such a delicious meal. This Jobberknoll seemed rather clever, it circled around cautiously before landing as though it knew there was an imminent danger waiting for it.

After a long wait, the bird then dove down in an imposing manner, charging straight to Sheyan’s prepared delicacy. The snare very smoothly activated, but was immediately snapped off by the fat bird, it was like it did not place Sheyan’s lasso within its eyes. After observing for a while, Sheyan finally saw the light. Actually it wasn’t that this bird was so clever that it saw through the snare, it was because previously it had suffered due to the protective Bowtruckle, which was why it was so cautious…..

After a short while, a few more Jobberknolls flew over. They halted unexpectedly as though they had developed some amicable preference for this beautifully shaped tree. Sheyan crept closer to probe if they would fly away. Only when he reached the bottom and was about to leap up, did the birds fly away. When Sheyan distanced himself, they once again flew back to the tree effortlessly.

Seeing this situation, Sheyan formulated a plan in his heart. He once again returned to that decomposed log, and dug out 7-8 maggots. He then placed one beneath the tree, and hid himself 7-8 metres away.

Expectedly, that group of fat birds darted down like an aircraft, completely gobbling up the maggots. It then returned to the tree and shook its head vigorously.

Sheyan placed another, but this time he stood 5-6 metres away. He then expressed an extremely firm but harmless attitude, definitely not leaving.

The flock of birds hesitated, but the initial Jobberknoll that came darted down without hesitation. He snatched away the maggot and slowly indulged in it. The other birds looked on with envy and rage, their hearts filled with jealousy and regret.

Sheyan continued to place the maggots, and walked away.

When he was left with two maggots, he straightforwardly threw it in front of his legs. The group of confused birds started hesitating, but once again that foolishly bold one straightforwardly charged downwards. Seeing that bird leading the way, the other competitive birds similarly charged down. Sheyan took a breath and withdrew both hands. The button on his shirt had already been slipped off. He stood still against the onslaught of birds, leisurely receiving the Jobberknolls into his shirt and then closing it off.

Chapter 138: Hagrid’s weakness

Actually the crux of this mission wasn’t in finding the Jobberknoll, but finding a tree they loved and first scaring away the threatening Bowtruckle. Most of the trees in the forbidden forest were withered and dead, only the protection of a Bowtruckle could give a tree a chance at survival. Therefore, the Jobberknolls loved to reside on a tree that was protected by Bowtruckles. Once he found the tree, then it wasn’t hard to get the birds to the bait.

Sheyan brought back a bag of birds, and Hagrid naturally praised him. Because the mission requirement was only capturing one, yet he actually brought back a nest. Thus his impression soared from 276/1000 to 476/1000. But it was only midday, Sheyan wanted to strike when the iron was still hot and accept more missions. But at this moment, the enchantment bell from Hagrid’s house suddenly notified him of a visitor. Sheyan could only return to camp.

Lunch was sent by a few house-elves from Hogwarts. But hoping for a sumptuous meal that students enjoyed was too far-fetched, it was definitely just a hamburger or something. Probably because of his previous feud with the Banks syndicate where he displayed his capabilities, the Symbiosis sect people treated him kindly. Sheyan then casually asked a memer of the Symbiosis sect on where to find ground beetles. That person merely shook his head, but a voice travelled to Sheyan’s side.

“You’ve encountered a bowtruckle?”

Sheyan turned his head over, he then saw Diaz standing nearby with his shirt hung over his shoulder. His right hand was dragging onto a huge bag that looked gloomy and even had blood dripping from it. Besides, his left hand also had a distinct scar. Sheyan similarly was classified as a neutral contestant, he nodded and replied.

“Yeah. Eh, Hagrid tasked you with such a gruesome job.”

Diaz whispered.

“Take the train to the mountain range about a hundred kilometres from here, purchase the internal organs of 3 brown bears.”

Sheyan excitedly raised his shoulders.

“Wa! That is such a dangerous and disgusting mission. Right, I encountered a bowtruckle. Do you have any good suggestions?”

Diaz still remained his cool appearance, bluntly putting out.

“Regarding questions about bowtruckles, one for 100 utility points. 500 utility points and I will tell you every relevant information, of course I know the prerequisites. This deal can be officiated by the nightmare imprint.”

Sheyan laughed. Diaz’s second offer was a trap, because it was solely based on the conjuncture that Diaz should know a great deal about bowtruckles. Choosing to pay 100 utility points was more worthwhile. But after considering deeply, he still chose to pay 500 utility points. Besides, he had obtained 600 utility points from Hagrid’s mission, it was enough to even out this deal. Diaz also complied with the deal regulation, and coughed out everything he knew.

Actually, bowtruckles liking ground beetles was only a myth. Hagrid possessed giant blood, and he grew up amongst the giants. Thus the information of ‘ground beetles’ he gave to Sheyan was in fact just a figure of speech the giants used. It actually referred to a beetle that resided in the water. This beetle loved to move about in the sludge, and underneath moisty rocks. Sheyan would never be able to find it in the grasslands.

Furthermore, Sheyan obtained very valuable information. There was a detailed report on the relevant milestone ‘Warm Hearted man’. After completing this milestone, he will automatically obtain the title ‘Omnipotent’. That title was rare, and its attribute bonus were extremely outstanding: All user attributes +3!

Of course, a high reward would mean huge risks. To complete the milestone ‘Warm hearted man’, one must first complete the final commissioning of Eeylops Owl Emporium / Gringgots manager / magic goods shop (The one that sells the Nimbus 2000) / Borgin and Burkes magic shop, these 4 magic shops.

The first 3 merchant shops resided in the magic marketplace, Diagon alley. The last shop was in knockturn alley, an assembling corner for dark magicians and wizards.

Noteworthily, before completion of the milestone, there is the word ‘final’ in front of commission. This implied that first one had to earn the trust of the owners of these 4 shops, and then finally obtain the qualifications for the final commissioning. Although the owner from Borgin and Burkes wasn’t very tough, the mission he gave was a chained mission which resulted in more complications and may not be inferior to the other shop missions but in fact be harder.

The final beneficial information is that after completing the ‘doting man’ milestone, one will obtain a title ‘Bowtruckles feedback (fast)’. Anywhere within 30 metres of any existence of trees, under combat state your HP regeneration will have a bonus 25 points per minute. Furthermore there was a tag ‘(fast)’ behind the title, this indicated it belonged to fast equipping ability which meant that even in combat state, this title can anytime be swifty substituted. If Sheyan was caught in a tussle with his opponent, and coincidentally there were trees close by, then by changing to his title and lasting for 4 minutes, Sheyan would have been able to regain an additional 100 HP.

However, after completing the ‘doting man’ milestone, he would be unable to complete the ‘cruel man’ milestone. Only one could be chosen. The ‘cruel man’ milestone did not give any title upon completion, but will instead reward 2 achievement points.

Therefore in the afternoon, Sheyan managed to successfully locate a small stream filled with beetles. He then carried a huge bag of beetles to the edge of the forbidden forest, and started searching for bowtruckles to gain their favour. Up till here, Sheyan was glad he didn’t choose the ‘cruel man’ milestone. Not because the attacking strength of the bowtruckles was too great, but because they simply too hard to locate.

This minute creature would normally only surface when a person approaches the tree, if not it will peacefully rest atop the tree and not make a single movement. Sheyan wouldn’t be able to engage every single tree in the forbidden forest. The only consolation was that the tree protected by bowtruckles would be more luscious, which lessens much of Sheyan’s burdens.

As nightfall approached, Sheyan didn’t dare to risk staying on near the forbidden forest. The vicious creatures that may randomly appear are not something he could handle. An entire afternoon’s worth of work only earned him 23 bowtruckles. And when he returned to the camp, he discovered that every member of the Symbiosis sect was silently gathered around a bonfire. The atmosphere was deathly still. Surprisingly, the normally reclusive Diaz was also at the meeting.

“Seaman.” The head of the Symbiosis sect, Qiao Gun, stood up. His expression sunken as he faced Sheyan saying. “There’re some extremely unfavourable news for you, me and everyone else. This is truly a misfortune.”

Sheyan was slightly taken aback, but immediately calmed himself down. Probing out he asked.

“Is it that Banks Syndicate?”

“Yes.” Qiao Gun lowered his voice. “That giant Hagrid will not be appearing anytime soon for at least 48 hours. If I’m not wrong, the next time he will be back to issue jobs would be the last afternoon of our five days timeframe. This means the one with the best performance now, would have to raise their impression by over 500 points on the last day! That is simply an impossible task.”

“What why?” Hard to believe, the one who spoke up was actually Diaz. “Hagrid doing this, is completely neglecting his duty! Won’t he be punished by Hogwarts?”

Qiao Gun snorted and replied.

“Everyone has a weakness, Hagrid is no exception. That idiot has a passion in rearing various dangerous and rare creatures! Even in the main storyline, for the sake of a dragon egg he accidentally leaked out the secret of the cerberus. His behavior led to the philosopher’s stone being stolen. Banks Syndicate has similarly identified this weakness!”

“Within the Banks Syndicate, there are others who have entered this world before and their identity a mystery. But one thing can be confirmed is that he has already gained the trust of an important storyline character, and thus acquired certain influence. Furthermore this time entering, the banks syndicate had sacrificed a huge price, to bring in a young bug species from the ‘Starship Troopers’ world. This bug in this world, is a completely new creature species.

“When someone from the Banks Syndicate utilizes this young bug species to make a deal with Hagrid, not only can they obtain a generous reward, they also injected anesthesia into the bug which can last for an entire 50 hours. To Hagrid who is infatuated with rearing creatures, he will loss his mind and toss aside all the unimportant task that on hand, concentrating solely on taking care of that small bastard. This is just like when anyone is horny and come across a naked and sexy woman with blossoming chest and chubby buttcheeks, you would certainly toss aside your duty. Gentlemen, Hogwarts is currently managed by Dumbledore, he is a person who can entrust his life with Hagrid. Under such circumstances, no matter what problems arise, that silly Hagrid would only be berated a little that’s all. Yet we would meet a tragic end even before the main show has started! Without our aid, boss is inevitably isolated and without help, our original plan is completely wasted!”

Chapter 139: Foiled plan

Speaking till here, Qiao Gun sat down and helplessly leaned back.

“I can only tell you this much, everyone’s predicament is disastrous, if there’s any good suggestions please say it.”

Diaz was still in disbelieve.

“Then what about Venter and those 3 bastards? Wouldn’t they similarly be unable to raise their impressions?”

QIao Gun coldly replied.

“The banks syndicate handed over the young bug to those 3. Venter was tasked to make the deal with Hagrid, therefore those 3 scumbags in Hagrid’s heart…… they have already accomplished this damned main mission.”

Sheyan knew that Qiao Gun wouldn’t spew all these words without a reason. A contestant would never engage in something that had no benefits, he probably already had an opinion within his party. Therefore, undoubtedly he was try to observe Sheyan and Diaz’s reaction. Sheyan had already previously already constructed an image of someone brave, thus he immediately jumped out and started fuming out with vulgarities. That unceasing torrent of vulgarities caused Qiao Gun to expose a look of disdain in his eyes but instantly withdrew it.

When Sheyan was tired from all the scoldings, Qiao Gun then clasp his hands together.

“What about you Diaz? Any opinions?”

Diaz pinched his own finger, coldly replying.

“Everything the Banks Syndicate has done only verifies one thing. That is being able to use unconventional methods to gain Hagrid’s approval. Therefore, we can likewise do the same.”

Listening to Diaz’s words, a flicker of light flashed in Qiao Gun’s eyes. He commended him saying.

“Well said, I’m afraid that is our only option.”

Diaz was a little jittery and said.

“To replicate the actions of the banks syndicate is not workable. Although this world possess many weird and strange creatures,only a few rare species are able to excite Hagrid incomparably. But more critically, we wouldn’t be able to obtain such a thing. Thus, we can only strike using other methods. Hell, we don’t even know what else that giant likes.”

After listening completely on the series of events that the banks syndicate were responsible for, Sheyan’s thought processes had rapidly cranked up. After carefully considering his current position and the understanding of these events, he became aware of something.

“Is it….. These Symbiosis sect is thinking of using that thing? But that should be one of Lord Voldemort’s premeditated plan! If a contestant participates in it, wouldn’t it trigger a separate storyline?”

A dead silence. Qiao Gun was obviously satisfied with such a hopeless atmosphere. He cleared his throat saying.

“The Banks Syndicate, that group of fools have yet to show its true self. But our Symbiosis sect has already come up with a countermeasure. Our adviser has similarly entered this world previously and already laid down several deep foundations! After getting wind of the banks syndicate schemes, the first thing was to find a method to foil their plans. If we follow according to our adviser’s method, then we would certainly succeed in our main mission and continue on in this world, until we get the qualifications to enter Hogwarts castle!”

Qiao Gun’s surrounding contestants had a serious expression, naturally they were kept in the loop. Instead, Qiao Gun’s gaze was pressed towards Sheyan and Diaz.

“We are all victims of the Banks Syndicate, naturally we should work against a common enemy. How about it? Are you willing to join us in our plan?”

Diaz squinted his eyes, slowly speaking.

“First, I need to hear about this extremely ingenious plan you have.”

Qiao Gun was well prepared.

“That’s impossible. Only by joining and drafting a temporary agreement will we give you the relevant report.”

Diaz remained indifferent, he displayed a noncommittal attitude, but instead took out his Karabiner rifle and focused on wiping it, keeping it in a good shape. Qiao Gun already knew persuading him wasn’t an easy task, thus he turned to Sheyan.

“What about you, Seaman?”

Sheyan once again performed out a distracted and impulsive aggressiveness. Immediately standing up and clenching his fist exclaiming.

“Yes! Why not. If not, would I just content with being kicked back into the realm? That damnable Banks Syndicate, if I see them next time, I will stuff their brains into their anus all the way up to their eyes!”

Qiao Gun smirked, but still exhibited a warmth gratitude as he extended out both arms.

“Welcome Seaman! We are all honored to fight alongside you.”

At this moment, Diaz lighted up a cigarette and puffed on it, he finally rubbed his brows and replied.

“Give me some time to consider.”

Qiao Gun’s pupils slightly contracted, but still bluntly put out.

“No problem, but only until 9 tonight. Because we will start our operation at 10.”

Diaz nodded, offering a ‘understood’ hand gesture. Qiao Gun stood up and exclaimed.

“Let us all go and rest, and gather here at 9.15 tonight. Start preparations, Seaman you stay back. We need to draft a temporary contract to ensure your rights and of course your obligation.”

Sheyan slanted his head to look at Qiao Gun’s act. He acknowledged that Qiao Gun was a talent, apart from his concealed individual strength, this guy truly had remarkable instigation skills and perception. Taking what he said as an example, placing ‘rights’ in front of ‘obligation’, that naturally gave one a good impression. It was like being able to enjoy the privileges before his obligation came into effect, cleverly diluting the unhappiness one would have in signing an agreement contract.

One must never overlook such minute differences between the words, success is normally based on countless minor details adding together. “Suffering defeats in every battle” and “To keep on fighting despite continual setbacks” are phrases everyone knows. Even Zeng Guofan, a renowned and famous Qing dynasty politician, was able to use a small language game, and successfully rescued his politics life! Details determine success or failure. At least this guy Qiao Gun, is rather well versed in details. If he didn’t encounter Sheyan, he might have really persuaded another convincingly.

When everyone else left, Qiao Gun straightforwardly sat beside Sheyan. He stared into Sheyan’s eyes and sincerely offered.

“Seaman, actually I roughly understand your strength. Being able to force the main source of firepower of the Banks Syndicate into a near death state, cooperating with us would give you enough benefits to spare. But since this is our first time making an agreement, we still need to lay out all terms and conditions properly, to prevent any problems in our cooperation in the future. Look at this temporary contract, if there are no issues please sign it.”

After finishing, he used the nightmare imprint to deliver a temporary contract. Sheyan briefly went through it, realizing there were four main criterias:

Firstly, He must announce his personal attributes (Strongest state, not excluding equipments or purposefully harming oneself to conceal) to the head of the close combat Symbiosis group, Qiao Gun. He will not leak it out to anyone outside of the Symbiosis sect.

Next, in the effective period of contract, both parties approve of a peaceful status. Even with a area of effect (AOE) attack, one mustn’t accidentally injure his ally. If anyone initiates an attack on the other, one must announce it 10 seconds in advance. If not a penalty of 6000 utility points will be instantly deducted and 50% of it will go into the pockets of the victim.

Thirdly, within the effective period of the contract, any spoils of war will go to the Symbiosis sect. Sheyan has the privilege of purchasing it and a share of the dividends.

Lastly, the duration of the contract last till 12 noon the next day.

Qiao Gun was really prudent, even after seeing Sheyan battle before, he still had to know Sheyan’s personal attributes. In case any incidents should happen, this was very reasonable. Instead, Sheyan grinned evilly as he consumed the ‘rotten eyeball’ after going through the nightmare imprint’s report. Fortunately, the 25% chance of failure did not happen, but instead offer out a notification asking which attribute does Sheyan want to conceal. It even prepared a choice of attributes/equipment/ability etc.

Sheyan selected physique amongst his attributes, instantly disguising his maximum 30 points to 10 points. He then consumed another ‘rotten eyeball’ and instantly concealed his 14 perceptive sensing points to 5 points. After he was then, then he displayed his attributes to Qiao Gun through the nightmare imprint.

Because all the contestants assembled here shouldn’t have low strength. Furthermore, most of them belonged to a party. Therefore Qiao Gun’s attribute trend, would either be strength with great agility, or strength with great physique and defensive power. Even if his perceptive sensing is naturally high, he wouldn’t have equipments that enhances perceptive sensing. This was because perceptive sensing is vastly crucial to a long range combat contestant. It is an important attribute second only to agility, and moreover this world doesn’t lack long range firearms users! Thus, the chances of any perceptive sensing equipment falling into Qiao Gun’s hands is pretty small. Thus, Sheyan dared to use the ‘rotten eyeball’ to deceive Qiao Gun, because he had a 90% confidence that his perceptive sensing was definitely higher!

Of course, Qiao Gun wanted all of Sheyan’s resources to be plainly visible as well. But that was a taboo in the nightmare realm, because a contestant’s resources are extremely private. Once they accidentally divulged out to an enemy, they would be able to scheme and get rid of you easily. Moreover, the most risky skirmishes require extensive planning. Therefore when entering a party, its regulations can only require contestants to release some information but not completely everything. It was like working in a Human Resource department for a company and meeting a beauty during recruitment. Once can only ask for her age or even marital status, but one cannot expect the other to answer if he asked for sensitive information like credit card number and so on. Doing that would be extremely overboard.

Chapter 140: Troll

After obtaining Sheyan’s attributes, Qiao Gun scrolled through it. His eyes leaked out a ‘as expected’ look, but he covered it up fabulously. If one didn’t pay attention to details, he would think his face perpetually carried a warmth smile. He nodded and continued.

“Mm, alright I understand. Welcome to our symbiosis sect.”

He then signed the temporary contract with Sheyan. To express his sincerity, Qiao Gun knew that Sheyan was currently lacking in utility points, thus he took the initiative to pay the 1000 utility points fee in signing a temporary contract.

After signing the contract, Qiao Gun begun sharing information to Sheyan endlessly. He also provided Sheyan with several useful resources, because in his heart he reckoned that Sheyan wasn’t a person that made much preparation. Although Symbiosis sect was superior in numbers, but still were being pressured greatly by the banks syndicate and this wasn’t without a reason. If foiling the plan devised by the boss of the banks syndicate was so easy, why would Qiao Gun painstakingly try and persuade Sheyan and Diaz to collaborate? The meaning involved goes without saying, in Qiao Gun’s heart Diaz was a gunman his duty was providing firepower (DPS – damage per second). Yet, Sheyan, such an explosive but rash individual was also very crucial, he was cannon fodder.

(TN:cannon fodder basically meant troops to be expended)

9.30 PM, the contestants all assembled inside a wooden house. After deliberating, Diaz had also opt to participate but Sheyan reckoned that the contract he signed with Qiao Gun was definitely worlds apart. Probably the Symbiosis sect had even paid him some utility points. But naturally in this manner, everyone in the Symbiosis sect would be directing their focus and attention on Diaz! Thus, when Sheyan stood beside Diaz, it was like a shadow against a illuminating bright light. He would be safe and away from the attention…..this was the goal he always wanted to achieve.

“Our target for this operation is an extremely savage beast. It is a special creature within the magical world of Harry Potter, called a troll. Its threat level can be seen from it being hailed as a legendary creature, I don’t need to waste our time elaborating on it.”

Qiao Gun’s expression was grave, as he spoke his nightmare imprint shot out a ray of light shining onto the table surface. It transformed into the 3D image of the troll, slowly rotating and seemingly lifelike.

This sort of projection ability was achieved after a person’s achievement level had reached a certain degree, and their military rank status acquired this special ability. But after activating it requires an achievement points fee, furthermore its details weren’t concrete. Because this was just an ordinary report and most people in the Symbiosis sect knew that Sheyan’s life was like a cannon fodder, therefore he very straightforwardly showed him what he was facing.

Sheyan’s pupils slightly contracted, but he scoffed in his heart.

“Troll……so you guys plan to attack it!”

After a brief moment, the 3D image of the troll started to display a list of relevant information. This was the boss of the Symbiosis sect utilizing his military rank special ability to transmit the information over.

The troll could reach a height of 3-4 metres, its weight was roughly a ton, a truly dreadful creature. The troll possess extraordinary strength, but its stupidity breaks through the roof. Thus it cannot use any magic, and its weapons are normally natural objects like branches or rocks. It has grey skin, swelling bumps all over its skin and flat feet covered in keratin. Its body releases a filthy odour, a blend of smelly socks and unwashed toilets. Greyish viscous glue like liquid drips from its nose – the troll’s mucus.

Every wild troll has violent tendencies, and is easily irritable and extremely impatient. There is no way to predict when their bed temperament would suddenly blow up. The trolls originated from the Scandinavian Peninsula, but now can be spotted in England, Ireland, northern Europe and various places. They communicate with puffs of breaths, like an uncouth language. But humans know that some trolls have a little comprehension and can even speak a few simple human languages. Humans have already been on guard because they now some trolls possess certain intellect.

Trolls are separated into 3 classifications: Mountain trolls, Forest trolls and River trolls. Mountain trolls have the largest built and poses the biggest threat. It has a bare head, and its skin is ash grey. Forest trolls have light green skin, some even grow messy green or brown fur. River trolls grow a small horn, and sometimes fur. Its skin appears slightly purplish, and people normally discover them hiding beneath bridges. The troll’s diet includes any organism with flesh and blood, but humans are one of their favourites.

After getting wind of the Banks Syndicate ploy, Sheyan’s first countermeasure was similarly a troll. From the original storyline, Quirinus Quirrell who was possessed by Lord Voldemort tried to steal the philosopher’s stone by releasing a group of mature mountain trolls as a distraction in Hogwarts on one of the festival.

Naturally, this heavy and stupid creature would never trek here all the way from thousands of miles away. The biggest possibility should be that they were prepared beforehand and concealed somewhere near Hogwarts by Quirrell / Lord Voldemort, until the optimal time to release them. Moreover, Quirrell had to conduct lessons, and did not have much free time on hand. It wasn’t realistic that he would have gone and captured these mountain trolls, such massive and aggressive creatures.

Upon slaying these mountain trolls that resided near Hogwarts, then undoubtedly that was sweeping aside a tremendous threat that Hogwarts faces. It was like a group of temporary workers taking the initiative to rid criminal activities around the school and obtaining the school’s approval. Furthermore these ‘criminal activities’ had a huge possibility of inflicting fatal or crippling damages to the students.

Part of Hagrid’s job description was the key caretaker of Hogwarts and guardian of the hunting grounds. This implies that his job scope includes being responsible of the beast/creatures around Hogwarts. Thus, if they were to successfully eliminate the hidden but immense threat of mountain trolls near Hogwarts, then naturally Hagrid’s impression of them would surge up by leaps and bounds.

If it was said that the Banks Syndicate leveraged on Hagrid’s personal passion to raise their impression, then slaying these mountain trolls would be a method on the side of ‘justice’. However, the risk involved was massive. Even if they managed to round up these menacing mountain trolls, getting rid of them may in fact provoke and meddle with Voldemort/Quirrell’s plan. Since within Voldemort’s scheme, the appearance of the mountain trolls in Hogwarts was a critically essential piece!

Qiao Gun waited for everyone to finish reading. He then clapped his hands to attract the attention of everyone to him.

“From what you just witnessed, slaying a mountain troll is no easy feat. But guys, please do not let this exaggerated difficulty dishearten you. According to boss’s explanation, the mountain troll possesses slow-moving speed and a terribly low IQ. We can exploit these two weaknesses.”

“Moreover, according to the storyline, the centre of the head should be the troll’s weak point. Striking that should easily cause it to faint! What we have to do is simple, that is to dig a adequately deep pit for these blockheads to fall into. Then we will aim towards their heads with maximum firepower and decimate them! That….is how simple it is, anyone has any questions?”

Diaz hugged against his Karabiner rifle and coldly asked from the corner of the room.

“I have an important question….. Why would the mountain trolls so foolishly fall into our trap? Don’t throw his low IQ to pacify me, no matter how dumb something is, it will definitely possess some survival instincts! What is the exact plan involved?”

Qiao Gun’s expression turned a little gloomy.

“This is for me to worry about. Diaz, your responsibility is to aim towards the head of the mountain trolls and press your trigger. You do not have to worry so much about other things!”

Diaz snorted and replied.

“That is not bad, I’m just afraid when i open fire, then I will turn into the primary target of those mountain trolls! Then I will gloriously turn into a luring bait. If by keeping us in the dark is how the Symbiosis sect normally operates in a collaboration, then I choose to quit!”

Qiao Gun deeply inhaled and shut his eyes. Even though he wanted to retaliate so much against Diaz, he ultimately chose to endure. Assembled here from the symbiosis sect are mostly contestants who placed emphasis on strength. Therefore, this meant that unfortunately they currently had a lack in far range combatants. Based on this world’s difficulty itself and comparing it with a contestant’s possible strength, maybe there were parties who managed to eliminate those mountain trolls solely with a pure close combat team. But that team definitely didn’t include anyone from the symbiosis sect. Thus, keeping Diaz on the team was crucial as he was the only one who can engage in long distance attacks, and even do it so valiantly.

“If only boss could appear and assist us…..why would we need to rely on this moronic Diaz? But….hmph hmph.”

Qiao Gun once again opened his eyes, he had already regained his composure.

“You are our core firepower, of course we will try our best to protect you. Regarding the problem of attracting the mountain trolls into our trap, I can answer you. We will use bait to lure it into the trap, the bait will be dead deers. Regarding retrieving of these deers for the trap….. One of us will be in charge of that, but definitely not you.”

After hearing this arrangement, Diaz finally nodded his head. It could be said he approved of this arrangement, but he still added a sentence.”

“Before the mountain trolls enter the trap, I will definitely not open fire.”

Qiao Gun gloomily nodded his head. He huddled the rest of the group together and bluntly spoke out.

“Now everyone should be very clear on our current situation. I do not wish to say much. Those who possess a long distance combat ability, please stand up and walk to the left.”

Chapter 141: Hunt or be hunted

Following that, Qiao Gun was the first to stand as he walked to the left.

“I’m good at empty hand wrestling, and also an excellent bomb thrower.”

Saying that he took out 8 black grenades and placed in on the table. He then picked up the nearby glass cup and casually flung it out without looking. When the glass cup reached the opposing wall roughly 5-6 metres away, it did not shatter but instead propelled out of the small gap in the window. This demonstrated the brilliant control of his strength as well as observational and judgement skills of his surroundings. He indeed had the qualifications as a bomb throwing expert.

“Next.” Qiao Gun shrugged his shoulders at the remaining guys.

Following that, expectedly the symbiosis sect had already discussed beforehand. Most of them went forth to demonstrate a long distance ability although some didn’t have smooth execution. Lastly, the five of them stared at Sheyan, observing if he had any surprise up his sleeve. But just as Qiao Gun expected, Sheyan shrugged his shoulders and cursed frustratedly.

“Damn! My favourite style is to directly charge up and tear those bastards apart….I do not possess any long range combat methods.”

When Sheyan completed his sentence. That black flintlock musket ‘Ambition’ flashed an unyielding and angry glow within the interspatial room of his nightmare imprint.

Qiao Gun sighed.

“Sorry Seaman, everyone should act for the party’s main goal. Since you are unable to contribute in terms of dealing damage, then you should be responsible for the crucial role of attracting the mountain trolls with the bait. But don’t be flustered, your job is to successfully lure those foolish trolls out of their nest, and then running for about a kilometre. Then you wouldn’t need to participate in the rest of the fight. Ok, that is all you need to do, loosen up partner.”

Sheyan was stunned and replied.

“Wait! Why do we need to dig the hole one kilometre away from the mountain trolls?”

Qiao Gun leaned back.

“According to the report from boss, mountain troll love sleeping on the ground. Therefore if the ground shakes, it will easily startle them. Moreover, digging out such a huge pitfall for these humongous beast is not a small process. Therefore, boss repeatedly emphasize that 1 kilometre will be the distance that will best guarantee our safety. It cannot be compromised.”

Saying till here, Qiao Gun walked up to Sheyan and patted his shoulders, he wanted to settle this matter when the iron was still hot. To Qiao Gun, the reason why he painstakingly tried to recruit Sheyan and Diaz, was because they both played an important role. Diaz was the main firepower, Sheyan would be the one taking the greatest risk! Qiao Gun had to ensure his party did not lose anyone unnecessarily, and thus be able to accomplish the ultimate objective of the Symbiosis sect for entering this world!

“Oh no.” Sheyan frustratedly brandished his fist and paced about in the room, finally shouting out loudly. “Qiao Gun, you’re a murderer! The job you’ve arranged for me is more dangerous they plucking a fang out of a black python!”

“Calm down my friend. Calm down and listen to me first.” Qiao Gun patiently tugged against Sheyan’s arm. “We will definitely support you, trolls are not that scary. Their stupid and heavy 2200 pounds body will not possess any threat to you as long as you keep up your pace.”

Of course, the real scenario wouldn’t be as easy as Qiao Gun described it to be. Although the mountain trolls are foolish and heavy, this doesn’t mean they don’t pose a threat. Adding the length and range of their arms, the attacking range of the mountain troll exceeds 6 metres. Moreover, there is no evidence that it wouldn’t use objects to hurl at you. Furthermore, think of the consequences of being smashed by a 4-5 metre long tree branch! Also, the objects flying speed would definitely be more that 60 km/hour due to the monstrous strength of the mountain troll. Apart from this, there is still to account for the terrain and unknown variables. Once there is a miscalculation, then death is inevitable!

Actually, Sheyan was already anticipating such an arrangement from Qiao Gun. Truthfully, when Qiao Gun started to recruit him, he roughly could predict what this scheming bastard was up to. But he still bravely stayed on and played according to Qiao Gun’s tempo was because he obviously possessed great confidence.

Confidence can be summarized in a number.

30 points.

That is the peak of Sheyan’s physique!

An entire 30 points of physique!

In addition to his defensive innate ability ‘Endurance’!

Even though the mountain troll possess frightening arm strength, actually any beast would also possess terrifying strength. Receiving a blow would surely be fatal to other contestants including Qiao Gun, but this was not so for Sheyan. He believed he wasn’t as weak as them, he had a total 300 HP and additional 37% damage reduction defense. This does not include the additional reduction of 25 points his innate ability provides. Putting into numbers, a mountain troll would at least have to dish out 516 points of damage to finish Sheyan off. Yet such a devastating single explosive strike, according to logic, would not happen in this world’s difficulty level.

Furthermore, in this world’s storyline there was already an emphasis that a Hogwarts professor could easily deal with a mature mountain troll. If the mountain troll could really deal such terrifying damage, even if it lacked magic capabilities, it would still be an enormous threat to the professor’s life. Thus, they wouldn’t have describe it to be such an easy feat. It was like in the present world, few would dare to say a cobra is easily dealt with.

Even though Sheyan didn’t mind fooling around with Qiao Gun, that didn’t mean that he would fully adhere to Qiao Gun’s arranged performance. At least up till now, Sheyan still planned to maintain his secret. If he were to accept ‘luring the mountain troll’ such a high risk duty, then he would at least have to squeeze out some benefits from the Symbiosis sect. If he simply accepted, it will result in two consequences: A) Others will take him for a fool and a stepping stone. B) the attention focused on Diaz would then be directed onto him until every secret is laid out for all to see.

After Sheyan’s extremely resolute attitude rejected Qiao Gun for the fourth time, that fellow loosened his speech and suggested to provide Sheyan with some help. Loosening a little was extremely good news to Sheyan. It was like a sudden small crack after years forming on a sturdy and firm dam, and this small crack could easily lead to a complete collapse in mere months.

Qiao Gun’s fifth round of persuasion finally succeeded.

He possessed a relieved but heartache feeling.

In order for this damned yellow man to become the bait, he had paid a huge price as follows:

1500 utility points

An aspirin (Concentrated) which can instantly recover 40 HP

This medicine also had an effect whereby after consuming the medicine, other medicines would not be effective on you within a 300 second duration.

Also, after slaying the mountain trolls, he would have a 3000 utility points purchasing overdraft (Which meant, amongst the loots of the mountain trolls, if Sheyan wanted to purchase them from the symbiosis sect he could take away an item worth 3000 utility points without forking up a single cent. Of course if the object was worth more, then he could additionally top up from there. Of course if Sheyan decided not to purchase, then this overdraft would be converted into 1500 utility points and compensated to him.)

Since the two conditions of luring and firepower were fulfilled, the rest would naturally fall into place. Under the quick pace of this temporary alliance, along the black forest and over a hill was the mountain troll’s lair. The mysterious head of the Symbiosis sect had already transmitted information to Qiao Gun and pinpointed the exact location to him.

Pitch black night. Pitch black forest. The sunshine was shimmering splendidly in day time, but now patters of raindrops fell. Qiao Gun took the lead as he marched on forward. As the raindrops rushed in with the wind, a chilliness binded them. All the contestants from the symbiosis sect couldn’t help but shiver. A person named Gale murmured to himself, cursing this terrible weather. He then coughed hardly, and spat a thick phlegm into the shrubs.

He then paused, because against Gale’s throat was shockingly a cold, black barrel. The owner of the gun was called Diaz.

This haughty and formidable man gritted his teeth as he scolded out hurriedly.

“Find the phlegm you just spat, and bury it into the ground, now! If not I assure you that the next thing that comes out of your throat will be blood!”

The atmosphere tensed up as people from the symbiosis sect rushed to intervene. Sheyan hesitated for a moment, he felt a slight exasperation from Diaz’s tone. To be able to trigger such offensive nervousness in Diaz was not something that could be absolute ignored! Thus Sheyan silently retreated a little, standing slightly behind Diaz to show his standing position.

The situation sunk into a deadlock, but Gale was unable to keep his cool as he refuted.

“Hey, mate I only spat phlegm…..what has it got to do with you where I aim it at. I can apologize to you, but you should put away your gun from my throat first right? Trust me, this is not a good feeling.”

Chapter 142: Conform to the arrangement

Faced with such a crisis, Qiao Gun strut forward with an ugly expression. If he didn’t stand up for his own people, then undoubtedly he will lose their respect!

“Diaz! Release your gun immediately. Do you want to start a war with us before slaying the trolls?”

Diaz answer came in the form of slow but distinct words, forced out between his teeth.

“I SAID, BURY, YOUR, SPIT, NOW!”

Qiao Gun unyieldingly refuted him.

“Then first release him! Anyone who has a gun pointed to his throat, wouldn’t have the guts to do anything else!”

After speaking, he shot Gale a look which caused Gale to slowly recline. Scared witless, he then started searching for his spit, as Diaz’s malicious glare penetrated his back like a needle. Until Gale obediently buried his spit did Diaz retract his gun, and took off with big strides.

There was no trace of serenity on Diaz’s face. That phlegm was like a stone that crashed and shattered his peace. Hidden and fragmented memories started to float in his mind, provoking his mind.

“Diaz remember, the dark of night is a hundred folds more dangerous than daytime in the black forest, but…..benefits, are also a hundred folds.”

Covered with profound wrinkles, his leader Ghosteve sincerely advised him.

Similar night, different people.

The wind rustled against his ears.

“Hu” the wrinkled face leader, Ghosteve, raised his middle finger. The ring on his finger glowed gently, five characters ‘ZH222’ engraved on it. That was the name of the leader’s true love, his source of motivation in this realm.

After struggling through the muddied waters for half a day, Diaz felt extremely impatient but still nodded his heart earnestly. He felt a slight itch in his throat, coughing and spat out a phlegm. At present he was completely clueless what this fresh spit meant to those hunting within the black forest.

20 minutes later. Diaz was frenziedly fleeing in the black forest, his forehead streaming with blood. His entire right arm was slowly rotting within the digestive tract of a savage and barbaric centaur. Under such an intense chase, Diaz started to feel a severe nausea but he kept on running. Frantically fighting for a chance at survival.

In the end, two legs could never be compared to 4 legs. Just when the barbaric centaur caught up to Diaz, a tall shadow darted out from the side and brought the massive beast to the ground. It was a fuming male with deep, profound wrinkles. Diaz didn’t have any thoughts of halting, fear and agony had tortured his mind to continue fleeing.

In the end, he survived.

Daylight, Diaz summoned his courage and returned to the scene of the incident. However, he found a huge bloodstain, and on it was a finger with a ring engraved with the words ‘ZH222’.

“I saved your bunch of foolish lives!” Diaz shook his head violently, forcing himself back to reality. His rambling was soft, thus only the few beside him heard it and one of them was Sheyan. Sheyan faintly sighed, obviously Diaz wasn’t someone with good communication skills. Thus, he had to force his gun on Gale, if not the the results would be a world of difference if he tried to persuade with words.

“Standby, we’re about to reach.” Qiao Gun’s voice rang out. In his left hand, there was a suddenly faint yellowish glow, as though it had picked up a signal. The trees ahead were crooked, it then swayed to the left and right before pulling out its roots from the ground and opening a pathway. The pathway ended with a wall, the wall also emitted a faint yellowish glow.

Looking at it, under the peculiar shine of the glow, the surrounding leaves reflected the yellowish glow. The temporarily formed party waddled their way forward cautiously, as the droplets of rain pierced against them like icy arrows. Drawing strength from the wind as they pierced against their necks, this chilly sensation spread down to the entire body from the neck. Those contestants who were not mentally prepared swept their environment with fear and trepidation.

Qao Gun who was leading the way gradually pressed on towards the wall. His hand then directly bypassed followed by his entire self vanishing into the wall. His voice then sounded over.

“To prevent others from discovering, Voldemort had consumed his magic to set up an illusion to seal up this place. So that others would never discover the mountain trolls were residing here.”

Since someone led the way, the others followed accordingly. When it reached Sheyan, he similarly dove in, only to discover darkness followed by a complete change in scenery. Both sides were flooded with dense and tough wall-like shrubs, obstructing the sides like the previous wall they faced. A contestant attempted to approach it, reaching out his hand to probe it but was thrown back immediately wounded by the thorns within. The thorns also contained a strong and concentrated venom, causing him to collapse to the ground and only awakening after Qiao Gun injected several dosages into him. Someone tried to slice out a pathway, but instead of cutting through the shrubs, the small thorns instead dispersed out from the impact. Fortunately, the blade wielder was prepared, he immediately dodged away. If not, there would definitely be a need for wasting another round of medicines.

After the series of alarming events, no one dared to approach it anymore. After a conducting careful investigations, they decided to avoid this dense and dangerous shrubs, opting for another challenging and meandering route. In this dense forest there was obviously no pathway, the contestants had to cut open a way for themselves. This was the unfavourable terrain that the contestants struggled with for close to half an hour before Qiao Gun suddenly halted. He lowered his voice.

“There’s a stench in the air, we should have arrived.”

Presently, the rain was still pattering down, as it cleanse the leaves on the tree, revealing a refreshing glow. According to logic, in the forest under such circumstances, the air should be relatively fresh. But if one carefully notice, they could catch a whiff of a unique odour. A group of people sneakily crept forward a little, and suddenly discovered a wide clearing ahead. Ahead in the jungle, shockingly a pathway that wasn’t very narrow appeared.

After seeing this pathway, Qiao Gun immediately halted, and the rest of them immediately constructed a temporary camp over here. Three members with adequately high agility from the Symbiosis sect dispersed out to investigate, after an hour, they returned with their reports. The entire area near this location was projected out in a 3D image from Qiao Gun’s nightmare imprint.

This region, apart from the magical entrance they entered from previously, was completely sealed off by those towering shrubs with intense anesthetic thorns. Those shrubs should probably be created with dark magic, it was a natural protective screen preventing the mountain trolls from escaping. Those shrubs naturally interlocked, forming enormous circle sealing off the place. In the middle of this cordoned area was a rivulet of a river. This river originally flowed underneath the surface, but the riverbed over here was slightly elevated and thus propelled it to the surface. It flowed at surface level for roughly 2 kilometres before returning underground.

Following a muddy road they just discovered to the west, they would then reach the riverbank. There was a clear destruction of vegetation over there, and the riverbank contained distinct massive footprints of the mountain trolls. Obviously, the mountain trolls normally hunted for food within the river. The east side of this muddy road led to a earthen cave that the mountain trolls excavated previously. For fear of being discovered, the scouts didn’t dare to approach the cave but retreated after confirming their existence.

The environment wasn’t very different from their plans, the only difference was that the rain had caused the pathway to be slippery. This impacted the running speed. But Qiao Gun tried to console Sheyan, although the rain could easily result in accidents, the mountain trolls would similarly be affected. Furthermore, the rain would conceal his scent. They could also commence their digging closer to the cave, which gave a little more security to Sheyan.

“Why didn’t we set up the pitfall at the cursed shrubs?” Diaz suddenly asked.

Qiao Gun shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

“I’ve already considered this possibility, but this would mean Seaman would have to run an additional 300 metres. More crucially, these poisonous shrubs were set up specially by Voldemort for those creatures. They probably have encountered the deadliness of it, and would turn and flee once they come near those shrubs.”

Diaz resumed his silence. Following that, everything related to the digging of the pit was handled by the Symbiosis sect. Diaz seemed to be widely incompatible with them, as he ran off alone to find a place to hide and at the same time planning his retreating route. Due to everyone’s inclination towards strength, even the speed of digging was extremely fast. Not even an hour later, a gigantic pitfall had been excavated. The pit had the shape of an earthen jar, and was incredibly camouflaged.

The Symbiosis sect naturally had an expert in concealment and camouflaging. Sheyan could actually run across the concealment cover over the pit without falling in, but once the mountain troll stepped onto it, the trap would immediately be activated.

Chapter 143: Terrifying mountain troll

Suddenly a thunderous roar boomed from the direction of the mountain troll’s cave, it sounded like a tiger who had a mask over its face but was still trying its best to howl. Immediately, everyone tensed up and their heartbeat became faster. Holding their breath uniformly, they carefully listened to the distance sound.

But after that beastly thunderous roar, nothing else followed it. Only the splattering sound of the rain against the tree leaves could be heard. After a while, one investigating contestant returned. His face was pale and his body covered in mud. His face was clumsily cut by a tree branch, and he looked extremely flustered and terrible. After panting for a moment, he regained his breath.

According to his report, it was confirm that the mountain trolls were indeed residing in a cave at the east. This contestant only had high agility, but wasn’t trained specially in reconnaissance. Therefore when he approached closely, he was discovered by the mountain troll which led to that raging roar! This one roar destroyed his courage, he knew the dangers of facing a mountain troll alone. Scared witless, he fled immediately and only relaxed when he confirmed the mountain troll didn’t give chase.

After hearing this contestant’s report, Qiao Gun pursed his brows. This recent happening indicated that the surveillance range of the mountain troll was rather far, and yet it wasn’t willing to come out and give chase. This meant that the ‘bait’, Seaman, had to approach very near to the mountain troll, to attract it to give chase! This undoubtedly increased the risk level of the ‘bait’.

Obviously Qiao Gun wouldn’t be a good samaritan and be concerned about Sheyan’s life. Since the start he did not consider that this ‘Seaman’ would even survive. His only worry was that Sheyan would die even before displaying his usefulness by luring the mountain troll to the minimum distance. Then that would mean the Symbiosis sect having to sacrifice one of their own! If this led to failure and subsequent chain reactions…..Qiao Gun would be in for a cold war. His brows frowned together.

At present, it could be said that everything was ready, all they needed is an east wind (Chinese idiom – lacking only one crucial item). Qiao Gun sunk into deep thoughts, the lacking of contingencies in urgent scenarios was a skill he lacked. He frowned and pondered a short while, but gave up and strode to Sheyan to prepare executing the plan. In his heart, he was already sure this ‘Seaman’ was a dead man, and that he should arrange someone to take his place.

In such a vile situation, it would be lying if Sheyan wasn’t a little nervous. But his psychological preparedness was always superb, furthermore he had already gone through a cool-headed analysis of the plot. Considering various contingencies, thus he silently proceeded. Because everyone in the Symbiosis sect had been startled by the terrifying declaration of might of the mountain troll, thus no one noticed the composed Sheyan. Only Diaz observed Sheyan’s leaving figure, his eyes formed a suspicious glow.

The rain continued falling, Sheyan followed the muddy pathway. His footsteps were steady and uniform, leaving a firm footprint and equal wherever he walked. He seized this serenity to regulate his breathing, trying his best to reach the optimal state both physically and mentally. Although he had confidence in himself, but a lion would also do his best to capture a rabbit. What more against this legendary creature from Harry Potter’s magical world, a mountain troll? Sheyan went through his personal plans again in his mind, and then continued on his way.

Within this half of the sealed up valley, the only active huge size creature is the mountain troll. Undoubtedly, the route Sheyan was using is the exact same road that the mountain troll uses to hunt fishes, causing the terrain to be vastly inconvenient due to the huge potholes. Footprint the size of a basin could be seen everywhere. Sheyan swung with the parang he brought to clear the way, he did not completely follow the road that was formed by the mountain troll. Instead, as he walked by the side he set up certain arrangements causing his movement speed to be rather slow. When he reached the cave, he took more than half an hour.

When he wasn’t even close to the troll’s lair, Sheyan could already smell an unexplainable stench. This stench was close to a rotting fish that was exposed to the sun. The mountain troll was obviously not a hygienic creature, in addition to its lifestyle within this enclosed region, feeling on fishes daily it was no wonder the filthy fishy odour. Sheyan took in several deep breaths, to allow his senses to get used to the stench. He then continued to inch closer to the cave entrance, slowly observing for any movements.

Regarding the plan that Symbiosis sect formulated, right, Sheyan had long tossed it to the back of his mind.

Presently, the rain had turned heavier, those impatient morons from the symbiosis sect would have turned anxious from the wait. However, Sheyan didn’t mind letting them wait a little longer. Borrowing the cover of the torrential rain, Sheyan gradually crept closer. Within the lair, there was a faint phosphorescence, thus he could vaguely capture the outline of that massive and brutal beast. Fortunately from exterior information, the mountain troll was hailed for its devilish strength. Regarding perceptive sensing, intelligence, spirit it was probably close to zero. Thus Sheyan carefully activated his ‘insight’ ability.

“You activated ‘insight’ on that legendary creature, mountain troll.”

“Evaluation: Your distance between the target is too far, your comprehension strength is comparatively weakened.”

“Acquiring target’s information failed, utility points deducted.”

Sheyan helplessly shrugged his shoulders. It was the first time his insight ability had failed. Fortunately, after Qiao Gun’s investment, his current utility points on hand was relatively plenty. Thus he wasn’t willing to risk going closer, but continued activating insight from where he was. After numerous failed attempts, he finally succeeded.

Female mountain troll (Junior rank legendary creature)

Height 13 foot 2 inch, weight 583 kg

Strength 35 points

Agility 8 points

Physique 18 points

Perceptive sensing 1 point

Charm 1 point

Intelligence 1 point

Spirit 1 point

Basic close combat lvl 7. Specific attribute ?

Junior rank legendary creature ability: Earth’s skin lvl 2: Additional 5500 HP

Mountain troll special ability: Uprooting catastrophe. This enormous beast will occasionally uproot surrounding trees as weapon. Raising its attack power by 135%, its attack range by 100%. Ability requires 5-10 seconds casting time, when the mountain troll is uprooting, it will receive 200% more damage. Because uprooting is extremely energy consuming, normally after pulling out a tree it will rest at least 5 minutes before pulling out the next one.

Mountain troll special ability: Tree Toss of Slaying. When a mountain troll turns angry, it will throw the tree on hand, causing AOE (area of effect) damage. Damage value = ((Mountain troll’s strength – victim’s strength) x 2 )+ fixed 20 damage points.

Secondary ability effect: Knockdown. Enemies within a 5 metres radius of the tree’s target will be knocked down for 5 seconds. During this duration, unable to move, attack or cast abilities.

Mountain troll special ability: Putrid. The mountain troll’s filthy lifestyle habits result in a layer of stink covering it, causing close combat enemies to be affected by this stench. Accuracy lowered by 10%.

Mountain troll special ability: Original home run. Twisting its body 360 degrees before dealing a terrifying strike, causing immense damage and blasting off effect. Distinct casting action before ability is used, after using it the mountain troll will be unable to maintain its stability and lose attacking capabilities for 5 seconds.

Mountain troll special ability: Cardiac fissure. Releasing a furious roar, dealing enemies within a 15 metres radius a (physique x 1.5) damage, and lowering movement speed by 70%. Duration: Mountain troll’s physique minus victim’s physic. If the victim’s physique is higher than the mountain troll, they will only receive damage, and not the negative buff. (For example, if Qiao Gun’s physique is 12 points, then the duration will be 18 – 12 = 6 seconds).

Individual special ability: ?

Although Sheyan had foreseen the legendary creature, mountain troll to be extremely mighty, he had never expected the variables to reach this extent! 18 points of physique results in 9 points of defence, that isn’t considered high but can at least absorb 1/4 of the damage. Furthermore that earth skin lvl 2 legendary creature ability, instantly raises its HP to 5680 points. When Sheyan viewed these numbers, a desperate emotion filled his heart.

However, when Sheyan went through the attributes of this legendary beast carefully one more time, he found its shortcomings. That was the 8 points of agility. Furthermore, it didn’t have any related abilities like basic footwork. Exploiting this deficiency in speed, long range combat contestant would definitely have the chance of defeating it.

Of course, if this mountain troll was so easily defeated, then it wouldn’t be hailed as a legendary creature. Its ‘tossing ability: Tree Toss of Slaying’ and its ‘roar: Cardiac fissure’ was specially used to deal with long range combat contestants. The threat of the ‘slaying tree toss’ can be seen from a 10 points physique contestant, from calculations he would receive 70 points of damage. But this ability is not just an AOE damage, it further results in a frightening 5 seconds knockdown duration!

Within 5 seconds, even if the mountain troll was slow it would be able to close up the gap between the knocked down contestant by 15 metres. Following that, the terrifying ‘roar: Cardiac fissure’, although its damage could be considered as secondary, the 70% movement speed decrease is a nightmare.

To a far range combatant who vastly relies on agility and perceptive sensing, the terrifying movement speed decrease shouldn’t last more than 8 seconds. But within this timeframe it is enough for the mountain troll to ravage them into a thousand pieces. Furthermore, could be guaranteed your corpse wouldn’t be spared as the mountain troll had probably long got sick of its fishy diet.

Chapter 144: Skillful Enticement

After carefully familiarizing himself with the report, he started to prepare to lure this mountain beast into the trap. Of course he wouldn’t foolishly listen to the bunch of idiots from the Symbiosis sect. They wanted him to directly carry the deer corpse, still dripping with blood, and brandish it at the cave entrance. That was like taking his own life as a joke. Instead, in his hidden position he cut the deer into 4 portions and kept it in his nightmare imprint. Afterward, he placed the first clump of meat around 300 metres away from the mountain troll’s lair.

Sheyan surveyed for any movements but confirmed that the mountain troll had not discover this piece of meat. He then continued advancing, placing it 150 metres away.

Still there was no movements.

Sheyan took a deep breath, gritting his teeth he forced himself 75 metres away. Waiting for a brief moment, an indistinct groaning from within the mountain troll’s lair could be heard. Yet the troll went back to sleep. Looks like this should be approaching the critical point already. Sheyan then placed the cut portions of the deer corpse orderly onto the route, each having 50 metres between them with the furthest 200 metre away from the lair. The next was 150 metre, and following that 100 metre. Following that, Sheyan stood at the 75 metre critical mark and flung the last portion of deer meat towards the lair.

At present, his strength was 13 points which was close to 3 times of an average person. This chunk of meat at least flew 30 metres away, causing fat nostrils of the mountain troll to twitch violently. Then it instantly jumped up from its sweet slumber. From its throat, it released a deep insatiable roar, clumsily picking its massive body out and strided out.

Very naturally the mountain troll discovered that sweet piece of meat. It greedily picked it up, ignoring the dripping mud as it engulfed it with huge bites. Blood and muddy water sprayed out from the mountain troll’s mouth, looking extremely sinister. The mountain troll’s appetite was shocking, this piece of meat was at least 10 kg but it barely enough to fill up the gap between its teeth. After finishing, the troll was in high spirits, its lethargy had faded and its nostrils flared with greed. It then found the other chunk of meat 50 metres away, immediately marching forward in big strides.

When the mountain troll found the fourth piece of deer, Sheyan had already retreated, with 200 metres of safety distance. Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t consider directly dividing the deer in bits and pieces to attract the troll back to the pitfall. But in this manner, the meat pieces would be too small and wouldn’t be able to satisfy the mountain troll. Thus, hunting the deer would be in vain. Perhaps capturing more of ‘food’ to be used as bait would be a good idea, but regrettably nearby was the centaur’s habitat. These swift as the wind, half-human creatures had the habit of hunting large animals. Within the forbidden forest, most of the large animals had already been hunted completely, even small animals like rabbits were sparse. Thus Sheyan and the contestants had no way of hunting any animals nearby, even the deer was found in a faraway place by the efforts of the Symbiosis sect head.

When the last piece of the pitiful deer disappeared into the troll’s mouth, Sheyan took a breath and pierced his own shoe with 5 small needles. This manner of harming himself was to activated the ability of the obsidian fossil anchor, to raise his condition to the optimum! He then walked out from behind a large tree, finally going face to face with this humongous, filthy and mighty beast. Once facing this troll, a raging sensation of danger soared within his heart which was obviously the warning mechanism of his 14 points of perceptive sensing. Yet his eyes focused ahead, calming his heart down as he tossed away all distractions.

The introduction of a fresh delicacy caused the mountain troll to cry out in delight! Without hesitation, Sheyan turned to flee. Although the crisis was imminent, Sheyan could feel a strange feeling coming over him as though injected by a stimulant. It was a nice and warm feeling, and his thoughts were exceptionally clear. Thus his reaction to this immense danger was a form of intense conquest for victory! This had no connection to individual capability, but determined by a person’s character and fortitude. THat was why in the present world, there were would be performed much better under stress. The strong their rivals, or larger the pressure of the occasion, the better they showcased their natural talents!

The rain remained icy cool. But under the pattering rain, Sheyan tossed an orange sized, smoking black round object behind him. It was a grenade! It was hailed as an infantry’s nightmare, the SG3 fragment grenade!

The grenade flew across 20 metres and landed into the mid, coincidentally between the rough legs of the mountain troll.

The massive troll was confused. It picked the grenade up in curiosity, and placed it in front of its face.

“Boom!” The agonizing roar of the mountain troll echoed throughout the forest, shaking the leaves to fall to the ground. That grenade exploded in its eyes, thousands of pieces of shrapnel pierced against his head causing incomparably savage wounds. Light blue blood spurt out aggressively, causing this mountain troll to clutch against its head as it spun it rounds. After a moment it finally raised his heads, its eyes were brimming with extreme murderous intent. Targeting the fleeing Sheyan, it started to frenziedly give chase.

Sheyan summoned his full strength to sprint, but to his horror the gap between him and the mountain troll was desperately shortening!

His current speed was composed primarily of 3 factors. First was his 10 points of agility, this was his main driving force. Second was the 28% bonus speed from the endless vodka.The third was the bonus from his basic footwork lvl 4. Basically, Sheyan’s current speed should approximately be 15 points of agility. It was almost two times that of the mountain troll’s 8 agility! But why wasn’t he able to outrun this freak?

After a swift, careful observation, Sheyan understood. It was because of the pouring rain. The route previously formed by the mountain troll’s footsteps was originally muddy and slippery. As Sheyan sprinted, he would occasionally slip and tumble. His movement speed had respectively plunged by at least 1/3. When the mountain troll trampled down with his naked broad feet, mud splattering everywhere, it would sink into the ground by at least a foot giving it greater stability. In addition to the bigger reach of its long legs, its every step was akin to Sheyan’s 3 steps! This was why the mountain troll had superior movement speed.

Citing a simple example. If Sheyan were to run 100 metres, he would need 100 steps. Every step had a 1/10 chance of slipping which would lower his speed. That meant that in 100 metres, Sheyan may have slipped 10 times. Yet this mountain troll only need 30 steps to conquer 100 metres.

Furthermore its broad feet ensured better stability. It only had a 1/20 chance of slipping for every step. Thus, for every 100 metres, it would merely slip 1 time. In such circumstances, chasing up to him was something to be expected. This also displayed the significance of the basic footwork lvl 4 additional ability ‘unfavourable terrain (deserts, swamps)’, which will prevent the 33% decline in movement speed.

As the thumping sounds from the back gradually turned louder, the earth also started to shake slightly. Although Sheyan didn’t look back, an intense odour pierced into his nose indicating that the mountain troll was rapidly inching closer. Fortunately, the little arrangements Sheyan made on the way was beneficial. He abruptly turned, unexpectedly diverging into the thick vegetation by the side.

The surrounding vegetation wasn’t those enormous shrubs with venomous toxins, but it also grew extremely dense and packed together. If someone wanted to pass through, they would definitely have to cut open a path. But the mountain troll possessed such terrifying strength and thick skin, it could just charged straight without fear and the vegetation would be powerless against it. Hence, Sheyan’s method of deviating from the main route, under normal circumstances would be looking to die.

However, Sheyan had already prepared a set up! Once he darted into the nearby shrubs, his legs slightly bent and forcefully stomped! The mud beneath his feet splashed out, as he borrowed the force to leap up. A cold flash appeared in his hands, as he used an ordinary dagger to slice a binded vine he previously tied in advance. Using the vine, he swung 10 metres over a short cut like an orang utan, finally letting go with a somersault and landing back onto the main route. But in an instance, Sheyan managed to pull back some distance from the mountain troll, he could finally catch his breath.

After Sheyan repeated this action for several times, the mountain troll furiously released a raging roar. She suddenly paused from pursuing, but stretched out her rough arms and hugged a nearby tree! Cringing as she exposed her yellowish teeth, thick saliva constantly dipped from within the teeth. The veins on the thick arms bulged out one by one, as the ground around her started to vibrate. Crackling sounds sounded from the roots of the tree, and with a thunderous boom, mud soared out fanatically! This tree was uprooted just like that.

The mountain troll gnawed against the crown of the tree, she then waved it a few times feeling pretty satisfied. Observing the distant Sheyan, She released a furious roar as she started giving chase with her new weapon. Wherever the mountain troll passed through, her feet trampled heavily against the floor causing mud to spray out incessantly. Even the trees on both sides of the road was splashed with mud, just like a racing car speeding by. Its might was inexhaustible!

Chapter 145: Head on

Currently, there were only 200 metres left until the pitfall. If Sheyan seized that opportunity when the troll was uprooting to sprint fully, undoubtedly it wouldn’t be difficult to flee to the pitfall. Instead to Sheyan, this wasn’t part of his plan and ruin the bigger picture for escaping from the range of attack by this mountain troll. If he didn’t take a strike from this troll, primarily he wouldn’t be able to obtain first hand information of the mountain troll. This meant he would not be able to accurately access the fighting strength of the troll. Apart from that and more importantly, if he ran back in perfect state, then no doubt it would attract the unwanted attention of the Symbiosis sect and Diaz. That outcome is one that Sheyan definitely wanted to avoid.

Therefore, he had to face one strike of the troll head on. That was the only solution to his problems!

Since that was the case, Sheyan deeply inhaled and purposely cried out, pretending to stumble and fall down! “Bam!” Following that miserable fall as mud splashed up to the sky. This fall looked rather serious as Sheyan wasted 2-3 seconds to pick himself back up. Witnessing this scene, the mountain troll turned delirious as she roared out with saliva flying. Sheyan hastily crawled up and continued running, but at present his emotions seemed to be in a total collapsed as he anxiously glance backwards repeatedly. This caused his running speed to slow down a little.

Hiding by the side, when Qiao Gun saw Sheyan he became delighted. But following that was a profound caution gripping his heart! Because in his heart, he was convinced that even he himself didn’t have the confidence of luring the troll here. Thus, the only possibility was that Sheyan was concealing his ability. However after witnessing Sheyan’s current performance, Qiao Gun felt his earlier concern was unwarranted. He only anxiously hoped that this ‘Seaman’ would be more determined, at least persisting till the mountain troll stepped into the pit!

But the cruel reality normally triumph over gallantry. Sheyan persistently covered another 20 metres, there was only 50 metres left to the pit. Even the hidden contestants could hear his heavy panting, obviously on the brink of collapse. But at this moment, the mountain troll actually caught up 5 metres behind him. Eyeing him malevolently, it raised that gigantic tree club and smashed down violently.

Sheyan suddenly leapt forward, that gigantic murderous weapon smashed down on the ground a metre behind him. The ground shook violently as mud sprayed out in all sides. It drenched Sheyan entirely, causing him to look even more pathetic. Although he didn’t take a direct blow, he still received the aftermath injury.

Sheyan did a forward roll in the mid, and spat out the mud in his mouth before he continued fleeing in desperation. The mountain troll released a fuming roar, dragging its tree club as she continued charging forward. When Sheyan was only 10 metres away from the pit, the troll suddenly released a deafening and unprecedented beastly roar. One could see its greyish belly swelling up, following that a formless layer of rippling vibration exited from its mouth. Even the droplets of rain in mid air were blown aside, as that formless ripple reached Sheyan in an instance. Sheyan’s entire body shuddered, his face turned dull and spat a mouthful of blood! Suddenly, any progress became much harder.

Mountain troll special ability: Cardiac fissure! Apart from dealing damage, it can result in a 70% decrease of speed!

The pit was already within reach, yet his limbs seemed to be glued, unable to raise his legs. Nobody noticed that Sheyan had obviously received that ‘cardiac fissure’. Although movement speed would only drop after a second delay, his current expression was totally calm and without fear! The filthy and humid congestion of stench had surrounded him, the troll’s merciless eyes had started to flicker with excitement.

Sheyan’s distance to the pit was only a mere 3 metres!

These three metres, they were so close, yet worlds apart?

“Boom!” The thick tree club heavily pounded down. Sheyan’s eyes was brimming with panic and horror, he could only attempt to dart to the side. But in mid air, he suddenly felt an explosive tension pulling him. But if he made an all-out effort to resist it, he would still be able to suppress this powerful force. But at this moment, his heart stirred as he took in a deep breath and shifted his hands to block his front, letting this explosive tension control him.

This should be the mountain troll’s “?” ability!

Presently, this was the scenario that was playing in the observer’s eyes:

Sheyan was slowed down greatly. The mountain troll sneered evilly as she smashed down her club. Sheyan tried his utmost to dodge, the club landed on the empty ground. Sheyan was tossed up strangely by a force like he had stepped onto a spring board. The club then directly swung against him in mid air.

The mountain troll drew back the corners of its mouth, exposing a ruthless expression. One could see her yellowish and disorientated teeth, and the dripping viscous saliva.

It suddenly started revolving its heavy body in astonishingly high speed, then like a baseball player, it swung its club with full force against Sheyan! After the troll unleashed this attack, it lost its stability because of the overwhelming impact and stumbled forward.

Mountain troll special ability: Original home run!

In this instance, those in hiding could hear a thunderous shattering sound of bones. Nobody noticed that at that crucial moment, a black hatchet appeared in Sheyan’s hand. Using his right hand to grip the hatchet’s shaft, his left hand thrusted out the back of the hatchet trying his best to block against the horizontally swinging tree club. Following that, he instantly got blown away, spraying out a torrent of blood as he landed into the pitch-black jungle. A series of branches cracking sounded from his back, afterward…..there was complete silence within the darkness.

Concurrently, to Qiao Gun’s delight, the mountain troll stumbled forward and heavily stomped into the pitfall. Mud sprayed out as its massive body arched forward immediately and tumbled into the pit!

Nobody noticed that in the instance where Sheyan flew from the impact, although his expression was torturous, it definitely wasn’t one of a dead man. His body even exhibited out its reflex protective reaction. But everyone’s focus was on the mountain troll, who would notice such minute details?

While he flew from the impact, a buzzing sound echoed in his brain followed by a blankness. It was like all his five senses had vanished, his eyes could only see black. Only after a short while from landing was he able to force open his eyes. But he realized his surroundings were fuzzy like seeing underwater. Two large gashes were ripped from the webbing between the thumb and the finger on both his right and left hands. It miserably exposed his reddened flesh as blood flowed up. This chest was stuffy, and two snake like trail of blood flowed from his nostrils, and finally dripping into the mud.

“Damned…..” Sheyan covered his mouth as he coughed out several mouthful of blood. “I underestimated this troll.”

Going through his combat log, he received the notification from his nightmare imprint:

“Free world setting, you are unable to receive combat reports from other contestants. You can only receive combat reports regarding yourself: Do you wish to continue? Yes / No?”

Sheyan already understood this rule, he selected “yes”. Following that a list of pointer appeared.

“Junior class legendary creature mountain troll used its ability: ‘Earth jet’. After factoring your defense mechanisms, you received 26 points of earth damage.”

“Junior class legendary creature mountain troll used its ability: ‘Earth jet’. After factoring your defense mechanisms, you received an abnormal ‘floating’ effect.”

“You have been struck by the junior class legendary creature mountain troll.”

“Calculating…..enemy’s strength is 35 points, your strength is 13 points, Enemy’s strength is 2.68 times of yours.”

“Calculating….enemy’s strength is more that twofold of yours. Result: Attack received is an explosive strike (Critical hit). Also, you receive additional crushing damage”

“Crushing damage deals 40 – 50% of the attack damage.”

“Crushing damage is not considered an attack, your defence will not reduce its damage. This attack effect will take precedence over any other abnormal effects.”

“Calculating attributes, and prioritizing of factors….”

“Calculating….”

“Your innate ability ‘endurance’ takes precedence over the crushing damage, it can influence the crushing damage.”

“This horizontal strike deals 240 damage points + 100 points of additional damage (Crushing)

Your weapon’s ability: ‘resist’ is activated. Enemy’s weapon is classified as blunt overweight weapon. your weapon is a single-handed medium size weapon. Your ‘resist’ effect can only reduce 11% of enemy’s damage. After ‘resist’, your actual damage received is 213 points.

(TN: Not including crushing damage)

“After factoring defence, your actual damage received is 135 points.”

“Your innate ability endurance is activated, your actual damage received is 110 points.”

“You receive a further (100 – 25 = 75) points of crushing damage.”

“After receiving the strike from the mountain troll, your total finalized damage is (110 + 75 = 185 points)

“You receive 5 seconds of shock, subsequent movement speed reduced by 70%.”

Looking at his remaining life points of 65 points, Sheyan shook his head bitterly. Although he had an entire 300 HP, he received several attacks. The earlier AOE damage from the troll’s first missed strike, in addition to the damage from the ‘earth jet’ dealing some light damage, the damage from the cardiac fissure and finally that last direct attack from the troll which straightforwardly dealt 240 points of damage……

Chapter 146: Dealing a heavy blow

Following his prior thought process, he only considered that this troll had a chance of exhibiting explosive (Critical) strike. Hence he only specially activated the ‘resist’ ability of his hatchet. He hadn’t expected the strength disparity to be so great, to even exhibit the special crushing effect! This ferocious bonus damage was extremely terrifying, and it seemed like every attack carries it. Furthermore, it was not considered an attack, and defence had no powers against it! If not for his individual innate ability, that attack may have taken his life!

Apart from that, the reason why Sheyan could manage to dodge the repeated attacks from the troll was not because of his agility. Instead, it was due to the important warning from his perceptive sensing vastly exceeding the mountain troll. When the troll swung out with his club, its attack speed wasn’t the least bit slow. Yet it was only a junior class legendary creature, its movements indicating its attack was rather sluggish. For example, if the troll’s full attack duration was 5 seconds, then she would take 4.5 seconds to raise to raise its club but only required 0.5 seconds to fully swing it. This was the main reason that Sheyan was able to dodge her attacks successively.

Although when he was knocked away, he managed to personally witness the troll falling into the pit before he landed. After carefully confirming that the troll could no longer attack him, he then took out his ‘endless vodka’ and drank two consecutive mouthfuls. His HP instantly recovered (25 x 2 = 50 points). Following that, he immediately used that US army excellent bandage he got from the Venter of the Banks syndicate to wrap his wound. It stopped the bleeding and would restore 50 HP within 30 seconds. Finally his health was restored to more than 50%, before creeping near the battlefield to observe the status. He believed that at this moment, the Symbiosis sect would have no clue of his existence.

While cautiously approaching the battlefield, Sheyan started to feel some post-traumatic fear from his previous situation. As the saying goes, plans could never keep up with changing variables. He never expected that against the troll, he didn’t even have a chance of retaliating but was instantly blown away. If the mountain troll hadn’t fallen into the pit but continued its onslaught…. If that insatiable beast wasn’t willing to give up on its prey….. Then undoubtedly Qiao Gun and the rest would surely spectate by the side, and his situation would be perilous.

After pondering, he was subsequently relieved. Because from the start he could already sense a slight discomfort. Besides, he had already planned ahead, once the situation turned desperate, the first thing to do was to sell out the Symbiosis sect who were hiding in the background. He couldn’t outrun the mountain troll, but as long as he could outrun them, they would in turn become the troll’s food. Opportunities to escape would then be plenty. Since they treated him as a stepping stone, then they shouldn’t blame him for sabotaging them.

Sheyan didn’t rush back to the scene, instead he circled round it and found a towering tree and climbed up. In this manner, if the troll was absolutely victorious, then it would be unable to sense it and give chase. The tree was 30 metres away from the entire fight. The blaze from the battle casted motley shadows onto the tree. The raging roars of the troll and the whiff of stench occasionally travelled here.

Initially at the instance Sheyan got struck, Qiao Gun’s expression and the others sunk. Sheyan’s failure only meant one thing: the risk of this mountain troll must be transferred to one of the symbiosis sect member. Furthermore, personally witnessing the troll’s might, they all did not want to taste getting swept away by a tree size club.

Who knew that the troll would overstep its boundaries and unluckily stumble forward into the pit! This caused their hearts to celebrate delightedly. The mountain troll wasn’t a human type creature, when his leg sank into the pit, its entire massive frame naturally followed suit. Apart from the incessant roars, his two hands swung around chaotically trying to grab onto something.

Even after the tireless considerations while the Symbiosis sect were digging the pit, they missed out one thing. That was the massive tree club that the mountain troll was holding onto. This was obviously the sturdy trunk of the tree, it was at least 4-5 metres long. Coincidentally, it fell horizontally across the pit…. The mountain troll was 4-5 metres tall, its strength limitless. It grabbed onto the tree club tightly, swinging its twin legs at random causing the surrounding wall rampants of the pitfall to slowly break off. If this persisted, after a few minutes the entire structure of the pitfall will certainly give way!

Seeing this situation unfolding, Qiao Gun who was adept in scheming but lacking in improvising felt an overwhelming panic. He viewed the tree club as the main thorn in the flesh, and going by this logic he threw out 3 grenades over.

Boom Boom Boom. Smoke mixed with earthen particles spiralled up along with the mournful roars of the mountain troll. Qiao Gun’s 3 grenades were extremely accurate, it blew up a small part of the jammed tree club causing it to sink further into the pit. The mountain troll’s heavy weight and continued struggling pulled it down further, and finally the mountain troll utterly fell into the pit. Its furious roars caused even the surrounding trees to vibrate violently as the leaves hovered down.

“Success!” Qiao Gun pounced up, raising his arms high and shouting. “Together!”

Of course the Symbiosis sect members didn’t dare defy his orders. Yet the swiftest was still Diaz. No one knew where he was hiding previously, but when the mountain troll sunk into the pitfall he appeared from the darkness. His right hand gripping onto a branch from 20 metres away, his right hand holding onto a single-handed gun. Aiming towards the bottom, he released his trigger and opened fire!

“Bang bang bang” Three distinct gunshots echoed out. The spark from his karabiner rifle barrel illuminated Diaz’s cheeks. One could clearly see a faint spiralling vapour trajectory from the three bullets he fired. It flew in from the left of the mountain troll, deeply piercing into its left eye!

Although Sheyan couldn’t tell the damage dealt, he could see the troll’s face transforming into an agonizing cringe. From there he could tell how menacing that firepower was. Following that, grenades, darts, AK and several other lethal firearms were in full throttle from the members of the symbiosis sect. Only Diaz indifferently suspended from the tree, only firing few rounds in every 5 seconds interval. Although the gunshot wasn’t loud, it contained a shocking oppressiveness to it. Anyone listening would feel like vomiting blood, one could tell how frightening those bullets were.

“This guy really possesses the skills to be arrogant.” When one truly sees, then he will be able to differentiate. After Diaz showcased his true talent in shooting, not only did the members from the symbiosis sect changed, even the elusive Sheyan was astonished. Diaz’s shooting movement and tempo, was just as smooth as a pianist grand master. It carried an artistic grace, bringing a certain elegance to cruelty like slaughters.

Prior to this, during the feud with the Banks syndicate. While Diaz was fighting against two, he looked rather piteous in such a situation, completely unable to display his true capabilities. But now, he was free to unleash. Qiao Gun’s vigilance towards him became more profound. Based on Diaz’s current showing of force, if he managed to pull a distance away, then even the 28 points peak strength Venter would not be his opponent!

Since that was the case, Qiao Gun couldn’t help but shot a look at his subordinates signaling them to be more alert. Although they had signed a temporary contract, but it was full of loopholes. If they naively appeased their fears based on a contract, then they really deserved to die! The few members glanced at each other, and gradually shifted themselves to Diaz’s side. Their goal was simple, to obstruct Diaz from trying to steal away the dropped key when the mountain troll was slayed.

The faraway Sheyan sneered, these bunch from the symbiosis sect were really obsessed. Others destroyed the bridges after crossing the river, but before crossing the river they were already plotting against their ally. This sort of behaviour couldn’t be describe with just foolishness. Sure enough, Diaz already had the height advantage, every movement could not elude his eyes. He was no fool, scoffing he immediately leapt down, using an unparalleled swiftness to fade into the darkness.

Currently, Sheyan could infer that Diaz’s path was one of equal emphasis on agility and strength. He belonged to a class of unconventional gunmen. This sort of gunmen could engage in mid range attacks, and also wouldn’t be disadvantaged when it came to close combat. But its flaw was the lacking in perceptive sense, which meant that they gave off grasping high velocity, far range high technology weapons. They would also be inferior when facing off with an opponent with high perceptive sensing. But to an early stage far range combat contestant, walking this route had a much higher chance at survival. Although the attack power may be compromised, but no matter what, survival was the number one priority.

Seizing the sudden suppression of firepower, the mountain troll roared out loudly within the pit. It stretched its arms out and jumped with all its might, managing to grab onto the edge of the pit entrance! Its legs frantically kicked against the sides, its long incisive toenails were like shovels as they clawed against the earth of the pitfall. It was actually attempting to escape this pit by force!

Chapter 147: Tree club turning into a meat stick

Reasonably, those members digging the pit weren’t experts. The thought of the mountain troll escaping was enough a motivation for them to dig such an adequately deep pit. It was enough to completely trap the mountain troll within. However, when Qiao Gun exploded the tree club, it caused a big chunk of earth at the side to be blown away!

The pit originally had a jar shape. When a portion of the roof got blown up, the soil rolled down and became the mountain troll’s footstool! Furthermore, the roof of this pit had a slight slope now, this undoubtedly provided a ray of hope for the mountain troll!

Witnessing the possibility of the troll escaping, everyone broke out in panic. The members from the symbiosis sect urgently rushed to the pit and engaged in frenzied assaults. Some even took out their close range weapons, as they attacked the troll who was desperately clinging onto the edge of the pit. However, their attacks seemed to be in vain. At this moment, Qiao Gun committed another foolish mistake in his panic. He threw out another 3 smoking high explosive grenades, aiming it accurately to land at the fingertips of the troll.

A loud explosion followed as clumps of mud scattered out upon impact. Without doubt, the place where the troll was holding onto was blown apart, as the troll once again fell back into the pit. But just when the symbiosis sect felt relieved, the mountain troll released a fanatical roar! A formless ripple surged out to all directions, this roar contained a terrifying hidden might and simultaneously causing everyone who received it to have their speed dropped by 70%.

Mountain troll special ability: Cardiac…..fissure!

Following that, the mountain troll picked up the tree club and leapt up once again grabbing on the edge of the pit!

Thanks to Qiao Gun, the sloped dent formed at the pit once again got wrecked by him as more soil rolled down, at the same time causing the dent to be more distinct and deeper. The mountain troll gave up all notions of defending, concentrating solely on struggling to get up. In an instance, half of its body was already exposed out of the pit, as it lifted its gigantic legs to the edge of the pit. Escaping the pit was already irreversible at this point. Seeing this scenario unfolding, members from the sect started planning in their vigorously in their heart, as they surveyed the surroundings for a retreat path.

“Idiot!! What are you waiting for?” Diaz suddenly surfaced onto another tree. His face ashen as he released his trigger. Scolding Qiao Gun furiously, “When it wasn’t time to use the grenade you f**king threw it, now you don’t want to use it? Any second of delay it is crucial now!”

The veins on Qiao Gun’s head swelled out, a baleful expression formed in his eyes. He couldn’t tolerate it any longer. He had a total of 8 grenades, he gave one to Sheyan and previously threw 6 out. In the end, he tossed out his final one.

This time, his manner of throwing the grenade was queer, just like throwing a bowling ball. Yet the target he chose was accurate, coincidentally the place where the troll was supporting itself. The grenade exploded, causing the thick legs of the troll to slip down again, as it once again hung by the cliff while grimacing in pain.

Everyone understood this rare opportunity, they did their utmost to grab this final chance to engage in frantic assaults. Instead, Diaz continued to calmly aim at the troll’s vital positions and released his rounds. He had no expectations of causing crippling effects to the troll, but instead the chances of an explosive strike was higher. He was trying his best to produce the maximum damage! In such a dire situation, a single bullet could be like the final strand of straw that will cause a camel to collapse!

The mountain troll finally pulled itself out of the pit. Its greyish muddy face looked extremely hideous. One eye was squinting as light blue fluid streamed from it! But that was the reason why its killing intent was the most intense. Sheyan observed from afar, he could also feel the tremendous threat downing him. Glancing at his arm, his hairs were already all standing! Even his joints started to feel a little rigid. The other contestants didn’t have high perceptive sensing, thus they were still rather oblivious.

“Retreat!” Qiao Gun shouted out in despair. The remaining 4 members were currently engaging in close combat, chopping at the the unusually quiet mountain troll with great enthusiasm. Having experienced the realm for so long, they naturally had some courage and vigor, if not they wouldn’t even be able to become a member of the symbiosis sect. Once they heard Qiao Gun’s command, they unwillingly dished out a few more blows before retreating.

They committed the same mistake as Sheyan previously, there was neglecting this muddy terrain which would impair their movement speed!

Under this misjudgement, they mountain troll raged out as the ruthless tree club showered down on them with a whistling smash!

These contestants had previously witnessed Sheyan being handled while in hiding, in their hearts they had a disdainful judgement of the attack. Yet in this world often times things that looked simple were actually the hardest. Presently they personally experienced the beastly assault of his humongous troll, they finally understood how frightening it was. 35 points of strength completing that tree club, the contestants involved helplessly released a mournful cry as though the heavens were about to collapse on them!

“Bam!” The immense club smashed against the earth, causing the mud to burst out. Finally venting its anger, although the contestants didn’t receive a direct blow, they would still face the aftermath. According to Sheyan’s estimation, at least they would receive 45 points of damage. The mountain troll fumed at its missed attempt, roaring out furiously to the heavens. It was actually using its ‘cardiac fissure’ ability again!

A formless rippled swept across horizontally, causing the wildly fleeing and stumbling contestants to freeze in their tracks. It was like the slow mo effect in the movies. The uniform chattering of their teeth due to the freezing horror could be heard. Several flicker of lights could be seen on the surface of some of them, obviously they were desperately trying to use their medicines.

But, but!

In this instance, the mountain troll issued its signature, foolish yet merciless grin. It started spinning, as wherever the tree club whizzed by caused an immense pressure against the air, releasing a shrilling whistle! The threatening whistling of the wind engulfed the entire region.

Original home run!

The slowest, snail like contestant directly took the club head on. It was like a sandstorm sweeping past them. Following a sorrowful splattering sound, he vanished.

Notice, vanished not blown away!

The mountain troll stumbled forward, its crude legs trampling on the mud lously. After stumbling a few steps, it finally stabilized itself. Then, its face carried a ruthlessly excited expression, the likes of a little child that found himself a cookie jar.

The mountain troll raised its tree club with her right hand, placing it to its mouth. Chunks of flesh and blood were hanging distinctly, looking extremely gruesome. The contestant was utterly decimated, the corpse was reduced to a pile of gruesome mess, completely hanging on the tree club. The troll extended its deadly red tongue, licking and savouring the club with full delight.

Witnessing such a horrendous fate, the other contestant couldn’t help but broke out in cold sweat, as though falling into an icehouse.

The distant Sheyan was similarly appalled, he mumbled to himself suspiciously.

“How could it be? According to the boss of the Symbiosis sect…..”

But at this moment, a distant ‘Pew pew pew” gun shots travelled over. The sounds were grim and stable, causing the troll to release an agonizing cry. Its left eye had already cracked open, as blood gushed out, shockingly exposing a deep mutilated black hole! Actually, Diaz had never once ceased fire against the troll, only the troll’s body composition was different from a human. When this freak attacked, its entire body would tense up causing its attack recoil to be detrimental. However, it was completely disregarded by this close to 6000 Hp beast. But because that was the case, the troll’s carelessness cause it suffer heavy injuries!

“This Diaz….he actually managed to claim 1/6 HP of this troll by himself!” this shocking thought suddenly floated into Sheyan’s mind.

Because the regulation in the nightmare realm was: head/heart/eyes and other vital points would not cause fatality after receiving damage to it, but instead will increase the chance of an explosive strike. But when opponents damaged certain body parts like the eyes/nose/ear etc, causing your life to reach one-third, you will exhibit abnormal effects of blindness/deafness/ and other crippling effects.

Currently, the mountain troll was blinded in one eye. Although his vision was lacking by half, the only contestant who could accurately assault the troll’s eyes was only Diaz. Thus Sheyan could infer Diaz’s far range capabilities:

The mountain troll had 5680 HP, its defence was 9 points roughly absorbing 1/4 damage. Factoring in the defence, its total effective HP should be around 7100 points.

1/6 of his HP was roughly 1183 points.

In that moment, Diaz released 2 burst shots of 3 bullets which had successfully pierced the troll’s left eye. This should be one of his special abilities. Consecutively, he shot out another 11 normal bullets. When the mountain troll got struck in the left eye, its head would recline slightly. Thus Sheyan could infer that Diaz managed to successfully pierce the troll’s left eye 3 times. (Note: another 6 rounds did not deal any damage to the eyes, but didn’t miss as well as it probably landed around the face) This meant that his accuracy was insane.

Calculating, he dealt a total of 9 bullets worth of damage to the left eye. Thus every bullet’s damage should be 1183/9 = 131 points.

Of course, this does not include the increased chance of explosive strike whenever the left eye received an attack. Therefore factoring this in, on strike from Diaz was roughly 80 – 100 points of damage. Of course, this was in theory, against an opponent with 0 defence. Even if that was so, this was still pretty remarkable, furthermore he still had that special ability to release the 3 bullet burst shot!

Chapter 148: Slaying tree toss

The troll clutched its left eye in pain, light blue fluid quickly flowed down its coarse grey skin. Diaz’s shot may have even resulted in a blood loss effect. Its remaining right eye flashed with an intense menacing hatred. The muscles of its right hand that was grabbing onto the tree club could be seen swelling up, pores and fine hair even appeared on its bluish-grey skin!

Without warning, the troll aimed and with an agonizing cry hurled its weapon in the direction of Diaz. The tree club revolved in high speed as it flew through the air releasing an oppressive buzzing sound! This was the special ability of the troll: Tree Toss of Slaying!

Although Diaz had relatively excellent agility, his perceptive sensing was lacking. If it were Sheyan, in the instance where the troll’s muscles swelled up, he would have sensed the imminent danger. But Diaz only reacted when his eyes caught sight of the troll’s hurling action, but that massive weapon was already surging to him in mid air! In a flash, it knocked against the tree supporting Diaz.

“Ka cha!” a crackling impact resounded as the club crashed against the tree. A sky full of leaves were shaken and slowly descended in mid air. Diaz was too late to dodge the AOE damage and knock down effect of the slaying tree toss. He fell to the ground like a rock, trying his best to struggle but his body had gone numb and was unable to regain his mobility.

This knockdown effect would last for 5 seconds. Even if Diaz’s strength could diminish a small portion of the effect, he would at least have to struggle for 4 seconds!

Moreover the troll had already started to take big strides towards Diaz with its bone deep hatred. Its broad feet traversed quickly through the mud, every step bringing it forward by 4-5 metres. Although Diaz had a 30 metre gap between himself and the troll previously, when he recovered control of his body after 4 seconds, he could already smell the suffocating stench of the troll. That beast was already within 7-8 metres from reach!

Diaz rolled backwards, and darted forward tactically. He was calm and collected, only needing 2 seconds to ride on his agility and once again widen the gap between him and the troll. But at this moment, a stuffy roar resounded in his ears penetrating deeply into his heart and clogging it. A formless shockwave surged from behind him, and when it finally approached him his body froze up, completely unable to take a step forward!

This was the third time the troll activated its special ability.

Cardiac fissure!

Diaz sunk into despair….. Although his agility was an astounding 24 points, and his basic footwork lvl 6, but after a 70% reduction in speed it was equivalent to a mere 7 points of agility. This was not even factoring the unfavourable terrain! Yet the troll only had 9 points of agility, but more tragically Diaz’s physique was only 9 points. This was why he was affected by the negative 70% debuff which will last for an entire 9 seconds……

Regarding this 90 HP Diaz, once this terrifying beast reached him he would be finished. Half a second was more than enough! 9 Seconds was in fact too much!

Yet Diaz did not give up. Even when his speed was reduced by 70%, he continued to summoned his strength to force his way forward. His fingers dug deep into the mud, as he frantically scolded out in regret:

“Qiao Gun! You fool! Without me, how would your bunch of close combat fools be able to slay this monster?”

Qiao Gun’s face turned ashen, his facial muscles twitched as he waved to his 3 lucky suviving members.

“Go!”

This word was chilling to the bone and filled with a baleful aura. After speaking, he immediately charged up towards the battle.

The troll let out a cruel laugh, kicking its leg at Diaz! This one kick was like a small mountain crashing against Diaz, throwing him 5-6 metres away as he crashed heavily against a tree and slumped to the ground. Fortunately, Diaz’s strength probably exceeded 18 points, therefore there wasn’t any ‘crushing’ effect from the troll’s kick. But still, one could tell how heavily injured he was from the blood spurting out through his mouth.

Following that, the troll raised his massive feet up, looking at its actions it was simply trying to stomp down on Diaz! Fortunately at this moment, a faint green glow appeared on Diaz’s body, probably using some instant cure medicine to recover his HP. He then forced a roll and managed to dodge the stomp. Because of his currently rigid body, he was unable to dodge completely as his right shoulder was trampled and produced a miserable cracking sound.

The troll roared angrily when it confidently stomped down but didn’t finish off its opponent, and pounded down with its fist. The agonizing Diaz tried his best to dart to the side, as the tree he was reclining on broke into splinters. At this moment, Diaz had expended all his energy, and had nowhere else to run. Faced with this ruthless troll, he could only shut his eyes and wait for death.

At this moment, a large hand reached out and grabbed onto Diaz’s hair, hauling him backwards forcefully.

Diaz could only feel a gush of wind against his face, and a suffocating sensation over his entire body. The unique stench of the troll punctured his nose followed by the faint vibration of the earth, before a torrent of mud splashed against his face and his entire body. The mud smacked painfully against his naked skin, as though he had been rammed by something. At the last second, Qiao Gun activated his innate ability: Flash to rush there and quickly pulled Diaz hair rescuing him from the depths of despair. The mountain troll’s convincing stomp had once again connected nowhere. Qiao Gun’s innate ability: flash started its two hour long duration, rendering it completely obsolete.

The troll fumed nastily as it missed once again, roaring out furiously. Striding forward and releasing a terribly ruthless strike, yet another figure flickered over and received its attack! It was actually Gale from the Symbiosis sect. This brat had the highest physique in his party, reaching 16 points and thus was honored to be used as a punching bag by Qiao Gun.

Under Qiao Gun’s orders, although he wished that the person who previously stuck a gun against his brain would turn into a meat ball, he still rushed up to tank the onslaught. Fortunately the troll had thrown away his tree club, thus Gale only staggered backwards, spinning a few rounds before landing on his butt and spitting out a mouthful of blood. But after shaking off the slight daze, he immediately rolled away and took cover behind a tree. Looks like the attack he endured wasn’t fatal.

Witnessing this scene, a glimmer of suspiciousness glowed in Qiao Gun’s eyes. He expanded his strength to drag Diaz further backwards as he shouted at the top of his voice.

“Don’t give up! This blockhead is useless without its tree. Don’t be misled by its size.”

Diaz felt like the few seconds of negativities from the ‘cardiac fissure’ was like an eternity. He panted heavily as he forced himself to advance. Seizing the chance when the troll was distracted by Gale, he finally regained his movement speed. Diaz didn’t say much, he shot Qiao Gun a stare before clutching his injured shoulder, gritting his teeth and fading into the darkness.

From there on, the members of the Symbiosis sect displayed a typical party coordination to Sheyan. Against the raging troll, they exploited the blind angle of the troll and exhibited a classic guerilla warfare tactic, doing their utmost to distract primarily while dishing out attacks secondarily. No choice but to resist the rampaging troll, once someone took a hit another would rush up to cover him. Therefore, they shared equally the damage dealt from the mountain troll.

Of course, the generous amount of medicines in their possession was extremely shocking. The spectating Sheyan could confirm two things. One was that the medicines that the Symbiosis sect were using should be able to instantly recover over 50 HP. Second, the duration of cooldown between usage definitely did not exceed 3 minutes. Sheyan’s previously used US excellent bandage had a 5 minutes long duration, looks like these bunch from the symbiosis sect didn’t lay all their cards on the table previously.

Very quickly, from deep within the forest the lone distinct gunshots from the karabiner echoed out. Diaz had probably understood the meaning of ‘without the lips, the teeth will feel cold'(being interdependent), after rushing to treat himself he surfaced again. This time trying his best to aim towards the remaining right eye in hopes that he could lessen the pressure on the symbiosis sect. Instead, the troll learned its lesson and didn’t dare to be careless, it similarly protected its right eye. In this manner, it was slightly distracted and allowed a glimmer of hopes of attaining victory to the bunch from the symbiosis sect. They gritted their teeth and persevered.

As seconds and minutes sped by, vivid injuries were still absent on the troll’s body. Yet its attacking frequency as well as its attack damaged had displayed distinct weakening. Probably because it previously activated its special abilities excessively, thus causing its mental powers (MP) to drain significantly. It clutched its blinded left eye, panting heavily as thick disgusting saliva repeatedly drip out from its yellowish set of teeth. If an attacking contestant accidentally stepped onto it, they would feel a disgusting stickiness just like stepping onto glue.

Chapter 149: Blind

From the troll’s perspective, these bunch of pests were like a group of nasty houseflies. Flying incessantly but never faltering. Worst still, there was a venomous bee hiding in the shadows, spraying sneaky needles towards his eyes! This troll gradually felt weaker from losing too much blood, moreover pulses of searing pain constantly enveloped his body. Suddenly its ominous single eye shifted its vision, using its two hands to cover the head it started to dash towards the direction of its lair.

Seeing such a situation, they were utterly astonished. Qiao Gun was the first to reach, screaming out in exasperation.

“Chase!”

Truthfully speaking, the members from the Symbiosis sect were all exhausted as well, moreover their remaining medicines were nearly depleted. Honestly, this was more emotionally draining than a prostitute in the present world , and more mentally exhausting than a white collared worker who OT for consecutive days (ED: lol, the analogies in this novel are the best). Yet the thought of the rewards gained from slaying a legendary creature, and the strict regulations of the party caused the contestants to summon their courage and pursued on.

The troll had long and broad limbs in addition to its superior body state. Hence, as the mud splashed against her feet, it very quickly pulled open the distance from the humans. The Symbiosis sect chased urgently, sticking their tongues out like an exhausted dog. Yet the gap ahead of them only seemed to widen.

Fortunately, this chase only persisted for a few more minutes before the troll paused its footsteps and darted into its lair! The few pursuing contestants heaved a sigh of relief. From their perspective, the troll was just another wild beast. Although it had a tremendous build and abundant strength, didn’t it just flee in panic and hide back in its lair like a tortoise in the shell?

Instigated by such thinking, the few contestants loosened up. Of course they didn’t dare venturing into the pitch-black cave, but obstructed the entrance and discussed on using firepower to lure it out. Sheyan had also shuttled through the forest, concealing behind a distant tree. When he saw these bunch assembling at the cave entrance, he shook his head and mumbled to himself.

“Ho damn, you guys are really suicidal…..”

As Sheyan’s voice faded off, suddenly a formless shockwave rippled out from the pitch-black cave!

Mountain troll special ability: Cardiac fissure!

This damned beast, it actually harbored such an intention! When the fierce shockwave rippled by, even the pelting raindrops were blown aside to make way for the troll’s raging roar.

The 4 contestants surrounding the cave entrance got their speed reduced by 70%! They stared at each other in despair, trying their best to disperse out yet their bodies could not keep up with their intentions.

Actually the troll previously felt disadvantaged, moreover it couldn’t utilize its ‘root catastrophe’. Thus it chose to dash towards its lair, but the aim wasn’t to escape! It was to return to retrieve its usual tree club it kept in the cave. The symbiosis sect misinterpreted its behaviour, and thus landed themselves into grave consequences!

‘Thump thump..” Marching out of the cave, the troll stomped onto the mud surface heavily causing the mud to splash far and wide. It released a thunderous roar as it raised a massive tree club highly in the air. Then it heavily bombarded the humans.

Its attack finally met the target. The remaining members of the symbiosis sect were all injured and fatigue, not forgetting their 70% speed debuff. The brutal smash of the troll instantly squashed the nearest contestant. Even his shoulder blades touched the ground, and seemingly got flattened into a flat land as the mud around it got dyed red! Sniffing the smell of blood, the troll raised its club and roared out excitedly. It even ignored the incoming bullets from the distant darkness, as it picked up the flattened piece of contestant and devoured him.

Witnessing this scene, Sheyan’s heavy expression suddenly intertwined and humbly nodded. He looked like he just understood something.

After devouring that unlucky brat in a few mouth, it once again raised its club and continued its rampage. A concentrated gruesome blood leaked from the corner of its lips. According to logic, the tactic of fleeing in all directions was not bad. They reckoned that they would be safe upon reaching the dense shrubs of the forest. More the cruel reality was that, in such places the troll’s speed was just a an ordinary person walking into an untrimmed grassland. There would only be slight hindrances, but the contestants would feel their speed lowered by half once constricted in the forest.

Therefore, naturally in two minutes, the vile and merciless troll caught up to the next contestant. Quickly and effortlessly, he died by the troll’s club. Undoubtedly, his corpse became the next appetizer for the troll. The troll cried on in ecstasy, evening up its previous grievances.

Although the Symbiosis sect suffered heavy casualties, more critically, the muffled gunshots had never ceased. Diaz had persistently aimed towards the sole remaining right eye of the troll. Not only was the area around the right eye terribly bruised, its eyeball was already bloodshot and bleeding profusely, the blood mingling with the blueish fluid. It was obviously on the verge of collapse. Losing an eye had already resulted in a quantifiable change, then undoubtedly, being completely blinded would be a world of difference!

From another angle, once the troll loses both eyes, then Diaz could even challenge this brutally savage beast alone!

The scenario became tricky from here on. Qiao Gun and the sole remaining Gale had seized the opportunity to hide away. At this moment, the final three once again started scheming against each other. No matter Diaz or Qiao Gun, they all overlooked Sheyan’s existence long ago. But there weren’t to blame, the fact was that the incredible attacking might of the troll displayed in its ‘original homerun’ was more than enough to eliminate the thought of Sheyan living on.

The troll’s vision had lost its assaulting targets, thus it directed its attention towards the faraway succession of shots against him! Placing his hand over his eyes and rubbing it, the searing pain triggered its vicious nature. Roaring furiously, the muscles gripping onto the tree club swelled up once again. Obviously, it wanted to give Diaz another taste of its ‘Tree Toss of Slaying’!

As the saying goes, wisdom comes with experience. Diaz had previously suffered disastrously under the ‘Tree Toss of Slaying’ obviously he had came up with a suitable contingency plan. Risk and opportunities existed together, while hurling out its overbearing weapon, it no longer had the capacity to protect its right eye. That was Diaz’s best chance at inflicting lethal damage!

Presently, Diaz had silently calculated his approximate damage dealt, he could roughly confirm: If he seized this opportunity to release a burst shot, the troll would very well turn blind if the attack landed accurately! Thereafter, its followed up attack would no non-existence. If Diaz chose to evade and retreat, he may not even successfully dodge the AOE strike and would subsequently face the wrath of the troll. At that time…..death would be certain!

Thus, Diaz tossed out the notion of trying to dodge the incoming tree club. He stood firmly on the tree and aimed towards the troll’s right eye, he then pressed the trigger.

A burst shot of 3 bullets rushed out in a flash…..

Ability: burst shot (3), activated!

From far, Sheyan observed this scene. He couldn’t help but praise Diaz’s amazing judgement even in the face of death.

In a hundred considerations, one would be overlooked. Diaz had similarly made the same error, and that was he underestimate the troll’s intellect. Previously when the troll utilized that ‘Tree Toss of Slaying’, it didn’t inflict heavy damage to the opponent and thus got the troll brooding. This time, it adjusted its throwing angle causing the the trajectory of the club to land directly at Diaz who just finished taking his shot! Boom!

An intense explosion of wood ensued, as wood fragments and mud scattered out in all directions. Diaz had previously received heavy injuries, and finally managed to restore some HP with his medicines. But this one explosion instantly threw him 7-8 metres back, as his head heavily knocked against a stone causing secondary damage. The damage dealt to the head was amplified by three, causing him to sink into a coma. Fresh blood streamed out from his nose and ear, as he looked extremely unsightly against the mud.

Of course, after receiving the round of bullets the troll was not better off. It roared out in agony and rage as it clawed at its face with both hands. Broken eyeball tissues mixed with light blue fluid rolled down his fingertips. To a creature who relied on vision, sinking into an endless darkness was no doubt extremely nerve wrecking. The fanatical roars of the troll reverberated against the surrounding trees, rocks and every other objects…..it was like a devastating storm passing by with matchless ferocity.