158: Chapter 158 A Hundred-Man Encirclement! Prey in a Desperate Situation!

Instructor Su Qing was stunned for two seconds when she heard Lin Qi's question.

She looked at Lin Qi; his face was very young and casual.

But she saw something extremely dangerous on that face.

Instructor Su Qing nodded slowly.

“It's not against the rules,” Instructor Su Qing answered truthfully.

“To simulate a real Abyss battlefield, Mist Forest has cut off all external rescue intervention.”

“Before entering, contestants are required to sign a Life-and-death waiver.”

“If you are heavily injured, the bracelet will trigger a shield and teleport you out. But if you are killed instantly in one move, there won't even be time to trigger the shield.”

“That means true death.”

Instructor Su Qing emphasized the last two words.

She wanted Lin Qi to understand the seriousness of the situation.

Instead, Lin Qi clapped his hands with great satisfaction.

“Excellent,” Lin Qi said.

Zhang Wei slumped on the ground, his eyes rolling back, nearly fainting away.

“Crazy, everyone's gone crazy,” Zhang Wei muttered.

“These are over a hundred fully-armed top-tier professionals!”

Lin Qi looked down and kicked Zhang Wei's fat leg.

“Get up. Don't embarrass yourself here. They're just sending me sparring partners.”

“What I lack most are live-action punching bags.”

Lin Qi stretched lazily, his bones letting out a series of crisp 'crackling' sounds.

In this boring world filled with data rules, it had been a long time since he experienced a real Jianghu pursuit.

Back in the martial arts era, he had charged through ten-thousand-man guild wars alone with a single sword, killing his way in and out seven times.

This little display now could only be considered a warm-up.

Since Tianji Pavilion wanted to play, he would smash the entire table to pieces for them.

That night, the entire Federation network exploded.

All forums, message boards, and social platforms were discussing these ridiculous new rules.

Netizens were venting furiously at Lin Qi's wanted poster.

“Hahaha! I'm dying of laughter! This is the price of acting tough!”

“Didn't he clamor about crushing Tianji Pavilion yesterday? Today the officials stepped in to teach him a lesson!”

“One hundred thousand points! My god! If I were a contestant, I'd hunt down even Lin Qi's underwear overnight!”

“This is what happens to cheating dogs! Great job, organizing committee!”

Those spectators who harbored great malice toward Lin Qi began a grand online carnival.

No one felt this was deliberate persecution by the organizers; they only felt it was immensely satisfying.

Meanwhile, inside a luxurious private villa of the Kyoto Li Family in Tianhai City.

Li Pojun sat upright on a leather sofa.

He held a glass of red wine, listening to his deputy report on the progress.

“Brother Li, it's done,” the deputy said with a bow.

“Through the Li Family's special channels, we've contacted three solo teams on this year's entry list.”

“They are all elite assassins sent out for training by the underground guild 'Shadow Blade Alliance'.”

“The money has been transferred to their Dark Net accounts. It cost a total of two hundred million Federation Credits.”

When the deputy mentioned this figure, his nose twitched in pain for the money.

Li Pojun gently swirled his wine glass.

“Two hundred million to buy that Blank Slate's life—consider him lucky.”

Li Pojun looked at Lin Qi's photo on the large screen and sneered.

“Seeing his strange power-exertion methods yesterday, I thought he might be a variable.”

“I didn't expect him to be stupid enough to provoke Tianji Pavilion.”

“Now it's perfect. I don't even have to lift a finger; there's a long line of people waiting for his life.”

“Are those three assassin teams reliable?” Li Pojun asked.

The deputy nodded repeatedly.

“Absolutely reliable! The leader's code name is 'Poison Fang', a Tier 4 Shadow Assassin. His talent skills are all stealth and backstab. He has over a dozen lives on his hands.”

“Visibility in the Mist Forest is extremely low this time; it's practically home turf for an assassin.”

“Besides them, I also heard that at least forty bounty hunters have formed a temporary alliance.”

“They even set up a group called the 'Hunt Lin Qi Grand Alliance'.”

“Over fifty people, all targeting him alone. He won't survive past tomorrow noon.”

Li Pojun placed his wine glass on the table with satisfaction.

“Very good. Once he's dead, I'll go to Tianji Pavilion to settle the winnings from our bets.”

The next day, at exactly eight o'clock in the morning.

In front of the large teleportation array in Tianhai City's center.

One hundred and twenty-eight contestants who passed the preliminaries stood in formation.

Everyone wore a black metal bracelet on their wrist.

This thing was used to tally points and served as the final barrier for life-saving teleportation.

No one in the entire field spoke to one another.

But almost everyone's gaze drifted, as if by prior agreement, toward that corner in the back right.

Lin Qi stood there alone.

He wore a set of ordinary gray sportswear and extremely cheap canvas shoes on his feet.

Both hands were shoved in his pockets, and he was dozing with his eyes closed.

Several fully-armed heavy warriors stared at him, their mouths practically watering.

In their eyes, Lin Qi wasn't a person at all.

He was a breathing mountain of gold, one hundred thousand points leading straight to the finals.

“Prepare for teleportation countdown!”

The referee's dry voice came through the loudspeakers.

“Ten, nine, eight...”

“Three, two, one! Teleportation start!”

The teleportation array lit up with a massive, intense blue light.

Lin Qi only felt the ground vanish beneath him as the sound of whistling wind rushed past his ears.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing in an extremely dense primeval forest.

Beneath his feet were thick layers of dead branches and fallen leaves, feeling soft and spongy as he stepped on them.

The surroundings were extremely damp, and a thick white mist obscured all scenery.

Visibility definitely did not exceed five meters.

Even the sunlight from above couldn't penetrate through.

“Beep, beep, beep.”

Lin Qi raised his left hand.

The communicator on his wrist was glowing with a piercing red light.

On the screen, a circular radar map was spinning.

In the very center was a flashing large red dot—Lin Qi himself.

The communicator was frantically broadcasting his current precise coordinates at a high frequency.

Looking at that red dot, Lin Qi didn't tear off the communicator and throw it away; instead, he smiled happily.

“How thoughtful,” Lin Qi muttered to himself.

“Now I don't have to run around looking for them.”

He shoved his hands back into his pockets and found a towering tree that would take five or six people to encircle.

He leaned against the trunk and stood quietly.

Waiting for the punching bags to deliver themselves to his door.

Meanwhile, in a patch of bushes about three kilometers away from Lin Qi.

Fifteen people wearing pure black tight leather armor were squatting on the ground, looking at the tactical radars in their hands.

The man in the lead had a long scar across his face.

This was the temporary captain of the Shadow Blade Alliance team, Poison Fang.

“The target is due east of us, 3.2 kilometers away.” Poison Fang stared at the red dot on the radar.

He stood up and drew two short daggers glowing with green light from his waist.

“Three teams, fan out and flank him.”

“Turn on your thermal imagers and life detectors.”

“I want him alive. Young Master Li said that whoever can personally crush Lin Qi's bones gets an extra ten million.”

The fourteen assassins below all drew their weapons in unison.

“Boss, don't you worry. He's just a Blank Slate trash with all attributes at 5.”

“In ten minutes, I'll bring his head back to you.”