84: Chapter 84 Seven-Day Deadly Situation

Nightfall descended, silently shrouding the entire Chaotic Battlefield.

After a full day of battlefield restructuring, overlapping rules, and successive waves of monster purges, the clamor of slaughter gradually lost its sharp edge, yet not a shred of peace arrived.

On the contrary, a bone-chilling coldness and despair sprouted in the hearts of all the Contestants who had survived until now.

It was dark.

Logically speaking, the alternation of day and night is an ironclad rule; fighting during the day and resting at night is the default survival common sense for all prodigies in the Dungeon.

Even in the most brutal competitions, there is usually a minimum amount of breathing room left for Contestants to recuperate, rest, review, and sleep, in order to replenish exhausted mental and physical energy.

But the Chaotic Battlefield has no logic.

The Contestants, having endured a full day of slaughter, battlefield shifts, and overlapping rules, despairingly discovered that even at night, they still could not rest.

The battlefield, changing every two hours, along with randomly refreshing monsters and rules, would never give them a chance to rest properly through the night.

One day, two days, three days... Ordinary top-tier prodigies, with their robust bodies and resilient spirits, could endure two or three days of continuous high-intensity combat, feeling only fatigue and soreness, which they could power through with their physiques.

But this Chaotic Battlefield selection tournament lasts for a full seven days, a total of 168 hours.

This is not a trial of genius strategy; it is an endless torture that drains life, squeezes limits, and erodes the will.

In the endless stone forest under the night, strange rocks jutted out and black cliffs stood tall; towering stone pillars pierced through the gloomy night, eerie and silent.

Lin Yan sat alone, quietly perched atop a flat, massive black rock.

He checked his level; it had reached level 18, but he had no intention of allocating stat points for the time being.

He held standard compressed nutritional food in his hand, eating in silence to replenish the stamina consumed by the day's high-intensity combat.

From the start until now, he had never stopped moving.

Global natural disaster gales, dual rule suppression, swamp monster tides, high-level elite monsters, the peak poetry-sword duel with Li Qingxiao, ceaseless waves of slaughter... He had been operating at full capacity almost the entire time.

If it were any other Contestant, having experienced such dense combat, they would have long since suffered from depleted vitality, mental breakdown, and a plummeting combat power.

But Lin Yan possessed an heaven-defying physique—his health pool was massive, his defense was extreme, and his lifesteal sustainability was maxed out; he had almost no injuries on his body, and his stamina appeared to be as abundant as ever.

Yet only he knew that while the body might not tire, the spirit would grow weary.

The human body is, after all, not a machine.

Physique can withstand days of continuous combat wear and tear, but the spirit, focus, and neural activity require sleep and deep meditation to recover and replenish.

A full day of high tension, constant vigilance, and focused combat had already left his spirit in a state of continuous overdraft.

A brief moment of sitting and eating could only replenish surface-level stamina, but could not repair deep-seated mental exhaustion.

One day might be fine, but if it were seven days without rest, with the spirit constantly overdrawn and unable to enter deep sleep, even his heaven-defying physique would slowly be worn down.

Focus would drop, reactions would slow, predictions would lag, and movements would become distorted, ultimately causing combat power to plummet and leading him into a passive, dangerous situation.

In that instant, Lin Yan clearly saw the most cruel core of this Dungeon—

It cannot kill top-tier powerhouses, but it can equally exhaust everyone to death.

Slowly swallowing the last bite of food, Lin Yan raised his hand and took out that bottle of [Mental Soothing Agent], which was crystal clear and shimmering with faint light.

The potion was of fine quality, emitting a faint, clear glow in the dim night.

This was the only mental soothing potion he had produced after battling all day, clearing countless monsters, and opening various resource points; the quantity was pitifully small.

[Mental Soothing Agent: Mildly soothes physical soreness, suppresses mental fatigue, and relieves neural overdraft.]

Although the item prohibition rule was not currently in effect and it could be used, Lin Yan was far from reaching his limit, so he did not plan to use it yet.

A full day of slaughter, and only this one bottle.

It was enough to show just how cruel the exploitation of everyone in this seven-day death trap trial was.

Lin Yan rubbed the bottle with his fingertips; his expression was calm, but a warning bell had already rung in his heart.

He could no longer view this place with the mindset of an ordinary trial.

Nor could he slack off just because his physique was invincible.

Seven days without rest, everyone pushed to their limits; what was being tested was not just combat power, talent, and resources, but also will, sustainability, endurance, and mindset.

Just as he was silently reviewing the situation and deducing survival strategies for what was to come—

Across the entire Chaotic Battlefield, a clear, cold, and impartial system broadcast rang out!

[Detection: The first day of the Chaotic Battlefield trial has ended.]

[First-day battlefield settlement complete.]

[Opening: Real-time server-wide points ranking leaderboard!]

The voice resonated in the minds of every Contestant; whether they were in the stone forest, volcano, desert, or frozen plains, everyone could view the leaderboard.

Countless exhausted and weary Contestants instinctively opened the ranking interface, wanting to see their first-day results and confirm if they were still in the safe tier.

Lin Yan also moved his mind, opening the real-time points leaderboard.

The next second, a clear data panel came into view.

[Current Cumulative Points: 100000]

[Current Bounty Points: 7500]

[Current Dungeon Total Score Ranking: 4396th] (Total score is points plus bounty points)

The moment he saw this ranking, even Lin Yan, who was calm and rarely fluctuated, felt a flash of surprise in his eyes.

4396th.

This ranking was far behind what he had estimated.

From the moment the Dungeon opened until now, he had never slacked off for a single second.

Baptism by natural disasters, rule suppression, monster encirclements, prodigy duels—he had pushed through everything, barely stopping for a moment.

He had not deliberately avoided combat, nor had he hidden to survive; he had been actively hunting monsters and accumulating points the entire time.

Even though he hadn't encountered large-scale high-tier beast tides or deliberately hunted other Contestants to plunder their points, his record should definitely have been in the top tier of the entire field.

Yet, with tens of thousands of prodigies on the same stage, he had battled diligently all day, only to be ranked outside the top 4,000.

After a brief moment of surprise, Lin Yan quickly steadied himself, his mood calming rapidly.

He instantly understood the key to this.

The entire Chaotic Battlefield had gathered tens of thousands of top-tier prodigies from the five major Super Safe Zones and countless ordinary Safe Zones.

It was filled with hidden talent and capable individuals.

There were countless top-tier geniuses who, at the start, encountered multiplier point zones, high-tier monster tides, or unlocked BOSS resource points; their point growth rate was naturally far higher than that of ordinary Contestants.

Furthermore, there were many ruthless prodigies who didn't rely on grinding monsters but specialized in hunting their peers to plunder points; a single kill could snatch away 10% of the opponent's accumulated points as well as all their bounty points, a rate of point inflation that simply couldn't be compared to pure monster grinding.

He had been playing safely the whole time, only killing monsters, opening resource points, and not actively plundering; his playstyle was too conservative.

It seemed diligent, but in reality, compared to those top-tier geniuses who fought for points with their lives and were decisive in slaughter, his growth rate was ultimately lacking.

Lin Yan looked at the top of the leaderboard.

[1st Place, Wen Xiaoyou, Total Points: 1888888]

[2nd Place, Ye Guanqi, Total Points: 919361]

...

[8th Place, Karen Walker, Total Points: 734600]

[9th Place, Su Lianwu, Total Points: 695520]

[10th Place, Elena St. Lance, Total Points: 678000]

"I underestimated the geniuses of the world."

Lin Yan whispered to himself in his heart.

Previously, relying on his unsolvable physique to push through the entire field and having a smooth journey, it was inevitable that he subconsciously carried a bit of composure.

But this cold ranking leaderboard directly woke him up.

This battlefield was never a stage for him alone to shine.

It was filled with hidden tigers and crouching dragons, with countless hidden experts.

A ranking outside the top 4,000 meant that his current record, among tens of thousands of prodigies, could only be considered upper-middle, far from reaching the top tier.

To maintain his ranking in the seven-day death trap, stand out, and secure a final spot, he absolutely could not slack off in the slightest.

Withdrawing the last shred of composure in his heart, Lin Yan's eyes settled down completely.

His originally indifferent state of mind completely shed its relaxation, replaced by extreme seriousness and caution.

In the stone forest at night, the evening wind was bleak.

The youth sat alone on the black rock, his figure standing tall like a mountain.

The first day was merely the opening.

The next six days, with the endless and intensifying rule changes, monster tides, and prodigy slaughter, would be the true death trap of this chaotic chess game.

He put away the potion and looked up at the dark night sky.

High above in the sky, the entire chessboard battlefield lay quietly in wait, with countless killing intents hidden beneath the night.

Lin Yan stood up quietly, his battle axe gripped tightly in his palm.

From this moment on, he would no longer hold anything back.

Face the crowd of heroes, give it his all!