185: Chapter 185 Landing and Getting Killed

Silence.

The entire preparation lobby fell into a strange, dead silence that lasted for half a second.

Immediately after...

"Hahahaha—!"

"F*ck! Are you a lunatic?"

"You scared the hell out of me! I thought you were going to come through the internet cable to hand out money!"

Unrestrained laughter and a chorus of classic profanities instantly blew the roof off the preparation lobby.

No one expected that in this completely unrestricted voice channel, a rich player would drop their disguise and pull off such a crazy stunt.

Even Chu He was laughing so hard in the livestream room that tears were about to come out.

[Countdown: 3, 2, 1—]

[The elimination match has officially begun. Good luck, Masters.]

Accompanied by the system's cold female voice, the hexagonal floor beneath everyone suddenly opened!

A sensation of weightlessness hit them instantly!

128 players turned into 128 brilliant blue meteors, falling at high speed from the high cyber firmament above toward the "Sakura Labyrinth" below!

The gale whistled past Chu He's ears.

This extreme sensation of weightlessness—free-falling from ten thousand meters without any protection—was something even Chu He, having cleared various high-difficulty Singularities, rarely experienced. (The only time was during Quetzalcoatl's trial.)

With no safety ropes and no parachutes, the pure visual impact sent his adrenaline skyrocketing!

"This is f*cking exciting!"

Chu He suppressed the dizziness from his racing heart; his instincts as a top-tier pro player allowed him to calm down quickly.

Groping in mid-air, he pulled up a [Holographic Mini-Map] emitting a faint blue glow, his brain beginning to rapidly calculate tactics.

On the map, a cyber city of unimaginable scale, woven from metal and flesh, was rapidly enlarging.

At the very center of the map stood an iconic structure with the richest resources and the most open terrain—the [Central Arena].

Looking at the deep red highlighted marker in the arena area, which represented high-concentration Mana Crystals, Chu He couldn't help but feel tempted.

"High risk, high reward... If I can fight my way out of that place, I'll probably have several hundred Mana by the time I land, enough to pull a full-bodied Servant to act as a bulldozer, right?"

Chu He licked his lips, turned his head to glance at the space above the Central Arena, and prepared to take a gamble.

Good grief!

A full forty or fifty blue meteors were diving toward the Central Arena, packed together like dumplings being dropped into a pot!

"Only a fool would jump into the center for a brawl! I'm a rational, survivalist-style player."

Chu He's eye twitched; his previous ambition vanished instantly, and he decisively diverted his landing trajectory.

He set his sights on a complex of buildings on the edge of the map with complex terrain and plenty of cover—the [Abandoned Grand Library].

"Bang!"

With a soft sound, Chu He landed steadily on the metal corridor of the library's second floor.

As soon as he landed, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness wash over him.

Without an earth-shattering Servant, he was almost completely unarmed, save for a basic Mystic Code provided by the system that could fire a weak Mana burst (Gandr).

Chu He shook his head. Not having time to carefully examine his surroundings, he quickly moved between the bookshelves to scavenge for supplies.

Soon, in a corner ahead, he found a diamond-shaped crystal emitting a blue light.

He ran over and scooped it up.

[Obtained Spiritron Crystal (Mana) x10!]

As the crystal came into his possession, a [Fate Summon] button in front of Chu He's retina finally lit up with a faint glow.

Just as he was hesitating whether to spend the 10 Mana to pull a bodyguard...

In the arena at the center of the map, it had already turned into chaos.

Long Aotian, who had just shouted "I'm an idiot" in the plaza, had heaven-defying luck.

As soon as he landed, he opened a huge treasure chest and found a large bag of high-purity Spiritron Crystals—a full 100 Mana!

"Hahahaha! Heaven helps me!"

Long Aotian looked at the glowing summon button but desperately resisted the urge to press it.

"What's 100 Mana? I'm going to scavenge all the way, save up 1000 points, and pull a full-bodied Gilgamesh to wipe you all out!"

He greedily licked his lips, stuffed the Mana crystals into his backpack like a miser, and tiptoed away, preparing to scavenge the next room.

However, the moment he turned the corner, he ran head-on into a player named "Wangwang Crushed Ice."

The two stared at each other.

Wangwang Crushed Ice only had a pathetic 10 Mana, and in a panic, his hand trembled, and he pressed the [Fate Summon] button right then and there!

"Hum—"

A blinding white light flashed.

Although it wasn't a colored Legendary circle, a tall, burly giant with bulging muscles and a strange smile on his face crashed down in front of the common player!

1-Star Servant, Berserker—Spartacus!

"OPPRESSION!!!"

Spartacus let out a deafening roar.

There was no need for a Master to give orders; facing the extremely punchable-looking Long Aotian before him, this 1-Star Berserker swung his sandbag-sized iron fist without hesitation!

"Wait! I have one hundred Mana! I haven't pulled cards yet—Ah!!!"

Under the extreme, realistic experience of the VR perspective, Long Aotian could only watch helplessly as that terrifying fist rapidly enlarged before his eyes.

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, Long Aotian's fragile body, unprotected by a Servant, was smashed against the wall by Spartacus's punch like a rag doll, turning into a puddle of blue mosaic data!

Clatter—

After Long Aotian died, the 100 Mana crystals in his backpack that he hadn't had time to use scattered all over the ground like spilled loot!

The next second, a glaring kill notification popped up in the top right corner for the entire server:

[Player "Long Aotian" has been eliminated by "Wangwang Crushed Ice"! Survivors: 127]

After a brief moment of shock, the barrage of comments in the livestream room erupted into waves of uproarious laughter!

"Hahahaha!!! I'm dying of laughter!"

"That's what you get for being greedy! That's what you get for holding out! You choked yourself to death, didn't you!"

"Holy f*ck, this is literally the real-life version of 'the person died, but the money wasn't spent'!"

"1-Star Berserker striking hard! My lord, the times have changed! If you didn't pull it out, you're just a corpse with savings!"

Seeing this notification, Chu He, hiding in the Abandoned Grand Library, couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Greed can swallow an elephant."

He weighed the 10 Mana in his hand.

"Clack, clack, clack..."

Suddenly, a heavy, strange sound of footsteps accompanied by the clanking of metal came from the corridor outside the library.

The smile on Chu He's face instantly vanished, and his breathing slowed down.

Someone was coming!

And judging by the footsteps... the opponent had already summoned a Defender-type Servant!

"Looks like it's time to test my luck."

Chu He hid behind a row of huge bookshelves, took a deep breath, and placed his hand on the [Fate Summon] button flickering with blue light in front of his retina.