173: [★★★★★, Withering Dragon]

Chapter 173: [Five Stars, Dragon of Decay]

Qingchuan University's 32 students, divided into 8 groups, were randomly assigned to different locations.

Shi Li and his three teammates had barely landed when they were attacked by a group of demons.

“The demons here don’t seem to be that impressive,” Gong Ping said, pleased with himself after taking down three demons alone.

Then he looked back and saw that A Ya Jun had taken down seven.

Shi Li had taken down twenty-one.

“This guy is practically not human,” Gong Ping’s pride was immediately crushed.

For a Card Game to proceed quickly, in addition to a powerful deck output, the round operation time also accounts for a large proportion.

Shi Li’s deck already had strong output, and he also activated full automation, so his efficiency was naturally several times theirs.

“I wonder how much Energy this guy has. I feel a slight fatigue even when I activate one automated game, but he can activate more than twenty in a row,” A Ya Jun remarked with some emotion.

Although full automation is fast, it also doubles the consumption of Energy.

“Forget it, I won’t compare myself to him,” Gong Ping waved his hand and turned to Chang Zhun: “It’s this guy though.”

At this moment, Chang Zhun was still fighting his first demon.

“I always feel like he’s going to drag us down,” A Ya Jun also gave a helpless, bitter smile.

“Forget it, at worst, we’ll just let him die outside,” Shi Li walked over.

After Chang Zhun mentioned 'survival of the fittest', he also remembered.

He had seen relevant knowledge in the Card Hall’s internal system.

This kind of special area is also called a Battle Royale mode, where the world range will continuously shrink.

Within the range is the so-called “Safe Zone,” and outside the range is the “Danger Zone.”

Depending on the world, the types of Danger Zones also vary.

Some are lava, some are void, some are metal storms.

But these are all relatively extreme; most Danger Zones are not instantly fatal.

It might be thin oxygen, or it might cause people to rapidly lose Stamina or Energy.

In any case, it will leave people a reaction time for Escape.

“So now, should we wait for him or not?” Gong Ping looked at Chang Zhun’s Card Game, which was only about 2/3 complete.

Before anyone else could answer, new text and images appeared before their eyes.

[Circle shrinking begins.]

[Circle shrinking completed within 30 minutes.]

A map appeared before them, with a circle slowly contracting.

The range of the Safe Zone was also marked.

Their current location was outside the Safe Zone.

“We’re not close to safety; we need to leave quickly,” A Ya Jun was a little worried.

The three were about to urge him when they saw Chang Zhun standing still, as if in a daze.

“This guy’s brain code has a bug,” Shi Li immediately understood.

Gong Ping and A Ya Jun were reminded and burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha! You make a good point!”

“On one side, the Card Game is burning the rope, on the other, he has to reach the Safe Zone on time.”

“Choosing one side means abandoning the principles of the other.”

“It’s simply torture for him.”

At this moment, Chang Zhun was in a state of brain freeze.

“I’ll suggest the most decisive thing: use Escape directly now, clean and simple, no need to struggle with either side,” Shi Li said, gloating.

However, Chang Zhun eventually made a decision.

The Safe Zone had a higher priority, so he chose to speed up the Card Game.

This was the first time the others had seen this guy not burn the rope.

For various reasons, the four also did not Gather the corpses of these demons.

First, they didn’t want to waste time.

It was still unclear how large this map was, and they were afraid that even running at full speed would only just get them into safety.

Anyone who has played PUBG knows that the distance of the first circle shrink is often the largest.

Second, to conserve Stamina.

There were many of these demons; Gathering would consume Stamina, and traveling would also consume Stamina, so it wasn't worth it.

Third, the quality of these demons was not high.

Although they were Three-Star Demons, they appeared mediocre in all aspects.

They shouldn't pick up sesame seeds and lose watermelons.

Of course, there was also a more time-saving method.

That was Shi Li’s suggestion to use the capsule motorcycle, and A Ya Jun’s suggestion to use the low-altitude swift-flight rune magic carpet.

His motorcycle could carry one person, and A Ya Jun’s magic carpet could also carry one person.

There were four people now, which was perfect.

But this suggestion was firmly rejected by the others.

Unless one person had already been eliminated and only three remained, the vehicle plan would not be considered for now.

The four proceeded along the shortest, straightest path on the map, and as they walked, they could see the shrinking Barrier chasing them from behind.

Gong Ping was the slowest among them, and to accommodate his speed, they didn't run extremely fast.

It could only be said that in a straight line, they could barely outrun the shrinking by a hair.

Fortunately, the terrain along the way was friendly, with no mountains or waterways.

“Look, isn’t that so-and-so?” Just as they were about to enter the Safe Zone, A Ya Jun, with his sharp eyes, spotted a group of classmates.

Fernando was leading his team members, running at full speed.

Their progress was even a bit faster than theirs.

“Hey! Little foreigner!” Gong Ping waved to the other party.

“Ignore him, everyone is a competitor now,” Chang Zhun reminded him.

In Battle Royale mode, only one team can win.

Even though both sides were rushing now, if they were close after entering the Safe Zone, a fight would immediately break out.

“Something’s not quite right.” But Shi Li’s gaze remained fixed on the front.

The area they were originally heading towards was a lush green grassland, full of vitality.

However, at the edge of the Safe Zone and Danger Zone, there were several barren patches of land where all the flowers and grass had died.

On the barren land, several tombstones stood.

They hadn't seen any alien race (foreign races) along the way.

The appearance of these tombstones was very abrupt.

At this moment, Fernando was closer to the Safe Zone than they were, and he would reach that strange area faster.

“Stop! It looks like there’s something up ahead!” A few seconds later, Fernando also noticed the anomaly.

But one of his teammates couldn’t stop and stepped into the strange land.

[Caw!]

A horned skeleton suddenly sprang out from under the mud.

Light flashed in its mouth, and the cursor directly hit the female student.

Buzz—

A Barrier rose, and the Card Game immediately began.

“D-damn it!” Although the student hadn’t seen the opponent’s cards yet, she knew that encountering a Card Game at such a time meant she was probably doomed. The shrinking circle was still closing in, leaving her no time to play cards.

“Let’s go around, away from those tombstones,” With this lesson learned, Shi Li led the way to bypass them.

After entering the Safe Zone, the four finally stopped to check on that student.

She encountered a LV10 Three-Star Demon, with 3 entries and a 9+1 deck.

[Withered Skeleton Soldier]

Balance System, Attack 35, 80/80

[Decomposition - Passive]: For every 1 card that leaves the field, Withered Skeleton Soldier gains 5 Healing.

[Skeleton - Passive]: When Withered Skeleton Soldier is attacked by blade cards, damage taken -10.

[Scrap Bone Utilization - Passive]: For every 1 bone card that leaves the field, Withered Skeleton Soldier's maximum HP +5.

These were just regular cards; the trump card also had additional stat bonuses.

Such an enemy, entirely composed of survival entries, clearly couldn't be dealt with quickly.

During the Card Game, the shrinking range finally swept over the area where the Card Game was taking place.

“It hurts so much! My skin feels like it’s burning and about to fall off!” The student immediately cried out in pain.

She touched her skin, and the texture had already begun to lose its smoothness.

“Decay, it seems the penalty for this Danger Zone is Decay,” Chang Zhun recalled something a teacher had introduced in class.

Looking at the skeleton enemy and then at the grass in the Danger Zone, which was starting to wither and turn yellow, this answer was very reasonable.

“It looks like her hair is starting to fall out,” Shi Li saw the female student’s hair quickly falling out strand by strand.

“I’m leaving first!” Wrinkled skin and hair loss were things no girl could accept.

She shouted, then directly used Escape.

The female student immediately transformed into a beam of light shooting skyward and disappeared.

Just like that, Fernando’s group lost one person not long after the game began.

The two groups maintained a safe distance; Fernando paused for a few seconds, then led his teammates away in another direction.

“That kid is somewhat sensible, otherwise, we would have definitely messed with them,” Gong Ping said with a slight regret.

“This skeleton demon doesn’t seem to be affected by the decaying power of the penalty zone,” A Ya Jun observed that the skeleton was standing perfectly fine within the penalty zone, aimlessly walking back and forth.

“Should we go for a wave?” Shi Li’s hunting DNA was activated.

In his experience, if this skeleton could drop loot, its quality should be quite good.

"Anyway, there's still time, I'm not against it."

After entering the safe zone, Chang Zhun's entire demeanor changed.

When everyone wasn't paying attention earlier, he had actually stayed outside the safety line until the last moment before stepping in.

There were still many tombstones nearby, and the four began to clear them quickly.

Gong Ping and Chang Zhun's ranks weren't high, so they could only choose to fight some that didn't exceed LV7.

But most of the skeletons present were LV10, so the main combatants were still Shi Li and A Ya Jun.

After dealing with these guys, to save time, Gong Ping and Chang Zhun also joined in to help with Gather.

When it came to the success rate of Gather, Shi Li was naturally the highest.

Because he had already reached the Balanced Trial, he already had a slight default extra bonus to the Gather success rate for Balance System Demons.

But Gong Ping's incredible luck kicked in, and he actually drew a Three-Star Demon character card.

He immediately advanced to Platinum 7, and his face was almost splitting from smiling.

After all these things were done, the World Will announced that the circle would be shrinking again.

"I think we should pay attention to strategy now."

As he advanced, Chang Zhun suggested, "The safe time is too short. If we engage in a card game with a Card Player, it will greatly affect our travel.

We should avoid colliding with others at this stage."

"Look at the map, information has appeared."

A Ya Jun suddenly said.

In the upper right corner of the map, there was a small indicator: 29 / 35.

"Does this mean the number of people? But even with the teacher, we only seem to be 34 people."

Gong Ping expressed his confusion.

"Just be careful anyway."

Shi Li vaguely felt that there might be something fishy.

"But if this really is the number of people, isn't the elimination a bit fast?"

Chang Zhun looked at his wrist guard.

It had only been a little over an hour since they entered, and the number of people had already decreased by more than 1/6.

This time, the four were relatively close to the safe zone. With a 30-minute shrinking time, they only took 20 minutes to enter the safe zone.

Chang Zhun wanted to stay until the last second again, but he was beaten into submission by the combined efforts of the three.

At the foot of a certain mountain, they discovered an old stone house.

After some discussion, the four decided to temporarily enter the stone house to search.

"It seems someone lived here."

Gong Ping looked around the house.

The stone house was dilapidated, but it had everything: tables, chairs, beds, stoves, and so on.

It could be said that the facilities were complete, and they were even arranged quite neatly.

Unknown beast heads were also hanging on the wall, making it look like a hunter's cabin or something similar.

"It should only be 'once'."

Shi Li wiped the stone table with his finger; at least half a centimeter of dust had accumulated on it.

"Not necessarily. Have you heard of Fragment Worlds?"

Chang Zhun rubbed his butt, which had just been severely kicked: "Some special alien realms don't exist in themselves.

When worlds collide, some fragments are produced or some fragments are formed through fusion, and some special rules are incidentally created during the process.

So it's possible that this stone house was not originally part of this world.

Instead, it was forcibly added during the fusion process.

Do you understand what I mean?"

"Indeed it's not."

A Ya Jun, wearing gloves, touched the stone wall: "The texture of this material is different from the stones outside."

"No, you can feel the texture?"

Gong Ping couldn't help but retort.

"Shh, everyone be quiet."

Shi Li suddenly looked out the window.

"?" 3

Although the three were puzzled, they all obediently shut their mouths.

Then they first saw the dust on the stone table vibrating slightly, followed by rhythmic thuds.

Thump—Thump—Thump—

A huge figure stopped outside.

Because they were inside the house, everyone couldn't see the full view.

They could only see a gigantic foot, from which they inferred that there was a behemoth outside.

[Roar—]

A heavy but muffled snort seemed to approach. The thing outside seemed to be sniffing the stone house.

They could see through the window that the foot outside was almost entirely bone.

Some places had scales with strands of flesh, which were automatically and gradually falling off, revealing fresh bone.

And as the scales fell off, new flesh was growing elsewhere at a visible speed.

It looked quite eerie.

[Roar!]

Boom!

Suddenly, the roar became fierce, and the large thing outside seemed to have crashed into the stone house.

But strangely, the seemingly fragile stone house withstood the impact and did not collapse.

Through the window, they could see what appeared to be a translucent, pale yellow membrane providing protection.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Repeated impacts were all fruitless.

Finally, the impatient large creature flapped its wings, and a strong wind pressure immediately swept through the entire house.

It flew away.

It wasn't until the opponent had been gone for a while that someone finally broke the silence.

"It smells terrible."

The fallen rotten flesh outside made A Ya Jun's face turn ugly.

"What's going on now?"

Gong Ping was also very confused.

"Can I understand this as: this stone house is equivalent to a 'safe house,' and the ghostly thing outside can't get in?

I heard that some worlds with special rules have 'overseer'-like existences.

They possess absolutely powerful strength and will instinctively hunt down all outsiders who enter this world.

But sometimes there are also places where outsiders can hide, which are called 'safe houses'."

Chang Zhun had an accurate deduction.

In fact, on the way there, they had encountered several similar houses.

It was just that they were rushing to shrink the circle at the time and didn't stop.

"That makes sense, as expected of someone who goes to class every day."

"Actually—I didn't really listen in class either; I was mostly zoning out when I went."

"Then why do you still go?"

"I just don't want to zone out."

"I knew it."

Gong Ping rolled his eyes.

"So does that mean we should hide in this house now?

Hide until the circle shrinks again before going out?

That would be the safest."

A Ya Jun asked.

Clang!

As soon as he finished speaking, a large stone, taller than a person, fell from the sky, piercing through the ceiling and directly smashing onto the ground, stirring up gravel and dust.

"Holy crap!"

Gong Ping was so scared he almost peed himself on the spot.

Because the boulder was only one centimeter away from him!

Someone with worse luck might have already kicked the bucket!

And through the large hole in the ceiling, the four could see a figure flying across the sky.

Long tail, wings, sharp teeth.

There was no flesh on the massive, stark white skeleton, and two hollow eye sockets burned with eerie green flames.

Even though its wings were only a skeleton, it was still able to fly for some unknown reason.

"Dragon!" 4

All four of them brightened up at once.

As Card Players, no one could resist the allure of dragon addiction.

And it was a Bone Dragon, was this the Overseer?

Clearly, some people were already wondering if they could get some item cards to make this guy drop loot.

Of course, this was just a fleeting thought.

It was better to consider the current situation first.

It was obvious now that this Bone Dragon possessed intelligence; it hadn't given up at all.

Instead, it had changed its method of attacking them.

This safe house was no longer safe at all!

"Run!"

Shi Li shouted loudly, being the first to rush out of the stone house.

The three followed closely behind.

At this point, there was no time to hesitate; they had to make a decisive move.

He released the capsule with a backhand motion, and the hover motorcycle instantly materialized.

A Ya Jun understood, rubbing the magic crest on the back of his hand, and a magic carpet fell to the ground.

"Anyone, hurry up and get on!"

Shi Li urged anxiously.

The circle was about to shrink, and the most appropriate course of action now was clearly to run first.

"You're lucky, you go ride his vehicle!"

Chang Zhun stepped onto the magic carpet even faster than A Ya Jun.

"You b*tch!"

Gong Ping complained, but he didn't dare to delay.

Taking the opportunity to get on the vehicle, he subconsciously looked up.

He saw the label on the Bone Dragon's head.

[★★★★★, Dragon of Withering LV?]

"What?!"

Gong Ping exclaimed in shock on the spot.

In Demon labels, the more solid ★s there were, the higher the grade and the stronger it was.

Each ★ represented a quality tier: Elite → Leader → Overlord → Monarch → Emperor. Emperor was already the top-tier existence among Demons.

Why could such a terrifying existence appear in such a small, level 4 alien realm?!

)