176: Chapter 176 Roll Call in the Book of Life and Death, Citywide Minefield

The city gate opened wide, like a giant maw ready to devour people.

Qin Ji stepped into the shadows, the sound of the wind behind him instantly cut off by the heavy city walls, replaced by a deafening silence. Fatty Zhou followed closely, holding his tower shield, while Monkey entered a Stealth state, his figure leaving only a faint ripple in the air.

There was no volley of arrows as expected, nor the roar of magic formations.

On the empty main road, there was only one person.

That person was not wearing Gu Feng City's standard armor; instead, they were clad in... beginner's cloth armor? The withered wooden staff in their hand was clearly the shoddy item given by the System at birth. In this Level 40 main city, where war could erupt at any moment, this attire was like wearing swimming trunks into the Arctic ice fields, the sense of incongruity was extreme.

"Snow Emperor."

The person pointed their staff, their voice loud, deliberately striking a pose they thought was extremely domineering, chin slightly raised, eyes looking down disdainfully, "No need to play tricks in front of me."

Qin Ji stopped, his Purple Extreme Demonic Eyes slightly narrowed, scanning the ID above the person's head.

Violent Little Bear.

Rank: 21.

"Who's this?" Fatty Zhou peeked half his head out from behind his shield, looking bewildered, "Is there no one left in Gu Feng City? Sending a Level 20 alt account to die? Or is retro style popular these days?"

"Not retro, but riding the wave."

Qin Ji's lips curved into a playful arc. He recognized this ID; the notorious 'Porcelain King' on the forums, who specialized in rushing up to provoke great experts or large guilds during their operations, streaming live to gain attention. His strength was average, but his ability to annoy people was first-rate.

"I, Violent Little Bear, challenge you by real name!"

Violent Little Bear watched the popularity in his live stream surge, adrenaline pumping, his voice trembling slightly with excitement, "Do you dare to fight?!"

The air froze for a second.

Qin Ji didn't even reach for the Black Blazing Breath Bow on his back. He just looked at the opponent calmly, his gaze like watching a praying mantis desperately waving its forelegs by the roadside.

"Want to be famous?"

Qin Ji's voice was as calm as water. He flipped his right hand, and an ancient booklet emanating an eerie Death Qi materialized out of thin air. The cover of the booklet was neither paper nor leather, seemingly condensed from the wails of countless departed Souls—it was precisely the book of life and death.

"Since you want to be famous, I'll grant your wish."

"What are you doing?!" Violent Little Bear instinctively took half a step back. He had anticipated Snow Emperor would shoot arrows, cast spells, or even walk away disdainfully, but he had never seen such a display. The moment that booklet appeared, he felt the surrounding temperature plummet to freezing.

Qin Ji didn't answer. He simply extended his index finger, using it as a pen, and lightly traced in the Void Realm.

The strokes were like a blade, imbued with the cold sternness of a judge claiming a life.

"Vio-lent-Lit-tle-Bear."

The instant the last stroke fell, the suspended book of life and death trembled violently, and an imperceptible gray light instantly pierced through space.

"You..."

Just as Violent Little Bear was about to speak, his health bar instantly emptied. Without any damage numbers or skill effects, he abruptly collapsed, his corpse dissipating into white light, leaving only a pile of shabby beginner equipment.

"Brother Hao, is that it?" Fatty Zhou blinked, walked over, and kicked the broken staff on the ground, "That was too much Face, using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken."

"No, it's not over yet."

Qin Ji put away the book of life and death, his gaze not lingering on where the corpse had vanished for a moment, but instead cast towards the distant horizon, as if piercing through the barrier of space, "Since it's a real-name challenge, he needs to understand that some names, when signed in the book of life and death, come with a price."

...

Tianxing City, resurrection point.

A flash of white light, and Violent Little Bear stepped down from the altar, looking bewildered.

"I'm dead just like that?" He touched his perfectly intact body, then grinned, shouting loudly at the live stream interface floating before him, "Did you see that, folks! Snow Emperor is nothing special! Although I died, I forced out his trump card! See that book? That's a Divine Artifact!"

The live stream's bullet comments exploded instantly.

"Awesome streamer! Daring to Face Snow Emperor!"

"Although he was instantly killed, this wave of popularity was well-eaten."

"But what skill was that from Snow Emperor? Didn't see it clearly."

Violent Little Bear looked at the screen full of "666"s and gift effects, his vanity greatly satisfied. He cleared his throat and assumed the posture of someone critiquing the world: "As far as I know, Snow Emperor isn't the type to hold grudges. Killing me once should be enough to vent his anger. Next..."

"Next, let's discuss whose popularity we should leech off of? I think that guild leader of the Imperial Dynasty Guild..."

Before he could finish speaking.

A familiar chill rose from the depths of his Soul.

The smile on Violent Little Bear's Face instantly froze. He looked down in horror, finding his health bar fluctuating wildly at a bizarre speed. It wasn't poison, it wasn't bleeding, but his maximum life was being forcibly stripped away by some rule-based power.

"What's goi..."

"Thump."

His corpse fell again.

Three seconds later, white light flashed, and Violent Little Bear revived again.

"Damn! What's going on? I'm in Tianxing City! This is a safe zone!" Violent Little Bear completely panicked, frantically slapping his body, trying to dispel the nonexistent negative status, "System BUG? Or a cheat?!"

The viewers in the live stream were also stunned.

"Holy crap? How did the streamer die again?"

"Is this the legendary 'hacking people through the network cable'?"

"No! Look at the combat log! The killer is still Snow Emperor! But he's clearly in Gu Feng City!"

Before Violent Little Bear could react, the third death descended.

Revive, die.

Revive, die.

He stood in the center of the resurrection altar, like an NPC programmed for an infinite loop. Dropping from Rank 21 to Rank 20, then to Rank 15... In just two minutes, the once high-spirited streamer had become a useless account of only Rank 5.

Fear, finally crushed his reason.

"Ahhh!! Snow Emperor! I was wrong! Stop! Please stop!!"

Violent Little Bear knelt on the altar, crying hysterically, frantically kowtowing to the Void Realm. But that life-claiming power was as cold as a precise machine, completely ignoring his wails.

The number of viewers in the live stream broke a million at this moment, but the bullet comments strangely decreased. Everyone felt a chill run from the soles of their feet straight to their scalp.

This wasn't PK.

This was an execution.

Killing a player until they deleted their account, across the distance of two main cities, ignoring safe zone rules.

"Are there any experts who can analyze this? What kind of skill is this?"

"Blind guess, a curse that causes continuous health loss? A mage's burn only lasts 15 seconds."

"The one upstairs is too naive. This isn't a skill at all, this is Karma! As long as Snow Emperor targets you, unless you delete your account and restart, it's an eternal Death Reincarnation!"

...

Inside Gu Feng City, the long street was desolate.

Qin Ji didn't know, nor did he care what despair that clown was currently experiencing. For him, who possessed the book of life and death, once a true name was left in this world, distance lost its meaning.

"Brother Hao, something's not right ahead."

Monkey's voice came from the shadows ahead, with a rare hint of solemnity, "It's too quiet. Not even the sound of wind, and the doors and windows on the roadside are sealed. This doesn't look like an abandoned city, but rather..."

"Boom—!!!"

Before he finished speaking, an earth-shattering explosion erupted in the middle of the street.

Flames shot into the sky, and a violent blast of air mixed with rubble instantly engulfed everything ahead. Fatty Zhou reacted extremely quickly, slamming his tower shield to the ground, "Shield of Holy Protection!"

The golden light shield had just formed when it was violently struck by the shockwave.

"Crack."

That tower shield, capable of withstanding the full force of a BOSS of the same Rank, was instantly covered in cracks. Fatty Zhou was thrown back like a ball, crashing heavily into a stone wall by the roadside, his health bar instantly evaporating by half.

"Monkey!"

Qin Ji's figure flickered, using the [Blink] skill to avoid the core area of the explosion, but the flying shrapnel still caused a series of terrifying "-35800" damage numbers on his body.

The smoke and dust dissipated.

The once flat bluestone road was now blasted into a ten-meter-diameter crater. At the edge of the crater, a charred corpse was slowly dissipating into white light.

That was Monkey.

He hadn't even had time to break Stealth before the high-yield alchemical bomb buried underground directly sent him back to the resurrection point.

"Cough cough... What the hell kind of damage is that?!" Fatty Zhou crawled out of the ruins, covered in dust, looking at his remaining sliver of health, his Face pale, "Landmines? This game has landmines?!"

Qin Ji narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the devastated streets around him.

The air was filled with a strong smell of sulfur and char. The once ancient and elegant buildings now appeared sinister and terrifying in his eyes. Beneath every paving stone, behind every door and window, seemed to hide a deadly killing intent.

"Not ordinary landmines."

Qin Ji reached out and grabbed a handful of lingering fire elemental particles in the air; a burning sting came from his fingertips, "It's a combination of Goblin Technology and Fire Magic Formations. That madwoman Gu Feng Nalin has transformed the entire Gu Feng City into a giant powder keg."

That explosion just now wasn't just physical damage; it also carried true burning damage that ignored defense.

No wonder she dared to use the empty city stratagem.

This was no empty city; it was clearly a Shura Battlefield where one wrong step would lead to utter annihilation.

"Brother Hao, how do we deal with this?" Fatty Zhou swallowed, looking at the long street that stretched endlessly ahead, "Even a high-Agility rogue like Monkey didn't react in time. If we force our way through, we might be blown into fireworks before we even see the City Lord."

"Force our way through?"

Qin Ji sneered, slowly raising the Black Blazing Breath Bow in his hand, two insane flames burning in his purple-gold pupils.

Since the other party had flipped the table, he didn't need to bother with table manners anymore.

"Why force our way through?"

Qin Ji took out a special arrow from his backpack, entirely crimson and inscribed with explosive runes on its surface, and nocked it onto the bowstring. Since the ground was full of mines, he would just tear up the ground; since there were cannons hidden in the houses, he would just demolish the houses.

"Since it's a minefield, we have to break it in a more unreasonable way."

He drew the bowstring to its fullest, the bow groaning under the strain, and the surrounding fire elements began to frantically gather at the arrowhead, forming a small vortex of flames.

"Fatty, get back."

Qin Ji's voice was exceptionally clear and cold amidst the aftershocks of the explosion.

"Today, I'll give Gu Feng City a free old city renovation."

The setting sun, like blood, stained the ruins a dark red. Qin Ji released his fingers, and the crimson arrow transformed into a roaring fire Dragon, crashing towards the end of the street. As a series of even more violent chain explosions rang out, his purple-gold pupils shone brightly in the sky-filling flames, like an ancient Vicious Beast that had just feasted, coldly watching the city about to be reborn in fire.