Chapter 356

Chapter 356: Chapter 353: "Just Talking About Some Simple Rules"Please... spare me, please..."

The woman’s hair was a mess, her clothes torn as she lay on the ground, begging pitifully to the people standing before her.

Before her stood a man wearing a tall top hat, dressed in a black suit that seemed to hinder combat, with a silver nobleman’s rapier in his hand, the blade covered in the woman’s blood.

"Where are the Sirens?"

His sword pointed at her face, which was pale and beautiful, a delicate and well-defined visage.

"I, I don’t know anything about Sirens, I really don’t know, I’m just a maid from the Royal City, out to buy supplies, I truly don’t know..." the woman’s emotions seemed to collapse as she wept and pleaded, grabbing at the man’s black trousers, desperately begging him, "Please, spare me, I really don’t know..."

"You don’t know?" the man laughed, completely disbelieving, "Princess Tulip, I remember your face clearly, even in a maid’s attire you can’t fool me. You are the successor to the previous Sirens’ princess, how could you not know about the Sirens?"

"I... I’m not Princess Tulip..." the maid cried, "I only look like her..."

"Shh!"

A scream rang out as the man’s sword slashed across her face, a piece of her skin flew off, and the woman’s face was splattered with bright red blood, the scene suddenly extremely gory.

"That’s enough, Eli," a teammate watching the spectacle said, "It seems she really isn’t Princess Tulip. It doesn’t look like she’s faking."

"Is that so?"

"Trust me, you know," the slick-haired teammate pointed at his eyes, "I have a pair of eyes that see everything."

The man glanced at the woman on the ground, bleeding and screaming, and with one strike of his sword, he beheaded her.

The severed head rolled on the ground, the innocent maid’s eyes wide open in death.

"Eli, before the game started, you were known as a gentleman of repute," the teammate said. "You could be a bit more gentle with your methods, at least don’t be so bloody; those idle NPCs’ Protection Association fellows will hate you. They will vehemently criticize you on the forums, branding you as a demon."

"Then let them think of me as a demon," Eli said. "Idiots and cowards are just trash, their heads fit only to be kicked around like balls. Don’t let me see them before me, or I will definitely cut down these wastes."

He held up his longsword, the silver blade casting a faint light, in which he could see his own deep blue eyes.

It was a high-quality Red Level weapon.

A moment later, Eli spoke:

"The clue is lost again, and we were already on the princess’s trail... What puzzles me, though, is why the maid looked exactly like the princess. Isn’t that a great taboo for the royal family?"

"Maybe the maid was a Shadow Dancer, a poor girl, an innocent who took the knife for dear Princess Tulip," the teammate shrugged. "And you, cruel Demon Lord, have killed her."

"Then I was merely fulfilling her duty."

Eli said indifferently, ready to turn and leave.

Suddenly, as he turned his head, something caught the corner of his eye.

He looked quickly.

—He saw a head that was also staring at him, standing upright.

The maid’s lifeless and bulging eyes were fixed on him like fish eyes; the eerie gaze sent chills down his spine.

The headless body of the maid on the ground twisted and turned as if crawling with maggots, and then began to decay rapidly.

The body that had been intact now quickly turned into a mass of rotting flesh.

"What is this ghastly thing?"

Eli backed away quickly; he did not want his precious Axe’s Sword to come into contact with such filth.

"Wait, let me listen to the voice of her corpse..." the teammate said softly.

The teammate raised his hand, pressing it to his own temple, as if listening to something.

"What did you hear?" Eli asked.

"... She is calling a name, probably the key to all this," the teammate said. "I think our clue hasn’t been severed, we have a new target now."

"What is it?"

"She’s saying..." the teammate whispered:

"A name."

"Su Rin."

White letters slowly appeared before the group’s eyes.

Su Ming’an focused on the rules before him, not missing any detail.

[Rule 01: The "Maritime Banquet" permits all acts of violence, including deception, theft, plunder, and murder.

My dear contestants, none of Pulaya’s rules can restrain you any longer—you are born free, you have the right to do whatever you wish!]

[Rule 04: "Occupation Group" rules as follows:

(1) Teams choosing to be part of the "Occupation Group" must rely on occupying strategic points to gain Points. Occupation Groups must designate one team member as the "Occupier," with the rest of the team members free to choose being "Guardians" or "Hiders."

(2) Within a team, only the "Occupier" is qualified to occupy strategic points. When the team’s "Occupier" stands near the red core of the strategic point, the time will start being counted; if they remain uncontested or unslain for more than ten minutes, the strategic point will be occupied by the team.

Teams occupying these points will continue to earn Points.

Among them, some streets will be normal strategic points (Districts Two, Four, Six, Eight, Ten, Twelve, Fourteen, Sixteen, Eighteen, and Twenty, ten in total), while the church, Royal City, and Southern District docks (a total of three) are special strategic points.

Once a normal strategic point is occupied, it will provide ten Points per hour for the contestant team, whereas special strategic points will provide thirty Points per hour.

Once a strategic point has been occupied, it will belong to the occupying team for one hour. After one hour, other teams can also choose to stand near the red core, and if they continue for ten minutes without being opposed or killed, that strategic point will change hands.

When team members other than the "Occupier" stand near the red core, the point will not be occupied.

The "Occupier" must not initiate combat against other teams, or the entire team’s qualification to participate will be revoked.

(3) The mission of the "Guardian" is to protect the "Occupier," with "Guardians" allowed to initiate combat against other teams and receive a 50% Combat Power bonus.]

(4) "The Hidden Player’s" combat power decreases by 50%, but they acquire a single "Phoenix Feather" effect. The task conditions for "The Hidden Player" will be disclosed in rule 05.

"Phoenix Feather" effect: When on the brink of death, you forcefully recover 50% of your injuries. This effect can only be triggered once.]

[Rule 05: The rules for the "Plunder" group are as follows:

Teams choosing the "Plunder" group must gain points by killing members of the Occupation Group. The entire Plunder group receives a 100% combat power bonus.

However, if the Plunder group triggers the "Phoenix Feather" of a "Hidden Player" from the Occupation group, the entire team’s attributes will decrease by 150%, lasting one day.]

The rules are lengthy, and it seems there’s more to come, as the small white print continues to jump around.

Seeing this, Noel suddenly spoke up:

"I’ve seen up to the fifth rule. Although there are some more after it, the basic framework of the rules is already taking shape, we might as well start discussing them."

A few people looked up; they were also digesting these rules.

"These rules are quite intriguing. Overall, this is a points control game," he said, "It seems that the Occupation group is intended for strong teams, while the Plunder group offers a counterattack option for weaker teams."

Lin Yin nodded.

Her views were much alike to Noel’s.

The rules of this Maritime Banquet appear numerous but in fact, their core elements are very straightforward.

It’s nothing more than a points control game, reminding her of the scramble for parking spaces in QQ Space.

The more points you occupy, the more points players automatically receive every hour.

Around these twenty or so points, the players will engage in a highly chaotic battle for control.

On the surface, the 100% combat power bonus provided to the Plunder group seems advantageous, giving weaker teams space to turn the tables. As long as they do not trigger the Instant Death Resistance of the "Hidden Player" within the Occupation team during the attack, the entire team will benefit from the 100% combat power effect, and this overwhelming effect will last for three days.

For the Occupation group, concealing the "Occupier" and "Hidden Player" will become part of their mission.

Once an "Occupier" dies, the entire team loses qualification. After the single use of Instant Death Resistance from the "Hidden Player" becomes invalid, that member will also lose their significance.

Different identities of team members will become the focus of cunning interactions between the teams.

If different teams want to collaborate, they will inevitably face the problem of whether to disclose the identities of their team members.

This will cause those player groups, which think they are collaborating with dozens of people, to disintegrate.

...Only five-person teams will become the most stable groups.

The flames in the fireplace crackled.

The dark-haired girl sat quietly on the plush sofa, her fingers lightly touching her chin. She seemed to be pondering over the rules displayed in front of her.

After a moment, she spoke:

"...I believe, from a strategic standpoint, strong teams would not opt to be part of the Plunder group. The 100% combat power bonus is attractive, but the means of obtaining points is just too unstable. Strong teams kill quickly, and if they accidentally strike a ’Hidden Player’, the entire team will instantly be crippled."

Meanwhile, Lv Shu shifted his gaze away from the rules.

He seemed to have a different idea:

"Lin Yin, but actually, the ’hider’ is not hard to find. It’s written in the rules that although the ’hider’ has an effect that allows for a one-time revival from death, their combat power will continue to be reduced by 50%, while the combat power of the other ’guardians’ in the team will continue to receive a 50% boost. With this increase and decrease, the difference is quite obvious. It can be seen in battle, and it can reveal who has what identity." Lv Shu said.

"What you’re saying is correct, from the perspective of an average team." Lin Yin smiled: "... But we are a strong team, in fact, the strongest one."

She waved the map in her hand, the snow-dyed parchment trembled with each flick of her fingers: "In our eyes, whether other weak teams have a 50% boost or suffer a 50% reduction doesn’t make much difference. Because for us, there’s not much distinction between 50 combat power and 150 combat power, we still find it hard to distinguish who the other team’s hider is."

Everyone present was smart and quickly grasped the hidden points of this rule.

The rule was designed to prevent strong teams from simply picking an occupation group and steamrolling through, killing anyone in sight.

Because of the potential existence of a ’hider,’ it becomes a stumbling block before them. If they kill the hider of another team, the strong team will completely collapse.

Unless two teams are of equal strength, in which case as soon as they start fighting, they will quickly discern who has suffered significantly less damage and identify the hider.

But this method takes too much time, as it requires battling for a while to know, which does not suit strong teams that need a fast-paced approach.

"... So a strong team definitely should not choose an occupation group." Lin Yin made a conclusive statement: "If we’re going to kill, we absolutely must not be an occupation group, because we can’t tell which of these weaklings has their combat power reduced by 50%."

"Yes." Noel agreed: "From the overall situation, the point-scoring method of occupying also suits us better."

... After all, their biggest advantage right now is controlling the game and having more people.

Though the rule that only ’occupiers’ can score points limited them, containing people and preventing other players from seizing points was still something they could achieve.

"This is a very balanced rule." Lin Yin said: "It gives strong teams a chance but doesn’t reduce weak teams to mere condiments. After all, weak teams will most likely choose the occupation group. They have their squabbles without the trouble of not being able to discern the hider, and the combat power boost for occupation groups is as much as 100%."

"A hundred percent boost... That could be troublesome for some guys." Noel rubbed his temples.

Players ranked in the top hundred of the world leaderboard only have combat power of fourteen or fifteen hundred. If that group of mid-level players doubled up, nearly everyone would catch up to them.

He had even heard that several top hundred players were in this instance, and once their combat power was increased by 100%, it would probably breach over two thousand.

"Then should we choose the occupation group too?" Lin Yin suddenly stood up: "If Su Ming’an chooses the occupation group, wouldn’t his combat power break four thousand? Wouldn’t that be terrifying?"

Her eyes shone brightly, as if excited by her hypothesis:

"Look, if the combat power is four thousand, what level would that be? Unrivaled among men, slaying gods in his way. Crushing the entire instance would be no problem, right? What’s the use of a bicycle, we could just slaughter the whole Pulaya, right? And what about the deity, do we still need to care about their face? Just charge into Yun Shang City and slay god directly. We wouldn’t have to care about other players at all, nor about who the hider is. This power has already exceeded the range of strength defined by the rules of Maritime Banquet."

"It’s not that exaggerated." Lv Shu, standing to the side, said: "The effect of players’ combat power is exponentially increased, not simply doubled in strength. If the combat power boost is 100%, in terms of value, it should at most manifest as an increase of a few hundred points of combat power. For instance, Su Ming’an might become 2600 or 2700 combat power, that should be it."

"Deities aren’t so easy to kill." Noel also chimed in: "From what we can see, we still need to comply with the rules of the instance."

"... Oh." Lin Yin sat back down.

She looked downcast, seemingly very disappointed, pounding her fist on the sofa: "Why is it like this... why does it have to be like this, these rules are just too targeted against us. Without this 100% combat power boost, we would clearly be crushing everyone else, but this forcibly narrows the gap between the weak teams and us, making it much harder to fight..."

She sighed and looked towards Su Ming’an, who had been silent the whole time: "What do you think... hey, Su Ming’an, don’t you think this rule is too targeted against strong teams..."

She suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Her gaze was drawn to the one seated on the sofa, the consistently silent Su Ming’an, whose expression was now a bit strange.

Seeing Lin Yin mention him, Su Ming’an suddenly lifted his head.

His eyes still retained a trace of emotion that he had just managed to conceal.

"No." He suddenly smiled: "Don’t you think this is a very good rule?"