Chapter 361

Chapter 361: Chapter 358: "The Only Victory ConditionAfter hearing Noel’s words, Su Ming’an glanced at his Exploration Degree again.

"No need," he said, "but resolving your own troubled Spirit is your freedom, and if you wish, you may proceed to the Royal City first."

"Really? But that way, you’re many steps behind others... you might as well give up those special strongholds and advance the Exploration Degree with me," Noel suggested, glancing at Lv Shu and Lin Yin beside him. "A Perfect Pass is definitely related to this Exploration Degree, you could win outright."

Lin Yin also chimed in.

"Su Ming’an," she said, "if you trust Noel enough, his plan would be the best choice to cover both fronts."

Su Ming’an took another look at his Exploration Degree.

His gaze then slowly drifted downward.

"Noel," he said, "let me confirm, you’re determined to follow this Rule 06 victory route by not following the team, right?"

Noel shrugged.

There were still traces of bloodshot in his eyes as if he hadn’t quite recovered from his earlier anger: "At least, I don’t want to proceed with such teammates—he’s already trying to shake me off, and I believe he doesn’t want to keep seeing me either."

"Is reconciliation impossible now?" Lin Yin said anxiously, "Now isn’t the time to throw a tantrum, at least, we shouldn’t split up now, at least!"

"Everyone here has the ability to achieve a Perfect Pass independently," Noel stated. "And since there are entropic motives targeted against me, I see no need to stay any longer. I can’t remain in a team that lacks trust. Besides, I must find out what’s causing my abnormal emotions, from this perspective, I can’t follow the team."

Su Ming’an didn’t respond for a moment.

"What’s wrong?" Noel asked curiously, "—Su Ming’an, if you trust me enough, why not do as I say? Under the witness of the whole world, I won’t break my promise. After pushing the Exploration Degree to 95%, I won’t go any further."

Su Ming’an shifted his gaze away from the rules, "Understood."

He walked towards the street outside: "You go ahead then."

"Good luck," Noel turned and left.

Snow fell on his shoulders; he walked decisively, quickly disappearing into the snowy streets.

"Let’s go, head to the District Two stronghold," Su Ming’an told Lv Shu and Lin Yin.

While the two walked ahead, he quietly instructed Archilev to follow Noel.

His gaze returned to his rule panel once again.

At the very bottom of the Exploration Degree, a string of red letters formed another rule.

[*（Identity·Su Rin）Unique Victory Condition: "Maritime Banquet" ends without anyone pushing their Exploration Degree to 100%.

When a player advances the progress to 80%, you’ll continuously know their location. If this victory condition is revealed by someone else, you will instantly fail.

Note: "No one" includes your teammates.]

"Ding-dong!"

Walking along the road, Su Ming’an suddenly heard a series of system notifications.

"It’s 12:10 AM, exactly ten minutes. Now is the time for the first batch of strongholds to be occupied," Lv Shu checked the time.

It seemed that there were players in the Fourth Zone’s base who had not yet been discovered, and they had been near the core for as much as ten minutes.

After a base was occupied, there was an hour where it could not change hands.

The group was not in a hurry, and they stuck to the plan, deciding to first check the base in the Second Zone.

After a journey of about ten minutes, they quickly reached the base in the Second Zone.

This was a marketplace, where stalls still had piles of rotten vegetable leaves and broken cloth bags, now devoid of any vendors. Instead, over fifty Soul Hunters encircled the area. Their numbers were like a human wall, completely shielding the crystal.

These Soul Hunters had been vetted, confirmed not to be players but NPCs. The method involved asking about their background and past, or looking for someone familiar to confront them. In doing so, the players without character memories would be exposed.

Of course, this method might leave some slips, but most players had already been filtered out by these teams.

As soon as Su Ming’an arrived, he saw a shimmering red crystal, three meters tall, in the center of the marketplace. Its brilliance so intense, it was visible from a great distance.

Su Ming’an did not approach, but instead sent Lin Yin and Lv Shu closer. He suspected his identity had already been exposed to the Soul Hunters, so it was better to let the actual Soul Hunters, Lin Yin and Lv Shu, approach.

After showing his ID, Lin Yin successfully passed through the human wall and stood beside the crystal for ten minutes.

At exactly twelve-twenty, a system prompt popped up.

At the same time, Su Ming’an’s team’s points started to change, appearing behind the number zero, a phantom +10.

This base, unless ownership changed, would provide them with 10 points every hour.

While Lin Yin was there, some sketchy-looking figures appeared around them—clearly other Players. They crouched on high-rise buildings surrounding the market, watching, but no one made a move.

They also knew who was in the team that had just arrived. No one wanted to be the first to stick their neck out.

Among them, a wealthy merchant tentatively poked his head out from a small two-story building.

"That’s Su Rin," he whispered as he gazed at Su Ming’an standing beside the crystal.

Next to him, suddenly appeared a middle-aged man in all black, holding a card.

"He’s already taken control of the Soul Hunter Faction... Was this even ordered by Princess Tulip?" The merchant looked at the middle-aged man: "You’re an SS-ranked Soul Hunter from the Royal City, you have the strength to defeat him, right? Why don’t you act if you can’t just let him win?"

The middle-aged man smiled.

Cards twirled between his fingers, his expression somewhat nonchalant.

"...I cannot act, at least, not yet."

"Why?" The merchant was getting anxious.

"You needn’t worry. Su Rin’s arrogance in trying to control the game will naturally attract something to set him straight," the middle-aged man said.

"Something?"

"Yes," the man’s eyes gleamed,

"—Have you ever heard of the ’Reciprocity Principle’?"

After occupying the Second Zone, the group quickly moved on to the Fourth Zone.

"We didn’t find any suspicious individuals close to this area," Christie, an S-ranked Soul Hunter, shrugged, "Although the newly appointed Soul Hunter commanded us to hold this place, all those close by are my lovely colleagues. I can’t find anyone ’suspicious’ among them."

"...Then let everyone retreat, step back fifteen meters," Lv Shu immediately responded.

He knew that the recent occupation of the Fourth Zone could only mean that a player had infiltrated and was acting indistinguishably from the NPCs.

Since they couldn’t sift him out, the only option was making everyone step back. As long as they moved away from the vicinity of the base’s core, the player hiding among the NPCs couldn’t occupy the base.

"Why should I listen to you? New A-ranked Soul Hunter, although your capabilities have been proved in the past few days’ tasks, you still don’t have enough authority to command me..." Christie laughed and was about to object further when the voice of Shadow came through the communicator.

"Do as he says," Shadow spoke.

Christie shrugged: "Alright, since the newly appointed Soul Hunter says so..."

He commanded the Soul Hunters to fall back, gradually retreating from the core position.

"We’ll come back in an hour," Lv Shu said.

He immediately left with Lin Yin, rushing towards the Sixth Zone stronghold.

Behind him, Christie’s voice could be heard:

"I really can’t understand why the newly appointed leader of the Soul Hunters would get involved in this mess, especially since the Soul Hunters haven’t participated in the Maritime Banquet for decades..."

The Sixth Zone stronghold, located at the center of Pulaya, near The Great Library.

This was also the place where players most easily took advantage by break-in.

Shadow chose to station himself here, openly showing his face and attracting the attention of a large number of players.

Su Ming’an took a brief look at Shadow, and the players hiding and observing nearby, then chose to leave.

"It seems that holding these common strongholds shouldn’t be a problem," Su Ming’an said. "As soon as players attack, lead them away, and Sevya will hide her identity to protect you. I’m heading to a special stronghold now."

"Be careful," Lv Shu said.

Su Ming’an hastened away.

He opened the rules interface and reread his "only victory condition" once more.

He had never anticipated that his victory condition had nothing at all to do with the so-called point scoring.

... It was simply to prevent other players from discovering the truth revealed after achieving one hundred percent exploration degree.

Thus, after symbolically walking with Lv Shu and others for a while, he directly chose to leave the team.

... His losing conditions included being exposed by his teammates.

It also included his teammates reaching one hundred percent exploration degree.

He stared at the rules, walking along the snowy path, when suddenly he stopped abruptly.

"Bang!"

A fireball suddenly landed in front of him, exploding on impact, completely melting the snow at that spot in an instant.

— "Found you!"

A figure suddenly pounced towards him.

Su Ming’an stepped back half a step.

The fierce flames surged in front of him, and he saw a girl who had flung herself into the snow.

The girl suddenly stood up, her clothes drenched from the melted snow, giggling as she held a broken arm in her hand.

It was another player’s arm, charred black as carbon by the fire.

"Bonnie?"

Su Ming’an had heard this name mentioned in channel chats.

"It’s me!" Bonnie spread her arms: "There, I finally found you, now let me beat you!"

"They all told me, if I defeated you, my parents would come back!" Bonnie’s hands ignited with bright flames: "Defeating you could also get the organizers’ care, and a big seat at the auction house, right!"

"That’s not right," Su Ming’an said.

He glanced around, noting that they weren’t far from the sixth stronghold, and many players were still hidden, with several eyes watching this scene intently.

"Yes! Yes! That’s it!" Bonnie started stamping her feet.

Like a pile driver, her stamping caused the ground to sink with each of her movements: "Su Ming’an, I recognized you a long time ago, just let me defeat you! I want my parents, I want to receive care from the organizers—"

As she shouted, she extended her hand, and a vivid fireball suddenly pounced towards him.

Su Ming’an could not be bothered with her, the circle of fire was too obvious in his eyes. With a flash of his Amber Knife in hand, he easily split the fireball into two halves.

The fireball was split in two, brushing past him on both sides.

Even though it fell on the snow, the flames continued to burn without stopping. One could imagine how devastating the sight would be if the flames landed on a person.

... Relying on these flames, Bonnie had burned countless people alive.

"Eh? Eh? What’s happening, my fire..." Bonnie showed a panicked expression.

Su Ming’an’s blade swung through, directly activating Amber’s space skills.

However, at that moment, the previously panicked Bonnie, now had a ring of red fire around her.

As Su Ming’an launched his attack, the ring of fire fiercely landed on him, yet caused no damage.

He was suddenly pushed back by the fire ring, forcibly separating him from Bonnie.

... A fire ring resistance, huh?

Su Ming’an knew that a fire mage would definitely not lack this classic skill.

"Die—!"

Bonnie seized the opportunity, her hands swiftly opening, and a giant bear, entirely aflame, burst forth from her hands.

The bear’s size expanded as it charged, and a massive bear paw fiercely struck towards him.

Su Ming’an watched the bear’s paw swing down, not bothering to evade.

"Die—die—just die!" Bonnie screamed: "Return my parents to me! Return my friends!"

In that moment, Su Ming’an thought.

... Perhaps Noel was really right.

A child with a twisted sense of right and wrong, without proper guidance, really could turn out like Bonnie.

Had Noel been there, these children would not have been raised so twisted.

... Then, who exploited Bonnie, making her into what she is now?

If there was an organization that could exploit these children’s adventurous and sensitive natures, could it cut off their independent cognitive growth to become their brain?

He watched the bear’s paw come down, watching it land on himself.

In Bonnie’s ecstatic eyes, a golden halo wound around him.

The halo lingered on him for a moment before rushing towards the stationary Bonnie and swiftly adhering to her.

The Lasting Radiance’s damage transfer skill delivered Bonnie a heavy blow.

Su Ming’an started to move.

The bear’s paw paused above his head, moving with his steps, and the transparent giant bear burst apart in that instant.

Transparent, glass-like fragments shattered like falling snow.

As he passed by Bonnie, he saw sudden burn marks on her body, as well as her crushed and shattered limbs and bones.

"You’re bullying me..." The girl’s face was full of tears, pain causing her to cry.

"Want to live?" Su Ming’an asked her.

"Yes," Bonnie cried, "Please save me, I’m begging you..."

Su Ming’an walked past her.

And then, without much thought, he swung his blade behind him.