novelraw Chapter 301-1: Bloody Slaughter, Dan the Giant’s Blazing Sun Ring (1)
Chapter 301-1: Bloody Slaughter, Dan the Giant’s Blazing Sun Ring (1)
Shang Xiaoyuan opened his eyes again and found himself lying on the bed. Beside him were Big Brother Fisherman and Lord Bashir in a black robe.
The lord’s face was ashen. Seeing him suddenly wake up, he raised his hand and slapped him hard.
Shang Xiaoyuan was slapped until his head spun, but he did not dare resist. He hurriedly covered the red handprint on his face, scrambled off the bed, and stood before the lord with his head lowered.
“I told you to keep a close eye on Shang Xiaoyuan. And the result?”
Bashir suddenly manifested a pitch-black skull scepter and pointed it at the young man beside him whose face was full of remorse.
The Fisherman’s face instantly turned deathly pale, pain twisting his features. Beads of sweat welled up on his forehead like peas. He could not help but fall to his knees, clenching his teeth with all his might to keep from screaming.
Enduring the intense agony from the depths of his soul, he panted heavily and said, “My lord, it was my negligence.”
Shang Xiaoyuan hurriedly knelt and choked out a plea. “Lord Bashir, the fault is all mine. I ignored the warning and deliberately sent Big Brother Fisherman away.”
He knew that as the Seventh Disciple, Lord Bashir’s power was terrifying. Killing him and Big Brother Fisherman would be as easy as flipping a hand.
Although he had received S ratings in the first to third difficulties, and even obtained a double S rating in the fourth difficulty, far surpassing ordinary Apostles in strength, compared with Lord Bashir, who operated in high-difficulty chapters, the gap was so vast that he did not even dare to harbor a thought of resisting.Now his soul strength had been reduced to 1/1. He no longer possessed the ability to Reshape Shells. It was equivalent to having his account banned.
Even if the talent Absolute Luck was powerful, to Bashir, who had spent many resources to cultivate him, he was no different from trash.
Shang Xiaoyuan understood the cruelty of the New World. Bashir had expended so many resources to nurture him, only to end up with a useless person. Anyone would lose their reason.
In such circumstances, even keeping his life would depend on Absolute Luck.
Yet Bashir reined in his anger, expressionless, and reached out to help both him and the Fisherman up.
“It is enough that you know where you went wrong. Because of your willfulness, you nearly lost your life. I trust you will not dare repeat it.”
“From now on, for every major decision you encounter in the game, you will report to Fisherman word for word. I will send people regularly to inspect your game text. If this happens again, you know my methods.”
The more Shang Xiaoyuan listened, the more he sensed something was off. From Lord Bashir’s words, it seemed there was still a chance. He could continue playing the game.
His face lit with joy. He nodded repeatedly, promising to do exactly as the lord said. Then he voiced his doubt about how to solve the problem of insufficient soul strength.
“Do you remember that in a previous difficulty someone invaded your chapter and plundered one S-grade Relic?”
“If not for that invasion, your Soul Enhancement would have reached 50 percent, thereby increasing your soul strength cap.”
After Bashir’s explanation, Shang Xiaoyuan finally understood how to resolve the ban problem.
Relics cannot be traded after being solidified, and you cannot equip the same difficulty level model of Relic more than once.
But before a Relic is solidified, while it is still in the state of a Source of the Apocalypse, it can be traded. Moreover, if it is not solidified in time, it will definitely drop upon death.
He had received S ratings in the first to third difficulties, and with the double S rating in the fourth difficulty, he originally could just make up 50 percent Soul Enhancement to increase the soul strength cap.
It was only because he had been sniped by an internal ‘elite Apostle’ within the organization, dropping an S-grade Relic from the first difficulty, that his soul cap did not increase.
Now he needed only to acquire another first difficulty S-grade Source of the Apocalypse. Once solidified into a Relic, it would raise his soul strength cap.
Of course, there are restrictions on solidifying a Source of the Apocalypse.
If an Apostle did not obtain the corresponding interpretation rating within the Source’s originating difficulty, they cannot solidify that Source of the Apocalypse into a Relic.
For example, Shang Xiaoyuan had obtained an S rating in the first difficulty. If he used a first difficulty double S Source of the Apocalypse, he would be unable to solidify it into a Relic.
Only after obtaining the corresponding rating in that difficulty can one properly solidify a Relic.
A certain cheater’s situation is rather special. He is an Apostle who skipped difficulties and has not experienced the first and second difficulties.
Thus the Hellish game uses his SSS rating in the third difficulty Blood Sun World as the evaluation basis for prior chapter interpretations.
In other words, if Lin Xun obtains 3S Sources of the Apocalypse from the first or second difficulties, he can also solidify them into Relics.
Shang Xiaoyuan was overjoyed after understanding the secrets of Relics.
“Now tell me what happened after your Shell died.” Bashir suddenly shifted the topic.
He could not help recalling the terrifying game text he encountered after his wandering soul revived.
He swallowed and stammered, “Reporting to my lord, I…I encountered something very, very big. A giant…”
—
[…]
[Fire flares in the west of the town of Saint Rance, dense black smoke rising. Gazing from afar, your sight passes through street after street and falls upon a low, round, massive building.]
[It is the Saint Rance theater that can accommodate several thousand people.]
[You know that the Red Armor samurai have discovered enemies again.]
[You turn lightly, perform an escape art, your figure vanishes, and you rush toward the theater.]
[…]
[When you arrive at the center of the theater, you see nearly ten Red Armor samurai encircling a figure shimmering with red light.]
[Unknown Apostle No. 11 handles the siege of nearly ten Red Armor samurai with ease. Three samurai corpses already lie on the ground.]
“Not bad strength.”
The Red Armor army flooded into every corner of Saint Rance to hunt hostile Apostles.
The Unknown Apostle No. 11 before him was the third candidate Apostle Lin Xun had found.
The first two Apostles had bad luck. Before Lin Xun arrived, they encountered a main force of the army and were beaten to death by a hundred-plus samurai. The scene was quite brutal.
Although the Red Armor samurai had only half their full morale value, severely weakening their strength, even weakened, these small monsters from a fifth difficulty Hell chapter possessed the power of elite monsters in ordinary chapters.
That No. 11 Apostle could gain the upper hand against more than ten Red Armor samurai. His strength spoke for itself.
[You maintain invisibility and silently approach the samurai encirclement.]
[Unknown Apostle No. 11 grows fiercer as he fights. He suddenly raises the long-hafted axe-spear in his hands and sweeps it forcefully, driving the samurai back.]
[The hostile Apostle sinks his body and holds his breath to build power, as if about to unleash a powerful Shell Skill.]
[At that moment, a splendid sword light erupts behind him.]
[Unknown Apostle No. 11 tries to turn back to block, but as he has only half turned, a short, elderly figure lands before him, exhales, and sheathes the blade.]
[A head flies high and then rolls aside.]
[You have defeated Unknown Apostle No. 11.]
[Because your invasion authority is high.]
[Please choose the equipment category you wish to plunder.]
[…]
[Unknown Apostle No. 11 is dead.]
[You have obtained the buff effect Killing Feast +3.]
[Killing Feast +3: This buff effect increases all your attributes by 80 percent. It will last until the end of this Easter Egg chapter.]
[A group of Red Armor samurai kneel to you in salute, then rise and jog off to continue seeking the next enemy hidden in the town.]
Lin Xun gave the other candidate Apostles no chance to engage him head on.
He used the Ninja Master’s assassination skills to their utmost. The hostile Apostles were already decapitated before they even discovered him.
The number of Apostles on the kill list dropped rapidly, from the initial 24 down to 7.
After killing hostile Apostles, he could inherit the enemy’s kill count.
His Killing Feast rose to level +3, which meant he had eliminated a total of 12 Apostles.
Since Apostle No. 24 had already exited the chapter, the candidate list was now 23 people. As long as he did not die and maintained 12 kills until the end of the Easter Egg chapter, he could firmly claim the seat of the Twelfth Disciple.
Of course, the premise was to avoid being killed by other Apostles in the later stages and to survive the demigod war of the final event.