Chapter 384 Rope on a Mountain

During the early part of May, other than fighting in the compet.i.tion, Xiao Tan spent less time playing in the day, and he didn't clock in much time at night, so he was currently the lowest level member of Underworld Frontline. The member with the highest level was still Feng Bujue, even though he had wasted plenty of chance to get EXP to feed into the Magical Disintegrator, he still managed to get up to level 37. That was what you got for being too free… Due to his hard work from the previous month, he had successfully handed in his ma.n.u.script this month, so he had plenty of free time to game.

The second highest member in terms of level was Pa.s.sing Rain at 36. One did not need to go into detail about her power level. Her success rate at clearing a scenario was quite high and occasionally she would use the double EXP boosters. Laughing Soul was at the same level as Xiao Tan, 35. But Laughing Soul clocked in more gaming time recently than he did, so she was much ahead in terms of reaching the next level. Xiao Tan was still about 2,000,000 EXP away from the next level.

In the Battle of the Coc.o.o.n, level thirty-five wouldn't give any advantage. Players who got into the semi had pushed their level to beyond thirty-five in this half a month. There were people over level 38, but the number was relatively small. However, Thriller Paradise was not a game where a player's level decided everything. There were other extenuating factors like… mastery, t.i.tle, skill, equipment, strategy, technique, ability to think on the spot, and so on.

Before this semi started, let us look at Xiao Tan's current player status

———

ID: w.a.n.g Tanzhi, Level 35, t.i.tle: Nightmarish Gales, t.i.tle Skill: Traces of Gale

EXP: 1,580,000/3,500,000, Skill Points: 10,100, Game Coins: 3,765,000

Mastery: General Ability C, Workmans.h.i.+p D, Sleuthing C, Fighting B, Marksmans.h.i.+p D, Medic E, Sorcery E, Summoning N/A

Inventory (10/20): Miner's Hat, Winchester Shotgun, Stone Crystal, Life Points Recovery Potions (L) x5, Life Points Recovery Potions (M) x5, Anti-bleeding Bandage x5, Anti-Poison Antidote x5, Anti-Freeze Liquid x5, Anti-Burn Medicine x5, Mantra of Heaven and Earth Inversion

Equipment: Energy-Storing Sanleng Thorns, Meow Meow Claw, Scorched Vest, Buckskin Boots, Wolf's Fur Leg Guard, Sleeve Blade, Shuriken

Storage Room (2/10): Double EXP Booster (24 hours) x30, Double Game Coins Booster (24 hours) x30.

Skill Bar (5/12): Shadow of the Evil Bat, Hidden in Plain Sight, Ephemeral Shade, Reverse Spinning Slash, Shadow Soul Impel

———

This was what a whale's status looked like. Whether it was useable or not, better increase the inventory size to twenty slots first. There were various consumables to deal with various debuffs, they would be restocked whenever they ran low.

Here, one has to talk about the Double EXP Boosters and Double Game Coins Boosters. These were unique items, and they could be stacked indefinitely. In other words, even if you purchase three thousand of them, as long as they are the same, they will only occupy one slot…

Other than that, I believe the readers have noticed that there was something quite interesting in Xiao Tan's inventory… Mantra of Heaven and Earth Inversion. This was not a normal skill card. It had the appearance of a book instead. The learning requirement was harsh: Fighting Mastery B, Sorcery C, and the person had to be more than level 30. It had been almost a month since Xiao Tan got this skill that he could not trade away the Chang Lin Blade Duel scenario. Since he had plenty of empty inventory slots, Xiao Tan had been carrying it with him and did not put it in the storage.

Over the fifty matches undertaken for Battle of Bug, Xiao Tan had increased his fighting mastery to B, but his Sorcery mastery had remained unchanged. That was understandable because he did not have own sorcery skill so there was no way for him to train it. This level E was gained from his numerous encounters with ghosts in supernatural-theme scenarios…

Feng Bujue once gave Xiao Tan a suggestion for him to train his Sorcery level, but skills in the sorcery cla.s.s were as rare as skills in the summoning school.

Those sold at the Auction House were all useless skills and were expensive on top of that. And the sorcery skill in the Thriller Box, be it from price, effect, or level, none of them suited Xiao Tan.

After all, skill points couldn't be purchased with money. If he just purchased a random one, he would end up losing more resources than the experience that he would have gained. Furthermore, Xiao Tan wasn't like Brother Jue who could spend all day in Thriller Box, looking through the pages of items on sale, marking them in his memory, sieving through them, and selecting one that was the most suitable for him after he had gone through everything.

Therefore, due to Xiao Tan's lack in Sorcery mastery, it caused this super powerful skill, Mantra of Heaven and Earth Inversion to become some sort of a decoration in his inventory… It was like meat that had been delivered to his mouth, but he could only smell it but not eat it.

He couldn't trade it away or gift it to others. It was too much of a waste to destroy it and the feeling was complicated.

Of course, even without this skill, Xiao Tan was a very good player. He did not have many skills and not one of his equipment was above perfect quality, but he managed to work his way through the preliminary. In a way, this proved his innate talents in dueling and battling.

…

"The first round of the Battle of Coc.o.o.n will start soon. Your data will be inputted in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the login lobby. Ten seconds countdown before logging in. Nine, eight, seven… two, one."

As the countdown ended, the elevator Xiao Tan was in started to move.

"A coc.o.o.n hibernates for three nights in the forest. The smoothest silk spun into the hardest carapace." Another opening that he had not heard before sounded in his ear.

"Downloaded completed. You are currently playing Tournament for the Best—Battle of the Coc.o.o.n.

"This mode does not have a scenario introduction. No side/hidden quest or unique world view.

"Reward for winning the scenario: Join the winners' group.

"Main quest has been triggered.

"Kill your opponent."

Kuang! Wu!

Once the system notification ended, the elevator made these two strange sounds. Then it was followed by a strange shaking.

Xiao Tan staggered twice before he quickly steadied himself. Currently, he was agile on his feet and could move without making any sound of footfall. Even if he were standing on the deck of a boat tossed about by high waves, he would be able to hold his ground. Just two shakes of the elevator were not enough to make him lose his composure.

Ding!

The elevator door opened.

A cold, chilling wind rushed through the open door. It sliced through one's skin, cutting into the bones. Beyond the elevator was a slate of whiteness. Xiao Tan raised his hand to lift up the cape of his outfit and then focused his eyes to look out the door…

This scenario was built on top of a snowy mountain. The mountain had both rise and falls, a place where an accident could happen easily. Wind and snow were blowing heavily. The gale was like a beast gone out of control, venting its energy on this mountainous area about two thousand meters above sea level. Xiao Tan poked his head out to look and as he expected… the elevator was hanging in midair.

Without thinking about it, he grabbed the edge of the door and leaped onto the roof of the elevator. Then, he squatted down to look around.

And he saw something quite strange… In this white and snowy mountain, there was a black iron rope as thick as a fist that was stretched across it. Two elevators hung on this rope. One was the one Xiao Tan came out from and the other was hanging about fifty meters away from him. The two elevators were like two bells hanging in the wind, swaying endlessly as it was buffeted by the hail…

Under the cover of the heavy snow, it was impossible to tell where the rope started and ended. One confirmed fact was they were hanging very high above ground and a fall from this height… whether one landed on snow or ice, the result was death.

"The system wants us to fight on this rope?" Xiao Tan thought. This is too much…

At that moment, the other person appeared from the other elevator. He reaction the same as Xiao Tan, leaping up to the top of the elevator. But he came out several seconds later than Xiao Tan. He was probably figuring out how to survive, or afraid that he might be sniped once he showed himself. Xiao Tan hadn't considered that.

When he realized the elevators were hanging in midair, he predicted that the opponent wouldn't be a player who specialized in marksmans.h.i.+p. The reasoning was simple: If one of the two players knew how to fly, glide, or deal great long-distance damage, then the system would not generate a map like this.

At that moment, the two players regarded each other from afar. And they were thinking the same thing. The man on the other side is also a close-quarter combat player, isn't it…