54

At 00:00:00, the same subtitles appeared on the retinas of all players who met the competition requirements.

When they read the word "eliminated" at the end of the text, their hearts suddenly tightened unconsciously.

The light word "eliminated" seemed to carry some kind of huge magical power at this moment, making people breathless.

[Doraemon (Lv3)]: Wow, I don't want to play anymore... I want to quit the game...

[Zhongmou (Lv3)]: I also

[Zhongmou (Lv3)]: Is it still too late to quit the game now?

[I'm a strong 1 and I'm not pretending anymore (Lv3)]: The visual sense of survival of the fittest in the animal world

[High Plant (Lv3)]: I'm sweating coldly on my back

[High Plant (Lv3)]: It's like walking on a dark road and getting lost in a graveyard.

[One Sword Light Chills the Nineteen States (Lv3)]: What a stupid J2 ranking match, I want to quit the game!

[Pride of Winning Without Anything (Lv3)]: Can anyone tell me how many places are at the bottom of the leaderboard? Also, what does elimination mean?

The system did not clearly explain what "elimination" meant, and did not even provide any prompt information.

No player can make a definitive conclusion and can only guess based on their intuition and experience.

Does it mean that you won't be able to get the rewards at the end of the season? Does it mean that you will be stripped of your player status if you leave the game?

Or... does it mean being completely wiped out by the system?

The first two are more optimistic ideas, while the latter possibility seems cruel and cold.

It’s hard to say at the moment which possibility it is, but even if the probability of being “erased” is only one in ten thousand, no player would dare to joke with his own life.

After basically understanding the logic and gameplay of [Season 1], all players had the same idea in their minds almost at the same time.

Up! Up! Up!

Climb up desperately!

Don’t be the last one!

[Xiao Bei (Lv3)]: Wait a minute! Everyone, listen to me. I have an idea!

[Xiaobei (Lv3)]: Why don’t we split it up?

[0396 (Lv3)]: What is merging?

[Xiaobei (Lv3)]: When I used to play Yanyang Mouse and grind for scrolls, players wanted to avoid grinding so hard but still wanted to get rewards, so they often discussed splitting their points. Let me explain the principle behind splitting: all players maintain a consistent score, resulting in a tied ranking. In theory, there's no "bottom-of-the-leader" at risk of being eliminated. Everyone is in first place, and everyone might even get the first-place rewards.

[The Pride of Lying Down and Winning (Lv3)]: Wow! That sounds great. Everyone just lies down and doesn't have to do anything. I love lying down the most.

[High Plant (Lv3)]: It sounds good, but it might be difficult to operate.

[High Plant (Lv3)]: Because there are so many unexpected situations. Let me give you a few simple examples. You accidentally kill a few extra bugs with your explosives, and the survivors die on the boat. Your score has reached the standard for merging, but then you suddenly run into your first love asking for help. Can you resist pulling her aboard? Merging is too idealistic. How can it be guaranteed that everyone's points will be the same at the end of the season?

[M (Lv3)]: I totally agree

[Three Feet of Life (Lv3)]: Absolutely unrealistic. It's hard to say if the player group isn't united. Can you guarantee that all players will obey your command? Even if all unforeseen circumstances are eliminated and all players' points remain the same, what if there's a scum among us like the one who slaughtered his compatriots before, and throws a blasting grenade into the Zerg swarm at the last second before the season ends? Would all the other players who managed to score points be eliminated?

[Wensike (Lv3)]: Bullshit, this is simply alarmist.

[Tang Tangyuan (Lv3)]: No, you should use memes in different situations, okay?

[Rongrong (Lv3)]: Oh my god, what you said is so scary!

[Niulanshan Cow (Lv3)]: By the time the players are divided into two groups, the entire army will be wiped out. How ironic!

[Lonely Li Ersan (Lv3)]: I think there is more than just one mentally twisted pervert. There are all kinds of people in the world, and the player base is not small.

[Three Feet of Life (Lv. 3)]: Actually, there might not even be a need for a single, deeply twisted player enemy. Imagine a player, fearing a scumbag sabotaging their points and potentially getting eliminated, secretly increases their points before the final settlement. This behavior is perfectly human, forming an unsolvable chain of suspicion. After all, human nature is complex.

[Pony (Lv3)]: I won’t merge, I won’t merge even if you kill me!!

[Cuishan (Lv3)]: Gone to kill monsters, bye

[Blue Knight (Lv3)]: Slipped away

[Xiaobei (Lv3)]: ...Okay, you convinced me, and the risk is too great.

[Small House (Lv3)]: Hey! The leaderboard has been updated, check it out!

Tao Sai stopped here in the world channel, switched to [Season 1], and then clicked on [Table Ranking]. The originally blank page was updated with the real-time ranking of the players.

Taosai found his nickname at the 5th position in the standings, with a total of 79,000 points.

The rankings only showed the total score and did not give the specific details of the points, but Tao Sai could make a simple inference.

Because the way to obtain points is known, she has not killed any bugs or rescued any survivors since the start of Season 1. The system only calculates the number of crew members and the number of refugees accommodated on board.

The Deep Sea Fish has a crew of 8 + 26 = 34, 11 refugees, and a total of 79,000 points. While the known information only allows for a single linear equation in two variables, not a system of equations, and thus infinite solutions, the numerical nature of the game dictates that the solution must be a positive integer, with a high probability of being a tens, hundreds, or even thousands. Furthermore, according to game logic, the crew's points must be greater than the refugee's points, further limiting the range of solutions.

To sum up, Tao Sai can basically infer that the points for a single crew member are 2,000 points, and for a refugee is 1,000 points.

Tao Sai took a look and found that her fifth place ranking was mostly due to the 26 new characters added from Cao Yu. Without these 52,000 points, her score would only be ranked 149th.

Tao Sai paid special attention and found that the player ranked first in the standings was nicknamed "Hai Lan" with 108,000 points. He seemed to have never appeared on the world channel.

The nicknames of the other players from second to fourth place looked more or less familiar to her.

"Three Feet of Life" ranked 161st, "Zhizhi" ranked 194th, and "Tang Sixi" ranked 258th.

Looking closely at the standings, Tao Sai discovered other clues.

There is a thick line below the third-ranked player in the standings, separating the top three players from the players behind them. The top three players are divided into one level.

There is another thicker line below the tenth-place player, dividing the top ten players into another level.

Tao Sai scrolled down the list, and thick lines appeared under the names of the 50th, 100th, 200th, and 500th players respectively.

There are a total of 841 players on the entire leaderboard, and the last three players are separated by a striking red line. Their points are all below 5,000. These should be the so-called "players at the bottom of the standings" who will be eliminated.

[Point Guard (Lv3)]: I'm done, I'm really in last place, damn it!

[Li Wu (Lv3)]: Brother, I’m third from the bottom.

[Langli Baitiao Xie Yu (Lv3)]: The second to last one is here

[Point Guard (Lv3)]: What the hell is this guy still sleeping? I’m not going to sleep anymore!

[Li Wu (Lv3)]: How about we three trash team up?

[Li Wu (Lv3)]: Let's not think about each other, and let's not plot against each other. Let's form a group and work together to kill monsters. I've even thought of a name for it, it's called "The Bottom-Layer Counterattack Alliance"!

[Langli Baitiao Xie Yu (Lv3)]: Sure, sure! I'm in!

[ALEXANDR (Lv3)]: ...To be honest, you guys are making it very embarrassing for me, the fourth from the bottom.

[Li Wu (Lv3)]: Then let’s go together, brother.

[Mr. Bucai Youshan (Lv3)]: I am ranked 759 and I am fearless. It is a small problem.

[Mr. Bucai Youshan (Lv3)]: I'm going to sleep, good night

After sending this message, the player nicknamed "Mr. Bucai Youshan" quickly opened the [Mall] and used all the gold coins he had saved to buy explosive bombs.

He jumped from the deck onto the riverbank with his only three crew members, shouting, "Ah ...

Players who were browsing the leaderboard at this time found that the score values ​​on the list began to change.

The player ranked 451st has his points continuously increasing.

The player ranked 628th saw his points increase by 2,000 in an instant.

The player ranked 759th gained dozens of points every second, and his ranking instantly jumped 10 places.

…

Until the score values ​​on entire pages began to jump, and the rankings of players with similar scores kept changing and taking turns leading.

The word "eliminated" is like a mountain, pressing down on the players, especially those ranked low. In order to get away from the dangerous ranking as soon as possible, they start to work hard and fight hard.

In the alliance [Sea Tower] channel.

[Three Feet of Life (Lv3)]: Boss, the season has begun.

[Three Feet of Life (Lv3)]: What does our alliance say?

[Cx330 (Lv3)]: Take a rest first, I will contact you tomorrow.

The "three-foot-tall life" stares at the chat message, and its psychological activities undergo the following changes:

Boss, the standings are going crazy, how can you sleep?

Oh, you are number five, excuse me...

Following the wind direction that night, Tao Guohuai searched the entire fishing boat dock several times and asked countless people, but still could not find any clues about Cheng Cong.

No living people or bodies were found. They may have been blown into the sea.

If he was blown into the sea, Cheng Cong couldn't swim. Even if he could swim, with such strong winds and waves on the sea, there was only one possibility: drowning.

Tao Guohuai sat on a stone block to take a breath. He put a whole piece of compressed biscuit into his mouth and chewed it. The rapidly expanding biscuit filled his entire mouth, and he swallowed it with great effort.

There is a garbage pit not far from the stone pier. The sunlight shining on the garbage pile is a bit dazzling.

Tao Guohuai blocked the reflection from the garbage dump and found a fish-killing knife.

He went up to pick up the knife, put it on the back of his belt, and put his T-shirt down to cover the outline of the knife. Then he walked straight towards the bungalow.

"Come back! Don't go!" Cheng Lihua stopped him.

Tao Guohuai pushed her away expressionlessly, jumped up and kicked the security door several times. The security door clanged but could not be kicked open.

He picked up a few bricks from the foot of the wall, quickly smashed the guardrail next to it, smashed the window glass, and jumped directly in.

The middle-aged man and the young man were already alerted by the sound of knocking on the door and were waiting in the house.

"Dad, we let this idiot run away last time. How dare he come back?" said the young man.

"Kill him!" The middle-aged man's eyes were fierce, and the young man grasped the baseball bat and got ready.

"I'm going to call the police!" Cheng Lihua said as she climbed into the window.

The young man couldn't help laughing when he heard this. "Call the police? Hurry up and call the police! See if anyone will pay attention to you? This is the apocalypse, Auntie."

At this moment, Tao Guohuai took out the fish-killing knife from his back and pounced directly on the young man.

When the young man saw the shining knife in his hand, he panicked and looked around. He picked up the red wine bottle on the living room partition and smashed it at Tao Guohuai.

The wine bottle hit Tao Guohuai's forehead with a loud bang and exploded instantly. The red wine spilled all over his head, blinding his eyes. The glass fragments of the wine bottle made countless cuts on his face.

Tao Guohuai felt dizzy and lost his direction. He reached out to wipe his eyes, but the middle-aged man kicked him to the ground.

When the middle-aged man tried to get up, he rode on top of him. The young man stomped his foot down and knocked the fish knife out of his hand.

"Ah!" Tao Guohuai roared and struggled hard.

But the middle-aged man was obviously more robust and powerful. He used his strong arm to tightly strangle Tao Guohuai's neck, clamping his elbows tightly, trying to strangle him to death.

Tao Guohuai saw stars, the blood vessels in his neck expanded several times, his face turned red, and his own exertion exacerbated the feeling of suffocation.

Cheng Lihua wanted to rush over to save people, but was easily pinned to the ground by the young man.

"Idiot, you're not done yet? Fuck!" The young man cursed with a ferocious look on his face, raised his hand, and slapped Cheng Lihua in the face repeatedly, almost knocking her unconscious.

He picked up the baseball bat on the ground and was about to smash it into her head when a leg suddenly appeared in his sight, with a pair of black tactical boots stepping on his shoulders.

The young man looked up and saw the face of a young girl, t, who was looking down at him condescendingly.

Tao Sai asked: "You were the one who threw the child out of the window, weren't you?"

At that time, she actually got a general idea from Cheng Cong's perspective.

"Who the hell are you?" The young man wanted to stand up, but found that the leg on his shoulder was extremely heavy. He couldn't stand up no matter how hard he tried.

He swung the baseball bat in anger, but it was snatched away.

The young man suddenly felt the leg on his shoulder press down harder, and suddenly stepped on him directly to the ground. With a bang, his chin hit the ground heavily.

Tao Sai swung the baseball bat at his torso, but after just two hits, the bat broke.

The middle-aged man turned around and saw that his son was hit. He let go of Tao Guohuai and rushed over. Halfway through, he found that the man had disappeared out of thin air.

The next moment, Tao Sai appeared in front of him. She twisted the middle-aged man's neck, lifted him up from the ground, and threw him towards the wall a few meters away. The middle-aged man's burly body was thrown out and collapsed the partition wall.

Tao Sai walked towards the motionless Tao Guohuai and came around to his front.

The man was breathing heavily, his eyes rarely filled with tears, and his eyes were extremely desperate.

This was the first time Tao Sai saw such an expression on his face.

"Cheng Cong is not dead." Tao Sai said slowly.

Tao Guohuai's eyes were still filled with despair and lifelessness. It took him five seconds to react to what he heard.

"What did you say!" Tao Guohuai widened his eyes and grabbed her arm tightly, "Say it again!"