Chapter 233
In the chessboard world, Yan Chuyi and the others have arrived at the third floor of the Black Tower.
The people in the front row stepped out of the teleportation array, but unexpectedly, they stepped into thin air and fell forward uncontrollably, almost falling down.
The gravity player reacted quickly to control gravity, barely managing to pull everyone up.
The sound of rushing water exploded in their ears, and the air was filled with damp, cold moisture. Everyone present looked down and was immediately shocked.
The area below was swept away and destroyed by the flood. The water flowed like a ferocious beast, snapping houses in half, smashing trees, and carrying mud, sand, and countless pieces of debris as it rushed away, leaving no trace of life in its wake.
Someone couldn't help but curse, "First it was the extreme cold hell, and now it's the flood. Are we going to have to experience every natural disaster in this dungeon?"
With the player's current abilities, crossing the flood is not difficult; the problem is that the path to the tower is submerged in the flooded area.
Not far ahead, the lower half of the white beam of light was submerged in the floodwaters.
The passageway door was tightly closed, and the surging water suddenly crashed against the outer iron wall, splashing up a three-meter-high brown wave!
The entire iron wall shook violently, making a creaking sound as if it were about to collapse.
Everyone marveled at the spectacular scene, when Yan Chuyi suddenly asked, "How deep is the water?"
That's a very good question.
Water is terrifying not only for its impact, its specific heat capacity which can cause the human body to lose temperature rapidly, but also for its unknown depths.
Using their aerial agility, the group split into teams to explore, and soon brought back news that made everyone gasp in astonishment.
In the flood, some houses had only their roofs exposed, the tiles shattered by the rushing water, leaving the limestone layer bare, like jagged, uneven rocks.
They thought those buildings were at most six or seven stories high, but they were actually thirty stories high!
Now the question is, where is the switch to open the passage? If we assume each floor is about three meters high, then more than thirty floors would be at least a hundred meters high, especially under such a rapidly flowing flood!
Yan Chuyi offered another idea: "Go find the source of the flood and see if there are any well-constructed water conservancy projects nearby."
There was no source, nor any water conservancy project, proving that the third layer did not frequently encounter floods; a flood seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Some players then cursed the system, saying, "They're not even going to pretend anymore!"
Yan Chuyi understood.
When a copywriter can no longer even bother with superficial work and starts resorting to all sorts of underhanded tactics to sabotage the project, even ignoring basic background settings, it means that the organizers have been pushed to the brink and can no longer care about anything else.
—It seems that Theseus's sudden loss of control has caused quite a stir in the system.
Unable to control the floodwaters, they had no choice but to brave the floodwaters and go find the switch.
The sight of the broken trees floating on the water sent chills down everyone's spines.
The fracture surface was horribly mangled, as if it had been smashed open by a heavy hammer. If a person had gone down there, wouldn't their internal organs have been scattered?
Yan Chuyi never intended to let ordinary players leave.
Even if the system goes crazy, it still needs to abide by the game's restrictions and can't suddenly raise the tower climbing difficulty from S to God level. But under the flood, we might also need to deal with bosses like water monsters.
He preferred to team up with himself, Xu Ji, Stephen, and the Gravity Player to explore the area, while Split Soul White, Brian, and Xu Qingran would stay outside to keep watch.
Unexpectedly, some players volunteered.
The ones who volunteered were none other than the low-level players who had the markers on the second floor.
The terror of the flood instilled fear in them, causing them to instinctively feel dread.
But in that moment of habitually stepping back, they saw several bigwigs naturally gathering together to discuss countermeasures, as if struck by a thunderbolt, waking them from a dream.
—If they choose to back down again this time and let Yan Chuyi and the others take the lead, then what's the difference between this and the previous times?
The opportunity to become a chosen one of the gods seems elusive, but if you pay close attention to the awakening of Xu Qingran and the gravity players, you will find that those life-or-death moments are also the times when opportunities arise.
In one's lifetime, one must always try, fight, and strive.
"First year boss".
Yan Chuyi turned around.
More than a dozen players raised the backs of their hands and stared straight at him, their timid eyes gradually hardening as they made up their minds.
"Could we try it?"
Seemingly sensing a will about to emerge, the translucent emblem emitted faint glows.
.
Time flies.
The ink-wash space was utterly silent. The giant fish lay hidden beneath the lake, not daring to make a move. The only sound in the vast pavilion was Theseus's weak, intermittent breathing, as if he could breathe his last at any moment.
But Xie Xubai knew this person wouldn't die.
Whether it was the ruthlessness he displayed when strangling the mental link in the sea of consciousness, or the way he dug out faces without blinking, it was just as the other party had said at the beginning.
He harbors intense hatred for both the system and himself, and he will not close his eyes until he witnesses their deaths.
Theseus leaned his head back in his chair, slightly opened his blood- and sweat-stained eyelashes, glanced at the chessboard, and suddenly said, "How enviable."
He and Xie Xubai were in the same space, and he could sense more clearly than anyone else that the other's divine power was steadily increasing. In just a few days, it had already climbed to a terrifying 78%!
It was several days ago that Yan Chuyi's group passed through the third level of the Black Tower.
Even though Captain Xu explained that the area below the floodwaters was dangerous, the environment was harsh and unpredictable, and that it would be impossible to take care of everyone in time, posing a risk to their lives, the players still insisted on going into the water.
Some survive, awakening divine power through the courage that erupts when they are on the verge of death, while others are unfortunate enough to be bitten by the monster.
The monster arrived suddenly, and the floodwaters were filled with mud and sand, reducing visibility and making it impossible to distinguish directions. Captain Xu and his team wanted to rescue people, but it was too late. Even with the help of the underwater soul-splitting banquet, they couldn't save so many people.
Yan Chuyi could save everyone, as long as he borrowed the power of the main body. In the eyes of the players, Xie Xubai had become synonymous with "miracle," and no matter how incredible his actions were, they could always be glossed over.
But it was at this moment that the distressed player's heartfelt words were truly conveyed to his sea of consciousness through the line of faith.
There was fear, frustration, and resentment.
But the strongest thought was: "Damn it, I was so close! I'm doomed! I finally got this chance to become a chosen one of the gods, am I just going to waste it like this? No, no, no! Thank God! Thank God! Can you hear me? I can try again, no, I can try countless times! Please, after I'm resurrected, I'll be a hero again, please don't take back the mark!"
Their hearts were brimming with passion and high spirits, untouched by the indelible shadow of death and failure.
Xie Xubai couldn't help but pause.
He couldn't help but reflect on whether his desire to lead all players to a no-death victory was a misconception.
Humans have never lacked the courage to start over, especially since death in a dungeon is not real death.
If we protect the players from beginning to end, are we really protecting them, or are we underestimating their determination?
At that moment, Xie Xubai slowly withdrew the divine power he was about to unleash.
He watched as the player, with his last breath, twisted his body, his face contorted with rage as he severely wounded the monster, his eyes gleaming with a blinding light, as if shouting with glee: Worth it, a huge profit!
As if he had suddenly unlocked some kind of key, his belief became clear, and Xie Xubai's progress toward becoming a god rose from 67% to 70%!
He no longer guarded and protected everyone as he had before, but instead allowed them to fail, get hurt, and awaken.
As long as someone holds onto the idea of not giving up, he will infuse the mark with divine power, so that they remember what happened in this instance, rather than having their memories erased.
From rejecting the belief in others, to accepting the players' beliefs, and then to deeply understanding and genuinely feeling the players' beliefs.
Xie Xubai's progress towards godhood immediately jumped from 70% to 74%!
Because some believers and players aligned with his will and successfully awakened as God's Chosen, this number jumped to 75%, 76%, and now to 78%!
Thus, Yan Chuyi's team, with unstoppable momentum, ascended eleven floors in a row, entering the middle and upper levels of the Black Tower.
Climbing the tower may seem difficult, but if you hurry, it doesn't take much time; you can basically climb two floors in a day.
If we continue on this path, we should have more than enough time to reach the Black King's Palace within ten days.
But Yan Chuyi stopped the procession.
His intuition told him it wasn't that simple.
.
In the ink-wash painting space, Xie Xubai looked at Theseus.
Theseus met his gaze, then suddenly narrowed his eyes, precisely seizing a streak of golden light that had quietly approached, and unceremoniously threw it at Xie Xubai's face: "Are you ever going to stop?"
The golden light dissipated in mid-air. Xie Xubai remained motionless and calmly revealed his shortcomings: "You have lost your strength, are seriously injured, and are mentally exhausted. You are currently in a precarious state. You were provoking me to attack you before, but now you are starting to get impatient with my probing."
"With your abilities, once the game ends, will you still have the strength to resist the system's retaliation?"
Theseus looked at him coldly: "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Xie Xubai's expression remained unchanged: "What I want to say is not important. What is important is whether you want to kill the system and completely get rid of its control."
Theseus and Xie Xubai looked at each other for a long time, then chuckled.
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. Falling into your hands isn't necessarily better than falling into the system's hands. You want to use the guise of cooperation to pry the system's weaknesses out of me, and then, after succeeding, you'll betray me and kill me... Do you really think I'm stupid?"
Xie Xubai: "But you were indeed tempted, weren't you?"
Theseus froze abruptly, reaching out to touch his pockmarked face. He realized that his cognitive interference had been forcibly removed by the system. Xie Xubai could roughly sense his emotional fluctuations, and his expression instantly darkened.
Xie Xubai: "You said that being in my hands is no better than the system, but you don't really think so. I can also assure you that if I catch you, I will act decisively to eliminate the threat forever, instead of torturing people to the point of wishing they were dead like the system does."
"As for your claim that I want to kill you, don't you also want to kill me? In a sense, we started from the same point. Before the outcome is clear, it's impossible to say who will ultimately prevail."
“Theseus,” Xie Xubai smiled slightly, “Just now, you successfully outmaneuvered the system and me, gaining your own freedom.”
His tone was slow and deliberate, as if possessing a bewitching power that could drive people to lose control: "Tell me, do you still dare now?"
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