DSMC Chapter 105.2

Yan Jiyun realized his guess had been correct. Players really did have to enter the town. Only now the game had given names to the forest and the town.

All players had now entered exploration mode.

This game truly had no limit to how much it could screw players over.

Even now there were still no clear gameplay instructions, nor any explanation of how exactly to clear the stage.

It never tells them the complete rules. Players have to figure them out themselves, and even then it’s hard to avoid the traps the game has dug.

Why was the requirement to enter Angel Town before nightfall?

Did that mean Angel Town would no longer allow players to enter after dark? And if someone couldn’t enter the town, what would happen?

The game had actually been guiding the players all along. At first it encouraged them to steal points, leading players to rob each other. Now, following the game’s progression, some players had indeed already been eliminated.

[Surviving Players: 450/500]

[Instance Duration: 30m 00s]

Only after half an hour did the game reveal its direction.

For players, this was indeed helpful. They no longer had to wander aimlessly through the forest.

At this moment, most players had already prepared themselves to enter Angel City.

But the system continued releasing information, and the next announcement excited the players even more.

[Players ranked 1–10 to reach the Demon Forest Exit will receive one “Pegasus.”]

[Players ranked 11–60 to reach the Demon Forest Exit will receive one “Thousand-Mile Horse.”]

[Players ranked 61–100 to reach the Demon Forest Exit will receive one “Bicycle.”]

[Good luck, players! As long as you make it into the top 100, you won’t need to walk to Angel City. You’ll save plenty of time~]

Four hundred and fifty players competing for one hundred transportation tools? The situation could easily be imagined. On average, five people would be fighting for one vehicle.

No one knew how far the distance was between Demon Forest and Angel City. If the first hundred players grabbed transportation, everyone else would have to travel on foot. That would be like chasing a mountain on horseback until the horse died. An exhausting, endless journey.

Yan Jiyun checked the shop and discovered there wasn’t a single transportation tool available.

There were acceleration props capable of covering huge distances in a day. He checked the price. Excellent, it all starts from 500,000 points. In other words, he would need to steal the points of fifty players just to afford one.

This Peak Competition was really pushing them to fight for points and compete for props. It did live up to the word “competition.”

But Yan Jiyun didn’t like competing with others. Just hearing about it felt exhausting.

At this moment, the players near him all started moving. No one bothered hiding in ambush anymore. Securing transportation to reach Angel City had become the top priority.

Everyone thought the same thing, including Yan Jiyun.

The only difference was that while others sprinted wildly, he remained calm and steady.

He first judged the direction other players were heading, then compared it with the direction he had determined for the forest exit. Everyone was rushing toward the same direction, so his route was correct. He could continue forward.

Along the way, Yan Jiyun encountered two other players. They faced each other briefly but didn’t start a conflict. Both sides were in a hurry to reach the Demon Forest Exit and compete for transportation. Any later and the vehicles would all be gone.

Once the previously hidden players started moving, each of them ran as fast as cheetahs. Watching them, Yan Jiyun felt completely left behind. It reminded him of middle school days when students rushed to the cafeteria after class. If one ran too slowly, they wouldn’t get the best fried pork ribs.

With other players leading the way ahead, Yan Jiyun only needed to follow. The exit was probably in the direction they were running.

Still, to be safe, he kept checking his outdoor sports watch while running.

They waded through a small river, climbed up a slope, and detoured around a swamp.

Yet the end still hadn’t appeared.

Yan Jiyun maintained a steady pace behind them and wasn’t nearly as exhausted. The forest was enormous. There was no way it could be crossed simply by sprinting.

He had experience traveling through forests. Running was the most energy-consuming method. Maintaining a steady pace was the real solution.

Yan Jiyun lightly stepped over a fallen tree that had probably been lying there for years. Suddenly, he heard movement ahead.

He stopped, hid behind a tree, and saw five players sitting in the branches discussing an alliance.

They probably hadn’t just stopped to rest and coincidentally met each other. More likely, they had already contacted each other before entering the game.

Their communication seemed quite familiar.

Fighting alone really wasn’t as good as forming alliances. First secure transportation, then once inside the city everyone could rely on their own abilities. And if there happened to be team competitions inside the city, that would be killing two birds with one stone.

Yan Jiyun thought they were quite clever. Once allied, they could easily gang up on solo players and eliminate them, securing at least five of the transportation spots.

What a headache. He could only fight alone.

Up to now, he hadn’t encountered a single player he could actually talk to.

Of course, he also didn’t really dare cooperate with other players. His situation was too special. Maintaining human form consumed a lot of experience cards, and before entering, the system had already warned that the Peak Competition had no time limit, so he had to use them sparingly.

Yan Jiyun was also anxious to keep moving, but haste makes waste. Everyone was surely rushing forward, and if he charged in with the crowd, he would still end up fighting.

If he could reach the exit before the others, he could completely avoid battles with other players.

The five players ahead were discussing how to use props to fight if they encountered other players blocking their way.

Just in case, Yan Jiyun memorized everything they discussed. These people must have known each other before the competition. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have discussed things so smoothly.

It seemed that Intermediate- and Hard-level players had a stronger foundation for cooperation than he had imagined. Perhaps this was why guilds could grow larger. The later instances were harder, and fighting alone was far more difficult than teamwork.

After resting for a while to replenish their energy, the five players continued forward. Yan Jiyun also took the opportunity to restore his energy and followed them at a distance, not too close, not too far. Just about 200 meters. This was the optimal distance he had figured out 2 days ago while tailing Fu Guangming from the new faction branch.

The closest players around him were those five, yet none of them ever noticed Yan Jiyun following behind.

Since the system announced the forest exit, Yan Jiyun had been traveling for over two hours. It was nearing noon, yet they still hadn’t reached the so-called Demon Forest Exit.

The saying that three cobblers together equal Zhuge Liang actually made sense. The five players ahead had comprehensive skills: one was good at analysis, one could determine direction, one specialized in scouting. Yan Jiyun was starting to suspect they might all come from the same guild. They were very professional.

However, among them there was one person whose footsteps were relatively light. Judging from the depth of the footprints, he was the lightest among them. This person didn’t talk much. Yan Jiyun didn’t think he was sick or anything, but guessed his physical skills were probably better than the others.

After resting a bit, Yan Jiyun followed them again.

For some reason, having five people blocking the way ahead actually gave him a sense of security. If there were any danger, they could deal with it first.

He just didn’t know how far they still were from the exit.

Just as Yan Jiyun and the five players ahead were thinking about the same question, the system suddenly popped up several suffocating messages in succession.

[Player Qi Feng is riding a “Pegasus” toward Angel City. Remaining “Pegasus”: 9.]

[Player Yang Xiaozhi is riding a “Pegasus” toward Angel City. Remaining “Pegasus”: 8.]

[Player Fan Xing is riding a “Pegasus” toward Angel City. Remaining “Pegasus”: 7.]

……

Seeing his shit-shovel officer’s name ranked first, Yan Jiyun felt both proud and aware of the gap between them. As expected of a Hard-level player, he’s truly impressive. And as expected of the shit-shovel officer he had chosen. With that kind of instance-clearing speed, he could eliminate Yan Jiyun in minutes.

They watched as the Pegasi were taken by the top ten players, and then watched as the horses were claimed one by one by those who arrived early.

The five players ahead of Yan Jiyun had already begun accelerating!

It seemed they were close to the exit. Yan Jiyun heard more scattered footsteps around him now, accompanied by noisy chatter.

Avoiding other players, Yan Jiyun quietly approached the exit. This exit wasn’t designed in any fancy way; instead it was extremely obvious. Six glaring characters read “Demon Forest Exit,” making the design look rather perfunctory.

At this moment, the system was already broadcasting the remaining number of bicycles. There’s not many left!

[There are currently 10 bicycles remaining. Players please take note, it’s all first come, first served. Slow feet get nothing~]

Yan Jiyun felt his pace had indeed been too slow!

At this moment, more than a dozen players rushed out from the forest, and everyone stared at each other.

Yan Jiyun quietly observed the terrain. He hid behind a tree, trying his best not to be discovered by the dozen or so players.

Right at the exit, 10 bicycles were parked.

There were 15 players in total, and there was no way to determine who had arrived first.

At this point, no one was willing to hand the chance of obtaining transportation to someone else.

“So what, want to fight?”

“First come, first served. We got here first.”

“Whoever has the ability gets it first.”

“Then let’s fight. Whoever loses can crawl all the way to Angel City.”

While the dozen players stood on guard against each other, Yan Jiyun quietly moved closer to the bicycle nearest the exit. However, he still didn’t make a move.

Sixteen players in total, and no one had attacked yet. If he made the first move, these people would immediately pin him down. What they needed right now was simply an excuse to start fighting.

That would give them a reason to brawl.

Yan Jiyun picked a small stone from beside his foot. He seized the moment and threw it toward a player standing near the center with his back turned toward him, deliberately flicking the pebble against the shoulders and back of two people.

That player suddenly turned around, but he didn’t immediately realize someone had thrown a stone.

Yan Jiyun thought he had been discovered. Then the hit player was struck by another pebble and turned his head left and right.

“Who the hell used a prop to attack me?”

The player’s anger surged as he locked his gaze on the other fifteen players. He hadn’t thought someone might be hiding in the bushes.

Yan Jiyun didn’t dare move. His position wasn’t very well hidden. If anyone came over and pushed aside the grass, he would be discovered immediately!

However, he knew someone else was hiding in the bushes just like him. That person had exposed their position.

The situation was extremely tense. The slightest movement could ignite the suppressed hostility of everyone present.

The player who had been hit by the pebble suddenly launched an attack on a nearby player, directly using a stun prop.

“Was it you who ambushed me?!”

“Who the hell ambushed you, you bastard—” Thud. The man had already fallen; he had been struck by the player’s prop.

The fallen player had teammates nearby. Seeing this, one of them used a smashing-type prop. His item was even an AoE attack — a large handful of sunflower seeds fell from the sky, hitting every nearby player. Those things stung painfully when they struck people’s faces.

The scene descended into chaos.

The props players were using seemed to all be low-level ones, capable at most of causing superficial injuries or a dizzying effect.

Yan Jiyun counted the remaining players for them. This was the chaotic phase of battle, with props flying everywhere as if they cost nothing.

Two more players collapsed in the melee, leaving 13 people remaining.

Yan Jiyun purchased the cheapest invisibility cloak from the prop shop and slowly tiptoed toward the bicycle closest to the exit.

He hadn’t lost the bicycle skills he practiced in the previous instance. In one smooth motion, he straightened the handlebars, swung himself onto the seat, and pedaled hard, rushing out through the Demon Forest Exit!

As the saying goes, cats have their paths and mice have theirs.

After him, another bicycle was also ridden away.

Only when the dozen players still fighting heard the sound of wheels rolling over the ground did they realize two bicycles had started moving on their own.

Which two bastards were that sneaky?!