ctnovel Chapter 381: Safe Zone Shrinkage Completed
Chapter 381: Safe Zone Shrinkage Completed
......
Not everyone has teammates or enemies they can temporarily compromise with.
Wu Qiang, a berserker who prefers to work alone, is now facing a desperate situation.
He had previously ventured deep into a high-level monster area to hunt down a low-health target. Although he successfully killed the target, he was then entangled by a group of "Rock Armor Scorpions".
These creatures had high defense and were fast, and most importantly, they carried paralyzing toxins, which greatly slowed him down.
By the time he finally managed to escape the scorpion swarm, the shrinking circle had already been in place for quite some time.
His location was one of the furthest diagonal distances on the map from the edge of the new safe zone.
Wu Qiang had activated all his movement speed-increasing skills and potions, charging straight through the canyon like a mad bull, crashing into or jumping over low obstacles, and completely ignoring players.
His only goal was to rush in before his health was burned away by the poison circle!
But the distance is just too far.
Even though his attributes are not weak and the Berserker's charge skill is powerful enough, the safe zone shrinks at a constant speed and ignores the terrain.
He could clearly see the distance between himself and that white boundary line slowly and desperately widening.
"No! Impossible!"
Wu Qiang roared, his eyes bloodshot, he was unwilling to accept it!
His ranking was originally quite good, how could he die in such a frustrating way!
He desperately squeezed every last bit of potential from his body, even starting to burn his life points to gain a brief burst of speed.
The rate at which health points decreased suddenly accelerated, partly due to self-harm skills, but more so due to the shrinking damage from the approaching circle behind.
Finally, he could see a region not far ahead that had become much "calm" since entering the safe zone, and he could even see several players confronting each other there.
Hope seems to be just around the corner!
However, his health was already as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind.
With less than fifty meters to go before reaching the safety zone boundary, Wu Qiang's speed inevitably slowed down.
The combined side effects of burning life and the damage from the shrinking circle caused his vision to blur.
He staggered and rushed forward another dozen meters.
Thirty meters... twenty meters...
His health bar was completely depleted.
The running figure suddenly froze, then fell forward.
Before his consciousness completely vanished, the last thing he saw was that safe land, so close yet so far, and the indifferent or mocking gazes of the other players looking over from there.
A flash of white light, and all that remained on the ground was a small pile of supplies he hadn't had time to pick up.
The boundary of the safe zone, like the coldest and most ruthless scythe of death, slowly and resolutely completed its final cut.
[System notification: The safe zone has been reduced in size!]
The gale continued to howl through the canyon, whipping up new dust that gradually obscured the traces of players who had fallen outside the boundary line and hadn't had time to escape the poison gas.
Within the new, smaller safe zone, the brief period of "peace" was instantly shattered.
The players, who had just survived a desperate run, were still in shock, while the hunters, who had been waiting in ambush, were already baring their fangs.
Resources are more concentrated, space is smaller, and battles... will be more bloody and direct.
......
The white light that had shrank the safe zone had just dissipated, leaving a faint trace of scorching energy in the air.
The wind in the canyon still howled, but it couldn't suppress the increasingly dense roars and shouts of battle coming from the center.
The circle has shrunk, and the living are squeezed together, creating even more dazzling sparks.
Lin Tian was flying at a low altitude of twenty meters above the ground.
The wind tugged at the hem of his clothes, but he remained as steady as if he were nailed to thin air.
Below is a crimson earth, crisscrossed with ravines, where occasionally one or two small black dots can be seen frantically moving – those are players who haven't reached the center yet.
Sometimes you can see small groups of three or five fighting each other, or being chased and beaten badly by hordes of Howling Harpies.
He walked by, his gaze falling on the scene, and casually waved his hand.
A condensed blue-purple beam of light, the Star Ray, shot down obliquely, piercing through a level 55 elite "Sandstone Colossus" that was fighting three players, along with the three players themselves.
The colossus collapsed with a roar, turning into rubble and experience points, while the three players turned into white light.
"Damn it! Who the hell stole it..."
One of them hadn't even finished cursing when it dissipated in the wind.
Lin Tian's score jumped up and down without stopping.
After flying a few hundred meters, I saw seven or eight players arguing over a glittering golden treasure chest, which looked like it had just spawned.
"Wang Lei! We saw this box first!"
"Li Qiang, you're talking nonsense! I touched it!"
"Quiet down, distribute the resources according to output!"
"Assign your mom!"
It looked like a fight was about to break out.
Lin Tian passed right over their heads.
He was too lazy to distinguish who was who, and simply clenched his fists loosely over that area.
【All-Encompassing Heavenly Guidance】—Minimum power, approximately 1% mana consumption.
With a soft hum, the seven or eight people below, along with the rocks within ten meters of the treasure chest, were suddenly pulled towards the center by an invisible force and slammed together!
The sound of bones cracking and short screams were swallowed by the wind, followed by the muffled sound of energy implosion.
As the smoke and dust cleared, only scattered white light and a lonely treasure chest remained.
Lin Tian didn't even glance at the treasure chest and continued forward.
These things no longer aroused his interest in the slightest.
His target was clear: the central area. There were more people there, more points to be gained, and it would be more efficient to clean it up.
After clearing out two more groups of clueless monsters and a few solo players who tried to ambush him, the sound coming from ahead suddenly changed.
It was no longer a sporadic battle, but a terrifying roar that could only be produced by tens of thousands of people fighting together!
Roars, howls, the booming of exploding skills, the clanging of clashing metal, the hum of healing spells, the desperate screams of the dying...
All the sounds mingled together, forming a terrifying, violent wall of sound that temporarily suppressed even the eternal howl of the canyon.
Lin Tian raised his altitude slightly and looked ahead.
Below is an extremely open basin filled with huge weathered stalagmites and broken rock slabs.
At this moment, the basin was completely submerged by a dense, dark crowd.
The two streams of people, like two torrents of different colors, clashed violently, twisting into a bloody vortex in the center of the basin.
There were about a thousand people on one side and about the same on the other, totaling more than two thousand players battling it out here!
The brilliance of skill is more dazzling and deadly than festive fireworks.
Swarms of fire and meteors rained down on the crowd, blizzards swept through, leaving behind ice-sculpted corpses, warriors' charges and trampling caused the earth to tremble, thieves' daggers flashed blood in the shadows, and paladins' blessing auras and priests' healing spells flickered laboriously amidst the bloodshed.