Chapter 237: This Isn’t a Special Situation, This Is an Opportunity Knocking

"Holy shit, this is insane."

"I originally estimated it would take forty-eight hours, but now the Black Crystal Tide could probably cover the entire planet in just twenty-four."

Qi Suian hid, not daring to make the slightest sound.

After being provoked by Qi Suian, who then managed to escape, Yu Shijin went from being on the verge of madness to completely unhinged.

He was even willing to damage himself just to find Qi Suian.

But Qi Suian was a master at hiding, and with his reconnaissance network, he could always erase his tracks and slip away before his pursuer could find him.

This left Yu Shijin with no trace of Qi Suian’s whereabouts.

This only fueled his frenzy further.

[This is actually good for you. This self-destructive behavior will cause his power to continuously decline.]

[After twenty-four hours, he will be at the Final Spark Awakening stage at best. By then, you will only need to evade the Black Crystal Tide. The Tai Sui God alone will be enough to kill him.]

"Easier said than done," Qi Suian retorted. "We can’t even handle the part about avoiding the Black Crystal Tide."

It’s true we managed it before with some extreme maneuvers.

But that was then, and this is now.

Thanks to Yu Shijin’s frenzy and self-destructive power-up, the intensity of the Black Crystal Tide has increased yet again—by at least tenfold.

Yu Shijin’s own power has decreased, but the intensity of the Black Crystal Tide has increased.

The net result is that the overall threat has actually grown stronger.

Of course, Yu Shijin is definitely getting the short end of the stick. Based on the data, his loss of power is permanent. To recover, he’d have to start all over again from scratch.

[You could ask the Protagonist Halo for help.]

[Once Yu Shijin is dead, the remaining problems will be trivial.]

The AI offered its advice. ’When in doubt, turn to the Protagonist Halo.’ It was a foolproof strategy.

Otherwise, what would be the point of having a Protagonist Halo?

"Protagonist Halo," Qi Suian said, "I want to kill Yu Shijin after he wipes out the other survivors and use him as fuel. Actually, killing him is optional. I’m fine with just using him as fuel. So, you better get to work."

He wasn’t picky about the method; as long as the man ended up dead, it was fine by him.

It didn’t matter to Qi Suian whether the guy tripped and fell to his death or was beaten to a pulp by his own hands.

In fact, he didn’t even have to be dead. As long as he could be tossed into the Melting Furnace to become fuel for the Tai Sui God, Qi Suian could accept that, too.

The request might have been a tall order, but Qi Suian had faith in his Protagonist Halo.

And if it couldn’t be done... well, then it couldn’t be done. He wasn’t going to be in this Wasteland World for much longer anyway.

He certainly couldn’t defeat Yu Shijin and his Black Crystal Tide, but when it came to escaping and surviving, Yu Shijin truly couldn’t stop him.

His own power level wasn’t high, but he had more than enough tricks to ensure his own escape.

"He’s catching up again. About time we get moving," Qi Suian said, then had a sudden thought. "Say, what if we leave a few more... insults for Yu Shijin along his most likely route?"

"He’s already this crazy, why not give him another push?"

[Your idea has merit, but it’s best not to overdo it. If you get cornered, you could lose everything.]

[We are, after all, weaker than him. The more we do, the more chances there are for error. Things are going smoothly right now; it’s best not to rock the boat.]

"Fine, we’ll do it your way."

"It’s just... I have this strange feeling."

"For starters, did Yu Shijin really break away from the Era of Lords?"

"This crappy Doomsday Game we’re in... it’s like an ironclad contract. It won’t let me quit, and it can’t fire me."

"Just by looking at the lords under its banner, you can tell the Era of Lords is far more powerful than the Doomsday Game’s survivors."

"Yu Shijin supposedly gave up what he owed the Era of Lords, yet he got to keep his Extraordinary power and eternal life and just walk away."

"Things are never that good in this world," Qi Suian said.

[Are you suggesting that the true mastermind isn’t the former lord, Yu Shijin, but the Era of Lords he supposedly broke away from?]

"I’m not sure. There are just too many contradictions," Qi Suian said. "For example, when Yu Shijin was backstabbed so badly, if there really was a mastermind, shouldn’t they have lent him a hand?"

"And yet, he didn’t manage to break free until I went to ’help’ him."

[So, what is your theory?]

The AI couldn’t quite follow Qi Suian’s train of thought. He had argued both for and against the idea, leaving it with nothing to add.

All it could do was ask for his conclusion.

"My thought is that we leave now and talk later. The Black Crystal Tide is catching up," Qi Suian said. As he spoke, the Tai Sui God finished erasing their tracks and they departed immediately.

As they made their escape, Qi Suian remained silent.

He didn’t bring up his earlier speculations again.

’Because,’ he thought, ’what if my guess is true? What could I even do about it?’

’Go up against an unknown entity even more powerful than the Doomsday Game? That’s just asking for death.’

’Sabotage it? Even less likely. I can barely manage to hide. Why would I even think of offending it?’

’A Tier Five Lord, stripped of his power, is still this formidable.’

’I refuse to believe a Tier Five Lord is the strongest in the Era of Lords.’

’If a complete Tier Five Lord showed up, with a territory, heroes, and troop types I’ve never even seen... I wouldn’t even know how to begin to survive.’

So, the best solution was to pretend he knew nothing.

If something was going to happen, the Doomsday Game could take the brunt of it.

He was just a "violator," after all; the Doomsday Game couldn’t do much to him. But in terms of affiliation, he was still one of its survivors.

If it came to retaliation, they wouldn’t target a small-fry violator like him, who had nothing to offer. They’d go after the much juicier target: the Doomsday Game itself.

Of course, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t end up as collateral damage. That was the worst-case scenario.

"Hey, AI," Qi Suian muttered, "if I could gain the ability to travel between worlds on my own and then break free from the Doomsday Game, wouldn’t I be even more free?"

[Of course. Your idea is excellent, but it isn’t realistic. The Doomsday Game may seem weaker than these other powerful entities to you, but it is not something you can hope to challenge.]

[A portion of your power comes from the Doomsday Game. If you wish to leave, you must either make that power entirely your own, or you must return or abandon it.]

[Otherwise, using the Doomsday Game’s power against itself will never get you the results you desire.]

The AI’s response was rather tactful. The blunt version was: ’With your meager strength, you should just stay in your lane.’

’As long as you exploit it from within the rules, the Doomsday Game can’t really do anything to you.’

’But step outside those rules, and you won’t stand a chance.’

"It’s too early to be thinking about this stuff," Qi Suian mused, pushing the thoughts down. ’I barely have any strength to my name, yet I’m already thinking about leveraging it to move mountains.’

[The reconnaissance network has detected a special situation...]

The AI suddenly presented a report to Qi Suian, who began cross-referencing it with the data.

Anything the AI flagged like this was bound to be important.

"Cold energy? No, radiation? That’s not right either... It looks like a combination of cold energy and radiation, forming some kind of evolution similar to Bruce’s."

"Only it’s not perfect like Bruce’s was, which granted total immunity to radiation."

"But this one has the ability to resist, forcibly absorb, and neutralize radiation."

The report was brief and highly speculative.

"This... couldn’t be the solution from the Protagonist Halo, could it?" Qi Suian remembered that he had just asked it to help him out of this jam.

Given the time constraints, running into a solution right after asking for one was par for the course.

Home-field advantage was no joke. In the previous Cold Winter World, the protagonist Tang Qing had managed to close the gap with Qi Suian’s enhanced Protagonist Halo using only his own non-enhanced version and his home-field advantage.

Even if Qi Suian only had half of a home-field advantage here, the power of his Protagonist Halo was not to be underestimated.

[The probability is high. Shall we go investigate?]

The AI, of course, believed this was the work of the Protagonist Halo. Even for a logical entity, it had seen enough to become a believer.

"Go? Of course we’re going."

"If we miss this chance, we’ll probably never be able to deal with Yu Shijin." There was no way Qi Suian would refuse.

This was likely the only such mutation on the entire planet.

There wasn’t enough time left for any others to emerge.

-----------------

Gao Zhong felt completely drained of strength, racked by continuous waves of nausea and dry heaves, and burning with a fever that wouldn’t break.

A bitter smile touched his lips.

’I’m going to die...’

The radiation poisoning was severe. A glance at his status panel showed he had reached 35% Severe Radiation Contamination.

As expected, once that progress bar hit one hundred percent, he would be dead.

"I can’t accept this... Forced from my home, only to die in a strange land." Gao Zhong felt his life was a tragedy.

First, the Doomsday Game had abducted him and forced him to become a survivor. Then, he’d been thrown through one apocalypse after another, from a cold winter to a wasteland.

He’d had an ordinary, happy life, and now he was going to die in this godforsaken place.

His bones might even start glowing after he died.

"Damn you, Doomsday Game!" Gao Zhong cursed, then noticed something strange. The Severe Radiation Contamination on his panel had actually dropped from 35% to 34%.

’Wait, why did it drop?’

Gao Zhong couldn’t understand what was happening.

He tentatively cursed the Doomsday Game again and watched in disbelief as the contamination level dropped further.

He immediately pulled up his detailed status panel. He didn’t think the Doomsday Game was some kind of masochist that would reward him for cursing it.

In his talent tab, a new talent was shimmering into existence, still too faint to read.

"Did I... did I just mutate a talent that resists radiation?" Gao Zhong’s expression was dazed for a moment, then it turned to pure ecstasy.

If he didn’t have to die, he certainly wasn’t going to choose to.

"What a surprise, an absolute... Who’s there!" He hadn’t even been happy for two minutes before he sensed someone approaching.

But before he could react, his vision went black as he was knocked unconscious.

He never even saw his attacker’s face.