I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 865: Chapter 866 Deadly Poison Aura_1

The space of the Five Elements Sword Array was a murky gray, as if it was the visage of the heavens and the earth at the beginning of chaos. Within this space, five swords of varying colors drew mysterious trajectories through the air, launching endless attacks on any creature within, without rest, until their life was extinguished;

The NPC assailant who ambushed Song Jian kept his gaze locked onto the five long swords, thinking that destroying them would break the space. However, existing somewhere between spectral and tangible, the swords suffered minimal damage when colliding with the assailant’s dagger;

In just three short minutes, the assailant in the space had already lost over ten thousand Vitality Points. By now, Song Jian could confirm that his opponent was an NPC, as only NPC professions loaded with the elite BOSS template would possess such an abundance of Vitality Points;

Song Jian’s Spirit Points and Sword Qi Value continued to deplete while maintaining the Five Elements Sword Array, the expenditure was huge even for him. He had thought he was trapping a player, to his surprise, it was an elite BOSS—and this one was much more formidable than other elite BOSSes of the same level, with Vitality Points several times higher than its peers;

“This is like a giant punching bag. Now it’s a battle of attrition, to see whether your Vitality Points run out first or my Spirit Points,” Song Jian thought to himself.

In the sword formation space, the assailant’s Vitality Points were dropping nearly a thousand points per second. Despite his struggles, without understanding the principles of the sword formation space, his efforts were in vain. He could only watch as his Vitality Points rapidly decreased in chunks, powerless to do anything;

...

As death drew closer and the attacker could no longer bear the fear, he began to loudly plead for mercy, which confirmed Song Jian’s suspicion: he was indeed an NPC professional;

“Spare me, I am willing to become your Follower. I am an Assassin, I am willing to forfeit this trial. I can help you become the final victor!” the attacker shouted loudly in the space, his face filled with fear.

Song Jian pulled out a drink he had found and downed it, replenishing his nearly depleted Spirit Points. Unmoved by the attacker’s pleas for mercy,

Even if he became a Follower, even a slave, there was the potential for betrayal. The privilege of having one’s own profession could compel anyone to gamble with their life, let alone merely betray?

Song Jian, expressionless, kept channeling his Sword Qi and Spirit Points. The golden Sword Qi provided a damage bonus to the Five Elements Sword Array. As time passed, the power of the sword formation grew, eventually surpassing the endurance of the assailant. His speed could no longer keep up with the attacks of the five long swords. A scream echoed through the sword formation; it wasn’t long before the assailant, his body covered in sword marks, lay on the ground—a lifeless corpse;

At that moment, the murky sword fog slowly dissipated, and the five long swords merged back into one, flying towards Song Jian;

“Hmm?” Song Jian narrowed his eyes at the body of the attacker, feeling puzzled. Wasn’t there supposed to be no death in the assessment space? Why then had this NPC been killed by him?

“Could it be that NPC professionals aren’t protected during the trials?” Song Jian thought to himself.

Looking at the body of the attacker, around his corpse there lay more than a dozen items glowing in various colors, with the lowest quality being Dark Gold, most of them of Epic Level, and even some of Legendary Level;

“Are these all items he gathered in the assessment space, all dropping upon death?” Song Jian murmured to himself.

Picking through the dropped items, Song Jian obtained three pieces of epic equipment, replacing his golden quality gear, then scooped up all the supplies that had burst forth and fixed his attention on seven or eight skill books.

All of these skill books were high-tier, and Song Jian let the Thousand Swords Art devour them all in one go, slightly increasing its proficiency. The skill books in this space seemed to be quite diluted; had they been outside this space, such a quantity of high-quality skill books would have improved the Thousand Swords Art by two or three levels, but now, its level had only increased by about a third;

“These NPC professionals, they’re actually not included in the remaining count.” Song Jian looked at the unchanged remaining count and was startled. If that were the case, there might be far more than four hundred people undergoing the assessment in this space;

Just then, sounds of battle rang out again in the city, but this time several places erupted in conflict at once. The toxic aura had only contracted by a third of the entire city, and the battles now were just small skirmishes. Song Jian glanced at the map, noting that the toxic aura behind him was less than ten kilometers away. It seemed he needed to pick up the pace.

It was at this moment that Song Jian received another system prompt;

System: Test player Charlie Ritz has fallen in the public area, eliminated by the toxic aura, all points cleared;

“What, killed by the toxic aura and all points are lost?” Song Jian was taken aback, shook his head, and continued rushing toward the center of the city. Meanwhile, the players involved in the surrounding battles seemed to have been startled by this system prompt as well. Soon, almost all the battles stopped, and everyone headed towards the central area of the city;

Ten minutes later, Song Jian shockingly discovered that when he looked back, he could see a dense green light screen advancing toward the city center. Its contraction speed seemed to have increased significantly;

After observing it for a while, Song Jian immediately turned and ran. The speed at which the toxic aura was closing in had now surpassed the running speed of a regular player. If this continued, by the time it had shrunk to half the city, likely all players without an acceleration skill would be engulfed by the toxic aura;

Being overtaken by the toxic aura would mean not only elimination and disqualification but also the loss of all accumulated points. This would be an unacceptable outcome for many players. Of course, those players who had not yet eliminated anyone would be unconcerned, but to be disqualified from the unique professional assessment over the toxic aura would always be somewhat hard to accept;

Rumble, rumble~

From a distance on the road, a sound like the roar of a wild beast suddenly emerged, drawing the attention of almost every player nearby to the road. There, a six-wheeled armored vehicle was emitting thick smoke, tearing down the road. Any obstacles in front of it were sent flying to the side by the armored car;

“Transport vehicles, there must be transport vehicles in this space!” A player realized with sudden clarity and began searching for a garage-like place, hoping to find a vehicle that could be started;

Song Jian stared at the armored vehicle, then smacked his head, remembering he too had a mount. If not for this armored car’s reminder, it might have taken Song Jian a long while to remember.

…

PS: Thank you “Deadly Countdown” for the reward of 100 starting coins~