IWYTBW - Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Repay Kindness With Kindness, Repay Enmity With Enmity.

“Tighten the canopy and fly low!” someone shouted from the side, their voice swallowed by the bone-scraping wind. Among the countless parachute shadows, a dozen or so people immediately cut their ropes, shedding their parachute suits. Wings, either single or multiple pairs, sprouted from their backs, and they soared high into the sky using their materialized spirit bodies.

Some immediately summoned their mechas, wings unfolding like falcons attacking a flock of migrating birds. While defending against attacks from the ground, they initiated aerial combat, pouncing on and killing most of the contestants using gliding parachutes.

Explosions echoed in the air. Yi Zhen calmly adjusted the angle of his parachute. Once he reached a certain low altitude, he could abandon the parachute and drop straight down, using the Illusory Body of Mo Luo to flit into the bushes below. An assassin with a large area of cover was invincible. At that point, the entire jungle would become his hunting ground.

A wave of heat approached from behind. He looked back and cursed inwardly. Some lunatic had launched miniature tracking missiles. Like an exploding swarm of bees, the miniature missiles dragged black smoke from their tails, circling and chasing the parachutes in a frenzy of explosions. A rough count put them at no less than a hundred. Two had already locked onto his current path and were shooting towards him.

“Bail out! Bail out!” the person beside him shouted again.

Yi Zhen released his grip on the control lines. The high-altitude wind howled. He shouted fiercely, “Someone, bump my parachute!”

The person flying above him silently, like a silent swift, swooped down towards Yi Zhen’s position, brushing against him in mid-air and causing him to spin. Yi Zhen took the opportunity to draw the Griffin Bow from his back and flicked out two electromagnetic pulse arrows from the infinite quiver. The bowstring tightened, and the arrowheads gleamed.

The eagle eye function instantly activated. In a moment of suspended motion, the trajectories of the two miniature missiles in the wind were clearly visible. Yi Zhen drew back his arm, rotated the bow, and whispered, “Go!”

Great Dark Sky’s products were guaranteed to be of excellent quality. Two waves of light burst in the distance, and the two miniature missiles shattered into burning fragments in the electric current, falling to the ground with a crackling sound.

“Nice one, bro!” the contestant beside him shouted, “Quick, quick, take the opportunity to descend faster!”

Yi Zhen had bought a few precious seconds of escape time for the contestants near him. Utilizing these few seconds, they could accomplish a lot. Yi Zhen set his sights on the tallest tree ahead, yanked the ropes, and swiftly shed his parachute suit like a cicada molting its shell. He flipped and stepped onto the parachute, using the momentum to leap forward. He grabbed the treetop with one hand, his body turning into mist as he descended through the dense branches.

The lush branches slapped his face and body, making a violent ‘crack!’ sound with each impact. Yi Zhen didn’t slow his descent. If an ordinary person were to slide down from such a height, gripping the trunk with only one hand, their palm would be a bloody mess before they reached the ground, and their body would be riddled with fractures from the branches. But Yi Zhen felt nothing. There wasn’t even a red mark on his hands or face, only a layer of yellow disguise glue was scraped off, leaving his skin mottled and strange-looking.

The cracking sound continued for a while but suddenly disappeared as he neared the ground.

This puzzled those watching the tree. Based on the time and the increasingly approaching sounds, someone should have fallen to the ground by now. Why had they waited so long and still not seen anyone?

Could it be that this unlucky person was impaled by a branch on the way down and died halfway?

According to the sensor readings, more and more contestants had landed safely nearby. They shouldn’t be staring foolishly at this one tree. They should be hunting for more prey.

However, something deep inside them was restlessly warning them... This tree was not right, and the person who came down from it was even more wrong!

Suddenly, his wrist loosened. The man hiding in the bushes, holding a ray gun, instinctively looked down. His breathing stopped.

The competition wristband tucked into his sleeve had, at some point, broken into two. He was out!

The man abruptly stood up. “Ther—!”

Before he could even shout “enemy attack,” he was knocked unconscious with a swift chop.

Yi Zhen’s white wristband flickered, displaying a number: 1.

Wristbands had different colors: white, pink, red, purple, and black. Eliminating fewer than fifty people resulted in a white wristband. Between fifty and one hundred eliminations turned the wristband pink. One hundred to five hundred eliminations upgraded it to red. The final color, black, was achieved after a contestant reached the goal of a thousand eliminations.

If Yi Zhen had cut a pink wristband, he would have received the minimum number of eliminations for a pink wristband, and the number would have jumped by 50 instead of 1.

Main Quest: Harvest Triggered

Quest Description: The Reaping Game

The preliminaries have begun. On an unfamiliar planet, in an unfamiliar environment, competing with a group of strangers for a spot in the semi-finals. But am I afraid?

Let’s get 50 first and upgrade the wristband to pink.

Quest Rewards:

Skill Points x2

Current Area Map x1

Hearing the main quest prompt, Yi Zhen’s expression remained unchanged. He crouched down. The Jade Alchemy of the Eastern Sea sealed his breath, lowering his body temperature to the ambient temperature. He was like a blur of mist, drifting towards the sound of heartbeats.

To his left and right, two people were crouching ahead. In the 18 hours since the preliminaries began, a considerable number of contestants had formed temporary alliances, quickly uniting to harvest other solo individuals, such as the two before Yi Zhen.

He took out a rubber band from his pocket, stretched it between two fingers, picked up a small stone, and flicked it, sending it flying between the two and hitting a nearby bush.

“Who’s there?!” the man on the left barked, raising his ray gun slightly in a aiming position. The person on the right hurriedly joined him in being vigilant. Yi Zhen held his breath, quietly approaching. He was wearing the Mineral Essence armor lent to him by Rong Hongxue, which truly lived up to its reputation of being able to cut hair with a breath and carve jade like mud. With a gentle touch, the tough band was severed in two.

Having succeeded, Yi Zhen quickly retreated, moving to the left and using the same method to cut the other person’s wristband before disappearing into the verdant bushes. By the time the two discovered what had happened, Yi Zhen had already moved on to another contestant’s hiding spot.

Within fifty paces, he took down anyone he found. Wherever a heartbeat was present, he didn’t let them go. Like flowing black smoke, an invisible grim reaper, he made a round, and the number on his wristband rose at an astonishing speed to 12.

He couldn’t stay in this area any longer. Many contestants hadn’t realized they were out yet, and no matter how much they tried to ambush and plot, it was useless.

Yi Zhen didn’t mind stirring up the situation even more. This way, he could easily pass this stage without much effort.

[Player, Li YoudengFirst mention, chapter 19 is contacting you.]

He looked down. Li Youdeng: [*Longhua, 3D coordinates sent.* Where are you?]

Yi Zhen’s prediction was correct. Whether it was due to the protagonist’s halo or something else, most of the people he knew were assigned to Longhua. Ai Ling had her classmates, so Yi Zhen didn’t need to worry about her for now. She Xing was still missing. Li Youdeng had contacted him early on, wanting to form an alliance.

The competition planet completely blocked the star network. All contestants could only communicate through a local area network. Yi Zhen replied: [About 35 kilometers from you... I’m afraid we can’t meet today. I don’t have a mecha, so speed is a problem. Let’s meet at the midpoint of the coordinates for now and contact each other then.]

Li Youdeng: [Received. Be careful. Don’t get eliminated.]

Yi Zhen: [You too.]

Putting away the optical computer, he crouched in the bushes, observing the outside situation through the dappled light filtering through the broad leaves.

As an assassin, Yi Zhen possessed superb stealth techniques and advanced qinggong‘The Art of Light Body Movement’, but he lacked practical combat experience. Tai’a couldn’t teach him this, the system couldn’t help him, and even Rong Hongxue, a front-line killing god with a strong destructive desire, was of no help.

Practical combat involved many things.

What traces did people leave when walking through the woods? How could one determine the enemy’s pace from a campfire? How could one tell if a living being had passed through the upper or lower reaches of a river? What kind of force could be used to make the opponent lose their ability to resist as quickly as possible without killing them?

These were things that neither the training room nor theoretical lessons could teach him.

Yi Zhen lurked in the low bushes, moving forward at a moderate pace, probing the surrounding movements.

He was like a fish in water. The dense branches and leaves parted and closed around him, making only a soft rustling sound, like a gentle breeze.

The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion clung to his shoulder. The Three-Smile Butterfly flew slowly at a high altitude, acting as a reconnaissance plane. The two poisonous creatures had each retracted their toxins. When not emitting their deadly cold fragrance, the Three-Smile Butterfly looked ordinary, no different from any other butterfly.

Meat, meat. The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion, having breathed fresh air, was still not satisfied. It looked around curiously while using its pincers to pinch Yi Zhen’s neck, making a clang clang sound. Meat, meat.

Yi Zhen lowered his voice in exasperation. “Eat, eat, eat. All you know is eat. Didn’t I put meat in the bag? And what about that Golden Nephila from before? Don’t think I don’t know you ate it.”

Not understanding, the Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion persistently pinched. Meat, meat.

Thoroughly annoyed, Yi Zhen really wanted to give this little troublemaker a whack on the head. If he let this scorpion run wild, it wouldn’t just be a matter of wristbands. It would turn into a jungle massacre.

“It’s not even feeding time yet,” Yi Zhen scolded in a low voice, “You know there are rules about food, little glutton.”

The Three-Smile Butterfly fluttered down. On the surface, it seemed to land on a leaf, but it actually landed on Yi Zhen’s other shoulder, touching his face with its antennae.

It had sensed a disturbance in the wind ahead.

Yi Zhen pressed down on the Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion’s head. “Stop it.”

Then he quietly turned into mist and swiftly moved towards the direction indicated by the Three-Smile Butterfly.

The jungle was quiet. Earlier, Yi Zhen had the leisure to observe the surrounding environment and listen to the flow of water. But the further he went, the more his relaxed expression faded. For the Three-Smile Butterfly to sense it from such a distance, it meant that what was happening there was no small skirmish.

There must be many people there, many loud noises, but he hadn’t heard them from afar, indicating that they were only engaged in hand-to-hand combat, not using mecha-type thermal weapons.

The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion suddenly raised its tail hook, waving it back and forth on its keeper’s shoulder. Yi Zhen slowed down to a sneaking pace. With his sharp hearing, he also heard distant shouts.

“...don’t bully people too much!”

“Who’s bullying... too weak...”

Scattered words carried on the wind. Yi Zhen crept forward a bit more and finally heard the content of their argument.

“You’re clearly weak, yet you dare to say we’re bullying you?”

“One-on-one duel. If you win, you leave. If you lose, you leave your wristbands. Aren’t those conditions generous enough?”

“There are so many of you. Each of us has to fight everyone. How can you call that a one-on-one duel!”

“First Tech, stop whining. Weren’t you guys pretty arrogant when we saw you at the inter-school competition last time?” The sound of metal scraping. “If you have the guts to be arrogant, then be arrogant to the end. What’s with the sudden weakness?”

Yi Zhen immediately understood. He hid behind a lush tree, taking in the situation.

A group of young men and women surrounded six or seven of their peers. There were about twenty of them, some sitting, some standing, their expressions and postures relaxed, but they had unknowingly formed an encirclement, blocking the students in the middle from any escape route.

In contrast, the surrounded students were in a sorry state. One of them was injured, clutching his abdomen, his face pale, being protected by his companions.

Oh... Yi Zhen’s interest was piqued. It was a hunt.

Following the tradition of previous years, this thirty-five-day preliminary competition, held on an unfamiliar planet, was also known as the Inter-School Hunting Competition. Led by contestants from prestigious universities like Azoth University, Star Alliance University, Imperial Industrial University, First Tech University, and National Defense Military University, each school’s students would prepare a set of secret codes for their own people. Once the codes were matched, the two sides were considered to have formed an unbreakable alliance. Members of each school would also act together. In the later stages of the preliminaries, it was common to encounter a situation where taking down one person led to a whole group being implicated.

It was this kind of passionate and spirited camaraderie among students that made all-profession contestants particularly disadvantaged. If they didn’t want to end up being besieged, it was best to avoid students from these prestigious schools.

However, conversely, there was also fierce competition and animosity between schools.

Star Alliance University hadn’t made it into the top ten in the finals for three consecutive years, largely due to Azoth University’s obstruction. Imperial Heavy Industries and First Tech had a long-standing feud. Many of their departments overlapped in research goals, and they competed fiercely for annual academic awards. National Defense Military University was established and stable but had a relatively lower profile. As the saying went, “The Empire’s top 3 universities have 5 schools.” When encountering students from other schools, they wouldn’t hesitate to take the opportunity to redeem themselves.

In short, since the students surrounded were from First Tech University, the students surrounding them were very likely from Imperial Industrial University.

Yi Zhen was happy to watch the show. As the saying went, when the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman benefits. He didn’t mind being the fisherman. With proper execution, his wristband could be upgraded to pink today.

The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion was already drooling on his shoulder... This was the first time it had seen so much meat.

“Stay here,” Yi Zhen frowned, “No messing around, understand?”

Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion: Pitter patter!

Just then, the injured boy said hoarsely, “You guys go. There’s still time. Don’t let me... delay the competition.”

Yi Zhen looked up at him.

Although his voice was hoarse and weak due to his injury, Yi Zhen still recognized him. He was the one who had reminded everyone in the sky to tighten their canopies and bail out an hour ago.

Such enthusiasm... truly befitting a student.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the girl beside him said coldly, “If you’re injured, shut up and talk less.”

Yi Zhen’s heart stirred. Could this stern-faced girl be the one who helped him turn his parachute?

This was not good. Now that the thought had crossed his mind, it seemed difficult to remain a bystander.

The students from Imperial Heavy Industries let out a chorus of jeers.

“Sorry,” one of the girls said, “The competition is like this. No matter how many tear-jerking scenes you act out, your opponents won’t soften their hearts. Leave your wristbands and get lost. You can still make it to the elimination point to rest before dark.”

Another boy, who seemed to be the leader, put his elbow on the girl’s shoulder with a chuckle. “Listen, listen! Our Heavenly Snow Egret is so kind. She even hopes you can reach the elimination point on time! Come on, guys. After all this, if you’re still not sensible, you’re just being shameless, aren’t you?”

The students from First Tech were furious. The stern-faced girl suddenly said in a deep voice, “One-on-one. If we beat you, you’ll let him go?”

The girl called “Heavenly Snow Egret” didn’t speak. The boy said triumphantly, “That’s right. One-on-one duel. If you win, you can leave.”

After a pause, he added, “However, it’s you alone, dueling our entire group.”

“No mechas, no thermal weapons?”

“No mechas, no thermal weapons.”

“Fine,” the girl nodded, “If I win, you let Fu Mingsheng go.”

The injured boy shouted, “Yan Qing!”

Others also tried to pull her back. Yan Qing turned and exchanged a look with them.

Years of unspoken understanding made her classmates immediately understand what she was about to do. A girl anxiously grabbed her, her lips trembling, “Don’t...”

Fu Mingsheng tried his best to sit up, wanting to pull her back, but as he straightened his back, blood gushed from between his fingers, making him weak. He groaned. The specially designed bandage couldn’t slow the bleeding.

It seemed his wound had some kind of toxin that prevented healing.

Yan Qing had already shaken them off and walked forward.

“Cut the crap. Let’s go.”

Yi Zhen, who had been about to intervene, secretly withdrew his hand.

Since she had decided to fight, he couldn’t interfere. It would be disrespectful to both parties.

Since coming to this world, Yi Zhen had seen many videos of top experts fighting and had personally witnessed what a high mountain Rong Hongxue was. No matter how advanced technology became, speed would always be a martial artist’s primary pursuit. The Fire Cloud Evil God said that in the world of martial arts, only speed is unbreakable. While this was an exaggeration, it was also an undeniable truth.

Yi Zhen himself was fast. Rong Hongxue’s speed was above everyone else’s. While Yan Qing’s movements were far from Rong Hongxue’s level of abnormality, they were still commendable.

True to her name, she was like a swiftReferring to the bird, winning through dexterity. She didn’t know acupoints, couldn’t take a life with a finger like Yi Zhen, but she knew joint techniques and used them exceptionally well. While dodging and weaving, a few crisp, teeth-aching bone cracks were heard. The boy fighting her cried out in pain, half-kneeling on the ground, covered in sweat, his face pale.

She calmly withdrew her hand. “I won. Next.”

The students from First Tech cheered. Even Fu Mingsheng’s paper-white face relaxed slightly.

The leader’s face darkened. He glared at his defeated companion and said in a low voice, “Heal him. Next one up, fight her!”

Heavenly Snow Egret covered the injured boy’s hand with her own, white light flashing between her fingers. Yan Qing continued to fight the next boy.

Humans had their limits. The First Tech students had to take care of their injured comrade and evade the pursuit of Imperial Heavy Industries. They were already exhausted. On top of that, there was this wheel battle. Yan Qing won the first four rounds but was already bruised and battered, her clothes stained with blood. She barely won the fifth round. By the sixth round, her opponent was a strong, burly close-combat fighter.

Yan Qing trembled, breathing heavily, knowing that her competition was basically over. She was a speed-type fighter. Each of her attacks was as graceful as a dance, but grace also meant fragility. Like a famous sword carved from glass, it scattered a sky full of rainbow light when swung, looking beautiful, but anyone could break it. She was never good at dealing with thick-skinned enemies.

But it didn’t matter. This was her plan all along.

These people from Imperial Heavy Industries had formed an encirclement. Perhaps at first, they would watch them closely, but after she won once, twice, three times, four times, by the sixth time, they would be consumed with anger, wanting nothing more than to kill her to vent their frustration.

They were all elites from prestigious schools, the cream of the crop. As one of them, didn’t she understand their mentality?

The moment she fell, everyone on the other side would be drawn to her, like hungry wolves pouncing on her to savor her defeat... And that would be the best time for her companions to escape with Fu Mingsheng!

Her opponent threw a punch, the wind from it swift and fierce, aimed at her chest.

Yan Qing couldn’t dodge in time. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, the veins on her jaw popping from exertion.

She was prepared to take the hit.

Suddenly, a thin whistle sounded in the air. The boy fighting her immediately noticed and quickly changed his punch, intending to swat away the incoming object. But the thing seemed to have a life of its own, a mind of its own. It spun, curving in mid-air, and sliced towards the boy’s temple from behind!

The boy was startled. His reaction was quick. He hurriedly ducked, but the thing was already on a downward path, scraping along his scalp, plowing a fleshy furrow through his short black hair, and clang, it embedded itself in the ground.

—Falling hair scattered. It was a small, diamond-shaped throwing dart, shimmering with a thin, cold light in the sunlight.

The leader was furious. He roared, “Who is it?! Come out! Don’t be a coward!”

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