Game’s Dogma

“We must switch up our tactics for the next wave,” Chau Yu said firmly. “It was my mistake to have made my judgements based on regular game-balancing in the previous wave. From the looks of it, a ‘legendary quest’ means you can’t think of it like other quests.”

Everyone went silent, and Chau Yu went on. “There’s five of us left. Based on the quest’s illogical progression, there’ll be two Level 40 or Level 45 bosses and three players at each entrance. That’s nine top-tier players and six Level 40 bosses at once.”

The system was surely spending big on getting rid of them. Even the prideful Yim Ho was silenced by Chau Yu’s predictions. Yes, he was confident, but not arrogant enough to believe that they could certainly defend against such a lineup.

“We’re spreading ourselves too thin if we engage them separately. It’s time we get risky,” said Chau Yu with eyes full of resolve.

A spatial fluctuation took place outside the village. Flashes of light descended upon the three entrances; as Chau Yu had predicted, the assailants at each entrance consisted of two epic Level 40 bosses and three players.

Behind the bandit mage and bandit vanguard stood three players. Most were well-known players, while others had unremarkable origins. Still, no one dared to look down on them. As the system took into account everyone’s hidden cards when deciding who to invite, those who seemed weaker likely had better abilities that were unknown to others.

Among them stood a buff figure. His tanned, muscular arms visible as he was wearing a vest, the man carried a greatsword on his back. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t know his name. Guild master of Howling World, top ranker on the Ranked Battles leaderboard in the Arena, he was Tigeroar. 

“Hm?” Tigeroar looked at the village ahead of them; it seemed a bit different from what he had expected. No one was guarding the entrance.

What the hell? Tigeroar couldn’t afford to be careless. He saw the other elite players teleported to battle ahead of him, and none of them had returned. In other words, they all failed the quest.

Man Hing Yau, Firefly, Ying Tin, Goemon… Every one of them was competent enough that Tigeroar couldn’t be sure that he’d win in a duel against them, yet they had all been vanquished.

Just how strong is the enemy?

Upon the thought of powerful enemies, a spear and a fiery mask emerged in his mind.

“What do we do?” Someone behind Tigeroar asked.

She wore skin-tight clothing that fully revealed her bountiful curves. Tigeroar’s best aide, she was also his woman—she was Pulchriture, an assassin.

Tigeroar felt more at ease upon noticing Pulchriture was with him. “Let’s get closer and have a better look.”

“That’s the guild master of Roaring World? Such a scaredy-cat,” said the third player as he strode forwards. “Since you’re afraid of dying, I’ll go. Whoever kills the girl gets another legendary item, I’ll have it since you guys seem to pass on it.”

Looking at the man who charged into the village using Dash, Pulchriture said coldly, “Tigeroar, do we…”

Tigeroar shook his head. “Whoever goes first dies first. Let that idiot scout out the village for us.” With that, he wrapped his arm around her waist and slowly walked towards the village with the two bosses.

The warrior player came to a halt upon reaching the village entrance.

What is this?

The village entrance wasn’t wide in the first place, but now, large round boulders lined up neatly inside the village. They were around two metres tall, insufficient to block out the entrance, but enough to narrow it down into a specific path.

The same formation appeared at all three entrances. All of a sudden, the village had turned into a maze.

In the centre of the maze, which was the mysterious lady’s house, Chau Yu sat on the ground with his legs crossed. Rather than succumbing to the pressure, he sat there at ease, seemingly confident that this wave was within his grasp.

“What’s wrong?” Tigeroar’s voice reached the warrior from behind.

The warrior who hesitated to enter simply hmphed and stayed silent. As someone who was a top player in the game, he was no idiot. The series of boulders before him was obviously out of place, so he didn’t enter out of caution.

Tigeroar sized up the boulders, then said with a generous smile, “It’s dangerous ahead. Let me take the lead.”

The warrior flushed red and barked, “No thanks!” Leaving those words behind, he rushed into the formation of boulders.

Tigeroar had a mocking smile as he gazed at the warrior from behind. The warrior had mocked him for being a scaredy-cat, yet the “scaredy-cat” was offering to enter as a vanguard, and that’d be a slap to his face.

Everything was within Tigeroar’s calculations. Taking on Tigeroar with trickery and mental battles? That young man was far too inexperienced to even put up a fight.

“Is this really gonna work?” Yim Ho grumbled.

Yim Ho despised cunning people like Chau Yu. He felt that such people would betray him whenever the opportunity arose.

Bloodless Bladester laughed gently and said, “As things stand, trusting him’s the only choice.”

“Shut it, they’re here.” Greenstone interrupted them coldly.

From the gaps between the boulders, they saw a shadow dashing past them—a warrior using Dash.

Chau Yu’s voice reached them at just the right moment. “Wait, there’s only one. Hold back and leave it to Mask. Greenstone, go to the south, forty-eighth unit. Remember to keep your screen sharing active at all times and point it at the cracks. Yim Ho, head to the west, thirty-seventh unit. Mask, someone’s coming from the south. He’s yours.”

Too lazy to respond with words, Drako Yau simply sent a thumbs-up emoji, which came as a surprise for Chau Yu. 

The warrior slowly let his guard down. The rocks are all for looks!

The moment he turned around a corner, he was met by a blaze of fiery red. He immediately blocked it with his sword, but when he had a closer look, his legs almost gave out.

A fiery red mask, a crimson cloak that fluttered in the wind like a cloud of blood mist.

It’s… it’s… it’s… the war god!

King of Yoda, the name “Mask” struck fear in all who came across him as enemies.

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