Chapter 44: Rushing to the Party
The mention of his age clearly hit a sensitive nerve. The young man bared his teeth, hopping angrily on the spot. “Whether I’m just a kid or not, you’ll find out once we fight!”
With that roar, he charged forward, swinging a heavy double-edged battleaxe with both hands.
Lin Huai swept her war scythe upward, parrying the heavy blow with practiced ease. Pressing down on the haft to hold the boy’s axe in place with one hand, she used her other hand to tap open her system screen, her posture completely calm and relaxed. “Don’t be in such a hurry, kid. Let me pick a map first.”
Within the King’s Domain, the defending King held the exclusive right to choose the battleground, granting them a true home-field advantage.
Lin Huai browsed through the arena’s map list, her expression turning steadily solemn.
Currently, only six environmental presets were visible in the directory. Yet among those six, one—a rolling desert dune environment—listed its active natural disaster as acid rain!
The other options featured sunny weather, sandstorms, blizzards, thunderstorms, and insect plagues.
Weren’t these the exact trials and disasters she had endured in her previous life?
This meant that a King’s true privilege went far beyond picking an advantageous dueling map. It allowed the top-tier survivors to preview upcoming disasters, experience their environmental conditions ahead of time, and prepare countermeasures before ordinary players even had a clue!
No wonder the true experts always stayed ahead of the curve. Chen Feng had been right about one thing: the volume and depth of information accessible to the server’s rank-one players far exceeded anything ordinary survivors could ever imagine.
Recovering from her surprise, Lin Huai considered her choices carefully.
How should she play this? Should she pick an unseen weather type and reveal the upcoming disasters to the boy standing before her? Or should she stick with acid rain to keep the secret buried?
Realizing she could never control what the other Kings chose in their own domains, she decided to let fate take its course.
With that in mind, Lin Huai tapped the screen, selecting the blizzard environment.
Instantly, the chamber transformed into a frozen expanse as thick, heavy snowflakes swirled down from a gray sky. While she didn’t know which specific trial would follow acid rain, it would almost certainly be one of these core environments.
Even though “Young Master Is Jungler” was only eighteen, he had sharp combat instincts. Lin Huai did not take him lightly, fighting with complete focus after the first few probing clashes.
Naturally, no player who had fought their way into the Mount Duoshu Trial Grounds was a weakling.
Yet no matter how skilled the youth was, the battleaxe in his hands was only a mid-grade weapon. Facing Lin Huai’s high-tier war scythe, he was steadily outmatched.
Even so, Lin Huai did not execute him. She stopped the curved blade just a millimeter from his throat, halting her strike right at the edge of his skin.
“Alright, you lost,” she said calmly. “Just say the words ‘I surrender.’ The duel will conclude, and you can leave the ring without suffering the pain of death.”
The young man glared at her, his pride stung, but he ground his teeth and spat out, “Fine… I surrender!”
He pointed a finger at her, his voice tight. “Hey, woman! Just you wait! Once I get my hands on an advanced weapon, I’m coming back to challenge you again. I will take you down next time!”
Lin Huai offered a faint, amused smile. “Kid, ambition is wonderful, but reality is harsh. Until next time, then.”
Lin Huai moved swiftly through her remaining eight matches. In every duel, so long as her opponents fought fairly and didn’t cross the line, she refrained from going for the kill. Duels in the arena were purely about winning points, not life and death; there was no reason to be overly cruel to everyone she met.
Besides, every competitor here was the top player of their respective zone. As regional mergers continued, they were bound to cross paths in future team dungeons. Making enemies at every turn was foolish. Old Hei’s arrogant announcements had already drawn plenty of hostility toward her; she preferred to keep a low profile.
By the time she completed her required matches and stepped out of the ring, Master Cloud Cliff had long finished his battles and departed. Old Demon of Xiangxi had arrived late and was currently fighting his final match.
Across the courtyard, other powerhouses had activated their King’s Domains one after another, and intense duels were underway inside the glowing golden barriers.
Only a handful of dueling rings still glowed with basic blue light, hosting ordinary challengers in the random matchmaking pool.
The Mount Duoshu Trial Grounds would close in two hours. Lin Huai walked into the open square and looked up at the towering leaderboard.
Sitting firmly at number one on the real-time points board was “Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice,” closely followed by Master Cloud Cliff in second. Third place had been claimed by Dragon Crossing the River, while Old Demon of Xiangxi held fourth for the moment.
The names of the top ten players all shone with brilliant golden light, marking every single one of them as a King.
Just as she expected, once the true veterans arrived, the leaderboard quickly shifted back to the hierarchy she remembered from her past life.
Among them were legendary figures she had only heard about from afar. Seeing her own name sitting proudly alongside those celebrated experts gave her an surreal, wonderful feeling.
Checking the final tally, she saw that she had edged out Master Cloud Cliff by a razor-thin margin of just two points.
If she hadn’t been matched against a challenger riding a nine-game win streak in her final round—snatching all of his accumulated streak bonuses upon victory—she would never have secured first place.
Having checked the standings, Lin Huai turned and walked toward the exit without lingering.
The mandatory storyline dungeon, the Earth God Temple, was still waiting for her. She needed to hurry back and clear it before the deadline.
Teleporting out of the trial grounds, she found herself sitting right back in the driver’s seat of her hearse.
A quick glance at the clock told her it was already two in the morning.
Caught between the temptation to catch some sleep and the reality that time was life in this world, Lin Huai chose to rely on medicine.
She swallowed three guiyuan restoration pills followed by several spiritual energy pills, instantly refreshing her health and topping off her depleted mana pool. Revitalized, she started the engine and drove forward into the night.
Before heading into the main dungeon, she had one more errand to run.
She pulled out her undertaker work permit, channeling her intent to summon the Crematorium Site.
Soon enough, a shadowy crossroads materialized through the mist ahead. Standing quietly by the roadside was the familiar, dreary gray facility.
Lin Huai steered the hearse through the junction and parked smoothly before the crematorium entrance.
She had brought a massive haul of bodies this time. Having taken down numerous hostile drivers during the battle for the town, the storage space inside the green jade coffin was nearly bursting at the seams.
After absorbing resentment for nearly ten continuous hours, dozens of pure Yin energy crystals had formed along the inner lining of the casket.
Seeing Lin Huai step through the door, Sister Hanba beamed with delight. Clicking over in her high heels, she cheered, “Oh, Lin Lin! You returned so quickly this time!”
Pressed for time, Lin Huai exchanged a few pleasantries, accepted her payment, and prepared to leave. “Sister, I haven’t cleared the storyline dungeon yet, so I have to run. I’ll drop by to visit and chat next time!”
Sister Hanba didn’t hold her back. “Are you heading into the Earth God Temple dungeon?”
Lin Huai paused and nodded. Wondering if the NPC had inside information, she asked curiously, “Have you heard about that dungeon, Sister? Are there any hidden tricks or shortcuts I should watch for?”
Sister Hanba smiled and shook her head, walking her toward the exit before steering the conversation elsewhere. “Oh, it’s far too much trouble for you to haul bodies here in person every single time. Next time you have a delivery, just use your work permit to send a summons. I’ll dispatch my helpers to collect the corpses directly from your car. I know our Lin Lin is the server-wide number one now, which means you have far too much on your plate.”
Lin Huai felt a genuine wave of warmth in her chest. Sister Hanba was truly considerate. “Thank you so much, Sister. But whenever I have a free moment, I’ll still come by in person to bring you pretty new dresses.”
