Chapter 97: The Battle Royale Instance! Officially Begins
Buzz!
A blue pillar of light came crashing straight down.
Chen Mo’s feet landed on soft ground, and only after looking around did he realize he had been teleported into a desert.
It was called a desert, but it was nothing like an endless sea of sand. In the distance he could already see lush greenery: a tropical rainforest. To the south, mountain ranges stretched on and on; to the west, there were even lakes. It was only a small patch of desert.
Chen Mo did not move in haste. This was a battle royale, and wherever one looked, there was danger. It was impossible for it to be this quiet.
He opened the map, and the entire island spread out before him.
Unlike other people’s maps, Chen Mo could also see the locations of other evolvers and zombies.
Ordinary people
Evolvers
Evolution Orbs
Special creatures
With all the boxes checked, red dots instantly bloomed across the map, scattered throughout the island. It was easy to see that the usual red dots clustered in groups, which meant there were at least ten or more people in each team.
Beyond the red dots, there were even more dense purple ones. Purple dots represented special creatures, and these special creatures were probably zombies.
Hm?
Chen Mo frowned slightly. Although there were no red dots around him, the area was packed with purple ones. Yet there was not a single zombie in sight within his field of vision. What was going on?
Following the purple dots on the map, Chen Mo advanced cautiously.
He stepped on the soft yellow sand and moved forward inch by inch. Twenty meters. Ten meters. Five meters.
Just as his green dot was about to overlap the red dot on the map, suddenly—
Boom!
A deafening blast!
The sand directly in front of Chen Mo exploded apart, and a pair of claws, drenched in sticky green fluid, shot up from beneath the desert.
Raaah... raaah...
With a terrifying low growl, a zombie slowly clawed its way out of the sand. Half its head was gone, exposing rotten, stinking brain matter inside. Its mouth was full of blood, torn nearly to the ears. It was biting down on a half-eaten arm, blood dripping steadily from it. Its body was twisted into a horrible knot as though it had no bones at all, both arms hanging and swaying limply. There was a bloody hole in its stomach, its intestines hanging outside. Its entire body was covered in decayed, foul-smelling flesh.
If a zombie like this appeared in the real world, it would surely plunge humanity into panic.
Raaah—
The zombie raised a hand and was just about to lunge at Chen Mo.
Boom!!
A compressed fireball, the size of a basketball, slammed directly into the zombie and blew it apart in an instant.
[You have killed a D-class zombie. Instance points +1]
“Ow, what the hell! You scared the crap out of me!”
Chen Mo blew out the flame on his fingertip. In all honesty, this zombie had almost no fighting power at all. It was just hideous.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
The battle stirred the surrounding area. One after another, the sand burst open, and more than a dozen zombies clawed their way out from underground. Their dead-fish eyes locked onto Chen Mo, and from their throats came those low growls: raaah, raaah.
Data scan.
[D-class Zombie]
[Health: 500]
[Physical Attack: 100]
[Poison Attack: 100]
[Movement Speed: 1 meter per second]
[Skill: Pounce, can be activated within ten meters; Virus Infection, passive. Once bitten by a zombie, if no virus serum is injected within half an hour, the entire body will corrode, melt, and die]
Drip, drip.
Sticky green fluid dribbled from the mouths of the dozen-odd zombies. It was disgusting.
They moved very slowly, one step at a time, which could easily give the illusion that these zombies were stupid and that as long as you ran fast enough, they would never catch you. Some might even be tempted to attack them proactively and farm points.
But if anyone truly believed that, they would pay with their life.
Pounce! Raaah!
The clumsy bodies of the zombies suddenly became swift the moment they closed to within ten meters of Chen Mo. They sprang up like wolves stalking prey, arms thrusting forward as they lunged at him!
Fortunately, Chen Mo had been prepared all along. He knew these zombies could trigger their pounce skill within ten meters. He bent his knees slightly, then launched himself upward from the spot, soaring twenty meters into the air and easily avoiding the zombies’ pounce!
And in midair, Chen Mo activated the Bard’s second-jump skill, extending the time he remained aloft. With both hands, he formed two compressed fireballs and blasted them straight down at the zombies stacked below him like a pile of tumbling blocks!
Twin compressed fireballs!
Boom boom!!
When the two huge compressed fireball spells collided, they produced an explosion of flames ten meters across.
The pitiful dozen zombies died on the spot, reduced to ash.
[You have killed a D-class zombie. Instance points +1]
[You have killed a D-class zombie. Instance points +1]
...
[You have killed a D-class zombie. Instance points +1]
That was exhilarating! Hahaha!
Come on. All of you, come out!
Exploding flames! Detonate!
Boom boom boom!
The zombies wailed in misery!
Come on, come all of you and bite me!
Chen Mo checked the map and activated every zombie hidden beneath the desert. More than a hundred of them followed behind him. A five-man squad saw the zombie horde at Chen Mo’s back, went pale with fright, and turned to flee at once, shouting as they ran, “Brother, good luck! We’re leaving first!”
Raaah, raaah!!
The zombies dripped green fluid from their mouths. That was their saliva.
Seeing the hundred-odd zombies blocking every path in front of him as they surged in all at once, Chen Mo smiled.
“It’s New Year’s! Charged Blast!”
Rumble rumble rumble!
A Charged Blast stored for ten seconds unleashed a massive explosion fifty meters across!!
The scorching wave of flame and shock instantly burned the hundred zombies to ash, leaving only a pool of foul-smelling liquid on the ground.
Hahahahaha, that felt amazing!
In the real world, there were always one concern or another. But here, there was no need for restraint of any kind. Here, one could kill without scruple.
Chen Mo could not help but want to activate Killing Mode. In that state, the points for slaying zombies could be doubled, and if he were lucky, he might even trigger a hidden quest.
But he held back.
In a battle royale instance, once Killing Mode was activated, your character ID would appear directly above your head, and everyone would know who you were. Since character IDs were registered with the Evolution Center, anyone who looked you up could uncover your real identity. That would inevitably offend a great many people.
Chen Mo was not afraid of offending people, but he would not let hot-blooded impulse drive him into mindless slaughter either.
Aside from the Little Prince ID, he also had two other alternate identities he could use: the Great Demon King and Kunlong. Even Wu Chen’s identity could be used. But he would absolutely not use Little Prince. That would be stupid.
He opened the rankings and found three lists: the current match rankings, the Battle Royale China Region rankings, and the Battle Royale Global rankings.
[Current Match Rankings]
[1. Xingtian = 1301 points]
[2. Sword as Ink = 890 points]
[3. Soaring High = 700 points]
[4. Seventh Young Master’s Splendor = 600 points]
[5. Poppy = 400 points]
[6. Brother Haonan = 400 points]
[7. Nobleman on the Willow Branch = 320 points]
[8. Dread = 300 points]
[9. A Greasy Lump in the Crotch = 290 points]
...
[63. Little Prince = 142 points]
What the hell!
Chen Mo had originally thought that with his map-cheating advantage he would easily find zombie locations and rack up an enormous score. He had never imagined he would only be ranked sixty-third, with sixty-two freaks scoring higher than him.
Hm? It seemed the zombies here were still too low-level. He should head to a more dangerous area and hunt for higher-level zombies.
He opened the map and looked toward the S zone in the upper left corner, and a smile curved his lips.
That was where his stage lay.