Gamers Are Fierce

In an instant, the Resentful Demon burst out of the tunnel, hovering in midair above the waiting area.

His Damaged Cape fluttered wildly.

The green worm, Gulu Lugu, huddled in his embrace, emitted a firm and steady green glow that illuminated the expressionless Ash below, Chu Yin who was on high alert, and Wu Mu lying on the ground, his forehead beaded with sweat.

Without any further words, the Resentful Demon dove straight down. His jagged White Bone Palm ignited with a ghostly blue flame as he reached for Ash's crown.

The attack was incredibly fast. Ash dared not use the heavy sniper rifle, as its power was matched by its immense energy drain.

Instead, he rolled clumsily to the side.

The Resentful Demon's claw strike, which had seemed certain to connect, merely grazed Ash's scalp. Upon contact, the demon suddenly felt his hand slip, allowing Ash to wriggle free from his grasp.

As he tried to readjust his grip to catch Ash, he was shocked to find that, despite clearly seeing his target, he could not subjectively pinpoint Ash's exact location.

Suddenly, he felt as if his palm was not obeying his commands.

A Skill with a special effect, or some kind of equipment or item?

Ash's maneuver, which looked like a donkey rolling, was indeed a Skill.

[Skill Scroll Name: Emergency Evasion Roll]

[Attribute: Consumable, disappears after five uses]

[Type: Fighting]

[Grade: Excellent]

[Special Effect: Old Roll. Perform a rolling motion in one direction, then quickly rise to your feet. The roll lasts no longer than one second. During the roll, you cannot be targeted by attacks requiring subjective intent, but you will still suffer area-of-effect damage.]

[Consumption: 200 Stamina Points, 50 Sanity Value]

[Cooldown: 10 minutes]

[Note: In this world, to roll is to be invincible.]

[Note: Roll first, then get up.]

The strength of this consumable Skill was unquestionable.

Once used, the user could enter an "unselectable" state for up to one second, becoming immune to targeted attacks requiring subjective intent, such as close-range attacks, light gunfire, or single-target Spells.

Used well, this Emergency Evasion Roll was almost equivalent to invincibility, just as its description suggested.

If it were a learnable Skill Scroll instead of a consumable one, its quality would be at least Perfect Level.

Using the Skill to dodge the Resentful Demon's claw attack, Ash didn't have time to pat out the blue flames that had ignited his hair.

However, in the less than a second it took to roll, he swiftly transformed his entire left arm into a long chain of ashen material and ferociously lashed it towards the momentarily stunned Resentful Demon.

His Title Skill, [True Damage], had an active phase. During this phase, any contact with an opponent's body would directly inflict wounds corresponding to his attack power, bypassing all defenses.

It was somewhat similar to Li Ang's Cutter Title Skill.

The difference was that Cutter was a passive ability, while [True Damage] needed to be actively triggered and had cooldown and duration limits. It was difficult to say which was superior.

The chain of dust swept out, tearing through the air. It struck with stone-shattering force where the Resentful Demon had just stood, shattering the marble tiles and sending debris flying in all directions.

This time, he didn't hear the System notification for hitting a teammate. The scene before him wavered slightly. When he refocused, he realized he had attacked the spot where Wu Mu had been lying.

If Chu Yin hadn't reacted quickly and kicked Wu Mu away, the fully restrained man might have been split in half by the ashen chain.

Damn it, again! He had clearly aimed at the enemy and activated his mind-defense equipment, yet he was still affected by the enemy's Illusion Technique and nearly killed a teammate!

"GULU GULU—"

The green worm, Gulu Lugu, cowering in the Resentful Demon's embrace, emitted a sharp, shrill cry that sounded like laughter.

Previously, these two non-human players, with the aid of the Lunar Phase Locator, had found and killed the player Si Wenbin. They had plundered a Perfect Level learnable Skill Scroll named [Controlled Hostility] from him.

Its Special Effect was that when two or more enemies were present, it could distort all their hostility directed towards the user.

This caused them to experience cognitive distortion when attacking, making them target other people instead. During this process, the attacking players would not detect anything amiss.

The Resentful Demon, who had personally killed Si Wenbin, didn't know how Si Wenbin had obtained this Perfect Level scroll. Perhaps it was because the Skill's learning requirements were too stringent (requiring a Perception Attribute of 13 points or higher).

Consequently, Si Wenbin had never attempted to learn it, choosing instead to keep it as a prized treasure.

After acquiring the Skill Scroll, the Resentful Demon decisively handed it to his teammate Gulu Lugu for it to learn.

Gulu Lugu was already a player specializing in mental manipulation with a considerable reserve of Spirit Power Value. It also had another Skill that allowed it to continuously extract Spiritual Energy and Sanity from the Resentful Demon through direct contact.

This supplemented the resources needed to cast [Controlled Hostility], greatly prolonging the Skill's duration.

Especially in an encounter with three opposing players, all their attacks directed at Gulu Lugu would involuntarily target someone else.

Given Ash and Chu Yin's current condition, they were completely unable to evade or nullify the effect. They could only keep moving within the narrow space with Wu Mu, forced to defend without attacking. (Chu Yin had instantly used a key to unlock the shackles binding Wu Mu.) They had to rely on the various traps previously set in the abandoned subway station to stall the Resentful Demon.

"Useless, useless, useless, useless!"

Bellowing in rage, the Resentful Demon waved his White Bone Palm, swatting aside all the steel balls, dust clouds, explosive shockwaves, and Beams triggered by the traps that sped towards him. He dove in pursuit of the three players, who were fleeing awkwardly, too afraid to counterattack.

Ash, Chu Yin, and Wu Mu suffered under the relentless chase, their frustration unutterable. Whenever they tried to fight back, their cognition would be manipulated, causing them to attack their allies.

Even deliberately attacking the ground beneath the Resentful Demon would result in the same cognitive distortion; the Skill was utterly domineering.

The only strategy is to drag this out. A Skill this unreasonable must have an equally immense consumption!

"What are you fantasizing about?"

The Resentful Demon cackled sinisterly as his bony claws, hindered by a trap, narrowly missed slashing the back of Wu Mu's neck.

The Resentful Demon believed that as long as he and Gulu Lugu were combined, they could maximize the effect of [Controlled Hostility].

Even if the other two players indicated by the Lunar Phase Locator arrive, it will only amplify the hostility distortion! All the better for Gulu Lugu's performance! In this mission, our combination is invincible!

BOOM—

The flimsy metal gate blocking the subway station entrance was kicked open.

Cold moonlight streamed down the stairs and spilled into the subway station, illuminating the players who had just arrived on the first level.

They saw a large, imposing figure in a cape, standing solemnly in the moonlight, almost blending into the darkness and the lunar glow.

Seeing the cape, Ash, who had previously collected information through the Mobile Detachment's internal network, instinctively thought of one of the players in this mission.

"Casasky?!"

"No!"

The solemn figure, Li Ang, took a step forward out of the moonlight, allowing everyone to see his cape clearly.

It was a pure black, multi-folded cape, resembling bat wings, connected at the top to a half-mask that exposed only his eyes and mouth.

"I am the justice that lurks in Yin City's night, the Knight of Darkness, the nemesis of crime, the eternal nightmare of villains," Li Ang said in a hoarse, deep voice, "You can call me, the Batman of Yin City."