Chapter 1 A Knife toppled the City

Although the title "A Knife toppled the City" sounds ordinary, any title mostly grants players practical abilities. Just like Little Tan's [Flustered Assailant], which looks much worse than A Knife and A Sword, its title skill [Retreating Quick Slash] can still give him a lot of room to maneuver in battle.

Regardless of whether a player's title is weak, strange, or even wretched, the practicality of the title skills is beyond doubt. Even the weakest title will come with a skill that fits the player's characteristics and is definitely useful; there will never be a useless move. Of course, "practical" and "powerful" are two different concepts. A powerful title naturally has more powerful skills.

The [New to the Dao (Knife) Sect] title skill [Heads Will Roll] is also like that.

[Name: Heads Will Roll]

[Special Ability Type: Active]

[Effect: Instantly appears behind the target and delivers a heavy slash to their neck with five times the player's own strength limit. (Cooldown time: two hours. Can only be used on humanoid monsters. Must be within three meters of the target when activating the skill.)]

[Note: This move was created by the first generation of the Knife Hero, Guan Xiaoyu. When Guan Da Xia (Great Hero) was eighteen years old, he already had a fierce appearance with tiger temples and a bristling beard. After three years of apprenticeship, he became a government executioner. At that time, the imperial court was corrupt, and eunuchs were in power. Guan Xiaoyu beheaded countless loyal and good people within a few years, and the hatred in his heart was difficult to calm. At the age of twenty-three, Guan Xiaoyu resolutely decided to enter the martial world and seek revenge. He created a set of "Head Chopping Knife Techniques," which became a peerless skill in the world. "Heads Will Roll" is the first move.]

A Knife toppled the City suddenly rushed forward. As he approached General Zaroff, reaching within the three-meter limit of his skill, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, as if the Boss's head was already in his pocket.

A second later, A Knife toppled the City briefly disappeared from everyone's sight. Then, he instantly reappeared behind Zaroff, slashing the back of his neck with his knife.

Then, there was a muffled thud.

As if Zaroff knew where his opponent would appear, he struck with his elbow, hitting A Knife's ribs almost the moment he materialized.

Before A Knife's simple dao (knife) even touched Zaroff's skin, he was sent flying by the Boss's blow, crashing into the wall. A large mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth. A Knife's eyes widened. Shock and pain completely deprived him of the ability to take further action.

The impact of that blow was unusually great, causing serious damage to A Knife's internal organs. Although he had no wounds on his body, almost all of the ribs on his left side were broken. The displaced bones caused severe internal bleeding, inflicting the [Bleeding] effect on him.

A Knife's survival value dropped directly to 5% and was still decreasing. Even if the others wanted to save him, it was too late, because Zaroff had already blocked their path, saying in an unquestionable, cold tone, "Look at your companion, how reckless and impolite he was." He didn't even look at A Knife toppled the City, who was sitting on the ground. He knew very well that this player would not be able to stand up again.

"If he weren't so easily defeated, perhaps I would have saved him, healed his wounds, given him the best food, sufficient rest, and exercise, so that he would have had the opportunity to participate in my hunt again. Unfortunately..." Zaroff gestured.

Ivan saw the general's command, immediately walked up to A Knife toppled the City, drew his revolver, and aimed at the target's brow.

"Save..." It was already very difficult for A Knife to speak. He only had time to utter one word before his head was blown apart. His corpse immediately turned into white light and disappeared.

[Team member: A Knife toppled the City, has died.]

All of this happened so quickly. A Knife's impulsive actions made it impossible for the other four to help him, even if they wanted to.

In Feng Bujue's view… his behavior was tantamount to suicide. Feng Bujue knew very well that at the beginning of the script, any attempt to quickly clear the game in a short period of time using simple and crude methods was impossible to succeed. Unless this person had the protagonist's halo and kingly aura, taking a gamble and doing some clever and adventurous things with a fluke mentality would undoubtedly lead to his own demise.

When A Sword saw his friend die in an instant, his face turned pale. In fact, he had the same idea as A Knife, thinking that these two Bosses were not strong and that compared to the monsters and demons they had encountered in past scenarios, these two guys who looked like ordinary humans were simply goodwill ambassadors. Ivan looked a little more ferocious, but General Zaroff was not scary at all.

However, A Sword didn't have a skill like "Heads Will Roll," so he didn't rush to attack directly. He had originally planned to quietly discuss it with A Knife, and the two of them would launch an attack together. He didn't expect A Knife to want to make a name for himself, relying on his title skill to support him, and suddenly rushed up.

What he didn't expect even more was that this Boss could actually "break the move," interrupting the effect of a high-speed skill before it could be used, and almost instantly killing A Knife with one blow.

Feng Bujue sighed helplessly, but he immediately had an idea, wanting to use A Knife's death to further obtain information: "That's right, General, my companion is indeed very reckless. If it were me..." As he spoke, he took out the m1911A1 pistol from his knapsack, but did not raise it to aim. He simply held it in his hand as if playing with it, "...I would use more advanced weapons to try." He gave the general a probing look, "You can't possibly catch bullets, can you?"

"Hahaha..." Zaroff laughed again. "Of course, my friend, how can a person catch bullets?" He tapped his chest with his hand, and a solid thud came from under his tuxedo. "So I wore some protective measures inside my coat." He paused for a second, then added, "But I know that you are an excellent hunter, and your marksmanship must be good. If you can shoot me in the head with one shot, I will face death with equanimity." As he spoke, he glanced at Ivan next to him, "But I don't recommend you do that, because Ivan will definitely avenge me at all costs. Without a commander, he is no longer a soldier, but the most ferocious beast in the world."

Feng Bujue got what he wanted, so he put away his gun and replied with a smile, "Thank you for your kind reminder, General. Well then, I think we should say goodbye."

"Hehe... see you later, my friend." Zaroff laughed heartily. His friendly and polite attitude combined with the cold-bloodedness in his bones made him a rather charming villain. His performance was so effortless that he seemed to have no weaknesses, which was simply chilling.

Feng Bujue winked at his three teammates who hadn't been eliminated yet, meaning… let's get out of here.

Five or six minutes later, the four of them returned to the stone steps outside the castle. Along the way, they didn't dare to breathe loudly, didn't dare to run, and even had to think twice before making a slightly louder sound.

It could be said that General Zaroff, the Boss who made his debut at the beginning of the script, showed an almost desperate power and a suffocating sense of oppression. From Feng Bujue's point of view, excluding the Master of Time and Samodir, whom he had only heard and seen in the shadows, among all the NPCs he had seen, only Oink in the previous script could give him a feeling of helplessness. A Boss like Dr. Ashford's mutant would probably be dealt with by General Zaroff with a dagger.

Finally, Feng Bujue broke the silence first, summarizing the situation, "Obviously, General Zaroff's human appearance doesn't mean anything. From the game's point of view, he is a monster, a hunter with physical qualities more than ten times ours, meticulous thinking, rich experience, and extremely strong execution ability. And we are his target... or rather, prey."

"No kidding, we can see that without you telling us," A Sword said.

"I don't know if you realized it after listening to my conversation with Zaroff, or after A Knife toppled the City was knocked down by an elbow... Anyway, Brother A Knife must have realized this after that, but it was too late," Feng Bujue said, "Fortunately, we still have a chance now, let's discuss it first..."

"Wait a minute," A Sword toppled the City interrupted, "I wanted to ask just now. At first, I thought you were the kind of player who was particularly 'into the role,' so you were chatting with the Boss about this and that, but later I found out that you seemed to know what this Zaroff was going to do. What's going on?"

"Well... actually, explaining this question now is just wasting time, but it seems that if I don't explain it, you won't listen to what I'm going to say next..." These words of Feng Bujue, combined with his expression when he said them, could be completely imagined by others as… "Since you sincerely asked, I will answer you mercifully."

"If you've shown off enough, hurry up and say it," Si Yu said from the side unexpectedly.

Feng Bujue smiled after being exposed: "Okay, the plot of this script should be taken from a novel called 'The Most Dangerous Game.' The story itself is not long. It's roughly about the protagonist... uh... a hunter, who was designed by Zaroff to come to the island, and then became prey, starting a three-day hunting game.

The protagonist used his jungle survival skills and hunting knowledge, using hiding, setting traps, and other means to deal with the general, successfully survived the time limit, and sneaked back to the castle on the third day, winning the game."

He paused at this point: "However, judging from the content of the novel, Zaroff could have killed the protagonist as early as the first day. He just wanted to enjoy the fun of hunting and let himself exercise again on the second day, so he let the protagonist go.

In the subsequent encounters, although Zaroff lost several hunting dogs, he himself was able to escape from the protagonist's traps at the last moment, at most suffering minor injuries. As long as he had an excuse, he would temporarily let the protagonist go, stop chasing, return to the castle to rest, and then come back."

"He wants to make the hunt as fair as possible?" Si Yu asked.

"Judging from the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, this can only be wishful thinking..." Feng Bujue smiled wryly, "The general just doesn't want his entertainment to end too quickly." He paused, then said, "But Zaroff is indeed a gentleman. Even though he does things similar to serial murder, he will not deceive us or go back on his word after failing. His advice on the Death Swamp is also very sincere. It seems that he sincerely hopes that we can be 'difficult to catch,' otherwise his hunting will become boring."

"Well... let me talk about some actual situations." Feng Bujue said at this point, leaving the stone steps. The others followed him to the side of the jungle.

In the open space, the moonlight could achieve the effect of lighting, but near the bushes, the three people besides Feng Bujue took out lighting equipment. Si Yu used a lantern, while A Sword and Cai Bupa used flashlights, but the models were slightly different.

Feng Bujue casually picked up a tree branch and started drawing on the mud: "In the study, I was standing closer to the front, and I saw a map on Zaroff's desk. When he showed us his 'ship trap,' the lights on the sea clearly illuminated the coastline. After comparing it with the map, I can confirm that the island on the map is the island we are on." As he spoke, he drew an irregular shape on the ground that resembled an olive, "The island is roughly in this shape. The castle is in the center, built on a high place, and basically overlooks the entire island." He suddenly raised his head, "Can you find north?"

"Um..." A Sword looked up at the sky, seemingly preparing to guess a direction at random.

Cai Bupa pointed to the night sky on one side and said, "Is that the North Star?"

"Very good." Feng Bujue responded and pointed to the sketch on the ground with a tree branch, continuing his narration, "Here, is north, here is south, the swamp is here..." He pointed to one end of the olive and said, "Before determining the escape plan, I want to mention a few differences between the novel and this script."

Feng Bujue always seemed very reliable and calm when reasoning and planning. At this time, there was no trace of the casual and frivolous feeling on him, and his words revealed a unique attraction and persuasiveness.

"First of all, the protagonist in the novel, if I remember correctly, is called Rainsford... his game time is a full three days, while we only need to avoid being hunted for five hours. It seems easier to achieve in terms of time, but it may not be a good thing. As I mentioned just now, General Zaroff let Rainsford go several times because he didn't want the hunt to end too early. But our situation is different. Zaroff will definitely attack after he finds us.

In addition, the novel doesn't mention any other animals on this island, but when I was getting information from Zaroff in the study, he made it clear that there were pythons, wolves, tigers, etc.… Even wild boars have considerable aggressiveness. Therefore, in addition to avoiding the general's pursuit, we must also be wary of the threat of those animals in the dark.

The third point, you have also seen it, that guy is unbelievably strong. Although he is also described as very strong in the novel, it is only a thriller novel based on realistic settings, not a story depicting science fiction, superpowers, or the like. But the General Zaroff we are facing can kill people with one elbow. He belongs to the kind of tactical Boss who should never be confronted head-on. Just from the content of the main quest, it can be seen that the main purpose of the script is how to successfully escape his pursuit."

A Sword interrupted at this point, "But when you took out your gun just now, didn't Zaroff also reveal in his words that he would die if he was hit in the head? If the gun was in my hand, I would have shot directly at that distance. The hit rate is very high at such a close range."

"If you did that, you, and us... would all be dead..." Feng Bujue shook his head and said, "I took out the gun at the time just to see Zaroff's reaction to this thing and to get some useful information from him." He raised his head, looking unconvinced, "As far as I know, the prototype of modern body armor appeared in the 1950s, and the author of the original novel, Richard Connell, died in 1949."

He changed the subject: "Despite this, Zaroff calmly stated that he was wearing something similar to body armor and didn't think much of the m1911A1 pistol I was holding. So obviously, those few words he said at the time were the system directly giving us hints through the mouth of this Boss."

"Attempting to kill Zaroff with firearms is not going to work?" Si Yu reacted the fastest and was the first to answer.

Feng Bujue snapped his fingers, "Correct." His gaze swept across the faces of A Sword toppled the City and Cai Bupa, "The system generates the script based on the actual situation of the players. I think… none of the four of us here, including A Knife toppled the City, who has already been eliminated, is a shooting specialist, or even has shooting weapons."

He naturally guessed right. Among the four people present, only he himself had a pistol, and there were only four bullets in it. At the same time, he was also the one with the highest level of shooting specialization here.

"In fact, the last few words I got from Zaroff can be interpreted from the game's point of view as... if you have to use a gun to deal with him, it's useless to hit the body, you must hit the head.

Normally, we can only do this in two situations: the first is, as you said, to suddenly strike at the distance just now; the second is, at some point later, in the dark, relying on our terrible specialization level, to hit that extremely alert Cossack by a stroke of luck...

Obviously, the first situation is more reliable, but even if it succeeds, it's futile. Because next... as the general said, the mute named Ivan will transform into a berserk state.

I estimate that he will immediately replace Zaroff's Boss status and launch a frenzied pursuit of us. At that time, the setting of this script may not still be similar to the 'real world.' I wouldn't be surprised if that Ivan turned into the Hulk after going berserk. Once this happens, we won't even be able to leave the castle alive."

"Hoo..." Feng Bujue let out a long breath, "In short, the theme of this script is just one word - run."

"Then what are we waiting for, hurry up..." Before A Sword could finish speaking, Feng Bujue waved his hand to stop him and said, "I'm just about to tell you how to run."

"How to run?" A Sword asked.

"Run separately," Feng Bujue replied.

"Why?" Cai Bupa looked nervous.

Before Feng Bujue could answer, something happened in this second, disrupting his entire plan.

Si Yu's figure suddenly turned into white light and disappeared. The system's notification sound rang out: [Team member: Si Yu Ruo Li, has disconnected.]