Chapter 14 The Critical Moment

While Infinite and Uncle Waste were locked in a fierce battle, the situation on Link's side had also reached a crucial point.

There, the four hundred-odd Links were arrayed in a wild goose formation; half leapt into the air, half remained on the ground… pressing toward the last batch of resisting players with a devouring momentum.

At that moment, almost everyone's face revealed a look of determination to die, and even Shiva's mind was filled with words like "mutual destruction."

However, there was one person whose eyes remained firm, his will unshaken.

"It's not time to give up yet!" Wang Tanzhi rarely let out a violent roar.

His roar clearly entered the ears of his comrades beside him, but it failed to reignite their fighting spirit.

"Even if only one of us remains, we still have hope!" Xiao Tan continued to shout, "Besides, there are still many people alive, we have plenty of time!"

This was indeed true… At this moment, in addition to those players who remained in the center of the battlefield to resist, there were still more than a hundred surviving players in this place; most of these people were like Li Feng, knowing that their strength was too weak, and that going forward to participate in the battle would only result in being instantly killed or becoming a burden, so they had all escaped to a farther place (at least five hundred meters away, any closer and they might be blown up by Infinite's snapping finger bombs), maintaining a scattered position, and waiting to see what happened.

"Hmph… do you really think those people can buy any time?" After hearing Xiao Tan's words, Link immediately said with a smile, "Let me be blunt, as soon as you all die, they won't even last two minutes. As long as I use the 'two-on-one, man-to-man' method to chase them down separately, I can quickly eliminate them all."

"What 'two-on-one,' 'man-to-man'?" Xiao Tan replied, "Do you think this is playing basketball?" As he spoke, he raised 【Tan】in his hand, ready to attack.

In the same second, Link had already rushed to the front: "Ha!" He sneered, and continued, "If this really was playing basketball, then your current situation would be—the second half of the fourth quarter, a large deficit, stamina almost exhausted, and the audience leaving early!"

"That's perfect…" At the moment these four words came out, Wang Tanzhi… moved.

His figure suddenly disappeared from everyone's sight, and even Link could not capture his movements visually.

"Huh?" In that instant, Link's heart was shocked, "What's the principle behind this?"

Link could sense that Xiao Tan was still nearby, but he couldn't capture the other party's figure. This situation was theoretically impossible.

It should be known that at this time, Link was observing with more than four hundred eyes at the same time.

The visual network composed of these four hundred-odd conscious lines of sight was like a "super compound eye"; not only was its dynamic vision amazing, but it could also observe things from a data level.

How strong was this vision? A concrete example would be… even if there was an invisible fly with optical camouflage flying at supersonic speed in this area, making irregular high-speed movements, Link could guarantee that the fly would always be clearly present in his sight.

However, the current situation was that Xiao Tan, a living person of one meter and eighty centimeters, was active in this area, but Link "couldn't see" him.

"What!" Two seconds later, Link's horror intensified… because in these two seconds, twenty Links had been beheaded, and each of their necks had black flames remaining.

"What is he doing?" The advance of Link's army stopped because of his hesitation, and more than four hundred people stood in place looking around in panic.

But… he still couldn't capture any trace of Xiao Tan.

"What exactly is he doing!" Shock and fear rapidly swelled in Link's heart, and he quickly realized… that not only could he not track the enemy with "vision," but even his "hearing" seemed to have failed.

A strange, deathly silence descended around Link.

He couldn't hear the sound of Xiao Tan moving… the sound of stepping on the ground, the sound of wind breaking, the sound of waving blades; he also couldn't hear the sound of "himself" dying… the sound of a broken neck, the sound of blood spurting, the sound of a head falling.

Everything was like a silent film, a bloody, suffocating silent film without even background music.

It wasn't until later that Link belatedly realized… that this should be caused by the second special effect of 【Tan】—"No Music."

"Unreasonable!" Watching more than a hundred "selves" die in a dozen seconds, the remaining three hundred Links shouted in unison and ran in all directions.

Facts proved that his countermeasure still had some effect; as the crowd dispersed, Xiao Tan's throat-cutting efficiency also decreased, but… it was still fast.

About forty seconds later, Xiao Tan's figure finally reappeared; these forty seconds were as long as forty hours for Link, and of the original four hundred people, only one hundred and twenty-seven remained, and these remaining hundred-odd people had all run more than three hundred meters apart.

"Huh…" Xiao Tan, who had reappeared, gasped for breath, and then continued his previous sentence, "As far as basketball is concerned, the more you are in an adversity on the verge of defeat, the more value there is in a reversal…"

Before he could finish speaking, his body began to disintegrate from the bottom up.

This was the price of 【Dance of Death】, as written in the notes of this title skill—the will to burn for freedom, blooms at that last moment, like a gorgeous dance, leading the arrival of death.

At this stage, Xiao Tan was unable to control this power belonging to "Black_flash," so… this was also an inevitable result.

"Sigh…" Xiao Tan rarely sighed, he ultimately failed to wait for Jue Ge's arrival, "It seems that I have reached my limit…" He turned his head and looked at the other players, "Everyone, work harder… If you give up, the game will be over early."

"Hey, hey… isn't it enough to use the basketball references once or twice… Is it really okay to say this as your last words before dying? You could have been cool for three seconds, but you ruined it all with one sentence!" Atobe really couldn't bear Xiao Tan's behavior, and he had to spit out the criticism even if he offended people.

"Hey! Look over there!" Before Atobe could finish speaking, Matcha Su exclaimed again. At this moment, she happened to see the scene of Uncle Waste using a throwing technique on Infinite in the distance.

Boom—

In the next second, a 【Wasteful Strong Throw】 solidly acted on Infinite's body.

Logically speaking, this kind of wrestler's move is unlikely to cause any harm to a creature like Infinite with amazing self-healing power, but Uncle Waste's move… was indeed extraordinary!

After the skill landed, Uncle Waste, who had exceeded his limit, died unexpectedly; however, Infinite was also severely damaged—after being shaken and flying up, the pixels of his entire body were shaken "flawed," becoming a very blurred state.

To put it more vividly… his style before being hit was the level of a next-generation console masterpiece, while his style after being hit became the level of an eight-bit machine (that is, a Subor) pirated game.

"Good opportunity!" Xiao Tan, who witnessed this scene, reacted instantly.

In this fleeting moment, Xiao Tan's combat instinct reacted before his thinking… driving his body to react.

Although two-thirds of his body had turned into data fragments, the part above his chest was still there. That is to say, his eyes could still see, and his hands could still move.

And this… was enough!

"Demon… Penetrating… Light… Killing… Cannon!"

As early as after the "Monster Power Company" script, Jue Ge had handed this one-time consumable skill to Xiao Tan.

Until today, Wang Tanzhi finally waited for the most suitable release timing.

Chi—

Speaking of which, it was too late! Accompanied by a sound of energy breaking through the air, a beam of orange-yellow light surrounded by a spiral beam burst out, directly attacking Infinite.

The power of that move was obviously above Infinite's cyan beam, and its power even changed the colors of the surrounding scenery.

"Don't even think about it!"

However, no one expected that just as the beam was about to hit Infinite, four Links closer to the attack trajectory rushed out from halfway, opened their bodies… and rushed forward without hesitation.

Although their bodies were not enough to withstand the power of the 【Demon Penetrating Light Killing Cannon】, although these four Links were pierced by the beam in the blink of an eye, but… they ultimately delayed the beam a little, successfully buying Infinite about zero point eight seconds of time.

And this zero point eight seconds was enough for that "perfect creature" to respond.

In the end… the 【Demon Penetrating Light Killing Cannon】 only grazed half of Infinite's body, missing the vital point.

Xiao Tan's efforts were in vain, and he himself completely turned into white light at the moment the beam was exhausted.

"Damn it…" Several seconds later, Infinite fell to the ground in a mess, cursing angrily, "You trash… you really dare to do it!" His voice was extremely loud, and everyone within a kilometer could hear it, "I almost died! Almost!" He roared like a crazy shrew, "Do you know what you're doing! You almost… almost! Killed me, this perfect creature!"

Accompanied by bursts of roars, Infinite's body began to change again, and his pixels increased at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly returning to the original style.

"Unforgivable! Heinous!" When Infinite got up from the ground, he once again turned into the burly man with a height of two meters, a body with a mercury-like texture, and sculptural muscle lines. And… for some reason, white, wild shoulder-length hair grew out of the top of his head, and under his eyebrowless eye sockets, a pair of eyes also turned into a form of pupils shining with white light.

"...Unpardonable! Deserving of death!" Infinite roared to the sky, and the roar turned into a substantial energy and rolled out, forming a terrifying shock wave.

Obviously, Infinite, who had survived the baptism of 【Wasteful Strong Throw】 and 【Demon Penetrating Light Killing Cannon】 once again, took another big step in "evolution."

The power of his roar was comparable to the space-time sonic boom generated when the blasting tunnel was formed.

"Cough… puff…" Zhao Ying Wang, who had already been seriously injured, couldn't bear such an impact at this time. Even though Pojun came to his front in time and helped him block most of the sound waves, he was still shaken to the point of spitting out a mouthful of blood. After spitting it out, he couldn't help but say with a pale face, "I suddenly feel… that dying might be easier."

"Hehe…" Hearing this, Pojun turned his head and showed a wry smile, "To be honest, I feel the same way."

"If you're a man, don't say such useless things!" At this time, Cai Bupa Ne interjected, "Wang Tanzhi risked everything to hold on to a glimmer of hope for us…" Her fighting spirit had been rekindled, "He's right, if we give up, everything will be over. No matter how bad the situation is, our hearts can't admit defeat, we have to…"

Chi—

In that instant, a cyan beam, as thin as a gossamer, pierced through Bupa's forehead.

Her words, along with her life, came to an abrupt end.

"Strange." And Infinite, the perpetrator of this attack, made a show of listening while tilting his head at the same time as retracting his fingers, "Just now, it seems that someone over there was saying something? It seems to be 'can't admit defeat'… 'hope' or something…" He snorted coldly, "Hmph… at this point, how can anyone say such stupid things~ This must be my illusion, right?"

"You bastard…" Xu Huai Shang was angered by the other party's words and deeds at the time, she mustered the last bit of her strength and rushed forward scolding.

But…

Chi—

A soft whistle, and the cyan light came again.

The same process, the same ending.

At this moment, Infinite had become an existence that players could not fully understand. Whether it was his own speed, or the speed of the energy he released, had exceeded the realm that players could react to.

Not to mention that these masters were already exhausted, even if they were all in full condition and prepared… they would still be instantly killed by Infinite in this way.

"Let me calculate…" After killing two people in a row, Infinite calmly turned his head, then turned around and looked around, "One hundred and nineteen… Ah…" He tilted his head, "Hmph… I can kill them all in one minute."

As soon as these words came out, all the players' expressions changed drastically, and they all knew in their hearts that the other party was definitely not bluffing.

However, in the next second, a voice immediately expressed disagreement with this.

"Villain! Stop dreaming!"

That cheerful, loud voice, the completely chuuni lines, made it clear who it was at first listen.

"Hmm?" Infinite raised his head in response to the sound, "Why is there still someone above?" It was normal for him to be confused, because until ten seconds ago, the sky was still empty.

For this reason, the answer to his question was also obvious—the person had just entered this space in these ten seconds.

"I say… are you a little short-circuited?" Two seconds later, Piccolo, who was floating in the high altitude using flight magic, glanced slightly and looked at Tianma Xingkong, who was being held in his hand, and said, "You can't even fly, can't you wait until you land before shouting at the enemy?"
San Tian Liang Jue