Chapter 1 It Begins

“Greetings, viewers, thank you for tuning into the game. I’m the commentator, Hua Xiong.”

“And I’m the commentator, Pan Feng.”

Tonight, these two are making a rare appearance…

At 12:58 AM (converted to in-game time in sleep mode, only twenty minutes until the match), the faces of these two GMs appeared on the main screen of the Shopping Mall. They sat side-by-side behind a desk, like news anchors, and began to speak.

Their appearance was quite different from what Feng Bujue had seen in the scripts. They had changed into formal Western suits. If they had chosen the ancient military general look from the scripts, the scene might have been a bit too comical…

“Half a month has passed by in the blink of an eye,” Hua Xiong said.

“Indeed, it feels like we just got used to the commentary job, and it’s already ending,” Pan Feng added.

They both smiled. Hua Xiong then continued, “Heh… back to the main topic. Today’s final is a free-for-all, so the broadcast method will be different as well.”

Pan Feng said, “Today will be very relaxing for us. Once the match starts, you won’t hear our voices anymore.” He added mysteriously, “The specific reason… is a secret for now. You’ll find out soon enough.”

Hua Xiong said, “To prevent viewers from missing the content they want to see, let’s briefly explain the broadcast method…” As he spoke, the image on the main screen switched to a slide similar to a PPT presentation. “The final will focus on following the battles. That is, we won’t be able to see what players are doing in areas where no fighting is taking place.”

“So, after the match begins, the main screen will first show the basic conditions in various parts of the script and display information about the script’s world view in subtitles… The screen will only switch to a location once players start fighting there.”

Pan Feng took over, “Next is the important part: the ‘broadcast rules when multiple battles occur simultaneously.’” He paused, and the slide on the screen turned to the next page. “As you all know, the Game Shopping Mall is a multi-phase space containing several areas. Starting at 1:00 AM today, we will adjust the names of the phase areas. When you return to the Landing Space and open the Shopping Mall area selection menu, you won’t see options like ‘Area 1’ or ‘Area 2,’ but rather options like ‘Player A Broadcast Area 1,’ ‘Player A Broadcast Area 2,’ or ‘Player B Broadcast Area 1.’”

Hua Xiong continued, “If you want to watch a particular player’s match, please select and enter their exclusive broadcast area. If you want to join an area with multiple people, discuss the area number in advance.”

Pan Feng said, “Each player has ‘priority broadcast rights’ in their broadcast area. When they are not in combat, the main screen in that area will show other battles in the script. However, once they enter combat, the screen will immediately switch to them.”

“If you don’t have a particular player you’re following,” Hua Xiong added, “you can also select ‘Random Broadcast Area 1, 2, 3… etc.’ in the Landing Space. The broadcast screens there are assigned by the system in chronological order and will show relatively complete battles. That is, after one battle ends, the screen will randomly switch to another place where fighting is happening, and will remain there until that battle ends.”

Pan Feng concluded, “Of course, you can still watch the match on the screens in the Landing Space or the Meeting Room. In your private space, you can freely switch broadcast priorities, just like changing channels on a TV. And… the commentary for this final will not be affected by these factors. The commentary audio and video will be played synchronously. So, the difference when watching outside the Shopping Mall is just that the screen is a bit smaller and the surroundings are relatively quieter.”

Before the two commentators could finish their introduction, players in the Shopping Mall were already rushing toward the elevator entrances. Whether they wanted to watch the match in a broadcast area or in a Meeting Room, they had to go to the Landing Space to switch over.

In fact, the players didn’t need to rush. The script map for this final was quite large, and it was unlikely that combat would break out right away. They were just going to stand in front of the screens and look at the scenery if they got there too early…

…

1:00 AM.

Fifty top players from *Thriller Paradise* were standing in the Landing Space, fully prepared.

At this moment, no one dared to say they weren’t nervous. Even Brother Jue couldn’t help pacing back and forth in the elevator, softly singing "Heroes' Song," his steps matching the rhythm of the song… to alleviate his nervousness.

The players' boiling excitement was hard to describe…

[The Pinnacle Showdown is about to begin. Your data will be loaded in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the Landing Space.]

[Ten-second countdown to loading: nine, eight, seven… two, one.]

This time, after the countdown ended, there was no opening speech, and no teleportation occurred. However, the elevator started moving.

[Loading complete. You are currently participating in the Pinnacle Showdown.]

[This mode provides a script introduction, with no side or hidden quests, and no special world view.]

[Script Victory Reward: ???]

[The script introduction will now play. The game will begin immediately after the introduction is finished.]

The elevator under their feet was still moving, and the script introduction began:

[Spiritual clouds and mists, nine fiends descend, blood rain pours, a demon lord arrives.]

[Destiny’s sequence and karma in the palm of his hand, who judges good and evil in all the realms?]

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… are they really starting with a poem… Not to mention the quality, why do these lines remind me of some bad stuff…”

[This place was once a modern, prosperous city, like all the world’s major cities today, with towering buildings, heavy traffic, an overloaded population, and polluted air quality…]

[Until one night, the sun set, never to rise again. The faint moonlight, intermittently appearing behind drifting clouds, illuminated this desolate, silent city.]

“Hey! These two lines sound familiar! I think I’ve heard them somewhere!”

[A fallen one named Samodir invaded the city and slaughtered all the humans within it. He erased this place from the river of time, making it a sub-dimensional space that drifted outside of fixed space.]

[The Lord of Time discovered Samodir’s actions and immediately imprisoned him.]

[But… this land could no longer be restored to its original state.]

[Distorted spacetime constantly releases enormous energy. Restless spirits wander the city, and the land, polluted by the curse, has spawned countless sinful creatures… They devour each other, slaughter each other, regenerate… over and over again, endlessly.]

[Many years later… the Lord of the Chaos Scorched Earth glimpsed this land, which he had not yet touched, through a crack in a demon gate.]

[The King of the Necromantic Kingdom discovered his subjects here.]

[And the Lord of Time, as the manager of the River of Order and Samodir’s former master, had long regarded this place as his jurisdictional area.]

[The Court of Truth, as the adjudicator of all things… is also observing in the shadows, ready to make its move.]

The script introduction ended there.

The next second, the elevator stopped. Whether Feng Bujue wanted it to or not, the doors opened by themselves…

Brother Jue was currently in a large building. A long, long time ago, the decoration of this place might have been considered decent. However, now, the walls and floors no longer showed their original colors and materials. Everything was covered with a layer of gray grime, mixed with some brown…

The floor tiles and walls were covered with many fine cracks. Staring intently, one could see what looked like blood vessels in these cracks… and these substances were clearly wriggling.

In the corners and on the floor, there were piles of black corpses everywhere. Most of them were just skeletons, with only a few retaining things that resembled internal organs. No matter how you looked at it… these didn’t look like human bones. Let’s not even talk about the color; the key was that the number and structure of the bones were wrong… The skulls of these corpses were quite similar to those of humans, except that some had horns on their heads, some had no nostrils, and some had fangs…

In short, the map environment of this script was enough to make the average person’s hair stand on end. Of course, Feng Bujue didn’t experience such feelings; at most, he would just feel a bit disgusted.

Speaking of disgust… another thing had to be mentioned. When the elevator doors opened, a sickening odor wafted in.

Even though Brother Jue quickly covered his nose, it was a bit too late. “Damn… this is too much… Is this the stench of a skunk that ate durian, grew up eating dung, and then committed suicide?”

He complained as he walked out of the elevator.

The moment he stepped out, a system prompt sounded: [Main Quest Triggered]

Feng Bujue opened the game menu to observe. He had originally thought he would see the quest [Become the only surviving player in the script]. Because the rules of this match were basically the same as the free-for-all during the Cloak Contest. The only difference was that the number of people had increased from six to fifty…

However, to Brother Jue’s surprise, this time’s quest was actually: [Kill other players to earn points]

The word “points” was highlighted. When he moved his attention there, a note window popped up in the menu, containing the details of the quest: [For each other player you kill, you will receive two points; killing a seeded player will earn you three points; kills completed by multiple players working together (the slain can be one or more players) will have their points allocated at the system’s discretion; kills completed with the help of the forces of this world will earn one point. When only two players remain in the script, killing the other player by any means will earn you five points.]

Below this note, there was another, simpler rule: [When only one player remains in the script, the Pinnacle Showdown will end, and the system will announce the scores, thus determining the final rankings.]