People in Yu-Gi-Oh! The hyper-converged audience is also integrated

Chapter 223 The First Duel

The storage room was dimly lit, with only the intermittent emergency light filtering through the crack in the door. Outside, the sounds of a duel were incessant, interspersed with screams and roars, before abruptly ceasing.

Tang Xin tightened her grip on the pen in her arms and asked in a low voice, "Brother Ba, when are we going out?"

Li Guanqi's eyes were fixed on the supercomputing ring on his wrist, where the red numbers symbolizing the number of survivors on the screen kept jumping.

"It will take about three to five minutes for the first batch of people to be eliminated."

His voice was steady, devoid of emotion. "The goal of the assessment is survival, not the number of people you kill. Surviving to the end, even if you only kill one person, is the same as killing ten people and surviving."

"But..." Tang Xin hesitated, "Wouldn't killing more people mean more supplies? If they use the balance from eliminating others to buy new cards and strengthen their decks, wouldn't it be even harder for us to fight when we go out again?"

"Replenishing supplies requires shopping in the safe zone," Li Guanqi explained. "No matter how many people they kill now, it only increases their balance; the strength of their card decks doesn't change immediately. We just need to win against the final victor."

"Moreover, the rules limit two people to only one duel. Even if they strengthen their decks later, they can't come back to retaliate against us." He paused, then added, "This avoids the risk of consecutive duels, which is safer."

"Our decks are all quite incomplete, and the more duels we go, the greater the chance of losing."

The two characters' [Magic Bullet Shooter] and [Magic Puppet Dessert] are considered crippled T2 units among the test takers. If they encounter a full T3 unit, their early-game strength is inferior.

"So that's how it is..." Tang Xin suddenly understood, but a new worry arose in her heart, "But in that case, wouldn't the most powerful experts be the ones who survive in the end?"

"On the contrary." Li Guanqi pointed to the continuously decreasing survival numbers on the supercomputing ring, "With the balance limited, it's difficult to create an absolute gap in the duel itself. If we're talking about strength, it's actually these first batch of eliminated people who are truly powerful."

"The first to die are the strongest?" Tang Xin was stunned again; this statement was too counterintuitive.

In just two minutes, the number of survivors had already dropped by more than 400, and the number was still steadily decreasing.

“A duel is unlikely to be completed in two minutes.” Li Guanqi’s eyes held a discerning look. “Therefore, those who have been eliminated are basically those who were shot directly out of the game.”

“Being directly hit means that they don’t have much money left, and most of their funds have probably been invested in deck building. Rationally speaking, the more expensive the deck, the stronger it usually is.”

"Those who leave no room for error are too confident in their marksmanship and movement."

"I see." Tang Xin finally understood, and her gaze towards Li Guanqi held a newfound admiration.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Li Guanqi gestured for her to continue monitoring the supercomputing ring, “the number of users will experience a slight drop in a minute or two.”

The two stared intently at the screen, and sure enough, after the number of survivors had been slowly decreasing by a dozen or so, just as Li Guanqi had predicted, the number suddenly jumped and disappeared by a hundred in just a dozen seconds!
"Gunshots," Li Guanqi said softly.

He had barely finished speaking when an even more intense burst of gunfire erupted outside.

"A sharp drop."

The numbers on the supercomputing ring plummeted by several hundred again.

Then, the rate at which the numbers decreased slowed down, decreasing by only two or three every ten seconds or so.

Tang Xin witnessed the whole thing and was stunned. She swallowed hard, looked at the unbelievably calm man beside her, and muttered softly, "Brother Ba, you...you didn't open it, did you?"

He predicted almost everything, from the changes in the number of people to the sound of gunfire.

Is this really not open?
Even if you opened it, it wouldn't be that accurate!
"It's just a guess," Li Guanqi explained. "The first slight drop was probably caused by the duel itself."

"The rules do not allow violence between candidates outside of duels, but the impact within a duel is outside the rules. The cards provided by the Spirit Control Division are spiritual."

"You mean," Tang Xin realized, "during the duel, either your Fate Rate or Your Rationality Rate was destroyed?"

“Yes.” Li Guanqi nodded. “However, this situation is rare.”

"The real game is in this subsequent crash."

Tang Xin pondered, "Did this sharp drop occur after the duel?"

"Even if the balance is deducted after the duel, you won't be eliminated, right?"

“Yes, being eliminated when the balance reaches zero doesn’t mean you’re eliminated.” Li Guanqi’s gaze turned cold. “But what if there’s someone else lurking nearby?”

"You mean?!"

"It's a very simple principle. In the early stages, everyone's credit limit is not high. It's definitely a minority like us who reserve more than 200,000. Even if someone reserves 200,000, as long as they lose 10,000 in one game, they will still have 190,000 left. If they are hit with a 200,000 bullet the moment they lose."

"He's eliminated!" Tang Xin exclaimed in shock, her mind racing. "Was it an accomplice or a third party lying in wait?"

She suddenly realized, "The real way to play is to kick the loser when they're down?!" On the surface, the rules seem to have a lot of room for error, with a few hundred thousand reserves, allowing you to bet ten or twenty thousand in one round and lose several rounds. In reality, there's only one or two rounds of leeway.

"To kick someone when they're down." Li Guanqi smiled slightly. "That's a good phrase."

"I'm leaving." He got up and pushed open the door.

"I'll take care of throwing the man down the well, and you take care of kicking him."

"Let's go, let's go!" Tang Xin followed behind, looking very excited. "Let's go have some gunfights!"

"Hey, where are they?"

When the two arrived in the corridor, they found no one around; the winner of the duel had run away.

"It doesn't matter if we don't know where they are," Li Guanqi said with a smile. "As long as we know where they're going, that's enough."

Tang Xin suddenly realized: "Safe zone!"

In the jungle outside the hospital building, two figures were using the branches and leaves as cover, quickly weaving through the trees, heading straight for the safe zone.

The one running behind, slightly thinner and wearing an ill-fitting gray tracksuit, with a somewhat childish face, was now full of excitement. He shouted breathlessly, "Brother Feng! We did a fantastic job this time! It was textbook perfect!"

The man called Brother Feng was much more muscular, wearing a black combat vest. He grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth. He didn't stop walking, his voice steady: "I told you, you can't go wrong by listening to me. I've already figured out the rules."

He glanced at the supercomputing ring on his wrist; several more survivors had been eliminated. His smile deepened: "The tactics are going more smoothly than expected, and..."

Qin Feng paused for a moment, then took the D-glasses he had snatched from his eyes with his right hand. "...There was an unexpected bonus."

The younger brother's eyes widened in disbelief: "You can actually pick this up? The examiners are really ruthless; they didn't even mention it in the rules."

Qin Feng weighed the spoils on his wrist. "The two team leaders only said that the supplies would belong to the Spirit Binding Division after the assessment, but they didn't say who would get the items during the assessment."

He recalled the scene from earlier: after he won the duel, his henchmen, who had been lying in wait, precisely pulled the trigger, and a single bullet worth 200,000 yuan sent the unlucky guy out of the game.

The barrier popped up, and the D-glasses on the loser's face fell to the ground, becoming ownerless.

The two then realized that the organizers had hidden a very important rule—killing someone could result in looting their equipment!
Moreover, this equipment doesn't have an owner tag; if a subordinate gets a kill and the equipment drops, the older brother can also wear it.

"Brother Feng truly lives up to his reputation as someone who can score 280 points on the written test; his brain is just sharp," the underling flattered.

Qin Feng smiled faintly: "I made 50,000 this time. After I convert the balance into a card, I'll go out and pull off a bigger heist!"

"Okay, Brother Feng!" the younger brother replied excitedly.

The two stopped talking and quickened their pace.

Suddenly, two figures appeared in front of them like ghosts, blocking their way.

The silence of the forest was shattered in an instant.

"Kakaka-"

Almost instinctively, all four men drew their guns simultaneously, the cold muzzles pointing at each other, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Qin Feng recognized the person, and the information popped up in his D-view. His pupils contracted slightly, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. "Bian Yuelong - Li Guanqi... Dude, ambushing the safe zone? You're playing pretty sneaky."

Li Guanqi remained calm, his hand holding the gun steady: "All's fair in war."

The skinny thug next to Qin Feng held up his gun, his hand trembling slightly, but he still mustered his courage and shouted, "Brother Feng, why waste words with them! Let's just do it!"

"That's right!" Qin Feng's eyes sharpened, and he no longer hesitated. "In the end, this assessment will be judged by our dueling strength!"

He pulled the trigger sharply.

The rules for the practical assessment were designed to be fancy, but duels are all about hard skills. No matter how ingenious the tactics are, they are useless if you can't win in a duel. Qin Feng was confident in his deck.

"Bang bang bang!"

At the same instant, three gunshots rang out.

Three specially made bullets hit Li Guanqi, Qin Feng's henchman, and Tang Xin one by one.

(End of this chapter)