A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 128 The room where you can’t leave without xx
Ding ding, the sound of drums beating came from both sides, announcing the end of a round.

My vision spun around, and my head fell to the ground. I watched the fire beside me slowly go out and return to darkness.

It didn't hurt because the spine was cut, but the sudden feeling of death was enough to make the soul tremble.

In the dark consciousness, a bright red word emerged along with the sound of drums:

【vegetable!】

Quinn: ?
Before he could react to what was happening, he was back in the living room again, his head still on his neck. The fire was burning, casting strips of light and shadows in the unlit living room.

The system prompt popped up——

【second round】

【Please defeat your shadow.】

Quinn tightened his grip on the knife instantly, roughly understanding what was going on.

Is the so-called ritual a systematic simulated battle?

His gaze fell to the side, opposite the position of the light source. The shadows on the ground turned into eerie solidities accompanied by the rumbling sound of drums.

It was like a pool of thick ink standing up. It had no facial features or colors, but it was exactly the same as Quinn in shape, the same height, the same clothes, and the same Dark Evil Dragon Ichimonji no Mori.
"Stop, stop! Pause!!"

Quinn tried to stop the strange ritual.

But when the shadow was fully condensed, three short drum beats sounded, and it suddenly moved, slashing straight at Quinn's heart!
Quinn blocked the attack with his slanted knife, but that inexplicable but powerful fighting instinct still existed. The blades collided with each other, and sparks flew with a clang.

An unimaginable force came from his wrist, which made him almost unable to hold the knife. He looked carefully and saw that the shadow's knife force was still as strong as ever, and it overwhelmed him with pure strength!
He felt a chill in his lower abdomen, and Shadow put away the knife. Blood gushed out in the light of the fire, splashing diagonally into a line. The knife directly cut through the abdominal muscles and the nerves of the large and small intestines. Quinn staggered and fell to the ground with a feeling of weakness caused by spasms, and his eyes went black in pain.

Clang!

There's that damn drum sound again, second round failed.

【vegetable!】

His consciousness remained intact, as if the system was allowing him to experience death. When his body completely died in the second round, he instantly returned to the living room, holding the katana in the exact same position.

[Round 3]

【Please defeat your shadow.】

"Wait, wait!!" Quinn shouted anxiously.

When he was fighting with swords just now, he found that his strength had not changed at all.

Still at the level of a useless person.

But Shadow is different. Both in strength and speed, he is much stronger than the original owner.

He wasn't sure how much stronger he was, but Quinn knew he had no chance of winning a sword fight against him, as he was at an overwhelming disadvantage in terms of strength.

"It's not fair, it's not fair! Rematch! I want to change my attributes——"

The system didn't respond at all, it just kept beating the drum.

Seeing that the shadow was about to appear, Quinn had to change his shouting:
"Exit! Log out! Creampie!"

The shadow attacked with a sword, and Quinn didn't dare to block it and retreated directly. However, not only did he have the fighting instinct, but the shadow also had the same ability. Its speed was too terrifying, and the sword was too long, so it was unrealistic to keep a distance.

The knife flashed, and Quinn tried to fight hard, but this time it was even worse than last time. The sword in his hand was directly knocked away, blood spurted from his neck, and he fell to the ground unwillingly.

【vegetable!】

My eyes opened, and I saw the familiar living room, the familiar fire, and the familiar prompts.

"Fuck! The beef devil—"

[Round 4]

【Please defeat your shadow.】

Quinn had no choice. Since he couldn't quit, he could only obey the system and try to kill the shadow.

If defense is not good, what about active offense?
It takes about three drum beats for a shadow to be created and move.

Moreover, it always generates in a fixed posture, exactly the same as when Quinn opened his eyes, holding the sword in his hand stupidly.

This is his only advantage - he can steal a blow before the shadow is generated.

Quinn timed it perfectly, aiming at Shadow's neck and slashing with his sword—

With the help of his fighting instinct, he had an almost perfect grasp of the timing. He didn't need any trial and error at all and accurately predicted the time of the shadow's birth.

As soon as its body was condensed, the blade as fast as an afterimage was almost touching its neck.

At this distance, even if Shadow was fast, he wouldn't have time to raise his knife to block it.

Although it was clearly a shadow, the blade felt dull as if it were cutting flesh. Just as Quinn had imagined, the sword cut through the shadow's head.

However, it did not dissipate or return to him as Quinn expected.

A red light of Chinese characters written with a brush fell from above its head—

"resurrection"

The shadow became visibly fainter, like a pool of thick ink turning into sparse black ash, as if it could be completely eliminated by killing it once more, but it was too late.

The boss once said that the sword was too long.

Once this weapon is drawn, the aim is to kill with one strike. Otherwise, if you encounter an opponent with greater speed and strength, the gap between the strike and the retraction of the sword will be enough to end the fight.

Even though his neck had been slashed, Shadow remained completely unaffected. He aimed at the wide-open Quinn and chopped off his head cleanly. Quinn didn't have any second life like "resurrection".

His sight followed his head to the ground. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but after dying four times in a row, Quinn actually felt that the shadow was "looking" at him.

【vegetable!】

Quinn's thoughts are not interrupted by death.

He could use the short period of time from the time his head was chopped off to the time he died to think.

Shadows take time to generate, and they can't block the first blow prepared in advance, so the system has specially set up a "resurrection" mechanism to prevent shadows from being killed by the first blow.
The rolling skill is called "Shadow Dies Twice", is it implying that the shadow has two lives?
[Round 5]

【Please defeat your shadow.】

Quinn raised his knife with a gloomy look in his eyes.

His stamina is at full strength and resets with each round he dies.

But the difference in strength and speed between him and Shadow was too great, and now he had to fight two lives with one. If Quinn didn't dodge the attack at the beginning, he would have no chance of winning.

After a little thought, Quinn used the same trick again and struck the shadow with his sword the moment he stood up.

But this time he didn't use the Iai Slash.

The Iai Slash requires two hands to hold the sword, exerting full force with the whole body, and swinging and opening it with great force. While powerful and lethal, the sword must be turned to strike again after one strike.

The Dark Evil Dragon Ichimonji Norimune is one and a half meters long. Although the length of the blade brings an advantage in attack distance, it is also inevitably more cumbersome, with a large range of change of direction, and is far less agile than weapons such as swords or daggers.

So Quinn gave up on starting with Iai Slash, and instead placed the knife straight next to Shadow's neck. The moment it was fully formed, he drew the knife and cut Shadow's neck.

This trick really worked. Although Shadow's physical fitness was much better than Quinn's, he was still a human being. After his trachea and Adam's apple were cut open, the red light of "resurrection" fell, and he was killed directly.

Because the movement of slicing the neck was much smaller than that of Iai, and the hand did not use too much strength, Quinn could easily flip the handle of the knife, change the direction of the blade, and then cut again -

His eyes suddenly focused.

The tip of the knife pierced his lower abdomen, but it was not Shadow, but him.

A burning sensation of a foreign body came from his lower abdomen. Shadow drew his knife and his intestines flowed out bloody. Pain gripped his whole body. He finally understood why his pain tolerance had increased so greatly.

The system is afraid that the host will suffer psychological trauma after being killed by the shadow.

Quinn fell to the ground unwillingly. The shadow was too fast. He slashed with the sword again after the first one, which was like a speed competition with the shadow. Even if he didn't need to sheath the sword, the shadow was much faster than him.

It's like a Western cowboy rapid-fire duel, but the other guy is Arthur Morgan, and the damn guy can draw his gun faster than you.

How does this work?
【vegetable!】

Round 6

【Please defeat your shadow.】

Quinn was the king of old ideas. He thought, since he couldn't win the speed contest, then there would be no need to compete in speed. It would be okay if he just wiped his neck twice, right?

Anyway, "resurrection" to load the second life is seamless, just like a saw, pulling it forward and pushing it back is another cut. Pulling and pushing is always faster than you, right?
But the system seemed to have been prepared for this kind of bug. At the moment of "resurrection", the shadow was in a brief state of nothingness. It could not be attacked in the gap between the red light and the ground. Quinn's sawing plan failed and he was split into two pieces from head to toe.

【vegetable!】

Round 7

【Please defeat your shadow.】

He tried to use the immobilization spell, but the familiar magic circuits were gone. He was surprised to find that not only did the immobilization spell fail, but he couldn't even call up the system page.

Future prompts are also disabled, and he needs to figure everything out on his own.

Round 8

Quinn tried to run, but the door to the living room was open and he was not allowed to call for help.

Round 9

The door of the room is also locked. This is a damn virtual space!

Quinn finally understood why he was in the living room instead of the original room, because there was a level 0 storage item, Heaven's Gate, under the bed. It was a cheating item and was disabled!

By the 10th round, Quinn finally gave up his fantasy and had to fight honestly.

The boss said that the promotion ceremony for extraordinary people is very difficult. The higher you go, the more difficult it becomes, and it may even reach a point where it is almost impossible to achieve.

Since it is a hero's extraordinary characteristic, it is reasonable to need a ritual from the low sequence. But it can't be so difficult that there is no possibility of winning.
This time, Quinn didn't sneak another move.

Instead, he waited for the shadow to form.

Before the ceremony begins, the two skills prompted by the system are probably the key to passing the level.

Three drum beats sounded, and the shadow raised the illusory sword and slashed horizontally.

Quinn didn't choose to block or counterattack.

His eyes were fixed on its hand, and at the moment the shadow swung the knife, he suddenly rolled to the ground—

A wonderful feeling fills the body.

He rolled as if he had practiced rolling for a lifetime, fast and steady. This time, his speed was finally no longer behind the shadow. Feeling the cold blade passing by his back, he stood up incomparably quickly, neither dizzy nor stumbling.
Hide away! !
The energy consumed by rolling was far beyond the ordinary, but the speed was also far beyond the ordinary. When Quinn stood up, the shadow had just put away the knife. It "looked" at Quinn with some confusion, as if it didn't understand why he could roll so fast.

Quinn's mouth curled up, he knew how to fight.

(End of this chapter)