Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 279, Part 23: The Final Round

"In this round of the game, any player who doesn't cooperate..."

The player lobby on August 31, just before the sixteenth round of the game was about to begin.

Iwasaki finally lost his temper, and black mist surged as he scanned the crowd.

"I will hunt him down in real life."

They're stuck, seriously stuck.

Even though two players were able to come up from the dungeon as early as the tenth round, they still couldn't gather three special animals by the end of the fifteenth round.

The missing animal prevented the team from working together seamlessly.

There is absolutely no room for error; the slightest carelessness will allow the manor owner to seize upon any weakness and eliminate them one by one.

It's impossible to stay fully focused for six hours straight; your mind can sustain it, but your body can't. Players need a chance to catch their breath.

The last round was the closest we came to success, but we still failed before dawn.

Even Iwasaki was taken aback by this result.

Teammates who are as incompetent as pigs!

How can you possibly complete a game properly when you're surrounded by these scheming bastards!

Nobita lacked the courage to refute, hesitated, and glanced at Ethan.

Upon seeing this, Ethan immediately raised his hand dramatically: "Oh, Knight, you know me. I've just done whatever you guys told me to do in these rounds. I haven't done anything disobedient."

He was telling the truth. Ethan knew that disrupting the progress of the game would incur the wrath of Nobita and Iwasaki's factions, so he was quite cooperative.

But one thing that wasn't mentioned, and no one knows for the time being, is that Arthur follows his orders.

So in his rounds when he wasn't a special animal, Arthur would cooperate with him and secretly do some small things.

That's reached its limit.

Ethan knew in his heart that things couldn't continue like this; in fact, Nobita had begun to suspect Arthur and him.

He planned to establish a guild afterward, since there were benefits to it. If he went too far and brought Arthur in, it would be like attracting hatred and setting a time bomb.

“The problem mainly lies with the newcomers,” Nobi turned to Iwasaki, his tone serious. “I will give them a final warning.”

Iwasaki didn't respond; he simply closed his eyes, which were shrouded in smoke, and waited for the start of a new round of the game.

Twelve o'clock.

When they opened their eyes again, the players found themselves in familiar dungeons or servants' quarters.

Following the established optimal solution process, Iwasaki quickly collected the ram's head badge, various transformation potions, and key keys.

In addition to the three essential night vision animal drugs, he also scavenged as many other animal drugs as possible that might come in handy.

ninth day.

At midnight, Iwasaki and his group simultaneously opened the doors to the three special animal enclosures.

"Ah! Someone's here!"

"Squeak!"

"Meow meow!"

Calling twice means that someone is in the room.

So to say.

Iwasaki took a deep breath.

Finally, everyone is here.

The players who emerged from the dungeon this time were Tian (Goat), Taki (Owl), and Park Min-woo (Crocodile).

As planned, Iwasaki and Oshima were responsible for leading the three players away from the location of room number thirteen, so that Yui could reveal herself by running into the wall and open the door.

"Game over." The manor owner calmly chased after them.

No, the game is only just beginning!
Without hesitation, Yui slammed into the wall, transforming back into human form amidst excruciating pain and dizziness, and shouted the incantation twice: "In Hoc Signo Vinces! In the name of Hugo!"

In an instant, the lampstands lit up like stars, and room number thirteen appeared.

Taking advantage of the manor owner being distracted by this sudden turn of events, Iwasaki and Oshima led the three players to successfully bypass the main battlefield and sped to the door of room number thirteen.

Without further ado, the three rushed into the room. Iwasaki and Oshima slammed into the table, transformed back into human form, and, despite their dizziness, found three vials of potion lying quietly in a hidden compartment, handing them to the three of them.

"Make good use of your individual special abilities, avoid the manor owner, and use your badges when necessary. Unlike us, you can speak even in animal form."

Iwasaki handed the goat badge to Taki, said a few words, and then closed his eyes to relieve the excruciating pain in his brain.

The three tilted their heads back and drank the potion, their bodies rapidly transforming.

"Spread out. Take turns using your abilities, keep an eye on each other's situation, and when your abilities have cooled down, shout out in the sound of your animal. 'Coo!'"

Park Min-woo nervously nodded his crocodile head before remembering.

What the hell does a crocodile call again?!
He inherited the instincts of a crocodile, but the sound he makes is similar to the low hum of an engine.

Never mind, I'll just raise my voice a little.

With the badge in her mouth, Taki finished speaking quickly. By then, the manor owner had broken free of the first wave of control and was approaching the room.

She activated her ability, crashed into the wall, and disappeared from room number thirteen.

Almost the instant she disappeared, a powerful pressure descended, and the manor lord's enormous figure appeared like a shadow at the door of room number thirteen, casually crushing the paralyzed Yui with one foot.

The greyish-white eyes instantly locked onto the two animals and two people remaining in the room.

But the manor owner's gaze lingered on them for less than half a second before shifting to the wall where Taki had disappeared.

"Give it to me!" The emotionless whisper echoed.

The next second, the manor owner ignored the others in the room and rushed straight towards the direction where Taki had emerged from the wall.

His figure flashed, and he entered the room next door. He recognized the aura of the badge and pursued it relentlessly.

"An opportunity!" Tian urged, "According to plan, split up. Hao."

"Don't worry about us." Iwasaki, clutching his throbbing head, gritted his teeth and hissed, "The badge isn't in our hands, he won't care about us. Go quickly, remember, take turns providing cover, and use the badge to divert attention."

Iwasaki held the elk potion in his hand. If necessary, this animal might still be able to have some influence on the manor owner.

Without further hesitation, Tian and Park Min-woo seized the precious moment when the manor owner was distracted by Taki, and rushed out of Room 13, running wildly in the opposite direction from Taki.

All they needed to do was slip away from the plantation owner until dawn.

Swish!
Taki dodged the manor owner's outstretched hand, feeling as if she were dancing ballet on a knife's edge.

The badge acted like a magnet, drawing the manor lord tightly to her side.

Her ability to pass through walls is very useful, but the cooldown time is not short.

In addition, the manor owner has the ability to teleport, and it's practically on cooldown. If the teleport distance weren't short, she wouldn't have been able to create distance at all.

They thus embarked on a three-dimensional escape within the complex structure of the manor.

One second they were emerging from the oil paintings in the second-floor gallery, the next they were disappearing into the floor of the first-floor storage room, and then they reappeared from the wall of the restaurant.

The manor owner was like a persistent thorn in his side, ignoring any physical obstacles. He would teleport away whenever he could, and if he couldn't teleport, he would smash through them and relentlessly pursue him.

The strong wind that swept by made her feathers stand on end, and her gradually tiring mind and body were warning her that she needed to rest.

She had noticed Park Min-woo lurking in the shadows in the corner of the hall early on.

Crocodiles have the ability to become invisible for a short time, which gives them a little breathing room.

"In Hoc Signo Vinces!"

Shouting a spell, she dodged a near-miss from ahead, then seized the opportunity to turn, suddenly swooping down and throwing the badge towards the shadowy corner where Park Min-woo was just as she passed over his head!

Park Min-woo was constantly alert and reacted extremely quickly. The moment the badge landed, he used his ability to become invisible for a short time, blending into the surrounding shadows and silently putting the badge into his mouth.

"Unforgivable."

The manor owner roared and broke free of the light filament once more. Several more lampstands nearby exploded, dimming the light slightly.

Because the crocodile was invisible, he was somewhat bewildered as he looked around after drawing his sword.

But he quickly realized something, his gaze fixed on a shadowy spot in the hall, and his body flashed out, falling from mid-air.

Park Min-woo felt a chill run down his spine; his invisibility effect instantly failed under the manor owner's close-up gaze.

"run!"

He used all four limbs and his tail to maintain his balance as he charged headlong into the nearest banquet hall.

The manor owner followed closely behind, crashing into the room where Park Min-woo had disappeared.

With a loud crash, the wooden walls crumbled like paper, and various debris was torn apart like scraps of paper. Park Min-woo used the crocodile's strong body and short-range explosive power to desperately stall for time amidst the collapsing furniture and flying debris, facing numerous dangers.

He must use the gaps in his stealth cooldown to navigate the complex environment and deal with the manor lord, while simultaneously looking for the next opportunity to transfer the badge.

Although the banquet hall was quite large, he was eventually forced into a corner. His invisibility ability had cooled down, but the manor lord's massive shadow already loomed over him. At this distance, even activating invisibility would be ineffective. Just as he was about to use his spell, a golden figure shot in from the side like a comet!

"Park!"

Tian's voice came through.

Park Min-woo dodged to the side.

Suddenly, the golden light flared up from the horns of the Tianshan goat, and the power accumulated in the horns reached its peak.

It charged fiercely at the manor owner, crashing into his left leg!

With a muffled thud, the manor lord's massive body staggered slightly, and he braced himself against the wall.

This is the charging ability of goats, which can cause the plantation owner to be dizzy for a period of time.

It has absolutely no offensive power.

Without stopping, Tian rammed his head into the wall. Only after seeing out of the corner of his eye that Park Min-woo had already run out of the banquet hall did he quickly follow.

After a two-second daze, the manor owner regained his senses, let out an angry roar, and, with no intention of giving up, strode after him.

"then!"

Park Min-woo tossed the badge to Tian, ​​then collapsed to the ground. The wounds he had inflicted while charging around were burning with pain, but he knew he wasn't exactly a burden.

Tian Yi's situation was more difficult than that of Taki and Park Min-woo.

While the goat's charged charge is quite powerful and it's the only animal capable of hindering the manor owner, its cooldown time is longer, and it requires a short charging period to activate, which is extremely dangerous if the manor owner locks onto it.

Fortunately, the goat excels at running and jumping. He constantly used the complex terrain of the manor to make short bursts of speed, and occasionally made sharp turns to try to widen the distance.

But the manor lord's teleportation and wall-crashing were unreasonable. When Tian tried to shake him off by using the corner of the stairs, his route was predicted. The manor lord appeared in front of him and opened his arms to Tian.

"Cuckoo!"

Taki urgently reminded himself that his position and abilities had cooled down.

Although Tian could hear Taki's voice not far behind him, the manor lord was right in front of him, so he dared not throw the badge out, otherwise the other party would surely get it.

Even the incantation was only uttered at the beginning.

"go!"

Oshima suddenly appeared out of nowhere, grabbing the manor owner's hand with both of his upper body and clamping his lower body around the manor owner's throat with a deadly scissor kick, looking quite formidable.

This is a move that Oshima secretly learned from the judo captain before the school closures!

Ultimate Technique - Triangular Strangulation!

Unfortunately, his cool demeanor lasted only three seconds before the enraged manor owner crushed his head and tore him in two from his crotch like a chicken being shredded.

However, that little time was enough for Tian to swallow the incantation, step back a short distance, and throw the badge to Taki.

The manor owner was so angry at the situation of almost getting the badge only to have it slip away that he was furious. In a flash, he slapped Tian away, who had just thrown out the badge and hadn't even had a chance to escape.

Tian crashed through the handrail and fell heavily to the bottom of the stairs. He felt as if his internal organs had shifted, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. It was clear that he would not be able to get up again for a while.

For a time, only the crocodile and the owl remained to exchange badges.

The situation became increasingly perilous, forcing them to repeatedly use the power of spells.

The price of using the spell was that one by one the lampstands were destroyed, and the once bright manor gradually dimmed, with only the outlines barely visible.

"We can't use badges anymore!"

Iwasaki reminded loudly.

Once the manor returns to its previous state of complete darkness, everyone present except for the owl will be unable to see their surroundings, and it will once again become the manor owner's domain.

That basically means the game is over, and they have fallen before dawn once again.

However, even if the badge cannot be used with spells, they cannot discard it, because this thing is an intelligence limiter.

Once the manor owner gets his hands on him, his intelligence will instantly take over, and he won't bother with any chases; he'll just crush them one by one.

On the contrary, as long as they still have the badge, they can continue walking their dogs. Unless someone deliberately blocks their way, the manor owner will not pay any attention to them and will only have eyes for the players who have the badge.

The owl responded with two coos, took the badge from the exhausted Park Min-woo, and wearily repeated the dodging maneuver.

In an emergency, you still have to use it, even if it's just a matter of seconds.

Iwasaki looked out the window; he felt that dawn should be approaching.

He had finally managed to gather the three people. If they failed again, the loss of lifespan would be a minor matter, as he had plenty of Life-Extending Pills, but the impact on the final reward would be a major issue.

Iwasaki took out the brownish-yellow deer potion from his pocket and drank it directly.

With a painful roar, Iwasaki's body swelled and deformed, transforming into a deer with giant antlers.

Tian, ​​who had been lying on the ground, finally calmed down. He slowly got up, bleated twice, and rejoined the dog-walking battle to relieve the pressure on Park Min-woo and Taki.

"Xiba!"

Wearing the badge, Park Min-woo, exhausted and in the dim light, accidentally bumped into a wall.

"Ow—"

Before Park Min-woo could even despair, Iwasaki had already started running, with a resolute determination to take everyone down with him, and crashed hard into the manor owner behind him.

boom!
The deer's charge didn't harm the manor owner, only slightly slowing his movements. Iwasaki, relentless, opened his mouth and bit the manor owner's waist.

so hard!

The manor owner suddenly slammed his arms together, as if swatting a fly, and slapped the deer wrapped around his waist!

Click.

The sounds of bones shattering and flesh tearing filled the air as the elk's robust body was reduced to shattered ice by this terrifying power.

The deer let out a short, mournful cry as its body was severed in two by a terrifying force, slowly transforming back into a human.

The manor owner ignored Iwasaki, who was barely clinging to life, and chased after the crocodile, which had now distanced itself from him.

The successive sacrifices of Oshima and Iwasaki bought the three of them precious breathing time.

They were all wounded and exhausted.

Tian's golden horns dimmed, Taki's wings drooped limply, and Park Min-woo's invisibility was unreliable.

The badges continued to circulate among the three, but at a much faster pace.

They must make the most of the precious time gained by other players; they absolutely cannot fall in this darkness before dawn.

Every badge transfer was fraught with danger, and every ability cooldown was a matter of life and death.

Goats charge, owls fly through walls, and crocodiles hide.

Their physical and mental strength were being rapidly depleted, their wounds were bursting open as they ran, and blood stained their fur and scales. Every minute and every second was torture.

At this moment, outside the window, on the eastern horizon, a faint, almost imperceptible grayish-white hue finally appeared.

Takii had one wing broken off and fell to the ground, blood seeping out, her life hanging in the balance.

Tian managed to launch a charge, rescuing Park Min-woo from being cornered again, but his horns were broken off and he was flung away violently.

Park Min-woo's mind was completely focused on running, and he somehow ended up back in the banquet hall.

My body has already pushed itself beyond its limits; I don't even know where the strength I'm using now comes from.

The manor owner blocked the only exit, his eerie green eyes fixed on the badge in his mouth, his killing intent boiling.

Park Min-woo turned around at the window and stared at him blankly.

"It's over," the manor owner announced, signaling the end of the matter.

“No, it’s your turn to end this.” Park Min-woo’s tail slapped against the velvet curtains, tearing them off forcefully. He opened his mouth, and the badge inside gleamed. “In Hoc Signo Vinces!”

The last lampstand in the manor burst into light, its rays shooting out like lightning, using its last strength to entwine it.

The manor owner skillfully struggled, escaped, and then—

The lampstand was completely broken, and there should be no light left in the manor.

But at this moment, the manor did not fall into that deep darkness.

Because it was dawn.

The first faint, pale ray of dawn finally rose as usual, piercing through the torn curtain and splitting the deep darkness in the banquet hall.

The light shone precisely on the manor owner.

".Ah."

The manor owner squinted at the sunrise, looked at the oak tree outside the window, and sighed deeply.

"That's amazing!"

There were no screams. The manor owner seemed to have suddenly become a different person, his body stiffening little by little in the sunlight, until he turned to stone, a sorrowful expression on his face.
It has become a stone sculpture.

　Thank you "狎水" for the donation.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)