Keep attacking girls and try not to be killed by them

After the first round of shooting, Jiang Ran and the enemy chose to run at the same time. In this wasteland with almost no cover, irregular running was the best way to avoid being hit by arrows.

However, Jiang Ran's previous arrow has reduced the enemy's mobility. The arrow that penetrated the right shoulder will make it difficult for the enemy to use his right hand.

This also means that it is difficult for the enemy to hit Jiang Ran with arrows.

Sure enough, in the next round of shooting, the speed and accuracy of the enemy's arrows were much worse than before. Although Jiang Ran also failed to hit the target, the balance of victory had already tilted towards Jiang Ran's side.

Jiang Ran thought quickly, what would he do if he were in the other person's situation?

Then, Jiang Ran immediately thought of the answer, which was to use "Shadow Escape Step" in combination with the Black Sword Flame Horse or the Corrupted Dagger and Poison Claw to fight in close combat, and try to end the battle with one kill.

Whether it is the Black Sword Flame Horse or the Corrupted Poison Dagger and Poison Claw, Jiang Ran can use them with one hand, so this "Shadow Jiang Ran" can definitely do it as well.

In a moment, the battle situation changed just as Jiang Ran had expected.

The shadow enemies no longer kept their distance, but took the initiative to throw away unnecessary equipment such as longbows and quivers, then went into battle lightly and rushed towards Jiang Ran in one go.

(As expected of me...!)

(Hashrate boost and overclocking!)

Jiang Ran activated his skills without hesitation to buy himself time to think. At this moment, he had many tactical options to deal with the advancing enemies, but which one was Jiang Ran himself the worst at dealing with?

(Since you intend to use Shadow Step, I won't give you a chance to get close.)

Jiang Ran remembered clearly that the maximum distance of Shadow Escape Step was within a 10-meter radius of the user.

At this moment, Jiang Ran is about 30 meters away from the shadow enemy. The remaining 20 meters is the life and death line for Jiang Ran to defeat the enemy!

(Focus on the heart!)

On the basis of "computing power improvement and overclocking", Jiang Ran continued to stack status skills.

Then, he threw out three smoke bombs in succession while running diagonally. While the smoke bombs were still in the air, he aimed at the approaching enemy, drew his bow and shot three arrows in a row in the blink of an eye!

In the blink of an eye, as the smoke bomb fell and sprayed out smoke, Jiang Ran's three arrows arrived one after another.

The shadow enemy dodged the first arrow by jumping sideways, then raised his iron round shield to block the second arrow, but was eventually pierced through the right thigh by the third arrow and fell to the ground.

Surrounded by smoke, Shadow Jiang Ran couldn't see anything, not even a shadow that could allow him to use the "Shadow Escape Step".

However, Shadow Jiang Ran did not give up. He struggled to stand up and tried to rush out of the smoke.

But just as he stood up, more arrows pierced through the smoke and shot in!

Shadow Jiang Ran fought hard to resist, but still couldn't avoid these elusive arrows. After a while, he was hit by several arrows and fell to the ground and died.

·

As the smoke cleared, Jiang Ran saw the shadow enemy lying dead on the ground.

He had just predicted that the enemy would find it difficult to move quickly after being shot in the thigh, so he shot arrows continuously from the approximate direction outside the smoke.

He couldn't see the enemy's position, but he could hear the sound of the arrow being hit clearly.

Relying on this tactic, Jiang Ran successfully killed the shadow enemy without any injury.

but……

(Is this the end?)

Jiang Ran did not receive any text prompts in his field of vision, and there was no response in this desolate space.

Just as Jiang Ran was wondering, the enemy's bodies and equipment were covered in shadows again and slowly sank into the ground. Only the arrow shot by Jiang Ran remained intact on the ground.

Then, the huge black magic circle surfaced again, and a new 60-second countdown began.

(... Is there another enemy?)

Jiang Ran didn't have time to hesitate. He immediately collected the usable arrows on the field and replenished the number of ordinary arrows to 38. Then he once again distanced himself fifty meters from the magic circle, waiting for the next enemy to appear.

·

60 seconds passed quickly, and this time, what emerged from the magic circle was another human-shaped black shadow.

(No way, who are you going to challenge this time?)

Soon, Jiang Ran knew the answer.

This time, the human-shaped black shadow was himself again.

"Tsk...!"

Because his concentration was disrupted by the unexpected situation, Jiang Ran failed to hit the enemy at the first time, but he still successfully avoided the arrow shot at him.

In the following mobile shooting, Jiang Ran relied on the attack warning of the Super-Dimensional Divine Eye to dodge while hitting the enemy, replicating the advantageous situation in the previous round.

Afterwards, based on his previous experience, Jiang Ran seized the opportunity and used the smoke bomb and blind shooting tactics again, successfully killing himself again.

However, this victory did not make Jiang Ran happy. He was now in confusion.

What exactly is this trial all about? Will the same thing happen again?

As the enemy's corpse once again turned into a black shadow and sank into the ground, Jiang Ran's ominous premonition came true.

The 60-second countdown that started ticking again above the huge black magic circle has become Jiang Ran's nightmare.

(Winning alone isn't enough... It seems certain conditions must be met...)

What are the conditions for passing the trial? A certain number of victories? Or must I kill the enemy within a certain timeframe? Or perhaps the real enemy isn't my shadow copy...?

Jiang Ran looked at the magic circle and suddenly shot an arrow towards the center of the magic circle!

[img=675,1200]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2022/11/efc2dcda-1baa-4a7b-ad2b-e9df67e59a77.jpg[/img]

5.29 - The Evil Cycle

With a "clang" sound, the arrow passed through the magic circle and hit the ground.

It seems that the magic circle cannot be destroyed by physical means.

Then, the 60-second countdown ended again, and the same humanoid shadow emerged from the magic circle once again...

This time, Jiang Ran didn't wait for the human-shaped shadow to reveal its true face. He immediately aimed an arrow at the human-shaped shadow's head and shot it!

What he didn't expect was that this time, the arrow actually passed through the body of the human-shaped black shadow, as if it had passed through a non-existent shadow.

(Understood. Until the shadow fades away, the humanoid shadow does not exist in this space.)

Jiang Ran understood it quickly. He immediately drew his bow again, and when the enemy's shadow faded away, he suddenly shot an arrow!

The result was just as he expected. The shadow enemy who revealed his true form had no time to dodge and was pierced through the head by an arrow, dying instantly.

·

This was the third time Jiang Ran had killed "himself", and he had also discovered a way to end the battle within one or two seconds, but he was not happy at all.

The atmosphere in the trial space was the same as before, which meant that Jiang Ran still failed the trial.

After three consecutive failed attempts, Jiang Ran finally understood the true meaning of this trial.

The "Fifth Level Difficulty: Purple Trial" not only tests combat ability, but also tests the challenger's ability to understand unclear situations.

If Jiang Ran couldn't figure out a way to pass the trial, no matter how easy it was to kill his own "shadow", sooner or later, he would be exhausted to death here in a meaningless battle.

(Use the process of elimination.)

(Four incorrect answers have now been eliminated.)

(1. Kill “yourself”.)

(2. Destroy the magic circle.)

(Three, kill the enemy within 60 seconds... No, it should have only taken me 2 seconds.)

(Four, kill yourself three times.)

Jiang Ran continued to think while collecting the arrows on the field.

At the same time, the enemy's body turned into a black shadow and sank into the ground. Then, the magic circle reappeared and began a new round of 60-second countdown.

·

Jiang Ran thought for a few seconds and lit up a glowing magic stone, trying to use the light to destroy the integrity of the dark magic circle. However, it did not affect the countdown at all, and the human-shaped black shadow appeared on time after the countdown ended.

Jiang Ran used the same trick again, timing it perfectly and shooting an arrow to death the "self" who had just appeared, and then continued thinking while the process was rotating.

So far, Jiang Ran's losses are acceptable. Only 5 arrows have been lost, leaving 35; 6 smoke bombs have been used, leaving 14.

As for his physical body, his vitality was intact, and his stamina and magicka were both abundant.

━━━━━━━━━━

Jiang Ran

HP: 300 / 300

Stamina: 259 / 280

Mana: 2436 / 2530

━━━━━━━━━━

After these four consecutive rounds of killing "himself", Jiang Ran could already conclude that every time the human figure clone appeared, their action pattern was the same.

Moreover, since their memories are not shared with each other, each new round of "shadows" does not have the experience of death from the previous round, so Jiang Ran can use the same routine to continuously kill them until he is exhausted to death.

Besides this, these human clones were heartless. Jiang Ran used his mind-reading skills to peer into their hearts, and found nothing but complete darkness.

Then, in the fifth round of battle, Jiang Ran tried to talk to the shadow enemy, but the other party did not respond at all. This made Jiang Ran rule out another possibility of passing the level: finding a "plot" other than killing each other through dialogue.

·

While waiting for the countdown to the sixth round, Jiang Ran came to a new conclusion.

Although the replica is exactly the same as oneself, there is one thing that the replica does not have, and that is the "Super-Dimensional Divine Eye".

If this is not the case, it cannot explain why Jiang Ran was able to gain the upper hand in many bow and arrow battles with "himself", and this also proves that the Super-Dimensional Divine Eye is indeed something from a higher dimension.

Then, the countdown ended, and Jiang Ran killed "himself" for the sixth time.

Then came the seventh time.

The eighth time.

Ninth time.

·

(Kill him once more, and it will be the tenth time.)

Jiang Ran picked up some stones and lined them up on the ground to count.

If the goal is to kill a certain number of times, then an integer like "10" is likely to be the correct answer.

Unfortunately, Jiang Ran's expectations only lasted for a short while, and then they were shattered with the start of the next countdown.

If ten times doesn't work, what about twenty times? Fifty times? A hundred times?

The number of one hundred times is not hopeless for Jiang Ran.

But if one fails the test even after killing "oneself" a hundred times, even Jiang Ran will be unable to control himself and be overwhelmed by despair.

Jiang Ran now understood why the mortality rate of this purple trial was almost 100%.

For other challengers who do not have the "Super-Dimensional Divine Eye", they have to face enemies as powerful as themselves, so the first one or two rounds of fighting will definitely result in huge losses.

Even if you have figured out the trick after a hard fight, you still can't pass the trial. Instead, you have to think hard about how to get out of this "hell".

After killing "himself" for the eleventh time, Jiang Ran began to re-examine this world.

Are there any clues in this desolate wasteland?

Jiang Ran's gaze finally fell on the towering stone pillar.

The words engraved on the stone pillar still remain there.

·

"Face your fear and live towards death"

·

(Is there any hint hidden in these eight words?)

When Jiang Ran first saw this sentence, he thought it was just used to set off the atmosphere of the trial, but now, he doesn't think so.