Gamers Are Fierce
Chapter 68: Power Supply

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Power Supply

Almost the instant the lights came on, Liu Wu Dai reacted. She grabbed the Longbow from her back, and her figure rapidly retreated.

The warm lights inside Longheng Mall were turned on in the morning and turned off at dusk; at night, dim cold-light lamps with meager power consumption were activated for security patrols.

The lighting systems in the halls and corridors were controlled automatically by the main computer; they couldn’t possibly light up arbitrarily without reason.

There’s a ghost in the main control room...

Liu Wu Dai’s countenance remained untroubled like a still well, yet her heart was restless and uneasy. A Ghost that could manipulate the mall’s main control system would be more than twice as troublesome!

That Ghost could not only switch the lights on and off but also see the presence of every player through the surveillance cameras.

Liu Wu Dai, light as a kite, shot forward, her feet barely touching the ground as she dashed along the corridors.

She distinctly felt something malevolent chasing her from behind, but she dared not look back.

Liu Wu Dai gritted her teeth and shook the wooden recurve bow in her hand, which featured a red and black camouflage pattern.

[Name: Fire Chariot]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Rare]

[Attack Power: Medium]

[Special Effect: Blazing March. Endows an Arrow with armor-piercing capabilities and a fire attribute attack effect, providing an additional attack power bonus against protein bodies and undead creatures.]

[Energy Consumption: 5% of total energy]

[Cooldown Time: 10 seconds]

[Equipment Requirements: Agility Attribute must be greater than or equal to 8, Strength Attribute must be greater than or equal to 7]

[Note: The most outstanding Elf Archers always carry this bow when they go hunting. As long as the Arrow pierces through, the prey will instantly be roasted to a medium-well state.]

This bow was the reward Liu Wu Dai had obtained at Lonely Mountain Cold Temple. She drew an Arrow from her quiver, activated the Special Effect Blazing March, and without looking back, she shot an Arrow behind her, guided solely by intuition.

No sooner had the Arrow left the bowstring than it spontaneously ignited.

The orange flames dancing merrily at the tip of the Arrow remained unfazed by the high speed of the projectile, exploding abruptly the moment it hit the target.

Behind Liu Wu Dai, there was a dull explosion and an extremely piercing, inhuman scream. The prickling sensation of doom that had been looming over her suddenly vanished.

Having temporarily escaped the Fierce Ghost’s pursuit, Liu Wu Dai held the bow in her left hand and quickly took out her mobile phone with her right, furiously swiping and tapping on the screen.

Just as Li Ang had surmised during the previous mission, Liu Wu Dai, who loved and excelled at archery, was in reality a wealthy and idle young heiress of a rich family.

But as for just how wealthy she was... Li Ang, who had long been mired in poverty, couldn’t possibly comprehend.

The 26-year-old Liu Wu Dai was born into a family of billionaires. Her grandfather was the founder of Longqing Maritime Transport Co., Ltd.

Longqing Maritime Transport Co., Ltd. was a transnational conglomerate enterprise with shipping as its main business. Its business scope extended to container transport, oil transport, cargo transport, passenger transport, car ferry transport, shipping agency, financial investment, and information technology, with its container ship fleet ranking among the top hundred in the world.

Liu Wu Dai was indeed born with a silver spoon, the legitimate eldest daughter of the Yin City Liu Family. Her status was far beyond that of low-born illegitimate daughters like Chai Cuiqiao.

If it were a world without any supernatural elements, Li Ang, a naturally gifted individual, might need a decade or two just to barely reach Liu Wu Dai’s level.

In a future where the slaughterfield game fully commences, players born from ordinary people will inevitably struggle against traditional conglomerates that monopolize the pathways to ascendancy.

Conglomerates lacking supernatural powers to protect themselves face two stark choices: complete defeat, resulting in the loss of their people and wealth, or adaptation to the new world. Adaptation might involve treating the "slaughterfield game" as a new sector for monopolization, similar to how they historically controlled industries like mining, commerce, transportation, insurance, and banking.

For these corporations, the slaughterfield game presents a challenge fraught with both risk and opportunity. It is also their sole path to evolve from ordinary monopolistic organizations—such as cartels, syndicates, Trust, and Concain—into massive enterprises. These new entities could potentially monopolize global extraordinary resources and even suppress state machinery, much like their counterparts currently operate in South Korea.

As one of the inheritors of a financial conglomerate, Liu Wu Dai inevitably considered these matters; to her knowledge, many conglomerates had already started recruiting players in secret, planning for the future.

Whether the Liu Family had engaged in such activities, Liu Wu Dai did not know, nor did she know whether the Special Affairs Bureau was aware of the conglomerates’ actions—despite being a dual master’s degree holder in Science (MSc) and Business Administration (MBA), the current head of a side branch company in her family, a young businesswoman who could effortlessly grace the cover of Time magazine’s Asia edition, and a sought-after, Apex-level eligible bachelorette.

As a prominent figure in Yin City, Liu Wu Dai naturally contacted the upper management of Longheng Square through her social network the same day and obtained a considerable amount of information about Longheng Square under the guise of wanting to invest in shop construction, as well as planting Virus software in the main control computer to gain control rights.

Liu Wu Dai touched her phone screen, and all the lights in the mall went out in an instant, yet the surveillance cameras in the corridors and shops continued to emit an indiscernible red glow.

The Virus software in the main control computer could turn lights on and off and control the movement of surveillance cameras, but it couldn’t stop the Ghost hiding in the control room from seeing Liu Wu Dai’s image through the computer screen.

Clenching her teeth, Liu Wu Dai made a split-second decision and cut off the mall’s power supply through the Virus software.

The dim cold lights embedded in the ceiling went out instantly, the red dots of the surveillance cameras in the corridor extinguished, and the entire mall once again fell into a deadly silence and darkness.

With the power cut off, the Ghost in the control room couldn’t see the players’ positions, but the players also lost the information support from the surveillance footage, and due to the cold lights going out, the glow from the phone screens became even more conspicuous in the utter darkness.

Curled up in a corner, Liu Wu Dai carefully pressed her phone screen and typed, "I’ve cut off the mall’s power; the Ghost in the control room can’t use the surveillance cameras now, they can’t see our positions. But they can start the backup power through the gasoline generators in the basement."

The WeChat group remained silent; after a long while, Ao Yong sent a message, "The closest one to the basement is the airship. Airship, are you there? @Lost Airship."

Time passed, second by second, without any response.

"Before the lights went out," the Plague Doctor said, "I saw the Ghost of the old man chasing after him in the direction he ran..."

The Plague Doctor didn’t finish, but the remaining four players all knew that the Lost Airship, who hadn’t replied, was likely already dead.

One teammate was lost before even completing a single Talisman, and under such an unfavorable start, everyone felt tremendous pressure.

The Plague Doctor typed, "If the Ghost can start the generator sets and reboot the main control computer, we’ll be exposed to the light and surveillance again, facing pursuit. I’m currently on the first floor; I’ll go destroy the backup generators... You all continue to search for Talismans."

Ao Yong typed, "Roger that, keep in touch."

Liu Wu Dai typed, "Roger that."

Li Ang sent a picture of a fair-skinned, beautiful bunny girl in a school uniform, with her leg cocked up, pouting, with an innocent yet deadly seductive expression, with the caption: Wishing all students good luck on their university entrance exams. Your senior is waiting for you at college.

The Plague Doctor: "??"

Ao Yong: "??"

Liu Wu Dai: "??"

Li Ang retracted a message.

Li Ang: "Sorry, I sent the wrong picture. It’s this one."

He then sent another picture, this time of a beige limestone floor under the signboard of Jiupin Crab Emperor Fort, with a strange and eerie Talisman drawn in cinnabar at the center of the floor.