Super Righteous Player
Chapter 665 - 206: Players Trying to Snatch the Rice Bowl from the Hand of Winter_1

Chapter 665: Chapter 206: Players Trying to Snatch the Rice Bowl from the Hand of Winter_1

Lin Yiyi’s "Merciful Strike" was indeed an extremely useful skill for capturing prisoners.

The corrupted beings left dazed by the Four Dark Deuces’ explosions were utterly powerless against Lin Yiyi’s sudden assault.

Even though she was technically a nimble T... but who said tanks can’t kill?

She was a bona fide semi-defense-oriented warrior tailored with gems. Relying on her gem spells for instant control, coupled with her high agility and high perception, she could always maintain a significant advantage in one-on-one close combat, even without any proper burst skills.

This had to do with another one of Lin Yiyi’s skills:

[Close Combat Master LV7: Upon any form of effective contact with the enemy (including control from spell effects, and ranged attacks from bows and crossbows), your presence and pressure will continuously increase: Starting from the first effective contact, each time both you and the enemy have made a round of attacks, and the enemy is within your threat range, all skill checks of the opponent will receive a -1 interference penalty, stackable up to a total of -4.]

[At LV4: When the enemy is within the range of your spells and ranged attacks, your interference ability takes effect by an additional half; even if the enemy is not directly within your threat range, it can still take effect separately by half.]

[At LV7: When the enemy is outside your direct threat range, but within the influence of your versatile combat techniques, and when these techniques are available, your interference ability takes full effect. This effect can stack with the additional bonus effect from LV4.]

——This was the foundation for Lin Yiyi to exist as a tank class.

She didn’t need taunt skills because she was the embodiment of a taunt aura.

As Lin Yiyi understood it, the effect of this skill meant that any enemy she could reach was wary of her interference and hindrance, and would not dare to act with their full potential.

Her effective range of attack was, frankly, too long.

Moreover, her movements were incredibly nimble and her perception attributes were outstanding; anyone who showed a flaw within her range could be coldly struck with her staff.

If this skill was combined with her [Versatile Combat Techniques] and the instant casting abilities of the Azure Holy Guard, her threatening and interference abilities could further surge from out of nowhere—

Simply put, it’s like Jackie Chan in a furniture store, armed with a sturdy long-handled weapon facing a swarm of enemies: an intimidating scene akin to the Goldberg Machine set in "Home Alone" taking effect.

In reality, the effect manifested as all eyes turning to Lin Yiyi as she penetrated the enemy formation.

Those skilled in ambush didn’t dare turn their backs or directly leave Lin Yiyi’s vicinity; stealthy enemies, once in her perceptual range, were picked off one by one with her staff; and enemies with casting abilities couldn’t even launch a complete attack before she took her chance to thump them.

Without an instant-effect Decree-like repellent ability, relying on her high perception and agility for Parry and Dodge, as well as the chase and sneak attack capabilities of her long-handled weapon, the larger and more chaotic the battle, the greater her advantage became.

Such is the so-called stirring stick-type hero — not as threatening as an assassin, nor as strong as other classes, but when she dives in, she demands immediate attention.

Because she could multitask.

Among the enemies half-killed by the Four Dark Deuces’ combo attack, there were indeed a few tough ones.

But Lin Yiyi had already plunged into the crowd at the first opportunity — and with the true hit-and-run support of Xitan Pulan, not even Jiu’er had to make a move before they had all been taken down.

The reason for not having Jiu’er and the Four Dark Deuces take action was mainly because they were after prisoners.

...first and foremost, they had to be alive, relatively intact, and still retain some communicative abilities.

After all, Jiu’er’s previous profession was that of a Berserker. And the Four Dark Deuces had already become a gloriously notorious Trap Thief.

It might have been different for a technical class like the Gourmet Goose.

But for Jiu’er, if she didn’t activate her curse marks, she’d just be a bronze-tier Berserker with silver-tier attributes, of no help against these silver-tiered corrupted; if she did activate them, there would be no holding back.

On the part of the Four Dark Deuces, matters were even more extreme — the "Destroyer" profession was never designed with the question "What? I’m supposed to hold back?" in mind.

All Transcendent professions arising from the school of destruction lacked the concept of holding back.

——That even contradicts the basic theory of the Destruction School.

After a not-so-difficult battle where two players faced off against seven elite monsters, the players successfully captured six prisoners—the last one simply couldn’t be caught. His mutation had given him wings, and he could fly quite fast.

If not for Four Dark Squares’ quick reflexes, who slipped a milky white card to the person in the blink of an eye as they brushed past, he might have really gotten away.

But capture aside, players were not particularly skilled at interrogation.

They only understood basic concepts—after all, the internet knows all. Separating the prisoners to increase psychological pressure, creating a prisoner’s dilemma, and bluffing them with misinformation were among the methods players tried one by one.

But they were, after all, amateurs.

While they theoretically knew what to do, their initial attempts at exerting pressure were quite poor. Residents of Saltpeter Ranch were already accustomed to villainy, and these fallen ones were even more experienced—eventually, it was the players who got tricked into revealing more information and started to be persuaded by the other side.

And finally, after Lin Yiyi inadvertently let slip that the "Blood Hand Brothers" were already dead, the person’s expression changed and he committed suicide on the spot.

The players had quite a messy time dealing with the demon that resulted from his suicide—it was much stronger than the person himself.

It was only then that they learned, if the fallen ones wanted to commit suicide, there was no stopping them: the fallen only needed to continually use forbidden powers, pushing their demonization process further... When the erosion reached 100%, the person would instantly drop dead.

They had such negotiations fall apart with two more people, before finally extracting useful information from the fourth person with little intelligence gleaned from the first three. They verified it with the fifth and sixth.

"Lucky there were enough samples, and it’s good you didn’t rush at the beginning, knew to start a live stream to let me know, and knew to lock them up far away..."

Mei Wei Feng Goose, who was advising remotely from the livestream, was also watching with trepidation.

He yelled, "You guys are experts at botching negotiations! What kind of skill is this? Aren’t three of you from prestigious schools? How did you pass your tests back then? Can’t you copy from an answer sheet correctly?"

Jiu’er: ?

As the only high school student among the players, Jiu’er felt as if she was being targeted.

"Don’t worry, we’re starting to get the hang of it."

Lin Yiyi, however, was full of confidence: "To be honest, our process isn’t really flawed. The main problem is that we lack intelligence, and we still don’t know why their people panic and kill themselves immediately upon learning their boss is dead... Another issue is our lack of confidence; we showed fear during the interrogation and these old foxes spotted our insecurity.

"You see, during the verification stage after we obtained useful information, no more problems occurred. This proves that we actually lack confidence, not experience... I think later on, if His Highness Annan asks us to interrogate prisoners, I could be up to the task."

"But interrogations are Hand of Winter’s responsibility, and the Hand of Winter is absolutely loyal to Duke Winter."

"——Even the most loyal have betrayers. Are we not reliable? We are the ones who would never betray, and Annan will surely understand that."

"I just love this unfounded confidence of yours..."

Mei Wei Feng Goose mocked: "Because it always brings me joy."

He still remembered when Lin Yiyi leveled her [Full Power Defense] to LV7, gaining the [Parrying Arrows] effect, and her first reaction was to confidently spin an iron bar, having Four Dark Squares, Jiu’er, and Xitan Pulan step back and take turns shooting at her with flintlock pistols...

Vividly demonstrating to the other players what was essentially volunteering for execution by firing squad.

To this day, the gif of Lin Yiyi confidently spinning her iron stick remains active on the forums as an emoticon...

...It was also then that Lin Yiyi realized she was, for the time being, unable to deflect bullets, not to speak of performing impressive feats like reflecting all bullets back and killing with a fortress bounce.

Her agility and perception attributes could barely capture the bullet’s trajectory, allowing her to dodge by intuition if there was only one. If it was two at the same time, the success rate would drop dramatically, and more than three would resemble a barrage of bullets in a courtroom execution scene...

"First, tell me the information you’ve collected," said Longjing Tea calmly, "I will summarize it into a report to hand over to Annan."