Chapter 274: Give and Take

Amid countless refracted images, Ji Jue watched one figure after another flicker past. At last, the flickering stopped.

Beyond the mirror-like shimmer, another gloomy face appeared before him. The man had disheveled hair, rough stubble, and bloodshot eyes. His skin was deathly pale, as though he had not seen sunlight in a very long time.

The instant he realized how young his opponent was, undisguised contempt flashed across his face. But then Ji Jue’s name appeared on the projection, and his expression froze.

Ji Jue saw his opponent’s name as well. Whitesail Workshop: Helmut Neumann. He was ninth in the rankings, with 272 points.

After his initial shock, Helmut’s expression actually gave way to barely restrained delight. He stared at Ji Jue, almost unable to believe his luck. Unfortunately, they had barely enough time to see each other. In less than a second, the projection vanished.

Helmut could hardly contain his excitement. “Ji Jue...”

If he could take down the number-one candidate in a single stroke, the points he could earn would be enough to propel him straight into the top three!

Since setting foot on the Ember Path, he had never considered himself inferior to anyone. Even his crushing defeat at the hands of that stone-like monster from Clock Tower had merely been the result of his carelessness. The very reason he had signed up for this examination with such enthusiasm was to prove that he was in no way inferior to that man. If he could defeat Ji Jue, wouldn’t that indirectly prove that he deserved to rank above Andrei?!

Even so, his vigilance only grew. He resolved to hold nothing back and give it everything he had!

Another chime rang out, and he saw a replica emerging from the raging black rain outside his workshop. The eerie armored giant was crimson from head to toe, as though bathed in flames. Its steel, beast-like mask lifted, and its scarlet eyes locked onto him, radiating murderous intent.

***

At the same time, outside Ji Jue’s workshop, the replica of Helmut, whom he had seen earlier, also appeared within his field of observation. Only now, his shock and hostility from before were gone. His expression was as calm as still water, without the slightest hint of emotion. A ribbon of light drifted around him, flickering unpredictably with an eerie quality.

After only a brief glance around, his gaze settled directly on Ji Jue inside the workshop. An ornately decorated mirror appeared in his hand out of thin air. It rotated silently, refracting countless crystalline glimmers of light.

Boom!

A deafening blast erupted in the distance. A turret in the jungle, originally meant only to drive off aberrants, swiveled around, locked onto its target, and fired. The bullet tore through the downpour toward him.

Ji Jue had no idea what Helmut was capable of, but there was no harm in testing the waters first.

But Ji Jue froze. The instant the gunshot rang out, Helmut’s head exploded. Blood sprayed everywhere as his headless corpse toppled backward into the black rain.

He’s dead?

Ji Jue had been expecting the two of them to fight back and forth for ages before he finally took the guy down with one decisive move. Instead, he had fired what amounted to a casual greeting shot and blown his head off immediately?

“What the hell?”

A faint breeze passed through the workshop. Ji Jue sat up straighter, staring wide-eyed at the mercury screen before him.

A chill ran down his spine. The core furnace control room had the strictest sealing standards in the entire workshop. It had absolute dust control and anti-static isolation, and was completely sealed off from the outside. So where the fuck had that breeze come from?!

His collar suddenly unfurled and extended, hardening into a massive shield that enveloped him while the dormant armor beside him roared to life and slammed toward the source of the wind.

Bang!

Something strange flickered in the air before vanishing. Thick liquid dripped onto the floor, leaving behind blotches of black ink.

The stains writhed as though alive, gathering. As a swamp spread across the ground, the darkness expanded. Monstrous tentacles, like those of an octopus, stretched out from within, surging toward him from every direction. Such an enormous, bizarre creature had somehow appeared inside the very heart of Ji Jue’s workshop without the slightest warning!

Ji Jue did not even need to make a move. Immediately, streams of mercury shot out from all over like a torrential downpour. They crisscrossed around the creature, binding it like ropes.

Then the ropes transformed. Blades burst through it from the outside, then tore back out from the inside. A foul stench spread through the air as blood sprayed like rain. Severed limbs fell to the ground, piling up like a small mountain.

Ji Jue’s expression remained completely calm. The entire interior of the workshop lay within his perception, and the streams of mercury were extensions of his own hands and feet. From that brief penetration and tearing sensation, he could clearly tell that there had been no spirit matter dispersing from it. It had no blood nor soul. At most, it was nothing more than an illusion. It was fake!

And yet an illusion had somehow managed to interfere with reality. Was this a Mirror-type blessing? Ji Jue’s thoughts raced.

With a wave of his hand, mercury blades rose like a storm, tearing the raging phantom apart again and again. As the phantoms shattered one after another, a tiny black dot appeared out of nowhere. The black dot rapidly swelled, expanding until it became a familiar black coat that unfolded and somehow transformed into a spatial rift.

The opening was far too narrow for a person to pass through, yet Helmut forced his way through regardless, completely ignoring the crushing pressure as the rift contracted around him. He fell to the ground, his flesh mangled and bloody.

Ignoring the mercury blades sweeping and slashing across him, he raised one hand and pointed at Ji Jue. In the next moment, streams of mercury pierced him. In his other hand, the strange mirror trembled violently. Within its pitch-black surface, Ji Jue’s face appeared.

Everything went still. The entire workshop seemed to grind to an abrupt halt.

Through the haze of dizziness and disorientation, Ji Jue felt himself suffocating. His face tingled strangely, and when he touched it with his hand, his fingers met nothing but a smooth, featureless skin. His face was gone!

Meanwhile, Ji Jue’s features gradually formed on Helmut’s face. It was utterly bizarre.

As his face was transferred away, Ji Jue seemed to lose his connection to the workshop. Control was being ceded along with his face, falling into Helmut’s hands.

Instinctively, Ji Jue tried to gasp, stunned that such a bizarre method of invasion actually existed. Unfortunately, he did not even have a mouth anymore. If Ji Jue didn’t react soon, the entire workshop would probably be taken from him!

And yet, during those brief but crucial three seconds, Ji Jue did nothing. Instead, he took two steps forward and raised his head, deliberately letting the mirror capture him more clearly. He simply allowed Helmut to steal his identity and his face.

As the mercury restraints and blades pierced through him, Helmut slowly looked up, revealing his newly acquired face. In response to him, the workshop roared to life.

Everything had fallen under his control! If the one standing there had been Helmut himself rather than a craftsman’s replica, Ji Jue was sure he would have seen a mocking, vicious grin on his face.

And likewise, he surely would not have missed the horror and despair that should have followed from the bottom of his heart. Fairly speaking, Ji Jue sympathized with what the man was about to go through.

At the same time, he couldn’t help being curious. How could there possibly be someone else in this world, besides himself, who was so utterly reckless?

Bang!

Gone rigid, Helmut let out a muffled sound. It was like a bomb he had willingly swallowed had finally burned through its fuse, and then—

Boom!

***

“I WON!!!”

In another isolated simulation, inside a heavily fortified workshop, Helmut checked the timing again and again. At last, unable to contain his delight any longer, he threw back his head and burst into laughter.

Estimating how far his replica should have progressed by now, he could no longer suppress the urge to let the corners of his mouth curl upward. He already had victory in this round completely within his grasp! There was no other possible outcome.

Perhaps in some other setting, or against some other kind of opponent, he would still have had reason to worry. But in this examination, not a single participant—not even that stone-like monster from Clock Tower—could possibly beat him!

No. More accurately, the moment he discovered the inherent mechanics of these simulated workshop battles, victory had already been within his reach!

After repeatedly probing the system during the previous round, he had confirmed one thing. During a replica assault, the invader could ignore all concealment and disguise and instantly lock onto the opponent’s location! No matter how great their defenses were or how fast they could run, it made no difference. As long as the craftsman controlling the workshop was still alive, that connection and lock-on would never disappear, even if they fled to the ends of the earth!

That was precisely why Helmut had poured every last point and all his efforts into exploiting this mechanic, creating a set of works capable of deciding the outcome of any battle in a single encounter, no matter who his opponent was!

His masterpiece, Void Shadow, had been created using a Mirror-type blessing that could evolve illusions specifically in response to the observer’s awareness and perception. The moment it was perceived, it could bypass distance entirely and act directly upon the opponent’s consciousness. From there, it would begin interfering with reality, creating a nightmare that could not be dispelled.

While Void Shadow bought time and drew the opponent’s attention, the Shadowshift Garment, made using an Eternal Gate blessing, would transform his replica into a shadow and allow it to pass through even the narrowest spatial gaps, bringing it directly before the enemy.

And finally, the second the opponent’s face was reflected in the Usurper Mirror, the battle would already be over!

Once that happened, the craftsman hiding within the workshop would lose their unique spirit matter authentication and identifying traits, leaving them unable to call upon the workshop’s support. And with Void Shadow tying them down and disrupting them, they would not even have time to resist. No matter how desperately they struggled, everything they possessed would ultimately fall into his hands.

By now, the battle on the other side had probably already been settled. All he had to do was devote himself entirely to defense, protect the victory he had already secured, and avoid the disastrous outcome of mutual destruction.

To that end, he had already pushed his workshop’s defenses to the absolute limit and surrounded it with layer upon layer of traps and fortifications. No matter how powerful his opponent was, those defenses would be more than enough to hold them off until dawn.

Then, once the intruder had been left disoriented and exhausted by the countless illusions and counterattacks, Helmut could strike at his leisure and wipe them out. At that point, they probably would not even make it to the workshop gates.

He’d defeat the opponent and win! He’d take their workshop and win! He’d win! Win! Win! Win! Win!

Helmut fought back the urge to laugh wildly, forcing himself to remain calm as he suppressed the grin threatening to spread across his face. No. Calm down, Helmut! Calm down! It’s not over yet!

At the very least, he still had to stay vigilant.

Directly in front of the workshop perched high atop the mountain, beyond the countless traps and layers of illusory mist, the invading powered armor seemed to be standing still, dazed. It simply stood there with a hand on its chin, carefully studying the scene before it and making sure to analyze everything in earnest. Raising a hand, it roughly estimated the distance between itself and the workshop.

Finally, it rummaged inside the enormous metal pack on its back, several times larger than itself, and pulled out a huge pile of components. Mercury surged and shifted, hardening and reshaping itself.

Just like that, under Helmut’s increasingly bewildered gaze, the pieces assembled themselves into a White Tiger-style twelve-tube rocket launcher!

Helmut stared blankly, his eyes wide. For a moment, his mind simply failed to process what he was seeing.

Right there in front of Helmut’s projection, Assault Horsey hoisted the enormous, heavy launcher onto its shoulder and dropped into a crouched firing stance. It did not really understand what was going on, but whatever.

First things first, two full volleys of aberration combustible rockets ought to make for a proper greeting!