Chapter 864 - A Competition in the end

POV Maya Jones

It's been days since I found myself in this labyrinth.

One of my early thoughts was worries for Kim and the others on the surface. I hoped they weren't dumb enough to follow to try to help, and I hoped they hadn't been found by the Adjudicator and the Corporation controlling things there.

But just as my sense of the passage of time disappeared because of no day and night change, so did my worries as I went deeper into [Focus] just to keep the fear away.

Every near-death experience, every powerful opponent I avoided by either sheer luck or them just not caring, and every trap that almost killed me. It just keeps snowballing and snowballing to the point that my optimistic behavior from the early few hours here feels so hollow now.

I still don't like [Focus].

I know there is a reason I got it, and I know how powerful the skill can be from the way Nathaniel uses it. But I never embraced it fully. However, now I find myself with no other choice. Maybe it is cowardice and a way for my mind to escape and protect itself. That's what I always thought would happen, no matter what Nathaniel said.

But now, as I try to use it in the way he drilled into me and then let my instincts take over, I find it… right? Correct? It begins to feel natural.

It is my starting skill that I have a talent for. Out of myriad skills, this one appeared in my status. And now I don't feel like a machine as I worried. I don't feel like I’m losing myself.

The world turns black and white, and my emotions dim out, only coming to the surface when I will them to. And the way I use the skill, my determination to survive is still there. It is boosted, compounded. I claw, I bite, I swing my weapons the way martial arts were taught to me and the way I admired so much. All this training, the paths I drew with a blade are now ingrained into my body itself, and as I fight, all of it is smoothly pulled to the surface.

There is no hesitation as I cut, no fear slowing my reactions. Being left here on my own, I have no luxury of slacking. My low ambition won't work here.

And all the stress from having to make a choice is gone, as I have to fight and grow.

POV Kim Min-Jae

“Kim, my bud, of course talnium is special. There are just a few places in the universe where you can find it, and all of them are kind of weird. The Labyrinth of Xyphos is, obviously, the most fucked up out of all of them,” Kevin says, and an Avatar of a thylarin with four arms lands in front of him from above.

He feels so terrifyingly strong as he swings with his blue arms, and all around him, sparks of golden and white mana glitter while the area becomes drained of all colors. The thylarin then slams his arms together, and the area of black and white spreads even further, and all these sparks shoot ahead with a scary might.

Kevin watches it unbothered and lifts his right hand ahead with his palm open. The air around him ripples like there is an invisible wall just as the sparks reach it.

All of them slam against that wall and then bounce back with even higher speed.

The thylarin is unable to do anything against it in time, and dozens of projectiles drill through his body. He still tries to fight back, but flames combust across Kevin’s open palm, and he closes it into a fist.

An explosion of flames the size of a building erupts around the thylarin. There is no shockwave, smoke, or dust. The flames clear out quickly, and there is nothing left at the place.

Kevin snorts in satisfaction, “A weak-ass Champion. Kim, make sure to never become like him.”

“I will try.”

“I can hear honesty in your voice, so I will believe you! And as I said, talnium is a byproduct of these special places with extremely high space compression or dilation. Like how you have a bit of charred grass around the campfire you create, no matter how many stones you layer around it. For example, the Labyrinth of Xyphos. Its planet might seem normal on the surface, but inside of it, the space is much, much bigger.”

“How much bigger?” I ask.

He turns to me and smiles in a way that seems too much like him, yet not fully, “Some say big enough to fit a galaxy or two.”

“What, that’s…”

“Impossible? Yup! As I said, the Labyrinth of Xyphos is a fucked up place, and even the system wasn't able to copy it fully, so what you see during the floors is a cheap ass copy. There is a chance that The Tutorial might be inspired by the Labyrinth of Xyphos, but even that is far, far off from the original. Before you ask, even I have no idea, as smart as I am. I'm smart, Kim, right?”

“Sometimes.”

“Your answer was expected. The usual punishment would be to endure Biscuit in his puppy form's ankle biting for an hour, but we are out of that option, so I'll let it pass! So, other than being impressively big, it can, well, some say it mirrors the true creation, others say it records and stores. Places, items, Avatars of people, and such stuff. Of course, all of it misses that spark of the original, but that is to be expected.”

“You mentioned it before, but how would she replace the tutorial Xyphos with the real one? She shouldn't have a reach beyond, right?”

“That is true! But whoever made the tutorial was quite lazy. Or maybe just unskilled back then, and a temporary solution became a permanent one. Since the system can't copy the real Xyphos, there is instead a connection to the real Xyphos where an array is set around it that observes it and sends data in or something. Don't ask me for more, though, I have no idea how that is simpler than just creating a lesser version and copy-pasting it everywhere.”

“Maybe the Labyrinth as a data source is structurally impossible to duplicate or scale down to a simpler asset, so the best the system can do is to create a rendering and pipeline a real-time data stream just with... something akin to much compressed resolution?”

“You are such a nerd. But yeah, she found that connection, and with that cute wyvern, they are about to abuse it. But anyway! Now, let's go forth onto a far more important adventure! Girls! Maya awaits! We have to save her before that lunatic woman starts with her plan.”

POV Nathaniel

Xixi is trying to escape, yet glass walls rise up in front of her every time she almost succeeds. The green-haired woman’s perception is great, and she dodges long-range attacks as if she can predict them. Prince Kip’s laser eyes and yes, even my lance. She also has high enough physical stats to outrun Vic.

As a hunter, Xixi doesn't have people to help her, so she is on her own, and because of the glass walls, it's easy to follow her.

But as we reach a dead end, she stands in a hallway surrounded by her green armor.

“Motherfucker, stop disrupting all I do!” she shouts with her eyes angrily locked onto me, ignoring Vic and Prince Kip.

“Maybe put more effort into not letting me do it.”

“I met goddamned Champions who fucked with my mana less than you, you ridiculous bastard!”

“Forty percent,” I say.

“Stop saying that, I have no idea what it means!”

She doesn't, but I do. Victoria allowed me to use up to 40% not that long ago, and I'm still in a good mood because of it.

As for what Xixi says, these Champions must have been quite bad at handling mana then. And even now, as she talks, I continue to use my eyes to reach out towards her and pull apart the structure of any skill she tries to activate. Armor, projectiles, attacks. Anything external.

Forty percent is still too little for me to try to pierce her defenses and natural barrier to reach under her skin. Still, even with all of that, she is really dangerous. Her reinforcement is impressive, the armor she keeps close to her skin is powerful enough to face Victoria, though she does her best to avoid Prince Kip’s laser eyes.

“Is this it? Has our hunter found her end in our game! Among our male audience, the participant Xixi ranks quite high, so maybe some donors will buy an expensive option to send her an item to help!” Melek continues to talk in the background, and we can also hear the murmur of a crowd, as if they are surrounding us.

Just as Prince Kip regenerates his eyes and shoots at Xixi, an item appears in front of her. A round, shiny shield she grabs with widened eyes and puts in the way of the lasers.

The surface of the shield begins to glow as if it is about to melt, and droplets of metal start dripping on the floor, but it endures the attack, as well as the lance that I shoot at it.

Victoria reaches her in the meantime and throws two fingers in front of her. From each, a duplicate grows, and boosting its body beyond limits, launches ahead and smashes against the shield, after which the duplicate's body explodes under the pressure. It is almost like she is using them like some sort of attack.

The second duplicate flings the shield to the side and opens up Xixi as Victoria reaches her.

My disruption causes Xixi’s skill to break apart again just as Vic slams her against the wall. A duplicate appears on the other side, and they both pull, tearing flesh on their forearms as they pull apart the green armor made of mana Xixi has.

I use the opportunity and shoot the lance, stabbing it through the woman, who disappears the next moment.

The audience goes into a rampage. Shouting in anger or amusement, and Melek starts talking about lost bets and such, but as I usually do, I filter it out.

I look through the Glass House towards the black room in the middle, which isn't even that far away, and this time I don't even see opponents between us and it.

The door Xixi tried to reach opens, but both me and Vic stand unmoving, as both of us notice Prince Kip’s eyes glowing.

“It was nice while it lasted, but this is a competition in the end, isn't it?” he says with a smile.

“It is,” my sister nods and turns to him.

"I have noticed that you have been at the front the entire time, Miss Victoria, while your brother kept behind me most of the time."

“I wouldn't attack you out of nowhere, but you know… just in case,” I answer instead of my sister. As he said, I'm currently behind him. With the way his most powerful ability works, he would face Vic and blast her, which is something she can deal with, meanwhile I would attack him from behind.

“Refreshingly so, I believe you,” the vyssari says with a smile. “Let's break this alliance apart then. Do you agree?”

“I agree,” I say.

“I agree,” my sister says.

The next moment, Prince Kip’s eyes shoot lasers ahead, cutting my sister in half. I'm gathering my mana and launching my attacks at him already while observing his movement.

But he behaves unlike before.

His body doesn't even move, and it is the body I watch for signs of turning around. Instead, his head twists on his neck, breaking and spinning 180 degrees as bones bulge under the skin.

There is a wide grin on his face as his laser sweeps against the side wall, and when he is fully turned to me, it tracks me.

All my attacks are left alone to explode or get cancelled out, as all my effort goes into boosting myself to the side, where I slam against the wall with a crunch and then boost myself across the floor to avoid the sweep of the laser.

The glow in his eyes intensifies, and the narrow stream becomes wider, breaking apart until it is streams of lightning that shoot out of his eyes and bounce off the walls and through the hallways.

I keep dodging, I raise defenses against them, but all to no avail, and a few of them pierce through my body, damaging me and burning my flesh in an effect that makes healing slower.

Prince Kip avoids my lance even as it grazes his side, and his neck snaps back into place as he heals himself and his eyes begin to regenerate. Without a sight, he nimbly avoids my sister, but then I reach at him with [Redistribution]. He is fast, but his physical stats aren't as impressive.

I begin to absorb his kinetic movement, halting him in place, and to counter it, he quickly makes his natural barrier expand in an attempt to press against it.

But like any problem, this also can be solved by throwing more mana at it. Forty percent is still more than enough to let mana flood my body as I quickly channel it in a huge amount, overpowering him just for a moment, long enough for Vic to grab him by his shoulders and start to pull him apart. I pin him for just a very short moment, but in this level, even that short moment is enough.

In the final second, one of his eyes regenerates faster than the other one, and he blasts away her head in a burst of white lightning, but what remains of Victoria’s body continues to pull him apart until his bracelet activates and the vyssari disappears.

I let go of the finger I held on until now, and my sister regrows from it as I hand her the bracelet as well, and both of us start walking through the hallway towards the black room.