Battle Royale of the Sinners

8.35 AM.

Tong sat on top of the government building with a frustrated look. He watched his mini radar map where the fifty white dots were moving toward the building he was on. One of them was a green dot with the highlighted name "Lu Bu".

"What's the situation!?"

Tong texted the message to the Clan chat, but there was still no response.

8.36 AM.

*DING*

A new message showed up in the chat. Li Feihong finally replied.

"We failed! The reincarnator can use both mind-controlling skill and a self-resurrecting skill. I've mobilized Zhang Liao to capture Dong Zhuo's men for now."

Tong frowned. His self-regeneration skill was expensive to use. The self-resurrection skill should have had extension conditions or requirements or an absurd cost of lifespan to use. With such restrictions, the person should not be able to repeatedly utilize this skill.

"Have you tried to kill him?" Tong asked.

"Yes. I shot him in his head. But he's still alive."

"Have you tried to kill him again after he was resurrected?"

"… Err… no."

Tong put his palm on his forehead in frustration. Li Feihong lacked wit and experiences when it came to fighting otherworlders. If it were him, he would have killed that person again and again until he had no lifespan left to use his skills.

"Never mind then, open a gate for me. I want to see the situation."

"… I'm sorry. I'm opening another gate for Zhang Liao and his men to escort Ding Yuan and the others inside my world at the moment. I can't open another gate right now."

Tong breathed out in annoyance.

"It's fine. I want you to check something for me. Within the incoming soldiers, where is the reincarnator?"

"Huh?"

"I want to know the location of the reincarnator! Where is he among the soldiers? Tell me his position!"

"Uh, ah! Sorry! He's… at the back of the group."

"How far back?"

"Uh, the most far back. He's in the rearmost position."

Tong checked his radar map again. At the back of the group of white dots, there was a person by the name "Xu Da". Tong marked it with a red color to indicate that he was an enemy. Then Tong gazed toward the front entrance gate of the main government hall.

Once this "Xu Da" crossed the gate, Tong would snipe him down until his resurrection skill would no longer work.

Tong glanced at the items in his arms. Sima Xin's rifle with a fully loaded 30-bullet-magazine was there. With the rifle, he could snipe Xu Da from a long distance to avoid his mind-control skill.

…

…

Yesterday night.

That night, when Lu Bu, Li Feihong, and Tong gathered together in Feihong's private world, Tong proposed that they should gather Ding Yuan and others into this world. After that, they would have all the times and chances to ambush Dong Zhuo's men at their leisure paces.

Tong also volunteered that he could coordinate with Li Feihong to snipe the person down. All they had to do was to sneak open a gate somewhere close to the reincarnator. Then Tong or Li Feihong could shoot him with either his pistol or the rifle without making eye contact with him.

Unfortunately, Li Feihong was too cowardice. He did not want to risk himself into the battle immediately. However, he was willing to take in the soldiers from Lu Bu camp into his private world to avoid the brainwashing skill of Xu Da. After that, Lu Bu could bait that man into the open and have him killed by using the escort soldiers.

Tong tried to convince Li Feihong that it was a half-baked hypocritical tactic. Li Feihong did not need to participate in the battle. He could use Tong as a hidden assassin instead.

Alas, Li Feihong was stubborn in this case. He did not want to be indebted to Tong, so he refused Tong's assistance.

Without a choice, Tong gave up the two, but he had yet to give up taking down Xu Da. He gave a pistol to Li Feihong, hoping that he could catch a glimpse of Tong's initial plan or his insight. Tong later wrote a detailed assassination guide of how to exploit the gate skill and the gun.

Yet, the plan failed because of the indecisiveness of Li Feihong, which made Tong annoyed to the point that he wanted to give the coward a beating.

…

…

8.50 AM.

Xu Da and his puppets arrived at the main government hall. They came here riding the redhare horses, which were much faster than the ordinary warhorses. The fifty mindless soldiers and Lu Bu got down from the horses and marched up to the entrance gate.

Jinyang government hall was surrounded by short walls and a giant gate at the entrance. The walls were 2 meters in height and half a meter thick, but the gate frame doubled the size of the wall. The gates were made of irons which weight almost a ton. It had two doors and had to be opened by three strong men for each door.

The guards stopped the men in front of the gate. They crossed their spears in an X shape to block the path.

"Please stop, Lord Lu Bu! Lord Ding Yuan is having a morning assembly right now. If you have something urgent to report, please give your report to the guard manager."

Lu Bu paused his steps. Though he was under the influence of Xu Da's skill at the moment, he retained the majority of his memories and instinct. However, he could not refuse the command of Xu Da.

"I understand. I'll wait here until the meeting is over." Lu Bu spoke.

Xu Da walked in front of the crowd to see why the soldiers stopped. He shouted to Lu Bu and the others.

"Slaves! Kill everyone that gets into your path! You have to kill Ding Yuan, that's an order!"

The guards were shocked by the yelled. The soldiers in front of them were their friends. Why did this brat suddenly order them like that?

While they were in shock, the brainwashed soldiers drew their swords and launched an attack on the defenseless guards.

The government guards were outnumbered and were caught off guard. They died without realizing what had happened.

"Storm the hall! Kill Ding Yuan and everybody that tries to stop you!"

All fifty soldiers rushed to pass the gate. Lu Bu and Xu Da stood behind to watch over the charging men.

The garrison guards already heard the ruckus. They formed up a formation to stop the incoming attackers in front of the building entrance.

The one hundred mindless soldiers ran into the shield formation of the defenders with tears in their eyes. On the other hand, the guards stabbed their spears toward the invaders with their confused expression.

'I knew these guys. Aren't they from Lord Lu's legion?'

'Why are they attacking us? Are they rebelling?'

'Xiao Mao! Why are you doing this!?'

Lu Bu crossed the front entrance and gazed at the government hall. His eyes met with Tong, who was hiding on the roof of the government hall. He paused for a moment, but he neither gestured nor speak. Lu Bu then shifted his gaze toward the fighting scene and proceeded as if he had not seen anything.

Xu Da followed behind Lu Bu. He looked around to see if there was anything that could threaten him. After he concluded that he was safe, he started looking around for an advantage point to control more soldiers.

Suddenly, he felt like he was flashed by a mirror or lens. The location came from the rooftop of the government building.

He turned to look toward the direction. He met the eyes of Tong for a split second.

But…

*BANG*

…

…

Inside the government hall, officials were walking into the blue gate in a single line. There were only twenty people remaining. Ding Yuan and Zhang Liao were standing behind to be their rearguards. They also heard the commotion outside the building.

Ding Yuan had an ugly expression on his face while Zhang Liao gazed toward the outside in solemn.

"Just like you said. Those Dong Zhuo's men are the crook." Ding Yuan muttered with a sighed.

"Please hurry and enter the gate. Sir Zhang Tong and I will try to stop Dong Zhuo's men here."

"Right. Be careful, Wenyuan."

Ding Yuan followed after the rest of the officials into the gate, which closed itself after the last official had entered.

Zhang Liao hid behind one of the sculptors in order to ambush anyone who entered the hall.

Then…

*BANG*

…

…

Tong's 5.56x45mm bullet pierced through the forehead of Xu Da. It crushed his skull and his brain. Once again, Xu Da fell to his death.

Tong did not let his guard down. He concentrated his attention on the dead body of Xu Da. The moment he resurrected himself, he would fire another shot.

As Tong had expected, Xu Da's body started regenerating at an absurd speed. His blood flowed back into his wound. The bullet that Tong fired was ejected out from his forehead. The hole that was there a few seconds ago was closing. The skins around his wound were wriggling like worms that tried to latch onto the others.

Xu Da vision came back. However, he did not stand up right away.

"Lu Bu! Stand in front of me!"

Without a choice, the controlled Lu Bu obeyed Xu Da's order and stood guard in front of him, which coincidentally blocked the bullet angle from the rooftop.

Tong clicked his tongue in frustration. This guy still could think in the moment of crisis.

Lu Bu's statue was tall and muscular. As a result, he was a fine meat shield in front of Xu Da, which gave him a good cover from Tong's sniping.

Xu Da had already found Tong's location from the split second of eye contact. He wanted to look into the direction and use his domination skill on Tong, but he was afraid that he would be shot to death first.

He crawled forward and took a peak. Then he saw Tong, who was aiming toward his direction.

"I've got you! Be my slave!"

At the same moment that Xu Da shouted his command, a gunshot sound can be heard.

*BANG*

Tong fired another shot. It grazed Xu Da's right eye and destroyed his right ear. Blood started flowing down from the missing piece of flesh.

'It's fine. I have controlled that sniper.'

*BANG*

Another shot fired. The bullet got his left foot that was not under the cover by the body of Lu Bu.

'What's going on!? I just used my skill on him!'

"Sniper over there! Stop shooting!"

*BANG*

Another bullet pierced his right leg calf.

"WTF!? System, why isn't he under my control!?"

[Ah... *Ahem* There is... a little mistake on my part.]

[I forgot to tell you that this skill won't work if your target cannot hear you.]

[I didn't add it to your skill menu because I thought you knew about it.]

[Well, I'm sowwy. Tee-Hee!]

"@##$%"

The trolling system got on his nerve. Xu Da felt like he wanted to shatter the system screen in front of him right now.

*BANG*

"HHHHhhGGG!"

Tong's shot hit Xu Da's right calf as he planned to pin the otherworlder at that position until Lu Bu came back to his sense.

Xu Da made a decision to find a good cover first before he tried to deal with Tong. Before he leaped, he gave out another order to Lu Bu.

"KILL THAT GUY ON THE ROOF!!"

As if Xu Da was once a soldier in a modern battlefield, he leaped from his crawling position toward the gate entrance to escape from the open area.

In the scope vision that Tong locked his sight to, he noticed the movement behind Lu Bu. Xu Da was trying to escape!

'You can't run away from me! STOP THE TIME!'

The distort space expanded with Tong as its center. The colorful world turned into a greyscale black-and-white. All shouts and ambiance sound stopped. The world turned into a silence place without a single movement like a painted picture.

[Why didn't you call out your stOnd!? You prick!]

[You would have looked cooler with a stOnd behind your back!]

[And I could have added a 'GOGOGO' ambiance in your scene!]

[Well, that's none of my business.]

[Start counting down 10…]

Tong ignored the usual system trolling messages. He readjusted his aiming and pointed toward Xu Da's head again. Then he pulled a trigger.

A muffled sound came from the rifle chamber. The bullet went through Xu Da's head again.

Seeing that his brain was busted one more time, Tong breathed out. He felt like he had blown away several loads of his worries with that shot.

'I've never used a gun with the time stop skill before. I'm glad it works.'

While Tong sighed in relief, the system continued the countdown as usual. However…

[7... 6…]

[You should start running. 5…]

[I would have started running if I were you …4]

[Oh well, it's none of my business… 3]

"What are you mumbling about, system?"

[You will know soon… 2]

[Oh, I'll give you a hint… 1]

"What?"

[The skill effect won't be canceled out even if the host is dead … 0!]

[The time flow will resume.]

[Don't forget to turn that meme BGM on!]

[RUN!]

The world regained its color, but there was something amiss. The figure of Lu Bu who should have been standing in front of Xu Da disappeared.

"FUDGE!!"

Tong, who was still confused by the system, felt an impact on his back as if there was a Thor Hammer slamming down upon himself.

The impact made Tong's body slammed down onto the roof and broke it into fragments. He fell down from the destroy rooftop and landed inside the main hall where Zhang Liao was hiding.