Absolute Death Game

"Wait a minute, I need to ask..." Before Xiao Buli could finish speaking, the old Taoist had already disappeared.

Damn, why the hell is he in such a hurry, Xiao Buli grumbled inwardly, it seemed he could only wait to question him after resurrecting him.

While he was conversing with the old Taoist, Du Yibo and He Suoju had already turned the corpse upside down and even found a few items.

'Damaged Taoist Robe' x1, Talisman Paper x17, and 26 copper coins – this guy looked miserably poor, and Xiao Buli seriously doubted whether this fellow really had the Merit Points to resurrect himself.

Apart from those items, there was also one thing that seemed of value – a book, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".

"Classic of Mountains and Seas": An informative book recording many incidents from the Ancient Times, weird and wonderful creatures unique to that era, and legends about the Ancient Gods. Apart from broadening one's experience, it seemed to have no special purpose.

Learning requirement: intelligence 20 points.

Xiao Buli's eyelids twitched involuntarily. After the Tao Te Ching incident, he'd come to understand that informative books could sometimes be even more valuable than regular Skill Books; they might hide some special plots or quests. However, requiring 20 points of intelligence to learn was a bit too high of a demand.

Xiao Buli thought to himself, 20 points of intelligence is akin to having an IQ of 200 in the real world. How many people could achieve that? Unlike other Attributes that could be bolstered with equipment, intelligence couldn't be boosted through Professional Skills. Although the book felt valuable, this absurd learning requirement made it almost useless.

Nevertheless, Xiao Buli still planned to take it.

"How about it, shall the three of us bid on it?" He finished speaking and glanced at the remaining Gold Coins in his bag, ready to bleed his wallet for it.

Who would have thought that Du Yibo would say, "Bid on what? If you want this trash, just take it. I certainly don't want it."

He Suoju added, "Yeah, it requires 20 points of intelligence to learn, and it's not even a Skill Book. If you want it, just take it. I have no objections."

Xiao Buli hadn't expected the two to be so generous. However, he wasn't the type to take advantage of others easily, so he still gave them each a Gold Coin, which made Du Yibo and He Suoju feel somewhat embarrassed.

After they divided the items, He Suoju asked, "Shall we continue?"

But Du Yibo said, "If you ask me, forget about it. The Monkey King was hard enough to deal with. We have no idea how tough the Ancient God will be. What if we can't beat him after entering the Illusory Realm? There would be nowhere to run. Besides, even if we win, it's just a silver-grade equipment, not worth risking our lives for."

Xiao Buli nodded in agreement; Du Yibo was right. In a game where dying once meant game over, it was better not to fight battles with uncertain outcomes. In fact, if he had known the kind of peculiar battles he would encounter in this instance, he would have never entered in the first place.

As the three of them were talking about leaving, they discovered the exit had disappeared. Everything around them looked the same – black weapons and bookshelves – it was clear they were being trapped.

The three of them were stunned, "Damn, what do we do now? We can't even get out."

Xiao Buli asked Du Yibo, "You have more experience than I do, have you encountered a situation like this before?"

Du Yibo nodded, "A few times. Once, I was in a cave instance, and when we found that the BOSS was too powerful and decided to retreat, it collapsed the cave, trapping everyone inside."

He Suoju curiously asked, "Then what did you guys do?"

Du Yibo replied, "Of course, we could only fight desperately. In the end, three out of five people died, but the loot from the BOSS earned me a nice bonus. I pocketed a full eighty thousand bucks, and boy, was I ecstatic at the time."

Du Yibo's tone carried a faint sneer, the loss of three lives behind the 80,000, he probably regretted his own ignorance back then.

He Suoju said, "So what do we do now? There's no BOSS for us to fight to the death with at the moment."

Xiao Buli said, "It looks like we have no choice but to continue. As long as we pass one more test, we should be able to break the curse here—Du Yibo, what are you doing?" Xiao Buli asked strangely, as Du Yibo was hopping around in a corner, seemingly searching for something.

"It's nothing." Du Yibo, who was looking for earthen ground, hurriedly spoke, cursing his luck inwardly. If it had been earthen ground, he could use his earth-escape technique, but it now seemed impossible. The floor of this library was made of bluestone, probably to prevent moisture from damaging the books.

Since they couldn't leave, they had to continue. Xiao Buli glanced at the surrounding black mist and estimated that it would probably disperse after passing through one more book's story. He clicked on the book "Penglai Secret Chronicles: The Change of Xuantian Palace" but got no response—it seemed to have already been deciphered by the Taoist monk. That left only one last book to choose from.

As Xiao Buli thought this, he clicked on the book "Ancient Gods' Chronicles: Zhurong Edition." The black smoke once again swept over them, and this time, the three men offered no resistance, allowing the black smoke to envelop them and obscure the screen.

The screen went dark, then suddenly brightened with an unusually dazzling light, like the midday sun, almost within reach. In an instant, the entire screen turned a fiery red. Xiao Buli squinted to adjust to the brightness. By the time he could make out the scene, he immediately knew they were in trouble.

All around, there was the sight of flowing magma and rising flames. Volcanoes erupted with piercing wails, and the sky was covered in dense smoke and dark clouds, mixing into shades of crimson and gray-black—a scene resembling the end of the world. Rain poured from the sky, the drops mixed with volcanic ash, forming black, scalding rainwater.

When the rain hit the ground, it immediately turned into steam and returned to the sky. Thunder roared in the distance, mingling with the shrill cries of volcanoes. Xiao Buli glanced at his status bar, surprised to find that this time he had not become any other character, but was still himself. Watching the scorching lava flow towards him, he quickly hopped onto an outcropping of volcanic rock.

He looked around. There wasn't a single decent piece of ground anywhere; instead, there were only flowing lectures. Some solidified volcanic rocks jutted out from the magma, forming disjointed, small points to land on.

"Damn it, what kind of hellish place is this! Can this be for real?" He Suoju's voice rang out in the voice chat, frantic as though playing MapleStory. In the midst of panic, he too had managed to jump up, and Xiao Buli's pupils suddenly contracted—Du Yibo's figure was being swallowed by melting lava. Xiao Buli shouted anxiously, and the next moment, a fiery human shape burst out of the magma.

Thank God. Xiao Buli breathed a sigh of relief. A fire exploded nearby, and Du Yibo, using the momentum of the fire's blast, teleported beside them and jumped up, deactivating his Fire Spirit Form.

"Crap, that was close. What kind of damn book is this?" Du Yibo cursed twice, suddenly a loud boom rang out and the volcanic rock under the three of them vibrated, tilting over.

"Don't bunch up together, one per corner! Keep balanced!" Xiao Buli shouted as he ran to one side of the volcanic rock, while He Suoju ran to another corner. The three of them took their positions in an equilateral triangle, and finally, the volcanic rock stabilized.

The trio looked out towards where the roaring sound came from, stunned by the game's visuals. The world was divided into two different colors; on the left was torrential rain and lightning, gloomily gray and black like an endless ocean, while on the right, volcanoes furiously erupted, smoke and fire filled the air, bright as day, hot as hell.

These two forces constantly collided, as if two giants were battling between heaven and earth. No, it wasn't just as if—there really were two giants fighting.

Amid the storm, a massive vortex stirred the surrounding tempest and thunderclouds, steadily eroding the fiery side. Meanwhile, from the mouth of the volcano erupted a firestorm that revealed a titanic human form, spewing surges of scorching power into the clouds above, seemingly trying to counter the opponent's assault.

The two ancient forces clashed as if to tear the world apart.

Xiao Buli suddenly understood what they were witnessing—this must be the great battle between the fire god Zhurong and the water god Gonggong from mythology. But whom should they assist, Zhurong or Gonggong?

However, he dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it emerged; the struggle between such beings was not something they could intervene in. Simply surviving this chaotic battle would be a stroke of immense luck. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

Just as Xiao Buli realized this, a massive piece of volcanic magma, with flames billowing, suddenly hurtled towards them, like a meteor streaking across the sky.

"FUCK, run!" Xiao Buli yelled. At that point, he could no longer worry about the others. Invoking Cloud Thunder Leap, he shot into the sky and flew dozens of miles away in the opposite direction of the battle. After consuming about a third of his True Yuan Points, his surroundings transitioned from fiery red to black-red, and he fell back down to the ground.

The moment he landed, he sharply tapped the space bar, gracefully braking mid-air, and with a click sound, he landed on a lifeless patch of ground.

This place had likely been a magma-covered surface not long ago, but after cooling, most of the magma had turned into black volcanic rock, though faint traces of scarlet still showed through cracks on the surface.

Turning back, the battle between Zhurong and Gonggong seemed much further away, at least not having any immediate effect on his current location. Only then did he sigh with relief. (To be continued. If you like this work, please head over to qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)