Chapter 182: The Second Stage

While Clown was taking care of Black Technomancer and Goblin, it wasn't disrupted by the psychic puppeteer as he was too busy dealing with Adam's teammates.

After being freed from the restrictive properties of the array, King Arthur immediately engaged the artificial anomaly in battle, while Nie Yiyi was quickly able to track down the psychic puppeteer under the protection of Mummy.

Of course, adapters like the psychic puppeteer always hid themselves extremely well, so it was only thanks to Hook that she was able to track him down so easily. While searching for him, Nie Yiyi received directions from Hook, and sure enough, she was able to uncover his hiding spot in no time.

The outcome of that encounter was exactly as one would expect. The psychic puppeteer's combat prowess in direct battle was even more lackluster than all of his teammates, and he was only able to delay his death for a short while by using his disruptive abilities on Nie Yiyi. Unfortunately for him, his psychic control was nowhere near powerful enough to force Nie Yiyi into committing suicide.

The fight was very brief, and he was quickly bound by Mummy before Nie Yiyi landed the killing blow.

Wraith could see that the battle was already lost, and he immediately relinquished control of the artificial anomaly before fleeing for his life.

However, he wasn't able to get very far away at all before his entire body was enveloped in the golden radiance released by King Arthur's holy sword.

Encompassed within the holy light, his wraith-like body began to quickly melt away like an ice cube under sweltering heat, and all he could do was beg for his life while cursing his own arrogance and recklessness.

By the time Clown arrived on the scene, all that was left was the artificial anomaly, which had been weakened after it was abandoned by Wraith and debilitated even further due to the side-effects of the technomancy cast onto it.

As a result, it was only a shadow of its former self, and it was promptly dealt with by Clown.

With that, the battle finally drew to a conclusion.

Even though the battle was over, Adam's bloodlust was only continuing to elevate. He turned to King Arthur with his bloodshot eyes, and he was almost overcome by the urge to attack.

Thankfully, he was able to hold onto his final shred of sanity. He felt drunk, but not completely drunk, and while he could still think rationally, he hurriedly split up from Clown before withdrawing it back into his body.

"Fuck, that was hard."

After withdrawing Clown, Adam was doubled over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily as the dizziness and bloodlust in his head gradually faded. Meanwhile, all of his teammates gathered around him.

"Fuse back with Mummy. There are still landmines around, so you still have to be careful."

Adam nodded in response. Even though the landmines were formed by Goblin's psychic power, which meant that they should disappear over time, he had only just perished, and his psychic stamp would linger for some time. In Adam's base form, if he were to step onto one of those landmines, it would not have been a pretty sight.

Thus, Adam fused back together with Mummy, then instructed his teammates to begin searching for resources.

Without the concealment of Black Technomancer's illusion, everything was revealed to them.

Adam searched through the collapsed buildings for a while, then looted the bodies of Goblin and his teammates, finding many cards in the process.

By the time everyone finished scouring through the battlefield and gathered back together again, they discovered that there were far more cards than they had expected to get from one supply point.

"I don't think a single supply point would generate so many cards. There are even two skill cards here, one for low-level treatment and one for weakening a target's offensive prowess," Adam remarked as he examined the pair of skill cards.

These two skill cards were called "Director's Cyberhex" and "Director's Counter-cyberhex". Virtually all of the skill cards were named one or the other.

The Director's Cyberhex cards bore the image of the director wearing a black robe, while the Director's Counter-cyberhex cards bore the same visage except in a white robe.

The most important information on them were the text descriptions stating what the cards did.

The white card was one that could slowly heal a target's injuries over time, while the black card could inflict a sense of feebleness upon a target, thereby weakening their offensive prowess.

"Let me use the healing card."

King Arthur pointed at his dragon, which had sustained the most severe injuries during the recently concluded battle.

It had been bombed, impaled by a saw, and crashed down from a high altitude, suffering both deep wounds and broken bones in the process.

The healing card only granted slow healing, so it wasn't going to be very useful in battle. After inspecting the dragon's injuries, Adam made no objections and tossed the card at King Arthur, while the other card was given to Hook yet again.

Hook already had a debilitation card, and the descriptions of the two cards were slightly different, but their effects were largely the same.

"You're very good at hiding in battle, and because you don't possess much combat prowess, very few people will focus on you. If we get into a difficult battle, you can use these cards on our enemies at your discretion, making sure to target the powerful combatants on the enemy teams."

"Got it."

Hook accepted the card without any unnecessary chatter, completely going against his normal chatterbox tendencies.

Aside from those two skill cards, the team had also obtained many points cards. Judging from the number of points cards there were, they seemed to have come from more than just a single supply point.

"They already ambushed a team before us, so these extra cards most likely belonged to the team that came before us," King Arthur analyzed while treating his dragon steed's wounds. "While scouring the battlefield just now, I noticed some massive footprints. If I'm not mistaken, those footprints most likely belonged to Midget."

"Does that mean he's dead?"

"It looks like it. The footprints didn't lead out of the supply point."

"That's a real pity. I met him a few days ago, and he even invited me to dine with him, even though I didn't eat anything."

"Everyone makes their own choices. Did you go see him because you wanted to recruit him onto your team?" King Arthur asked. "If he hadn't turned you down, he'd probably still be alive right now. Having said that, it's not like his death is all that tragic. He always enjoyed himself to the fullest, reveling in money and women, so he's lived a good life. On top of that, he has no vendetta against anyone, and I don't think he has any unfulfilled wishes, so he wouldn't have died with too many regrets."

Arthur heaved a faint sigh as a distracted look appeared in his eyes, looking as if he were thinking about his own past or some unresolved regrets that he had.

Adam was also a little moved upon hearing this.

I can't afford to die here! At the very least, I have to find out all of the secrets of my past before I die! qhewithewoihtoiewhtoiehetoiewqhtoiewqht

All of a sudden, the sound of a siren suddenly rang out in the sky.

The sound was extremely loud and penetrative, almost like an air raid siren, and it was coming directly from the sky.

"The director is about to enter the battlefield, which means that the zone is about to appear!"

Sure enough, right as King Arthur made this declaration, a green barrier appeared in the distant sky, and it was slowly converging and closing in from all directions.

As the barrier appeared, the roars of countless anomalies also rang out, as if their powers had been enhanced by this turn of events.

Similarly, with the emergence of the green barrier, the sky also gradually darkened, and the battle royale entered its second stage.