Chapter 183: Benefitting from Chaos

The battle royale originated from a popular internet game from a century ago. Of course, there were some differences, but the rules were very similar.

Plundering resources was only the first stage. Once the siren rang out in the sky, the director would descend onto the battlefield in person.

The director was going to do two things after entering the battlezone, the first of which was to implement the zone. The zone was essentially a large-scale cyberhex ability. He was going to plant cyberhexes around the area that all of the participants were in, and anyone who left the boundaries of the green barrier or lingered near it and refused to leave would be afflicted by those cyberhexes, which would slowly torture them to death.

In addition to that, he was also going to cast counter-cyberhexes onto all of the artificial anomalies on the map, making them even more powerful and violent so that the internal competition would be more fierce.

"The barrier is closest to us up ahead, which means that as it continues to shrink, the safest area should be behind us. Let's go in that direction."

With the zone acting as a compass, there was no need for Hook to point out which way to go next.

Thus, the team set off in the direction opposite to where the barrier was, and due to the fact that all of the surviving battle royale participants were traveling in the same direction, the likelihood of teams running into one another became far higher.

Around 10 minutes later, Adam's team arrived at a supply point, but there were already three other teams gathered there.

"There are three teams already there, but they haven't started fighting yet. It seems like they're still in the process of negotiation. Should we step in as well?" Hook asked as he peered through his telescope. "That cluster of buildings is pretty large, so there should be quite a bit of resources in there."

"Of course, why wouldn't we go in? The more chaotic the situation, the more opportunities there are. Even if we avoid everyone now, we'll eventually have to face them anyway."

Following the recently concluded battle, Adam's confidence had been bolstered.

Even in a situation where they had been ambushed, they were still able to ultimately crush their opponents. This situation clearly wasn't as perilous, and it was quite apparent that those three teams had no intention of working together, so it was a far more forgiving scenario.

"I agree," King Arthur said. "We're not going to get anything done if all we do is avoid everyone."

"Alright. In that case, I'll stay here while you guys go in so you don't have to look out for me."

Hook knew that he was only going to weigh his teammates down in a four-way standoff against the three other teams.

With that, the decision was made, and Adam's trio began to make their way toward the cluster of buildings in the distance.

King Arthur's massive dragon quickly attracted everyone's attention, so the other three teams were already prepared by the time they arrived.

Even before Adam had reached the supply point, he heard a seductive female voice.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Lean Mean Killing Machine and King Arthur!"

The woman's voice was a little pretentious, but it wasn't distasteful.

Adam had a feeling that her voice carried certain enchanting properties that made all listeners develop a sense of fondness toward her.

Adam turned to the direction where the voice had come from, and he was momentarily entranced by the sight of a gorgeous woman with a serpentine lower body.

This was undoubtedly Medusa, one of the adapters that Hook had ranked in the top half of the S tier.

She was locked in a standoff against the other two teams with a trio of adapters that Adam had never seen before.

There were also some familiar figures among the other two teams, namely the four mecha brothers. They were standing together with another team, and it was clear that they had formed some type of alliance.

"Hey, we meet again." Adam ignored Medusa as he greeted the four mecha brothers instead. "What a coincidence."

"We spawned in the same direction, so it's no surprise that we would all come here after the zone appeared." The four mecha brothers turned to Adam in unison. "I think you're a pretty good guy, Lean Mean Killing Machine. How about it? Do you want to team up with us against that snake?"

"I wouldn't get your hopes up there. In the past editions of the battle royale, it's always been the most powerful participants teaming up together to kick out the weaker participants first. Doesn't that sound far more reasonable, Mr. Killing Machine?"

Medusa turned to Adam as she gave him a seductive look.

"Also, I recall that we've met once before. As you know, I'm just like Midget in that I have no intention of fighting to win the battle royale. I'm fine with anything as long as I get my exit cards and points cards. Also, I can guarantee you that if you team up with me, I'll only take the points cards and exit cards and leave all of the other resources to you. What do you think?"

Adam had indeed met Medusa once before during his recruitment for teammates.

He had approached Medusa after Midget, but both of them had turned down his offer at the time.

Even though Medusa was far more formidable in battle than Midget, she still had no desire to try and win the battle royale. All she wanted was to earn money, and she tried to avoid complications at all costs.

Her response at the time was that joining Adam's team would inevitably pit her against Oni no Miko and her team, thereby significantly increasing the amount of risk she would have to incur, and that was why she had turned down Adam's offer.

After some consideration, Adam accepted her proposal.

"Alright, let's get rid of everyone else first."

"I knew you'd make the right decision!"

As soon as Medusa's voice trailed off, she immediately used her petrification technomancy on the four mecha brothers.

Her serpentine body and her petrification technomancy were the reasons why she had been given the nickname of Medusa.

As soon as Adam agreed to her proposal, she immediately lashed out, both as a surprise attack and also to not give Adam any time to go back on his decision.

As she turned toward the four mecha brothers, her beautiful facial features suddenly took on a terrifying and twisted appearance, following which she opened her mouth to reveal her sharp fangs and let loose a sharp screen.

The waves of energy released by her screech immediately swept toward the four mecha brothers and the other team.

"Don't let yourself get hit by that energy!" the four mecha brothers cautioned as they raised metal shields to protect themselves.

The shields instantly turned to stone upon contact with the waves of energy, then crumbled away into piles of rocks.

However, they were able to take advantage of this opportunity to flee toward the supply point.

Unfortunately for one of the members of the other team, he severely underestimated Medusa's powers. He was a technomancer, and he conjured up a technomantic shield to try and ward off the waves of energy, but they completely ignored his technomantic shield, bypassing it in an instant to turn the technomancer into stone. With that, the first casualty of the battle arose.

As for the other three members of the team, they were able to use various pieces of protective equipment to ward off the attack, then followed the four mecha brothers as they also rushed toward the supply point.

In the instant that Adam chose to team up with Medusa, they knew that the battle was already lost.

The two teams had clearly formed an alliance as they were wary of Medusa's powers. With two teams against one, they were confident that they would've at least been able to hold their own, but Adam's intervention had completely tipped the scales.

This was a massive supply point that resembled a small town, so there had to be quite a few anomalies in there.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Given that the zone had already taken shape, the combat prowess of the artificial anomalies had also been drastically elevated, so their only chance for survival was to rush into the supply point and hope that the artificial anomalies would be able to hold off Adam and Medusa.