Chapter 204: Penultimate Zone

"What are the two skill cards?"

Adam inspected the pair of skill cards to find that one of them was an elementary healing card, while the other one was an intermediate psychic recovery card.

Having already witnessed an elementary healing card in action, Adam focused his attention on the psychic recovery card.

So this card allows the user to recover a large amount of psychic power in a relatively short time. This thing is a godsend for me!

Adam was ecstatic to have obtained such a useful skill card.

For adapters like the sniper and Nie Yiyi, this card wasn't very useful. Their psychic bodies were too frail, so in an intense battle, there was a very good chance that they would've already been severely wounded or killed before they had a chance to exhaust their psychic power.

Another example of this was the healer of the enemy team, who had been killed by Adam's sneak attack before he had a chance to use any of his abilities.

However, Adam's case was completely different. In his Clown form, it was very difficult for him to be killed. In fact, killing him was a very difficult task even if he were only fused with Mummy or Sludge.

Given his attributes, he was much more at risk of running out of psychic power than he was of being killed by a single attack.

"With this card, I'll be far more effective in battle!" Adam didn't make any attempt to hide his intentions and immediately tried to claim the card for himself. "I think this card should be given to me. Does everyone agree?"

"I agree." King Arthur was the first one to respond. "This card suits you more than anyone else on our team."

With King Arthur agreeing to the proposal, Nie Yiyi and Hook naturally raised no objections.

"These two cards were left behind by the enemy team. Did you guys manage to find anything from the airdrop sites?"

"I managed to find an elementary healing card." Nie Yiyi pulled out a card that was identical to the healing card from before. "There seems to be quite a few of these on the map. The only problem is that the rate of healing granted by these cards is too slow, so it's not very useful in battle."

"The director most likely intentionally put more elementary healing cards onto the map to make things more interesting in the final showdown," King Arthur analyzed. "It would be quite a letdown for the spectators if everyone's already half-dead by the time the zone shrinks down to its final form. Everyone wants to see the most powerful adapters at the height of their powers. That's probably what the director wants as well."

"If these things are so common, then I'll use one now." Adam pointed at Mummy as he spoke. "I'm still counting on Mummy to put in some work, but it won't be able to do much in its current state."

Outside of Clown, Mummy was Adam's most powerful anomaly.

If Mummy had been in peak condition, there was a good chance that Adam would've been able to take down one more of the enemy team's members. Even if that wasn't possible, at the very least, he wouldn't have been completely dominated by that artificial anomaly.

In his fused form with Mummy, Adam possessed powers comparable to a lower mid-level S tier combatant, and with all of his other anomalies at his disposal, he would've been able to easily keep up with the artificial anomaly.

"You're right, it really is too weak in its current state. If these cards aren't that rare, then just use one now."

Nie Yiyi tossed the card at Adam, who immediately injected his psychic power into it to trigger its effect, and once green healing energy began to slowly seep out of the card, he pressed it against Mummy's body.

With the healing card in effect, the sunken sections of Mummy's skull began to slowly recover, as did all of its broken bones and torn flesh. New bandages were also beginning to slowly emerge from its body to replace the destroyed ones.

"Are we going to search for any airdrops that are further away? If so, I'll withdraw Mummy into my body so it can slowly recover."

"There's no point. According to my past experience, airdropped supplies will all be taken by nearby teams in a short time, so even if we go after ones that are further away, we won't be able to find anything. All of the supplies will have already been taken at this point," King Arthur said. "What we have to do now is prepare for the next stage, which is the penultimate zone. In this stage, our main goal will be to ambush other teams.

“At this point, most of the supplies on the map have already been claimed, and everyone is being herded to the center of the map by the ever-shrinking zone, so there will be less and less area available to move around in. Hence, the vantage points on the main paths leading to the center of the map have become extremely important strategic locations as those who claim those vantage points will be able to see all of the people passing through the area."

Adam nodded in response. Having reviewed footage of past editions of the battle royale, Adam knew that this was always a very hectic stage of the game. At this point, the zone had already shrunken down significantly, so there were only several paths left leading to the final zone.

All those who were able to last to this point had to have quite a few cards in their possession.

Given that everyone was distributed throughout the map, it was virtually impossible for anyone to survive to this point and still be completely empty-handed.

At this point, most of the supply points had already been looted, so the quickest and most lucrative way to gather resources from here onward would be to rob other teams.

Only at this stage of the game was the battle royale truly beginning to reach its climax.

In order to gather resources, teams would be forced to go up against one another in direct battle, and the majority of those who wanted to win the battle royale or still hadn't obtained exit cards were going to perish in this stage.

"Do we want to attack or defend?"

Adam was asking for everyone's opinions.

Defending entailed claiming a vantage point first, and the benefit of such a strategy was that one could claim the vantage point before anyone else and set up traps for all of the passing teams, much like Goblin's team had done earlier in the battle royale.

At this point in the game, there were only several routes available to the final zone, so all teams essentially had to pass through those areas, even if they knew that there were traps waiting for them.

However, the downside to such a strategy was that other teams would also be trying to claim those vantage points, so the team that claimed a vantage point first would have to face many teams in battle one after another, thereby creating greater potential for danger and psychic power expenditure.

The alternative strategy was to attack, and the benefit to that strategy was that one could choose to wait until what they deemed to be a suitable opportunity arrived before making a move. For example, they could wait until most of the other teams had already attacked the defender, or if they could tell that the defender was already a spent force. Thus, adopting this strategy granted one more control and initiative.

However, the downside to this was that all attackers were of the same mindset, so everyone would be waiting for the other teams to strike first. It was often the case that many of the attacking teams would wait too long, and the shrinking zone would force all of them to make a move at once, thereby creating an extremely chaotic situation.

Ultimately, there was a very good chance that not only would an attacking team not be able to claim the vantage, they would be swept up into a free-for-all battle.

"Let's go and take a look at the situation first. None of us have abilities that make us good at setting traps, so I feel like we should observe the situation first before deciding on a plan."

"Alright, that sounds like a good strategy."

Adam took a glance at the ever-approaching green barrier, and he waited until around half of Mummy's injuries had been healed before fusing as one with it.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Following the fusion, he immediately felt a cool and refreshing sensation surge throughout his entire body. It was a very enjoyable experience to be basked in the healing green light.

"It's a good thing that the healing effects will still persist even after fusion. Let's go!"

King Arthur jumped onto Diana's back as he prepared to depart, but this time, he didn't dare to fly.

They were about to enter the penultimate zone, and he would be making a massive aerial target out of himself if he were to take to the sky.