[The safe zone is shrinking]

When the two-hour mark passed, the voice of the Fire Thief rang in the minds of all Ascenders still on Holy Grail Island.

Everyone looked toward the distance in unison, only to see several circular black walls descending from the horizon without warning.

These black walls gradually pressed inward, and soon, the edges of the island on all four sides were engulfed.

If anyone had still been in that area, they would have likely been swallowed up by the black walls just like the island itself—an experience no one would want to have.

Guan Tong had been following a bright yellow line of light, one only he could see, that led toward the Holy Grail Secret Realm.

But his heart sank the moment he saw where the black walls had appeared.

According to the path of light on the ground, the Holy Grail Secret Realm was located on the west side of the island, a significant distance from its center.

By his estimation, if the western black wall advanced another four or five times, it would probably swallow the location of the Holy Grail Secret Realm.

This meant that no one would be able to obtain the Holy Grail anymore!

’The black walls advance once every two hours. That means if I want to get the Holy Grail, I might only have eight hours at most.’

Compared to the competition’s 24-hour time limit, this cut the available time by a full two-thirds.

’If that’s the case, I have to eliminate the threat behind me first, then get to the Holy Grail Secret Realm as quickly as possible.’

Guan Tong turned to look behind him. He knew that squad was still in hot pursuit.

After passing through the small town, Guan Tong had decided to find a good spot to take care of them.

Just ahead was a dense forest, which fit his requirements perfectly.

Not long after he ducked into the woods, Gu Fei arrived with his three squad members.

"Captain, that guy went into the forest. Should we still go after him?"

"What do you think?" Gu Fei said coldly. "If we want a good ranking, we have to take his points."

"Damn it!" another person in the squad said. "The reconnaissance drone is showing interference. It failed to deploy. He must have a jammer he got from a supply crate."

Two hours in, the surviving squads had all opened at least a few supply crates.

Jammers were one of the most common items from the crates, along with "Replenishing Water" for restoring stamina and "Healing Capsules" for rapid recovery from injuries.

"Captain, what do we do? Wait for the jammer’s effect to wear off before we go in?"

"As if we can wait for it to end!" Gu Fei frowned. "Three minutes is enough time for him to get far away. Besides, who knows how many jammers he has? We can’t just wait forever."

"Captain, I’m worried he’ll set up an ambush for us," the female squad member said hesitantly. "If he could kill Jianming, he can kill us. Do we really have to take this risk?"

"Am I the captain, or are you? Maintain combat formation. Move in!"

"Yes, sir!"

With Gu Fei having spoken, the three squad members naturally had nothing more to say. They could only acknowledge the order and cautiously enter the forest.

Their squad composition was well-thought-out. Gu Fei was the strongest close-quarters damage dealer, and Jianming had been the ranged shooter. The other three members possessed support items, sustainability items, and specialized defense items, respectively.

A team with such complementary strengths possessed considerable combat power. But now, with Jianming gone, their ranged attack options were limited, forcing them to rely on single-use items from their storage.

After entering the dense forest while maintaining their formation, they faintly sensed a murderous aura in the air. It felt as if the enemy had already laid a trap, just waiting for them to walk right into it.

Just as they had ventured a short distance in, they suddenly heard a sound like a bottle cap being opened.

POP—

The four of them looked toward the source of the sound in unison, only to see a round, spherical object flying toward them from between the leaves.

"Watch out!"

The member specializing in defense immediately used their item. Instantly, a ring of small, rotating shields appeared around each of them. It looked a bit comical, but it did have the effect of boosting their defense.

However, the next moment, when they heard a "HISS—" and saw a large amount of white mist erupting, they realized it wasn’t an attack.

"It’s a Smoke Bomb!" Gu Fei shouted. "Back-to-back! Don’t move!"

A large amount of smoke spread out, and the four stood back-to-back, warily watching their surroundings.

’The smoke is thick enough.’

Guan Tong was currently standing on the branch of a tree over ten meters high, looking down on the thick pillar of smoke.

He had managed to get so high up, of course, by using his Hooked Claw for a rapid ascent.

He now switched his Silver Hunter to shell type #3 and repeatedly pulled the trigger, aiming at the location of the smoke.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Guan Tong opened with a five-shot burst. Against opponents loaded with items, he couldn’t afford to be careless.

Then, as he watched the fiery light of the explosions fade into the smoke, he directed his incorporeal Shadow to slip into the tree trunk, travel down it, and move toward the center of the smoke cloud.

Down in the smoke, despite their prior preparations and use of multiple defensive items, the five consecutive High-Explosive Bombs detonating nearby still left two of them with minor injuries.

But what shocked them was that the enemy actually possessed such a powerful firearm, something extremely rare among Ascenders.

"Alright, the explosions have stopped, and the smoke’s been blown away," Gu Fei said. "Get ready to charge out with me. Three, two...! What’s wrong with you guys?!"

As Gu Fei counted down the last second, he suddenly realized his three teammates were frozen in place.

Then, they all let out a muffled grunt in unison, blood spilling from their mouths as they collapsed.

The scene made Gu Fei tremble. He stared at the team roster, which now showed him as the sole survivor, and had no idea what had just happened. Why had his three teammates all died in an instant? And why was he completely unharmed?!

Because the strong winds from the explosions had dispersed the smoke, Guan Tong, positioned high above, was able to control his Shadow from a distance and complete his deadly performance.

That’s right—the instantaneous deaths of the three were the work of his Shadow. Under the cover of the smoke, Guan Tong had maneuvered his incorporeal Shadow inside, then split its tip into four points.

In his plan, the four-pronged Shadow was supposed to pierce the hearts of all four enemies. Then, by solidifying all at once, it would have instantly destroyed their hearts.

In reality, it had succeeded on three of them but failed on Gu Fei. Guan Tong didn’t know why; his Shadow couldn’t seem to penetrate Gu Fei’s body, as if blocked by some kind of invisible barrier.

’Does this guy have some kind of special protective item?’

As Guan Tong pondered this, Gu Fei—perhaps overstimulated by the shock—began to continuously deploy reconnaissance drones while roaring, "Come out! Show yourself!"

The jammer’s three-minute duration had now passed, and several drones locked onto Guan Tong’s position. Gu Fei snapped his head up and finally spotted Guan Tong standing in the tall tree.

"Die!"

With a loud roar, he stomped forward and swung his scimitar in an upward arc. A faint halo of light appeared on the blade, and something like a blade aura instantly severed the trunk of the tree Guan Tong was standing on!

Seeing this, Guan Tong immediately used his Hooked Claw to move to another tree. Gu Fei wasn’t about to let him go; he continued to destroy the trees Guan Tong landed on while pulling items from his storage.

Gu Fei was seen first taking out two potions and drinking them, his speed increasing immensely. Immediately after, he produced a handful of black darts. With a flick of his wrist, the darts flew toward Guan Tong as if they had a built-in tracking function.

Guan Tong instantly had the Shadow he’d kept on his body solidify into Shadow Armor.

THOK! THOK! THOK!

The auto-tracking darts struck his Shadow Armor and then began to ooze a corrosive solution, but fortunately, it didn’t have much effect on the Shadow.

Guan Tong didn’t stay idle either. As he used his Hooked Claw to move again, he fired two Smoke Bombs in mid-air. Using the thick smoke as cover, he blew his Corpse Whistle, and the Living Dead crawled out of the ground, surrounding Gu Fei on his command.

"Kill! Kill!"

Gu Fei’s scimitar had astonishing attack power. Combined with his incredible speed after drinking the potions, he cleaved two of the Living Dead in half with a single swing—a complete one-shot kill.

But Guan Tong didn’t care; he was just using the Living Dead to distract Gu Fei. The moment the latter’s attention was divided, he raised his Silver Hunter and unleashed a furious barrage.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

He fired twenty to thirty rounds of shell types #3 and #2 in one go. Gu Fei might have been able to block the Shadow’s infiltration, but against this kind of saturation fire, Guan Tong didn’t think he could hold out.

After the frenzied bombardment, the world fell silent.

When the smoke cleared, Guan Tong saw Gu Fei lying on the ground, gasping for breath and on the verge of death. He was somewhat surprised the man was still alive.

"I’m not finished! Do you dare tell me your numeric ID?!"

On the brink of elimination, Gu Fei stared daggers at Guan Tong, wanting to settle the score with him after the competition was over.

Guan Tong remained expressionless and sent Gu Fei on his way with a single shot.

[Points +254]

Guan Tong was flabbergasted when he saw the number of points he’d gained.

’It’s only been two hours, and this guy already took out 253 people?’

’Too bad. In the face of absolute firepower, it’s still not enough. And... at least for now, it seems that even with the officials pouring resources into training them, they can’t create some kind of "superman" within just a few rounds.’

’This "pouring of resources" just means they can buy more items. But using most items consumes Psychic Power, and with the current cap on Psychic Power, having more items doesn’t necessarily mean you can use them all to their full effect. Maybe after a few more rounds, the Ascenders who receive heavy resource investment will be able to create a significant gap between themselves and the independent Ascenders.’

’Besides, when compared to my Shadow, these items are still far inferior.’

’The Shadow’s plasticity is just too overpowered. In his eyes, the current Shadow could only be considered an "adolescent form." When it reaches its "complete form" or "ultimate form," its power and versatility would likely be unimaginable.’

’Alright, I need to hurry up and get the Holy Grail. These guys wasted a lot of my time.’

With the cleanup done, Guan Tong continued to follow the guiding path.

With limited time, he avoided fighting any more squads for the rest of his journey. Even when a few squads saw he was alone and tried to bully him with their numbers, he disengaged as quickly as possible, not wanting to waste any time that could be spent getting the Holy Grail.

And so, after the safe zone shrank twice more, Guan Tong finally reached the end of the guiding path.

The building before him appeared to be an abandoned church. He stepped inside and found two opened supply crates, which meant other contestants had already been here.

’They didn’t find the Holy Grail?’

Guan Tong found it strange. Inside the church, besides a statue, there was only a large basin in front of it, its interior filled with dried cracks.

He observed it closely and noticed a line of small text seemingly carved into the statue’s base, which read: "Feed with blood to call forth the chalice."

’Feed with blood... Does that mean literally?’

Guan Tong was skeptical, but he had come all this way. He couldn’t just leave.

He picked up a stone shard from the ground, cut the back of his hand, and dripped his blood into the large basin before the statue.

The next moment, the once-dry basin instantly transformed! Countless bubbles began to surge up from the cracks. As the bubbles popped, they each released a gush of water, and soon the entire basin was nearly full.

Just as Guan Tong was marveling at the sight, a golden, jewel-encrusted cup slowly floated up from the bottom of the basin.

’This is the Holy Grail?’

A thought stirred in Guan Tong’s mind, and he reached out to lift the golden cup from the basin.

In that instant, the Fire Thief’s voice rang out.

[You have obtained the Holy Grail]

[For the next 30 minutes, your position will be revealed to all contestants on Holy Grail Island. If you can hold it for the full 30 minutes, you will gain ownership of the Holy Grail for this competition]

[While holding the Holy Grail, you will have Infinite Psychic Power]