Chapter 333: The Essence of Rewards
Walrider was the core project of the scientific experiments carried out in Mount Massive Asylum.
It was also the terrifying existence Sakurakawa Rikka had mentioned when she first met Asagiri, the monster lurking at the very bottom of Mount Massive Asylum that had instantly killed her clone.
Walrider's speed, strength, agility, and physical capabilities far surpassed those of humans. It could float and fly, convert its body into nanomolecules to pass directly through physical obstacles, and possessed defensive power that made it nearly immune to all physical attacks.
In the original plot of the game Outlast, Walrider had two weaknesses.
The first was that its movement could be blocked by airlock doors.
The second was that it required a host in order to act. Once the host died, it would enter an immobile state.
Simply put, Walrider was only a weapon.
And weapons did not attack on their own.
At that moment, Asagiri noticed Walrider, which had been floating in midair, suddenly vanish.
In the next second, although nothing changed in his field of vision, an extreme sense of danger surged within his heart. Without hesitation, he activated Castling and swapped positions with Human Asura, who was standing in the distance.
"Bang!"
The reformed Walrider reached out, trying to seize Asagiri by the neck, only to be met by Human Asura's powerful punch.
Under that terrifying force, cracks appeared across Walrider's entire arm.
Human Asura did not give it the slightest chance to react. With its other hand, it directly grabbed Walrider by the neck.
"Did we win!?"
When the surrounding players saw this scene, hope and excitement appeared on their faces.
But in the next instant, Walrider's body rapidly dispersed like powder.
By the time it appeared again, it was already in front of Asagiri.
"Bang!"
The ice spear condensed by Asagiri struck Walrider at the same moment Walrider's attack landed on him.
Asagiri's body slid back more than ten meters before his back smashed into a wall. The remaining force even shattered the wall behind him before he finally came to a stop.
"That hurts a bit."
Asagiri lowered his head and muttered to himself first. Then he raised his gaze, his black eyes locking onto Walrider as it floated in the air.
He spoke faintly.
"Interesting."
This black clad player could actually go head to head with that gray humanoid creature.
Not only had he avoided being killed instantly, he did not even seem to have suffered any serious injuries. He even had the leisure to comment that it was "interesting."
Sakurakawa Rikka and the four members of the White Suit Team were also shocked, but what shocked them was Walrider's power.
Facing Asagiri, who had already summoned Human Asura, it could still hold the upper hand?
At that moment, Asagiri crushed the phantom Tarot card drifting down from the air and summoned Crazy Mita.
However, instead of launching an attack on Walrider together with Crazy Mita and Human Asura, he retreated to the side of Sakurakawa Rikka and the four members of the White Suit Team.
In a flat tone, he asked,
"Did you obtain any rewards?"
"Eh? Rewards?"
Hearing Asagiri's words, the White Suit Man suddenly realized what he meant and immediately shook his head.
"No."
The system prompt had stated that although resolving the Dead Realm would not grant settlement rewards like clearing a Dungeon, there was still a possibility of obtaining rewards such as equipment, items, abilities, or intelligence during the process of resolving it.
However, the situation had been so critical that the players present had only been thinking about how to survive. No one had considered collecting rewards at all.
"What about you?"
Facing Asagiri's question, Sakurakawa Rikka also shook her head.
"No. I haven't seen anything that looks like a reward."
"I see..."
Asagiri nodded noncommittally.
He watched Walrider, whose figure kept flickering and teleporting, even while facing the joint assault of Crazy Mita and Human Asura. It still did not fall behind at all, appearing completely at ease.
A thoughtful look appeared in Asagiri's eyes as he spoke softly.
"Perhaps it isn't that there are no rewards. Perhaps the reward for resolving this Dead Realm is right in front of us."
"What do you mean?"
While the White Suit Man and his three teammates were still confused, Sakurakawa Rikka was stunned for a moment.
Then a look of sudden understanding appeared on her face.
After exchanging a glance with Asagiri, she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"We're going in."
As her voice fell, Asagiri bent his knees slightly.
Immediately afterward, with a loud bang, his body shot toward Walrider in midair like an arrow released from a bowstring.
Facing Asagiri's surprise attack, Walrider immediately dispersed its body and vanished.
After dodging Asagiri's attack, it reformed in an instant. Then it reached out and grabbed Asagiri by the neck.
As the muscle lines in its arm bulged, every player present heard the crisp sound of bones being twisted and snapped.
"Bang."
Asagiri's body fell powerlessly from midair like a kite with its string cut.
At the same time, Human Asura and Crazy Mita also vanished.
The players in the area first fell into a brief silence.
Then, after seeing Walrider still floating in midair, they immediately scattered and fled like frightened birds.
Are you kidding?
Are you kidding?
Are you kidding!?
That black clad player who could leap more than twenty meters into the air was dead. What was the point of continuing to fight?
If they stayed any longer, if they kept fighting that gray humanoid creature...
They would definitely die.
What was strange was that Walrider did not pursue the fleeing players.
Instead, it remained floating in the air, its face turned toward Asagiri's "corpse" on the ground.
Although it had no facial features and could not show any expression, it somehow gave off a sense of confusion, as though it found the situation very strange.
A few seconds later, Asagiri, who should have been dead, suddenly opened his eyes.
He stood up, brushed the dust off himself, and smiled at Sakurakawa Rikka and the four members of the White Suit Man's team.
"How was it? My acting was pretty good, right?"
"A bit clumsy," Sakurakawa Rikka said bluntly. "Compared to pretending to be weak, your acting is much more refined when you're trying to look cool."
"Because I'm very strong, pretending to be weak really isn't easy."
Asagiri replied with a smile, then turned his gaze to Walrider floating in midair and said in a flat tone,
"Leave this guy to me. Your team should leave first."
The White Suit Man looked puzzled and asked with slight concern,
"Do you not need help?"
"No need."
Asagiri shook his head and said softly,
"In the coming battle, not only you, even my own teammates won't be able to help much. The goal isn't to eliminate this guy, but to delay its movements. You all die too easily, so it's better for you to go clear out the Special Infected."
"Alright, I understand."
The White Suit Man and his three teammates had already guessed Asagiri's plan.
After all, the four of them were also high end players. They would not be completely clueless at a moment like this.
After the four of them left, Asagiri raised his black gun shaped summoner, caught the phantom Tarot card drifting down from the air with his left hand, and crushed it.
"Persona, Human Asura, Crazy Mita."
Was there truly no reward for resolving this Dead Realm?
No.
There was a reward.
And it was right in front of Asagiri.
Walrider was not only the most dangerous existence in this Dead Realm, but also the reward of this Dead Realm.
Because Walrider was a weapon, and it needed a host.
Then, after its original host died, what would Walrider do?
That was right.
It would select a new host from those nearby whose mental strength met the standard, and among them, it would choose the one who best matched its criteria.
For most players at this stage, Walrider was purely beyond their level. Forget fighting it, even avoiding instant death was difficult.
This excessively high difficulty existed because the true method to resolve this Dead Realm was not to eliminate Walrider, but to kill all the Special Infected.
One of the Special Infected was Walrider's host.
Although it was unknown what Blackwatch had done, as long as all the Special Infected in the area were eliminated, Walrider would enter a state where it had lost its host.
Then, it would become the "reward."
Asagiri had just used Sakurakawa Rikka's ability to make it appear as though he had died. The real purpose was to terrify the surrounding players and make them flee from Walrider's side, preventing any accidents where someone might compete with him for the reward afterward.
Although he did not think those players had the strength to survive a battle between him and Walrider, one must not forget that hundreds of reinforced Special Infected were not so easy to deal with.
Those players would inevitably encounter Special Infected while fleeing in panic.
Then, in order to survive, they would have no choice but to fight.
In this way, their strength would not be wasted.
"I will continue maintaining the connection with you..."
Sakurakawa Rikka pursed her lips, looked at Asagiri's back, and said softly,
"Be careful. Don't die too many times."
"Don't worry..."
Asagiri had only spoken halfway when he had already condensed an ice spear emitting cold air and thrown it toward Walrider in midair.
Seeing Walrider disperse its body and return to the ground, Asagiri immediately charged together with Human Asura and Crazy Mita.
"I am quite hard to kill."
Facing the simultaneous attacks of Crazy Mita, Human Asura, and Asagiri himself from three different angles, Walrider raised its fists and assumed a standard close combat stance.
Immediately afterward, it whipped a kick into Crazy Mita's abdomen, threw a left punch at Human Asura, and launched a right punch toward Asagiri's face.
"Bang!"
Under the collision of their forces, the ground within a radius of dozens of meters cracked in an instant.
Sakurakawa Rikka, who was connected to Asagiri, bore the damage caused by the force of the impact for him. The bones in her arm cracked, but they recovered as good as new within a single breath.
"Combat arts?"
Golden light flickered in Asagiri's black eyes as he watched Walrider's skilled fighting movements.
.....
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