Eighth planet - Day 30.
In a large venue in the center of a settlement, with various tents and houses reflecting the wealth of their owners, the meeting was being held.
Close to 180,000 participants were gathered here, watching a big screen.
The three so-called tycoons, two men and a lady, were sitting, seemingly waiting for someone.
A couple of minutes later, a man in a black cloak appeared and walked to the three.
The other three stood up to welcome him.
The way they acted showed this newcomer wasn't simple at all.
After they were done greeting each other, one of the men started speaking to the crowd.
"Greetings, everyone.
With Sir Albert's arrival, we can now start the meeting."
The crowd turned quiet.
"As you all know, the way each season we deal with this planet was always playing the stages we were already familiar with, and farm some points out of it.
If we got lucky, like the 2000 participants who advanced to the ninth planet, we can reach stage seven, and have a chance for some of us to advance."
The crowd nodded.
"For example, out of the 7 stages that we have this season, the last one is basically impossible to finish.
We need a high number of participants for that, and we need to finish the first six stages with the most winners, and increase our chance to finish the last stage."
The crowd shook their heads helplessly.
The seventh stage in this season that he was talking about was 'game of tiles'.
To pass it, they needed to step on some tiles; if they stepped on the wrong one, they would lose.
Simple as that.
But each participant could light up 10 tiles and see the 'trap tiles' once among them.
That's why if the number of participants reaching this stage was high enough, they could team up and illuminate most of the path to the finish line.
And after they ran out of participants to light the tiles, they would draw lots between themselves to see who should move forward and try the remaining unknown tiles.
The game was simple, but in reality, it was a 'roadblock'.
The tycoon continued.
"But there is an opportunity this season that if things go as we predicted, it can help most of us to advance."
The crowd became interested.
"Many of you probably heard some rumors about it.
This season, we have a criminal who ran here.
He was on the first planet, but advanced to the second planet not long after.
From the last update we have before the system crash, we can tell he finished the special event of the first planet."
The crowd that didn't care about a bounty on someone's head on the first planet checked their infopads.
It was indeed true.
This guy actually advanced, but there was no update about him after the system crash.
"Now you might think, how is that even related?
To answer that question, I must invite Sir Albert for further explanation."
And then he invited the man in the black cloak to come and speak to the crowd.
When the man came forward and revealed his face, many of the veterans gasped.
"It's him!
They let him out?"
"Who is he? This is my first time seeing him!"
"He is the only person from the eighth planet who tried to steal something from a shop related to Agent 22, and was caught."
"Yeah, I thought he would never find a chance to be free again..."
"What did he try to steal?"
"I'm not sure, it seems to be the strongest handgun they had!"
The man called Albert coughed, and the crowd stopped talking.
"I'm sure many of you are surprised that I'm out.
I must say I was surprised myself when I found out there is an opportunity for me to 'buy' my freedom back."
The crowd chuckled.
Some even congratulated him.
"Now let me speak about the important matters which are related to this planet and can affect our advancement."
He then took out a card, and the crowd in the front row immediately turned around and ran away in different directions.
Even the three tycoons flinched, but while sweating, they didn't move.
Sir Albert was speechless,
"Everyone, please calm down!
I was just going to assure you I'm not making things up!"
It took them 20 minutes to calm down the crowd who ran away when they saw him suddenly taking out a sun-card!
Everyone thought he was going to kill them!
Sir Albert coughed awkwardly,
"What I was going to say is that we aren't dealing with a normal criminal.
The man with the bounty on his head is actually dangerous enough to force the agents to bring all of their prisoners out to deal with him.
They even gave each team leader a sun-card."
The crowd gasped in shock!
"What?"
"But it only says he is just a thief?"
"If every team leader has a sun-card, then how did he advance from the first planet?"
The crowd became noisy again.
Sir Albert explained to them,
"That's exactly the reason we think this is a chance, or a disaster for us.
We bounty hunters received some extra information about him that you aren't aware of."
And then he told them about the real mess the underworld minion made outside and about how he emptied the vault of Agent 33.
"Believe it or not, a big part of the mainland was destroyed when I was sent here.
Even the Handgun that I tried to steal, but failed, is with him!
So now there are two possible outcomes.
First, he survives the bounty hunters' assault and arrives here after 1000 years,
because we all know the event on the loneliness planet can't be pushed forward in any known way.
And the second possibility is that the bounty hunters take him down on the way."
The crowd agreed with his assumptions.
"If it's the first possibility, we should all join hands and take him down.
But if it's the second possibility, that's our chance."
The crowd's eyebrows raised, wondering what chance it could bring them if he were killed in the lower planets?
One of the tycoons changed places with Sir Albert, who had already shown them the sun-card, so they knew they weren't deceiving them.
"Alright, thank you, sir Albert.
Now, let me continue from here and tell you why the second possibility works in our favor."
The crowd turned silent.
"I'm sure many of you know about the fourth planet."
The crowd nodded.
"Yes, the planet with the 100th floor problem."
"Isn't a bunch of tycoons stuck there?"
"This season should be 5 of them..."
The tycoon continued,
"Exactly.
There are many tycoons there, and one of them is the owner of the 'cancel-card'!
The cancel-card, as some of you may know, was bought in an auction by a tycoon who is currently on the fourth planet.
He bought the card to force us here to wait for him to come up and advance together, but later, he got stuck on the fourth planet and couldn't advance."
The crowd shook their heads while laughing at him mockingly.
That indeed happened.
This cancel card was actually a lifesaver during one of the possible stages on the Eighth planet.
That infamous stage was included in this season, too.
"But now, bounty hunters are added to each planet,
Which means there is a sun-card in each one, too.
The 5 tycoons on the fourth planet didn't have a problem reaching the 100th floor.
The main problem was the 100th floor, where we are sure that if the bounty hunters on that planet don't face the criminal,
they can help the tycoons with their sun-card to clear that floor and finally advance."
The crowd suddenly became extremely quiet, and then exploded,
"Wait!
If 5 tycoons join together from there and start advancing, wouldn't that mean...!"
"Exactly, they all know about the use of season rewards for this planet, and there are actually 5 of them!"
"There is even a possibility to advance through the last stage without a single casualty!"
Seeing the crowd understand the rest of the story by themselves, the tycoon chuckled,
"Indeed.
Duplicate card, chain strike card, separation card, and even cancel card are all useful here.
And because the seasons aren't changing anymore, every tycoon has the information about each planet.
Not only that, even all of the fully equipped bounty hunters that are on each planet will be in the mix too."
The crowd became excited.
The tycoon smiled,
"Everyone, if everything goes as we predicted, we are going to have between 2 to 4 million participants this time.
And don't forget about us three, and our season-end reward!
If you add ours to the five tycoons from the fourth planet, we can reach the last stage with the highest number of participants."
The crowd cheered.
After that, the tycoon said,
"Alright, let me explain to newcomers how the 7 stages work this time, and you can even go have some practice in them.
We need to wait for 1000 years until the loneliness planet's event ends, and our friends join us,
so we have lots of time to spare and become familiar with the stages we don't have much experience in."
And after that, he explained the mechanics of the 7 stages and how they can be cleared using the season-end rewards and team effort.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
All this time, a certain bald-headed man that nobody paid attention to, somewhere in the crowd, was taking notes.
The meeting finally ended, and the crowd started scattering.
The 3 tycoons and Sir Albert left together, and all 'Five' of them entered a big house.
When they entered, they became 4 again.
The lady tycoon went to a large kitchen where a group of newborns were preparing food and asked them to bring something to eat and drink for her guests.
It seems this was her house.
The other two men went to the living room, and Sir Albert went to the kitchen after the lady tycoon.
While puzzled, the two other tycoons didn't pay any attention to it.
Since it was someone else's house, they didn't pry into it with their spiritual sense.
The lady tycoon, who told a little newborn to get some drinks ready, was going to go back and join the rest, but saw Sir Albert standing behind her.
Surprised, she asked while chuckling,
"Sir Albert, do you need any specific food?
And why did you shave your head all of a sudden?"
Seeing the bald head, she was stunned for a moment.
While the newborn turned around to pour some drinks, bald Sir Albert answered,
"I just wanted to ask about that dragon of yours."
And pointed at the window behind her.
The lady tycoon turned around in shock!
Her dragon?
What dragon?
And the world suddenly became upside-down in her eyes, and then turned completely dark.
The newborn, who had already poured the drinks and placed the glasses on a tray, turned around to take the drinks for the guests, but froze on the spot!
His boss was now upside-down, while two small hands were penetrating her head from both sides!
As if an illusion broke, the tall Sir Albert became a short and bald little boy in his eyes, and was the one who crushed the lady's upside-down head!
It seems the assassin first performed a kick swap, and when the lady tycoon rotated 180 degrees vertically, her head was positioned in front of the assassin to finish the job!
The lady tycoon's body wasn't even dropped after death, and it was still being held by the assassin, who placed it down gently to not make a sound, even though his hands were still inside her head.
The newborn first turned pale, then some of his clothing disappeared, and after that turned into a card!
The tray in the newborn's hand naturally fell towards the ground.
But before the tray hit the ground, the newborn who turned into a card appeared out of nowhere, caught it, and then walked out of the kitchen to serve the guests.
The only difference now was his head, which, for some reason, was bald.
A brief moment later,
The bald newborn walked to the guests and placed the tray in front of them.
Then he walked around the room, as if he were cleaning the living room.
After a while, one of the two tycoons asked,
"Where is your master?"
And the bald newborn pointed at the window, saying,
"She went out with Sir Albert to tame that dragon."
And walked back to the kitchen to continue his job.
Surprised, both of them looked outside.
What dragon?
But they didn't see anything.
The next moment, the living room turned dark.
Not because the light was out, but because all four walls, the ceiling, and the floor were suddenly covered by iron walls!
Then, from all 6 surfaces, traps appeared.
The bald newborn outside of this iron cube waited for a while until the muffled sound inside turned quiet.
Then he took out his infopad and canceled the trap cards he had just secretly installed around the living room.
The iron walls disappeared, and an 'age-restricted' scene unfolded before him.
He walked cautiously to the 'crime scene', while trying his best not to step on the body parts and blood on his way, and retrieved some cards.
5 minutes later,
Outside of the lady tycoon's house, some participants saw one of the tycoons leave.
However, no one knew why the other party suddenly decided to shave his head...
.....
"Alright, let me see what intelligence Agent Morthy Meven gathered for me?"
Lilith, who kept getting dragged into different nonexistent illusions, hearing the familiar voice and feeling the texture of hair under her feet, sighed in relief.
Her partner was finally back!
Every time this so-called 'secret agent', or Agent Morthy Meven, to be exact,
Imitated someone and disguised himself as them,
She fell into an illusion that her partner was actually gone, and she was now on someone else's head!
She didn't even know how Sir Albert was eliminated, and he was replaced by him while they went into that lady tycoon's house...
And she wasn't the only one flabbergasted.
Hypermind, receiving errors from its system that a bunch of participants suddenly became two, was even more confused than she was.
Little Mortal read the intelligence note from his notebook.
[ Crucial intelligence :
- In each stage, being kicked out isn't counted as 'death', but if you die inside any of the stages, you die for real, and you will be sent to the waiting room.
'Kick' means you need to start from the first stage again.
- The newborns can't be used for any stages; you are on your own.
- At least 1 bounty hunter was deployed on each planet. (The one on Loneliness Planet didn't have a sun-card, because it couldn't be used.)
- The bounty hunter and 3 tycoons here have been eliminated, and their season-end rewards have been retrieved.
3 chain strike cards.
3 duplicate cards.
3 evolution cards.
3 separation cards.
1 sun card ( we have 4 in total )
- Nobody here knows about the Loneliness Planet's season-end reward, the skip-card.
- When you enter any stage, you have 30 minutes to prepare.
However, it's better to start immediately, because after the first stage, your name will be registered and your location will be sent to a random participant after 1 hour.
(Don't worry about the targets I eliminated; their names weren't registered yet in the ranking, and killing other participants here doesn't give you any points.)
- The impossible solo challenge.
For a solo 'player' like you, each cleared stage forces you to face 15% of the participants.
The participants you face gain temporary access to their original powers in a 'free-for-all arena' at the end of the stage that you lose.
If you win all stages, you need to face all of the participants.
- There will be a final boss at the end of each stage with a certain element.
Below are the stages' mechanisms and how to overcome them based on Tycoon's explanation :
Stage 1. The seal game...]
Little Mortal, after reading the information, nodded,
"It seems I can finish the 7 stages alone without any need to team up with others,
and then have some fun with the participants.
But I need to finish all 7 stages as fast as possible.
It should be under 1 hour to not get exposed."
He then took out his infopad and found a new section for this planet.
There was a choice between solo mode and team mode.
He naturally chose solo mode, and his name was immediately registered in the solo ranking.
But because nobody cared about solo ranking due to nobody choosing it,
The participants stayed oblivious of a certain criminal's arrival on their planet for now.
Little Mortal then received another question, asking him if he wanted to broadcast his solo journey.
He chose 'No' while muttering,
"These guys might scare away and kill themselves if even one of them receives my coordinates.
Let alone seeing me 'live' in action!"
A pillar of light descended at this moment and sent him to one of the iron domes where the first stage was taking place.
At this moment, many participants were teaming up and entering the first stage with the new information they received, so no one paid attention to this one extra pillar of light.
A brief moment later, Little Mortal found himself in a simple room.
There was a timer in front of him, counting down the 30 minutes he had to be prepared for the stage.
He took out his notebook and read the information about Stage 1.
[ Stage 1. The seal game :
This stage starts with 2 seals.
Only one seal is the correct one.
Destroy the correct seal, and you can advance to the next level.
Destroy the wrong seal, and you need to face 100 'monsters' as a penalty for each wrong choice.
For each extra participant, the number of monsters multiplies.
At each level, the number of seals doubles.
Level 1 -> 2 seals
Level 2 -> 4 seals
Level 3 -> 8 seals
Level 4 -> 16 seals
Level 5 -> 32 seals
Level 6 -> 64 seals
Level 7 -> 128 seals
Level 8 -> 256 seals
'Chain strike-card' can 'chain' between all of the targets, which allows you to bypass the rules of the game here.
And you can skip the level by destroying all of the targets instead of finding the correct one.
The element of the final boss of this stage is Fire.
The water element can counter it. ]
Little Mortal nodded and brought out his handgun.
With the new cards he received from the 3 tycoons here,
He had 11 chain strike cards and 10 duplicate cards, which allowed him to hit enough targets to pass every stage.
He could even evolve the cards if it was more targets...
"This stage might be impossible for the others to finish without 'casualty', but for a P2W player like me..."
He shook his head like a lonely rich man and took out his chair and snacks so that he would not feel bored when finishing this stage, as he started the stage immediately.
*Bang* x 8
After 8 shots, the 8 levels of the first stage were finished.
After each seal was destroyed, the walls and ceiling moved farther away.
*ROAAAR*
With a loud roar, a huge chicken with two heads came out of the ground!
Its wings were on fire, and lava was dripping from its two beaks.
Little Mortal, while changing to 'water element' bullets and adding an evolution card, nodded in approval,
"Not a bad final boss.
I remember the Underworld Dictator Queen would eat a chicken or two like this per day."
Lilith,
"-_-"
And while still sitting on his chair and munching on something, he started firing at his target with his minigun.
*RATATATATATA*
The chicken, though, seemed to be made of 'pieces', and not body parts, and it didn't lose its heads after the first headshot.
The water element bullets just bounced off to another small piece.
But Little Mortal didn't care.
He kept firing until nothing was left.
*sluurp*
"Such a tough boss battle.
It took 2 million bullets to kill it."
Said Little Mortal while drinking his fruit juice.
Lilith and the two birth treasures,
<"...">
*Ding*
Little Mortal received a system message.
[ Stage 1 cleared.
Total time : 3 minutes
15% of the participants will be randomly assigned for you to face.
Proceeding to stage 2... ]
And a pillar of light descended and took him away.
Only a chair and some snacks were left when the pillar disappeared.
....
"What in the world is wrong with you?
Where is my chair? Where are my snacks?
Huh? You stupid system?
You'd better compensate me for my losses!"
Little Mortal shouted in anger when he saw his snacks were left behind.
*Ding *
[ You received 2 points as compensation.]
*Ding*
[ Due to a system crash, your 2 points can't be used in the shop.]
The corner of Little Mortal's eyes twitched.
Lilith patted his head,
"Calm down, calm down!
You still have a couple of million snack packages..."
Little Mortal snorted and checked his notebook for the information related to this stage.
[ Stage 2. Danger or puzzles :
There are two paths that you can walk in.
1. A path filled with puzzles.
2. A path filled with dangers.
Tycoons know how to solve the puzzles, and all of them require at least 100 participants to be solved.
But they didn't share the details, and I didn't look for it either, because you don't need it.
The element of the final boss is water.
Lightning element can counter it. ]
Little Mortal started immediately.
The walls of the room he was in sank into the ground.
Two dark paths appeared in front of him, with the words 'Puzzle' and 'Danger' on the floor in front of each, indicating which path leads to what.
Little Mortal walked to the 'Danger' path.
The path lit up.
A path, wide and stretching far ahead, appeared.
Far away at the end was a large closed door.
Little Mortal changed his suit's appearance to a sports outfit with sports shoes, put on a red headband, and suddenly started running towards the door.
As he ran forward,
First, a group of giant monsters blocked the way, roaring and swinging their claws at him.
But he ran past them without a scratch.
Not because he dodged the attacks, but because the 'King card', connected to invulnerability cards, was in effect, blocking any damage.
As if reaching a threshold, the giant monsters behind him stopped chasing him after he traveled a certain distance.
When he entered the new area, red lasers shot across the path in every direction.
They burned the air, but they did nothing to him as he passed through.
Next was a bubbling pool of acid, sizzling and steaming.
Little Mortal simply ran through it, leaving no trace of harm.
Strange wasp-like creatures appeared next—small and covered in glowing poison.
When they got close to him,
They exploded one by one, releasing toxic gas, but it had no effect on him.
The path suddenly turned to ice, making it difficult to walk.
But he just slid through it.
Ahead, the ice ended, leading to burning-hot ground.
The extreme heat should be unbearable, but Little Mortal moved forward as if nothing had changed.
And these were only the dangers he faced.
In reality, any of these mechanisms was supposed to slow down the participants, allowing the real danger to trigger one after another in each area.
But due to his King card effect, he just ran past them without giving them time to trigger.
The 'not-triggered real dangers',
"-_-"
Little Mortal, proud of himself,
Finally reached the door at the end of the path filled with danger, and said,
"No danger is a real danger for a P2W player."
And opened the door and walked inside arrogantly.
A cold wind blew in his face the moment he opened the door and stepped inside.
A massive, humanoid beast made of ice and frozen stone was waiting for him on the other side.
It moved slowly, but it could summon blizzards that freeze everything in an instant.
Its breath was a chilling wind that -
*BIZZZZZZZ*
Before this stage's final boss could show its abilities, thunderous bullets fired on it like rain.
"Bro, how can you show off if you die so fast...?"
Little Mortal was speechless when he saw this ice giant die before even the 'narrator' could explain its powers...
*Ding*
[ Stage 2 cleared.
Total time: 7 minutes
30% of the participants will be randomly assigned for you to face.
Proceeding to stage 3... ]
.....
[ Stage 3 . Emotion stage :
You are connected with many threads of emotions.
You should follow each, find the anchor, and cut ties with that emotion from the source.
It can be a memory, a beast to kill, or a puzzle to solve.
Every 10 days, 1% of participants with the most threads of emotion left will be kicked out.
The radius of the stage ground is exactly 100km.
The final boss of this stage is the lightning element.
Fire element can counter it.]
Little Mortal looked at the new stage information, changed to a white suit, evolved his separation card twice 'secretly', and sat down on the ground cross-legged.
Then he started muttering to himself,
"I am Mortal.
The man known as the Emotionless Sage!"
And with closed eyes, he started the stage.
When the stage began, he activated the separation card 'secretly', and the emotion threads that stuck to him tore apart the next moment after connection.
At the same time, he clapped his hands and shouted,
"Begone! Emotions!"
And slowly opened his eyes.
He was now at the top of a mountain.
This place seems to be the starting point in this vast environment.
The participants were supposed to follow each of their emotional threads from here, and 'cut ties' with them.
Which Little Mortal didn't have a single one anymore ...
*BOOM*
The passing white clouds in the sky suddenly exploded, and a huge white bird, like an eagle, appeared.
A floating, god-like entity cloaked in storm clouds.
Its body pulsed with electricity, and lightning crackled around it.
*Woosh*
And it moved at blinding speed!
*TOTOTOTO*
Dealing with it would be hard if a certain solo participant didn't have a minigun with tracking fire element bullets.
Not long after, the bird fell from the sky.
To its credit, Little Mortal was hit by it a couple of times, but because of the King-card, he didn't care...
*Ding*
[ Stage 3 cleared.
Total time: 9 minutes
45% of the participants will be randomly assigned for you to face.
Proceeding to stage 4... ]
