Two full days had slipped by since the chaotic ambush and its aftermath.

  Lu Er stood at the grand, open gate of the temple, leaning against the cold stone of the archway. Before him, the colossal stone disc glided with ponderous grace over the scarred landscape, its destination the jagged, blue-hued silhouette of a distant mountain range.

  The rhythmic grinding of the mechanisms reverberated through the entire structure, a testament to the intricate engineering that kept the entire floating fortress aloft.

  The entire floating mechanism was powered by the essence stones—and it needed a vast amount of them.

  Even Xia Sahui and Hua Yong, who were scions born into wealth and privilege, had never seen something like those large repositories of essence stones in their entire lives. There were at least a million essence stones in that one chamber alone—and there were many such chambers scattered throughout the temple, each one a treasure hoard that would make any cultivator's eyes water with greed.

  Lu Er couldn't suppress a wry smile. If it was in the real world, he suspected that even the entire Shanyue clan's money might only be barely able to power this temple for a few days. The resource consumption was just astronomical.

  It was a shame that nothing could be taken out of the game. The stones glimmered tantalizingly within reach but remained forever beyond his grasp. Of course, he had sequestered some using his Massless ability, but whether he could actually extract them from the game remained frustratingly ambiguous.

  But even those large piles of essence stones fell short when powering this temple. They had to conserve the resources efficiently throughout their whole journey because the temple moved on a pre-determined path.

  A few moments later, Xia Sahui and Hua Yong also came out to take a look at the landscape rolling past them. They had already made an agreement: Xia Sahui became the guardian of the temple, and Hua Yong got nearly twelve fragment points, while the group leaders had all gotten at least one point each. Hu Jian was still alive and had also gotten two points.

  There was one more survivor in the temple—they had left a girl alive to prevent suspicion that Xia Sahui only stopped because the leaders were threatened.

  And the survivor was, surprisingly, the one and only girl in Zhu Yan's group. Lu Er was almost sure that if someone had the highest chance of running away during the battle, it was her. Yet not only did she not run, she even made it to the survivors.

  Once again, he found himself reminded of the phrase: never judge a book by its cover.

  Lu Er opened the map and looked at the survivor count:

  [227/500]

  The rate at which the survivor count lowered was getting slower. It was already the seventh day of the game, yet it felt like nearly forever. It was also clear that as the game proceeded, the remaining survivors would be much smarter and tougher to kill. The weak had already been culled, leaving only the cunning and the strong to fight for the remaining spots.

  'When is this going to end?' he muttered as he pushed off from the archway and moved to join the two scions.

  “…But it has never happened before," Hua Yong was saying, his voice filled with excitement. "The chances of this normally happening are absurd, yet it happened…" The two were still talking about the so-called 'monster.' For some reason, Hua Yong was extremely enthusiastic about this whole monster thingy, like a child discovering a new toy, unable to contain his fascination.

  No one knew what sort of fetish he had to be like this, but he had even managed to get Yao Ming bored. And Lu Er knew that Yao Ming would be the last person to ever get bored hearing a scion talk—the man's talent for sucking up to nobility was legendary.

  "Hey! What are you guys doing?" He shouted as he slapped the back of Xia Sahui hard enough that she nearly let out a slight cry.

  She stumbled forward half a step, a tiny, indignant “Eep!”

  "You! Are you trying to break my spine?!" She shouted, spinning around to face him, her eyes blazing with fury. "Why did you hit me?!"

  "Oh, come now," Lu Er said with an insouciant grin, "we're companions now, aren't we? Friends can share a bit of rough camaraderie."

  "No, we are not!" she hissed, her composure cracking. "Did you actually think we are friends?! You are my servant! Stay in your limits." She stepped closer, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Or did you already forget the agreement we made when I gave you the knowledge about the Assign techniques?!"

  “Alright, alright,” he chuckled, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Heard and understood, Master. Also, didn't you lie about Hua Yong treating me poorly just because I'm not a scion?”

  Hua Yong cast Lu Er a vacant glance, but didn’t respond.

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  "Don't go off topic." Xia Sahui spoke, her eyes fixed on Lu Er, giving a strange seriousness to her next words. "We already have an agreement. Follow it. Just because we treat you friendly doesn't mean you can do anything you like." She paused, her voice dropping lower. "Besides, I didn't lie."

  "So, what do to about the chest on top of a mountain peak?" Lu Er said, deftly pivoting the conversation with practiced ease, completely disregarding Xia Sahui's admonishment.

  Xia Sahui looked like she wanted to say something—her mouth opening, ready to deliver another scolding—but immediately her expression changed to that of calmness as she explained about what to do moving forward.

  'Hmm,' Lu Er thought, 'I already don't have a good relation with the Chen brothers. Yao Ming is also slightly negative about me. I scared Hu Jian pretty bad during the battle.' He paused, weighing his options. 'So that only leaves Hua Yong… It should be doable.'

  As Xia Sahui concluded her tactical explanation, Lu Er interjected, "Wait, but who will claim the chest? I believe it should be allocated to me, considering you two have already accumulated sufficient points."

  "What? What are you talking about?" Hua Yong said, his voice low and dangerous. "I found the chest, it's obvious I should be the one to take it!"

  “Whoa, easy, my friend,” Lu Er held up his hands in a gesture of peace, his eyes never leaving Hua Yong's face. "You already took so many kills. Meanwhile, I, on the other hand, only have three points." He spread his hands, a gesture of reasonableness. "Now tell me, who needs those points more?"

  "It doesn't matter who needs it more, I found it, so I'll keep it." Hua Yong's jaw was set, his expression stubborn.

  "No, Lu Zhiheng is right." Xia Sahui intervened decisively. "He needs those points more than you."

  "Sahui, you—" Hua Yong was interrupted in the middle as she continued over him.

  "Besides, you are already lost—you would've died if not for me stopping."

  Hua Yong glared at them both, his jaw working as he ground his teeth in frustration. He had been thoroughly outmaneuvered in the debate, with no viable counterargument remaining.

  Finally, he let out a sharp, frustrated breath. “Fine. Have it your way.”

  …

  The temple—which moved with agonizing slowness, actually slower than a person running on foot—finally reached the mountain's base after what felt like an eternity.

  Unexpectedly, there were many Unawakened hiding around in the surrounding terrain, and once the temple entered their range, they all came out like insects emerging from hiding. They swarmed toward the floating monument.

  And the battle for the temple started once again. But this time, it was a lot different. First of all, many of them couldn't even reach the high floating temple, so they had to intentionally lower it for them.

  And then, after they entered, it was just total one-sided massacre. The temple's side not only had a full arsenal of weapons along with full body armor, they also had three highly skilled fighters who also had ranked abilities. The Unawakened stood no chance against such coordinated strength.

  Lu Er, however, still fought without armor, his movements fluid despite the vulnerability. He drove a punch toward a wiry youth who had already disarmed him of cudgel and dagger. The boy blocked with preternatural speed, then blurred into a spinning kick that connected solidly with Lu Er’s chest despite his twist to avoid it.

  "Dang!" Lu Er exclaimed in exasperation, staggering backward as pain blossomed across his ribs. "How many speed enhancement pills have you consumed?! This is ridiculous!"

  “All of them,” the youth replied. He then pulled a pair of dull metal rings from his robe, sliding them onto his knuckles. “But you’re still standing. That… doesn’t usually happen. You're either very good or very lucky."

  "You must be really confident in your hand-to-hand combat to use those rings." Lu Er said, his voice tight with concentration, already backing away toward where he'd dropped his crossbow and rapidly looking for the dropped quiver of arrows.

  “It’d be a waste not to use the only dedicated combat artifacts we’ve found in this entire Game,” the youth said, launching himself forward.

  Several minutes of combat later, the youth lay sprawled on the cold stone floor, six crossbow bolts protruding from various points across his body, blood pooling beneath him.

  "Damn it! Fight me like a real man, you coward!" he gasped. "You bastard!"

  "Oh, now I'm the bastard," Lu Er retorted dryly, maintaining a cautious distance while keeping his crossbow trained on the fallen opponent. "As if you weren't the bastard jumping around moments ago. It's only fair if we both use the same tactics, no?"

  "You will never get anything from me—if I can't have it, no one will!" He shouted, his hand trembling as he pulled out a metal sphere from his pocket.

  ‘Oh, you got to be kidding me.’ Lu Er quickly ran away from the chamber, nosediving outside while simultaneously activating a wooden barrier with his hands toward his back—the wood sprouting from the air, forming a shield against the coming blast.

  Boom!

  The entire temple structure convulsed violently from the explosion's shockwave. Ominous creaking sounds emanated from stressed support beams, accompanied by cascading clouds of ancient dust and small fragments of masonry raining down from the ceiling.

  Xia Sahui, who was currently fighting in the hall, immediately recognized that the explosion came from Lu Zhiheng's side. Her face twisted with fury.

  "Damn it! What is Lu Zhiheng doing?!" She snarled, her hands continuing their deadly work. ‘I told him the temple can't take another explosion, and he still let it happen!’ Her face almost turned red with anger as she used her soul gift's ability to tumble the opponent and then stabbed a sword right in his face.

  The opposing youth immediately turned into a chest as she ran straight toward the next.

  …

  Half an hour later, they were done with the intruders and point farming. The bodies had been looted. The temple was quiet now, the only sounds the distant murmuring of the wind and the dull thuds of boots on the stone.

  There were still a few groups of Unawakened lurking around to try their luck after the temple went for the golden chest on top of the mountain.

  "Lu Zhiheng! Why did you let them use the explosion artifact?!" Xia Sahui's voice cut through the silence, her frustration finally finding an outlet.

  "What?! What do you mean 'let them do'?" Lu Er's voice rose in protest, defensive. "I didn't even get any time to save myself properly, he just went 'if I can't have it, then no one can.'"

  He spread his hands, a gesture of helplessness. "What was I supposed to do?"

  "Then, how did everyone else, except you, manage to stop them?"

  "Dunno," he shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. "Not my fault. Also why is it that the temple is nearly impenetrable from the outside but is dying from the inside after just a small explosion?"

  "You—" She wanted to say something once again, her mouth opening, her lungs filling with the breath of righteous anger, but once again she exhaled a deep breath and didn't continue.