The armoured burly man took a battle axe from his back. The axe had the words “Intermediate Battle Axe” written on it. He skilfully pulled out a low-level magic scroll from his backpack, tore it open, and let a puff of pale green magic mist merge into the battle axe.
Next, the burly man peeked inside from the room door, tilting his head to listen carefully. Through a corner of the window, he saw the pile of equipment that Ye Dui and the others had just picked up in the middle of the room. Even through the shadows on the floor, he could accurately judge that several people were hiding behind the walls.
The armoured burly man was slightly stunned. A cold smile appeared on his face. His rich “battlefield” experience let him determine that someone was hiding there. He could almost conclude that these people were newcomers who had just been teleported to the Divine Sin Continent. These newcomers were quite clever, knowing to gather resources. However, leaving those resources piled together was a very foolish move.
Or perhaps they did not yet understand the importance of resources here.
The armoured burly man felt a bit vigilant in his heart, but only slightly. He had already assessed the difficulty of dealing with these newcomers. He gripped the battle axe tightly and strode inside. The axe was charged. He decided to go straight for a horizontal sweep to end these newcomers’ lives.
With that plan, he entered the ruined house. In the corner of his vision, he saw Ye Dui and the others squatting in the wall corner.
As expected, they were newcomers, and there were quite a few of them. He had hit the jackpot this time. Killing them would give him hundreds of “Heavenly Ladder points” to greatly enhance his physical attributes.
A cold smile appeared on his face. He cruelly raised the battle axe in his hand. The powerful horizontal sweep was ready to unleash. A muffled shout came from his mouth: “Ah!”
Bratatatata!
Firelight burst from the magic submachine gun in Ye Dui’s hands. Beams of light shot continuously from the muzzle, forming a line as they struck the armoured burly man. The powerful impact forced his raised battle axe backwards. His body involuntarily staggered back and crashed heavily into the wall. Crack crack crack sounds rang out on the armour. Magic bullets kept blasting red spots on the hard armour, spots caused by high heat.
Ye Dui was not yet proficient with magic firearms. He could not control the trajectory smoothly or steady the recoil well. But at such close range, focusing fire on the burly man’s body was still possible. The burly man’s armour was high-grade with strong defence, but it only lasted a few seconds. With a crack, the armour shattered from the continuous bullet impacts. Blood spurted from the burly man’s body.
His expression now was one of bewilderment, shock, and pain. His hands still held the battle axe raised, but he would never get the chance to swing it down. He slid down the wall and sat on the ground, dead.
Ye Dui had sprayed the burly man to death, but he did not relax mentally. There was still an accomplice outside. After finishing the burly man, Ye Dui immediately aimed the magic submachine gun outside. The modified submachine gun did not need reloading. As long as magic power was supplied, the magic bullets were infinite in number.
The burly man’s accomplice was a bearded man. After hearing the strange gunfire, he had quickly jumped off the barbaric bull. He drew an intermediate longsword from his waist and looked shocked at Ye Dui and the others. When he noticed Ye Dui aiming the strange weapon at him, he immediately went on alert.
However, he only held the sword across his chest to guard against Ye Dui charging out suddenly. He had no intention of dodging the gun muzzle.
Though he had vaguely seen how Ye Dui sprayed his companion to death, under mental tension he did not realise that the weapon was for ranged attacks. This was not his fault. Such weapons did not exist in this world. This common knowledge made him overlook the terror of Ye Dui’s weapon. It also gave Ye Dui enough time to slowly aim the muzzle at his head.
“You killed my companion? Damn it, newcomers are so arrogant. I absolutely won’t spare you.” The bearded man roared in anger. He pulled out a magic scroll from his backpack one after another. It was an intermediate magic scroll. He prepared to tear it open.
But whoosh. Ye Dui fired a single shot. In this near-stationary target situation, one magic bullet instantly shot out and pierced the bearded man’s skull.
The bearded man’s head snapped back. His body thudded to the ground.
“Moo moo.” The barbaric bull-like strange beast let out muffled cries. Startled, it tried to flee.
“Catch it!” Ye Dui shouted urgently.
Grimm had already dashed out quickly. He ran to the barbaric bull’s side and calmed it down.
With both hunters eliminated, Ye Dui breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced gratefully at the weapon in his hand and said to everyone, “Search their bags! Let’s move fast. More people might come soon!”
Looting the bags was done quickly.
“Their backpacks seem to have some kind of spatial magic array. The space inside is much larger than it looks from outside. These bags also have low-grade and high-grade versions. This is a low-grade bag. This is an intermediate bag.”
“They have so many magic scrolls. Twenty-seven low-level magic scrolls, five intermediate magic scrolls, and one high-level magic scroll!”
“There are also seven healing scrolls. Eh, what is this scroll?”
“Strength scroll. Does it increase physical strength? There are two. Guni and Shalome, one each. Wait, not to use now. Save them for danger. This might have a time limit!”
“Guild leader, there is a map here. It seems to be a map of this world.”
Ten minutes later, Ye Dui and his companions left the ancient city with the barbaric bull. Baobao, Longbao, and Guibao rode on the barbaric bull’s back with Selti. The others walked around it.
Ye Dui and Grimm each carried a backpack. Plus the supplies they had gathered earlier, they now had over fifty low-level magic scrolls, six intermediate magic scrolls, one high-level magic scroll, eight healing scrolls, two strength scrolls, and some miscellaneous strange scrolls like low-level flame attack incantations and low-level lightning attack scrolls. These seemed to be for attacks.
The other pieces of armour and weapons were carried on their persons.
Ye Dui was examining the map, assessing the situation here. He was somewhat puzzled.
“This place seems quite small. This should be the ancient city we just left. Judging by this city, the entire area shown on the map is only about ten kilometres in radius. The Divine Sin Continent cannot be this tiny. Just Stan Town, exiled here, is several times larger! Could this not be the so-called Divine Sin Continent? Those two just mentioned chef trials and newcomers. Do we need to undergo trials here to enter the Divine Sin Continent properly?” Ye Dui judged.
“Then guild leader, what do we do next?” Grimm asked.
Ye Dui thought for a moment. He pointed to the faintly visible light pillar in the distance. He glanced at the map and said, “That light pillar is marked as Heavenly Ladder on the map. I think we should go there. But before that, we need to reinforce ourselves first.”
Then he began pulling things out from the magic guide book. He gave everyone a weapon: submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles.
At the same time, he checked his own magic.
Exiled into the Divine Sin Continent, his magic power was greatly affected. The magic guide book could not integrate into his body. Incantations and applications were heavily suppressed. But the magic guide book’s points system seemed to still function. Killing those two had given Ye Dui a total of fifty points.
“The way power is used in this world is greatly restricted. Whether mages or swordsmen, they can only manipulate magic power via scrolls. For original powerhouses, this place truly is hell.” Ye Dui finally judged. “But luckily, magic constructs are not prohibited. The magic constructs I exchange with points are like cheats here.”
Ye Dui still had many unanswered questions about the restrictions here. But before he could explore the rules further, as they passed a small hillside, suddenly a rustling sound came. Seven people rushed out from the back of the hillside.
They were similar to the two humans Ye Dui had encountered earlier, dressed in armour with backpacks. They held various weapons: three women and four men. These seven moved swiftly and immediately surrounded them.
“These must be the newcomers entering the Divine Sin Continent. Strutting around here openly!”
“They seem to carry quite a few things. They know to gather resources. These ones are not dumb.”
“But they are still newcomers. Killing them gives rich Heavenly Ladder points. Such a pity, otherwise we could recruit them.”
This group aimed their weapons at Ye Dui and the others, looking as if they were facing lambs ready for slaughter.
Ye Dui was slightly startled. He quickly gave his companions a look, telling them not to act rashly. These people had similar strength to the earlier burly man and bearded man. This place seemed like a cold weapons era. Magic and sword qi needed scroll assistance. So Ye Dui’s modified firearms were god-tier weapons.
These people thought surrounding Ye Dui gave them certain victory. In reality, their lives were in Ye Dui’s group’s hands.
Perfect chance to extract information from them!
Ye Dui said in pretended panic, “Please do not attack first. Our powers are all sealed. We have no way to fight back.”
“Nonsense. Outsiders entering the Divine Sin Continent have all powers sealed. Of course we know that!” A dark-skinned bald man sneered. “But you lot are not bad. You lasted this long. I remember the last batch sent into the initial trial died in the first five minutes!”
“Is this the Divine Sin Continent?” Ye Dui continued asking, feigning surprise. “You said the last batch sent into the initial trial? The last exile into the Divine Sin Continent was a whole town. Did that town also undergo some trial here? That town had tens of thousands of people.”
“A town? Heh, you mean Stan Town?” The bald man thought of something.
Ye Dui’s eyes lit up. Hearing about Stan Town excited him greatly. Entering the Divine Sin Continent was to save Stan Town.
“If a whole city is exiled together, it forms a fragment world. No need for initial trial. But such fragment worlds usually lack survival ability. They absolutely won’t last. In fact, fragment worlds exiled from outside are usually quickly devoured by other fragment worlds.” The bald man licked his lips evilly. “Stan Town is the same. I hear at least four or five fragment worlds are attacking it now.”
From Ye Dui’s group’s expressions, he seemed to discern something. “What? Do you have some connection to that town? Heh heh. Now you should worry about yourselves!”
“How can we find Stan Town?” Ye Dui pressed.
“If you pass the initial trial, you can leave via the Heavenly Ladder. This place itself is an independent fragment world, used to test those sent here. When leaving via trial, you can choose which fragment world to enter. Surprised? The Divine Sin Continent is made of countless fragment worlds. This is hell for those who sinned against the gods. Survival here requires endless combat.” The bald man sneered as he explained. “Knowing this does you no good. You will die soon.”
“Wait a moment.” Ye Dui shouted hurriedly. “Even if we die, I want to know. Many of our powers are sealed. Is there a way to unseal them?”
“Unseal? Of course. If you do enough trials and get enough Heavenly Ladder points, you can exchange for seal keys to unlock your powers, even restore to pre-entry levels. But you probably won’t get the chance.” The bald man seemed to lose patience. “What’s the point of telling you all this? Finish you off quick and end this initial trial. We have no time to waste on you.”
With that, he and his companions prepared to attack.
“No patience? Fine then.” Ye Dui had gotten enough info from the bald man. Sealed powers could be restored. Good. He waved to his companions.
So his companions all raised their weapons.
How could a group of cold weapon brutes beat a magically armed force?
Bratatatata!
