The central region of Holy Grail Island.

Inside a magnificent and opulent castle, a slender, handsome man with long, flowing golden hair stood in the deepest room.

He was surrounded by four women with sharp, Western features. Before them rested a chest inlaid with numerous gemstones.

"My beautiful ladies, such a gorgeous treasure chest is a perfect match for your beauty. Would any of you care to open it?"

The man looked at the four women, but they all shook their heads.

One of them said, "Adam, a chest this precious should be opened by you."

The man named Adam flashed a charming smile. "Since you ladies are being so modest, I shall be the one to open it."

With that, Adam used a full five keys to open the treasure chest.

A brilliant golden light flared, revealing a vast trove of precious supplies, items, and an ancient-looking sheepskin scroll.

Adam ignored the items, instead picking up the scroll and unfurling it. A line of text was written upon it: "I have placed the legendary Holy Grail inside the abandoned church. If you want it, go and get it."

"Oh, dear." Adam sighed with regret. "What a shame. This information has already been leaked."

He casually tossed the scroll aside. One of his teammates picked it up, and the other three gathered around to read its contents.

One of them was astonished. "It seems the secret of the ’Holy Grail’ was hidden in this scroll. Logically, only the person who reached the castle in the center of the island, entered the deepest room, and opened the treasure chest should know this... How did that team that got the Holy Grail early find out?"

"Who knows?" Adam shrugged. "Maybe they just got lucky."

The four women exchanged glances. One of them asked, "Adam, have you really decided not to go after the Holy Grail? With your strength, you’d definitely succeed."

"You all know me. I don’t like using violence." Adam shook his head gently. "Besides, I know that guy Lucifer will definitely fight for it. It wouldn’t be easy for me to protect all of you from that maniac."

Moved, the four women replied, "Adam, you don’t have to worry about us. Besides, dying on Holy Grail Island isn’t a real death, just elimination!"

Adam looked at them with pity. "You may not truly die, but the pain of death is real. I wouldn’t want you to experience that."

"Adam..."

"Shit! Someone beat us to it!" A coarse shout suddenly echoed from the doorway, shattering the tender atmosphere between Adam and the four women.

All four women turned to the doorway in a rage. Another team was crowded there, led by a brawny man.

"Five broads?" the brawny man sneered. "Never thought I’d see a team like this. Hand over the items you got from that jewel chest, now! Or else—"

"Kill him!"

The four women beside Adam struck in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the brawny man was sliced into several pieces. His terrified teammates scrambled to retaliate, but they quickly met the same fate.

Watching this from inside the room, Adam sighed and shook his head. ’Alas, when will humanity ever stop all this killing? Wouldn’t it be better if we all just lived in peace and had more children...’

...

[Time until ownership of the Holy Grail is confirmed: 23 minutes]

Every team could see this notification clearly. It appeared once a minute, a constant reminder to those who wanted to fight for the Holy Grail of how much time they had left.

After the previous Mecha had broken through the roof and damaged the church’s structure, other teams followed suit, using their own weapons and items to demolish the church walls.

They believed this would leave the Holy Grail Team with nowhere to hide, exposing them to be swarmed and attacked from all sides.

But the moment the church was completely destroyed, what everyone saw was not the Holy Grail Team, but a sky full of white mist!

No one could describe how thick the mist was. It blotted out the sky and earth, spreading in every direction.

Previously, only teams that rushed into the church had encountered the white mist. But now that the church was destroyed, Guan Tong dropped the pretense, frantically firing No. 4 Smoke Bombs and No. 3 High-Explosive Bombs in all directions.

He had no teammates anyway, so he didn’t need to worry about friendly fire. Aside from himself, everyone else was an enemy.

The teams trapped in the dense fog were dumbfounded. On one hand, they couldn’t see a thing; on the other, they could be blown to bits at any moment by an explosion from an unknown source.

On top of that, they were under attack from a seemingly endless, inexhaustible stream of Living Dead. The explosions, the roars of the Living Dead, and the battle cries of the contestants... it made everyone feel like they had been cast into some kind of purgatory!

Worst of all, the person holding the Holy Grail seemed to have blended into the crowd. It was impossible to pinpoint his location, causing most teams to fight blindly, plunging the battlefield into chaos.

Guan Tong, currently clad in his Shadow Armor, used the thick fog to hide within the crowd. He continuously summoned Living Dead while indiscriminately blasting away with his Silver Hunter, all while pondering how to enhance the weapon.

He had just tried adding the word "Guidance" to give the No. 3 bomb a tracking function. This would increase his hit rate against fast-moving enemies like the Mother Transformer.

However, after adding the word, the materialization failed. This meant his current Psychic Power limit couldn’t support such an ability.

Just then, he heard a BUZZING sound from the sky, and inspiration struck!

This inspiration was related to the reconnaissance drones flying around, which were a real hassle for him. He only had one jammer in his temporary backpack, and he had already used it.

Therefore, if he could interfere with these drones and any other devices that could track or monitor him, it would be a huge help in concealing his movements later on.

With that, three letters immediately popped into his mind.

"EMP!"

EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse, is extremely destructive to electronic devices. It was undoubtedly what Guan Tong needed to deal with the troublesome drones!

He immediately added the words "Electromagnetic Pulse" in front of "Smoke Claw Gun" in the [Wordless Book] and recalled and resummoned his Silver Hunter.

It was a good thing he had the Infinite Psychic Power buff; otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to do this. After all, recalling and resummoning the weapon would clear out all his stored ammunition. But with the buff, it didn’t matter. He could just generate ammo as he fired!

After resummoning the Silver Hunter, Guan Tong noticed the gun’s body hadn’t changed. He went to generate ammunition and saw that below types 1 through 4, a new No. 5 bomb had appeared!

’Success!’

The moment he saw the No. 5 bomb, Guan Tong immediately chose to generate it.

He discovered that it cost a whopping 50 points of Psychic Power to create a single "Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb." The price was exorbitant.

After creating one, he immediately aimed at the sky and pulled the trigger.

"BZZT—!"

What shot from the barrel wasn’t a bullet, but a deep blue beam of light!

The beam exploded in the air, and sparks erupted from the drones flying within a certain radius. They then plummeted to the ground one after another.

’Not bad!’

Although the electromagnetic pulse’s effective range wasn’t very large—only about a ten-meter radius—it was enough for him.

At critical moments, he could at least use it to destroy surveillance equipment like drones and cameras, reducing the enemy’s ability to track him to some extent.

’That’s enough modifications to the Wordless Book for now.’

Guan Tong checked the timer for holding the Holy Grail. There were 21 minutes left. He planned to use some of this time to store up Psychic Power and Silver Hunter Bullets, but the former required focus and could not be interrupted.

But in this chaotic environment, where his thick Shadow Armor was constantly being hit by mysterious items, it was impossible to calm down and complete the conversion.

So...

A change flickered in Guan Tong’s eyes. "Looks like it’s time to clear the field."

If anyone thought that continuously firing a mix of No. 3 High-Explosive Bombs and No. 4 Smoke Bombs was brutal, they had no idea what Guan Tong’s truly cruel methods were.

For him, his most capable assistant would always be his Shadow. And with the Infinite Psychic Power buff, his Shadow could create a truly terrifying hell.

With a single thought, Guan Tong rapidly consumed a massive, continuous stream of Psychic Power, transforming it into spike-shaped shadows that spread across the ground from within the fog.

’...I’m only doing this for efficiency. I hope no one is too psychologically scarred by this.’

As he thought this, he output his entire upper limit of Psychic Power every second, causing the vast number of spiked shadows to turn solid!

In an instant, all the spiked shadows materialized. Contestants standing on them were caught completely off guard, their bodies pierced through. They died and were eliminated amidst excruciating pain and unspeakable terror.

Those who weren’t hit were terrified. After watching their teammates get impaled by several black spikes, some screamed in terror, their legs giving out as they collapsed.

Guan Tong named this move the "Thorn Shadow Killing Array."

In just a few short seconds, it had claimed the lives of hundreds, even thousands, of contestants in the white mist.

Despite the cover of the fog, many still witnessed the horrifying aftermath of this terrifying scene.

The vast majority of the surviving contestants broke down instantly. They couldn’t take it anymore.

They completely lost the will to fight. Giving up on the Holy Grail, they sprinted blindly in one direction, hoping only to escape the fog and end this nightmare.

Some succeeded, and some failed. But the teams that managed to escape didn’t have long to celebrate before they found their path blocked by a group of more than fifty people.

Leading them was none other than the Alpha Wolf of the Tulip Federation.

To get here as quickly as possible, he had demanded that the weaker members contribute all their speed-enhancing items, allowing this elite group of about fifty people from a dozen or so teams—the Wolf Pack Team—to arrive in under ten minutes.

"Wipe them out." At the Alpha Wolf’s command, the Wolf Pack Team immediately launched a coordinated attack on the teams fleeing the white mist.

This Wolf Pack Team was extremely vicious, fearless, and tightly coordinated. Even though hundreds had escaped the mist, they were quickly wiped out by this elite fifty-man squad, with only a scattered few managing to get away.

Someone in the Wolf Pack Team wanted to give chase but was stopped by the Alpha Wolf. The Alpha Wolf gazed at the vast expanse of white mist just ahead and said, "That team has held the Holy Grail for too long. We must seize it as quickly as possible... Huh?!"

The Alpha Wolf suddenly seemed to sense something. He looked up at the sky, his pupils contracting instantly.

High above, a person with jet-black wings hovered in the air! This immediately brought to mind a name that the Federation’s intelligence agency had specifically warned him about.

"It’s Lucifer from the Soloma Empire... He really came after all!"