Chapter 460: Change!

Belial.

Little Will’s surname.

That was also the surnames of the other quest targets given to the other teams and participants.

The name of the demon that had engineered the downfall of King Solomon.

After connecting all these clues, everything became clear.

Little Will’s identity…

Chen Xiaolian’s brows furrowed tightly together.

Inside the tank, all of them looked toward little Will. Seeing so many people staring at him, little Will appeared somewhat fearful and he shrank back.

“So, he may be the demon?” Roddy whispered. “We are in the Demon Faction while the system wants us to protect him… … isn’t that what it means?”

“What about the other game participants?” Qiao Qiao frowned. “At present, it would appear that the quest targets assigned to other game participants all have the surname Belial. Could they all be demons?”

“I think it might be more complicated than this.” Chen Xiaolian sighed and continued to reveal his speculations, “Maybe this is a storyline. Maybe… in the first phase, having all the quest targets named Belial is part of the storyline. Maybe, in this storyline, these people with the surname Belial are all the descendants of the demon. Or perhaps, they are demon candidates… … whatever the case, after the participants have found their quest targets, following their choice, they would be assigned to different factions in the storyline.”

Chen Xiaolian analysed the details solemnly as he continued, “In the second phase, we had to choose whether to kill Will or not… … in fact, we can perceive it as, choose whether to kill the demon candidate or not.

“If a participant chooses to kill him, that participant would have, without question, be assigned into the Light Faction.

“If the participant chooses not to… … maybe, there would be a chance for the participant to enter the branch quest in Stonecutter’s Mountain.

“I speculate that only those who chose not to kill the quest target would be able to activate the Stonecutter’s Mountain branch quest and encounter the Demon King’s feather. However, since we have completed the branch quest, the other teams will have no chance to do so anymore.

“And once we completed the branch quest, we became formal members of the Demon Faction and little Will was automatically recognized by the system as a real demon… … as for the other participants, they became part of the faction that opposes us.”

Listening to that, Lun Tai nodded and said, “I think this is very likely.”

“But… … the others who did not kill their quest target in the second phase, what about them? Although they did not encounter the Stonecutter’s Mountain branch quest, they did not kill their quest target all the same. Why would they be assigned to the Light Faction?” Qimu Xi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up.

This taciturn little girl rarely spoke. Now that she had suddenly spoken up her mind, everyone turned to look at her with looks of surprise.

Qimu Xi became anxious. She pursed her lips to the side and whispered, “I… I just think that this is too unfair. Why is it that we are the only ones to be put into the Demon Faction? We have to be attacked by everyone…”

“There is nothing unfair to it.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head and said, “The higher the level of danger, the higher the level of difficulty… … then, the level of reward might be higher. That has always been the way the system works. The difficulties we face may be the biggest, but the reward is also the highest. Just look at points. Whenever we kill a member of the Light Faction, we can acquire 1,500 points. In contrast, when they kill one of us, they only get 500 points.

“I can confidently say, if we do complete the final quest of this instance dungeon, the rewards will most certainly be beyond our imaginations.

“However, there is no need to go risk our lives on it.”

It was then that Xia Xiaolei suddenly spoke up, “Guild Leader… … I think, there could still be changes.”

“Oh?” Chen Xiaolian smiled as he looked at Xia Xiaolei.

“Maybe… … in the later part of the instance dungeon, the system might re-assign the members of each faction once again,” said Xia Xiaolei in a hushed tone. “I think that what Qimu Xi said is logical. Those participants that chose not to kill their quest targets; it made no sense for them to be thrown into the Light Faction just like that. Maybe… … in the later part of this instance dungeon, there will be another opportunity for them to choose their faction. Maybe… … we might not be the only ones in the Demon Faction. Who could tell what would happen in the later stages?”

Chen Xiaolian smiled. He looked at the others before turning to look at Xia Xiaolei. There was a praising look on his face. “Very good, Xiaolei. You are using your brain now. That is good!”

Chen Xiaolian rubbed his palms as he smiled and said, “Truth be told, I am also thinking of the same thing … … however, the perspective that I am considering is different from Xiaolei’s. I was analysing this from the system’s perspective.”

“Oh?” Roddy’s interest was piqued. “What angle were you using?”

Chen Xiaolian smiled and said, “Did you not realize something? From the system prompts we received, there is a bug.”

“… … a bug?” Roddy frowned. The others did the same as they pondered on the matter.

Chen Xiaolian sighed and slowly said, “We are still in the second phase of the instance dungeon. Yet, we had already become the public enemy of the entire instance dungeon! All the members of the Light Faction can hunt and kill us… … however, the members of the Light Faction may not harm or kill each other.

“Additionally, the system had also given them a very enticing offer. By killing us, the Light Faction can gain a great deal of benefits.

“However, think about it from another perspective.

“At present, this instance dungeon is divided into two factions, the Demon Faction and the Light Faction. These two factions are going at each other.

“The final quest for this instance dungeon for us in the Demon Faction is to activate the magic array and maintain it for 30 minutes. The members of the Light Faction are responsible for stopping us.

“This is the final part of the storyline.

“But… … we are now only in the second phase!

“Now suppose… and I am only speaking of what if…

“What if we are really the only ones in the Demon Faction and the system will no longer re-assign the participants into different factions… … if so, as the only members of the Demon Faction, if we were to slip up and the members of the Light Faction hunt us down… … and kill us all…

“What does that mean?

“That means, in just the second phase of this instance dungeon, before going into the final storyline… … the Demon Faction had been utterly annihilated!

“Although it is just the second phase, the members of the Light Faction had won?

“If so, we can forget about the magic array in the third phase and what not… … they can just lie down and wait for the countdown to end.

“Would the system allow something like this to happen?”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian’s eyes glinted. “Thus, I can confidently say this: Although we are the only ones in the Demon Faction… … that is only for now! In between the second phase and the third phase, the system will surely re-assign the game participants into different factions once again! When the time comes, we may no longer be the only ones in the Demon Faction.”

This was a new thought.

Those words gave everyone a trace of hope.

Looking at the pleasantly surprised expressions on everyone’s faces, Chen Xiaolian deliberately put on a smile. “That would not make a difference for us. At any rate… … we have already decided to give up on this instance dungeon. We will simply move around and not complete the second phase’s quest. Once the time allocated for the second phase ends, we will be able to leave this instance dungeon.

“It doesn’t matter if we are the only ones in the Demon Faction… … there is no need for us to take this risk.”

The others released sighs of relief. Roddy especially, laughed loudly and said, “That is right… … so, even if that speculation of yours is true, it is no longer a concern for us, right?”

“Yes. Now, we just need to get to the sea. Then, loaf about in the sea until the time ends while doing our best to avoid the other teams hunting us. Then… … we can return home.”

There was a very calm look on Chen Xiaolian’s face.

…

Two hours later.

Somewhere on the sea west of Tel Aviv.

A silver submarine floated in the sea.

Chen Xiaolian was standing on the submarine, a pair of binoculars in his hand as he surveyed his surroundings.

Thanks to the night vision, a tint of green covered the sea.

After surveying their surroundings for a few minutes, Chen Xiaolian kept the binoculars away.

Lun Tai was beside Chen Xiaolian.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” said Chen Xiaolian with a sigh of relief.

“I also did not see anything suspicious,” said Lun Tai, his voice relaxed. Then, he lowered his head and called, “Roddy?”

Roddy’s voice came from inside the submarine. “No abnormality on the submarine’s radar.”

Chen Xiaolian finally felt somewhat relieved.

It had been more than two hours since.

In other words, the system had made their coordinates known twice.

During this period, no teams had come after them… … perhaps they were busy trying to complete the second phase or perhaps after discovering that they were too far away from the land, they gave up on hunting Chen Xiaolian’s team.

At any rate, Chen Xiaolian’s team had managed to survive through the two stages of danger.

“From what I recall of the second phase quest, it is to arrive in Tel Aviv. The system had given us a time period of 24 hours for it. Going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv would take only around one hour, but the system had given such a long time for it. In other words, even if the other teams did not encounter a branch quest similar to that of Stonecutter’s Mountain, they would also encounter some other forms of obstruction or battle.” Chen Xiaolian considered the situation and spoke his mind.  “Even so, there is a powerful guild participating in this instance dungeon, Thorned Flower Guild. Even if there were some storyline obstructions, by now, some teams should have reached Tel Aviv to complete the second phase.”

Lun Tai smiled. “Which means the second phase is about to end. Once it ends, we will be failed and thus, we can exit this instance dungeon.”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolian sighed. A trace of unease hovered within his heart. “Hopefully… … that is the case.”

There were several reasons why Chen Xiaolian was feeling uneasy:

Firstly, his guild channel was still blocked – according to Shen, this was likely done by those unicorn-riding fellows.

Secondly… … there was the old Will, who addressed Chen Xiaolian as Guild Leader. Chen Xiaolian had already come up with some speculations regarding the issue. However… there was no way for him to verify it.

“Let Roddy change our course. There is still some time before the end; we must not let our guard down now. Keep changing our course. In case someone is keeping an eye on us, we must not allow them to figure out which path we are taking.”

Hearing Chen Xiaolian’s command, Lun Tai smiled. He conveyed the instructions to Roddy and turned back to Chen Xiaolian. “This instance dungeon is really filled with twists and turns. Thankfully, everyone is still safe… when we get home, we need to properly look through what we have learned and train to increase our guild’s strength. I think that this instance dungeon had given us quite the harvest.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded and gave a wry smile. “On paper, we are very powerful. However, there is a need to transform that strength into real strength. Everyone’s… … experience is still lacking.”

“Mm, we will go through what happened thoroughly once we reach home. Then, we will train and improve on it. We will have to put the base’s training room to good use,” Lun Tai replied with a nod.

Chen Xiaolian sighed as he looked at the sea shrouded by night.

A few minutes later, Chen Xiaolian suddenly received a system prompt.

Everyone in Meteor Rock Guild’s team received the same prompts.

After browsing through the system prompt, his face fell.

“Damn it!”

…

[System prompt: Someone from the Light Faction had arrived in Tel Aviv, completing the second phase quest. It was a 100 % completion. They had successfully activated the holy power of the Light!

[Due to the activation of the holy power of the Light, the power of Darkness is being dispersed.

[Due to the effects of the power of Light, the life force of the demon candidate in Meteor Rock Guild’s team, little Will, is now declining. He will die in 59 minutes.

[Before little Will dies, please bring him to Demon Island and activate the magic array and maintain it for 15 minutes to save little Will.

[If little Will dies, two members of Meteor Rock Guild’s team will be forcibly exterminated at random.

[The second phase will end after the 24-hour countdown ends. Time remaining: 18 hours 36 minutes 27 seconds.

[However, if the Demon Faction activates the magic array, the second phase will immediately end!

[Once the second phase ends, the third phase will begin!

[Once the second phase ends, participants who have yet to complete the second phase will be forced out of this instance dungeon. They have failed the quest and will be punished.]

Chen Xiaolian swore. He saw Lun Tai turning to face him, a look of shock on his face.

“I… … I should have known it would not be that easy!” Chen Xiaolian uttered bitterly.