Chapter 228: Bribe
Chapter 228: Bribe
The psychic mutant trio was truly formidable, able to hold their own against the three monks even after enduring a sequence of intense battles.
Their battle was still ongoing, and this would've been quite a long and drawn-out affair, but with the zone beginning to shrink again, there wasn't much time left, so the battle was forced to reach a premature climax.
"The zone is about to close in on us! We don't have any time left!"
The three monks exchanged a glance and a nod with one another, following which they began to chant those sinister mantras once again. Immediately thereafter, countless arms suddenly began to sprout from Dead Wood's body before entangling themselves together with the other monks, and the trio formed an evil Buddha statue with three heads and countless arms.
As soon as the statue emerged, it swelled rapidly in stature before extending its countless arms at the psychic mutant trio in a relentless barrage of relentless palm thrusts.
The three psychic mutants attempted to resist for a while, but the evil Buddha was extremely formidable. Not only was the psychic mutant trio struggling to withstand the evil Buddha's palm strikes, the sinful intent imbued within the mantras that the three monks were collectively chanting was constantly causing mental disruption as well.
They were able to resist the mantras previously being chanted by the three monks, but the effects of the mantras had become even more potent now that the three monks had combined as one, and the psychic mutant trio was struck by crippling headaches.
Right as they were about to succumb to their opponents, a voice suddenly rang out from underground.
"Burrow into the ground! Hurry!"
"That's right! I forgot about that!"
The three psychic mutants immediately heeded this vital piece of advice.
All three of them were extremely adept at burrowing through the earth, and they were extremely ashamed that they had to be reminded of their abilities.
After burrowing into the ground, they discovered that it was Adam who had saved them in the nick of time, and they were feeling both embarrassed and grateful.
"I knew you were smart from the first time I met you!"
"I can't believe we didn't think of this ourselves!"
"What is that thing? A Buddha statue?"
"I think so. It looks like the Buddha statues that I've seen online."
"It's alright, even the smartest people make occasional oversights."
Adam gave Mole a supportive pat on the shoulder, then pulled out a large stack of points cards before offering it to him.
"How do you have so many of those?"
"I scavenged these cards from the battlefield earlier. Quite a few people have perished in the final zone, and I would've gathered even more cards than this if it isn't for the fact that a bunch of cards have fallen into the rifts in the ground. The three of you came here to earn money, right? How about I give you these cards, and you let me become champion in exchange?"
Boom!
Before Mole had a chance to reply, a violent explosion rang out from above. It seemed that Dead Wood's trio was digging through the ground to pursue them.
"Dig deeper!"
Armadillo continued to burrow deeper into the ground, and Adam quickly followed along. Upon reaching a safe distance away from the three monks, he continued, "We're all smart people, and we've gotten along very well, haven't we?"
"That's true."
"I'm sure the three of you don't want to kill me, right?"
"That's also true."
"Well, I don't want to kill you, either, and I don't want to make you surrender the win to me for nothing, which is why I'm giving you all of these points cards. You get the money that you came here to earn, while I win the battle royale. Doesn't that sound like a win-win situation?"
"But if we don't win the battle royale, we'll have to die anyway!"
Mole immediately identified the main problem in Adam's plan, but he was instantly silenced as Adam pulled out an exit card.
This exit card was one that he had scavenged from one of the bodies on the battlefield. The card had been stuck in a rather obscure location, and he had no idea who had brought it into the final zone. It had to have been someone who had come into the final zone with the objective of securing more cards, only to be completely caught off guard and killed by Yamata no Orochi's forbidden techniques before they even had a chance to use the exit card.
That was truly a tragic way to die in this game.
There had been many unforeseen turns of events in this battle royale.
Midget's team had been ambushed and killed by a team that was inferior to them in terms of overall power, Eyeless was almost killed by Yamata no Orochi, Medusa was almost killed by the psychic mutant trio, Ikkaku had been killed by Adam, and Nie Yiyi and Hook had both perished under rather unexpected circumstances as well.
This entire battle royale was like a massive meat grinder, and everyone in it was at risk of dying at any point. Power alone wasn't guaranteed to allow one to survive to the very end.
At this point, Adam was extremely close to the end, and it was time for him to enact the final step of his plan. He was willing to stoop as low as he had to in order to win this game, then leave this godforsaken city and avenge himself.
.
Following his fusion with Clown, Adam had become just as ruthless and deceptive as his anomaly.
However, his objective still hadn't changed, except he was now willing to do whatever it took to reach his goal.
"I'll give you these points cards and this exit card, and we can continue to be friends, right?"
Adam put on a very genuine expression as he handed over everything to the psychic mutant trio with the exception of all of his skill cards.
The three psychic mutants exchanged a few glances with one another before accepting this proposal.
"I really like this guy!"
"Me, too!"
"How about we invite him to join our brotherhood?"
"That would be a great honor for me!" Adam exclaimed as he feigned a grateful expression.
He was eager to recruit these three to become his allies. No one would be more useful to him than a bunch of powerful idiots that could be easily manipulated.
"Alright, then it's settled!" Mole declared as he accepted the cards.
"Before you leave the game, you have to help me take care of those three monks."
"Not a problem at all! Those three are a little difficult to deal with, but we'll have no issues against them if you're on our side."
"I'm certain that they're no match for us, but in order to conserve as much energy as possible, I've devised a little plan..."
……
After fusing as one, the three monks quickly dug their way into the ground using their countless arms.
"Those three haven't gone very far. This is the psychic world, so the ground here definitely won't go very deep. I can already sense their auras."
All of a sudden, the head of the portly monk on the Buddha statue sniffed the air with a peculiar expression.
"Hold on, it seems like they're coming back!"
"My telegnosis is telling me the same thing..."
"Looks like they have a death wish!"
Dead Wood unleashed a flurry of palm strikes as he spoke, but due to the fact that they were situated underground, there wasn't enough space for the giant Buddha statue to fully maneuver, and they were also impeded by the surrounding earth, so the effectiveness of these palm strikes was severely limited compared to when they were on the surface.
In contrast, the psychic mutant trio wasn't slowed down much at all deep underground, and they were constantly attacking the Buddha statue from all directions.
Furthermore, this time, they seemed to be operating according to a coherent strategy, making use of their speed advantage to strike at their opponent before immediately rushing away after each strike, not giving the Buddha statue any chance to retaliate.
As the battle continued in this fashion, it didn't take long before Dead Wood came to a grim realization.
"They're trying to exhaust us to death! We have to get back up to the surface!"
Thus, the Buddha statue quickly rose back up through the earth before leaping out of the ground, by which point they discovered that the final zone had already shrunk down to a diminutive size.
At this point, the green barrier was less than 20 meters away, and it was still constantly closing in.
"We have to end this!" Dead Wood yelled at the ground beneath his feet in an urgent voice. "Do you want all of us to die together, or are you going to come out for a final battle?"
"We're going to come out for a final battle, of course!"
Clown's cackling rang out from the edge of the green barrier, and right at this moment, it activated all of the skill cards that it had previously scavenged from the battlefield.
Around a dozen of these cards were activated at once, casting a whole host of cyberhexes onto Dead Wood's trio.