Editor: Scarlet, Scy7he
Before returning to his room, Xia Tian took another look at the central banquet hall.
In this dark and bloody hell, only that place had light, shining bright and resplendent. The night was dark all around. He could hear the sound of gunshots everywhere. It was peppered with screams, yells, curses, shrieks, and the sound of occasional explosions. He wondered how much fun those viewers outside the arena were deriving from this darkness.
When he had woken up on the sofa, it had taken him a while to come around. Coldness and exhaustion had penetrated deep into his bones. It was something you would feel when you were dying. It was something he hadn’t been able to get rid of since he had first felt it as a child—in fact, nobody could.
But he had still gazed at the main banquet hall, which was like a command center—the heart of hell.
The dark hues of death gathered in Xia Tian’s eyes, and beneath his smile, these things dragged behind him like shadows, never leaving him.
He had thought of a plan.
It had spontaneously come to his mind, bounding out of the depths of this luxuriously lit hell. The plan felt utterly insane.
But it was brilliant, and he liked it.
By the time Xia Tian returned to his room, the situation was downright appalling.
The downlights in the room were clouded with a large, filthy, dull red, and only a few of them were emitting light, albeit faintly. There were a few monsters perched atop the lights, crunching and gnawing at them, intent on making the room one with the darkness outside.
Xia Tian had just jumped through the window when Eric tossed him a bag of Swift Eagle-branded arms. The weapons from every room were gathered in one place—it was time to retreat.
Bai Jingan bit out the cork of a bottle and drained its contents onto the sofa. The smell of alcohol mixed with the blood and dampness in the room assaulted their noses. A white specter leaped over toward him from the right side, and he shot it in the head without even sparing it a glance while continuing to pour the bottle of vodka—it smelled like one.
By the time half of the bottle had been emptied, the number of monsters had already increased dramatically. Bai Jingan violently slammed the bottle onto the floor, splattering glass shards and liquor everywhere. He then shot at the sofa using his musket.
The flames gathered and flared violently, as if summoned from the fabric itself.
Two of the monsters caught fire and screamed miserably, while the rest of them retreated in a flurry.
Bai Jingan didn’t even give them a once-over. He grabbed another bottle of liquor from the liquor cabinet and smashed it into the flames.
The fire rose high and fiercely in the air. To ensure that they burned beautifully, the building boards of the third sub-arena were made of pure wood with no fireproof features. The flames erupted in a brilliant flash that burned through the wallpaper and rushed toward the curtains that had the Elegant logo printed on them.
The fire cast red streaks of light across Bai Jingan’s face, revealing his ruthlessness.
In the corner of the living room, the floating screens in front of Wei Xi were split into three large pieces. They were emitting a faint glow and were logging data. Wei Xi had moved away from the original place and was now kneeling in the center of the battlefield, looking for something among the corpses. He had blood on one hand, and his expression was focused, not at all like a few days ago when he would throw up just by seeing corpses. Eric had hung a one-shoulder ammo bag on him, and he hadn’t noticed that either.
Seeing Xia Tian return, Bai Jingan grabbed a heavy gun and chucked it to him, saying, “Let’s go.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Pale white specters were all around them, but right now, they didn’t dare come near the team. Although these monsters had evolved to be somewhat resistant to light, they were still afraid of fire.
The fire allowed the next-door neighbors to evacuate to this point without any casualties. The small team of three were dressed in pajamas in colors of red, yellow, and blue, emblazoned with the cartoon logo of some Internet TV station. They resembled stupid-looking groundhogs.
One of their teammates had just passed away in their house. This person was very alert. He had found out something was off as soon as he heard suspicious movements, so he had woken everyone up to prepare. They had enough weapons, but they simply could not stop an attack of that scale.
The neighbors introduced themselves. The leader was called Fei Lian, and the others included a fighter named Zhou Ting and a network logistician named Anjar. A few moments into the conversation, the fire in the house behind them grew bigger and bigger, spreading to other dilapidated, vacant buildings in the courtyard. The light made the darkness darker, and although they couldn’t see the monsters clearly, everyone knew that they were all hiding in the darkness, waiting.
In other words, the planning team was waiting.
Waiting for the house to burn down.
After all, a burning house looked good.
The group talked beside the blazing fire as they watched the flames flutter frantically. They more or less felt that they should find a new house, move in, turn on all the lights, and continue fighting a defensive battle.
There was one vacant building three hundred meters to the east. There were lots of such empty houses everywhere. After all the players on a team lost their lives, the organizers would turn off the lights of their house, making it a place suitable for monsters to move around. As more and more teams were completely snuffed out, a large area of the forest in the arena was dunked into darkness.
But the lights were always there in the houses. All they had to do was go in and turn on the lights.
Guarding the house was easier said than done, but they had engaged in a fierce battle just moments ago, so the next fight would probably be lighter—or so they hoped. Furthermore, it was almost four o’clock now, and the sun was about to rise. With there being so many of them, it should not be a problem to defend a house until dawn.
“That’s only if the time of sunrise doesn’t change,” Eric said coldly. “In this place, the organizers have the final say. If they don’t want the sun to rise, the sun will never rise.”
“It will rise. We’ve already had one fight,” the player in blue groundhog pajamas said.
“We have to go over there. If…” Their sniper said.
He stopped, turned his head, and looked at Xia Tian.
Xia Tian didn’t participate in their discussion. Kneeling on one knee, he rummaged through a large arms bag and picked up a pile of firearms of unknown use, then went to get Bai Jingan’s.
The tactical planner handed him his bag and looked down at the man as he rifled through it. The firelight illuminated his face, adding flickers of dark red to his slightly pale skin.
Xia Tian had a clear goal. He neatly sorted out a pile of arms and put them all in one pocket. After looking at this scene for a while, Bai Jingan silently gave him a bag of explosives and also handed him two of the “Burning Palace” series’ latest energy guns from Eric’s luggage.
Xia Tian raised his head and looked at Bai Jingan. They exchanged glances, and it was so quick, so dark, and so bellicose that, Eric was sure that the two men had reached an agreement on something rather crazy.
The blistering heat behind him grew more intense, and Eric felt hotter. His two teammates moved sharply, without any hesitation or concern, with a dangerous aura rippling out of their every move.
In a frightened tone, he asked, “What are you two planning to do?”
Xia Tian stood up with the bag of arms he had inventoried and turned his head to look in a certain direction in the darkness.
It was toward the main banquet hall.
“Are you crazy?!” Eric exclaimed.
“Well, I know you’re crazy!” He added, “But… do you know how far away this place is from the main banquet hall? The whole planning team is watching you now. This is their arena, their monsters, their entire—”
He stopped halfway through his words.
Xia Tian stared up at the dark sky, clutching an energy tube Bai Jingan had given him, which reflected a demonic light full of aggression under the firelight. Eric’s heart gave a twitch when he saw it.
Xia Tian pulled out a Piercer pellet bomb from the bag, skillfully wrapped it with the energy tube, and then glued them together with fixing tape.
Eric felt a shiver run down his spine. There were countless different combinations of weapons, but he had never seen anyone do such a thing. Most of the explosive weapon combinations in the Killing Show were focused on blasting, while this one… was purely focused on horrific combustion.
Eric hadn’t even thought about this method.
Not just because the humidity was so high in the third sub-arena that the fire always went out in no time, but maybe because the players just never thought in that direction.
He watched Xia Tian’s movements and knew that if the fire was big enough, there was nothing that wouldn’t burn.
Eric didn’t finish his sentence, but instead looked at Xia Tian like everyone else around him.
Xia Tian’s plan was crazy, of course, but at times like this, it was always difficult to look away from him. He watched as Xia Tian grabbed the dreaded combination, picked up the arms bag, and walked toward the dark road without hesitation.
There was a rustling sound around him, and countless white shadows in the darkness were staring at him. They were approaching him, drawn by the smell of human flesh and blood.
Xia Tian’s figure, which was currently melded with the dark shadows, appeared flickering and indistinct in the flames, as if it would disappear at any moment.
Next to Eric, Bai Jingan collected the remaining guns without raising his head, looking for the Burning Palace series of firearms. He also collected a few latest energy slots from the Blaster series.
He moved very skillfully. He knew exactly the kind of damage all these things could do.
“What the hell does he want to do?” Eric asked.
“Something big,” Bai Jingan said.
Even if Xia Tian stepped into the darkness, he would not disappear, for he was like a strong light that would announce its presence to everyone, regardless of where it was.
With bated breath, Eric watched him like everyone else, waiting for the action to begin.
Xia Tian stopped walking, switched to a concussion rifle, and skillfully adjusted the impact to the maximum.
A skinny, three-foot-tall white specter suddenly leapt up from the bush behind him and lunged at him.
This thing moved fast and silently. It was a type of mutant creature that was extremely difficult to deal with, but it was particularly afraid of light, and yet it appeared here somehow.
Xia Tian dodged the lunge and shoved a “Burning Palace” bomb into its mouth with quick and precise movements. Then he raised his gun and shot it in the head.
The monster was thrown backward in an arc under the strong impact. It struggled and tried to land, but when it reached the highest point of the parabola, Xia Tian fired again.
The bomb exploded.
The flames seemed to burst out of thin air.
Different from ordinary fire, this fire was as thick as a liquid and would burn up anything it touched.
Eric had heard about the rationale behind the name “Burning Palace”. The center of the flame was a gorgeous and bizarre dark red, with a fiery edge like the sunset. The manufacturers were trying to create a striking effect that would look aesthetically pleasing when burning.
On closer inspection, it really looked as if a palace had caught fire, destroying everything in its path as it simultaneously bathed the dark earth in a warm light.
The heat rushed toward them, assaulting their senses. As the fire swept around, the vegetation dried up and burned in the blink of an eye. There was a big commotion in the darkness, which was the sound of white specters escaping. The fire also burned some of them, and they screamed as if the world was coming to an end.
The group of people stared at the raging inferno, unable to take their eyes off of it. There must be an awful lot of people watching this scene, both inside and outside the arena.
It was impossible to look away.
—The crimson flames rose upward, illuminating the low clouds in the sky and coating them with a bright bloody-red color. When the reddish color reflected down, imparting a ruddy cast to the horizon, the entire scene looked like a different world.
Yet the darkness was getting thicker and thicker, as if there was a bottomless abyss above their heads, which was turned upside down and was boiling and burning wildly.
Xia Tian took a step back and looked up at the flames. The red of destruction reflected in his eyes, and he smiled.
He liked to smile, but right now, he smiled out of pure happiness, without a hint of iciness. He was a god of death, and thus this happiness was entirely for destruction.
Eric also smiled along with him.
Translator’s Note
I recently got the news that Killing Show is going to have an official translation, so I won’t be translating any further. Thank you for reading and loving my translation so far. See you guys in my other projects. Peace.
Thanks for translating this project so far, looking forward to your next project
Is it possible to share where you got the news from?
Thank you very much for your translation 💖
Ah, thank you for your translation! It’s a pity to have an official announcement come up mid-TL, but jiayou!
Who is translating it? Thanks for your work so far.
i think it’s “via”
What’s via?
My heart is broken! Is there any chance you can tell us how to find the official translation?
Last time I checked, it was announced that it will get an official translation, but how it is going to be published wasn’t decided yet. It might get an ebook, a physical book or both.
Thank you for translating all this time! Jiayou!❤
Thank you for your hard work.