T0 Gaming Guild Saves the World.

Chapter 341, Section 340: The Weakness of the Tarot

With their game time running out, the player and his companions were forced to quit the game as the offline notification sounds rang out one after another.

Everyone's online and offline times are basically the same, from 12:00 to 6:00 from the start of the server, which matches the event start time.

Crimson Music Box was surprised to see the message in the chat group: "Huh, how come you guys can challenge the doll relay again?"

"As long as you're talkative enough, you can chat with the word-chain mascot and get hints. Experience points and Chaos Tower crystals can be exchanged for the right to challenge again," Jiang Heyi said. "It's like a coin-operated claw machine."

It's not too difficult to discover this, but the game's design is counterintuitive.

[Level Suppression], the sword of Damocles hanging over players' heads. After experiencing the first three levels, everyone can realize the importance of level in the Tower World.

Players who lack strength or equipment need to level up to compensate for their weaknesses.

Skilled players also crave massive amounts of experience in order to be efficient.

The total experience required to reach level 50 is enormous. Which player who has already cleared the level would waste the hard-earned experience to challenge a floor guardian that they have already defeated and will not give repeated rewards?

The jailer couldn't hold back any longer and quickly announced, "New discovery: Tarot cards may also contain dangerous words."

The buzzing was urgent, but everyone was held in place by his speech.

Realizing that everyone was going offline, the boundary between virtual and real began its own dangerous word test.

French Fries' first thought was to test words with clear attributes such as "wisdom, strength, and speed." Her intuition as a fellow creator told her that people involved in the chain puppet project would also have similar ingenious ideas.

The puppet started the word chain irrationally with "demon," and Jiang Heyi, who was in charge of the chain, thought of using the word "magic" to entice the puppet to say "spells," which would then lead to "magical power."

The prediction was very successful; the puppets followed the script perfectly.

Unfortunately, keyword selection is uncontrollable.

Magic, midnight, night.

"Midnight" and "evening" have similar meanings. Even if there are ambiguities and dangerous associations, they can only be considered as one keyword.

This round of relaying may seem fraught with danger, but the final selection stage is surprisingly friendly to the boundary between the virtual and real worlds.

This also confirms their point of view once again—4 points for selection and 6 points for relay.

The conclusion regarding ready-to-eat meals was supplemented by information on this topic.

"90 points for practical application."

It is strong enough in actual combat that it can win even if it draws a bad hand, such as the boundary between reality and illusion.

Humans are strange like that. Before clearing the level, they hope the dangerous words will be lenient; after clearing the level, they hope the dangerous words will reward them with a grand slam...

Just as everyone was dissatisfied with the fact that this round of selection was too lenient, the doll silently transformed into a person dressed in a black robe, whose facial expression was difficult to discern, and who appeared to be a magician.

Elemental orbs float.

Azure representing water, red representing fire, yellowish-brown representing earth, and cyan representing wind slowly rotate around the dragon-themed doll, like a satellite orbiting the sun.

The light hanging high overhead symbolizes the purity of light.

Stepping into a deep, abyss-like darkness.

"magician?"

Jiang Heyi has figured out the identity of the puppet in the game.

But how ambiguous can this word be?

In the worldview of magic, magic should be a trick performed by beings below the extraordinary, using conventional means to imitate the visual effects of extraordinary techniques as much as possible.

There is no connection or advancement path between the two.

The magician raised his hand from under his robe, and a faint blue light shimmered at the tip of his smooth, black staff.

The moment it appeared, the stagnant air seemed to be stirred by a gentle breeze, and began to flow.

It went faster and faster, and the rolling sound, like mud and sand rushing down, swept across the surroundings in an instant.

This is a human sponge, thirstily absorbing the surrounding magic, with a funnel-shaped vortex forming around its body, leading straight to the sky.

As if drawing a line, the magician only absorbed the magic behind him, without touching the boundary between reality and illusion at all.

As it raised its staff, everyone at the boundary between the real and the virtual world simultaneously reached out their hands to it.

Like an instinct echoing from the depths of their souls, they screamed the same voice with all their might...

"Face him!"

He was clearly a martial artist; his palms were surrounded by specks of red light.

Resembling the wisps of magic swirling around a magician's fingertips, her blood essence manifested, spreading like clouds and mist around her and Zhong Zemo.

Orange Tea's palm shone with a holy radiance, and her body glowed with a soft golden light, like a divine representative in the human world, a solitary chosen one.

As magicians, Jiang Heyi and the others reacted the most violently.

The magic within his body uncontrollably dissipated and left his body, churning like boiling seawater and forming dark clouds.

As the magic was manipulated, the detached magic refused to return to the body, instead drilling into the palm of the hand and pointing towards the magician in the distance.

"Om~~"

The piercing buzzing sound rushed into everyone's eardrums the instant the dazzling flash of light illuminated the night sky.

It felt like facing a beam of light with tens of thousands of lumens, like facing a magician. Then, dawn broke.

The floodwaters, carrying billions of tons of silt, poured down as the dam broke – that's how Jiang Heyi felt.

Blood energy, the power of faith, and magic—three different forces converged, and the two streams of light collided fiercely.

The forced wave action leaves no room for choice regarding the boundary between the real and virtual worlds.

The moment the magician arrived, the course of their duel was already set. The warrior, having exhausted his life force in the fight, was the first to falter, like fries that had been steamed for too long and become soggy.

The burly Zhong Zemo's face was ashen, but he gritted his teeth and didn't collapse because the bed was right next to him.

By the time Jiang Heyi and the other magicians felt exhausted, they had become dried-up corpses, their flesh and blood merging into the torrent, having forcibly given up everything they had.

The magician seemed to have embraced the whole world and gained inexhaustible magic.

How can a body of flesh and blood allow itself to be ravaged by raging rivers and seas!
"Huh...wait?" When Orange Tea came to her senses, everything went black. "Where did you all go? Are you dead?"

Overly focused, and with the light too bright, she persisted for a long time after everyone else had vanished into thin air before realizing something was wrong.

The magician, playing singles, was sweating profusely from the orange tea.

I've already cleared the game, there's no need to keep going.

But Orange Tea, who was no longer a gaming novice, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

She gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and shouted, "Pelican, are you there!"

The great pelican that once dared to help dig the origin element root at the boundary between reality and illusion for a fresh fish in the Temple of the Clarity appeared, flapping its wings.

The magical torrent created by the magician was so powerful that it almost swept it away, and its appearance was like a funeral procession.

"Hit him!"

The pelican stood at the foot of the orange teapot, its mouth wide open, opening and closing repeatedly.

"I'll pay you back when I get home. Have I ever lied to you?"

Without hesitation, the Pelicans turned and pounced on Magic Johnson.

Orange Tea was surrounded by dazzling light, unable to see what was happening in the distance, but the flapping of wings and the slight popping sound all indicated that the pelican was reliable and would do its job for money.

"it works!"

Although the player is forcibly trapped in place by the magician's beam attack, the summoned creatures can move freely.

If you stand still, and I stand still, whoever gets an extra turn will naturally have the advantage.

Orange Tea was overjoyed, having confirmed her suspicions.

This was the first time she had independently explored and solved the game since she started playing it.

"Alas... how could my faith power change..."

The change happened in an instant; before the orange tea could react, it was instantly swallowed up by the magician's torrent of magic.

Jiang Heyi was stunned: "You mean, before you died, you saw the level UI above the 'Dragon Chain' doll's head display as level 19?"

French Fries pondered: "From level 30 to level 19, it can't maintain its full strength. As long as the battle lasts long enough, it can be delayed until it reaches its weakened state."

Upon hearing about their encounter at the boundary between the virtual and the real, the members of the three guilds looked at each other in bewilderment.

Captain Jegan couldn't help but ask, "Magician, how did you connect this to tarot cards?"

The explanation for the "Crimson Music Box" is: "This involves some Tarot card settings and does indeed contain some similar elements."

[Ready to Eat]: "So, the game designers have given a unique reinterpretation to the keywords of the Tarot cards, incorporating their personal ideas to create entirely new artifacts, each with its own unique interpretation?"

"Like a magician with infinite magic power, forcing players to fight against him, summoning creatures is one of the solutions."

Orange Tea was thrilled to have discovered the solution for the first time, and she quickly added with a cheerful smile.

"I strongly suspect that professions based on faith will have a greater advantage in the face of waves."

"Potato and French fries were all out of the game, but I was able to persevere on my own by relying on my faith, without feeling any significant fatigue."

"Perhaps it was the summoning of the giant pelican that dispersed the power of faith, leading to the breakdown of the balance."

In just one night, a major breakthrough was made in exploring the rules of the relay puppet game, blurring the lines between reality and illusion.

This was something the candlelight hadn't anticipated.

The variety of the Puppet Solitaire level is among the top-tier dungeons in the Tower World. Even in the first three levels, which allow unlimited attempts and infinite retrying after death, most players would find it difficult to figure out the strategy in a short time.

Being instantly killed by a level disadvantage is the norm; how could you possibly survive long enough to summarize your experiences and create a strategy guide?

All teams that entered the game at the same time have logged off, and there are no familiar faces online at the boundary between the virtual and real worlds.

The candlelight grants 9 hours of online time, giving them an additional day to utilize in the game.

As the top player on both of the two world-only ranked ladders, the first priority should be to reach level 4, continue the strategy, and snowball the advantage as soon as possible.

Jiang Heyi made the exact opposite decision.

They want to return to the main world.

After the Stars of Proof entered the level 50 era, the main world also automatically adapted to the level 50 version, adding more events, monsters, and items.

Since the two worlds share the same experience, players who are stuck on the first three levels can actually level up enough in the main world before attempting the challenge, although doing so will not guarantee progress.

Once the boundary between the virtual and real worlds is cleared up, it's natural to find a small instance to grind through.

The experience gained from the challenge of researching the Doll Challenge is indispensable; one can only suffer through the monsters in the main world and bear the infamy.

Convinced that the boundary between reality and illusion had been firmly established in the initial stage, Candlelight felt exceptionally lighthearted.

She confidently picked up a bottle of vinegar and gulped down a large mouthful.

Vinegar conjured in a fantasy world is never as delicious as vinegar made in reality.

The vinegar paste sent from home was also a delicacy, which she loved to use and chew.

"Still keeping an eye on the progress of the Three Domes?" she laughed. "Our players are very easy to manage."

(End of this chapter)