Chapter 529: Island of Devil’s Maw (35)
At this point of the explanation, Brother Jue had sawn out half of Atobe’s body, this meant that the latter was half-hanging by the web. Using this opportunity, Feng Bujue dropped down to the ground before leaping up again (the time where he could hover in the air was limited after all) to come to other side of Atobe.
After he adjusted his height and steadied himself again, Brother Jue continued the earlier conversation, “Now this involves the problem of risk sharing… If this is a solo scenario, then I would definitely jump into air, even well knowing there might be a trap.” He paused for a moment, “But this is a group scenario, then things to consider would be wildly different… the existence of teammates meant the leeway for personal mistake will have markedly risen. To put it frankly… even if my personal decision is wrong, it might not have cost the scenario to fail.”
“In other words… you have more reason ‘to use your own life to take a risk’.” Uncle Worthless concluded.
“Bingo.” Feng Bujue affirmed. “Under this premise, we will return to access my choices at the time… if I stayed on the ground, I have 70 percent confidence I won’t die, 40 percent confidence I won’t be seriously injured and 10 percent confidence I could survive the ordeal unscathed; but if I chose to fly into the sky… there was a 50 percent chance I might fall into enemy’s trap and another 50 percent chance that I will be fine.” He licked his lips. “From there, we can extend out six different possibilities… one, I stayed on the ground and died while all of you fell for the trap; two, I stayed on the ground and died while none of you fell for the trap; three, I stayed on the ground, did not die but you all have fallen for the trap; four, I stayed on the ground, did not die and none of you fell for the trap; five, I joined you guys in the air and fell for the trap together and six, I flew into the sky with the rest of you and all of us are safe.”
Brother Jue finished the whole string of analysis in one go, he stopped to change his breath and continued, “Among them, 1 and 5 are the worst case scenario, and from what we know now, it will lead to a group wise; 4 and 6 are the most optimistic situation, the difference being 4 will make me sacrifice a little bit more; and the remaining 2 and 3 are acceptable case scenarios.” He gone through his analysis evenly and categorically and his movement remained efficient. Atobe was basically dangling by a thread now, he would be soon be released from the web.
“Using that as the basis for calculation…” Feng Bujue resumed, “The result of me following the rest of you into the air… the chance of ‘group wipe’ and ‘best case scenario’ are both half and half; but if I stay on the ground, the chance of causing a group wipe will be dropped down to 25 percent… And the remaining 75 percent, basically I will be personally responsible for any presumed damage or danger.”
“Are your brain made up of computer…” Pegasus used a reverentially glow in his eyes to look at Brother Jue. “In the few seconds the boss unleashed her sound waves… you managed to calculate so many things?”
“Yes… but the time was limited, that was so far I could have calculated.” Feng Bujue replied. “That was the simplest and the most ambiguous supposition, I have not inputted many other factors. For example… even though you have all fallen for the trap, the trap was not threatening at all; or for example, you all have fallen for the trap, even though I was not dead, I was too wounded to do anything to help…”
“Ah!!!” A sudden scream interrupted Brother Jue’s story-telling. At that moment, as the last spider thread was cut off, Atobe fell downwards with his head facing down. Of course, Feng Bujue did not think about catching him at all, if the kid fell from that height and died, he would be of no help to the group anyway…
“At least warn me or something!” Atobe soon recovered from the sudden sense of falling. He roared as he curled his body into a fetal position. He kicked out behind him and changed into a different posture. Lastly with a light yelp, he landed on both of his feet and steadied himself. The spider web that stuck to his body now showed their colors (Powderly white) and gradually dropped from his back.
…
“Are you okay down there?” Pegasus shouted from above.
“Of course.” Atobe resisted the numbness that came from his legs, placed his arms on his waist and laughed loudly at the sky. “it was just a fall of about 10 metres, that was nothing.”
“Very good.” Feng Bujue soon dropped down beside him and easily put the military shovel away. “Since you are fine, then quickly pull the fan out, we will need your help now.” While he spoke, Brother Jue had already squatted down to pick up the spider web that dropped to the ground. He held them in his hand… studied them, brushed them between his fingers, sniffed at them but this time he did not lick them…
“So this is how it works… Once these web got loosen from the main web, they will lose their unique property.” Feng Bujue tossed the web aside. “The ball of thing has turned into very normal spider web. The earlier invisibility, stickiness and tensile strength have all disappeared.”
In that few seconds, Atobe had removed the weapon from his inventory and added, “So… what now?”
“Very simple.” Feng Bujue answered. “I will carry you up with the pose of legendary Lu Shan Ascending Dragon and you will use your fan to cut at the web.” He paused for a moment before adding with his finger pointing upwards. “Do not need to be so precise with your cutting work. You only need to cut around the victim and cut them loose. Once they are separated from the giant web, the part of the web stuck to them will lose their power instantly.”
“Understood.” Atobe instantly nodded his understanding. He knew the severity of the situation. Even though his mouth was itching to complain about ‘legendary Lu Shan Ascending Dragon’, he reined it in… Everything could be said after his teammates had been rescued.
“Okay, we’re going now.” Feng Bujue announced and with two steps, he had materialized behind Atobe. He shoved his arms under the man’s armpits, bent his legs upwards and then with a kick of his feet, carried Atobe easily more than 10 metres into the air, stopping just shy of touching the spider web. Without saying anything, Atobe raised his fan and started to work. His Peacock Fan was far more effective than the military shove. With a swipe, a very long gash would be cut open. In just 10 seconds, Ambitionist was rescued. When he was cut loose from the web, the remainder that stuck to his back was still very large, it was a circle about 1 meters in radius, but just like what Feng Bujue said, once the thing was rendered from the main web, it lost its effectiveness. No matter how large it was, it had become a normal spider web. With his excellent physical ability, Ambitionist landed softly like a leaf. Once he steadied himself, he yanked the spider web off his back. He patted his clothes, pushed on his glasses and then lifted his head to ask, “Do you need my help?”
“It’s fine, I can still hold on.” As Feng Bujue replied, he used Geppo to move horizontally and drag Atobe to Pegasus’ side.
“I say… is it really fine for you to use your aerial ability so constantly and without rest?” While Ambitionist was looking upwards, he asked with plain inquisitiveness. “When we exited the tunnel, didn’t you say that you did not have much Stamina Points left?”
“Don’t worry about me.” Feng Bujue responded. He paused for half a second. “In any case… I can still keep going.” Brother Jue did not go into details because this answer involved the data of several skills and items that he owned. First standing in mid air was the special effect of Void Steps, that had zero exhaustion. Secondly, one Geppo only exhausted 15 Stamina Points, this was barely a nick in Brother Jue’s pool of Stamina Points that had a 4300 maximum upper limit. Thirdly, he only used 150 Stamina Points to unleash the Rankyaku earlier… The main reason he could kill the boss in one hit was the damage buff from the legendary footwear.
Of course, the key point was… the special ability of the title Pot of Hatred.
Effect: Whenever you are attacked, you will recover a certain degree of your Stamina Points and lower the cooldown timer of all your active skills (The reward is proportional to the damage you receive. The attacker must be hostile towards you, natural disaster, accidental damage or self inflicted damage will not proc this effect)
When Feng Bujue took the four sound wave blasts, even though he was not seriously injured, he still dropped some Life Points, and because of that his Stamina Point rose back slightly… And the Stamina Points that he regenerated was more than enough to sustain the series of actions that he had done so far.
“Okay then, I’ll just stand here and watch.” Ambitionist answered casually and did not plan to ask further. He knew that Brother Jue’s answer meant that he did not wish to reveal more information than that. As a professional player, Ambitionist naturally knew about the limits of prying into other players’ business. Even a person with serious Sophomore Syndrome like Pegasus knew where this ‘line’ was drawn. In the gaming world, this was a basic mutual respect between players and it was an agreed consensus. No one would ask for another player’s specific details in a game where each player had great difference in character data, unless this person was that naïve or he believed the party that he was enquiring after was that naïve…
After another minute, Pegasus was rescued as well. His landing was much conspicuous than Ambitionist, the man practically fell with his whole body frozen in that pose that he was stuck in… and landed firmly on the crystalline ground.
“Hah! I have been revived!” Just as the moment Pegasus recovered his freedom, he hollered with evident pleasure.
“Stop shouting down there!” Feng Bujue used a louder volume to roar back. “What if you attract the attention of nearby monsters?”
“It really makes no sense for you to say that when you are shouting louder than I am.” Pegasus retorted as he tipped his head back.”
“Guys… If you done arguing, I am still stuck here…” Uncle Worthless added weakly, “Even if you want to argue, wait until after you have saved the last person…”
Si si… su su…
At that moment, a sudden trill came to enter the players’ ears…
This series of sound was incredibly bizarre and it caused the scalp of everyone present to go numb.