The villain also has spring 2

Chapter 2030, Section 2.28: The Essence of Player Competition

Having located the Mayan pyramids, the Chen sisters returned to the safe zone of the container terminal via the same route.

Throughout the entire ordeal, the two giant snakes did not launch a night attack. This relieved everyone hiding inside the container and fueled rumors that snakeskin could provide protection. The snakeskin, wrapped like plastic wrap around the deck of the oil tanker, was quickly devoured. Then, the plastic wrap was used to cover the survivors in various ways. Some details need to be noted: to counteract the all-pervasive digestive fluids sprayed by the pythons during their hunts, a series of airtight "one-piece protective suits," similar to diving suits, insulating suits, welding suits, and latex suits (?), became standard attire in the safe zone.

"The Lord instructed Chun Chun, the proprietress of the Eight-Legged (Capsule) Inn, to inquire with the 500 long-term guests of the Southern Dynasty Interstellar Hotel who were temporarily staying at the inn, about the exclusive news of the 'Dragon Ball Competition' at Fulong Temple." Upon waking up, Captain Nine-Tailed had already received the latest message from Wu Chen: "The tower has seven levels, divided into seven realms. Without exception, the main storyline in each realm is to obtain the Dragon Balls. The container terminal we are at is one of the safe zones in 'Anaconda.' Only by obtaining the Dragon Balls can we proceed to the next level. The next level is the previous realm."

"Where did the summoned dragon come from?" Weng Changting inquired for details.

"It is said to be an unknown divine beast created using cyber technology. It possesses extraordinary abilities and can grant any wish." Even the Nine-Tailed Fox captain found this hard to believe. Even the Buddha himself probably wouldn't dare make such a boast.

"Is it really a divine beast?" Bai Susu couldn't help but ask.

“It’s true.” Captain Nine-Tails nodded slightly: “How could the Lord’s message be false?”

"I never expected that a single Fulong Temple would possess such extraordinary power." Hu Xueji was also taken aback by the grandeur and profundity of the 480 temples of the Southern Dynasties.

Just then, the female producer's phone rang: "Good morning."

"Good morning." Captain Nine-Tails was already used to this modern way of speaking: "I heard nothing happened last night."

"It's only a matter of time." The female producer didn't dare to let her guard down for a moment: "To make a long story short, the boss wants to leave as soon as possible. What are your plans?"

"By that wrecked ship?" Captain Nine-Tailed's tone made his intentions clear.

“Yes, it’s the ‘shull-down oil tanker converted into a biochemical experiment ship’ that you found.” The female producer tried to avoid using the word “damaged ship”: “In fact, the ship is in much better condition than expected. Especially the large oil tanks after the crude oil was drained, which are big enough to hold more than half of our people.”

"That 'oil tank' you mentioned only has one entrance and exit. Forgive my bluntness, but going in is simply suicide." Captain Nine-Tailed bluntly stated, "Don't forget how the giant python opened the tank and ate the survivors inside the container safe house."

“We understand what you’re saying,” the female producer explained reasonably. “We predict that the snake king and queen will soon mate and give birth to an even more powerful ultimate monster. If we don’t take this opportunity to slip away, we’ll never have another chance after they’ve finished mating.”

"Understood," Captain Nine-Tails replied.

"How so?" the female producer wanted a clear answer.

"We've decided to stay here," Captain Nine-Tails said decisively. "After all, we can only go halfway, can't we?"

"Okay." The female producer breathed a sigh of relief.

"You guessed it long ago." Captain Nine-Tails used dialogue to advance the plot.

“It wasn’t me, it was the boss.” The female producer on the other end of the radio lit a cigarette for herself. “She said we’d better be prepared for both possibilities. Even if we can evacuate by boat, we can’t give up the safe zone easily. So it’s half and half.”

"Who will stay and who will leave?" Captain Nine-Tailed asked another question.

“We’ll decide who stays and who goes by drawing lots,” the female producer replied quickly. “That’s one way,” Captain Nine-Tailed didn’t object.

"Okay, let's leave it at that. Are you still going to draw lots?" the female producer asked.

"No need." Captain Nine-Tails hung up readily.

"Half-heartedly staying and half-leaving." Chen Changzhi shook his head and said, "Looking back and forth, hesitating between two options. Such actions are definitely not the best policy."

“I think so too.” Captain Nine-Tailed Fox looked worried. “The Lord’s intention is: to obtain the pearl, we must win. Therefore, there is no way to escape or avoid it. The only way to survive is to fight and win.”

"The captain is absolutely right," the members of Team 4 said in unison.

As the storyline unfolds, the entire battle royale narrative takes place. Specifically, it uses the Amazon rainforest from *Anaconda* as its setting (a dedicated area), where players contribute their own character cards, which then generate the battle royale storyline. This is the essence of the competitive gameplay at Fulong Temple.

Just like the analogy of "stock speculation" used by middleman 0606 Lolita.

Players buy and sell entirely online. Drones deliver goods to their doorsteps, and receptionists activate cards. No player intervention is required throughout the process. Players can simply relax at the Southern Dynasty Interstellar Hotel and wait for the final settlement. In fact, besides the ultimate winner, there are some smaller scores to calculate, much like the lame joke in "Outpost Race" that "surrendering means losing half." If characters possess special survival skills, such as the superpower of time travel, they can bring the cards collected in the "Fulong Temple Battle Royale Race" back to the player's base beforehand.

There is also a more special case: (Character cards) become part of the background story, "living" in this Anaconda-exclusive land card.

Of course, this is highly unlikely to happen because of a "rollback".

This is a unique high-dimensional ability of the Shattered City. It's like the "Spiral Light" that can be photolithographically restored. Every time a cleaning day that occurs every 12 days passes, the Spiral Light released from the tip of the spiral can restore the Shattered City to "the original appearance of the previous peaceful day in the memories of all players (please understand accurately)".

In short: "Through nine fragmented timelines, players can move forward and backward at nodes in their own unique branching storylines by 'uploading' and 'rewinding'."

In other words, once the "Fulong Temple Battle Royale Competition" is completed, the previously inserted exclusive land tiles can be rolled back to the original point of the branch storyline.

This is also a simple way for players to make good use of the broken rules to gain benefits for themselves.

However, there is an even more special situation that can cause a rollback to fail: "divergence".

As a member of the Furyu Temple competition, neither director Terry Flavie nor producer Denise Carlberg can theoretically "capture" them. Therefore, collecting character cards is not a crucial side quest for the Breakwave 4 team in this mission. Again, the "Reaper Rules" are the most important criterion. This means that many character cards within the Container Terminal safe zone are not within the preferred scope for the Breakwave 4 team's side quest progression. Characters not belonging to one's side inevitably become "background characters," a consequence of the player competition.

Therefore, Team 4 will only interact with a few key characters. For example, the strongest character, Curved Blade, the safe zone leader and director, Terry Flavie, and the safe zone supervisor and producer, Denise Carlberg—just a handful of people. This avoids unnecessary complications and is a natural choice for a "quick in, quick out" strategy. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the ultimate winner will have the hidden rule of "winner takes all" and collect all the character cards once the entire battle royale is over.

Three days later, the fully repaired shuttle oil tanker was overcrowded. Those who boarded early to escape the open waters were the "lucky ones" who had won the lottery.

"Captain..." Looking around the half-empty container terminal, Weng Changting hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

"Don't worry, Ting-mei." Captain Nine-Tailed understood her meaning: "Life and death are but a single lifetime, just consider it a cycle of reincarnation (rewinding)."

“Captain, you’re right.” Upon hearing this, Weng Changting’s mind cleared up.