# Chapter 2: Illusion
As soon as Lord Rat finished speaking, the bird-man with a metal box floating beside him rushed forward, charging straight into the dense forest.
"Don't let that bird-man escape!"
A roar came, but compared to that roar, Su Xiao moved faster, directly streaking past as a blue afterimage, charging behind the bird-man.
Sensing the blood aura behind him, the bird-man was secretly alarmed.
Clang!
The blade tore through the air, the crisp sound of a long sword being drawn came.
The bird-man, covered in white feathers like an angel, reacted extremely quickly. He immediately turned and raised his wings, the feathers on his wings reflecting a metallic texture under the sunlight.
Pfft~
The long sword slashed into the wing. At that moment, all the bird-man's feathers nearly stood on end. His expression twisted as he instantly gathered a surge of energy in his hand, preparing to blast it toward Su Xiao.
Seeing this, Su Xiao's pupils slightly contracted. He stepped forward and delivered a lightning-fast straight kick.
Bang!
The airwave spread. The energy in the bird-man's hand dispersed, and he staggered back two steps, instinctively bringing both wings in front of him. Because of Su Xiao's kick just now, most of his body had lost sensation, and the muscles all over seemed to be wailing.
This was the consequence of being caught off guard by Su Xiao. Su Xiao remained in a state of high alert the entire time. After all, this was the Strongest Battle Royale. But after fighting this bird-man, he had a very strange feeling—that the opponent seemed somewhat weak.
With a tearing sound, the long sword slashed through. Half a wing and a head full of stunned disbelief flew up.
Plop.
The headless corpse fell. The bird-man's fingers twitched twice, then went cold.
"That's it?"
Su Xiao muttered to himself, looking at the sword in his hand, then at the crowd who were poised to charge.
Suddenly, the clearing before the forest fell dead silent. Even the female feather-clan member in black feathered robes quietly stepped back a few paces. In her judgment, perhaps only her brother, who was also participating in the Strongest Battle Royale, could fight and defeat this monster ahead.
"Surround him."
A shout came, exactly the same voice that had called "Agreed" in the abandoned hall earlier. This guy's concealment ability was quite strong; having shouted twice, Su Xiao still hadn't located where he/she was.
Ice suddenly exploded, spreading in all directions. Su Xiao picked up the metal box from the ground and tried to store it in his storage space, but a prompt appeared—this item couldn't be stored there.
With Amu's cover, Su Xiao quickly rushed to the edge of the forest. He had only intended to test earlier, but who knew the bird-man's strength was far below expectations? So he decided to grab the metal box first for safety. High-level alchemy formulas were rare and hard to come by.
Just as Su Xiao was about to charge into the forest, the metal box in his hand suddenly disappeared.
"Amu."
The moment Su Xiao spoke, the surrounding ice shattered into crystals. A figure fell to the ground. She wore a thin gauze long dress and had pointed ears—it was that Dream Spirit clan girl.
Large shards of ice scattered everywhere. The other participants shattered the ice, all eyes turning to the Dream Spirit clan girl.
"That's not me!"
A shout came, and the one who shouted was also wearing a thin gauze long dress with pointed ears—she was the real Dream Spirit clan member. The one who had taken the metal box was Wago, disguised as a Dream Spirit.
"Heh~"
Wago leaped up, his form rapidly changing. Mid-air, he transformed into a falcon, leaving behind a trail of electric sparks as he vanished.
As Wago disappeared, Su Xiao, Amu, and Baha also vanished into the forest. As for Bubu Wang, he sat on the mechanical chariot, tilting his head to look at Lord Rat.
"Give it up. I'm not representing Reincarnation Paradise this time."
Lord Rat raised his paw. On the back of his hand, obscured by fur, a tree-shaped brand was faintly visible.
"Woof~"
Bubu Wang's expression seemed a bit "downcast." He took a bottle of wine from his storage space but immediately put it away.
"The unique 'Margayaga' from the Pirate World?"
Lord Rat swallowed his saliva, staring straight at Bubu Wang.
Margayaga, Epic Rank, no beneficial effects whatsoever. It reached Epic Rank purely by relying on its liquor quality to force its way there. If drinking it provided benefits, Margayaga's liquor quality would actually be greatly diminished.
Margayaga's description was quite interesting: "For those who are addicted to alcohol, Margayaga is the whole world." And Lord Rat was addicted to alcohol.
"Woof~"
Bubu Wang jumped off the mechanical chariot. Seeing this, Lord Rat also leaped down.
"Let's talk, Bubu."
Lord Rat's connection with Bubu Wang dated back to when Su Xiao was in the Void Arena. At that time, Lord Rat had received a commission from Reincarnation Paradise to go to the Void Arena and take a stand, directly confronting Mage Sage Seraphilia of Arcane Eternal Star, helping Su Xiao block this mage sage.
It was then that Lord Rat and Bubu Wang got acquainted, but they had basically no real friendship.
"Woof!"
"I'm dying of thirst. This damn weather is too hot. If only I could swim a lap in the sea..."
Lord Rat tugged at his collar, his words laden with meaning.
"Ah-choo~"
Bubu Wang sneezed, and the Margayaga flew out of his storage space.
Having done this, Bubu Wang trotted happily into the forest. Lord Rat picked up the Margayaga from the ground, pulled out the cork, and took several big gulps.
"Ha~, refreshing!"
Lord Rat's finger pointed at the mechanical chariot. The chariot rapidly changed shape, eventually turning into a metal ball the size of a basketball.
...
Inside the forest, Su Xiao stopped before a circular lake. The metal box he had seized earlier was called [Sealed Box], which could only be opened after the first round of the battle ended.
Unfortunately, the [Sealed Box] had now been snatched away by Wago, and Su Xiao suspected that Wago was a fake name.
As for the rules of the first round of the Strongest Battle Royale: kill one person to get 1 point, top five advance. But don't think that hiding the whole time would allow elimination and thus obtaining Void Tree's "consolation prize."
Twilight Island was neither too big nor too small. Half of the area was forest.
All participants must obtain 1 point within three days to be eligible for elimination. If they still had 0 points after three days, they would be executed by the Void Tree.
That meant, among nearly a hundred participants, even in the most peaceful outcome, half would die. The Strongest Battle Royale was not a martial arts competition or a ring battle; participating meant risking life and death in combat.
Moreover, Su Xiao realized he had misunderstood one thing: the participants in the Strongest Battle Royale weren't necessarily all close to his strength. The Void had many participation slots.
In the Void, besides the major races, some small and medium races weren't as skilled in combat as imagined. Some were clearly there to secure guaranteed rewards for their own races.
Understanding this, Su Xiao's thoughts became much clearer. At least for now, he didn't need to scheme against the old yinbis. He just needed to clear the field as much as possible. The danger likely lay in the second, third, and fourth stages. As for the fifth stage—the Ten Strongest Battle Royale—that was the most dangerous part, no doubt about it.
Su Xiao looked at a piece of colorful fabric in his hand. He had cut it off Wago.
After waiting a few minutes, Bubu Wang returned and conveyed Lord Rat's words to Su Xiao.
"Thirsty? Weather too hot? Sea?"
Su Xiao directly ignored the "thirsty" part and pondered what "weather too hot" and "sea" signified. Given Violent Rat's style, he wouldn't trick someone for a drink just for the sake of it.
After thinking for a moment, Su Xiao felt that "weather too hot" was just a cover, and the "sea" afterward was the key point.
Organizing his thoughts, Su Xiao roughly understood Violent Rat's meaning. This information was useless for now. What he needed to do was retrieve the [Sealed Box].
He handed the colorful fabric to Bubu Wang's nose. Bubu Wang began searching for the scent and aura on the fabric.
The Apostle's Eye descended from above. Detection complete—the entire island had a diameter of about 40 kilometers.
Su Xiao started calculating probabilities. After a moment, he took out an Apollo from his storage space. Throwing it from here, with a 2-kilometer explosion radius, the chance of hitting someone was definitely more than 1 in 20. Using one Apollo first for a lottery-style guaranteed return was a good idea.
This Apollo in Su Xiao's hand would only blast those fated to meet it.