Book 3: Chapter 22: Negotiation
I and the editors do our best, but we are still humans. If you find any mistake, please comment.
In the Central Park zoo.
Shen Yi, the three Eastern adventurers, and the other seven adventurers had returned to a state of confrontation.Previously, seeing reinforcements arrive, the adventurers who had been rescued were overjoyed. But after confirming that only Shen Yi came, they were somewhat disappointed. Although an increase in their numbers was always appreciated, it was a drop in the bucket and unable to reverse the overall situation.At that moment, Shen Yi began the negotiations, but before he could continue Lena’s screaming interrupted him.“There is no room for negotiation; we outnumber you. Surrender that mutant, or you’ll all die here!”“Oh, is that so? You mean there is strength in numbers, right? Fortunately, I brought some brothers along.” Shen Yi laughed.The pistol in his left hand disappeared, replaced by the Medal of Honor.Shen Yi readily summoned ten soldiers, who appeared out of thin air and occupied the space, forcing the besiegers to retreat.“Damn, what’s going on?” an adventurer yelled.“They seem to be his summons. Don’t worry, they’re only ordinary people,” those who figured it out began to shout aloud.“Then, more?” Shen Yi spoke menacingly as he summoned ten more soldiers.Twenty men, each armed with a gun, stood like a wall in front of Shen Yi. Their expressions were stern and they exuded discipline.
Although their physique was ordinary, these soldiers were professionally trained. As summoned entities, they were not afraid of death. They could serve both as Shen Yi’s shield to resist attacks as well as provide additional firepower. Although their guns could not cause too much damage to the adventurers, as the saying went, “Enough ants can kill even an elephant.” The quantity was sufficient to make up for the lack of quality. If twenty soldiers fired a volley, the damage was no less than that of the adventurers. They were like low-level units in Heroes of Might & Magic: a large group resulted in a strong attack power, but the drawback was low damage resistance, and fighting power would decline alongside the decrease in numbers. However, before they were attacked, their first round of attacks was bound to give the defenders a headache.Of course, to call them Shen Yi needed to spend 450 BP. Medal of Honor was a good item, but it consumed too much BP. In addition, the 2nd Paratrooper Battalion’s soldiers were clearly more suitable for large-scale operations, as opposed to close-quarters combat.If not forced, Shen Yi absolutely did not want to use them in this battle, but his goal was to shock the seven adventurers. To do so, Shen Yi used Medal of Honor twice. It was clear that he could summon more soldiers to help; that would further frighten the other side.“Now, can we talk?” Shen Yi smiled.The seven adventurers of the Western and Southern Regions looked at each other.“What do you want?” The Indian guy hummed.“Finally someone asks me the question I was looking for.” Shen Yi referred to the Indian and laughed.He waved his hand, and the twenty soldiers stepped back to quickly occupy the indicated place. They were divided into groups of three, each group aiming at a different target.At the same time, the distance between the two sides expanded and became quite large.Shen Yi stood between the two sides. He slowly said, “First of all, I have to apologize. Just now, in the rainforest, I was eavesdropping on your conversation without permission. I must admit that this is unethical; generally I have no such bad habit, but I believe you won’t mind. After all, we can be considered old friends. Yesterday we greeted each other, though the circumstances were not very friendly.”The young white man snorted. “What about your fellows?”Shen Yi extended his hand. “As you can see, they are not accompanying me right now.”The blonde woman and the white guy looked at each other. Their hearts held a trace of doubt.Were his companions actually not in the vicinity?If it were only Shen Yi, the three adventurers, and those ordinary soldiers, Lena believed that the combat effectiveness of the seven of them was still greater – they just had to pay a greater cost. But if Shen Yi had a few helpers hiding in the vicinity, the outcome of this situation would be far more uncertain.There was the possibility of defeat.Once this seed of doubt was planted, it could no longer be ignored. Lena looked around, wary of a possible surprise attack.Shen Yi laughed. “Don’t worry about them. Right now there is only one thing that’s certain: currently, neither side holds the absolute advantage. Once the fight starts, no matter who wins, they will have to pay a heavy price. I believe that no one wants to discover the consequences, so I think we should talk about it. I mean… there’s the question of how the benefits would be distributed.”“The distribution of benefits?” That black youth laughed aloud. “There’s only one mutant. How do we distribute that?”Shen Yi suddenly clapped. “Look, the key to the problem is this!”He pointed to the black youth. “This is the core of the issue! There is only one mutant – how to distribute the benefits? Interestingly enough, when I was there in the rainforest, do you know what I saw? I saw the Western and Southern adventurers grouped together. The first thought that crossed my mind was, ‘If they succeed in obtaining the mutant, how would they distribute it, and have they thought about it?'”The black youth’s face twisted in confusion. “That’s our own problem, and none of your business.”“I don’t know which team was the first to find the mutant, but that’s not important. What’s important is that the mutant, worth 50 killing points, fell into the East’s hands, and you were forced to unite together in order to succeed in obtaining him. Because you know very well that if you do not unite and put enough pressure on the Eastern adventurers, they were likely to kill the mutant and flee. So before they could do it, you had to band together and force them to keep the mutant alive, right?”Everyone was silent.Obviously, Shen Yi was correct.Behind him, the Eastern adventurers coughed and said, “The Western adventurers found this mutant first, but the mutant was very cautious and escaped. Unfortunately for him, he ran directly into us. Then the South appeared, wanting to snatch this man from our hands. We were just about to fight when the West caught up. The blonde woman is a troublesome one; with just a look at this situation, she immediately joined forces with the Southern Region. We were forced to issue a call for help and did not dare to kill the mutant. In fact, we considered handing over the mutant, but the problem is that these people are untrustworthy. Once they have the mutant, they’re likely to turn against us immediately. After all, killing us would weaken our region’s competitiveness.”
Sure enough, this was the case.Shen Yi smiled.“So the problem arises: that is, you did not come to an agreement before, right?”The Western and Southern adventurers looked at each other again.The blonde, Lena, stood up and said, “Right now the mutant is in your hands; of course we’ll deal with you first. Then, whoever kills this mutant should catch some other mutants and offer them to the other side in order to balance the distribution.”“That’s right,” the three Southern adventurers echoed.Shen Yi did not think so and laughed.“Oh my God, I can’t believe anyone can be so naive. Are you stupid or do you take me for a fool?” Shen Yi laughed. “Exchange mutants? The absurdity! Is the essence of this contest an arithmetic problem that you can add or subtract as you like? Or perhaps these mutants are cattle, waiting to be caught? In that case, how did the Western Region fall to last place? “When speaking the final sentence, Shen Yi’s voice rose to a roar.His words were like needles in the blonde woman’s heart.Pointing at her, Shen Yi said coldly, “I know you had no choice, as you put it. People are here, so you can only join together, but now that the situation has changed, you face us. So be sure to listen to the analysis I gave you.”“What analysis?” The blonde was puzzled.“Very simple. I’ll only ask a question… Currently, is the largest opponent of the Western Region the East or the South?At these words, the Southern Region’s three adventurers faces simultaneously changed.Shen Yi used only a few words to point out the key factor of the situation!——————-According to the rules of the competition, all adventurers from the Region that ranked last would be dismissed.In other words, the regional ranking was more important than the individual ranking. Adventurers must take their Region out of last place before all else, and then find ways to get individuals out of the dismissed list.This was, inevitably, the order in which things must be done.From this order analysis, the West’s currently largest opponent was not the Eastern Region, which ranked second, but the Southern Region, which ranked third.Because they wanted to escape the fate of everyone who was dismissed, they were intent on snatching third place.Could the Southern Region accept that?Obviously not.Between the two Regions in third and fourth place, there was an unavoidable battle. The intensity of this contest involved life and death, and thus was absolutely more fierce than the battle between the first and second places.
When Shen Yi saw the West and South together, he immediately became aware of this problem.A Level Four mutant was valued at 50 killing points. This number could immediately switch the ranking order from fourth to third.If a Western adventurer achieved this, the Western Region escaped the fate of dismissal. Their individual ranking must also rise to the top. But if the Western Region became third place, the Southern Region would be dismissed in the end, so the Southern Region couldn’t allow that mutant to fall into the West’s hands.Because of this, the Southern Region did not do their best in previous persecutions. In their eyes, the best result was if they got 50 killing points themselves; the second best result was if their companion got the points; the third best result was preventing the West from getting them even if it meant giving the points to the East .First survival, then development: that was consistent behavior.So the Southern Region not only did not have any intention to help the Western Region, but also needed to beware of the West getting that mutant. Their desire to keep the Western adventurers from success was even greater than their desire to besiege several Eastern adventurers, but no one saw it.Previously, because Lena’s group was too concerned with the mutant, they didn’t notice the Southern Region’s behavior. But at the moment Shen Yi reminded them, they recognized this major problem.Right then, everyone looked at Shen Yi.Nobody thought this guy could be so cunning, suddenly making his opponents become each other’s enemies.The three Southern adventurers were in a bit of a panic. Apparently they did not expect Shen Yi’s wisdom.The Vietnamese adventurer cried out, “Don’t take his word for it! We didn’t mean that!”“Well, didn’t you?” Lena sneered. “Why didn’t you contribute? You’re not helping, but monitoring us?”The Indian cried, “Lena, please calm down. Right now, the Southern Region is about to catch up to the Eastern Region. Even if you get the mutant, your Region may not be able to threaten us. We can put the Eastern Region in last place; we’ll be second, and you’ll be third. How about it?”“That probably won’t be so easy.” Shen Yi laughed.Bloody Crest suddenly issued a series of sounds.“ID E4528 killed a mutant and received 1 killing point…”“ID E3216 killed a mutant and received 1 killing point…”“ID E3325 killed a mutant and received 5 killing points…”“ID E5429 killed a mutant and received 1 killing point…”“ID E5371 killed a mutant and received 1 killing point…”More than 20 notification sounds rang out. The Eastern Region instantly increased their total killing points by more than 30, and these kills were all completed by only five people. The East once again rose up, nearly equal to the Northern Region. Moreover, these notifications still continued.“It’s them!” the young white man shouted.Yesterday, shortly after Shen Yi’s group left, the Eastern Region greatly rose in ranking, also thanks to five people. So the young white adventurer immediately knew that Shen Yi’s group had gotten rid of that mutant base, and therefore also knew their IDs.As they not only received more notifications, but also saw the actions of this string of ID numbers, the adventurers of the Western Region immediately understood two things.First, Shen Yi’s companions did not come over: they went to kill the mutants.Second, Shen Yi could indeed continue to summon more soldiers, otherwise his killing points wouldn’t have increased while he was here.But for the Southern Region, the significance of the present change immediately made their faces go as pale as deathShen Yi lightly laughed. “My friends, you’re quite the daring challengers. Making the Southern Region overcome the East is more difficult now.”He extended his hand, showing his helplessness.Then he suddenly changed his tone. “I can offer you a proposal: cooperate with us and we help your Region get out of last place. How about it?”The four adventurers of the Western Region were all stunned. The Southern adventurers cried out, “Don’t trust them. They won’t give you the mutant!”“Of course I won’t give you the mutant – I have a better and more effective method of gaining trust and ensuring a very beneficial cooperation between us,” Shen Yi said.“What method?” Lena asked loudly.Shen Yi spat out his next words in an extremely cold tone of voice. “Kill all the Southern adventurers, and they naturally fall to last.”