Die, Replay, Repeat

"It's you controlling them!" Joker exclaimed in sudden realization.

In that moment, he noticed something subtle but crucial: faint, silver threads connecting Luo Qingxin and the others.

These threads were almost invisible in the darkness, but now that Joker had seen them, he could trace their source directly back to Fang Xiu.

Joker believed he had figured everything out: Fang Xiu, with his ability to foresee the future, had anticipated all of his moves. Then, by using these silver threads, he was controlling the three captains, making them fight like puppets on strings.

So, from the beginning, the three captains were just puppets, and Fang Xiu was the one truly fighting him.

A faint, almost imperceptible smirk curled at the corner of Joker’s mouth.

Now that he had uncovered Fang Xiu’s trick, everything seemed simple. All he had to do was sever those threads and break Fang Xiu’s control over the captains.

'A team’s external brain, huh? Heh… I'll just cut off the connection between the brain and the body,' Joker thought to himself.

Although defeating the three captains was beyond him, cutting the silver threads in the middle of a fight was well within his abilities.

Suddenly, he unleashed a blinding surge of lightning from his body, forcing the captains to retreat momentarily.

Without hesitation, he aimed an attack at the air behind them—right where the silver threads connected.

To him, these threads seemed fragile, incapable of withstanding his strike.

However, what Joker didn’t realize was that, as he launched his attack, all three captains exchanged cold smirks, though their voices rang out in anxious protest.

"Stop!"

"You won’t succeed!"

All three of them struck back in unison. Li Xiaoru’s general shot a flurry of arrows, Luo Qingxin unleashed a barrage of ice shards, and Xiong Tianguang sent forth a flying mantis, its scythe-like arms slicing through the air toward Joker.

Seeing their apparent desperation only solidified Joker’s belief that he was on the right track. He scoffed inwardly, determined to cut the silver threads even if it meant exhausting more of his clone’s power. Ignoring their attacks, he pressed forward.

Finally, after relentless effort, Joker succeeded. The silver threads were severed.

"Hmph, without Fang Xiu’s control, let’s see how you handle me now," Joker sneered, certain he had gained the upper hand.

Little did he know, this was exactly what Fang Xiu had planned all along.

“Damn it!” The faces of the three captains darkened, and they began to attack frantically, as if they had truly lost their advantage.

In reality, they were simply worried they wouldn’t be able to maintain the act for much longer.

Watching them panic only fueled Joker’s confidence. Lightning flashed in his hands as he continuously unleashed his power, even forming a thunder sword to strike wildly at the captains.

Without Fang Xiu’s "guidance," the captains appeared disorganized, no longer as synchronized or sharp as before. Their movements were clumsy, full of mistakes and openings.

"Three seconds from now, Xiong Tianguang will deliberately create an opening. Everyone else, be ready to act," Fang Xiu’s calm voice echoed in the minds of the three captains.

Their expressions didn’t change, and they continued fighting as if they hadn’t heard a thing. Yet exactly three seconds later, a crucial mistake occurred.

Li Xiaoru’s general, wielding twin axes, moved in to strike Joker, but Xiong Tianguang’s warrior, carrying a massive sword, rushed forward at the same time.

The two soldiers blocked each other’s paths, creating a small gap in their formation.

Joker was, after all, a fifth-tier powerhouse. Even though it was just his clone fighting, his keen eyesight and battle instincts were still fully intact. He immediately seized the opening in the captains' coordination. In a flash of lightning, he broke free from the encirclement and rushed straight at Xiong Tianguang.

Xiong Tianguang's face paled in shock, and he hurriedly summoned his game avatars to defend. But once a mistake is made in combat, it's not easy to recover.

A sinister grin spread across Joker's face. He didn’t suspect this was a trap at all. After all, without Fang Xiu’s direction, it was perfectly reasonable for them to fumble their coordination. It was like in a game when teammates accidentally overlap their crowd-control skills—it happens.

Battle is far more chaotic than any game, and perfect coordination is hard to achieve for anyone.

Joker had chosen Xiong Tianguang as his breakthrough point for a reason.

Of the three captains, Xiong Tianguang was the trickiest to deal with due to his varied and unpredictable abilities. His skills, while flashy, could be confusing and create complications in battle.

At the same time, Xiong Tianguang was also the weakest in close-quarters combat. Being a hardcore gamer, he possessed the physical strength of a fourth-tier powerhouse, but he hadn’t done much actual combat training. His "training" was mostly limited to fighting games in front of a screen.

In an instant, the lightning Joker transformed into closed in on Xiong Tianguang, and a large, electrified hand shot out, aiming to pierce his heart.

But just as the strike landed, Joker's expression shifted—the sensation was wrong.

A moment later, Xiong Tianguang’s figure slowly faded away.

'An illusion!?' Joker immediately realized something was off, but it was already too late.

A massive purple mantis appeared out of thin air at his side, its scythe-like forelimbs slicing into his body with a brutal slash.

The strike hit its mark, instantly restricting Joker’s movements. Before he could react, Luo Qingxin and Li Xiaoru's attacks followed up seamlessly.

Ice rapidly encased his body, freezing him solid, while Li Xiaoru’s Heavenly Spear smashed through his head with brutal force.

BANG!

Joker’s body exploded into fragments, leaving behind nothing more than a tattered wooden puppet.

“It’s finally over. I didn’t expect a mere clone to be this difficult,” Xiong Tianguang said, appearing from the shadows nearby, a touch of amazement in his voice.

“Thankfully, Fang Xiu was using telepathy to secretly direct us the whole time. He even used the silver threads to mislead Joker. Without him, this fight would’ve been much harder to win so quickly,” Luo Qingxin said, her eyes reflecting a gleam of admiration as she glanced at Fang Xiu.

No matter how many times they fought under Fang Xiu’s guidance, the feeling of him having the future under control never ceased to amaze them.

The other captains nodded in agreement.

Li Xiaoru let out a hearty laugh, “I’ve never fought such an easy battle in my entire life. It’s like cheating on a test with all the answers in front of you—so satisfying!”

Telepathy was a new ability Fang Xiu had gained after breaking through to the third tier, because of Nightmare.

Nightmare had always been able to connect to dreams, and dreams were merely a manifestation of the mind. This ability allowed Fang Xiu to communicate directly with the captains, relaying precise instructions to them during the battle.

He had refrained from using this ability earlier to better deceive Ace of Heart and the others. But Joker was far more intelligent than Ace of Heart, so Fang Xiu had adjusted his strategy accordingly.

"Let’s go. We need to find Joker's true body," Fang Xiu said, standing up once again, ignoring the praise of his teammates.

The battle wouldn’t be truly over until they defeated Joker’s real body. That was the only way to secure victory in this war.

And after all, Joker wasn’t just any opponent—he was a fifth-tier powerhouse.

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