141: Chapter 141 Pre-Battle Draft

"Brothers, we've fully understood the plot, and our tears have run dry... To be honest, this wave is really not a loss!"

PD excitedly rubbed his hands, exited single-player mode, and clicked the PvP matchmaking button burning with dark red flames.

"No need to bring your own levels, it's all about grabbing at the start! In this absolutely fair deathmatch, today I'll show you guys what a 'God of Slaughter of Fuyuki City' looks like!"

However, before officially entering the matchmaking lobby, the system didn't immediately teleport him to the Fuyuki City map. Instead, with a flash of white light, it forcibly pulled PD into a pure white [Combat Simulation Training Room].

The cold electronic voice of the system echoed around:

"Welcome to the [Holy Grail War]. Before officially dropping into Fuyuki City, please complete the basic survival training to Master the new [Spiritron Synchronization] combat system."

PD looked down and found himself wearing a Magus's casual clothes, holding only a basic magic short staff.

In front of him stood a "Simulated Servant (Saber class)" whose face could not be seen clearly.

"What's this? I still have to go through a tutorial?" PD curled his lips but still followed the prompts obediently.

[Teaching Step 1: Please try to activate 'Spiritron Synchronization' to take over your Servant.]

PD curiously pressed the "Sync" button on the VR control interface.

In the next second, a wonderful sense of weightlessness, like an out-of-body experience, hit him!

His subjective perspective instantly rose and descended into that Saber-class Servant's body without any lag.

Gripping the longsword in his hand, a surge of surging magical energy belonging exclusively to Heroic Spirits surged through his limbs and bones!

"Holy crap, this feels great! This sense of power, this feeling of movement! It's simply amazing!"

PD excitedly swung the longsword and directly used a thrust to shatter the wooden training dummy spawned by the system in front of him!

"This mode is so awesome! As long as I'm controlling the Servant to fight, with my micro-management, who the hell can stop me?"

[Teaching Step 2: Master Command Editing.]

The system's electronic voice sounded again:

[While 'Spiritron Synchronization' is active and you are controlling the Servant in battle, your Master's physical body will enter an unconscious 'auto-pilot' state.]

[Please preset basic 'Conceal' or 'Follow' commands for your Master's body in the operation panel to ensure the body's survival rate in complex battlefields.]

"I see, I have to settle the main body while fighting."

PD suddenly realized and casually dragged a few command modules like "Find Cover" and "Prone Dodge" on the operation panel.

"This system is quite hardcore, dual-track operation."

After briefly familiarizing himself with movement and command editing, the white light of the training room gradually dissipated.

Before officially descending into the preparation lobby, a background setting CG full of epicness and a sense of solemnity slowly unfolded before PD's eyes:

"Chaldea Environmental Simulation System (TRISMEGISTUS) activated."

"Background Loading: To deal with future unknown crises of Pan-Human History, Chaldea has constructed a miniature Singularity simulation program called 'Fuyuki' based on 'The Source of All Causality'."

"Seven Masters from Chaldea will have their true identities erased and descend into this city ruin filled with toxic magical energy pollution in the form of consciousness projections."

"There are no companions here to work together, only life-and-death competition. Go collect Craft Essences, snatch Catalysts, form alliances, betray, and assassinate."

"Prove your desire for survival to the world. Only the sole winner who survives to the end and holds up the Holy Grail by stepping over six corpses is worthy of the qualification to cross the next hell!"

This short but murderous background broadcast not only perfectly explained why the Masters of Chaldea had to kill each other in a simulated city but also instantly pushed the sense of destiny and urgency of survival competition to the maximum.

Accompanied by a low roar, PD arrived in a medieval castle hall with dim lighting and a mysterious, oppressive atmosphere.

Around the hall stood six other solo players whose real IDs were hidden by the system.

Everyone was like PD, wearing identical gray Apprentice Magus uniforms and holding pitiful initial wooden sticks.

At first, everyone was warily sizing each other up, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder before a big battle.

But after a few seconds, this oppressive atmosphere was broken by the players' uncontrollable excitement.

"Holy crap, guys, this immersion is just too amazing, right? I feel like even the wind in this castle is cold!" A player in a gray robe couldn't help but rub his arms, breaking the silence.

"You're telling me! That background CG just now gave me goosebumps. Starting with nothing, only one of seven can survive—this mode sounds thrilling!"

Another player in the same outfit nearby agreed excitedly.

PD couldn't help but chime in: "Exactly! I was still feeling down about the Doctor, but then Old Thief Gu pulls out such a trump card gameplay. Who can handle this? This old thief really isn't human, forcing us to kill each other right after sending us 'blades'!"

"Hahaha! Brother, you're right! Old Thief Gu is simply insane!"

Another player laughed, "But seriously, when we go down later, since everyone is playing this deathmatch mode for the first time, take it easy on each other, don't go for the face right away!"

"Easy to say, as long as you're not a rat, we're brothers from different mothers!"

A group of players who were wary of each other a second ago instantly found common ground because of their shared complaints about Gu Yi, and the hall was suddenly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

However, this fake revolutionary friendship lasted for less than ten seconds.

"Rumble—"

The floor in the center of the hall suddenly made a dull sound of mechanical movement, and a huge circular altar slowly rose, instantly drawing everyone's attention.

Above the altar, a magic circle emitting a faint blue light was slowly rotating counter-clockwise. At the edge of the magic circle, seven shimmering items floated, like a carousel in an amusement park, constantly circling with the magic circle.

There was a primitive gemstone pendant, a rusty sword blade fragment, a piece of rag stained with dried black blood, and even an extremely rare—[Ancient Snakeskin Fossil]!

The previously cheerful atmosphere came to an abrupt halt, replaced by suffocating greed and tension.

[Pre-battle Summoning Phase has started.]

[After the countdown ends, the containment barrier will be lifted. Masters, please rely on your intuition and knowledge to snatch a "Catalyst" from the rotating magic circle.]

The moment he saw that [Ancient Snakeskin Fossil], PD's mouth almost started watering.

Having caught up on the plot for seven whole days, he knew all too well what these things represented!

"Brothers! That's Gilgamesh's snakeskin! If you grab that, you can summon the Hero King right at the start! That's a literal dimensional strike!"

PD stared fixedly at the fossil rotating at a constant speed, his brain frantically calculating the lead time for it to rotate in front of him, his body crouched in a 100-meter sprint posture, "I must grab it this round, and then let you guys see what a real full-map wipe looks like!"

"Three, two, one... Grab!"

The moment the countdown ended, the air wall blocking the seven people shattered.

The seven people in the hall pounced on the central rotating magic circle like mad dogs.

PD, relying on his large build, saw the timing when the fossil was about to rotate in front of him and lunged like a hungry tiger, his right hand grabbing hard for that snakeskin fossil!

Just as he was about to succeed, a thin and small player nearby actually used their body size advantage, calculated an even craftier lead time, and "swish"—snatched the snakeskin fossil in mid-air half a second before PD!

"Damn it! You rat!"

PD missed and fell directly onto the altar due to momentum.

And in that short second of delay, the other players had already seized the opportunity to snatch all the good stuff. Only one item remained on the rotating magic circle that no one wanted—that piece of rag emitting a pungent, fishy stench and stained with black blood drifted slowly in front of him.

[Drafting Ended]

[Masters who failed to snatch a Catalyst will automatically receive the remaining item.]

The system prompt sounded, and that piece of rag automatically flew into PD's hand.