Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Mu Bai did not say a word, since Mo Fan’s speculation was right on point. Asha’ruiya and Sharjah might end up fighting the enemy queen.

The Lord of Darkness’ goal was obvious, too. If the Red Spider Lily Queen was already massacring his pieces on the right side, he had to take care of Mu Bai’s pieces on the left!

He was pressing forward so Asha’ruiya and Sharjah did not have a chance to retreat. His pieces were surrounding them and limiting their movements, like a pack of starving wolves.

“Is there a way to help them?” Mo Fan asked.

He did not want either of them to die. He had to try everything he could to save them, even if he was up against the Lord of Darkness.

Mu Bai was a little hesitant.

He had to make the decisions of who to save and who to abandon himself. As a matter of fact, he had already made up his mind.

The match was very straightforward. If everything went according to his plan, he could even secure the victory.

The most he could do was preserve half of his pieces.

“It’s too difficult to save all the pieces,” Mu Bai sighed.

“It’s difficult, but there’s a way, right?” Mo Fan asked.

Mo Fan always hated choosing one life over the other. He would not abandon anyone until he tried his best!

Sharjah must not die, the same with Asha’ruiya!

“If we choose that approach, we might lose more pieces than we have to,” Mu Bai warned him.

“Don’t think about failing. If it succeeds, everyone’s going to live. That’s good enough for me!” Mo Fan said.

Mu Bai looked at Mo Fan.

He was a little hesitant, but when he saw the look in Mo Fan’s eyes, he felt like he was back in Bo City. Mo Fan was the same back then. Even after they made it to safety, Mo Fan was willing to risk his life just to look for Xinxia.

Perhaps he had never conceded to his fate or destiny. It was something Mu Bai had always lacked.

Mu Bai would choose a safer approach most of the time, trying to minimize losses.

Being cautious and safe was a good thing, but it might be a bad thing to overthink sometimes.

Mo Fan was not willing to choose between the lives of his friends. Why would Mu Bai be willing to choose to save only one person between Asha’ruiya and Sharjah?

“Alright!” Mu Bai let out a deep breath.

He was not going to choose one life over the other anymore. It might be a game of chess, but no one could ever control their fate.

“I’m going to use an extreme measure. Either we kill every piece of the Lord of Darkness, or we will be wiped out!” Mu Bai said.

Mu Bai had lots of ways to win the match.

He had chosen the way with the highest possibility of winning the match and preserving the most pieces.

Mu Bai believed it was the best he could do. It was not the most desirable outcome, but it was good enough for him.

However, when he thought about the sacrifices some of the pieces had to make, he realized it felt worse than if he was going to die himself!

He would rather look for a way that could save all the pieces, even though their chance of winning was extremely low.

“King and rook, switch places!”

Mu Bai activated a special move called castling. A king and their rooks were able to switch positions.

The Black Dragon Emperor switched positions with Sharjah. The creatures nearby were startled by his overwhelming presence. Emperors were terrifying, after all. Even the Saintess of Darkness would not dare to challenge him!

The king’s movement was very limited, as it could only move one tile at a time. Therefore, despite the Black Dragon Emperor’s outstanding strength, he was unable to move around and kill the enemy like the Red Spider Lily Queen.

Due to his restricted movements, if Mi Bai played the king too aggressively, he might be taken out by the enemy.

Su Lu’s eyes glittered when he saw the Black Dragon Emperor going into the front line.

If the Black Dragon Emperor’s strength was reduced by thirty percent, Su Lu would have a good chance of killing him!

Once the Black Dragon Emperor died, no one could possibly stand a chance against Su Lu.

Su Lu did not care about other people. His only concern was leaving this place alive so he could make a comeback.

The Lord of Darkness laughed.

His opponent had finally run out of patience, making such a huge mistake!

“I’m sorry, It’s easy for me to forget important things. I haven’t explained another rule clearly…” the Lord of Darkness suddenly spoke.

“Shouldn’t we agree on the rules before the match?” Mu Bai asked.

“That’s how it is in your world, but in my world, I will alter the rules according to the situation. After all, many games have exploits and bugs that the game designers overlooked when they were released. They will fix the game with patches to balance the game. Am I right?” the Lord of Darkness said.

The Lord of Darkness wanted to add more rules. There was nothing they could do to change his mind.

He only claimed he was not going to destroy the balance of the game, but he never said he was not going to add more rules. After all, he had arranged the game itself. He still had control over everyone’s life.

“Say it then, but I hope you are not doing it for your own advantage,” Mu Bai was familiar with the Lord of Darkness. He knew the Lord of Darkness was a man of his word, at least toward people who did not pose a threat to him.

“The queen, the king, rooks, and bishops are powerful pieces. If the king was sent into the enemy’s lines, even a three-year-old kid could win the match by using it to kill all the other pieces while avoiding the enemy king,” the Lord of Darkness fondled his chin.

The Lord of Darkness had ignored something important because he was too focused on the other pieces’ strengths while he was assigning the pieces.

Both the Black Dragon Emperor and Su Lu were too strong compared to the others. Even if their strength was reduced by thirty percent, the Red Spider Lily Queen and the Saintess of Darkness were still no match for them.

It would destroy the balance of the game, thus he had to add a rule to fix it!

“You are thinking of restraining the kings?” Mu Bai asked him quickly.

“No, the rule won’t be targeting a certain piece. How about this? Whenever a piece kills an enemy piece, its strength will be increased by fifty percent. With that, if we use the pawns wisely and eliminate a few pieces, they will be strong enough to challenge the stronger pieces,” the Lord of Darkness said.

Mu Bai shook his head and replied, “Lord of Darkness, that still isn’t fair. The high-level pieces could just eliminate the low-level pieces to keep growing stronger. The game would lose its meaning.”

“Oh, you are right. Do you have a better idea on top of my suggestion?” the Lord of Darkness asked.

Mu Bai quickly came up with a more reliable rule. “The low-level pieces need a fair rule, otherwise, they are basically useless in the game. I suggest that when a piece fights a piece of the same level, the piece that survives will have its strength increase by fifty percent.. If a piece takes out another piece that is higher level than it, the piece would obtain a two hundred percent increase in strength. However, when a piece takes out a piece with a lower level, nothing would change!”