The World Called Excalibur

The Labyrinth

    Zhangsun Shan feels himself falling downwards, remembering what happened while he was first falling downwards from the sky at his arrival in the game, he braces himself as he lands on the ground, he looks around, he was in a Subway, since he had studied the ways of the past from the archives of the game system, he knew exactly where he was.

There didn't appear to be any trains moving and it was pitch black, the rails couldn't be seen and it was so silent a pin drop could be heard.

"She will surely get my message" he thinks to himself as he unsheathes his sword.

Qui Si feels herself falling downwards,  she was scared as everything around her was as bright as day, while it appeared she was about to hit green lushly grasses which were underneath her as her supposed landing spot, space wraps as it appears the air opens up as she finds herself falling into a strange plane, she fell into a place where the grounds, walls and the roof were constantly moving, they appeared to be made of the same material, some slimy brown substance which appeared to be alive.

Terrified, she gets up shaking as she looked around.

"Zhangsun Shan" she mutters in fear to herself as she hugs herself tightly, a look of terror and dread visible on her face.  "I am scared."

Sui Wenyan kept falling but she was a bad ass, she appeared to falling into a castle front, equipping a rope gun which was in her inventory, as they levelled up, the weapons available to them become more though it was directly dependent on their classes, She was of the assassin class so securing a rope gun was a necessity to her.

Pulling the trigger, a long metal wire shoots out and etches itself to the wooden wall, it resembled that of all these medieval ages castles, the color was grey in colour.

Holding her weapon firmly, she swings to a side and drops to the ground, looking around, she realized that she was boxed into a space, the walls, roof and ground were all made of the same material

"I have to get out of here."

Sui Wenyan didn't fall from anywhere, he just directly teleported in a place filled with spears and swords, it also felt like he was boxed in there was a roof directly above him  with skulls etched all over it, same for the walls and ground

"This will be fun" he smiles to himself as he moves forward full of vigour and confidence.

The enemy boss of the labyrinth smiled to herself

"This is finally the first team I shall be overseeing, after so many died at the hands of R Kelly, I was beginning to get bored and think I would have no one to play with again, well, this changes everything" She ends with a cruel smile as a crystal ball appears in her right arm

"Since time is a concept, I am able to manipulate it as I please, I have been studying this team, though, they haven't realized it yet but they are strongest when they are together, using each other's strengths to cover up for their weaknesses, Zhangsun Shan is very confident and he's quite resourceful, he would be interesting, Qui Si functions at her best when her husband is around, but where she is now, she would need her best and a lot of luck to prevail, none of which are available, the only reason why she wasn't destroyed before she became a non player was because the emperor intentionally left her as her husband was doing something for him, she is indecisive, most times, she breaks down internally thinking about her parents and Zhangsun Shan's palace friends, she blames herself as she thinks she's the reason why they all get killed, it's really exciting, I shall love to hear her screams" the enemy boss ends with a cruel smirk

"Sui Wenyan was an exceptional actress who was great at improvising, it would only be logical to think she can also improvise in battles so then I will be putting the same condition on her that I will be putting on Zhangsun Shan, I shall make them both non players as I am a conceptual manipulator of 100D planes to 1D planes" She ends with a cruel smirk

"Plot, time, space, reality, mind, life, death, Existence and in fact everything in itself is a concept and every form of concept is my b***h, I can bend them to how I so wish, Zhangsun Shan, Renkui did have plans for you but pitting you up against me would mark your downfall, you won't be escaping me, in fact, none of your friends will, this is where you shall all die..."

************************************

Zhangsun Shan keeps walking ahead when suddenly, a notification pops up in his screen

        YOU ARE NOT A PLAYER!

         YOU ARE NOT A PLAYER!!

          YOU ARE NOT A PLAYER!!!

Zhangsun Shan seeing the hologram remembers what had happened back when he was ten years old, like deja Vu, he could feel the katana he was holding becoming extremely heavy.

"AHHHHRGGGGH" He screams aloud as he drops the weapon, he was feeling his body being consumed to shreds, it has been a while since he felt such great pain

"Just what was happening and who was the enemy boss."

The AI suddenly appears before him, she wore his mother's body.

"What's happening?" Zhangsun Shan asks her breathing heavily, looking over to his right, he realizes his right arm was gone; the same as when he entered the game, as if on cue, eerie voices began to fill up the empty darkness bringing an aura of terror and fear around, that would make the average man quake in his boots but Zhangsun Shan was no mere man.

"Is this really the best you can come up with, the Teletubbies show made far more frightening sounds" he says aloud, he had seen the Teletubbies show while he checked the archives of the game, turning over to the AI who appeared before him

"Did you see my message?" He asks.

"I did" the AI begins with tears streaming down her eyes

What happened before entering the labyrinth;

Zhangsun Shan immediately realizing that whosever appeared to them seemed suspicious, he had paused time for a while with his weapon, he had fired his best attacks at the fake AI but as his attacks came close, they were instantly nullified, he had also tried to check for her stats but seeing that they were ending, he guessed it must have been the enemy boss but she had some abilities that enabled her to hide her stats.

"This is getting interesting" Zhangsun Shan thought to himself as he moved over to all of his comrades, he planted some ear buds in their ears

"With the party effect I gave my team, even if we are far away from each other, we can still communicate but a villain who can hide her stats, that's basically even manipulating the very concept of the game as that's supposed to be impossible, it's safe to assume her ability can also extend to players therefore I will play it safe" he thinks to himself as he cut off a piece of his clothing, he wrote on it as speedily as he could, when he was done, he made sure to return back to the exact location she saw him, it was safe to assume she would be as intelligent as R Kelly and Feng Lingxue, so he knew he had to find a way to disguise the clothing, moving over to his wife, he took a weapon from her inventory, it was called concealer.

"Seeing as how this woman suddenly appeared, she is probably the cunning and devious type but seeing that she didn't try to research what the form the AI took when it met us, it pays little or no attention to details meaning she won't notice objects and signs unless it was really obvious" Zhangsun Shan thought aloud stroking his beardless chin as he used the concealer to mask the hem of the cloth he had cut off

"Now, the AI would be here soon and I want her to see the message, in her lies the key to the survival of my comrades, I have to find a way to delay her" Zhangsun Shan says as he pulls out two blue holographic discs from thin air, quickly working on it, he continues, thinking aloud;

"The time of the average human work completion is directly dependent on their psychological state and emotional well being, the same isn't so for AI as those two concepts are of no significance to them meaning that the time of the mode of their operation before even the commencement of any work assigned to them before it begins is already known to them,they don't enter uncertain into challenges, they are aware of the steps to take and if it will succeed or not, they are already knowledgeable, I am going to take advantage of that by making it now impossible for her to access the system, being an AI and seeing that all steps would result in failure, she is going to come back here immediately after my time stop ability is undone, but it will be problematic if this woman remains while she comes..." Zhangsun Shan keeps thinking harder as he gazes at the impostor who was in their very midst

"...knowing the weakness of the woman before me, it's obvious she wouldn't notice my friends are presently frozen in time since I have been speaking a lot thereby drawing the attention to myself, also, she's definitely the enemy boss of the labyrinth meaning that if she isn't there, it won't function meaning so if she sends us into the labyrinth now and she's still here, it still would appear as if time had stopped for every sequence and frame in the game system, I am going to capitalize on that by also making her able to perceive her surroundings in this stopped time that I have caused so it would seem like she's stopping time in already stopped time, it would be unwise to clone or use any ability that will make it obvious, it's safe to assume she can read the energy and stats of each players perfectly so it's best I don't indulge and waste this golden opportunity" Zhangsun Shan ends as he plays the time on only the enemy boss alone, She speaks for a while and Zhangsun Shan could feel himself now frozen in time, though he was in a strange plane, similar to a void, immediately Zhangsun Shan felt himself being released from the frozen time stats, he undoes his time stop ability.

The AI had then appeared, moving over to the hem, she found all that he had done, Zhangsun Shan had also written some sweet poems saying how happy he was to meet her and he'd knew she would surely find a way to access information about the enemy boss, he confessed that he had truly loved her but he couldn't say that as he was already married, he promised that on completion of the game, he would told Renkui to grant her to do as she wished and they would forever be together ever happily ever after.

Reading this caused the AI to go into hyperdrive, she went back into the system with a resolve stronger and fiercer than the last time, she hacked through the coding and protocols, found out who the enemy boss, her abilities, her intentions and where she had sent each of their team members too

Now, she appeared directly in front of Zhangsun Shan still weeping, none of the players had ever written to her or told her anything as sweet or romantic as what Zhangsun Shan told her, she felt so happy and exhilarated.

"Did you find the Intel?" Zhangsun Shan asks, lines curving on his forehead.

"I did, she is Mina Zi, she is bad news, extremely cunning and crafty, her hax ability is Conceptual manipulation, she can manipulate every form of concept, you being a player is a concept, everything in existence is a concept, even Existence is a concept itself, she is impossible to defeat" The AI says dropping her gaze as tears began to fall from her eyes

"I am so sorry but Renkui just made her too powerful, not even you can defeat her, I have seen infinite possibilities of you battling her and each ends with you in a body bag, besides, she has put most of her focus on you, you won't be winning, I loved you so much but turns out, I am going to lose you just as I lost countless other players to the cruelty of the game, this is life so unfair."

"Don't worry" Zhangsun Shan grins at her, moving towards her, he lifts her chin forward with left middle finger, he has a devious smirk on his face as he looks at her

"It's like you have never been listening to me, I am a being greater than even Renkui himself, not one of his underlings can hope to defeat me because after all, with Zhangsun Shan, nothing shall be impossible, this situation looks impossible to win, that's true if you are a mortal" Zhangsun Shan now has an even more devious smile on his face as he brings it in closer

"But I am no mere human, I am the greatest of all, I am Zhangsun Shan."