The moment Tsumuri announced the start of the round, the environment around the contestants shifted. They were instantly teleported to a location in the city suburbs where the Zombie Jyamato were invading.
Everywhere they looked, the Jyamato zombies were densely packed, charging at them with outstretched claws. None of the Riders dared to delay. They quickly pulled out their Buckles and prepared to Henshin.
The risk of infection from a zombie attack made this round far more threatening than the Jyamato bandits of the previous round.
Among the seven present, the ones with decent Buckles were Buffa and Da-Paan.
Buffa, wielding the Zombie Buckle, charged into the fray. His chainsaw weapon was devastatingly sharp, carving through the hordes like a hot knife through butter. Zombie Jyamato fell one after another.
Da-Paan, with the Magnum Buckle, fully leveraged his abilities as a sharpshooter, landing headshots on the zombies from afar.
The others were not so lucky, being stuck with less effective Buckles. Tycoon was not using the Boost Buckle, instead relying on a basic Shield Buckle. Na-Go, with a Hammer Buckle, had to swing with all her might for a long time just to smash a single Zombie Jyamato.
She was quickly surrounded by a new group of Jyamato and was moments away from danger.
Raven slaughtered his way over from a short distance and easily dispatched the surrounding Zombie Jyamato.
He walked up to Neon and flicked her forehead.
"The zombies' weakness is the head. Don't waste your effort. Also, this is a points-based elimination, so I can't help you too much."
"Ah, I understand!" Neon immediately realized her mistake. So, she needed to target the head.
"However, you can gain points in another way: go protect the trapped citizens nearby. That will also earn you a good number of points." Raven continued.
"I can do that? Thank you, Raven-san. Even though we are competitors..." Neon felt a rush of warmth in her heart.
He was still kindly giving her advice, even now. This was a stark contrast to how Da-Paan had coldly ignored her plea for help earlier, even seeming to mock her and wishing for her elimination.
"Alright, hurry up. I just heard someone crying for help over there." After telling her this, Raven turned his attention to the zombies in front of him.
"Understood!" Neon clenched her small fist, cheering herself on, and immediately ran in the direction Raven indicated, completely trusting his words.
"What a pure soul. It's a good thing she ran into me," Raven mused, shaking his head. With no further concerns, he prepared to launch his own slaughter.
His movements were fluid and seamless as he weaved between the Zombie Jyamato, each strike precisely hitting their heads. Since his base power was already extremely high, a power that even limiters like the Driver could barely contain, he entered rampage mode of continuous reaping.
One punch, one small zombie eliminated.
However, he was still not satisfied with this speed. Having watched the original series, he knew that Ace had an even simpler method for score farming.
"This speed still isn't fast enough."
Raven contemplated for a moment, and an idea sparked. He switched his Shield Buckle for the Propeller Buckle. He then aimed it at the oncoming horde of corpses, using it like a meat grinder.
Zzzzzzz—!
The Propeller's blades were as sharp as knives. They quickly shredded the first few Zombie Jyamato in his path.
Raven smiled in satisfaction. As expected, this Buckle was surprisingly useful. As he plunged into the horde, he became like the grim reaper's scythe, relentlessly harvesting the lives of the Zombie Jyamato.
In no time, his score ranking leaped to the top, having accumulated over two-thirds more points than the second-place Rider.
This sight once again stunned some of the VIPs in the Desire Grand Prix viewing boxes. They had just witnessed another one of Raven's outrageous tactics. The general audience was also excited.
However, a certain black-tights-wearing loli eating candy in a hidden location wasn't happy at all.
"Honestly, they should send out stronger Jyamato! This is just too unfair." Her eyes narrowed in extreme displeasure. She focused her glare on Raven, the one who was constantly slaughtering her "cute" Jyamato.
She decided that she absolutely had to find an opportunity to teach him a good lesson.
While all parties were closely monitoring the thrilling competition, Ace was finally ready to execute his plan.
He entered an abandoned factory, and in a sealed room, he used the Water Buckle and the pipes there to fill a confined space with water. He then went back outside and led a large group of zombies into the area. Finally, he opened the floodgates.
Rumble!
The accumulated water burst out like a torrent, instantly wiping out a huge wave of zombies. Ace's score immediately surpassed Michinaga's, placing him in a strong second place, just behind Raven.
Soon after, the first wave of zombies was completely eliminated. Raven and the others returned to the rest area.
"Contestants, excellent work. You may rest here until the second wave of the corpse tide arrives."
In the lounge, Girori posted the latest ranking board. The list, from top to bottom, was:
Rank 1: Raven - 43,000
Rank 2: Ace Ukiyo - 39,650
Rank 3: Michinaga Azuma - 34,270
Rank 4: Kanato Sumida - 27,450
Rank 5: Keiwa Sakurai - 17,850
Rank 6: Neon Kurama - 14,880
Rank 7: Morio Koganeya - 13,600
"What?"
Ace was stunned by the ranking results. He looked at Raven in disbelief. He had leveraged the Water Buckle and the advantage of the environment to pull off his comeback. What method did this guy use?
Ace naturally had no idea that Raven primarily relied on the Propeller meat grinder combined with his advantage of having virtually unlimited stamina. After drawing the aggro of a large number of Zombie Jyamato, he had, in one breath, annihilated the entire horde without stopping.
"A bet's a bet. Here are my Buckles." Ace finally accepted his defeat and offered his two Buckles to Raven.
Michinaga, who had been full of confidence moments ago, was instantly crushed by the announcement of the scores. He had the most suitable Zombie Buckle. He was fighting the zombies nonstop! Yet, his efficiency was still inferior to those two who were only using low-tier Buckles?
While Michinaga was still reeling, Raven stepped forward and simply took the Zombie Buckle from his hand.
"A bet's a bet, you know." Raven offered him a slight smile.
"Damn it." Michinaga turned his head away, filled with bitter resentment. Although he was furious, he was a man of his word; even if Raven hadn't actively taken it, he would have personally handed it over later.
However, he never expected Ace to lose to Raven, too. That was a truly rare occurrence. He had participated in several games with the fox and had never seen Ace lose even once. He had thought he would be the one to deal the fox his first defeat, only to be effortlessly surpassed by a never-before-seen newcomer.
Holding his three newly acquired Buckles, Raven merely offered a faint smile, showing no great elation. For him, a god, using any item was essentially putting on a set of self-imposed restrictions. Counting his own Propeller and Shield Buckles, he now had five Buckles. However, only the Zombie Buckle held any real value.
Neon, seeing Raven win so many Buckles, was even more delighted than he was.
"Raven-san, you're just too amazing!" Stars filled her eyes.
With Raven's guidance, she had successfully gained a large number of points without relying on defeating zombies. Though she was still in second-to-last place, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
At this moment, the most panicked person in the entire room was Morio Koganeya. After seeing the ranking results, he stood frozen in place, unable to move. He couldn't believe he was the one at the very bottom.
Na-Go and that Tycoon barely fought any zombies, yet they still ranked higher! He was utterly perplexed.
Unbeknownst to him, those two had earned a large number of points by protecting citizens. Keiwa had even received a donation from his big-spender fan, Kekera, giving him a second Boost Buckle. He now essentially had two Boost Buckles in hand.
It was a pity that Keiwa Sakurai, despite having such a potent weapon, had no idea how to use it. This left Ace drooling with envy. He couldn't help but start calculating how to trick the Buckle out of Keiwa's hands.
"Hey, young man, how did you manage to win with that useless piece of equipment?" A very anxious Morio put his arm around Keiwa's shoulder in a familiar, schmoozing manner.
He saw that Keiwa had only been using an extremely ordinary Shield Buckle but still managed to rack up so many points, so he assumed there must be a secret.
"Actually, I didn't defeat a single zombie. There were a lot of people who were being attacked by the zombies, so I went and rescued them," Keiwa honestly replied.
"So that's how it works!" Morio suddenly understood. At the same time, he couldn't help but curse himself. He had numerous opportunities to rescue citizens and gain points, but he had ignored them all.