What was going on?
The audience was baffled when they saw a second “Sandro” appear.
Inside one of the Myriad Sense Net Bubbles, Melens, the head of the Blueprint Project, stared at the arena, a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead.
He had been extremely nervous ever since Sandro was chosen to fight this match.
Sandro was the best-matched subject for the Blueprint A1 genetic optimization agent. He had shown no signs of rejection whatsoever, as if the potion had been made for him.
After the injection, his abilities had rapidly improved.
This had made the Lury authorities...
When they saw Sandro at first, they had been completely at a loss as to what was happening.
Fortunately, the commentator spoke up just then.
“Wow, I never expected this. In the star sea, other civilizations have a certain impression of this civilization...”
“A mimic civilization?”
When the human audience heard this, they...
“It seems this civilization... Sandro.”
“But how do they do that?”
“As everyone knows, it’s more like selective copying. It’s very...”
The commentator’s voice...
Knowing that the commentator was...
From its reaction just now, it clearly thought this mimic civilization was stronger than humanity, and that humanity would lose.
On the arena stage, Sandro looked at the opponent across from him, who bore a striking resemblance to himself, and furrowed his brow slightly.
But the other guy only smiled and waved at him.
“Hello, human. Don’t be afraid. I’ll make your death nice and gentle.”
Sandro’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t respond.
The human spectators watching were furious, and began cursing loudly.
“That bastard from the mimic race is so arrogant!”
“It steals other people’s looks and still has the nerve to swagger around? Sandro, wipe it out!”
“If it’s just a copy of Sandro, then the real one has to win, right? There’s no way a knockoff can beat the original!”
The mimic’s arrogance infuriated the human spectators, but the commentator was delighted.
“Heh, it looks like the competitor from the Tumen Star Civilization is confident of victory. Let’s leave the outcome to the match itself. The competition begins!”
The countdown hit zero, and both sides moved at once.
Sandro raised a hand and sent several high-speed wind blades hurtling forward. They were exceptionally sharp, and rang through the air like metal.
“His ability is wind control?”
The thought had barely crossed the spectators’ minds when Sandro, without pausing, swept his arm around in a circle.
A water shield appeared out of thin air in front of him, ready to defend.
“He can control water too?”
The audience was still in shock when the mimic circled its arm.
Lightning appeared above Sandro’s head.
“Dosodo can do more than that!”
“It can use lightning too?”
“I have a feeling its abilities...”
The spectators were still reeling in shock when black blades...
Everyone thought...
So Sandro can use those too?
Guan Tong was watching the match as well.
But as he looked at those...
The quality of the Shadow Blades, their resilience, and their area of effect were all far inferior.
If Guan Tong used them himself, he wouldn’t make a small patch of Shadow Blades with a radius of only one or two meters. He could cover the entire arena with a massive Shadow-Killing Array, leaving his opponent nowhere to dodge.
However...
Guan Tong thought that if he hadn’t been certain before, seeing the Shadow Blades had now let him make a strong guess about Sandro’s ability.
Like his nickname, “Apprentice,” or like the mimic across from him, Sandro’s ability probably involved copying. He could copy the abilities of other Ascendants.
That was why he could control fire, wind, water, and lightning, and even form Shadow Blades.
But his copying was clearly imperfect. He couldn’t bring out the full power of the original abilities.
Guan Tong’s guess was right.
Melens watched Sandro and Dosodo continually switch abilities as they attacked and defended in the arena, his heart heavy.
Melens knew Sandro extremely well. He knew that Sandro’s exclusive item, the Sketchbook, could record how other Ascendants’ abilities manifested.
Once the recording was complete, the item would absorb the ability and eventually internalize it, turning it into a power Sandro himself could use.
The Sketchbook was very powerful, but its flaw was that it couldn’t perfectly reproduce the characteristics of the original ability. Its effectiveness was also closely tied to the user’s Mind Power upper limit.
That was why Sandro had remained a third-rate or second-rate Ascendant despite possessing the item. He could use many abilities, but they were a jumbled mix, each one weak, and he was never particularly impressive in actual combat.
It wasn’t until he received the Blueprint A1 injection, which greatly improved his physical capabilities and his brain’s processing power through genetic modification, and rapidly raised his Mind Power upper limit, that his ability to use multiple powers became an advantage.
When the abilities in his Sketchbook were combined, they became what they were now.
Even though they couldn’t match his own abilities, they produced an effect greater than the sum of their parts.
It was like some games...
But the problem now was...
Melens watched Sandro fighting Dosodo.
The problem was Dosodo...
And he was worried that...
Had they really thought Dosodo could win before the match?