Before the commentator announced the result, the human spectators had already fallen into utter silence.
Many Ascendants inside the Myriad Sense Net Bubbles left Spectator Mode and returned to reality.
Sandro’s death and the sudden reversal of the match’s outcome were more than many people could accept.
On the forum, many had already decided that this challenge under the current Rule would end in failure.
“Four matches, two losses, one win, and one draw. That’s a terrible record. I don’t think we have any hope.”
“Even if Shadow God can secure one more victory, that only gives us two wins. We need a full five victories to pass the challenge!”
“Honestly, after watching these matches, I really am starting to doubt whether Shadow can win for sure. Before the matches, everyone was certain he could guarantee us one win. Now, it’s hard to say.”
“I feel the same as the person above. These alien enemies are all so absurdly powerful. I’m not very confident in Shadow anymore, either.”
“Let’s assume Shadow can win. That still means humanity needs three more victories. Dragon Soul, Han Qiu, Satan, and Gilal... Can those four win three matches? That doesn’t seem very realistic.”
“We’d be lucky to win even one of the four. Haven’t the previous matches already made that clear?”
Because of Sandro’s defeat, pessimism quickly spread across major websites.
Ascendants were especially affected. As the people with the most at stake, it was hard for them not to panic at the thought that a failed challenge would cut a large percentage from their Mind Power upper limit.
With the competition’s outcome still undecided, some people had already begun to settle old scores and question the original selection process.
“I said from the beginning that the way each country’s officials rallied votes for their own Ascendants was wrong! An Ascendant ranked first in a small country might not even make the top ten in a major power!”
“Exactly. Sandro from Lury, Tasitado from Manchidon... The facts have proven they just aren’t good enough. We should’ve picked more people trained by major powers instead.”
“Are people from major powers automatically reliable? After Suroma fell, Xisiya was probably the biggest power after Beixing, right? And how did their Lovska do? He was instantly killed as soon as he entered the match! I think some of the small countries’ people would’ve been better.”
“I’m from Xisiya. I voted for Sigaochin back then. She’s the real expert. Lovska was just a reckless brute relying on his ability. He had no combat sense at all.”
“If they’d replaced even one of those three with Bai Xuewu, who was popular in the voting back then, they could definitely have won a match.”
“That makes sense. Bai Xuewu is much stronger than those few.”
“Really? If she’d gone in during the second match and faced that silicon-based civilization, maybe they would’ve taken control of her mech. Tasitado at least managed a draw. With her, it might’ve been a straight loss.”
Whether it had been right for each country to cast its votes for the official Ascendants it had trained had been debated ever since the top nine in the overall rankings were announced.
Judging by the results so far, it did seem that there had been problems.
But there was no point arguing about it with hindsight now. After this match ended, the governments of every country began making preparations.
They prepared for the possibility that the challenge would fail and every Ascendant’s Mind Power upper limit would fall sharply.
To prevent Ascendants from breaking down and acting irrationally if that happened, governments strengthened their public security measures.
Beixing even immediately notified every shelter that, effective now, entry and exit were temporarily prohibited. They would be informed when the restrictions were lifted.
.....
The break between matches at the Furnace Arena lasted only about ten minutes.
At that rate, all four matches for the Tianshui Star Civilization would be finished in just one day.
That would leave the remaining dozen or so days before the end to deal with the effects of the competition’s outcome on society.
“Ugh!”
As Guan Tong waited, he suddenly felt a burning sensation in his left eye.
What was going on?
He raised a hand and touched the eyepatch formed from Shadow. His expression turned grave.
As an Awakened One, his control and awareness of his body had reached the utmost level. He could trace the source of any discomfort, whether pain or an itch.
Especially since this stinging sensation wasn’t coming from somewhere else in his body, but from his left eye, which had gathered the Demon’s power.
Ever since he’d covered his left eye with the Shadow eyepatch, he hadn’t used this power again, and the eye hadn’t bothered him since.
Now that it was suddenly reacting, had the Pain Dominator, the source of this power, started reclaiming it?
Or could it be...
Guan Tong looked out at the endless Myriad Sense Net Bubbles, unease churning within him.
Could there be power of the same origin inside this Furnace Arena?
But this was the power of the Demon Race. If the Arena contained power of the same origin, did that mean demons were here?
“The intermission is over. A new Sandbox arena is about to be generated!”
The commentator’s voice did nothing to ease Guan Tong’s concern. If the Demon Race really was here, that definitely wasn’t good.
The administrator of the Star Sea Court database had explicitly told him that the Demon Race was the mortal enemy of human civilization, and that in the universe they occupied the ecological niche of predator and prey.
What would happen if the two sides encountered each other in the Arena? Would the organizers maintain order, or let them fight each other?
As Guan Tong watched with a gloomy gaze, the new arena environment rapidly took shape. Before long, a vast cavern made entirely of enormous black rocks appeared.
Each of those black rocks was hundreds of meters long and wide, and covered in many strange patterns. They didn’t seem to be ordinary stones, and gave off an indescribable sense of oppression.
“Ah, could this be because the Tianshui Star competitor used a gravity ability in the previous match? This time, the generated arena is a ‘Weight-Bearing Cavern.’ What a coincidence!”
After the new arena appeared, the commentator began speaking at length.
“This vast cavern is made of ‘Weight-Bearing Stone.’ These stones naturally possess a gravity field, and when piled together, they amplify one another.”
“Every being in this cavern will endure several times its own weight in gravity. And as time passes, the multiplier will continue to rise... one times, five times, ten times, thirty times...”
“The audience may not know this, but one of the Star Sea Court’s prison planets is made entirely of Weight-Bearing Stone. I imagine the prisoners exiled there must be under quite a lot of pressure!”
The commentator’s deadpan joke failed to amuse the human audience.
An arena where gravity kept increasing demanded that the human competitor finish the fight quickly. If the match dragged on, they wouldn’t even need an enemy’s attack. The gravity alone would crush them first.
“Now, let’s welcome our competitors to the arena!”
As the commentator finished speaking, teleportation light pillars appeared and moved among the candidates.
This time, the first one teleported into the cavern was humanity’s opponent.
It stood four or five meters tall at the shoulder and walked on all fours. At first glance, it looked somewhat like an enlarged bear, but a closer look revealed major differences.
The biggest difference wasn’t its size, but the cluster of crystalline plates along its back. They looked like a small mountain of ore.
“Oh! The first to enter is ‘Tajia’ from the Oxes Beast Civilization, a rather rare carbon-silicon hybrid civilization!”
The moment the human audience saw the enormous beast, their hearts sank halfway.
Just judging by its size, the creature was terrifying. It might be able to crush a human with its body alone.
For a moment, many people hoped Satan would be sent out for humanity. At four or five hundred pounds, his build would at least be a little closer to the beast’s, and perhaps he could put up a fight.
However, the final result was somewhat beyond the audience’s expectations.
When the next teleportation light pillar appeared, the one who entered the cavern as “Tajia’s” opponent was a tall, upright man with a neat crew cut.
He was the official Ascendant Beixing had vigorously trained, “Dragon Soul,” Xu Jiao.