With Dragon Soul’s match over, the rule challenge had officially entered its second half for Tianshui Star Civilization.
Humanity still had four participants left: “Shadow” Guan Tong, “GM” Han Qiu, “Gluttony Frenzy” Satan, and “Blood Mage” Gilal.
Given their current record of two wins, one draw, and two losses, the four of them would have to win three matches to complete the challenge.
During the halftime break, many people discussed the matches on the forum.
“I can’t believe Dragon Soul broke through in the middle of a match! That’s just ridiculous.”
“Fate and timing, I suppose. I think he got pretty lucky. If his opponent hadn’t been an Oxes Beast, he’d have been doomed.”
“Yeah. That Oxes Beast came out and immediately lay down to sleep. That’s what gave Dragon Soul the chance to break through.”
“That’s not necessarily true. If his opponent had been another species, maybe Dragon Soul’s earlier attacks would have worked. He might have won without becoming an Awakened One.”
“I wonder what Authority he got. Judging by the giant he transformed into, it must be really powerful!”
“Now there are two Ascendants on Tianshui Star who we can confirm are Awakened Ones: Shi Jingyi and Dragon Soul.”
“Shadow definitely is too, even if he won’t say so.”
“There are four matches left. If we win three more, we’ll pass this rule challenge!”
“Don’t get your hopes up too high, or the disappointment will be even worse. I think winning two matches is enough. Shadow can secure one, and the other three can take one more. That’d give us four wins, one draw, and four losses. At least our Mind Power upper limit won’t be reduced.”
Dragon Soul’s victory had greatly eased the suffocating atmosphere from earlier, and people’s discussions had become much more relaxed.
Winning was important, of course, but after so many losses in the earlier matches, more people felt that simply balancing wins and losses would be good enough.
After ten minutes passed, the sixth match officially began.
“The halftime break is over. We will now generate a new Sandbox arena.”
As the commentator finished speaking, a new arena quickly took shape.
It was an open-air environment. Scattered across the uneven ground were small pieces of metal ore, and around it lay mine pits. Some of the brightly colored metals were completely unfamiliar to humans.
“Oh, this time we’ve generated a fairly common environment in the Starsea: a resource-star mining site,” the commentator said.
“Many civilizations conduct full-scale mining operations on this kind of planet. Once the resources have been extracted, they simply abandon it or sell it off cheaply to low-level civilizations, letting them pick over the scraps.”
The commentator’s explanation, without a doubt, made the human audience feel uncomfortable again.
After all, Tianshui Star was currently a low-level civilization, and the lowest of the low, Level 1. In other words, it occupied the ecological niche of those who picked over the “scraps.”
What the commentator said also reminded people of the previous rule. Wasn’t Mr. Ga of the Star Scar Merchant Group planning to buy planets in the Tianshui Star Civilization’s star system for exactly this reason?
Although this sort of interstellar business transaction didn’t seem to be open to criticism, for humans, an emotional and sentimental species, it still left them feeling rather uneasy.
“Now, let us welcome the competitors into the arena.”
Teleportation light pillars appeared above the open-air mining site. When the light faded, what remained was a patch of thin, blue-gray mist.
The human audience stared at the mist, momentarily baffled.
What was that?
“Oh? The first competitor to appear is ‘Gui’ from the Rongrong Civilization. The Rongrong Civilization is a gaseous species civilization. Each individual is the whole, and the whole is each individual!”
A gaseous civilization?
Each individual was the whole? The whole was each individual?
The commentator’s words did not sound like good news to the human audience.
More precisely, the commentator’s lively tone showed that it thought highly of the Rongrong Civilization’s “Gui.”
That confidence surely came from having access to information they lacked. But humans knew nothing about this Rongrong Civilization, so they couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
Guan Tong looked at the cloud of nitrogen gas, already considering his options.
Humanity had only four people left. The one-in-four chance wasn’t small, and he might be the one sent out.
If he had to face this kind of gaseous life-form, what would be the best approach?
Would physical attacks work on gas? Or would he have to find a way to disperse it?
The Nano Swarm Civilization only became intelligent when it gathered together. Was the intelligence of this gaseous species also based on clumping together?
A teleportation light pillar fell on Guan Tong. He had just settled himself and prepared when, the next moment, the pillar moved away to somewhere else.
...?
Guan Tong furrowed his brow.
The teleportation light pillar had lingered over him just now for what seemed longer than the normal rotation time.
And this wasn’t the first time. In one of the earlier matches, a teleportation light pillar had also lingered over him for a little longer.
The extra time had been less than a second, just a fraction of one, but even a fraction of a second was something an Awakened One like him could clearly sense.
A thought came to him.
Could the competitors selected for the Meltstar Arena Competition not actually be chosen at random?
He felt that was possible.
The Fire Thief’s rules had said nothing about the randomness of the Meltstar Arena Competition. They had only mentioned that the winners would receive additional rewards provided by the organizers.
Moreover, the earlier bird’s-eye view had made it clear that the Arena’s structure, with its three concentric rings, could accommodate a great many matches taking place simultaneously.
That meant the Fire Thief might not be arranging every Arena match.
“If the selection isn’t truly random, then someone must be pulling strings behind the scenes?”
The more Guan Tong thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He just couldn’t determine whether it had anything to do with the unknown organizers.
“This Furnace Arena... There’s a lot about it I can’t figure out.”
From the commentator, who was obviously prejudiced against humanity, to the discomfort caused by the demonic power in his left eye, and now this supposedly random selection... He felt the competition was complicated, with many things going on beyond the rules.
“Let’s see who the Rongrong Civilization’s opponent is... The answer is revealed! It’s ‘Gluttony Frenzy’ Satan from Tianshui Star Civilization!”
The commentator’s voice pulled Guan Tong’s thoughts back to the present. He looked up at the arena, where Satan’s hulking, four- or five-hundred-pound body had appeared beneath a teleportation light pillar.
So he was the one up this round.
One was an incomparably light gaseous individual, while the other was an excessively obese carbon-based life-form. Guan Tong thought the two opponents made quite a symmetrical pair.
When Satan appeared, most of the human audience wore complicated expressions.
First of all, the vast majority of people didn’t know Satan. Unlike Dragon Soul, whose reputation was at least well known, Satan was someone they had never even heard of.
Second, Satan looked awful. He wasn’t just enormously fat, he was also unkempt. His greasy hair was clumped together and stuck to his face, and the thick layer of grime around his neck made him even harder to look at.
Many people who wanted to shout encouragement found themselves unable to get the words out.
As for the handful who did know him, they weren’t exactly eager to support him either.
Inside one Myriad Sense Net Bubble, Cat Woman lay on the ground with her chin resting in her hands. Her smiling eyes were nevertheless full of murderous intent.
“He wouldn’t let me go, but he sends that fat pig instead, and Chairman Han Qiu even says he can’t make the decision himself. What a biased liar... Hmph. You’d better die in that arena, you fat pig. Otherwise, I won’t let you off either.”
Inside another Myriad Sense Net Bubble, Han Qiu saw Satan enter the arena and gave a slight nod.
“I brought Satan along originally to prepare for a team battle. Now it looks like the Meltstar Arena Competition is strictly individual matches. With Satan’s abilities, dealing with a gaseous individual shouldn’t be a problem.”
As Han Qiu spoke, his gaze returned to himself.
“There are three people left, so I’ll be going up soon too. I’m jealous of Dragon Soul. He actually broke through during the competition. But now I have signs of my own. Could my breakthrough be close as well...?”