Chapter 1 After the Victory

After Li Ang's victory, the other arena matches concluded almost simultaneously.

Eric of the Clock Tower transformed into a stationary turret, unleashing a barrage of potent kinetic spells from the start, hoping to overwhelm his opponent with a dazzling display of magical firepower.

However, his opponent, the paranoiac in a fresh and elegant dress, lightly tapped the ground, releasing a curtain of darkness from beneath her feet that covered the entire arena, blocking outside vision.

When the curtain of darkness receded, only the paranoiac was left standing, holding a dagger, covered in blood, and smiling up at the sky.

Eric had been cut into over twenty pieces, scattered haphazardly across the arena. Only the arena's life-saving effect kept him alive long enough to be rescued by the Clock Tower conclave.

The battle in Arena Two was slightly less one-sided.

Father Heisenberg of the Knights Templar and the monster alliance's Thug engaged in a brutal close-quarters brawl. Their punches landed heavily, leaving craters on the arena floor. In the end, the Father emerged victorious—as for why a priest, who was supposed to be responsible for confessions and preaching, could fight so well...

Who knows?

After Dirge and his opponent stepped into Arena Three, they suddenly fell silent, standing motionless.

Just as the audience outside the arena was puzzled, Echo, of the Special Abnormalities Investigation Bureau's Ninth Division, suddenly leaned back and fainted, directly forfeiting the match.

Presumably, he was hit by some kind of mind-affecting skill.

And Arena Four continued the style of the previous round.

Bai Mian Mo Hou (Hundred-Faced Devil Throat) from gen-sys Biotech Company, who looked like an ordinary, black-haired youth wearing a prison uniform, transformed into a monster in combat mode. His body's organs became monstrous, bloated, deformed, and terrifying.

His opponent, the North Wind Deity from the GRU's parapsychology department, who was entirely covered in ornate platinum and azure combat attire,

conjured missiles, cannons, heavy machine guns, autocannons, and other modern weapons out of thin air,

suppressing the approaching Bai Mian Mo Hou with firepower.

Ultimately, they secured a narrow victory in the arena match with a score of 10:9.

Li Ang watched a few more rounds of arena matches from the audience seats before saying goodbye to Mule and logging off back into the real world.

As for the reasons for logging off, firstly, the sixteen-day schedule was long, so there was no rush to play for a day or two.

Secondly, even if he climbed to a higher floor early, he would still face powerful enemies assigned by the system, and losing would still result in a drop in floors.

Finally... Li Ang had classes tomorrow, and staying up late wasn't good.

———

Experiment Middle School, classroom, between classes.

Li Ang was sitting at his desk, his forehead pressed against the desktop, his hand swiping across his phone, intently watching the text on the screen, occasionally making sounds of "hmm" and "uh."

Wang Congshan, who was tidying her desk, glanced at him but wasn't surprised.

A long time ago, schools in various regions had allowed students to bring mobile phones, and even keep them turned on during class—mainly to facilitate notification of the real-time status of abnormal events to all residents.

The Special Affairs Bureau would even distribute mobile phones to residents who didn't have smartphones for free—these phones were tied to ID cards, could not be sold, and any buying or selling would be subject to prosecution.

However, with the end of the semester approaching, most students still wouldn't take out their phones to play, only someone like Li Ang would.

"What are you looking at? You're so focused."

Wang Congshan, having tidied her desk, casually tucked her hair behind her ear, lowered her head, and leaned over, wanting to see Li Ang's phone screen.

The latter, without raising his head, said, "I'm reading *The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates*."

"???"

Wang Congshan was stunned. "What did you say?"

"In short, *Robinson Crusoe*."

Li Ang slowly scrolled through the phone screen, and said calmly, "That passage was the original title given by the founder of British realism novels—Daniel Defoe, to his novel. *Robinson Crusoe* is an abbreviation of the novel's full name.

Defoe was quite the old weeb.

How about it? Sitting with me, don't you learn something new every day?"

"Wow, such useful knowledge that has the practical value of a bird~"

Wang Congshan rolled her eyes and complained, "Why are you reading novels lately? Didn't you used to read magazines like *Science*, *Nature*, *The Lancet*, *Physical Review Letters*, and *Jane's Defence Weekly*?"

Li Ang said indifferently, "I still read them, but my medical knowledge has been fully stocked, and I'm about to publish a paper on solving cancer, so I have time to focus more on literature."

"I believe you."

Wang Congshan curled her lips. When Li Ang bullshitted with her before, he said he wanted to be a doctor or something.

Becoming a doctor was probably ranked between "becoming the first person to land on Mars" and "finding a billionaire, young, beautiful, fair-skinned sugar mommy" on his list of life aspirations.

"Then tell me, what's the general content of that cancer-solving paper?"

"It's very simple."

Li Ang raised his head, held up a finger, and said seriously, "Immigration.

One in every five deaths in the world is from cancer.

But in Syria, only one in 120 deaths is from cancer.

As long as you immigrate to Syria, you can reduce the incidence of cancer worldwide.

I've already written the paper, and I estimate that it won't be long before I get an award at the Youth Science and Technology Competition.

There are still a few co-author names left to fill in the paper. If any primary or middle school students are willing to contribute a sponsorship fee of 450 yuan, I can let them be a co-author and win an award together or something.

Are you interested?"

"No, sorry."

Wang Congshan shook her head, recalling the news she had seen on TV not long ago.

As the Killing Game continued to produce special items, the technology of real-world tech companies was also advancing by leaps and bounds, and one disease after another that was difficult to solve in the past was declared conquered.

For example, gen-sys Biotech Company, jointly invested in by dozens of multinational pharmaceutical groups, and Prometheus Labs, which had influence in America,

have opened many branches and research institutes in South America, Africa, India, and other places, recruiting volunteers under the pretext of experimenting with new therapies.

In the past, so-called experimental new therapies were often questioned by all sectors of society regarding safety and ethics, and many pharmaceutical companies had related scandals.

But now, the Killing Game greatly shortens the time to achieve scientific research results and speeds up the efficiency of success,

so medical groups sometimes prefer to take the risk of ruining their reputation and secretly do some experiments that are more morally prohibited.

If you don't advance, you retreat. If you don't do experiments and don't achieve success, you will be easily overtaken by other companies.

And those relatively backward and undeveloped areas have become the most popular research institute locations for multinational pharmaceutical groups.

Not long ago, news came that the gen-sys Biotech Company's pharmaceutical experimental base built in a valley in southwestern India had an escape incident involving volunteers.

gen-sys Biotech Company announced that the patients had a sudden mental illness and were not a major threat,

but from the photos taken by ordinary people, India sent tanks and armed helicopters to assist gen-sys Biotech Company in a comprehensive search of the valley. At night, explosions and soaring flames were heard from the valley...