Chapter 1 The Sky Arena

In the Sky Arena's audience stands, Li Ang stood with his arms crossed, gazing down at the arena below.

The matches on the first level had already been underway for three hours. Dozens of arenas were hosting simultaneous battles.

Blinding light, flames, acid, flying swords, gunshots, and even invisible curses and psychic powers rose and fell across the arenas, almost completely obscuring the view.

Although it was impossible to cross the invisible barriers surrounding each arena, or to perceive the real-time situations within through the intense noise and light,

the experienced advanced players could still guess the general situation based on their experience.

"...The body-enhancement type esper in Arena 13 is about to win. His hidden bloodline potential is taking effect, and in another ten seconds, his opponent's magic missiles won't be able to pierce his skin.

The battle in Arena 14 will end soon. The illusionist player there thinks he's in control, but he doesn't know that he's the one trapped in a deep illusion—the guy who looks like a puppeteer is also an illusionist.

The Japanese player in Arena 15 has about a minute to surrender. His shikigami paper talismans are about to run out, and then he'll be beheaded by the demon he's facing..."

Li Ang casually assessed the situation in each arena and told Wang Congshan, who was holding a telescope beside him.

To accommodate ordinary spectators, the Watcher Guild had prepared a comprehensive filming system and, as before, arranged enough commentators in the real world to provide explanations.

However, the commentators' professional skills were more reflected in their ability to control the scene and describe it verbally, and were clearly not as accurate as Li Ang's judgment of the situation.

"Really..."

Wang Congshan lowered her special telescope and clicked her tongue. "How can you predict everything so accurately?"

"I've seen a lot of it, so I can basically make a judgment."

Li Ang casually curled his lip. Having run the Wugou Ronglu (Immaculate Furnace) shop for so long, he had produced a large number of equipment and props.

He had seen all kinds of strange items brought over by players, and his experience in the transcendent elemental field was particularly rich.

"This time, the Siming (Fate) Battle arena game hasn't opened a public lottery system.

But some unofficial platforms are privately opening betting pools on the results of the matches. It's a pity that no one asked me to do any planning or anything."

Li Ang said casually, "If they asked me, the accuracy rate of guessing the outcome of each match would have to be 70% to 80%."

"Li Ang's Match Commentary? Someone would have to dare ask you."

Wang Congshan sighed. In fact, during the last Gate of Trials competition, the chain of interests extending from the competition was terrifying.

Now, due to the rapid deterioration of the real world situation, most of the Eastern population had been evacuated by the Special Affairs Bureau, European residents had accepted martial law-style military management, North America had become a gunfight scene, and other places were left to fend for themselves.

The chain of interests surrounding the Siming Battle was actually much smaller than last time.

"By the way, if I'm not mistaken,

the ones competing right now should be the players ranked near the bottom of the participants, right?"

Wang Congshan thought of something and asked, "What's the benefit of them going on early?

Logically, the later they go on, the greater their advantage, right? They can collect as much information as possible about other competitors and reduce their own weaknesses.

Going on early will expose their information to their opponents."

"The logic is simple, they know they're not strong enough, so they can only buy time."

Li Ang said casually, "Based on the results we've observed so far, there are more than four thousand contestants from Earth in this Siming Battle.

Only 2,000 players can advance, which means they are competing internally among Earth's participants.

To win and advance, they have to climb higher and go further in the arena than others.

Going on early will expose their information,

but they can also take advantage of the fact that the first and second tier players haven't participated yet to climb to a high position early on, like the thirtieth or fortieth floor, and occupy a favorable position.

Maybe, if they're lucky, the first and second tier players will also be stuck there due to increased infighting?

In that case, their chances of successfully advancing will increase."

"I see."

Wang Congshan nodded. "I understand. Another benefit of participating early is that they can get the Sky Arena's rewards earlier, right?

Judging from the experience of the past month, the Sky Arena is now more 'generous', giving away items, scrolls, and experience points. Participating early can also give them some time to develop."

"That's right."

Li Ang smiled slightly and nodded at Wang Congshan with a "you're teachable" smile. He suddenly stood up.

Wang Congshan was stunned. "Hey? What are you doing?"

"Participating."

Li Ang answered as a matter of course, reaching out to pat the non-existent dust on his white coat.

"Didn't you say that only rookies go on early..."

"That's them, I'm an exception."

Li Ang smiled and waved his hand, walking down the steps.

Wherever he went, the people sitting in the audience stands retreated and made way for Li Ang.

"So fast?"

Wan Lifengdao and others, who were scanning the entire field with special glasses, also noticed the white coat figure walking down, slightly surprised, but they weren't surprised given Li Ang's usual style.

"I'm here to participate."

Li Ang skillfully filled in the participation application in the virtual panel. Soon, the Sky Arena arranged an opponent for him, a player from the GRU department.

The Siming Battle was a race against time. Li Ang stepped onto the arena.

The player on the opposite side of the arena looked at Li Ang, then at the line of text appearing in the sky: [Authentic Good Supermarket, Authentic Good Clinic, Wugou Ronglu (Immaculate Furnace), a new store opened in the southeast corner of the square...] He took a deep breath.

There was only one person with such a long string of IDs, Li Risheng, and there was no imitation.

The GRU player didn't hesitate to raise his arm and said in a deep voice, "I forfeit."

With a flash of light, he was directly teleported out of the arena, leaving Li Ang standing alone on the arena.

Everyone in the audience didn't express any surprise at this result.

It was completely normal to match with a top-level player like Li Ang on the first level of the Sky Arena and admit defeat.

Or rather, matching with him on the first level of the Sky Arena was actually a kind of luck—losing on the first level didn't deduct points. If you met him on a higher level and lost, you would have to go down a floor.

"Ah..."

Li Ang was a little bored that his opponent had surrendered before he could even make a move.

He stood on the arena, nodded to Wang Congshan in the audience stands, and directly signaled to the Sky Arena through the virtual panel. He was instantly teleported to the second floor.

Then, he stood on the second-floor arena and continued to apply for an arena match.

The opponent surrendered, easily won, and advanced to the next floor.

Third floor,

The opponent surrendered, easily won.

Fourth floor,

The opponent surrendered, easily won.

...

Three hours after the start of the competition, many players had already reached the teens or twenties, and when these people saw that their matched opponent was Li Ang, they directly chose to surrender and give up.

They would rather waste the levels they had earned through hard fighting and be demoted on the spot,

than stay in the arena for another second.

"Am I that scary?"

Li Ang shook his head helplessly and continued to advance triumphantly on the road of opponents surrendering in seconds, until the twenty-seventh floor.

[Opponent "Iron Scorpion" has been matched]

[Opponent has agreed to the duel agreement]

"Hmm?"

Li Ang raised his eyebrows when he heard the sudden system prompt and looked around.

As before, players could freely teleport and travel between the various floors of the Sky Arena (ordinary people without player qualifications had to climb the stairs or take the elevator themselves).

There were originally not many people on the twenty-seventh floor of the Sky Arena.

The tens of thousands of spectators who had newly appeared in the audience stands had all teleported over with him.

"The twenty-sixth floor just now should be the highest floor that Earth players had reached before, right?

I haven't seen the so-called Iron Scorpion on the list of opponents that Mule gave me that I need to pay attention to.

Could it be a puppet randomly generated by the Sky Arena?

Or is it a player from another world..."

Li Ang casually thought, waved to Wang Congshan, who had appeared in the audience stands, and greeted her.

[Generating arena protection force field]

[Duel countdown thirty seconds]

The system's voice was still steady. Soon, a ripple appeared in the space in front of Li Ang,

and a strange creature emerged from the void.

It was a giant three-tailed scorpion as large as a truck. The chitinous carapace on its body shone with a black oily luster, looking thick and solid, seemingly indestructible even by artillery bombardment.

The crab-claw-shaped forelimbs at the front of its body were thick and powerful, making it easy to believe that they could crush special alloys into powder.

At the rear of its body, there were three tails, each with a hook-shaped barb at the end. The surface of the barbs flashed with a blue light, seemingly coated with deadly poison.

Of course, the most striking thing was the object on the scorpion's back.

That was four people pieced together,

respectively a man, a woman, an old person, and a child.

They were all wearing brown coats, with dull faces and lifeless eyes, and each of their eight hands held knives and swords.

Each weapon was enveloped in a pearly luster, looking unlike ordinary objects, giving people a sense of profound mystery.

An opponent he had never seen before.

Li Ang tilted his head slightly. Some transcendents on Earth would abandon their human form and turn into monsters,

but he had never seen one with such a unique shape.

Rather than saying it was a person, it was more like a deformed creature similar to a synthetic beast, definitely not on Earth's player list.

"A transcendent from another planet?"

Li Ang raised his palm, took out a Colt revolver from the void, and waved to the other party as a gesture during the thirty-second countdown before the duel began,

but the strange creature didn't react at all.

In the audience stands, the players who saw this strange scorpion had surprised and uncertain expressions.

Wang Congshan frowned slightly and immediately took out a tablet computer to log into the Special Affairs Bureau's database to find information.

During the previous month-long break, the Sky Arena was still open as usual, and many players were challenging and fighting each other in it to get rewards. They would also encounter alien creatures that were obviously not native to Earth during their battles on stage.

This Iron Scorpion was one of them.

As soon as it appeared, it had a duel with an Lv25 Earth player.

That Earth player originally belonged to Prometheus.

After the Prometheus Laboratory Company was merged and acquired by European Heavy Industries, he did not choose to remain loyal to European Heavy Industries, but instead absconded with important data and samples from Prometheus.

That data was very important to European Heavy Industries, and they sent a large number of personnel and resources to hunt down the agent.

But everything was useless. The former Prometheus agent was experienced and powerful.

He repeatedly repelled the pursuit of European Heavy Industries, killing the assassins they sent, and lived a free and peaceful life.

European Heavy Industries regarded him as a thorn in their side and constantly issued bounties, hiring anyone to kill him. On several occasions, Xiaodou even participated in the encirclement and suppression with Capricorns, but still failed to catch him.

The player was therefore listed in the second tier.

His combat skills might not be very strong, but absolutely few people could control him peacefully.

Until the Siming Battle break.

"...This creature called Iron Scorpion appeared during the break.

It disappeared from its original location at the moment when the absolute protection countdown reached zero, appeared in front of its opponent, and severed the opponent's neck with one pincer, killing the opponent instantly, not even having time to surrender.

The other two battles with Earth players were also the same,

Flash, kill, win.

The Special Affairs Bureau's observation department didn't even understand what transcendent technique it used, whether it was a skill, item, equipment, or racial talent..."

Wang Congshan looked at the information in the file, her eyelids twitching slightly.

The creature was mysterious and its strength was unknown. It was hard to say whether it was an intelligent life that humans could understand. It was really a little dangerous to confront it hastily, making her worry about Li Ang's safety.

Especially after Wang Congshan noticed the sentence at the bottom of the document—

[If Special Affairs Bureau contestants match with the Iron Scorpion during the Siming Battle preliminary stage, it is recommended that they release detection skills and detection items at the moment when the countdown ends, and then activate a Level 5 defense-type device to observe the opponent's mode of action. The barrier released by the Level 5 defense device can withstand a full blow from an Lv25 player. If the situation gets out of control, and the opponent breaks through the barrier, the priority option should be to forfeit and surrender]

The Special Affairs Bureau had noticed during the break that the alien creatures that appeared in the Sky Arena during the break might be terrifying opponents encountered in subsequent competitions.

They had specially formulated detailed documents for those powerful alien creatures.

All suggestions were to observe first, then fight.

It was better to surrender directly after encountering them than to fight unprepared—after all, the preliminary stage was a competition with other players within Earth. It was only necessary to defeat other players on Earth to advance to the next round.

Even Zhong Limeiming, a first-tier player who could rank ninth on the combat power list before the Gate of Trials competition,

was given this advice.

Wang Congshan quickly browsed all the text, and her anxiety slowly rose.

She stood up without hesitation, released the Cardinal Cube, and summoned fine particles like black iron sand, forming a line of large characters in mid-air for Li Ang on the arena to see.

[Be careful of your opponent, you can surrender first]

Before she could take the next step, the thirty-second duel preparation time had ended the countdown,

and Li Ang and the Iron Scorpion above the arena could no longer observe the outside situation.