Chapter 406 - 370: Slaughter and Invitation

Chapter 406: Chapter 370: Slaughter and Invitation

"The first round begins!"

The competition officially started after the host left the stage.

The contestants sprang into action. Some who couldn’t stand the sight of each other immediately started fighting, while others simply attacked whoever was closest. But two or three of them chose to immediately use defensive items and hunker down in a corner of the arena.

A melee is different from a one-on-one duel. Unless one person is strong enough to crush everyone else, there’s always the risk of being ganged up on and killed.

In a fifteen-person brawl like this, striking first actually puts you at a disadvantage. Your abilities and item effects will be observed and countered by others.

It was clear the three contestants hiding in their respective corners were using their heads, planning to pick off the survivors after everyone else had finished fighting.

"Kill them!"

"It’s a sneak attack, get out of the way!"

"With so little skill, you still dare to compete? You really don’t know your own limits!"

As the melee raged on in the arena, the stands were in a constant uproar.

Many spectators watched the contestants being killed, their eyes wide and faces flushed—not with fear, but with excitement.

The very reason they were willing to spend their hard-earned Sublimation Coins on tickets was for this kind of brutal slaughter, this kind of blood-pumping spectacle.

So, when it came to the few contestants who were dodging and weaving, unwilling to fight head-on and just trying to survive until the end, many people in the crowd started cursing them out.

"Take out those slippery bastards who are hiding! God, I hate those sneaky rats!"

"That’s right! I didn’t pay to watch you cower!"

"Kill them first!"

The competition arena wasn’t soundproof. The contestants on the field could clearly hear the audience’s roars and shouts, which was a true test of their focus.

Hearing the crowd’s cries, the contestants who had been fighting from the start finally noticed the few people hiding in the corners. The thought that these people were just waiting to pick them off when they were exhausted infuriated them.

’So while we’re fighting for our lives, you’re just waiting to clean up the scraps!’

One contestant shouted, "Let’s team up and take out these despicable cowards first!"

"Yeah!"

"Kill them first!"

The group, which had been a chaotic mess of fighting, immediately formed a united front and went after the contestants hiding in the corners.

This turn of events made the audience roar with satisfaction.

"Yes! That’s how you’re supposed to fight!"

The first round lasted for nearly twenty minutes before it ended.

The outcome was quite dramatic. A formidable powerhouse who had single-handedly eliminated seven or eight contestants was killed by someone far weaker, all because he ran out of Psychic Power.

That person ultimately advanced to the next round, but when the host announced his victory, the crowd erupted in boos, clearly unhappy with the result.

Up in the private boxes, the children of the rich and powerful were not surprised by this outcome.

"In this kind of competition, only fools go all out from the start. Even if you’re strong, you’ll just get eliminated early."

"Exactly. No matter how strong you are, once your Psychic Power is gone, you’re just a lamb to the slaughter."

"If you want to be the last one standing, managing your Psychic Power consumption is crucial... But this guy who advanced is too weak. He’ll probably be the first one out in the next round."

"To make it to the end, you need both strength and brains... Oh? They’re cleaning up the arena quickly."

As they spoke, several cleaning bots quickly entered the stage, clearing away the fourteen corpses and the bloodstains left from the slaughter.

"How many rounds are there today?" Ishan, sitting in the center seat, asked casually.

Someone immediately replied, "That’s not fixed. The time it takes to determine a winner each round varies, but the tickets are for a total of three hours of viewing time."

"Is that so? Well, I’ll watch one more match and then leave," Ishan said, her interest waning. "It’s all just killing. Not very interesting."

"Heh, Miss Ishan is right..."

After the arena was cleaned, the host announced the contestants for the second round.

Once everyone was ready, the round began immediately.

The audience was eagerly anticipating another thrilling, twenty-minute battle like the first round, but the result left them bitterly disappointed.

The moment the match was declared to have started, a white-haired young man among the fifteen contestants raised his hands. Accompanied by a deep RUMBLE of thunder, dozens of lightning bolts suddenly struck down, instantly electrocuting the other fourteen contestants into steaming, charred corpses!

The stunning scene plunged the entire arena into dead silence. No one could have imagined that a contestant could instantly kill all their competitors in a single moment!

The children of the elite in the private boxes were also stunned.

"Is that the ability to control Thunder? What an incredible power!"

"Summoning dozens of lightning bolts in an instant must be a huge drain on his Psychic Power. Was he that confident he could kill them all in one strike?"

"It looks like this kid might actually make it to the final rounds."

Ishan, who had been losing interest, now looked at the white-haired young man in the arena, a spark of fascination in her eyes. "His ability is so cool. It seems the matches won’t be so boring from now on."

...

The Sisiya Competition was held in an abandoned factory in the suburbs.

The factory was large enough to accommodate a great number of contestants. It was also in a remote location with almost no residents nearby, which prevented the comings and goings of so many Ascenders from causing unnecessary trouble for the public.

Since it was a closed competition, there was no need to consider the audience’s viewing experience when choosing a location, unlike at Soloma.

Besides Yelena, many other officials were also present at the site, representing the government.

Upon arrival, they found many people already standing in the factory’s large courtyard: the contestants participating in the competition and the soldiers maintaining order.

The commander of the soldiers on site was Sikokun. As soon as Yelena arrived, she called her over to ask about the situation.