today’s bonus chapter! Sorry for the lateness QAQ
In the live broadcast, all the participants began to approach the fire seed. Among them, the Imperial Prince had the largest entourage with four, followed by a Federation participant with three-member teams – they actually had exposed coordinates. Finally, there was the Chu Yan and Qiao Zhiya duo. The rest were lone wolves.
The only thing in the lone wolf that the audience cares about was Cao Xia, who was secretly following the Third Prince and his entourage. He was weird. He strangely had always finished the six rounds tasks first. He didn’t even attack the Third Prince or prod them, he just followed them from behind.
Although there were other participants who would ambush and follow some of the other participants, waiting for an opportunity to attack, there was only one like Cao Xia, whose target was clear as if he had known the coordinates of the Imperial Prince’s entourage in advance.
Was this Cao Xia an ambush made by the Federal participants to defeat the Imperial participants? The Empire audience guessed.
Could it be this Cao Xia was a spy sent by the Empire to the Federation? Was this person trying to use the identity of a Federation member to harm the Imperial Prince, triggering a conflict between the two? The Federation audience speculated.
On the flagship, Chu Rong tried all encrypted special channels, but to no avail. Finally, he confirmed that the communication signals of this flagship had been blocked since just now. Now, not only the participants below, but everyone on this warship, couldn’t contact the outside world.
This was a major problem.
He frowned, and took out his photon computer to try again. After confirming that the photon computer could only open the live broadcast page, and all other functions could not be turned on, his expression sank. His live broadcast screen was locked on Chu Yan and Qiao Zhiya, while he went outside.
During the competition, Qiao Zhiya stopped suddenly and reached out to signal Chu Yan to follow suit.
“What happened?”
“The air feels… erratic.”
Qiao Zhiya replied solemnly. He moved his ears and listened carefully to the sound of the outside world. Then he used his magic power to explore, but even his magic couldn’t discern what’s wrong. He suddenly became uneasy.
Chu Yan looked around warily in all four directions, but found nothing unusual. The detection equipment of the mecha also didn’t give any feedback. He furrowed his brows and carefully stepped back to stand back-to-back with him. Then he asked, “I don’t sense anything. What’s wrong?”
“It’s just a feeling…” He hesitated in his response, unable to pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Just as he was starting to doubt whether he was being too sensitive, a faint sound of breaking through the air reached his ears.
“Be careful!”
With a change in his expression, he reached out and pushed Chu Yan’s mecha to the side. He then quickly pulled out his giant hammer and smashed it toward the sound.
“Boom–”
The sound of the explosion reached them, causing Chu Yan to quickly turn around and look towards where Qiao Zhiya’s brown mecha was standing, only to see no trace of it amidst the smoke and dust generated by the explosion. His expression changed abruptly as he urgently called out, “Qiao!”
“I’m pursuing it. Leave from your location!”
Qiao Zhiya’s voice came from the communication channel. Chu Yan felt relieved and immediately lifted off.
The smoke dispersed, and the silence was restored in the forest, as if that attack was just an illusion.
“Someone is following us.”
“And they want to continue to do so.”
The sudden sneak attack followed by no further actions indicated that the person tracking them had good stealth skills but probably lacked strength to engage directly. Dropping a grenade as a probe, they might have thought that Qiao Zhiya’s sudden halt meant he had detected their presence and wanted to strike first to disrupt their vision, allowing them to retreat to another position unnoticed.
In short, the attacker was still around.
The two had a brief exchange. Qiao Zhiya floated in the air, scanning the surroundings back and forth. Suddenly, his gaze fixed on a shadow in the forest. He took a couple of steps forward, drew his bow, and then, in the moment of drawing the bowstring, turned around and fired an arrow toward the area behind him.
“Whoosh—”
“Psst–”
A metal piercing sound came after the arrow lodged itself into the mecha’s armor. Then, a colorful mecha fell from a large rock and collapsed on the ground, unable to move.
“Just a diversion, nothing special. Everyone knows that trick. Well done, another one eliminated,” came Chu Yan’s voice over the communication channel, sounding cheerful. (og: sound the east and strike the west; diversion tactic)
Qiao Zhiya responded with a low murmur, putting away his bow. He noticed that the sense of unease he had felt earlier had disappeared. Frowning with confusion, he scanned the area, observing the participant emerging from the colorful mecha nearby. As his furrowed brow relaxed, he said, “Let’s go, the fire seed is nearby.”
On the Starnet, the audience watching the live broadcast calmed down.
They watched from God’s perspective, so they could see it more clearly. This colorful mecha suddenly approached Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan in a straight line, as if they had known their coordinates.
This pattern of behavior was almost identical to that of Cao Xia’s, who followed the Imperial Prince’s entourage, always shadowing but never attacking. However, this person was less fortunate and less skilled, quickly being discovered and eliminated by Qiao Zhiya with a single arrow.
The top three participants all have someone shady trailing behind them, which begs the question: what’s going on? Could someone have leaked the participants’ coordinates for the sake of winning unjustly? And what are these followers intending by tailing Chu Yan and the Imperial Prince?
They speculated, their gaze involuntarily shifting towards the Imperial Prince and his group, who were nearing the fire seed.. Not far from them, Cao Xia remained quietly following, neither attacking nor revealing himself, leaving them wondering what his intentions were.
On the flagship, Chu Rong looked at the blocked access door in front of him. With squinted eyes, he took out a short dagger from his space button.
After eliminating the colorful mecha, Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan noticed that the movement of the fire seed had ceased, and the three remaining participants with exposed coordinates were now within a 100 meters of the fire seed.
They exchanged a few words and then accelerated together. However, as they approached the fire seed and were only a few hundred meters away, they slowed down their pace, moving cautiously towards it in unison.
Soon, they saw the true appearance of the “fire seed”.
The fire seed itself was a large sphere of deep red color, with mobile and signaling devices attached to it, giving it a somewhat peculiar appearance. It was suspended directly above an open space in the forest. Below it, three somewhat battered mechas stood back to back, appearing prepared to fend off attacks from the shadows. Several weapon traps were conspicuously positioned around them.
“Ah, they’re actually Ling Yingxu and Fan Qi.” Chu Yan quickly recognized the pilots of two of the three mechas, wondering, “Who is in the other pilot?”
Qiao Zhiya shook his head, glancing back and forth around the fire seed, looking for the shadow of other opponents.
“Are you going up with them?” Chu Yan asked.
Qiao Zhiya hesitated, still shaking his head, and said, “No, there must be many hidden people around the fire seed now.”
He and Chu Yan were relatively far from the fire seed and had been delayed on the way for quite some time. Now that even they had arrived, it was unlikely that other participants hadn’t. Therefore, the area around the fire seed was definitely crowded with people. Whoever went out now would be a target, so they couldn’t move.
“Yeah,” Chu Yan nodded, hiding away obediently. Perhaps because the competition was nearing its end, his nerves had relaxed slightly. He sighed, “Elimination or advancement, whatever happens, this damned competition is finally coming to an end. But it’s really unbelievable that Ling Yingxu and Fan Qi didn’t complete the first six rounds of the tasks. Their skills are obviously excellent.”
Qiao Zhiya quickly pointed out several participant coordinates he had found on the map and replied, “I think they might have deliberately exposed themselves to lure others. Now they’re in the open, while others are in the shadows, but in fact, all of us remaining are in a passive situation.”
The visible ones are only three, but there are a lot in the shadows. As the saying goes, whoever moves first becomes the target.
“What to do then?” After Chu Yan lost his enthusiasm for the competition, he seemed to be too lazy to even think.
Qiao Zhiya glanced at him from the side, a sudden sense of “big brother” responsibility bloomed within his chest. He said, “Let’s wait.”
The task was time-limited. If the situation remains deadlocked, when the task time is up, those closest to the fire, like Ling Yingxu and others, will be declared winners by the system. Then the system will rank them based on the number of opponents they’ve eliminated in previous rounds.
Others definitely did not want this result to become true.So sooner or later someone will be tempted to attack first, and that’s when they need to launch their attacks.
Hearing his explanation, Chu Yan nodded, glanced at the coordinates he had marked, and then looked in those directions. He mentally counted for a moment and said, “There are three exposed targets, plus the two of us, that makes five. Considering the total number of participants on the field is definitely no more than twenty, there are still over a dozen people hiding in this small area around us.”
“There is absolutely no one within 200 hundred meters of us.” Qiao Zhiya said, and his ears were alert again, listening carefully to the surrounding movement.
On the flagship, Chu Tong stopped at the entrance to the control room, looking at the pile of people lying inside. He approached them one by one, confirming that they were only briefly unconscious due to spiritual power shock. Overall, their complexion looked quite healthy. His gaze swept over the destroyed operation console, and he found an intact interface. He quickly connected the communicator and began to operate it.
One by one, the protective shields and barriers of the flagship were raised, layering to protect the relatives and friends of the participants in the broadcast room who were unaware of the changes inside the flagship. After ensuring everything was secure, Chu Rong unplugged the communicator, destroying this last excuse, and then turned to walk towards the exit of the flagship – he was now going to bring the children back.
On the Starnet, the audience watched the participants hiding in a circle around the fire seed, feeling nervous.
During the competition, Qiao Zhiya’s erected ear suddenly trembled. He looked at his side, his expression tightened as he silently spread out his magic power. That strange feeling came again. Something is horribly wrong.
Before, for the sake of fairness, he never used his magic power to locate the coordinates of other participants. But now, he was getting more and more uneasy. For the sake of insurance, he broke his principle, just this once.
In a concealed location opposite to their position, Third Imperial Prince An Mhu opened a communication channel and dialed the participant number of Cao Xia, asking, “Are you sure about the positions of Chu Yan and Qiao Zhiya?”
“Affirmative. They’re diagonally above you on the map.”
A rough and unpleasant voice came through, causing An Mhu to frown. Suppressing his emotions, he instructed, “The people following Chu Yan have already been eliminated, so we have to take the initiative. Later, you attack me directly, make some noise, and I will gradually move towards Chu Yan’s location. Then, you seize the opportunity to let Chu Yan eliminate you. Understand?”
He had invested countless efforts and utilized many connections in this competition, all to meet Chu Yan during the match and naturally establish a relationship with him. Now, the old Emperor was blindly trusting the Imperial High Advisor, acting as if he had lost his mind, and excessively admiring Chu Rong. For that coveted heir position, he had no choice but to cater to the Emperor’s preferences.
God knows how much he doesn’t want to participate in this kind of competition. The feeling of blindly killing and not having a good rest is simply terrible.
“Understood, Third Prince.” The unpleasant voice sounded. The grey mecha moved, and finally raised his head from the hiding place.
