The audience watching the live broadcast at home had not yet reacted when they heard one final, sharp screech of static, and then the screen went completely black.
The bullet comments were frozen at the last second:
“WTF? Are the organizers stirring up trouble?”
“Did the internet cut out?”
“Is this some kind of new map effect?”
“Something is wrong. That last shot seemed to catch something falling from the sky…”
Inside the arena, the disaster was far more direct.
The 60,000 spectators who had been cheering for the match suddenly noticed that the sunlight above their heads had vanished.
In its place was a sallow, deathly sky — like the bottom of an overturned bowl.
Immediately following that, all the lights went out.
“Ahhh!!”
Someone let out the first scream, followed by a wave of mass panic.
But even for the DRG, caught off guard as they were, there were defensive measures in place for such an event.
Small devices hidden beneath the seats ignited 2 seconds after Koji Hattori issued the order, and a pink mist instantly enveloped the entire stands.
The moment the ordinary people inhaled this mist, they froze in place, completely motionless. A single leaf appeared out of thin air above everyone’s head.
As for the superpower users, some looked around in panic, while others activated their abilities, waiting for a potential enemy.
Thump —
The backup generators kicked in 15 seconds after the incident began. Light once again bathed the entire stadium, but it was now eerily silent.
“What’s going on?”
In the spectator area, Kaori Onishi looked anxiously at the mist around her and instinctively grabbed onto Makino Yuzuha, whom she was holding.
“Something has happened!”
Saori Saiyonji’s expression changed. He stood up, intending to run backstage — today happened to be the weekend, so he had come as well. His Ability to Trade could help Jiang Jian Yue.
But just as he stood, a DRG soldier hovering in the air flew down in front of him. The voice coming from the mask’s amplifier was slightly distorted: “Mr. Saiyonji, we need you.”
At the same time, Pluto descended from the sky.
As her gaze swept across the silent audience, a faint look of doubt appeared on her face. Then, a crack split open on her face.
She reached her hand inside and pulled out a lump of flesh, tossing it casually toward the spectators.
Mid-fall, the lump of flesh transformed into a creature in a demonic posture, screeching as it lunged at the nearest spectator.
However, its teeth and claws snapped against the ordinary person’s skin. The spectator’s posture didn’t change, and even their clothes weren’t torn; it was as if the person were fixed in that exact moment in time.
“Heh, idiot.”
A cold voice came from behind. Pluto turned around and looked toward Jiang Jian Yue, who was also floating in mid-air in the distance.
“We at the DRG… take… safety… very seriously!”
Jiang Jian Yue looked at Pluto as if she were a fool.
A broadcast echoed throughout the stadium: “All superpower users who are still able to move, do not worry.”
The big screen lit up with a looped recording of the monster’s attack being “defended” just moments ago: “There is no need to worry about the safety of the ordinary people around you. Please follow the instructions of the staff and proceed to the safety zones.”
“Oh? And what about you?” Pluto seemed entirely unconcerned by this. “Your safety cannot be guaranteed.”
“You should worry about yourself! Visual Obscuration —”
Pluto’s vision blurred, but she relied on her powerful Emergent Body Heartworm Energy stats to recover.
In the next instant, Pluto felt something falling from above. She looked up and saw Medical Mannequins falling densely from the sky, like rain.
Pluto’s body suddenly dove toward the earth, her hands constantly firing ripples of energy to grind the Medical Mannequins into dust.
When she descended to a certain point and began “gliding” close to the ground, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her temple.
Jiang Jian Yue, flying alongside her, was currently using her Swift Sword to constantly churn her own temple.
Her brain was being rapidly destroyed and then rapidly reorganized. The blood flowing from Jiang Jian Yue’s five orifices was carried away by the wind from their high-speed movement.
However, this kind of attack seemed to have very little effect on Pluto. After dozens of seconds, Jiang Jian Yue gave up the assault.
‘Damn it! Does this person have no brain?’
At the same time, Vision World was drifting on the edge of the battlefield.
After judging that the opponent would charge into his Vision World, he suddenly summoned a door directly in Pluto’s flight path.
Boom —
Pluto flew headfirst through the door, plunging inside.
“Beautiful!”
Jiang Jian Yue followed close behind, rushing into the Vision World.
Inside the Vision World, the remaining members of the two groups had not yet realized what was happening outside.
On the Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu Unit 1 side, only Cuiyue, Yuki Asahi, and Reina Hayami remained.
The art team still had Shadow Girl and a member named Ding from the Sichuan Tibetan area.
The only downside to this map was that there were simply too many places to hide.
After realizing that a head-on confrontation wouldn’t work, Member Ding had been the first to go into hiding.
And Shadow Girl, perhaps because her initial consumption was too great, had clearly felt her strength declining and had also started playing hide-and-seek.
“What’s wrong?” Cuiyue noticed that the Captain’s expression wasn’t right as she kept a vigilant watch over the lobby of the skyscraper.
“Something… must have happened outside.” Yuki Asahi could feel that all emotions, whether benevolent or malicious, had been cut off.
Was it a power outage? Or…
Right then, the entire building suddenly shuddered. Then came a series of impact sounds, getting closer and louder!
Boom —
Finally, a black shadow smashed through the ceiling of the lobby and crashed violently into the floor. The three of them lost their footing and fell.
“Eh?”
Yuki Asahi propped himself up on the floor, which was instantly covered in cracks, and looked up blankly at the dust-filled crater.
The figure lying in the pit gradually took shape. Yuki Asahi’s heart skipped a beat, and he ran toward the crater, disregarding any other danger.
“Yue!”
Yuki Asahi looked at the puddle of flesh and blood before him. Tears involuntarily welled up. Although he knew Jiang Jian Yue’s recovery ability was extraordinary, he couldn’t help but cry.
Also, the white smoke smelling of charred meat was stinging his eyes.
“Puh.” With only about one-half of her head still intact, Jiang Jian Yue spat out a mouthful of blood and spoke with a trembling voice: “Above…”
She didn’t need to remind him. Yuki Asahi’s Emotion Perception had already touched that thick, heavy killing intent.
A powerful presence was rapidly approaching, punching through the floorboards layer by layer. The continuous sounds of explosions were terrifying.
Swish —
An instant before Pluto reached the first floor, liquid metal covered the ceiling.
Thud!
Pluto’s body left an indentation in the liquid metal.
Shadow Girl and Member Ding appeared outside the main doors. The silver-haired girl had never looked so serious: “Something must have happened outside.”
Riiiip —
The liquid metal was torn open by sharp claws. Dark purple talons sliced through the liquid metal with ease, and then Pluto descended from the ceiling.
Yuki Asahi picked up Jiang Jian Yue’s body, which had recovered by half, and backed away.
“Oh?”
After seeing the few people gathered in the lobby, Pluto’s gaze lingered on Shadow Girl for a moment before turning to Yuki Asahi. From that point on, she couldn’t look away.
“Miss Jiang? You guys…” Shadow Girl asked as she saw the half-torso Yuki Asahi was holding.
“Saints!”
Jiang Jian Yue was brief. Since the other party was an official team from Tokyo University, they had certainly heard of the Saints.
Shadow Girl nodded slightly. The liquid metal in her hand transformed into a sharp sword, her face carrying a look of provocation: “Hey! You worm-worshipping idiot, is Yuki Asahi really that special? Staring at him like that won’t make him fall for a muscle woman like you.”
“Of course.”
To her surprise, Pluto actually answered.
It seemed to be a response to Jiang Jian Yue’s previous provocation outside the Vision World, or perhaps some form of ritualistic sense from a religious fanatic.
Pluto spoke leisurely, “To complete the Heartworm Energy required for the sacrifice, Yuki Asahi alone is enough. Jiang Jian Yue, did you think protecting the commoners was sufficient?”
With that, she stopped wasting words. Her pupils burst with an alien brilliance —
By the time Shadow Girl snapped back to her senses, she was already standing in a pitch-black space.
Compared to the sense of security when entering the Vision World, this space gave her a feeling of total nothingness.
“Playing tricks.”
Shadow Girl was more than happy to see what kind of games this muscle woman was playing.
After a brief moment of nothingness, the darkness before her suddenly receded, replaced by a cold, torrential rain.
The rain poured down, lashing the slippery mountain road. The air was thick with the pungent smell of gasoline and blood.
Shadow Girl hovered in the rain from a bystander’s perspective, unable to move or intervene.
“It’s…”
She saw a twisted, deformed car. The front was deeply crumpled against the roadside guardrail, and thick white smoke billowed from under the hood.
A car door was pulled open, and a man covered in blood was staggering as he dragged a girl’s corpse from the passenger seat.
The man’s face was distorted with agony and despair. Rain mixed with blood flowed from a wound on his forehead, staining his torn shirt red.
The man’s trembling arms picked up the girl’s body. She had moon-white, silver hair. Her face was identical to Shadow Girl’s, but she was now lifeless.
As a bystander, Shadow Girl could only gaze stiffly at this scene.
This familiar scene was something Shadow Girl would never forget as long as she lived. Old terrors crawled out from the depths of her memory.
The suffocating feeling of helplessness, the guilt of causing a tragedy with her own hands, and the heart-wrenching pain of losing the person she loved most — everything spread from the bottom of her heart.
Pain instantly swallowed all her senses and ability to think. Before she could even let out a whimper, her vision was suddenly consumed by pure darkness.
Her consciousness was completely extinguished.
Shadow Girl snapped her eyes open and fell out of the medical capsule, gasping for air, her face filled with an indelible terror.
Beside her, Member Ding also collapsed to the ground, still howling: “My pony, Pearl…!”
“What’s the situation?”
Shadow Girl looked up at the nearby medical capsules. Reina Hayami had also been reverted, falling to the floor.
Jiang Jian Yue watched the entire group fall into a state of dazed mumbling. She constantly manipulated her ability to accelerate her recovery.
That Pluto had also fallen into a daze. This was a good chance… ‘Flesh, grow back faster!’
Pop —
Suddenly, a crisp sound like a bubble bursting rang out. Member Ding vanished into spots of light, followed by Shadow Girl and Reina Hayami.
Are they all dead?!
Is this… a mental attack?
But why didn’t it work on me?