A single number appeared in glaringly bright digits before every participant. 

32.

Not only the examinees inside the time-accelerated simulated universe, but even those who had already been eliminated on the outside could not help but gasp in shock.

There had been more than eighty people left after the first elimination round, yet after the second round, the number had not merely been cut in half. Only thirty-two remained. The sheer brutality of the competition had exceeded everyone’s expectations. 

In truth, there were still some examinees who, whether because of poor performance or various other factors, had failed to eliminate their opponents. Some had ended with one win and one loss, while others had simply been unable to do anything to each other. 

Unfortunately, everyone had far too many vicious tricks up their sleeves. In their determination to eliminate their opponents, too many people had poured everything into offense and destruction without making any qualitative improvements to their workshops’ defenses. 

The result was that once both sides unleashed everything they had, they simply blasted each other into oblivion. Some knew they probably would not last much longer and opened the match by going straight for mutual destruction, determined to drag someone down with them. 

The rankings were slashed in half almost overnight, while the surviving examinees saw their points skyrocket. And as though afraid the competition was still not vicious enough, that the examinees might somehow dance around each other without anyone dying, the organizer, clearly hoping to see rivers of blood, went ahead and awarded everyone additional points based on the combined total they had...