Chapter 371: The Restless Criminals

"Again—he one-shot him again!!!"

"Son of a bitch, another one-shot!!!"

"Mechanical Goddess above, what is this guy doing! This human is going to turn the world upside down!"

In the Inner World broadcast, the live chat was exploding.

Viewership for Yan Jing's perspective was skyrocketing.

"Face Thief, predicted sixteenth on the ESPP broadcast, a Great Prison-level criminal... lasted just one move? One move and he was insta-killed?"

"Someone kill this human! I can't watch this anymore!"

"It's over, look! He's breaking things again! No, our Ten Victories Monument!"

"Don't worry, Face Thief already destroyed that monument earlier. He won't get any Sin Value for it."

"So right now... he's just destroying it for the hell of it?"

"+, you , I ..."

Fueled by the crowd's outrage, Yan Jing's Sin Value began to surge once again.

Over in the Surface World, things were much calmer by comparison.

The audience there didn't understand the true caliber of the enemy. While one-shotting a Fifth Tier was still stunning, they had already seen him do it to Pilgrim; seeing it a second time lacked the same shock value.

Soon, a new barrage of comments popped up.

"Hurry, hurry!"

"He Xinquan and Jin Yao ran into each other again!"

"Come watch!"

The message spread like a virus, and viewers instantly swarmed to He Xinquan's perspective.

Compared to Yan Jing, the crowd was clearly more invested in the two strongest competitors whose power had already been verified. They wanted to see the outcome of their second clash.

To their disappointment, the two didn't immediately fight. They merely exchanged a glance before parting ways.

"It's a Dungeon, after all. The strongest wouldn't clash right at the start. They're worried someone else might swoop in and reap the benefits."

Someone in the chat accurately pointed out the reason.

Just like that, as time slowly ticked by, the number of surviving Dungeon participants continued to drop.

It soon fell below fifty.

A post on the Inner World forums summarized the most outstanding participants so far:

Inner World Faction:

[Monster: Truly living up to the name Monster. He has the highest kill count among the participants so far. Almost no one can withstand a single strike from this bespectacled man after his mutation. Whether facing criminals or those humans, he tears them apart equally, leaving absolutely no leeway. Note: My main concern is whether the organizers will actually acquit him if he survives to the end. I strongly urge the President to reconsider.]

[Doctor: This lady is an absolute menace. Although her kill count isn't as high as Monster's, it's only because she meticulously dissects every opponent she kills. Also, I don't know if it's just my imagination, but every time she finishes a dissection, her strength seems to increase a bit. Note: She's gorgeous, but you'd better not think about taking off her custom white coat.]

[Hacker K: A Smart Seed. As the biggest cybercriminal of the last thirty years, this is his first time displaying his personal combat prowess in public, and his record is exceptional. Aside from Monster and Doctor, he is the strongest among the criminals. Note: Mysterious as hell.]

[Financial Bully Feng Qiwen: Just like his nickname, he's a bully, and an extremely wealthy one at that. He excels at crushing opponents with money. In just this short time, I've already seen him chug two or three million-tier Gene Potions. Note: This guy needs to be thoroughly investigated. He definitely has more assets that can be confiscated.]

Human Faction:

[He Xinquan: This human really has something. He's at the Fourth Tier, but against ordinary Fifth Tier opponents, he basically chops them up like vegetables. His most brilliant achievement so far was running into Feng Qiwen. After a brief clash, Feng Qiwen proactively retreated. Note: Human.]

[Jin Yao: A human slightly weaker than He Xinquan. He faced off against a Fifth Tier criminal codenamed Ancient, fighting for ten minutes before finally winning. Note: Human.]

[Yan Jing: A human slightly weaker than He Xinquan but stronger than Jin Yao. When facing Face Thief Du Yintian, he pulled off an insta-kill in a single strike. Note: Human.]

[Zhao Dongchuan: A human with strength similar to Jin Yao. He and another human named Wang Gang are both dark horses.]

37/3

907,732 / 3,000,000

Yan Jing glanced at the interface, his expression calm.

Only a little over thirty people remained.

At this stage, even if the remaining participants weren't exceptionally powerful, they definitely had their own unique methods for survival. They were no longer as easy to kill as they had been at the start.

Furthermore, the Inner World citizens' enthusiasm for hurling insults was trending downward.

Right now, everyone was waiting for a heavyweight clash to reignite the flames of war.

Every now and then, he would switch his consciousness, using Mao Si's or Luo Sheng's perspective to watch the other participants' broadcasts.

He had a fairly clear understanding of everyone's location.

"So, who's going to lose their patience first—"

His gaze was calm as he looked toward a towering structure at the edge of his vision.

It was the most famous piece of architecture in the Peace Heavenly Kingdom.

The Peace Tower.

It served as the landmark of the Peace Heavenly Kingdom.

Right now, several top fighters were starting to move in that direction.

Some of them were likely heading there to gain Sin Value, but even more were going there to hunt.

Peace Tower.

At the summit.

A creature that hardly resembled a human sat on the edge of the spire. Several mouths on its bloated body sighed in unison:

"So boring."

"If it weren't for a breath of fresh air, there's no way I would've agreed to come here."

"The Great Prison is much more interesting. Whatever, I'll figure out a way back after this is over."

Just as its voice faded, a figure vaulted up over the edge.

It was a man with a cigar clamped between his teeth. He wore an exaggerated purple overcoat, the muscles of his chest exposed to the air. Upon seeing the misshapen creature, he chuckled and flicked his cigar:

"Looks like you're waiting for prey here, Monster."

"What do you say? Want to team up? You probably find Doctor to be quite a headache too—"

Before he could finish, the man's eyes narrowed, and he violently retreated.

But he was still too slow.

Accompanied by the sickening sound of tearing flesh, he suddenly felt a void where his right arm should be. Sweat beaded frantically on his forehead. When he looked down, he realized his right hand was completely gone.

"Fucking lunatic!!!"

He cursed under his breath. Back in the Great Prison, he had known the other party was a bit mentally unstable. Now it seemed the creature wasn't just insane—it had been hiding its true strength. Otherwise, it would never have been ranked so low in the Great Prison.

Those ranked at the bottom had to suffer daily beatings. This guy had very likely just been enjoying the pain.

Seeing the creature about to pursue, he hastily pulled a potion from his overcoat and downed it. Visibly, light pink granules of flesh began to sprout and weave together at his severed wrist.

Just then, a white figure leapt up from the other side of the spire, causing the creature to halt its impending attack on Feng Qiwen.

The massive eye on its belly turned toward the woman who had appeared at the spire, revealing a rare trace of wariness.

But it was only a trace.

It was confident it could defeat the woman, though it would have to pay a price.

There were other people in this competition, and it didn't want any unexpected mishaps.

"Do you want to team up?"

The moment the woman spoke, Feng Qiwen laughed:

"I just said the same thing, and it's useless. You're too late—you should pay me royalties for the idea."

Faced with Feng Qiwen's bad joke, the woman didn't laugh. She just shot him a cold glance, then snapped her fingers.

As her snap echoed, the audience in the Peace Heavenly Kingdom, who had been eagerly anticipating the battle of the century, suddenly lost all audio. In its place, a violent burst of static erupted.

"What's going on?!"

"Hey, hey, hey! If you can't host a proper broadcast, then don't host one at all! Hear me? Don't host it!"

6...

Amidst the frantic barrage of angry comments from the viewers, the woman spoke:

"Don't you find this tedious?"

"If we're just going to fight to the death, why did we even come here? Acting like clowns to amuse these idiots, when there are plenty of chances to brawl inside the Great Prison."

"Didn't we agree to participate in this boring game just so we could see the scenery outside?"

"But now they've changed the rules on the fly. It was supposed to be five people, and they changed it to three."

"Monster and I might be confident we'll be among the final three survivors, but what about you?"

The woman looked at Feng Qiwen, her expression indifferent.

"You probably came with the mindset of making it into the top five. But now there's that deeply hidden Hacker K, and the humans have some capable fighters too. Are you still so sure of yourself?"

Having his thoughts exposed, Feng Qiwen's expression shifted, but he stubbornly countered:

"Everyone has trump cards—"

The woman didn't even bother arguing back. Instead, she simply threw out her bargaining chip:

"Hacker K told me he could help us unlock this bracelet."

The woman raised her right hand and shook the flashing red electronic bracelet on her wrist.

"Stop joking around." Feng Qiwen laughed.

"This thing was made by at least a Sixth Tier. The hacker says he can undo it and you believe him? I might as well say I'm Quan Dazhong's father."

The bracelets on everyone's wrists were loaded with an ancient biological toxin. If they were tampered with, or if a participant violated the rules—such as by attacking civilians—the toxin would be automatically released.

With an ancient toxin like that, even if someone managed to forcibly withstand the initial dose, their life would be as good as over so long as they couldn't find an antidote.

The several legs on Monster's abdomen twitched. Its gaze was icy as it looked at the woman, clearly not believing her either.

Unexpectedly, the woman suddenly tossed a handful of black dust into the air. Under the cover of the dust, she used Blink, streaking toward the roof of a distant building at terrifying speed. Dozens of seconds later, she returned, her hands shockingly gripping the severed heads of several Inner World Residents, blood still dripping from them.

Then, under their shocked gazes, she shook her right hand. The electronic bracelet hit the ground with a clatter.

"Let's raise some hell."

She looked at the two, whose eyes were now starting to glint with fanaticism, and parted her red lips:

"Let's show them who the real toys for public amusement in this game are."

Hearing a knock on the door, Zeng Qing opened it.

In the doorway.

Lay Chen Xiaojing, completely pale with her blue veins bulging.

Other than that, the hallway was completely empty.

Her expression changed, and she quickly dragged Chen Xiaojing's corpse into the room.

Looking at Chen Xiaojing, who had now been reduced to a corpse, she stood frozen in a daze for a while.

Then, she took a deep breath and stood up, preparing to find a place to bury her.

She vaguely guessed who had delivered the body, but none of that mattered anymore.

"Your family will never acknowledge you again. The person you liked ordered someone to kill you. Everyone in the world is spitting on you. Whether it's exactly what you deserve or just terrible luck, it's hard to say."

"But at least that person had your body brought back. If you knew, you'd probably be happy for a long time."

She found a box. Looking at Chen Xiaojing was like looking at herself, and without realizing it, she found herself speaking more than usual:

"No one else is here to see you off, but we're friends. Even though you never liked me, I suppose I'll send you on your way."