“What the hell… you… what have you done?” A furious Sandor turned around, his face twisted in rage, glaring at the several bounty fighters who had just attacked Krull.
In reality, none of the bounty fighters who had attacked Krull were inexperienced fools. Originally, when they had gone after Krull, they were quite wary of TK Group’s wrath, so they had unconsciously held back their strength. Krull’s immediate death after their combined attack had also greatly surprised them.
If Sandor had arrived just a little later, those bounty fighters might have already started arguing among themselves. Each of them believed that they had held back, so Krull’s instant death must have been due to someone else’s excessive force. Naturally, the blame for Krull’s death should fall on the others.
Unfortunately, Sandor’s harsh questioning forced these bounty fighters to unite.
“Hmph! Do we even need to explain? Since your TK Group couldn’t handle this madman, we helped you take care of him! Sandor, maybe we should be the ones saying that line to you! If this lunatic had been allowed to run rampant on the first floor, what exactly was your TK Group planning to do?” Several bounty fighters glared back at Sandor, equally defiantly retorting.
In the hall that had just ended a chaotic brawl, a tense and dangerous atmosphere quickly gathered again. Both sides stood like roosters on the verge of a fight, stretching their necks and glaring at each other furiously, their battle energies fully activated, occasionally producing electric-like crackling sounds.
However, the audience and apprentice fighters who had just fled in panic gradually calmed down. After all, there was no one like Krull among the two opposing groups now. No matter how intense and bloody the fight between the bounty fighters became, it wouldn’t endanger the surrounding spectators. As long as the fighting could be confined to just the bounty fighters, the audience actually welcomed more brawls among the high-level bounty fighters in the hall, giving them free entertainment.
Soon, the several bounty fighters in the hall, locked in a tense standoff, were stretched to their limits. Just as both sides could no longer hold back and were about to start fighting, a slightly amused voice casually drifted in from the entrance leading to the upper floors.
“Sandor!”
Everyone in the hall turned toward the source of the voice. What met their eyes was a man dressed in a crisp aristocratic suit, with soft golden hair and a handsome face—an individual who would definitely be labeled a “pretty boy” in the arena.
Upon recognizing the newcomer’s face, the people in the hall exchanged puzzled glances. The members of TK Group led by Sandor and the high-ranking officers from other organizations were almost instantly recognizable to the audience and bounty fighters present.
But no one recognized this man. Even a few seasoned veterans who had lived on the planet Fira for generations and had been around the Babylon Arena for over a decade couldn’t identify who this guy calling out to Sandor actually was.
Who the hell is this pretty boy? Does he want to die, daring to call out to Sandor when he’s so angry? Many audience members and bounty fighters thought gleefully, ready to watch another show. However, to their great surprise, after hearing the pretty boy’s shout, Sandor hesitated for a moment and did not erupt in rage!
Moreover, not only did Sandor not erupt, but after spitting disdainfully, he actually followed the pretty boy out of the hall without even glancing back at Krull’s corpse!
After Sandor and the unfamiliar pretty boy entered the elevator together, the bounty fighters in the hall once again exchanged puzzled glances, using their eyes to ask each other the same question: Who exactly is this pretty boy?
As the bounty fighters speculated about the stranger’s identity, Sandor, stepping into the elevator with the pretty boy, still had a gloomy expression.
“Hey! Black Viscount, why didn’t you let me act back there?” Sandor cast a sidelong glance at the pretty boy, his tone dark and cold. “Although Krull was indeed a fighter provided to our TK Group by you, letting him be killed on the first floor without any reaction… our TK Group will be looked down upon. That wouldn’t benefit any of us, right?”
“Hehe! You’re right, Mr. Sandor.” The handsome man, addressed by Sandor as the “Black Viscount,” lit a cigarette, smiling as he took a deep puff. “However, if you were to pin Krull’s death on those unfortunate scapegoats, then it wouldn’t just be your TK Group that becomes a laughingstock. Even my eyes would become the butt of jokes.”
“Scapegoats? What do you mean?”
“Tsk tsk tsk! You don’t actually believe that Krull was really killed by those few losers, do you?”
“What? You mean there’s a master in the first-floor hall capable of killing Krull without anyone noticing?”
“Exactly,” the Black Viscount said with a slight smile, his pupils contracting inward and his voice growing serious.
“Proof speaks louder than words,” the Black Viscount said with a relaxed smile.
The elevator stopped at the top floor of the arena center. The Black Viscount gestured politely with his hand and led Sandor into his private lounge, which he had rented at a high price at the top of the arena. As soon as they entered the small room rented by the Black Viscount, Sandor immediately saw the image frozen on the screen at the front of the room. It was the exact moment when Zhang Wen had attacked Krull.
“Krull was killed by him?” Sandor’s expression changed again. In the frozen image shown by the Black Viscount, Sandor could clearly see the flicker of deep blue battle energy on Zhang Wen’s right hand. It was only then that Sandor realized that Zhang Wen, this “minor character” who had been accompanying Rena and Jim, had been completely misjudged by him from the very beginning.
“Of course,” the Black Viscount said, walking up to the large screen and entering some mental energy into the nearby controller. The image on the screen immediately rewound a few seconds and began to play repeatedly.
“See this?” The Black Viscount smiled elegantly, pointing casually at Zhang Wen’s movement trajectory during those few seconds. “From the arena to Krull’s side, his movements were so fast that even a psychic couldn’t catch up. Then… bang! He lightly patted Krull. No one knows what he did; probably Krull himself didn’t even realize what happened to him. But with that single touch, his battle energy had already penetrated Krull’s body, injuring his internal organs. Therefore, when Krull tried to gather his battle energy later, he failed and ended up dying at the hands of a few minor fighters.”
“Hmm…” As the Black Viscount described it so casually, Sandor couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.
He recalled that just now, when he had called out to Rena, he had approached Zhang Wen to within three steps. If Zhang Wen had suddenly attacked him then, Sandor wasn’t sure he could have blocked it.
“Hehe! What a perfect assassination! In just a few seconds, he took away his opponent’s life without anyone noticing. If it weren’t for me recognizing his face, I probably wouldn’t have noticed such a low-profile individual, and would have simply blamed Krull’s death on those few scapegoats.”
“Alright then! Black Viscount, since you recognize this guy’s face, you must know exactly who he is, right? And why he’s targeting our TK Group?”
After staring at Zhang Wen on the screen for a while, Sandor’s gaze slowly turned sinister.
“TK Group? Haha! Relax, relax. Your TK Group doesn’t have that much clout,” the Black Viscount waved his hand with a laugh. “Do you know who this guy is?”
“Who?”
“Andrej Stein!”
“What? The Ruby Viper? Are you sure? Didn’t Andrej Stein die in a battle against the Jishe organization?” The Black Viscount’s casually mentioned name once again shocked Sandor’s expression.
“Sigh! The ability to gather intelligence is indeed the biggest weakness of your gang organizations that only know how to fight! Andrej Stein died at the hands of the Jishe? Haha, what year is that information from? Andrej Stein is still alive.” The Black Viscount raised his right hand, decisively slamming it onto the screen where Zhang Wen’s image was displayed.
Gulp! Sandor swallowed hard, unconsciously clenching both fists.
The Ruby Scepter, Andrej Stein, the Southern Overlord Krassu…
Although it had already been a full year since the great war that led to the destruction of the Ruby Scepter, and these once powerful names from the Southern Region had long faded from people’s ears, hearing them mentioned again still sent a sufficient amount of shockwaves through anyone who had ever truly understood the Ruby Scepter’s real power.
“However, you don’t need to be too worried,” the Black Viscount said, noticing Sandor’s slightly tense expression and instead smiling casually. “Although Andrej Stein is indeed still alive, the death of the Southern Overlord Krassu has already been confirmed through various channels. Without the Southern Overlord, Andrej Stein is just a viper with its fangs removed—scary only on the surface.”
“Is that so?” Sandor gradually relaxed his fists.
“Hehe. Of course, even if he’s just a viper without fangs, Andrej Stein’s reputation in the Southern Region is still a problem. As for problems, my attitude has always been to eliminate them as soon as possible.”
“Oh! Indeed, no wonder you’re called the Smiling Reaper; the nickname fits perfectly,” Sandor said with a sinister grin. “So, how do you plan to deal with this problem? Do you need my help?”
“No, this time there’s no need for your TK Group to get involved. After all, he was once a member of Mithril. Dealing with him is more of an internal matter for us Mithril.” The Black Viscount smiled gently, lightly extinguishing the cigarette between his two fingers.
Zhang Wen, of course, had no idea that he had become the target in the eyes of Sandor and the mysterious Black Viscount.
After secretly delivering the fatal blow to Krull, Zhang Wen quickly hid himself among the crowd. After Krull’s death, everyone’s attention was on the several bounty fighters who had delivered the final blows. Even the female tour guide from the arena, whom Zhang Wen had saved, didn’t spare him another glance.
Once Sandor was called away by the mysterious Black Viscount, the arena staff quickly restored order to the first-floor hall, and several fighters with high titles also left. In the first-floor hall, no one even noticed the unremarkable Zhang Wen anymore.
The guests who had just watched a spectacular show were still excitedly discussing what had happened. However, the center of their discussion was naturally the several high-level fighters’ “powerful” final strikes that had killed Krull. As for Zhang Wen and Rena’s group, they were completely treated as clowns inserted in the middle of the main act. Whenever they were occasionally mentioned, it only drew a cheerful laugh from the crowd.
Not long after, Rena and Jim, who had been thrown together and knocked unconscious on the arena by Krull, also regained consciousness. As soon as they opened their eyes, they found themselves already carried off the arena by the staff and dumped in an inconspicuous corner. The two quickly asked Zhang Wen to clarify what had happened earlier and then exchanged glances.
“…So, does this mean that we technically won the match against Krull?” Jim asked cautiously.
“Who cares! Anyway, Sandor isn’t here now. Let’s quickly sell the information and get out of here!” Rena wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, enduring the sharp pain in his chest as he stood up. “Ah! My ribs might be broken…”
“Rena, you’re already in this condition. Do you still want to continue selling the information to the other organizations?” Jim hurriedly supported Rena, asking with a hint of helplessness.
“Hehe! It’s precisely because we’re in this condition that we must continue selling the information to the other organizations!” Rena grinned, showing off his cunning again. “Seeing us in this state, they’ll definitely feel too embarrassed to cause us any more trouble. And they might even pay a higher price. After all, we’ve ended up in this mess precisely because we provided the information for them. Ouch… Right! Master Zhang, the money we earn from selling this information should first deduct our medical expenses before we split it.”
“Alright…” Zhang Wen nodded with a helpless smile. The two little rascals’ obsession with making money left Zhang Wen unsure whether he should mock them or admire them.
Without Sandor’s interference, Rena and Jim’s get-rich-quick plan proceeded very smoothly. After seeing the “cost” Rena and Jim had paid, the leaders of the other four organizations indeed paid a considerable “information fee” very readily.
When Rena and Jim were about to painfully calculate Zhang Wen’s share of the “information fee,” Zhang Wen generously gave up his rightful portion, only asking the two to help him somehow get to watch the “Five Kings” match of the Babylon Arena on that day.
Rena and Jim happily accepted Zhang Wen’s proposed exchange condition. With the connections they had previously built up in the Babylon Arena, the two small-time hustlers quickly obtained two tickets for the two matches the Five Kings were scheduled to have that day.
Just as Zhang Wen took the two tickets from their hands and hadn’t even had time to thank them, he saw the two little hustlers hastily dive into the crowd and disappear without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Hey! Two slippery little fellows. Zhang Wen was momentarily taken aback, then smiled and shook his head, selecting the nearer of the two tickets he had just received.
At 11:30 AM before lunch, the reigning champion, Empire Warrior Titan, versus the challenger, Galaxy Warrior Fontaine.
Oh! What amazing luck! I actually got to witness the match of the top-ranked among the Five Titans. The fight was about to start in less than twenty minutes… Zhang Wen glanced at the giant clock hanging in the center of the arena’s grand hall, then turned and headed up the stairs to the top floor.
When Zhang Wen entered the top-floor lounge, there were still more than ten minutes before Titan’s match began, yet the audience seats were already packed. As Zhang Wen reached his seat, he felt many strange glances from the surrounding crowd.
However, Zhang Wen didn’t pay much attention to this. In the Kasares Arena, he had long grown accustomed to such situations.
For any arena, a warrior like Titan, who stood at the pinnacle of combat, rarely faced challenges. Therefore, whenever these top-tier warriors fought, swarms of devoted followers would gather like it was a festival. Even if they weren’t necessarily familiar with each other, these followers usually at least recognized one another’s faces.
To them, Zhang Wen was a complete stranger. A total outsider suddenly appearing in the premium seats, usually reserved for die-hard fans willing to pay top dollar, naturally drew attention.
According to Zhang Wen’s experience, such attention usually didn’t last long. And indeed, those who noticed him quickly lost interest.
However, what puzzled Zhang Wen was that although he could clearly sense the other spectators shifting their gazes elsewhere, his instincts told him someone was still watching him.
“When things seem unusually off, something must be wrong.” Zhang Wen recalled this Earth saying and suddenly became alert.
Zhang Wen silently activated the Spring Water Technique, heightening his senses several times over. The entire top-floor lounge fell within his perception range. Yet, despite his careful observation, the result remained the same as before—nobody around was particularly paying attention to him.
Could I just be imagining things? Zhang Wen sighed softly, preparing to let his battle energy settle. But just then, as he happened to glance upward, he instinctively froze.
A psionic surveillance device?! Seeing the psionic instruments scattered throughout the top-floor lounge, Zhang Wen’s mind stirred. He quickly composed himself and sat normally, though his gaze subtly swept across every instrument on the walls.
It didn’t take long for Zhang Wen to locate the surveillance device pointing directly at him. Titan’s match was about to begin, and nearly all the other psionic surveillance devices were aimed at the central arena below. Only this one was uniquely directed at Zhang Wen. The intentions of whoever was behind it were obvious.
Ha! Looks like the little trick I pulled downstairs was discovered. Still, it’s a rare opportunity to catch a match featuring the strongest warrior on Fira Planet, and I even managed to get a premium seat. If I left now, wouldn’t that be a shame? Zhang Wen mused with a self-deprecating smile, showing no intention of leaving.
At 11:30 AM before lunch, Titan, the strongest warrior on Fira Planet, began his match right on schedule.
As for the match itself, the battle taking place on the top floor of the Babylon Arena wasn’t particularly exciting. Fontaine, the challenger from the Galaxy Warriors, was clearly outmatched by Titan, the strongest warrior on Fira Planet.
The entire match lasted only ten minutes before ending in Titan’s complete victory. Zhang Wen could tell that Fontaine hadn’t even forced Titan to use his full strength.
The only memorable aspect of this dull match was probably the cold-blooded brutality Titan displayed when breaking Fontaine’s limbs.
Of course, although the fight itself wasn’t particularly impressive, it was enough for Zhang Wen to gauge the general strength of the “Five Titans” of the Babylon Arena. To truly understand how powerful the “Five Titans” were, however, would require more than just watching a few matches. Watching more fights like this wouldn’t provide Zhang Wen with any additional information.
Alright… today’s been enough. Watching Titan leave the top-floor lounge surrounded by a frenzy of followers, Zhang Wen stretched lazily, smiling faintly as he tossed the second ticket aside. Then, he stood up and walked out of the arena’s top-floor lounge as casually as ever.
About halfway through Titan’s match, Zhang Wen had sensed that the surveillance through the device had stopped. However, he certainly didn’t believe that whoever had been watching him through the surveillance device had simply lost interest. Zhang Wen knew well that the reason the observer had stopped watching was because they were ready.
Yet, to Zhang Wen’s surprise, after he left the top-floor lounge, exited the Babylon Arena, and even boarded a psychokinetic flying car parked by the roadside, everything around him remained eerily calm. It was as if the person who had been watching him through the surveillance device was nothing more than a figment of his imagination, never having existed at all.
This was actually quite interesting… Sitting in the speeding psychokinetic flying car, Zhang Wen couldn’t help but curl his lips into a slight smile.
Inside the arena, Zhang Wen had briefly suspected the person behind the surveillance device was Sandro. But now, he had dismissed that earlier assumption. After all, no matter how he looked at it, Sandro didn’t seem like someone with much patience. If it had truly been Sandro planning to get him, as soon as Zhang Wen stepped out of the arena, dozens or even hundreds of TK Unit henchmen would have swarmed him, shouting threats of tearing him limb from limb.
The psychokinetic flying car continued speeding along the main streets of Babylon’s city center, passing through two blocks. However, when it reached the intersection at the end of Garden Street, the busiest street in Babylon City, it was forced to stop.
Before Zhang Wen’s eyes appeared a traffic jam scene as commonplace as any seen in the downtown of a major city on Earth. Countless psychokinetic flying cars lined the street in long queues, like a paralyzed dragon unable to move.
However, while such traffic jams were routine for Earthlings, they were rare occurrences for Empire citizens. Due to the lack of horns on psychokinetic flying cars, nearly every driver stuck in the jam leaned out of their windows, cursing loudly toward the direction blocking everyone’s path. Many pedestrians had also stopped, curiously glancing around.
Zhang Wen quickly discovered that the cause of the traffic jam was a group of soldiers wearing uniforms from the Fira Planetary Security Bureau and a crowd of ordinary Fira citizens. All of them had gathered beside a steel skyscraper, gazing up at its rooftop. Zhang Wen’s gaze followed theirs toward the rooftop.
Then, Zhang Wen saw two figures standing on the rooftop.
The moment his eyes met those two figures, a strong sense of danger surged within Zhang Wen. He slightly furrowed his brow, and instinctively activated the Spring Water Technique at full capacity.
The two figures on the distant rooftop instantly became crystal clear to Zhang Wen. He could even discern their conversation by reading their lips.
“Phoenix, are you sure that guy our boss told us to wait for will really come down this road?” The shorter, stockier of the two asked.
“Of course, Edward. Have you ever known the Queen to be wrong?” Phoenix, the tall, thin man addressed by the stockier one, replied with a cold chuckle, his gaze swiftly scanning the long line of vehicles.
It wasn’t long before Phoenix spotted the psychokinetic flying car Zhang Wen was riding in. Moments later, Zhang Wen clearly saw both figures on the rooftop turn their gazes directly toward him.
Ha! Found you! Phoenix grinned excitedly as he muttered the words, the moment their eyes met.
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