Challenge Game

In the virtual world, the five regions are distributed in a fan shape. When they are completely closed, they form a huge circular area. The center of this circle is the intersection of the five regions.

Many powerful individuals, including Gu Ding, have been fighting their way towards this direction.

True powerhouses crave stronger opponents, growing ever stronger through repeated clashes. Now that restrictions have been lifted across all five regions, the intersection of them becomes the ideal battlefield. Almost all powerful individuals are aware of this, which is why many rushed towards this area the moment the system notification arrived.

Of course, some guys who lacked confidence hid away, their goal being to survive until the end of the game.

"There are still over 1,500 players left. More than 400 are heading towards the central area, and more than 800 have already arrived there and some small-scale battles have taken place."

The Sea Emperor checked the current situation in the virtual world and reported it to Gu Ding.

Gu Ding was still on his way to the central area. The reason he was a step slower than others was mainly because the matter with Fa Te had delayed him, and he hadn't gone directly to the central area, but instead took a detour several times, plundering some points. Those whom Gu Ding plundered were all individuals with tens of millions of points; even if they weren't top-tier experts, they were still considered very powerful.

Most people conceded defeat upon seeing Gu Ding, giving up half of their points, and Gu Ding didn't make things difficult for them. A few chose to challenge Gu Ding, Gu Ding usually ended the fight with a single move, and after they conceded, he didn't eliminate them.

Gu Ding's points rose rapidly, and it didn't take long for him to surpass Fu Tu and rank third.

The central area had already descended into chaos before Gu Ding and Futu even arrived.

The Gu Ding Team. Apart from Gu Ding and Miko, everyone else has arrived at the central area.

Liliath and her group naturally faced challenges as well, with Dokter receiving the most. One reason was his current top ranking, and another was the rumor that he had once defeated Futu. These two reasons made him a target of everyone's attention. Many top-tier fighters ranked outside the top ten on the Ranking List issued challenges, and many of them, at this final moment, no longer cared about points; they simply wanted a good fight.

Dokter naturally wouldn't refuse a challenge; he was a battle maniac, the kind who couldn't stand a day without fighting. However, there were many challengers, so he was very careful in choosing his opponents. Besides Dokter, quite a few people challenged Liliath as well. Few doubted Liliath's strength, as this young girl had consistently held the top spot on the Ranking List from the beginning, maintaining it for over twenty days, which was enough to demonstrate her power. Even now, she was still ranked second, only behind Dokter. The reason many dared to challenge her was that when Liliath previously crushed the virtual creatures, she controlled them to fight for her. Now, in this one-on-one battle, many believed Liliath was weaker than before.

Liliath naturally accepted the points offered to her without hesitation, secretly delighted. She hadn't expected that her previous attempt to save trouble by controlling those virtual creatures to fight would lead people to mistakenly believe that she wasn't strong in individual combat.

In contrast, fewer people challenge Elsa. Many know she's strong, but she hasn't caused any explosive news in the virtual world. Although she has a considerable number of points, she's never ranked first, nor has she challenged a powerhouse like Futu. However, she is still the third strongest on the Demigod Prodigy Ranking, second only to Gu Ding and Futu. Some powerful individuals confident in their abilities have chosen to challenge her.

Scarlet, Karrot, Miniana, and Na Luo are also caught in a challenge and unable to extricate themselves for the time being.

Amidst the fierce battle, Gu Ding finally arrived at the scene. Seeing the lively scene around him, his mood, which had been low because of Fa Te's matter, finally improved a little.

Although there were many spectators at each battle, Gu Ding's appearance quickly attracted a lot of attention.

"Gu Ding is here!" Someone shouted, and the entire area suddenly fell silent. Even many of the guys who were fighting stopped and looked in the direction of Gu Ding.

But this strange silence lasted only a moment before it was broken.

"Gu Ding, I challenge you!" A muscular man charged towards Gu Ding with a furious roar.

As soon as he shouted his challenge, challengers eagerly jumped out.

While Gu Ding isn't currently at the top of the Ranking List, everyone has witnessed his terrifying surge in points since the virtual world opened. A powerhouse capable of slaying a five-star Peak-rank God is naturally an object of challenge for countless strong individuals.

Looking at the chaotic scene, Gu Ding was speechless.

"Gu Ding, this is a great opportunity to earn points," the Sea Emperor couldn't help but laugh. "Let's do a screening first. Otherwise, it'll be boring if everyone challenges us, and it'll also delay your point accumulation. You can set a challenge condition, for example, those with over 50 million points can get a chance to challenge in the first round. Then lower that condition to 30 million in the second round to whet people's appetites, and then lower it to 10 million in the third round. Anyway, many people don't care about the number of points anymore, as long as they're in the top 1,000, their ranking doesn't matter, what they want is to fight you."

Gu Ding, heeding the Sea Emperor's advice, spoke amidst the clamor of the crowd, "Today is the last day of the game. I know many of you here want to spar with me, but considering I still need to earn points, I've chosen to accept challenges conditionally. In the first round, anyone with over 50 million points is eligible to challenge me. The loser must concede on the spot and give up half their points. Once all those with over 50 million points have finished their challenges, if there's still time remaining, we'll move on to the second round. The minimum score for the second round is 30 million. If anyone tries to take advantage of the situation without enough points, I will eliminate them."

"Gu Ding is Gu Ding, why didn't I think of this idea?" Dokter said somewhat frustratedly in the middle of the battle, because there were indeed many people challenging him, and some of them didn't even have 10 million points.

"This idea was mine," Sea Emperor said to Dokter with a hint of pride. "And I came up with it after seeing how hard you guys were fighting."

Although some people with insufficient points complained, they dared not say anything. After all, Gu Ding's strength was undeniable, and it was normal for him to look down on opponents with insufficient points. Those who still had less than 30 million points were not considered top-tier experts, and to Gu Ding, they posed no challenge whatsoever.

As soon as Gu Ding's challenge rules were announced, many strong players with more than 50 million points signed up without hesitation, including the muscular man who was the first to shout that he wanted to challenge Gu Ding.

That muscular man was also a powerhouse ranked over sixty on the Demigod Prodigy Ranking, with over eighty million points. He was the first to rush out.

Seeing this, the others also temporarily stepped aside, because a battle between experts of this level was no joke. For those who were not strong enough, even a gust of wind from the battle could severely injure them.

The muscular man immediately introduced himself, "My name is Ge Beng, ranked sixty-sixth on the Demigod Prodigy Ranking, with 83 million points. I'm ranked twenty-eighth overall."

"The challenge conditions are met, let's begin." Gu Ding nodded, calculating for a moment. At this rate, he estimated that it wouldn't take many more challenges for him to reach number one in points.

With a roar, Ge Beng unleashed a powerful thrust of his legs, his right fist, clenched tightly, slammed down towards Gu Ding's chest with a massive, red fist the size of a clay pot. A phantom image of a blood-red giant even materialized above his head, also throwing a punch.

Everyone was astonished. This random guy had actually triggered a Combat Strength projection. Although the illusory image didn't produce a throne and wasn't Emperor Projection, even a regular Combat Strength projection was quite formidable, indicating that Ge Beng's strength had reached a certain level.

Just as everyone was anticipating how Gu Ding would respond, Gu Ding slowly raised his left hand. His movement was extremely slow, making it clear to everyone watching. But with such a simple movement, he steadily caught Ge Beng's powerful punch.

That punch, after striking Gu Ding's palm, didn't even make a sound. The force of the punch was like a mud ox entering the sea, not even causing a ripple.

"You lost." As Gu Ding's voice fell, his right hand had already pointed a finger at Ge Beng's chest. A black Finger Force pierced through Ge Beng's back, leaving a penetrating wound the thickness of a thumb on his chest.

Ge Beng immediately felt his divine energy being rapidly depleted. In just an instant, his divine energy was completely exhausted, and the hole in his chest finally stopped absorbing divine energy. Cold sweat broke out on Ge Beng's back. He knew that if Gu Ding hadn't deliberately done this, he would have been instantly killed by that single finger strike.

"I lost!" Ge Beng decisively pressed the surrender button, turned around and left, no longer able to muster any fighting spirit.

Many people didn't understand the mystery behind Gu Ding's attack. Quite a few thought Ge Beng lost because, although powerful, he wasn't agile enough, and some even suspected Gu Ding of using tricks. Because of this, the other challengers weren't intimidated; they felt that if it were them, they would have been perfectly capable of dodging Gu Ding's attack.

The second challenger soon appeared; he was a short, thin young man.

"Ji Lite, ranked fifty-third on the Demigod Prodigy Ranking, with 76 million points, ranking thirty-seventh in total points..."

~~~

[I know everyone's been working hard to keep up with the updates, so I'm recommending a book I just finished reading yesterday. It's called Sword Armor, 3 million words long, and already completed, by the author Twelve-Winged Dark Seraph. I don't actually know this author, and he probably doesn't know me either; I only stumbled upon this book by chance. The reason I'm recommending it is because I really love its world-building; it's very unique, and the author is a very imaginative person. I just saw yesterday that his new book was cancelled, so I hope he'll have even better works in the future. Also, if you see any books with novel settings, please leave a comment and recommend them to me; I'm also experiencing a reading slump~~]