Breaking the Balance

"What happened!"

Inside the Black Base, Sophia's eyes widened.

"How did he get killed by a targeted attack?"

She wanted to eliminate someone from the opposing side, so she had her mole bring out a gladiator.

The gladiator had indeed come out—but one of her own people had died?

Because of the floor-to-ceiling windows, she could see that her subordinate had died from a targeted attack.

However, she had no idea what kind of targeted attack it was.

For a moment, countless thoughts surged through her mind.

"Can't they enter the opponent's base? No... they should be able to change bases."

"The rules never mentioned this kind of targeted attack. Besides, if they couldn't change bases, the two sides could only fight across the gap, which would eliminate a lot of possibilities."

"So the gladiator can't enter the base? That makes sense. Otherwise, the gladiator could simply hide inside the base, and the game would be stuck."

"But Gaoxin entered the base too. Why was he fine?"

Sophia kept reviewing the rules. Suddenly, she understood.

"I see. That guy... he wasn't a gladiator!"

"Damn it, I was played."

Sophia figured out what Gaoxin had done.

It was simple. The White Faction hadn't chosen a gladiator at all. Gaoxin had merely pretended to be one and walked out.

The rules only required that nobody enter the arena outside the gladiatorial period.

But during the gladiatorial period, they could enter. The rules had never said that only gladiators could enter.

It was just extremely dangerous to do so.

In this game, once someone entered the arena, life and death were beyond their control.

They might be killed by the opposing side, or they might be unable to return.

The gladiator vote was also a vote that could harm people. If no teammate remained in the base to guarantee that the door could be opened from inside, then going out was practically the same as walking to the execution block.

That was why they had never considered that everyone could simply run outside during the gladiatorial period.

Gaoxin had exploited this point. He had pretended to fight, waited until the final moment before an automatic loss, lured someone into the base, and killed him there with an Eliminate Traitor Vote!

From beginning to end, there had only been one gladiator on the field. The game had never entered deathmatch mode.

"Tch, did the mole get exposed?"

Sophia muttered with a frown.

Just then, Xing Shiping connected with her.

"Miss, it was an Eliminate Traitor Vote, an Eliminate Traitor Vote... he didn't become a gladiator."

Xing Shiping's voice was frantic as he explained what had happened.

But it was already too late. Sophia snapped angrily, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Xing Shiping said aggrievedly, "I... I didn't expect it."

"I followed your instructions exactly. My brothers and I all voted for him."

"Then he went out too, so I thought he had already become a gladiator."

"I only realized it just now... Damn it, one of my brothers must not have listened to me. I thought all four of them would vote with me, but I didn't expect someone to have secretly told Gaoxin... that I had defected."

Sophia fell silent. So the mole had been exposed long ago, and Gaoxin had turned the tables on them?

Indeed, Gaoxin's strategy could be used only once at most.

And if he had deliberately run out, it would have been far too suspicious. As a Glass Person, that would have been no different from seeking death.

She would have thought it through carefully then. Her subordinates weren't idiots. They would certainly have wondered why the opposing side wasn't avoiding the fight this time, and they would have become vigilant the moment the opponent fled into the base.

But this time, she had personally ordered the mole to bring Gaoxin out.

That was why nobody had expected that Gaoxin wasn't a gladiator at all.

She gritted her teeth. "The other five can work together, but you can't even control your own people. What are you playing at?"

"I... I..." Xing Shiping sounded pitiful and timid.

Sophia was furious. She had intended to use the third round to eliminate Gaoxin while also provoking an open confrontation between the two groups in the White Base.

That way, she could focus on dealing with the Viking Gang first.

Instead, she had stolen a chicken only to lose her rice.

She had lost one of her own people instead!

This was bad. The Viking Gang would definitely choose one of their own as the gladiator during the next Black Faction attack.

Now that one of her subordinates had died, if she forced another one out... the Radiation Users in the Black Base would be fighting three against three!

"These Viking Gang bastards are troublesome. These three idiots under me are no match for them. If I get chosen as the gladiator, I'll be in serious danger."

"No, I might not even get the chance to become a gladiator. As long as I lose health this round, they might vote me to death right here."

"After forcing another one out, it would become three against two..."

Sophia's large eyes turned toward Luis, blue light gleaming in her pupils.

Luis was grinning so broadly that the corners of his mouth seemed ready to split. He couldn't control his expression at all.

"What an unexpected bonus. I thought I'd have to deliberately lose the fourth round and first use an Eliminate Traitor Vote to kill one of them."

"I didn't expect the opposing Glass Person to have some tricks up his sleeve. He actually helped me kill one right now!"

Luis thought to himself as he tightened his grip on Big Hammer.

He had already injected himself with a C-rank nanometer Repair agent. The injuries all over his body were rapidly healing.

Even the arm and part of the torso blown off in the explosion were visibly regenerating.

This was repair, not treatment.

The Repair agent could regrow severed limbs. As long as he wasn't completely dead, any missing part could regenerate.

Sophia blinked, then pouted. "Big Brother, I know what you're planning."

"You can see that I've already lost one of my subordinates..."

"How about you don't deliberately lose the invitation match in the fourth round? Please?"

"Why let the opposing side remove one point of Black Faction health for nothing?"

"Give me a chance to make it three against three, all right? How about this? In the fifth round, I'll volunteer to be the gladiator!"

"Let my people fight yours. The six men can battle it out—real men in one-on-one duels! Please?"

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she begged pitifully.

Luis burst out laughing. "Bitch, stop pretending. You still have four people, yet you're telling me you're willing to make it three against three?"

"If I were you, I'd fight to the death right now!"

As he spoke, the notification chime rang.

The fourth-round invitation had arrived. The White Faction had launched an attack.

Sophia crouched down and buried her head, bursting into tears. "I was wrong, Big Brother. Let's win together, all right?"

"If we join forces, we'll definitely win. Everyone can get five thousand, and I'll give you all these NPCs too. I don't want them anymore."

Luis slammed Big Hammer into the ground. "What were you doing before? Why didn't you say that when you were screwing me over?"

"Shut up. If you want to fight, then fight. In any case, I'm not voting this round!"

Sophia kept her head buried and sobbed.

Suddenly, she raised her head.

At some point, red light had already begun gathering in both her eyes.

Now the charge was complete. The beams blasted out!

"What!" Luis had no time to react before his chest was pierced.

That wasn't all. Sophia's head shifted, then violently snapped upward.

Luis's body was sliced open from his chest to his neck. If he hadn't instinctively dodged, his head would have been split vertically.

Even so, most of his neck had been severed.

His entire head was practically falling off!

"Gah..."

Luis clutched his neck and fell to his knees. His spine had broken as well.

"Big Brother!"

The two remaining members of the Viking Gang were stunned.

Then they charged forward in a fury, fighting Sophia with everything they had.

But Sophia's side still had four people. How could the two of them defeat her so easily?

"You woman, I'll tear you to pieces!"

The two of them went berserk. They activated Organ Overclocking to the fullest and were now determined to fight to the bitter end.

"Hee hee hee hee!" Sophia shrieked with laughter.

Her eyeballs had already charred and melted away. Even the flesh around her eye sockets had burned off, revealing grotesque laser-eye devices.

"You wanted to see what I really look like? I'm the one who'll tear you to pieces!"

As she spoke, red light began to gather in Sophia's eyes.

The charging process seemed to take a long time. No wonder she had pretended to cry and plead earlier, burying her head between her legs.

Everything had been to numb the enemy, buying time for the long wind-up of her laser attack.

"The Black Base accepts the duel for the fourth round." The notification chime rang.

They were still fighting. Clearly, because a minute had passed without everyone entering the Voting Room, the system had directly counted it as accepting the duel.

"Go out and fight! Go out and fight!"

"Vote for your own gladiator. Otherwise, I'll slaughter every one of you!"

Sophia ordered the NPCs while firing her lasers again.

Her target was still Luis. She intended to focus on one person and kill him first.

Yet even with his neck almost severed by the laser, Luis suddenly moved and sprinted away.

"His spine has already healed?" Sophia was somewhat surprised.

Even with a C-rank nanometer Repair agent, it shouldn't have happened this quickly. Did he also possess an innate self-healing ability?

Luis covered his neck with one hand and swung Big Hammer with the other.

The blow was heavy enough to shake the heavens and split the earth.

Boom!

Sophia leaped away in a panic. The spot where she had been standing was smashed into a crater.

This was a battlefield built from special metal, yet it had actually been dented.

That strike had contained at least five tons of force.

"Die!"

Luis swung Big Hammer with ease, as though it weighed no more than a toothpick.

On top of that, Big Hammer itself had powered acceleration. It swept across the floor with a howling roar.

Sophia hurriedly blocked. The moment the hammer clipped her, she was sent flying.

In terms of physical ability, she was no match for Luis—she was even the weakest of all the Radiation Users in this game.

However, she was still a Cyborg.

After taking a heavy hammer blow, her arm had twisted, exposing its metal structure, yet she could still hold her gun firmly!

Her arm was a Prosthetic Body. Unless it was completely destroyed, it could continue functioning.

Besides, even the most ordinary Prosthetic Body materials had greater resistance and strength than Wolf Level flesh and bone.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Sophia fired both guns rapidly in retaliation.

Luis raised Big Hammer before him to block the bullets and charged closer like a raging bull.

Just as the two of them were locked in fierce combat, an NPC suddenly came downstairs and desperately ran toward the gate.

He was thin and small. It was Han Qing.

The Radiation Users from both sides were fighting too intensely to care about him, so they let him run out.

Han Qing had originally been too afraid to fight.

But someone from the White Faction had privately messaged him, ordering him to vote for himself as the gladiator and come out.

Sophia had also just given the same order.

Han Qing didn't dare disobey. Trembling with fear, he entered the arena and hid behind a metal barrier like a low wall.

"What are you hiding there for? A gladiator has to be brave. Once you step into the arena, your fate is to fight until death." A voice came from above his head.

Han Qing abruptly looked up and saw Gaoxin crouching atop the wall, looking down at him with a cold smile.

"Wuuu, waaah!" Han Qing's eyes immediately reddened, and he wailed.

His mouth was full of blood. His tongue had been cut out, and he had to use all his strength just to force out one unclear sentence.

"N... not... kill... us?"

When he saw Gaoxin, his heart turned cold.

With two gladiators in the arena, they had to fight to the death, and only one could survive.

There was no need to think about it—he would definitely be the one to die. He immediately questioned the promise they had made in their private messages, accusing them of breaking their word and betraying him.

"Heh heh..." Gaoxin didn't explain. Instead, he grinned viciously, killing intent flashing in his eyes and reducing Han Qing's face to a deathly pallor.

He jumped down from the wall and struck Han Qing to the ground with one palm.

Then he grabbed Han Qing by the back of the neck and dragged him away as though he were carrying a chick.

His destination was the Black Base.

P.S.: Sorry.