The God of Nuceria

With the exception of a few gladiators, the rest of the crowd gathered around Qin Xa.

These two hundred or so people surrounded Qin Xa, Angron, and Oeno, leaving no room to breathe.

A lighthearted transition could not earn these people's trust or favor, nor could it compel them to cooperate.

However, Oeno was a very kind man, and it was clear that the gladiators who had arrived after him had all received some measure of his care; he held genuine prestige.

Coupled with the physical stature of Qin Xa and Angron, the combat prowess they displayed, and the fact that they were educated, most of the people saw a glimmer of hope for escaping this living hell.

Although it was only a tiny spark of hope, for those sinking into the abyss, even a single thread was enough to make them feel the urge to reach out.

"The arena is guarded by Iron Men," Angron said first, speaking of the thing that had left the deepest impression on him.

"I know," Qin Xa nodded, scanning the others. "I know there are Iron Men here, and I know there are all sorts of technological constructs here that we can see, cannot see, or cannot even imagine. I just need to know some details."

"The Iron Men patrol squads patrol without stopping for thirty-one hours; there are no blind spots or loopholes in their patrols whatsoever."

The handsome gladiator who had previously been resting with his eyes closed stepped forward.

Thirty-one hours, or more accurately, thirty-one solar hours.

This was the length of a full day on Nuceria.

As for why the Nucerians used solar hours to calculate time... Qin Xa thought to himself that it was perhaps because Nuceria itself was established by human colonists, and the ancestors of the people here used solar hours to keep track of time as a way to remember their cradle system.

After stating an obvious fact, the handsome gladiator looked around and added another point.

"Of course, under normal circumstances, there are no loopholes to exploit, but I am different. I can use sorcery to make all of us invisible."

Upon hearing the word "sorcery"—the local term for psychic powers—the expressions of the gladiators present turned sour.

Clearly, the Nucerians loathed psykers.

But from the looks on their faces and in their eyes, Qin Xa also detected a sense of sympathy.

Angron had a deeper perception of this complex emotion; he realized it was a mixture of disgust born from traditional beliefs and pity born from an understanding of the miserable plight of "sorcerers."

"What is your name, friend?" Qin Xa asked the handsome gladiator.

The gladiator placed a hand over his heart and bowed slightly, his beautiful face seemingly filled with pride and arrogance: "Caesar."

"A good name," Qin Xa nodded.

The gladiator named Caesar retreated back into the crowd.

Then, someone else stepped forward to speak: "Every one of us is assigned a chance to enter the arena at least once a week, and the day before we go into the arena, we get a chance to have a good meal."

"Also, we don't necessarily have to pay with our lives every time we fight," someone added.

"After we are scheduled to fight, the Maggot Eye comes in to notify us, and then we are escorted to the arena by the automatons," another said.

Qin Xa listened carefully to every word and memorized them, even if this information did not seem particularly important.

Once this information had been shared, no one else spoke.

"That's it?" Qin Xa asked the crowd, somewhat surprised.

People looked at each other.

Caesar stepped forward again, flicking his golden hair, and said lightly: "We slaves either go to the arena to fight or squat in the cave; what else did you expect to hear from us?"

"The security situation of the arena," Qin Xa said. "You've escaped several times; you should know these things."

Caesar's cheeks flushed slightly; he opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again: "I cannot lie in this situation... Every time, I was discovered less than twenty steps after leaving the cave. Those automatons that had ignored me before would suddenly activate and invite me back to the cave."

"This means they have a way to monitor you, even after you use your psychic... sorcery," Qin Xa nodded with satisfaction. "This is also very important; I've noted it down."

Hearing this, Caesar raised his eyebrows and looked around, seemingly proud that he had provided a piece of information more useful than the others.

After committing all the information to memory, Qin Xa looked up and scanned the ceiling of the cave: "There don't seem to be any monitoring devices here, for some reason..."

"The arrogance of the High-Riders," Oeno, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "They don't monitor us because they believe we can't escape, but there is one exception."

"What exception?" Qin Xa asked.

"Well..." Oeno grunted, rubbing the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed. "On the night of the feast day before the arena matches, they send some ladies in, and at that time, the Maggot Eye comes in to broadcast the gladiators' nights. This program actually has quite high ratings outside."

The gladiators all wore meaningful smiles.

Including some of the female gladiators.

"They broadcast it?" a newcomer suddenly interjected. "Then I'll have to perform well when the feast day comes. I was only thrown in by the slum sheriff because I was so gifted that I hooked up with someone else's wife."

"You should be grateful that the 'pure love warrior' didn't castrate you when he caught you," Qin Xa shot the man a look.

His gaze fell on Angron.

Qin Xa intended to drop hints about preparing to escape the arena next, so he hoped Angron could use his innate talent to help, projecting his own desire for freedom onto others.

Then, he would create a fake plan to announce at the right time.

There would be a mole among the gladiators.

But clearly, there were plenty of people who wanted to escape, and this wasn't the first time someone had tried. The fact that there were no monitoring devices in the cave showed that escape and capture were just a game for the slave owners, so a single escape plan, even if leaked by a mole, would not lead to a death sentence.

Once the plan was leaked, Qin Xa would scan everyone's mind to find and kill the mole; that was the first step to escaping.

However, looking at Angron, it seemed he was not yet able to share his emotions with others.

"What is a High-Rider?" Angron, in whom Qin Xa had secretly placed high hopes, suddenly asked.

When the term High-Rider was clearly spat out from Angron's mouth and reached the ears of everyone present.

Whether it was the gladiators gathered together, the ones watching coldly from the corners, or the others who were dissatisfied with the gladiators huddling together at this moment... everyone seemed to choke, holding their breath for a moment.

It was not until one gladiator, who had been glaring at everyone from the corner of the cave from the very beginning, spoke up.

"High-Riders."

"They are the gods of Nuceria."