Next, contestant No. 29, Joia Thanatos, entered the arena. →
Joia Thanatos was a burly blond man whose first impression was one of symmetry. Both his hands had been replaced with mechanical arms, and he wore a center part and a handlebar mustache. Cut him down the middle, and the two halves would be perfectly symmetrical.
He had rebuilt his pet, the Mechanical Fortress Turtle, into a mechanical life-form. Two-thirds of its massive body was machinery; set it in space, and it would be a colossal space fortress.
Earlier matches had shown just how formidable the turtle was in combat.
"Joia Thanatos, please get ready!" Su Wu called when Joia Thanatos entered the Arena Universe.
Joia Thanatos shook his head and gave a symmetrical smile. "I surrender. But I do have one favor to ask. I hope contestant Huahua will add me as a friend."
"Sorry, but I don't intend to make friends during the competition," Nameless said evenly.
"What a shame," Joia Thanatos said with regret.
With that, he turned and left. Even his walk was perfectly symmetrical: each step covered exactly the right distance to mirror the last.
That guy definitely has a compulsion, Nameless muttered to himself.
In fact, the Mechanical Fortress Turtle was built with perfect symmetry too. Nameless had thought it looked remarkably balanced before. Now that he had taken a closer look at Joia Thanatos, he knew why.
"Please welcome the next contestant," Su Wu announced.
After Joia Thanatos came contestant No. 35, Ackman Joss. He was a gloomy young man, frail and perhaps only about 1.65 meters tall.
His slightly sunken cheeks and pallid skin gave him the look of an addict.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes.
Long, disheveled black hair fell around his head, hiding his profile.
Judging by his features, he