?The spectators enjoyed this match thoroughly, especially seeing Noya kill for the first time. For the arena’s enthusiastic audience, it was a feast for the eyes, wishing for more such matches to watch Noya kill more gladiators.
Most spectators were cheering for Noya, but a few furrowed their brows, sensing something was off.
The dream changed again. When Renji went to the locker room as a gladiator, he found many gladiators had psychologically changed.
“Did you see last night’s match? What is Noya trying to do?”
“She tells us not to kill, yet she slaughters seven or eight gladiators herself? Ridiculous!”
“No, didn’t you notice? She killed those who didn’t follow her advocacy. They were challenged by Noya because they had killed others in the arena first.”
“Wait, what do you mean? So, if we kill someone in the arena, Noya will…”
“What should we do today?” .
“I don’t know.”
The gladiators began whispering among themselves, discussing quietly. After today’s matches ended, Renji watched the entire process. There were seventeen matches in total, and surprisingly, seven of them had no casualties.
In the original arena, a match without casualties among gladiators was extremely rare, yet today there were seven!
This was undoubtedly the effect of Noya’s intimidation from yesterday. Some gladiators began to fear, so even if they won, they did not kill their opponents.
Such matches without killing and bloodshed naturally caused great dissatisfaction and questioning among the spectators, who also found it strange and complained that they had wasted their money on tickets today, questioning the “quality” of the matches.
Some spectators even fantasized that Noya would “serve an extra meal” today, providing another one-against-many killing feast to make up for their disappointment today.
The spectators were just thinking about it, knowing that as a champion star gladiator, treated like a treasure by the arena, appearing once a week was already good. But who would have expected
After today’s matches ended, Noya appeared on time again, and this time, to the surprise of the audience, she once again launched a crazy challenge, sending all of today’s ten match contestants into the arena.
As expected, the result was no surprise. Noya cleanly and quickly resolved the battle in ten minutes, decisively executing all ten gladiators without a hint of mercy with her overwhelming strength.
Afterward, the dream started to fast-forward. Noya’s challenges never stopped, a day, two days, a week, a month…
During this period, any gladiator who did not adhere to Noya’s advocacy and engaged in killing in the arena would, at the end of that day’s matches, face a challenge from Noya, a death challenge.
More and more gladiators, whether in agreement with Noya’s advocacy or out of fear of her, began to truly adhere to the agreement. They no longer dealt lethal blows once their opponent surrendered, immediately stopping their attack and never deliberately prolonging their opponent’s suffering.
It even developed to a point where a gladiator, in the heat of an intense exchange, continued to stab his opponent with a sword after the opponent had surrendered, getting carried away.
Realizing what he had done, he was filled with immense fear. Despite being the victor, he kept apologizing to his opponent, loudly protesting, trying hard to prove it was not intentional and that he did not disregard Noya’s advocacy.
This dramatic scene left the spectators speechless, made a lasting impression on the gladiators, and made the arena’s behind-the-scenes organizers realize that some things were really starting to slip out of their control.
From then on, the number of deaths and injuries among the gladiators in the arena began to drastically decrease. What started as watching two desperate individuals fight to the death, gambling their lives in a kill-or-be-killed struggle, turned into a true contest of skill, stopping at the point of contact without excessive bloodshed.
Only then did the arena’s spectators come to their senses, starting to resist and voice their discontent, causing a significant drop in betting amounts for each match. But it was futile; the gladiators had already begun to subtly consider Noya as their leader, forming a united force.
After all, for the vast majority of gladiators, even though they earned less money, their safety greatly increased, and some gladiators felt it had become a “real job.”
They were no longer beasts in a cage for others to watch but genuinely earned their rewards through skill.
The arena organizers were panicked. Although they had made a fortune from Noya’s popularity, the subsequent adoption of Noya’s advocacy changed the arena’s environment. As it no longer catered to the audience’s taste, ticket sales decreased, and the arena’s revenue plummeted.
The organizers tried various methods to salvage the situation, enticing gladiators to engage in mutual slaughter for financial gain, but the effort proved futile. After all, wealth is useless without life to spend it.
They also attempted to find a gladiator stronger and more formidable than Noya, hoping that removing Noya, the core figure, would revert the arena to its former bloody state and bring the audience back.
However, years passed, and despite sourcing countless so-
called champions through various channels to defeat Noya, all were invariably killed by her in the end.
Not only did the organizers fail to eliminate Noya, but the gladiators also witnessed Noya’s terrifying strength, further solidifying their resolve to follow Noya’s rules. This even led to more gladiators regarding Noya as a spiritual leader and rallying around her.
Together with Noya, they refined and amended the original arena rules, making them more standardized. In the process of establishing these rules, they completely bypassed the arena’s organizers, effectively forming an independent league among the gladiators and sidelining the organizers.
Just before these new rules were introduced, the dream’s flow of time halted, and Renji found himself at Nova’s home.
In a small courtyard under the night’s moonlight, a young Nova was diligently practicing her swordsmanship under her mother Noya’s supervision.
Renji stood at the entrance without interrupting, quietly watching. After Nova, gasping for breath, finally reached her limit and lay on the ground unable to get up, Noya shook her head in resignation and then, sensing something, turned her gaze towards the door.
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