A hush fell over the room. Mike looked at Dracula with a puzzled expression. Was this really the same vampire he knew?
Dracula was equally confused. Was he really that badass back then?
He quickly snapped out of it and puffed out his chest. As the blood-red light subsided, Dracula was pulled into the round shield. A black silhouette of an upside-down bat appeared just above the sun emblem.
Mike suddenly asked, “What exactly happened when the Blood Ancestor failed to reach level 1000 and the river of blood went berserk?”
Fool’s expression froze for a moment before she quickly recovered, “You’re asking the wrong person. How would I know?”
Undeterred by his failed attempt to fish for information, Mike walked out of the small room. He began his final preparations for the battle: Force of Nature, the Dracula-branded round shield, Thunderclap Hammer, Nightmare’s Breeze…
After checking everything, Mike returned to the Core City of Truth. He first obtained the Guardian Shadow’s participation credentials, then shed his disguise, appearing as Mike to meet with Kaelum and the others.
Kaelum pointed to a group of people in the corner and said, “A lot of familiar faces from summer camp are here.”
Mike looked over and indeed saw many familiar faces. Ace, Ethan, Jessica…
Mike even spotted James in the crowd. Although he was a second-batch student at summer camp, he had also performed exceptionally well.
Even the Nightmare corps had noticed James and invited him to participate in the Soldier tier battles.
“Mike, in case you forgot the rules of the Soldier tier battles, let me explain them to you,” Kaelum said quickly. “Five sub-rings, defending ten rounds is considered a success. After fifteen rounds, you can challenge other ring masters. After twenty rounds, you can challenge the main ring master!”
Kaelum winked, “Mike, guess who the main ring master is?”
Mike asked tentatively, “Could it be… Thor?”
“Bingo!”
The main ring master was automatically assumed to be Thor. When the [Guardian Shadow] added Thor’s name to the participant list, the Nightmare corps was ecstatic! They didn’t care about winning or losing, as long as they could fight Thor, it was worth it!
3:00 AM sharp.
There were no rituals, no complicated ceremonies.
Both sides were pragmatists, keeping things simple.
Moreover, in the eyes of the higher-ups, the Soldier tier battles were like children playing with toys.
A Lord tier expert flew into the air and announced the rules to all participants, “…During the tournament, all reward buffs from the Tower of Truth will be temporarily disabled!”
“Let the tournament begin!”
With a clear ringing of a bell, the five sub-rings on the Core City of Truth tournament grounds opened simultaneously.
Countless figures rushed towards the rings, first come, first served!
Whoosh-
Ace, dressed in black, was the first to step onto a ring.
He looked back at the crowd and said disdainfully, “I’ll challenge ten at once!”
“I’m coming!”
Mike walked towards the ring.
Ace immediately shut up.
Holding his staffs, Mike stepped onto the second ring and began battling the ring master.
Most of the spotlight in the Soldier tier battles was stolen by Ace.
There was no helping it.
Ace’s special identity and exceptional strength easily made him the center of attention.
The stakes of this tournament were originally Maxen’s profit share.
At Thor’s suggestion, the tournament was broadcast globally through the Mystic Market platform, and they even secured a bunch of sponsors!
Under the watchful eyes of the entire world, Ace went all out, trash-talking and showing off as he fought.
The Soldier tier battles ended much faster than everyone expected.
On the first ring, Ace swiftly defeated twenty challengers, successfully earning the chance to challenge Thor!
On the second ring, Mike, relying on wind and fire magic, stumbled his way to the end, narrowly escaping defeat.
The third, fourth, and fifth rings were all taken by the Guardian Shadow.
A group of veteran Generals and Chiefs from the Guardian Shadow had forcibly lowered their levels to 199. The ring master of the fifth ring was even a Lord who had lowered his level, the former Shadow Ninety-Eight!
They were shameless to the extreme.
After the five ring masters were decided, it was time for the most exciting part.
Ace, unarmed, stood on the main ring!
At this moment, the world’s attention was on him!
And his opponent was the highly popular potential Supreme Being, Thor, who had never
revealed his true identity!
The number of simultaneous viewers on Earth exceeded 2 billion!
Even in the Abyssal Plane, many demon gods sneaked to the human defense line, peering over
the edge to watch the live broadcast.
In the Second Abyss, Afterskin invited the Second Demon God to watch together, “Don’t be so
glum! Look, Thor is about to beat up Little Calderon!”
Hearing this, the Second Demon God was immediately interested.
He loved watching anything that made Calderon look bad!
Afterskin sipped his beer while watching the live broadcast, “Ace told me before that once he becomes an Ultimate Lord, he’ll kill you all.”
Second Demon God: “…”
…
Inside the Supreme Abyssal.
Two figures scurried like rats in a city, hiding and dodging, moving through the shadows of
the Abyss.
They were surrounded by demon creatures of level 995 and above, wandering around,
searching for enemies.
The two were huddled under a rock wall. Calderon was covered in grime, his armor dented and damaged, looking utterly disheveled.
He whispered, “Shadow Nine, are you sure you remember the location correctly?” Shadow Nine glanced at him coldly, “Shut up, I drew this map myself, it can’t be wrong!”
Calderon glanced at the map, which looked like a bunch of squiggly lines drawn by a worm.
It was more abstract than Picasso.
With nothing better to do, Calderon took out his tablet, hoping to find a signal.
“Connected, connected!”
Calderon was as excited as a three-hundred-year-old child.
They were online again, finally back in the civilized world!
“Quick, log in to the Mystic Market, I want to see what news there is about that good-for-
nothing from the Blackwell family.”
The two huddled together, staring intently at the tablet.
As soon as they opened the Mystic Market cloud app, they saw a huge headline:
Guardian Shadow vs. Nightmare corps Tournament!
Ace vs. Thor!
Without hesitation, Calderon clicked on the page and entered the live stream.
A giant banner immediately appeared at the top of the live stream:
[Warm welcome to the human race’s number one Ultimate Lord entering the live stream!]
Calderon and Shadow Nine nodded in satisfaction simultaneously.
And then…
Calderon’s face darkened.
As soon as he entered the live stream, he saw Thor, holding a round shield, beating the crap
out of Ace…