Two minutes later, Ji Xiaoge and Cordova appeared in the arena simultaneously.
The former lightly flapped her wings, hovering gracefully in mid-air, her long black hair, a visually striking sight, spread out and gently swayed in the breeze, like an angel descended upon the world.
The latter took off the heavy and sharp punisher staff from his back; despite just standing there normally, he exuded an invisible, imposing pressure, calm and composed, with a focused gaze.
Cordova was, of course, not afraid of Ji Xiaoge at all; although he knew she was Lu Wei's apprentice and had somewhat learned about her formidable combat power from Mo Tan, and even personally experienced her incredibly skillful and astonishing cooking during the New Year's Eve dinner, he still didn't think he would lose.
“My body is a Rune Body, and those ‘highly practical’ dishes Mo Tan mentioned earlier should be ineffective against me.
Xiao Ge can fly, but I also have anti-gravity runes and gust runes that allow me to stay airborne.
As for the Engineering machinery she learned from Lu Wei, that Undead guy… at most, it can barely break my defense.
Even if I let her go all out for a while, it won’t do any significant damage.
Hm, I’m definitely going to win!”
Cordova quickly calculated in his mind, and after considering various scenarios, he concluded that ‘I will win, both logically and emotionally.’
So, after the air wall in front of him disappeared, he let out a long laugh, casually stuck his staff into the ground beside him, and loudly declared, “Ladies first~ I won’t make the first move.”
Ji Xiaoge’s lips curved slightly: “Oh? Are you sure?”
“Come on!” Cordova nodded, secretly activating two defensive runes.
Although he was confident of victory, he wasn't overly arrogant; with the defensive runes active, even if Lu Wei really taught Ji Xiaoge to create some high-yield explosives, they wouldn't be able to defeat him quickly.
In the spectator room, Yu Cheng gently tugged on Mo Tan’s sleeve and asked with some concern, “Can Xiao Ge win? Cui Xiaoyu is really strong.”
Black Vatican, who had never met Ye Ge, shook his head and shrugged, “I don’t know either.”
“She definitely can’t win.” Kang Lan slumped weakly in his chair, sighing and saying gloomily, “That Cui Xiaoyu fellow has absolutely no weaknesses; his speed, strength, defense, and HP are all terrifyingly high.
Although Xiao Ge has an aerial advantage, who among you believes that thing, which is like a Terminator, has no counter-measures?”
Huo Yan Yang nodded, “Indeed, it will be very difficult for Xiao Ge to win.”
Kang Lan slowly slid from his chair to the floor, not even bothering to watch the fight outside.
He just rolled his eyes and mumbled, “I just hope Xiao Yu shows mercy and doesn’t smash Xiao Ge to death like he crushed me.
Winning in a gentler way would be fine.”
“The winner hasn’t been decided yet,” Ji Xiaodao said calmly, staring intently at the two people in the arena, her tone very composed: “What if my sister can win?”
To be honest, she herself wasn't sure.
Although she hadn't met Ji Xiaoge in the game, Ji Xiaodao often heard her sister talk about things in the game, such as 'Why did the tea eggs explode?!', 'Why were the pancakes so hard?!', 'Mama ate them just fine, so why did making cookies in the game produce so many strange effects?!', 'Launching rice and bread slices as ammunition from a machine sounds so weird, right?!
Those are food!', and so on…
Xiao Dao, who had deeply experienced her sister’s cooking, found just hearing these things sufficient.
It was clear that her older sister, who had completely inherited their Mama's culinary skills, had finally succeeded in equating 'food' and 'combat,' two words that were completely unrelated.
But even so, knowing Cordova's strength, she didn't think Ji Xiaoge had much chance of winning, which is why she used the unconfident phrase 'What if she can win?'
Kang Lan smiled and climbed back into his chair: “True, who can say for sure about a match like this, well, except for 【DATA EXPUNGED】.”
“Can we not talk about 【DATA EXPUNGED】?” Huo Yan Yang rolled his enormous eyes and pouted, “Even if you give them a century, it’s useless, a complete waste of money, just give up.”
Yi Dong, who had been focused on the battlefield, suddenly clapped his hands forcefully: “Stop talking nonsense, Xiao Ge is making a move!”
…
In the arena, after saying “Are you sure?”, Ji Xiaoge suddenly floated in front of Cordova, then pulled out a round crystal ball and a bottle of fiery red powder from her satchel, pointing at him and shouting, “Cordova! I call your name, do you dare to answer!?”
Cordova: “Huh?”
“It’s fine, actually, it doesn’t matter if you answer or not.” Ji Xiaoge chuckled, bit off the cork with her silver teeth, then poured the hot and spicy powder onto the crystal ball: “Take this! Star Sucking Great Art!”
【What great art of sucking?】
Cordova was stunned for a moment, then saw a dazzling red light erupt in front of him, and a powerful, strange suction force emanated from the crystal ball.
Immediately after, countless deep blue light bands gushed out from his body, surging towards the ball one after another.
He tried to struggle, but found that his Rune Body, which normally obeyed his every command, had slipped out of his control.
Forget picking up his weapon to shatter the ball, at this moment, Cordova found it difficult even to perform a simple action like raising his arm.
He could only watch helplessly as his stamina and energy plummeted at a terrifying speed.
That’s right, by now, everyone must have guessed it…
【Rune Extractor: Cordova Special Edition】
Quality: Normal
Capacity: 250 / 250
Usage: Absorbs rune energy from designated units within a 10-meter radius.
If used continuously after the energy is full, a small energy field with a 0.5-meter radius will be generated next to the extractor.
Being in the energy field can slightly increase the recovery speed of HP, Stamina, Mana, and Acuity.
※ Hyperlink ※
Note: ‘Designated units’ refers to Cordova’s universal Rune Body.
【Remarks: Energy conservation and emission reduction are everyone’s responsibility.】
In a rich, colorful mist, Ji Xiaoge, holding the crystal ball pointed at Cordova, looked refreshed and smiled like a flower.
Meanwhile, Cordova’s tall, robust, tower-like body slowly hunched over, then began to tilt towards the ground, tilting, tilting, and finally…
“Holy moly!”
“What the heck!?”
“What the hell is going on?!”
“Huh?”
“Uh…”
Except for Mo Tan, who had already witnessed the power of the Cordova Special Edition Extractor on Tian Zhu Mountain, everyone else couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
Cordova in that OTZ pose was just too damn hilarious!
And a little embarrassing…
“Hey, hey, hey!” Huo Yan Yang, who had been extremely confident in Cordova, was utterly bewildered.
He pressed himself against the floor-to-ceiling window, baring his teeth and howling, “He’s doing it on purpose, right?!
He must be doing it on purpose, right?!
He must be intentionally holding back, right?!”
Ji Xiaodao, suppressing a smile, shook her head and whispered, “No, he’s not holding back.”
Huo Yan Yang turned his head: “Why?”
Ji Xiaodao didn’t respond to him; instead, Kang Lan, standing nearby, smiled wryly and pointed at the light screen: “Just look at Cui Xiaoyu and Xiao Ge’s statuses yourself.”
Huo Yan Yang turned to look, and immediately lost his temper…
Cordova, whose stats were all 100% when he was teleported into the arena, now had a negative status called 【Cooperating with the Work】, and at the same time, his stamina and energy values had both dropped to 0.
Meanwhile, Ji Xiaoge had gained a buff called 【Rune Mist】, which stated that it restored an additional 50% of HP and stamina per second.
Clearly, Ji Xiaoge had somehow tricked Cordova.
Leaving aside the energy value that no one had seen before, the fact that stamina dropped to zero was terrifying enough on its own.
As a basic stat that all players possess, regardless of profession, and which is consumed in various situations, a stamina value of 0 means that the player has completely lost the ability to act.
Not only can they not perform any actions, but all their attributes will also drop significantly, which can be understood as an extremely severe state of exhaustion.
In short, it's a state of being at the mercy of others…
Just like Cordova is now.
Well, maybe the posture could be a bit more graceful, but in principle, it's pretty much the same.
At Kang Lan’s reminder, everyone had already concluded that Ji Xiaoge had used some means to forcibly trap Cordova, which led to this particularly comical scene.
After all, no one would put themselves in an OTZ pose just to hold back…
Mo Tan couldn't help but laugh as he watched the de-energized Cordova from afar, thinking that Ji Xiaoge was truly brilliant.
He himself hadn't thought of that experimental item Lu Wei had casually given Ji Xiaoge to play with, declaring that this move was incredibly skillful.
However, for the Youyi Meishaonv, even though Cordova had completely lost his combat ability, ‘defeating’ him was still not that easy…
His inherent foundation was simply too strong.
And indeed, after happily taking down Cordova, Ji Xiaoge found herself somewhat troubled.
She first tried to strike his head with sharp, hard, or heavy cold weapons like flying cakes, steamed buns, and fried dough sticks, but only ended up hurting her own small hands.
Then, she tried long-range attacks using a toaster, a Gatling Valkyrie, and exploding (sìshēng) mushroom bombs, but still failed to inflict much damage on that exceptionally sturdy Rune Body.
From Cordova’s own perspective, as well as from the perspective of those outside the arena, the girl had only managed to achieve about 6% effective output after a considerable effort.
At this rate, it would take at least two more hours to determine a winner.
Regardless of others, Cordova himself breathed a sigh of relief, because the time limit for this match was thirty minutes.
As long as Ji Xiaoge couldn't kill him within that time, it would be a draw!
A slightly embarrassing draw was at least better than an embarrassing loss, and it could also highlight his incredibly strong defense, so it was somewhat acceptable.
For Ji Xiaoge, being able to incapacitate Cordova in a short time was already a huge achievement, theoretically speaking…
But the girl didn't seem to intend to follow theory.
Cordova noticed that the clanging sounds on his body suddenly quieted down, followed by a series of delicate, light footsteps circling around him, and he couldn't help but feel a little worried.
After all, he was currently in an OTZ state where he could only see a small area directly beneath him.
Aside from his vision and hearing being intact, he couldn't do anything else, so feeling a bit unnerved was perfectly understandable…
But Ji Xiaoge’s actions were clearly visible to everyone else, though among the spectators in the room, everyone except Mo Tan, who gasped, showed expressions of considerable confusion, then exchanged glances implying ‘What is she doing?’, ‘What is she going to do?’, ‘What is that thing?’ and so on.
So what exactly was she doing?
Actually, it was nothing much.
Ji Xiaoge simply adopted another method after realizing her conventional attack methods were largely ineffective…
The specific process involved taking out two seemingly heavy barrel-shaped objects, then opening their lids and carefully taking out oval-shaped brown objects one by one, arranging them around Cordova.
Because the barrels had space-expansion runes kindly gifted by Lu Wei, their volume was far greater than their actual size; each barrel contained at least sixty or more round brown objects… well, they were actually just tea eggs, very ordinary 【Anti-Personnel Fragmentation Tea Eggs】.
Although others didn't immediately recognize what these things were, Mo Tan, who had personally witnessed their effect, recognized them instantly, which was why he gasped.
After all, one tea egg wasn’t terrifying; even Black Vatican, a priest character with low HP and defense, could withstand one hit and not die.
But what if it wasn't one, a few, or a dozen, but rather surrounded by hundreds of fragrant, extremely unstable, densely packed tea eggs that, according to their item description, could be used to crack gold and stone or clear river channels?
Watching Ji Xiaoge diligently bending over to place those tea eggs one by one around Cordova, from a few small piles at first to a final formation of three inner and three outer layers of egg arrays, egg towers, and egg rings, Mo Tan’s cold sweat started pouring down.
At this moment, Cordova didn't even know what was happening around him.
He waited for a few minutes, and seeing no movement from his opponent, he started playing a countdown game.
As time slowly passed, Cordova, with over ninety percent of his health remaining, felt increasingly at ease.
He thought Ji Xiaoge must have given up and was probably waiting for a draw, just like him.
However…
“Phew~ Finally done.”
A clear and pleasant voice suddenly sounded in Cordova’s OTZ-positioned ear, then he heard a series of footsteps fading into the distance, followed by a somewhat ethereal flapping of wings, and finally…
A sound of breaking air accompanied by the words ‘Hey ya’.
Three seconds later, accompanied by a pleasingly large mushroom cloud slowly rising in the arena, Cordova, having sustained at least hundreds of fragmentation damages and over a hundred explosion damages in a short period, was teleported out of the arena.
He tumbled dizzily onto the floor of the spectator room, his mind filled with countless BOOMs, BOOOMs, and BOOOOMs!!
Immediately after, Ji Xiaoge also stumbled into the spectator room, shaking her head dizzily.
As for the arena outside, which had been generated based on the strength of both parties…
It was gone.
Chapter 236: End