parentshiftbook Chapter 745: Venue Selection, First Match!
Chapter 745: Venue Selection, First Match!
“Dear guests, fervent fighters, and bloodthirsty audience...”“W-W-W-Welcome to the Land of Certain Death!”
After nearly all the reserved seats in the audience section were filled, a powerful wave of battle music swept through, carrying passionate words from the center of the arena.
Under everyone's watchful gaze, the tiles at the very center of the arena flipped open, and a metal platform rose slowly. Standing atop it was a humanoid creature engulfed in flames.
He held a microphone, and around the metal platform, eight massive speakers boomed.
The flame being looked at the players seated in the audience and spoke with even more fervor: “Let me introduce myself—I’m the host, referee, and director of this match, as well as the most trusted assistant and closest divine chosen of the God of Fairness and Judgement!”
“You can call me ‘Earl of Blazing Flames’!”
The host shouted, and the Grandmaster led the applause.
“Nice.”
As soon as the Grandmaster clapped, the entire Order followed with thunderous applause. Even the rest of the audience and members of several organizations seated across from Order began clapping along.
The applause seemed to greatly please the host, who spread his arms wide on the metal platform, turning in a circle to soak in the ovation from all directions.
Then, he cleared his throat.
“Ahem, now let’s see which ‘venue themes’ will be drawn for today’s duel! Each ‘venue theme’ comes with different duel rules. As requested by both sides, this time’s themes and their corresponding rules will all be strongly related to ‘combat’!”
“After the selection is complete, I’ll introduce the specific rules for each venue theme!”
Earl shouted, and beneath the metal platform, bubbles filled with shifting illusions floated out.
A total of five bubbles emerged, each containing a different scene illusion.
Earl began to introduce them.
“Today, the five available themes have been confirmed!”
“The first venue theme—Storm!”
Earl pointed at the first bubble, which showed a scene of roiling clouds and swirling winds.
“The second venue theme—Drowning!”
Inside the second bubble was a turbulent expanse of pitch-black water.
“The third venue theme—Radiance!”
The third bubble held shifting, multicolored light.
“The fourth venue theme—Falling!”
The fourth bubble revealed a scene of towering, sheer cliffs.
“The fifth venue theme—Night!”
The last bubble was filled with darkness as thick as ink.
After introducing the names of the five themes, Earl continued: “In this match, both sides of the bet can each eliminate one theme, then each choose one from the remaining three.”
“The venue will alternate randomly between the two ultimately selected themes.”
Earl said this, raising both hands to point toward the directions where the Free Alliance and Order were seated.
“Now—please have the initiators of this bet, Mr. Gambler and Mr. Comedian, decide on the representatives for the theme selection!”
Li Hua raised his hand. “I’ll do it myself.”
Earl: “Alright—Mr. Li Hua has chosen himself as the representative for theme selection.”
Meanwhile, the Comedian grinned. “Having someone who can see ‘probability’ handle the selection for your side is a bit of a cheat... In that case, we’ll pick someone similar too.”
Hearing the Comedian’s words, Lin Yu was somewhat surprised.
Did someone among the Free Alliance members present have the ability to predict probabilities or something like that?
But before Lin Yu could figure it out, he saw the Comedian turn to look at the Marauders’ seats.
“Diviner, old Diviner—do me a favor!”
The Diviner, who had been resting with his eyes closed, was startled. He opened his eyes to look at the grinning Comedian and then spoke.
“This is your Free Alliance’s business, and it barely has anything to do with the Psychological Society. Why are you coming to me?”
“Come on, aren’t all three of us on the same side?” The Comedian stood up from his seat, drew a perfect circle in the air with a marker, and stuck his head through it. His upper body then appeared right next to the Diviner as he patted his shoulder. “I won’t make you work for free! I’ll get Old Wu to give you some of his amazing little gadgets later!”
“Even though his stuff is in high demand, I have no use for it.”
The Diviner still refused politely.
But the Comedian didn’t give up. “You might not need it, but you can take it back to build up your organization. Fish, Wenhuo, Pluto... they’d all definitely want it.”
“Besides, think about it—while helping us might not bring you any real benefits, it can still piss off Order, right?”
The Comedian said this, and the Diviner thought for two seconds.
“Fine.”
The Comedian was overjoyed. He waved at Earl and shouted, “We choose the Diviner as our representative for theme selection!”
The Diviner stood up as well, looking across the arena at Li Hua.
Even though he was being directly stared down by the second-ranked expert on the leaderboard and the leader of the Marauders, Li Hua remained composed.
Earl spoke again. “May I ask which themes you wish to eliminate...”
The two only glanced at the five bubbles before immediately giving their answers.
“I choose to eliminate the fifth theme, ‘Night.’”
Li Hua adjusted his glasses and said calmly.
The Diviner toyed with the coins in his hand, counting on his fingers with one hand. “I choose to eliminate the second theme, ‘Drowning.’”
Two people with divination, prediction, and probability-seeing abilities—this straightforward.
No need for any extra analysis; just use their own abilities to give the answer.
The next step of choosing two out of three was just as simple.
“Alright—‘Drowning’ and ‘Night’ have been eliminated... Now, please choose one each from the remaining three venue themes.”
“Storm.”
“Falling.”
Li Hua and the Diviner spoke one after another. This time, the answers were even more concise.
“Good—the final selections are ‘Storm’ and ‘Falling’!”
Earl said this, spreading his arms.
“Showing everyone... behold, the Storm!”
The chains around the arena tightened, and slightly vibrating metal plates extended from the edges, turning the entire arena into a barrel-like enclosed structure.
At the same time, some of the floor tiles in the arena flipped open, continuously spewing powerful rotating winds, creating dozens of tornadoes within the vast space!
Earl’s commentary continued: “In the Storm-themed venue, the storm’s eye will constantly generate tornadoes. A ‘Storm Wall’ will rise around the perimeter. Each time a tornado collides with the wall, its wind force will increase. When two tornadoes collide, they will merge into an even stronger one!”
Then, the metal plates retracted, and the tornadoes in the venue quickly dissipated.
Next...
Some of the stone bricks in the arena floor suddenly began to rise, forming a crisscrossing network of narrow stone paths that twisted and turned.
These stone paths were over ten meters high, nearly level with the audience seating—and they changed periodically. New stone bricks rose up while old ones sank down.
Below, a pale purple mist spread out.
“In the Falling-themed venue, the bottom will be filled with gas that causes anyone who inhales it to fall into a deep sleep. Meanwhile, the stone bricks on the floor will rise or lower.”
After Earl finished introducing the rules, the venue returned to its original state.
“Regardless of whether the theme is Storm or Falling, there are only two conditions for victory.”
“One side voluntarily surrenders.”
“One side completely loses consciousness for more than ten seconds.”
After explaining the rules, Earl spoke again.
“Alright... all rules have been introduced—now let’s look forward to the first match!”
“The match between Nicholas and the Prisoner!”