Chapter 23 Chapter 23
Faced with Yu Xiaoqin's enthusiastic invitation, Xuanyin hesitated for a moment. The system kitten then said, "I just discovered that if you enter through Gate 1, you need to fill in the name of the participating designer and the title of their work."
Xuanyin said to Yu Xiaoqin, "Thank you very much."
Yu Xiaoqin was very happy and pulled Xuanyin towards the audience entrance.
After entering, it was very bright inside and full of a high-tech feel. The audience area was very large and people were taking their seats one after another.
Yu Xiaoqin had ten tickets in her hand, and together with Xuanyin there were ten people in total. They found a seat and sat down.
The location here is pretty good. There is an extremely huge screen in front, which will be divided into many live broadcast screens.
"Are you fans of Niangniang Shiji?" a staff member came forward to ask. After getting a positive answer, the other party's expression became a little subtle.
Some reporters also came forward to interview them and asked them how much they knew about Shiji Niangniang.
Xuanyin looked around and whispered to Yu Xiaoqin, "I'm going to the bathroom."
The scene was bustling with people, and it was very noisy. Yu Xiaoqin didn't know whether she heard clearly or not. Xuanyin didn't wait for her to respond and got up and left.
The system instructed her: "The contestant area is up ahead. Go through this door, continue forward, turn, there's a camera ahead, look down."
There are also people coming and going in the contestant area. Each contestant has an independent competition room. The rooms are crowded like a beehive.
Moreover, the contestants did not come in alone. Xuanyin saw many contestants along the way, accompanied by assistants, teachers, and even makeup artists. The corridor was filled with a large group of people.
You know, there are more than 10,000 contestants from the Federation alone. Even if only a small number of them bring assistants, it is still a huge number.
So, there were so many people, and Xuanyin was really not conspicuous at all among them.
Moreover, the organizer may focus on the registration at the entrance, and there is no identity verification process at the competition area.
"The room in front, there's no one in the room in front." said the system.
Xuanyin stopped in front of a competition room, grabbed the door handle and pushed it in.
There was indeed no one inside. She closed the door with her backhand, and the sign on the door changed to "occupied". No one outside could come in without her permission.
She looked around. The room was only about four square meters. There was no extra equipment and the four walls were snow-white. However, there was something like a curtain in front of her. She reached out and it was soft, like a wall of water.
The system's little yellow cat also touched it curiously: "This is the competition entrance. In a moment, the contestants will pass through here and enter the competition venue."
Xuanyin sat down and looked at the time. Ten minutes had passed, and there were still two hours and fifty minutes before Cheng's mother's physical therapy ended.
"System, help me deduct the time."
"You planning on getting out before physical therapy is over?"
"What else? For a small competition, isn't more than two hours enough?"
Then she waited in the room for more than half an hour.
Xuanyin was calm at the beginning, but later on she became a little annoyed with waiting.
"Why haven't you started yet? What are you waiting for?"
The system kitten woke up from its nap. "Ah, what are you waiting for? I'll go check it out."
After a while, it came back and said with a gloating smile: "They are waiting for you to show up."
Xuanyin: "...what?"
At this time, the competition organizer is backstage.
"Hasn't Lady Shiji arrived yet?"
"No."
"Did he make it to the entrance for the Empire players?"
"Registration there is also very strict. I didn't see any sign-in records."
"Shall we start? The contestants are already in place."
The tournament host wiped the sweat from his forehead and ran to ask the judges for permission. He quickly received permission and returned with the order, "The competition begins!"
Imperial Lounge.
"The organizer has given the number, and the competition begins."
A young general sitting in the main seat, wearing a luxurious golden uniform, opened his eyes and asked, "Has that man arrived?"
"It is said that there is none."
The young general was silent for a moment. "Let's compete well, everyone. Regardless of whether we meet that person or not, this is the first time we Imperials are appearing in the Federation arena. We must perform well."
In the competition area, the contestants who had been waiting in their rooms for a long time finally heard the broadcast.
"Federation and Empire players, the competition begins now. Please put on your wristbands and enter the competition arena entrance. If you feel unwell during the competition, please press the exit button on your wristband to return safely to the competition room. Once you exit, you will be eliminated."
Xuanyin raised her head and saw that a nebula-shaped vortex suddenly appeared on the curtain in front of her, and a bracket emerged from the side of the entrance, with a black bracelet on it.
She walked over and put on the bracelet, which emitted a red light: Please enter the name of your divine clothing.
She typed: Niangniang Shiji.
The bracelet's light turned green and it was tightly wrapped around her wrist. She stepped into the vortex.
auditorium.
The audience was already getting sleepy waiting, and finally the screen lit up.
"It's started, it's started!" Yu Xiaoqin looked around. Xuanyin hadn't come back yet. She didn't know her name or contact information, nor did she know where to find her.
"Xiaoqin, do you think that Lady Shiji really didn't come?"
Yu Xiaoqin's attention was drawn to her companions: "I don't think so, but if she doesn't come, I can understand."
After all, I'm not on the same level as these players.
Still, I hope she shows up.
Soon, a picture appeared on the big screen in front of him, which was divided into small screens, showing the players entering the stadium one by one.
The main screen in the middle is a huge bird's-eye view.
"This competition venue...is the Federation's frontline battlefield, right?"
"Looking at the terrain, it looks like Planet H8? That's one of the wild beasts' lairs. Countless federal soldiers sacrifice their lives there every year to eradicate the wild beasts."
"I didn't expect the organizers to choose an environment simulating Planet H8 as the competition venue. Will there be a one-to-one simulation of the local wild beasts, the Nightmare Beast?"
"That's impossible! If that were the case, wouldn't all the contestants be wiped out?"
Amidst the heated discussions, Yu Xiaoqin and the others stared intently at the number of contestants and their rankings in the upper right corner of the screen. The numbers kept climbing, and finally stopped at over 18,000.
There are more than 12,000 players from the Federation and more than 5,000 players from the Empire.
The ranking list is still based on the order of auditions. They are closely watching the eleventh place on the public rating list. The four words representing Niangniang Shiji are still dim.
The name of the first place is lit up, the second place is lit up... the eighth and tenth place are also lit up!
The names behind them also lit up.
Only Niangniang Shiji is still gloomy.
"You're not really coming, are you?"
Everyone was about to give up, but at this moment, the four words "Shiji Niangniang" suddenly lit up.
"Wow! It's bright!"
"Empress Shiji is coming to compete, she really is here!"
"She's entered the arena. Quickly find out which split screen she's in!"
Fans such as Yu Xiaoqin were very excited. Fans of other contestants were actually also secretly following the updates of Shiji Niangniang. When they saw this name light up, many of them showed disappointment and frustration.
This contestant actually showed up, who knows, he might be a tough opponent! This is really eye-catching.
In the Federation backstage, everyone stood up. "She's here! She's really here! But why isn't she on the sign-in list?"
"She obviously managed to sneak in somehow. Let's find her and arrange for our people to approach her."
In the backstage of the empire, people wearing imperial military uniforms were also staring at the screen.
"It's really here, find out where the person is as soon as possible."
In the arena, after Xuanyin stepped into the entrance, the scene in front of her instantly changed.
There were towering trees blocking out the sun, thick fog, and clumps of strange green grass that were taller than people.
She looked back and found that the entrance behind her had disappeared. Obviously, this was another virtual sandbox generated in the dream world.
She looked at herself and found that her clothes had turned into camouflage uniforms with a "recruit" armband on her shoulder, a helmet, a gas mask hanging around her waist, a water bottle and a compressed biscuit.
In his pocket was the button of the divine robe of the Goddess Shiji, which he could press at any time to enter the state of possession.
It seems that her current role is a new recruit, and she is separated from the main force.
"This competition venue is very realistic, and it even includes role-playing."
She looked around and didn't see the system. It seemed that it couldn't get in here.
She picked up the gas mask, put it on her face, took out the knife stuck in her boot, and continued to move forward carefully.
This felt like a real-life game to her. She instantly got into the state, and soon, she found a camera.
She walked up to a dead leaf butterfly stuck to a tree trunk and poked it with the tip of a knife to confirm that it was a camera.
Then I looked around again and found that the spider hanging on the spider web on the branch was also a camera.
An old tree root on the ground is also a camera.
A flower covered with dew is also a camera.
It's almost everywhere.
However, this is actually a good thing for Xuanyin. She thought that in this virtual sandbox, the audience's perspective is the God's perspective, which means 360 degrees without blind spots.
No matter where the contestants hide, even underground, their every move will be observed at all times.
But now that there are cameras, it means that as long as we avoid these cameras, we can find the blind spots.
She began to avoid the camera.
The ranking of the competition mainly depends on the number of nightmare beasts killed. The more nightmare beasts killed, the higher the score. Moreover, if a player is eliminated, the player can directly obtain the points of the opponent.
Finally, the winner is determined by the score.
In addition, the players who can survive to the last thousand will receive an additional bonus.
According to the requirements of the Divine Tower, although this game is not a big game, the Imperials must not win in the end, so Xuanyin plans to hide first. After all, the possession of Shiji Niangniang consumes too much of her energy, so the ultimate weapon is naturally saved for last.
She glanced at the floating words in front of her right: Remaining contestants: 18403.
In the blink of an eye, it became 18325.
This has already begun to be eliminated.
Suddenly, there was a cry of surprise from afar. Xuanyin quickly jumped onto a tree and squatted on a branch to watch. She saw two contestants running wildly. Behind them was a thing that looked like a chameleon, with arms of different lengths, bouncing and chasing after them.
Xuanyin narrowed her eyes slightly. The chameleon didn't seem like an ordinary animal. Its strange appearance, those bloody eyes, and the look that seemed to be eager to eat people...
That's a wild beast!
The predecessor of the Nightmare Beast.
The two men screamed and threw stones and other things behind them, but the distance was still getting closer and closer. Suddenly, one of them stopped and pressed the buckle of the divine clothes. A beam of divine power descended, a very thin beam of light, and the process of possessing the god was extremely slow.
So before it could complete its transformation, the chameleon beast pounced on it and bit its neck.
"ah!"
The contestant disappeared and was eliminated!
The remaining contestant was so scared that he didn't even think about possessing a spirit. He just kept running away, but was easily caught up and died in the northwest.
After the chameleon killed the two men, it seemed that it did not expect their bodies to disappear. It was stunned for a moment, turned around, and then left, following the voices in the distance.
Xuanyin stayed on the tree from beginning to end, without moving or making a sound.
She was thoughtful. If the divine clothes were too slow to attach to the gods, their practicality would be too poor and they would be eliminated. If the contestants who displayed the divine clothes had too low a psychological quality, they would also be eliminated in minutes.
Therefore, throwing the players into such a dangerous arena not only tests the practicality and potential of a piece of magic clothing in all aspects, but also tests the players' ability to respond.
However, there will be mad beasts appearing on the field, which Xuanyin did not expect. If the mad beasts do not die under the power of gods, nightmare beasts will be generated after their death.
On the other hand, as long as it doesn't die, it is actually easier to deal with.
She got down from the tree and chased after the chameleon.
In the woods, divine lights descended from time to time, and the number of people eliminated continued to increase.
The audience saw that the fighting on the screen continued, the number of remaining players became smaller and smaller, the names on the leaderboard kept floating up and down according to the scores, and from time to time the names of high-ranking players would turn gray and be eliminated.
"I've been looking for so long, why haven't I seen Lady Shiji yet?"
Yu Xiaoqin was secretly anxious. According to the image style of Shiji Niangniang, she must be a very eye-catching child after being possessed by a god, but she could not be seen in any split screen. It was really frustrating.
"Wow!" Suddenly the audience exclaimed.
Yu Xiaoqin looked up, confused.
My friend said excitedly: "We got another one!"
Yu Xiaoqin asked hurriedly: "What's wrong?"
My friend said, "Didn't you see it? In the A13 split screen, that masked female player is a real master at raising pigs! She's already captured over a dozen wild beasts alive!"
Yu Xiaoqin looked at the A13 split screen. The scene on the screen was quite tragic. Several contestants were lying on the ground covered in blood, their bodies covered with porcupine quills.
A porcupine beast was lying on the ground struggling miserably, but was firmly stepped on by a female contestant wearing a gas mask. No matter how hard it moved, it couldn't turn over.
This is all thanks to the silent film, otherwise the porcupine's howl would have been heard throughout the entire venue.
Yu Xiaoqin nodded. "The Porcupine Beast seems to be very strong. It can step on it so that it can't turn over. It's quite powerful. But why do you say she is a pig-raising type?"
My friend said, "You didn't see it at all just now? You'll know if you keep reading."
Yu Xiaoqin didn't understand what was going on, so she continued watching. She saw the masked female contestant squat down, holding a dagger in her hand, and with a few swipes, she cut off the porcupine's four legs. The pig immediately turned into a ball, opened its mouth and howled wildly. The masked woman chopped off the porcupine's mouth with another knife.
The porcupine could no longer struggle.
Yu Xiaoqin: “…”
Ah, this operation is a bit explosive.
Many people in the audience made gagging sounds in discomfort.
"Here comes another trick! This woman is too bloody!"
"Isn't this good? It can reduce the attack power of the wild beasts without killing them and turning them into nightmare beasts immediately."
"This is basically what frontline soldiers do when they don't have divine support. It's a standard operation, right? But how come this player is even more skillful than a professional soldier?"
"But the point of this match is the demonstration and use of the divine robe. What's the point of this guy just catching the mad beast? No matter how good he is at using a knife, he can't score any points."
"Hehehe, I think this player is playing a big game, and now it's the pig-raising stage."
On the field, Xuanyin picked a leaf to wipe off the blood on the knife. The contestants who fell to the ground around her slowly got up and looked at her with astonished eyes.
"Excuse me, which contestant are you? Thank you for saving us. If it weren't for you, we would have died under the hooves of this wild beast."
One of the contestants spoke up.
This person is in a state of possession, and his appearance is a bit like a fluttering moth. This is relatively normal. At least his face is not deformed much, so he can still speak.
The looks of other people are even more varied. One person even has a human body and a snake head. The main purpose is to create a horror effect, which is really unbearable to watch.
Xuanyin said, "If you want to thank me, just kill this pig."
"This...killing it will give you points. Why don't you kill it yourself?" The moth looked at the porcupine that had no legs or mouth and was dying.
"It's okay, kill it."
Everyone looked at each other, but the desire to divide still prevailed.
They players formed a circle, fluttered their wings, and sprinkled glittering fluorescent powder on the porcupine, burning its skin.
The mouth of the man with the snake head suddenly opened wide, and a long snake tongue came out. One snake tongue instantly turned into seven or eight, tightly wrapping around the porcupine.
Then a guy with a turtle shell on his back jumped high up, with the shell facing down, and did a spinning top-like move, crushing the porcupine into a puddle of meat.
But at the same time, a translucent porcupine nightmare beast, like the soul of the porcupine, crawled out of the corpse, with its four legs restored to their original state, and began to resist very flexibly.
Xuanyin sighed, this strength was too poor. Even with the combined efforts of several people, the Nightmare Beast was still born.
Fortunately, it was not completely destroyed, and they finally killed the nightmare beast.
At the moment when the Nightmare Beast died, a few points of white light fell from the sky onto the participants. This meant that everyone got points, but each person did not get many points.
Xuanyin stood up: "Okay, goodbye."
Then he turned and left.
Fluttermoth and the others were all a little dazed as they watched her leave in a graceful manner.
"She's so strong, but why doesn't she possess a spirit? Would she get any points that way?"
"Who knows, let's get rid of the spirit state and take a rest, otherwise we will be too tired."
Before Fulengezi could finish his words, he suddenly felt a chill on his back and a knife stabbed out of his heart.
He looked at the tip of the knife in shock, and the next moment his whole body turned into a cloud of smoke and was eliminated.
The others didn't have time to react and were stabbed to death and disappeared.
A man in camouflage uniform gradually emerged. His skin was rugged, similar to that of a chameleon, so he could blend in with the surrounding environment. This was obviously his magical uniform.
He looked at his income and tutted his tongue, very dissatisfied: "Five people together only got a little over 100 points. What's the point? It's such a waste of my time."
Before he could finish his words, he suddenly realized something. The hair on his back stood up and he turned around abruptly, only to see Xuanyin coming back with a black rabbit beast in her hand.
Xuanyin looked at this person, then at the place where the five people were standing just now. She tilted her head and said, "I just fattened them up a little bit, and you killed them?"
This person: “…”
The man looked Xuanyin up and down and said with a chuckle, "You have good fighting ability, but why haven't you become a god yet? Don't you like it? Or is it that you can't produce the divine robe? Do you want to hang out with me? How about you just catch the mad beasts and I'll kill them?"
Xuanyin sighed, twisted Black Rabbit's leg, threw it aside, and then rushed towards the other party.
The other party sneered, and the color of his body changed rapidly, blending into the environment again. However, the next moment, he screamed, and his figure reappeared.
He covered his throat, blood gushing out, his eyes full of disbelief, as if he couldn't believe that he was killed so easily. He just stared at Xuan Yin and fell down.
The figure disappears and is out.
Xuanyin made a few knife moves, put away the knife, and looked at her income: "Well, one person contributed more than 800 points, not bad."
After saying that, he turned around, picked up the black rabbit, and continued to leave. He had to find the next team to kill this wild beast. What a trouble.
Yu Xiaoqin in front of the screen was stunned.
"Is this what you call the pig farming trend?"
My friend's eyes were filled with admiration. "Yeah, she saved a lot of players, allowing them to get points. Many of those players are still in the competition, but I have a feeling those points will eventually return to her. She doesn't attach herself to the gods, but instead gives points to other players to fatten them up, and then slowly reaps the rewards. Don't you think that's pretty awesome?"
That's really impressive.
"The most amazing thing is that she can directly kill those possessed by the spirit. However, the fact that she can still be killed while in the spirit state also shows that this divine clothing is not good. It is not unfair that she was eliminated."
As they were talking, Xuanyin had already disappeared from A13's split screen, and they hurried to look for her.
On this side, Xuanyin soon encountered another wave of melee.
She observed carefully for a while and found that the situation was not ideal this time. Seven or eight contestants were attacked by three nightmare beasts.
Encountering the Nightmare Beast, she now had no room to maneuver. Xuanyin was about to leave when she suddenly heard a shout: "Shu Hui! Be careful!"
Xuanyin stopped and looked again, only to see a young man with a crew cut whose half shoulder and arm were made of alloy, being forced into a corner by an eagle-like nightmare beast and being pecked non-stop.
The joints of the alloy shoulder were almost pecked apart, and blood was dripping.
Is this Cheng Shuhui? He looks a bit like the real Cheng Shuhui.
Cheng Shuhui shouted loudly, and then starting from his shoulders, the alloy part extended out little by little, and his whole body turned into metal bit by bit.
Xuanyin raised her eyebrows. What kind of magical clothes is this? It seems quite interesting.
But if this goes on, Cheng Shuhui will definitely not be able to hold on for long.
She took out the buckle of the divine robe and pressed it. A thin purple divine light descended. The next moment, a golden sword appeared in front of Xuanyin.
She grasped the hilt of the sword and threw it forward. The sword cut through the air with a clang. Everyone looked up and saw a flash of golden light before their eyes. The next moment, the sword had pierced through one of the wing of the eagle nightmare beast and stabbed diagonally into the ground.
The eagle nightmare beast screamed and fled in panic, leaving a big hole in its right wing, and flew stumblingly.
Cheng Shuhui was stunned and looked at the sword stuck in the ground. This sword looked so familiar...
The next moment, the sword disappeared like mist, as if it had never appeared.
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