Chapter 19 April 0:00

The Peak Brawl S3 semi-finals began on schedule.

Because it was the semi-finals, and out of consideration for ratings and respect for advertisers, the two matches were staggered. Hell Frontline and Order could rest for an extra day in this round, playing again on the 20th at dawn. Tonight, the match would be between Useless Alliance and Gate of Heaven.

…

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[Peak Brawl S3, Semi-Finals]

[Arena: Cangyun Mountain]

As the players from both teams entered the spectator space, this system voice rang in their ears.

Immediately after, came the announcement, [The match will begin in thirty seconds.]

The two players transported to the battlefield for the vanguard match were Tianma Xingkong and Suriel.

Everyone was familiar with Little Ma; as for Suriel... judging by his appearance, his face, like most casual players, was just a slightly handsome modification of an ordinary person's face. He was wearing a black-and-white outfit, with no visible weapons or equipment, making it difficult to judge what type of player he was.

Since this match was being conducted under the influence of an "artifact," from the moment they entered the battlefield, the Philosopher's Stone effect, "Turning Stone into Gold," from Useless Alliance had already begun its countdown.

At the moment the barrier disappeared, exactly thirty seconds would have passed. This meant that the instant the fight officially began, Suriel's equipment and skills would undergo a "value upgrade." Moreover, with the Amulet buff from Gate of Heaven, the degree of this upgrade would be amplified, potentially rendering most of Suriel's skills and equipment useless.

Of course, according to Honghu's analysis, there were countermeasures against this kind of restraint. The opponent only needed to adjust their items and skills before the match, bringing some equipment with very low learning requirements... Although doing so would reduce their combat power significantly, it was still better than carrying a bunch of unusable junk.

[...Two...one...Fight!]

The countdown ended quickly, and the barrier disappeared with a sound.

In these one-on-one battles, Tianma Xingkong usually didn't retreat during the preparation phase. And Suriel clearly didn't take a step back either.

As soon as the battle began, the two were locked in close combat.

The audience thought that what would follow would be a world-shattering, exhilarating, and intense fight...

But the reality was...

Buzz—

With a strange hum of energy surging, Suriel's eyes emitted an eerie green light.

And Tianma Xingkong, who was being stared at by him, was like a still frame from a movie—maintaining a half-finished forward冲 motion, not moving at all.

…

"As expected... this is how it develops..." At that moment, Guixiao, who was watching the match in the conference room, muttered with a rather solemn expression. Judging by his tone, the scene before him wasn't unexpected.

"Still can't see anything?" Sheng Yu Pian asked from the side.

Clearly, this wasn't the first time they had discussed the topic of Gate of Heaven.

"Yeah..." Guixiao nodded, "Completely impossible to observe, we can only roughly guess their abilities through the performance of third parties..." He paused, then looked up at Tianma Xingkong in the live broadcast, "For example, right now, judging from Tianma's data, his physical activity has been suppressed by some kind of ability, even his energy activity has been restricted, and the cost for Suriel to activate this ability seems to be just 'continuously looking at his opponent.'"

"Hmm..." Sheng Yu Pian pondered, "Judging from the match records so far, all seven members of their team have demonstrated this kind of 'unreasonable' skill. Without a doubt, these abilities of theirs are reusable permanent skills..."

"The point... isn't how strong their abilities are," Meng Jing Chan interjected at this moment, "but 'where the hell did these guys come from?'"

He paused for a few seconds, took a puff of his cigarette, and then continued, "The fact that they can block Guixiao's 'data perspective' is actually understandable... after all, the player base of Thriller Paradise is huge, and even a guy like Feng Bujue who can copy other people's skills exists, so it's normal for a few players who can 'counter data perspective' to appear.

"But... for a team of seven players with related IDs to all have this kind of ability, and for them to all possess top-notch combat power, the probability of that happening is terrifyingly low.

"What's even weirder is that these seven masters seem to have been spawned out of thin air like Bosses. With our Order's connections, we can't find a single player who's ever had contact with them in a script... and there are no posts or replies from those IDs on the game forums... This is almost an impossible phenomenon for non-professional players."

"So, you're saying..." Ye Zhi sensed the implication in his words and asked.

"Fuu--" Meng Jing Chan exhaled a mouthful of smoke, "This team probably has something to do with Meng Company."

"Are you saying they're colluding with people inside Meng Company?" Ye Zhi asked again, "Using some kind of cheat developed by the game company itself? Or directly modifying the data?"

"No, that's not what I meant," Chan Ge corrected, "Over the past year, Meng Company's style and execution have been obvious to all... If some of their internal employees were colluding with outsiders to cheat, this team would have been found out and disqualified long ago, and those insider employees wouldn't have been able to escape either. Right now, since this team has made it all the way to the semi-finals without being caught, that means Meng Company believes they're not a problem, and it's even possible... that this team is actually being supported by the authorities behind the scenes."

Hearing this, Wu Si Can Xuan turned his head and asked doubtfully, "This explanation makes sense based on the existing results, but what's the 'motive' behind it? Why would Meng Company insert such a team into the competition? What good would it do them?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out," Chan Ge replied, "You say they're 'creating stars'... These seven members of the Heaven Team are all so low-key that they're like escaped criminals, they don't look like they want to be famous at all. You say they're taking money to 'sell the championship'... How much money would it take to get Meng Company to do something like that? To be honest, I personally feel... that Meng Company isn't a company that treats players like sons, they're a company that treats players like grandsons and capital like great-grandsons..." He shrugged, then continued, "The only hypothesis I can think of right now is... that Meng Company is inserting such a strong, cheat-like team into the competition in order to use them to eliminate certain teams or players..."

…

During their conversation, on the battlefield, the vanguard match had already ended.

Tianma Xingkong, who had been frozen from the first second of the match, had been trying to break free from his restraints, but ultimately failed.

After a moment, Suriel, feeling he had "observed enough," sighed softly and said, "You certainly have a unique personal charm, and you have some potential and talent in certain aspects, but in this final selection, those alone are not enough to let you pass... The inability to escape from the Evil Eye's imprisonment shows that you have not found a way to break away from the 'biological' level on either the path of 'strength' or the path of 'spiritual consciousness,' so the result is obvious..."

As he spoke, he slowly raised his head, looking at the sky, as if saying to someone, "Sorry, you're unqualified."

With that, the strange light in his pupils reappeared, and he merely "looked" at Tianma Xingkong, turning him into white light.

This victory was concluded with a confrontation akin to idling and inexplicable lines.

The audience, commentators, and even those players who had been eliminated in the previous dozen rounds... were all basically dumbfounded. Only a very few people, as well as some non-human, higher-level existences, understood what Suriel had said.

In any case, the score became one to zero.

Next was the mid-game battle.

After a short break, Raphael and Gabriel from Gate of Heaven, and Honghu and Qisha from Useless Alliance appeared on the field.

If Tianma Xingkong's "elimination" seemed a bit inexplicable and stifling, then these two could be considered to have fallen more "obediently."

Under the premise of being restrained by the artifact, Raphael and Gabriel stood there for a full minute, tanking the attacks of their two opponents. During this time, Honghu and Qisha unleashed their ultimate moves and soul intent, but still failed to kill one of them.

This couldn't help but make Honghu feel, "Did I choose a fake artifact? Equip a set of fake equipment? Use a bunch of fake skills?"

Of course, not only him, but Qisha and the audience also thought so...

A minute later, the two were respectively given the evaluations of "skills end here" and "ambition only in self-cultivation," and were then instantly killed by the two from Heaven with one move.

At this point, at least the audience had unanimously agreed on one thing—the members of Gate of Heaven were probably all monsters on Guixiao's level.

Looking back at all the matches in S3 so far, only Guixiao's match against Shiva had featured a scene where "a top player was allowed to attack at will for a minute before being easily countered."

Previously, because the opponents that Gate of Heaven had faced were mostly second-rate combatants, and the most powerful one they encountered was the Red Cherry without Xu Huai Shang, players' impressions of their "upper limit" of strength were still relatively vague.

But now, they met Useless Alliance, and still showed that suffocating composure and desperate combat power, which... could not be described as ordinary "strength."

If it weren't for Meng Company's consistent tough style, and the team's low-key attitude that made it impossible to slander them, at least 90% of players would have believed they were cheating, even without evidence.