[Holy shit, does Castorice's wife really have that much strength? My jaw dropped!]
[Hahaha, I really didn't expect this reversal. Mydei's expression — his worldview completely collapsed.]
[Is this competition actually scripted by miHoYo? I suspect there's a script, but I have no evidence!]
[Even the God of Gambling would lose everything but his underwear here. How are we supposed to guess anything? I just bet all my savings on Mydei!]
[To be honest, I think it's pretty good. At least it's better than waiting 42 days doing nothing. This content is dense!]
[You're right! The entertainment value is maxed out!]
[Does no one feel sorry for our Mydei? He just wanted to win. What did he do wrong?]
[I didn't expect Mydei to lose either. He just beat Phainon, only to lose to Butterfly. What an emotional rollercoaster…]
Mydei returned to his team looking like a soulless puppet. His steps were unsteady, and a grayish-white aura surrounded him.
"Sorry… I really didn't expect to lose to Castorice," he said hoarsely, sighing with his head lowered.
"It's fine." Su Chen patted Mydei's shoulder and consoled him seriously.
"Think about it. Castorice flips giant woks in the kitchen every day. How weak could her wrist strength be? Her biceps might even be bigger than yours. Losing to her isn't embarrassing."
Mydei: "..."
It somehow sounded even more reasonable — and even more heartbreaking.
After holding it in for a while, he asked helplessly, "Who the hell signed her up?"
At that moment, Sparkle suddenly jumped out from the side, hands on her hips and chest puffed out proudly. "Ta-da! Flower Director knows!"
"You know?"
"Yeah, it was actually me, the great Flower Director!" She giggled, her eyes curving into crescents.
"It was you?"
"Don't listen to her. It was Cipher," Su Chen exposed the truth while pressing the troublemaking Sparkle back into her seat. "Let's hurry up and prepare for the next round."
Little Herta, who had been silently observing, began analyzing:
"There are eight teams total. Essentially, each team has eight lives — two per person on average. But because of the life-lending mechanic, things are more complicated. We lost the first round, so we only have seven lives left now."
She looked up at Su Chen. "What's the next round?"
"Let me check." Su Chen picked up his phone to look at the rules. His expression quickly turned strange.
"…Who is the Spy? Damn, who came up with these competition types? The jump from physical to mental is way too big."
"Hehehe…" Sparkle broke free from Su Chen's "claws" and leaned toward him, volunteering herself. "Let Director Sparkle show off her skills in the next round. What do you think?"
Su Chen, Mydei, and Little Herta exchanged glances. Looking at Sparkle's excited expression that screamed "chaos is coming," they said in unison:
"Agreed!"
— —
"Alright everyone, after a short break, we'll begin the next round!" Owlbert stood in the center of the stage, his voice booming.
"Let's congratulate Castorice's Team for taking first place after winning the arm wrestling tournament! Now, the second round is about to begin!"
"I'll briefly explain the rules of the second round — Who is the Spy! Each team sends one member to participate. Four people compete in a group. After two rounds of speaking, they vote to identify the spy.
If the vote successfully identifies the spy, the civilians win. Otherwise, the spy wins.
At the same time, the spy can choose to self-destruct. If they correctly guess the civilians' keyword, they also win.
Now that the rules are explained, the contestants have already taken the stage!
Let's focus on the first group's match! The participants are: Castorice's Team — Castorice, Aglaea's Team — Aglaea, Big Herta's Team — Anaxa, Phainon's Team — Phainon!"
"Now, the match begins!"
On the big screen, both the audience and contestants saw their respective keywords.
Civilian keyword (Castorice, Aglaea, Anaxa): Kiss
Spy keyword (Phainon): Debate
The match hadn't even officially started, but the live chat had already gone crazy with laughter.
[Pfft—! Kiss versus Debate? The production team really knows how to create chaos!]
[I declare that no matter who wins or loses this round, Phainon has already won big.]
[New viewers are still confused while old viewers have already started laughing.]
[The first speaker is Phainon. He casually dropped a massive bombshell:]
"This behavior… I often see Anaxa and Aglaea doing it."
The moment he said that, the chat exploded with question marks and exclamation marks mixed with waves of laughter.
[??? Phainon, do you have a death wish?]
[Starting off this explosively? I love it!]
[They actually have that kind of relationship?!]
[Hahahaha… What an opening shock!]
[I'm actually going to die laughing.]
Castorice on the side of the stage was clearly startled, her eyes widening. Then, as if she had thought of something, she quickly pulled out a delicate little notebook and pen from her pocket and began writing furiously at an almost frenzied speed while muttering:
"So… their relationship has already gotten this good? This is all precious material… I feel so inspired, I can't stop at all."
"Phainon!" Aglaea's face darkened as her hand subconsciously moved to her sword hilt. "Please don't spread rumors. Be an honest child."
Anaxa's face had turned completely black. He silently pulled out a shotgun from behind him, loaded it with a click, and pointed it at Phainon with a fake smile.
"First, call me Anaxagoras. Second, Phainon, I'm giving you one chance to rephrase that."
Phainon looked confused as he stared at the two people who looked ready to kill him.
"Weren't you two doing exactly that while preparing backstage? The entire backstage could hear you."
[Hahahaha… I can't anymore.]
[Phainon, stop pretending to be an idiot. I feel like I'm going to break.]
[Is it possible that this is Phainon's real personality?]
[I can't take it anymore. This show is too chaotic.]
— —
Anaxa and Aglaea both froze and looked at each other.
"I'd rather do this with an Earth Beast than do something like that with a dictator girl," Anaxa replied.
Aglaea's veins bulged. "What did you just call me?"
"Dictator girl. Aren't you one?"
"I see you don't plan on walking off this stage in one piece today." With that, Aglaea somehow pulled out two long swords.
"You think I can't actually beat you? Gladly."
Just as the two were about to start fighting on stage, Owlbert quickly reminded the still furiously writing Castorice:
"Ahem, Castorice, it's your turn to speak."
"Ah, okay!" Castorice finally stopped writing. After thinking for a moment, she said seriously, "This… is usually something couples do."
"Not necessarily," Phainon immediately countered, and once again said something shocking. "I often do this kind of thing with Mydei."
The entire venue fell silent. Even the air seemed to freeze.
The director reacted instantly and gave a command. A bright spotlight swept down from the stage and locked directly onto Mydei in the Boss Team's seating area.
The grayish-white "life is meaningless" aura on Mydei's face instantly froze and was replaced by pure blankness. His mouth hung slightly open, his pupils shrank to pinpoints from extreme shock, and he even unconsciously leaned back, causing his chair to let out a sharp, pitiful creak as if it might collapse at any moment.
He had just heard something completely absurd.
In the next second, the live chat completely boiled over. The sheer number of messages almost turned the screen into a mosaic.
[!!!!!!!!]
[What the actual fuck did I just hear?!]
[Mydei: I'm just a spectator!!!]
[Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha]
[Phainon! Not only killing the body, but also destroying the heart!]
[I declare that the MVP of this tournament has been born — it's Phainon!]
[Mydei: So… why the hell did I even come to this competition today?]
Su Chen let out a long sigh.
It's over. Even jumping into the Milky Way won't wash this clean…
Mydei, go in peace. The team will always remember you.
— —