Translator: AnubisTL
Thirty seconds remained on the countdown.
The buffs and debuffs on Chen Jiang and Scar Dog continued to accumulate.
Among all the participants, only Chen Jiang and Scar Dog received this treatment.
The reason was simple: they were too famous.
Chen Jiang needed no introduction. Yesterday's global announcements had already etched the name "Human Player Chen Jiang" into the minds of most alien race players.
While the name "Scar Dog" might have sounded unfamiliar at first, a moment's thought would bring it to mind.
The human race was the first to establish a race besides the mechanical race. In their declaration of war, Scar Dog had directly challenged the other 96 races with his provocative words:
"I can't possibly say that everyone here is trash, can I?"
Initially, few took him seriously, dismissing him as an arrogant child spouting empty threats.
But soon...
Chen Jiang's sudden rise to prominence, culminating in a single-day record of 140,000 alien race kills, officially brought the human race into the spotlight of other races.
Today, the names of human players Chen Jiang and Scar Dog appeared side-by-side on the leaderboard.
This sudden revelation made many realize that Scar Dog's seemingly arrogant and boastful declaration from that day wasn't just the empty words of a naive child.
Instead, it was the disdain of someone possessing overwhelming power toward other alien races.
Chen Jiang calmly surveyed his surroundings, offering no further comment. This instance dungeon posed virtually no challenge to him.
His sole purpose in participating was to claim the rewards.
Though the exact nature of the rewards remained unknown, securing as many first-place finishes as possible before the Ten Thousand Races Arena erupted into full-scale war would grant him greater resources and confidence to face the impending battlefield.
Concealing one's strength was merely a self-consolation for the weak.
When you are truly powerful enough, you can stand at the summit and claim every reward you deserve.
As for the trivial backstabbing and drawbacks, they were acceptable costs when weighed against the substantial rewards.
Take, for example, the alien races currently using merit points to inflict debuffs upon him.
The debuffs lasted for fewer than a hundred instances before stopping.
Aside from adding fewer than five thousand mutated beasts to his total, they had no other impact.
Clearly, no alien race player would be foolish enough to waste their painstakingly accumulated merit points on an unknown human player.
The buffs from human players didn't help much either, only crippling fewer than a thousand mutated beasts in total.
At this stage of the game, the human race as a whole remained scattered and fleeing.
Apart from a small number of human players who had gathered and gained some confidence in confronting the surrounding alien races, most humans struggled even to survive, let alone earn merit points by killing aliens.
[00:00:01]
The countdown ended.
The air wall vanished abruptly.
The tens of thousands of mutated beasts roared and charged at the two players in unison.
They resembled wolves, yet were not wolves.
They resembled lions, yet were not lions.
Larger than wolves but smaller than lions, their eyes glowed crimson, their bodies were entirely black except for their blood-red forepaws.
Clang!
Chen Jiang placed the Steel Sword Autonomous Turret on the ground.
Behind him, the mechanical wings, radiating a futuristic, sci-fi aura, snapped open, creating a powerful gust of wind that lifted him into the air.
At the same moment, Scar Dog ascended alongside him.
This dungeon posed no challenge to them.
Below, the Steel Sword Rotating Autonomous Turret began spinning its barrel in a rapid 360-degree arc, unleashing a barrage of deep blue energy bullets that slammed into the mutated beast horde.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each energy bullet tore through the crimson-eyed mutated beasts, sending blood mist and smoke billowing into the air.
Massive craters erupted across the ground.
Chen Jiang hovered silently in mid-air, observing the carnage below without a word, like a patient viewer watching commercials before the main feature begins.
Beside him, Scar Dog stared at the scene, his thoughts unreadable. After a moment, he suddenly spoke up: "Brother Jiang, let's take a photo."
With that, he pulled out his camera and raised it into the air.
"A memento," Scar Dog said.
"Good idea," Chen Jiang replied with a nod, glancing at the camera in Scar Dog's hand.
Scar Dog held the camera aloft at an angle, striking a classic "V" pose with an exaggerated grin. Chen Jiang, with a barely perceptible smile, draped an arm over Scar Dog's shoulder and struck the same pose.
Scar Dog's grin widened.
Behind Chen Jiang, his massive mechanical wings fluttered slightly in the air.
The photo was developed quickly.
The image clearly showed Chen Jiang and Scar Dog suspended in mid-air, with a landscape of billowing smoke, countless crimson mists, and the aftermath of battle below: cratered earth strewn with shattered corpses and severed limbs.
Scar Dog's exuberant smile stood in stark contrast to the carnage beneath, perfectly illustrating the fundamental disconnect between human joy and the suffering of mutated beasts—as irreconcilable as Android QQ and Apple WeChat.
"Excellent," Scar Dog said, tucking the photo into his chest pocket with a satisfied grin. "Another one for the collection."
The other race participants each employed their unique strategies.
The titan race players consisted of two titans, each over ten meters tall. Standing in the center of the wilderness, they regarded the surrounding mutated beasts as mere chicks.
With each stomp, the titans crushed dozens of mutated beasts. Even those that charged with bloodshot eyes couldn't scratch their bronze-colored skin.
Clearly, this method was proving inefficient.
The two titans grew impatient.
In the next moment—
One of the titans grabbed his companion and began swinging him like a massive hammer, repeatedly smashing him into the mutated beast horde.
This proved far more effective.
Each swing crushed a large swath of mutated beasts, their lives extinguished in a single, suffocating blow.
Meanwhile, the insect race players found themselves in a frustrating predicament.
Insect race players excelled at swarm tactics but struggled in one-on-one combat.
This explained why insect race players rarely appeared on the race kill rankings.
The two insect race players could only circle in the air, occasionally swooping down to stab a few mutated beasts before retreating to higher altitudes to await their next opportunity.
They quickly fell to the bottom of the rankings.
However...
This battle was destined to have no suspense.
The moment the countdown ended, Chen Jiang surged ahead with unstoppable momentum, firmly seizing the top ranking and leaving all other players far behind.
[Activity Kill Rankings]
[Top Ranking: Human Race, Chen Jiang, Scar Dog]
[Kill Count: 3,789]
[Second Ranking: Mechanical Race, Yan Pomen, Gou Ba]
[Kill Count: 579]
This ranking was instantly synchronized to all race players worldwide.
In an instant, every alien race player who saw the leaderboard fell silent.
(End of the Chapter)
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