Chapter 138: Collision
Because hundreds of thousands of soldiers had already witnessed the existence of this gigantic monster, the news simply couldn't be suppressed. Thus, the Huaxia government abandoned the idea of temporarily concealing its appearance to prevent public panic.
Soon, relevant images and data were officially released. These mutated behemoths, six or seven meters long, appeared in everyone's sight. However, because the battle to annihilate this group of behemoths was executed so flawlessly, most of the populace subconsciously believed that the Sea Race remained a species easily crushed by modern weaponry; aside from the initial nuclear bomb storage error, they were merely still in the primitive age.
Many busybodies, based on the previously leaked participant data from the Ability User Tournament, even went so far as to deduce the battle outcomes between the twenty contestants and these colossal beasts. They then used the combat strength of a single mutated beast as a unit of measurement, quantifying various contestants as "1.5 beasts" or "2 beasts".
With this unit of measurement in place, many well-known ability users who weren't even contestants tragically fell victim to netizens, branded with labels like "X beasts" or "Y beasts."
Furthermore, as the evaluators were not necessarily neutral in their attitudes towards each contestant, the measured numbers naturally varied. In different analysis threads, a contestant might be lauded to the heavens on one side, receiving a high rating of "5 beasts," while on the other, they might be utterly disparaged, given a purely mocking figure like "1.001 beasts."
These differing figures once again sparked a new round of public squabbles. However, a small minority, capable of observing the problem from a deeper level, expressed concern over such blind optimism.
Firstly, the Sea Race's ability to detonate nuclear bombs was, in itself, an enormous mystery.
While some, whose understanding of nuclear bombs remained at the level of "a very powerful big bomb," might assume that obtaining one meant it could be detonated without issue, those with even a basic understanding of modern weaponry would clearly know the immense difficulty of detonating a heavily encrypted nuclear warhead without all the necessary codes.
Secondly, some biologists expressed concern over the Sea Race's evolutionary speed. In less than a year, the Sea Race had already evolved arthropod limbs capable of walking on land, as well as respiratory organs that could directly process air. The vast divide between sea and land might no longer be an insurmountable chasm hindering direct warfare between the two sides.
Having lost oceanic trade and numerous important cities, humanity was not as strong as imagined. Research centers and manufacturing hubs, largely concentrated in major cities worldwide, were annihilated in the nuclear blasts, inflicting truly profound damage upon the entirety of human civilization.
After a week of intense speculation and discussion, the competition resumed. To amplify the hype, the organizers arranged for the remaining twenty contestants to draw lots, dividing them into four groups. Within each group, a round-robin format would be held; a win would earn one point, and the top two players from each group would advance to the quarterfinals.
The draw results were quickly revealed: Group A's contestants were Luo Yi, Ying, Bartu, Sos, and Woods. The first match in this group was Luo Yi against Ying.
"You are Luo Yi?" Ying asked first.
"I don't know why, but after seeing you, my whole being started to boil with excitement. I just have this urge to utterly defeat you," Luo Yi said to Ying on the arena.
"Is that so? I have a feeling we've met before." Ying continued to transmit information using mental fluctuations, yet his body remained utterly still, leaving the spectators outside the arena completely bewildered.
"What's with the aloof mystery act! That naked freak who's always hiding his face!" Many of Luo Yi's supporters, watching the silent Ying, felt greatly displeased and thus brought up his invisibility ability again.
"What common ground could that mutated monster possibly have with my aloof heartthrob?" Ying, who had never shown his face and remained shrouded in mystery, also attracted some loyal fans. They, too, began to criticize Luo Yi's monstrous appearance after his transformation.
"Hooowl~~~!" With the pre-battle theatrics concluded, Luo Yi let out a long howl and instantly completed his transformation.
This time, Luo Yi felt his transformation was somewhat different from before; his body seemed to have flipped a switch, and an even more surging and powerful force gushed forth from within.
"What a pity, there's still a considerable gap compared to my power in the previous life. But even with the power of my previous life, the disparity with that devil was still far, far too great. However, in this life, I stand at the same starting line as him. How could I, reborn, possibly lose to him!" he thought, feeling the extraordinarily surging power within him.
Just like in every previous battle, the invisible Ying placed his black robe aside. The audience then saw only a sword and a monster facing off in the arena.
"I, who cultivate both Dao and Martial Paths, am invincible!" A gigantic wolf's illusory figure began to appear behind Luo Yi, and then he threw a punch to his side. "Mere invisibility, and you think you can escape my perception?"
"What kind of ability is this! He's revealing such a trump card right off the bat? Is he going to play a bomb when his opponent plays a pair of threes?" The commentator on the live broadcast clearly grew excited. From the very start of the first match in the finals, contestants were revealing trump cards never before seen in any intelligence reports.
The punch thrown by the illusory figure behind him suddenly halted halfway through, or rather, it was stopped by hitting something.
Although there was no sky-piercing white light nor any colossal sound, the entire audience could still infer the ferocity of this impact from the slight indentation that appeared on the right claw of the giant wolf's punching phantom.
"Contestant Ying's invisibility has been completely broken for the first time in this competition! What kind of trump card will he reveal next to counterattack? Let us wait and see!" The commentator responsible for the live commentary promptly stirred up the atmosphere.
"Someone can hit my energy-form avatar?" Bai Mo, controlling this avatar, displayed some surprise for the first time.
"Also, what exactly does Dao Wu Shuangxiu mean? Isn't Hua Taishan's Martial Path still just a concept? How could someone have started cultivating it so quickly?" He keenly noted Luo Yi's remarks.
Because this young man named Luo Yi was capable of so many formidable discoveries, Bai Mo paid him special attention. He simply let his avatar participate in the competition for fun, and then, during the draw, subtly manipulated it with his divine sense to ensure his avatar and Luo Yi were placed in the same group, directly meeting in the very first match.
He didn't care if being scheduled for the first match would expose combat-related intelligence to others; his avatar's true reliance was absolute speed. With this trump card, it didn't matter if the opponent knew about it or not. Those who could defeat it would still defeat it, and those who couldn't react, no matter how much they prepared, still wouldn't be able to react..
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