One thing Zhang Yue was quite satisfied with on the points leaderboard was that, among the top ten, besides himself, there were two others from Dragon Nation.
Hidden Dragon, sure enough, did not disappoint Zhang Yue, his master.
As for Chen Zijin, her strength once again refreshed Zhang Yue's understanding.
She was probably the only female professional ranked in the top ten.
In addition, there were other outstanding performers.
For example: Dragon Nation's War God · Divine Lu Bu and Vajra · Hu Yanzhou, who were resurrected by Zhang Yue using Resurrection God Stones along with Chen Zijin, Hidden Dragon, and Xuan Lan.
Bear Nation's second strongest fighter, just a bit behind Restiev in strength, and also the number one general under Restiev, resurrected by Resurrection God Stone, the Demon Warrior · Ivankov.
Restiev's biological daughter · Athena.
These were all at least world-top-level existences.
Besides the top tiers from various countries, there were also many professionals who performed outstandingly.
In this world-class gladiator match, they showed their brilliance and became known to the public.
Every contestant was giving their all.
Zhang Yue finished his lunch, and the time paused at 1 p.m.
He returned to the guild and took a two-hour nap, emphasizing a balance between work and rest.
At 3 p.m., Zhang Yue was woken by a flurry of notification sounds.
He picked up his phone and saw messages from Liu Yao, Ouyang Ling'er, Hidden Dragon, and the others filling the screen.
["Big bro, what are you doing? You've been offline for three hours, your points have already been overtaken."]
["President, your number one throne got taken! The audience is going crazy! Our guild even received complaints! Hurry and come back to grind points!"]
["Master, are you sleeping?"]
Zhang Yue checked the rankings, and indeed saw that his rank had fallen from number one before logging off to 1825th place.
Seeing this result, Zhang Yue wasn't surprised at all.
As if it was already within his expectations.
After all, the contestants were one-in-a-million powerhouses, only looking insignificant when contrasted with Zhang Yue.
Their true strength should not be underestimated.
Besides, Zhang Yue had slept for three hours.
If in three whole hours they still couldn't overtake Zhang Yue, then they weren't one-in-a-million powerhouses, but ten-thousand-in-one trash.
"Here I come," Zhang Yue replied to all messages with one tap.
He logged into the Otherworld.
["Ding~ Welcome to the World 32, Otherworld · Super God Arena. System has detected you are a participant in the [Hell Gladiator Arena]. Battle is ongoing. Would you like to immediately return to the arena?"]
On the panel that popped up before him, Zhang Yue decisively selected [No].
Because according to the real-time records on the card, the number of contestants who had reached 3-Star Arena Expert status was only over 1,800 worldwide.
According to the rules, only when the number of 3-Star Arena Experts reached 10,000 would the Arena Level-3 be unlocked.
Those whose strength wasn't yet sufficient had to work doubly hard to make up for the gap in power.
Currently struggling in the Arena Level-2 at the 3-star rank were exactly this type of contestant, even with a 90% reduction in gain rate, they continued to maximize their points with the remaining 10%.
But to Zhang Yue, there was no need to waste his limited time in the meaningless Arena Level-2.
Once the Arena Level-3 opened, in just ten minutes he could easily gain what would take ten hours here.
Therefore, the time before the Arena Level-3 opened should be spent doing something more meaningful.
For example: conquering the Otherworld.
According to the leaderboard, the current number one was Elfa. Currently a 3-Star Arena Expert with 160 points. Looks like the 10% yield rate was really giving Elfa a hard time.
Zhang Yue closed the leaderboard page.
At that moment, Chen Zijin suddenly sent a message, ["You finally came online."]
["Are you planning to go fight the world boss?"]
Zhang Yue felt a bit surprised.
Chen Zijin still understood Zhang Yue very well, she even guessed his next move.
["Yeah,"] Zhang Yue replied, ["Wanna come along?"]
Chen Zijin sighed, ["If only I had your level of strength. Unfortunately, I don't."]
["So I have to work doubly hard to make up for the gap in strength. You go ahead, I need to keep grinding to stay in the top ten."]
Zhang Yue didn't say much more and was about to close the chat window, when suddenly, Chen Zijin sent another message, ["Oh right, there's something strange. Have you read the news? It says that within today, quite a few contestants from various countries have mysteriously disappeared inside the Hell Gladiator Arena."]
'Disappeared?'
While starting the World 32's boss challenge, Zhang Yue opened the web browser.
Sure enough, the internet was buzzing with discussions on this topic.
["What's going on with contestants suddenly disappearing?"]
["I thought I was the only one who noticed, turns out everyone did. At first I thought it was just bathroom break stuff. But then, a streamer I was watching had just finished lunch and the restroom, came back online, and not even two minutes into the stream, it suddenly shut down. Then the streamer was gone…"]
["What do you mean gone? Eliminated?"]
["No, just gone, completely uncontactable both online and offline. Like they vanished from the world. But no one knows exactly what happened."]
["Do all the missing contestants have their livestreams suddenly shut down right before disappearing?"]
["Seems like it. Looks like people from many countries have disappeared. But if they were eliminated, shouldn't they be teleported out and lose qualification? Does elimination now mean direct permanent death? That can't be, right?"]
["But the streamer I was watching was super strong. The monsters in the arena couldn't possibly kill him. Could there be something dirty inside the arena?"]
According to incomplete statistics, similar cases had occurred in many countries. The total number of missing contestants had already surpassed triple digits!
The strangest thing was,.no one knew what happened to them before they vanished.
And the disappeared contestants all shared a common feature:
Just moments before, they had still been normally streaming, killing monsters, completing tasks, and earning points, without being attacked by any powerful contestants, then suddenly, their stream would shut off, and afterward, the streamer would be completely uncontactable both online and offline.
The internet was full of speculation.
Some said there was a mysterious boss inside the Hell Gladiator Arena, specifically targeting solo contestants, and that professionals killed by this boss would die permanently.
Others claimed the arena contained a hidden domain, and those who disappeared had accidentally triggered the condition to enter that sealed domain, resulting in complete disconnection from the outside world.
Specifically, no one knew what these people had experienced, or where they had gone.
But one thing was certain: they had indeed disappeared, and it was the kind of disappearance that resembled permanent death.
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