Chapter 1 The Center of Attention

Such a long string of arena-specific names attracted the attention of most of the audience in the stands the moment it appeared.

Xing Hechou from the Special Affairs Bureau looked somewhat embarrassed. Amberly from the Syndicate chuckled, while leading cadres from the Global Supernatural Alliance discussed in hushed tones, and the black suits from the FBI's Special Incidents Division exchanged glances.

Li Ang didn't care that he had become the center of attention. He stretched, moving his limbs and fingers, causing them to crack.

He didn't expect his first-round opponent to be someone from the Special Affairs Bureau.

Tsk, in that case, he couldn't go all out...

On the other side of the arena, Ding Zhensai, wearing a blue and white tight-fitting combat suit, also seemed a little nervous. Colleagues from the Special Affairs Bureau whispered to him, probably informing him of the specifics of Li Risheng.

After Bai Haozheng returned from the Dolphin Hotel, he not only brought back Yukari Kido, but also the mission briefing.

After reviewing the entire mission experience, the Special Affairs Bureau's think tank raised Li Risheng's threat level by another notch.

Although Ding Zhensai didn't know the detailed information about his opponent, he heard the descriptions from his colleagues...

That dragon-headed white coat was very, very strong.

"Zhensai, don't be nervous."

Yan Hanyan, a researcher from the Equipment Technology Department of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, tightened the rivet on the back of Ding Zhensai's tactical suit, and said softly in his ear, "That Li Risheng has a good relationship with our Special Affairs Bureau, and won't be too harsh on you.

Just perform normally, as you did during the tests."

"That's right."

An old man with a tall stature and a kind face said in a deep voice, "This is just the first round of the competition, and most players won't reveal their trump cards here.

However, your situation is special. You represent not only the face of the Equipment Technology Department of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, but also the face of the *Shan Hai* series mechs.

We have united hundreds of units, including the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, the Association of Anomalies, the Ordnance Industry Group, various universities, and research institutes across the country. In a confidential environment comparable to a nuclear test, we spent massive amounts of financial, material, and human resources, and made huge sacrifices, to develop the *Shan Hai* series mechs in just over a year, which are comparable to the extraordinary power inheritance systems around the world.

It symbolizes that ordinary humans can also possess individual power equal to, or even exceeding, that of extraordinary players.

If the actual combat can achieve good results, then the think tank's theory that 'supernaturalists will completely destroy the modern civilized social order' will be defeated without a fight.

You can lose this arena match, but you must show our momentum!"

Yan Jianbai, the leader of the Equipment Technology Department, patted Ding Zhensai's shoulder heavily.

Ding Zhensai also seemed greatly encouraged. He nodded solemnly, and the nervousness hidden deep in his eyes was replaced by determination.

"I won't let everyone down."

"Hmm?"

Li Ang, on the other side of the arena, noticed the change in Ding Zhensai. He scratched the chin of his dragon head mask and muttered softly, "Ah, this...

Getting encouragement from a beautiful girl before the match, getting inspiration from teachers, becoming strong from timid, even the aura has changed...

This looks like the protagonist's treatment.

Damn, why don't I have any beautiful senior sisters to give me a kiss of encouragement?"

Despite what he said, Li Ang didn't feel lost at all.

He tapped the ground with his toes and lightly leaped onto the arena. He flipped the four-meter-long [Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd] out of thin air and waved it a few times casually.

The [Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd]'s weight alone caused a shrill, high-speed sound as it cut through the air.

*Zheng*—

Li Ang casually ended his waving and slammed the halberd heavily on the ground. The conical-shaped halberd point forcibly pierced the brick ground, and about seventy centimeters of the halberd shaft disappeared underground, completely out of sight.

"Oh?"

Amberly narrowed her eyes. The arenas below the 50th floor of the Sky Arena were all three and a half meters high, and the stone quality of the lower levels was more solid.

The knife marks she had previously made on the arena with the Tidebringer were only one meter deep, but Li Risheng's casual smash was able to drive the halberd shaft 70 centimeters into the ground, and the surrounding bricks didn't show any spider web cracks...

The power and skill of this strike had already exceeded 90% of the players in the entire Sky Arena.

"Interesting."

Amberly licked her lips, "If I had known, I would have gone on later.

I haven't had a drink in a while, especially the blood of a divine creature..."

The Perch sitting next to her trembled subconsciously. The professor had previously said that he would get him a piece of divinity one day, so that he could practice the idea of becoming an idol and collecting the power of fans' faith.

The big sister is so nice, she shouldn't beat me, her junior brother, and draw blood from me, right?

The Stonemason looked at the Perch, whose teeth were chattering inexplicably, with a puzzled expression, not knowing what had happened.

*Boom*—

The blue and white combat suit on Ding Zhensai's back flipped out vector nozzles, propelling him forward, and he landed on the arena floor in a handsome pose reminiscent of Spider-Man: "half-kneeling on the ground, one hand supporting the ground, and the other hand raised behind."

Combined with Ding Zhensai's already slightly handsome face, the degree of fashion was off the charts.

"Tsk,"

Li Ang clicked his tongue, feeling even more annoyed. He said loudly, "Hey kid, good afternoon, have you eaten?"

"Huh?"

Ding Zhensai, who had just stood up from the ground, didn't expect the other party to ask him this question. He was stunned for a moment before reacting, "No, not yet."

"That's good."

Li Ang nodded, and like a low-level lackey in a literary work who was about to say harsh words, he said in a menacing voice, "I won't deliberately hold back.

It's good that you haven't eaten, so you won't throw up when you get beaten later.

Heh heh heh ha ha ha."

Li Ang let out an extremely arrogant laugh, looking like he had completely turned into a villain in a literary work who was there to give the protagonist experience points.

"Ah..."

Ding Zhensai opened his mouth, not knowing how to respond. He suddenly realized that this should be the pre-match trash-talking segment in traditional fighting games.

He was brewing lines in his mind when he saw Li Ang take out a sack filled with dirt from his backpack, grab a handful of dirt from the sack, and with a flash of electricity in his hand, turn the dirt into a red brick.

Then, without saying a word, he swung the brick and smashed it hard on his forehead.

*Ka*—

How could ordinary red bricks hurt Li Ang's body? They immediately split in half and fell to the ground.

Li Ang didn't say anything, and continued to refine green *Xue Hua* beer bottles, Red Bull cans, steel pipes, steel bars, firewood knives, and other items, smashing them against his forehead, creating a mess of debris.

"Mr. Li, you, you are..."

Ding Zhensai was dumbfounded, not knowing what was happening. He stammered.

"I'm warming up."

Li Ang calmly used a steel bar to support his forehead, bent it casually, and said casually, "As a martial arts expert, it is very normal to warm up by smashing beer bottles and bricks on your head before a match.

It's you who should be impressed. After seeing me perform such a powerful iron head skill, you still dare to stand there, not being scared into surrendering and withdrawing from the competition.

You are very good."

Good your ass? Who would be scared by you? Is your standard for measuring your opponent's state of mind playing a dangerous stunt in front of their face? Then why don't you go be a streamer on *Kuaishou*...

Ding Zhensai didn't know whether to complain or not, and the momentum he had gathered before the match was more than half gone.

"Alright."

Li Ang smashed the last red brick, shook his head, shook off the broken brick fragments on his head, and reached out to grab the Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd.

The instant his hand touched the halberd shaft and the countdown numbers above the arena reached zero,

Ding Zhensai suddenly felt the pressure on his body increase sharply.

It was as if he was being targeted by a top predator. Helpless, fearful, and desperate.

*Kaka kaka kaka*—

His teeth chattered uncontrollably, his fingers trembled slightly, and his left foot moved backward a short distance uncontrollably.

Run.

Unbeatable, insurmountable, unlivable. As long as he dared to pick up a weapon, he would surely die.

Such thoughts ran through Ding Zhensai's mind, like steel nails, digging into the depths of his subconscious.

In his vision, Li Ang had already broken away from the category of human form and turned into something larger, darker, and deeper.

The shadow of that dragon-headed white coat was like a black hole, sucking up Ding Zhensai's attention to everything around him.

"Dad! What's wrong with Zhensai?"

Yan Hanyan, below the arena, didn't know what was happening on stage and anxiously asked Yan Jianbai next to her.

She only saw Li Ang grab the halberd, and then Ding Zhensai froze in place, staring with his eyes wide open, without moving.

How would I know!?

Yan Jianbai wanted to say that, but he was just a researcher specializing in mechanical powered armor, and his player level wasn't high.

Moreover, the Sky Arena's arena could shield all energy conduction inside and outside, making reconnaissance methods completely ineffective.

"Cough cough, believe in Zhensai,"

Yan Jianbai coughed and said in a deep voice, "He's not as fragile as you think.

The real weaklings can't bear the *Shan Hai* mechs, which are living fierce beasts..."

Step, step, step, step.

Li Ang easily pulled out the [Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd] that had been stuck in the ground. While maintaining the divine pressure, he stepped on the debris and walked unhurriedly towards Ding Zhensai.

For those with weak minds, the pressure caused by the Light God's attribute alone could shatter their livers and gallbladders, and their bodies and minds would be completely unable to resist from a instinctive level.

Li Ang was just testing it casually at the beginning, but he didn't expect that the other party would really fall for it.

Is that all there is to it?

What is the Special Affairs Bureau doing? Sending this kind of civilian up is just sending them to their deaths?

If I were replaced by other players, they might just sit in place and slowly torture Ding Zhensai's mind with divine pressure for thirty minutes, so that even after the end of the match, he would be completely crippled.

Li Ang shook his head, but didn't slow down his pace.

The Special Affairs Bureau wasn't stupid either. Ding Zhensai being able to play in this match proved that they had enough confidence in him—at least in some aspects.

As if to respond to Li Ang's thoughts, Ding Zhensai, at the edge of the arena, trembled.

His eyelashes twitched up and down, his fingers trembled slightly, his limbs and torso vibrated slightly, and even the tight-fitting combat suit he was wearing rippled.

"Hmm?"

Li Ang paused. He could feel something in Ding Zhensai's body awakening, and he was standing on the edge of that "thing's" alert range. Taking another step forward would be attacked.

Able to resist divine pressure spontaneously?

Under the dragon head mask, Li Ang raised an eyebrow, ignored the sense of warning, and took a step.

*Bang*—

There was a sound of something breaking from Ding Zhensai's body. He leaned forward suddenly, as if breaking free from invisible chains.

The blue and white combat suit he was wearing revealed countless cone-shaped spikes like magnetorheological fluid.

The surfaces of these spikes were covered in colors that could be described as "iridescent black". They riveted, pieced together, and docked with each other.

Within one breath cycle, they completed tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dazzling and complex mechanical movements.

Finally, they formed a humanoid mech more than three meters tall, nearly four meters tall.

This mech was thick and huge, with an overall blue-black tone.

The mechanical legs, comparable to elephant legs, stood firmly on the ground. The hexagonal feet supported the weight of the mech itself with a large number of hydraulic rods.

The joints of the mech's limbs were covered with honeycomb-shaped composite hollow armor plates.

The chest armor was spliced ​​together with two obtuse-angled triangular armor plates.

The left hand was holding a futuristic black machine gun, and the caliber was definitely greater than or equal to 25mm. The bullet chain extended all the way to the ammunition box on the back.

The right hand held a double-headed alloy longsword that was half a meter longer than the [Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd]. Both ends were blades, and the middle grip was the hilt.

The surface of the blade was covered with a dark golden metallic luster, looking like it could cut hair blown against it.

The head of the mech was in a very distinctive inverted triangular shape, with a huge curved black horn growing from each end.

As for the back of the mech, it flipped to form four pairs of semi-cylindrical vectoring nozzles with different shapes. The vectoring nozzles could rotate freely to provide thrust in all directions.

The entire mech was tough, heavy, solemn, and stern. Even standing there quietly, it could make the surrounding onlookers feel that this was a bloody killing machine.

*Buzz*—

Two light spots like eyes lit up on the inverted triangular head of the mech.

[Third Eligible Person Genetic Code Confirmed]

[Software Program Normal]

['Chongming' High-Frequency Cutting Knife Overload Mode Available]

['Vulcan' Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun High-Explosive Ammunition Capacity 3700]

[Vector Propulsion Device Ignited]

[Shan Hai·Kui Mech Activated]

[Enter Cruise Operation Mode]

Complex and complex low electronic sounds were transmitted to the surrounding area centered on the mech.

The Kui mech took a step forward, and the weight of dozens of tons crushed the brick ground, causing the floor tiles to crack into a web-like pattern.

The machine gun held in its left arm also smoothly switched positions, aiming in the direction of Li Ang under the instructions of the fire control system.

"Hoo..."

Inside the Kui mech cockpit, Ding Zhensai, who had just recovered from the divine pressure state, breathed a sigh of relief.

At the moment when his spirit was about to collapse, the *Shan Hai* series combat suit automatically triggered the protection mechanism and summoned the Kui mech.

The circle of mental force field covering the surface of the mech cockpit also completely isolated the influence of the divine pressure.

"Is this your trump card?"

Li Ang looked up at the tall Kui mech and nodded with interest, "Piloting a giant humanoid mech is indeed a man's romance, then..."

His figure disappeared in place, and the next moment he appeared directly in front of Ding Zhensai's cockpit. One hand pinched the Kui mech's huge horn, and the other hand held the [Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd], the halberd point pointing diagonally at the cockpit.

"Let me borrow it."

Before he finished speaking, he thrust out with his halberd.

*Zheng*—

The sound of metal weapons colliding was sharp and ear-piercing.

Li Ang looked at the seemingly bulky Kui mech with some surprise. At the critical moment, it used the so-called "Chongming" high-frequency cutting knife to block in front of the Tyrant's Crosswise Halberd, saving Ding Zhensai from being stabbed to death by the halberd.