Stronger with More Jobs

He Manhe’s possessed puppet’s eyes were filled with resentment and unwillingness, frozen in shock, then quickly dimmed like extinguished candlelight.

The forcibly gathered vitality and consciousness receded like a tide.

The scorched body completely collapsed, no longer making a sound.

Smoke and dust slowly settled.

When the scene within the force field became clear again.

The audience only saw...

In the center of the massive charred pit.

The only one standing was the figure covered in a Thunder Pattern Mask, holding a blood-stained long knife.

Beneath his feet, the charred, curled female body with a pierced throat lay silently at the bottom of the glazed pit.

Deathly silent.

The judge took a deep breath and loudly announced again:

"The winner... Thunder God!!!"

After a brief moment of silence.

The cheers were even more overwhelming, almost overturning the arena’s dome.

"Thunder God! Thunder God! Thunder God!"

"I knew it! No matter how treacherous that thing was, it couldn’t withstand Thunder God’s seriousness."

The supporters were red-faced with excitement.

Wildly waving their arms, shouting hoarsely.

Those who had earlier doubts, thinking the robed figure could trouble Thunder God, now only felt their faces burning.

In the face of absolute power, all strangeness seemed pale and laughable.

Fang Qingyu slowly drew out the Dragon Sparrow Calamity Slash.

The blood staining the blade quickly evaporated in the heated pit, emitting a soft hiss.

He didn’t even glance at the puppet beneath his feet that had lost all value.

He turned and calmly walked towards the exit of the arena.

...

Competitor’s rest area.

The atmosphere seemed somewhat eerie.

When Fang Qingyu pushed the door open, the previously somewhat noisy rest area instantly became silent.

All eyes focused on him.

Filled with awe.

No one spoke, and even their breathing was deliberately softened.

The ruinous thunder waterfall just now on the stage, and the final breathtaking finishing move at the pit’s bottom, were deeply imprinted in everyone’s mind.

This man wearing the Thunder Pattern Mask.

His power far exceeded their imagination.

Fang Qingyu didn’t mind at all, walked straight to an empty seat in the rest area, and calmly closed his eyes to rest.

Soon, the door of the rest room was pushed open again.

Jiang Wei, wearing a Pure White Mask, walked in.

Her breathing was steady, her white robe spotless, evidently her match had also ended swiftly and easily.

Ignoring the gazes around her, she walked straight to Fang Qingyu’s side.

Then the two left the rest room.

As the two left, the suffocating oppressive feeling in the rest room seemed to disperse somewhat, and the tight nerves of the crowd slightly relaxed, with whispers rising again, but the volume was kept extremely low, afraid of disturbing the two in the corner.

In another corner of the rest room.

Two men in combat uniforms huddled together.

Among them, a medium-sized man with a sharp face and eyes as sharp as a hawk, stared intently at the departing backs of Fang Qingyu and Jiang Wei with irrepressible excitement and thrill, even his body was slightly trembling.

"Old Wu, what’s up? Seen a ghost?" His slightly chubby, good-natured companion elbowed him and joked in a low voice, "What, you actually know Thunder God?"

This was meant to lighten the mood with a joke.

Unexpectedly, Old Wu, the sharp-faced man, abruptly turned his head, grabbed his companion’s arm with such force that made the other wince, his eyes lighting up, his voice trembling slightly with excitement:

"Old Zhou! I... I think I do know!!!"

"What?!" The good-natured man called Old Zhou was momentarily stunned, eyes wide as he instinctively wanted to exclaim.

"Shh---!!!"

Old Wu reacted quickly, his other hand swiftly covering Old Zhou’s mouth, his eyes sharply scanning the surroundings, confirming that no one paid attention to them before speaking urgently in a whisper: "Don’t shout! We’ll talk outside!"

The two suppressed the surging waves within their hearts.

Acting nonchalantly, standing up, and like other competitors who had finished their matches, they slowly walked out of the noisy rest room amidst the crowd.

Until far away from the main building of the arena.

Coming to a relatively secluded grassy area nearby.

Old Zhou finally shook off Old Wu’s hand, face full of doubt and disbelief, he asked urgently in a lowered voice: "Old Wu! Are you crazy? You really know Thunder God?! Do you know who he is?!"

Old Wu took several deep breaths, trying to calm his excitement, but his eyes remained astonishingly bright. He cautiously scanned the surroundings again, confirming no one was around, before leaning close to Old Zhou’s ear and speaking in an extremely low voice, word by word:

"I think... I know who Thunder God is."

"Who?!" Old Zhou’s heart leapt to his throat.

"Fang Qingyu!" Old Wu spat out the three words with utmost certainty, "The genius who disappeared at the Arctic Front, Fang Qingyu!"

"Fang... Fang Qingyu?!" Hearing the name, Old Zhou instinctively shook his head: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Someone like a Federation’s prodigy, why would he come to our City of Injustice to fight? And wear a mask to hide his identity?"

Seeing the disbelief, Old Wu rolled his eyes impatiently, then his expression turned extremely serious and excited again, "Old Zhou, let me ask you, recently... have you checked the forums outside? Not the City of Injustice’s internal network, it’s the Federation’s!"

"Federation’s network?" Old Zhou was stunned, frowning slightly, "Occasionally, why? Isn’t it just trivial matters, celebrity gossip? What does it have to do with us?"

"You’re wrong!" Old Wu grasped Old Zhou’s shoulder forcefully, his eyes as sharp as a knife, "Not those! It’s the real news circulating among the Transcendent circles! Haven’t you noticed, recently on the Federation forums, more and more people are talking about the end of the world?"