CHAPTER 627: CHAPTER 627: SO THE “GHOST” WAS ZERO!

Hirokawa Kazusuke saw that his livestream screen suddenly glitched, showing [Poor Signal, Livestream Interrupted] at the top.

Immediately, he fell into panic.

Because he had also seen online that: all the contestants who disappeared, their livestreams would automatically shut off right before they vanished.

Thinking that he might’ve been targeted by the "ghost," Hirokawa Kazusuke immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

At once, he opened the Hell Gladiator Arena’s [Exit] interface.

["Ding~ You have chosen to exit. You will automatically leave the Hell Gladiator Arena after being out of combat for 10 seconds."]

["Ten, nine, eight..."]

As the countdown began, Hirokawa Kazusuke was drenched in sweat, terribly afraid something might go wrong during this process.

Thankfully, all the way until the countdown reached the final 1 second, nothing unexpected happened.

"Phew, turns out it really was just a bad signal... scared me to death..."

Just as Hirokawa Kazusuke couldn’t help but let out a breath of relief, deciding not to cancel the exit and planning to take this chance to log off and rest, suddenly, a cold wind swept in from behind.

Hirokawa Kazusuke had just turned around when he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a black shadow.

["Ding~ You are under attack and in combat. Unable to exit the Hell Gladiator Arena."]

"Ahhh! Don’t eat me! Don’t eat me! Help!", Thinking he had been caught by the "ghost," Hirokawa Kazusuke screamed in terror.

But when he opened his eyes, he found: what was on top of him wasn’t a ghost, it was just a unicorn.

Hirokawa Kazusuke quickly drew his blade and in three swift slashes, killed the unicorn.

Before leaving, he kicked the unicorn’s corpse, "Baka! Scared the hell out of me! Damn thing, ptu!"

Just as Hirokawa Kazusuke was about to try exiting again, suddenly, a mass of black mist surged in from the front.

Before Hirokawa Kazusuke could react, his entire body was swallowed by the black mist.

With a scream—

In moments, the black mist swept past.

All around returned to silence.

Only two skeletal remains remained on the ground, one human, one unicorn.

The next second, flames ignited from both skeletons, burning them into ashes that scattered with the wind...

———

Time moved to 7:00 p.m.

Unknowingly, a full day had passed since the Hell Gladiator Arena opened.

The World 33’s quest difficulty wasn’t high, just a bit complicated, causing Zhang Yue to finish two world quests and already find it was evening.

Looking at the Hell Gladiator Arena’s progress, he saw that the number of players worldwide who had reached the 3-star Arena Expert rank had already reached 9,885.

At this pace, in less than ten minutes, the number should reach 10,000 and the Arena Level-3 would be unlocked.

So, Zhang Yue temporarily gave up on his plan to enter the [Gate of Immortality].

That’s right, the special place in the World 33 was the Gate of Immortality.

This area exists only in worlds numbered 11, 22, 33, 44, stacked number worlds, and it’s a special sub-dungeon that allows one to acquire Resurrection God Stones.

Last time, in the Gate of Immortality of the World 22, he obtained a total of 7 Resurrection God Stones. All of them had already been used, some to revive a group of fallen professionals from Dragon Nation, and one to revive someone from Bear Nation.

Another one had been used as a catalyst, resulting in all 7 stones being consumed.

But in just Dragon Nation alone, the national heroes worth reviving were far more than those few stones could cover.

Resurrection God Stones, no matter how many there are, it’s never enough.

Besides, last time in the Gate of Immortality, Zhang Yue also got something else of immeasurable value: Skill Evolution Books.

By synthesizing rare Skill Evolution Books, he had upgraded two normal skills into Unique Lightning-Type Skills.

So this time in the Gate of Immortality, Zhang Yue planned to craft two more Unique Lightning Skills.

However, last time it took him half a day inside the Gate of Immortality.

Now, with the Arena Level-3 about to open, Zhang Yue decided to clear that first before entering the Gate of Immortality.

At 7:00 p.m., Zhang Yue logged off the Otherworld to go eat dinner.

He found that at this hour, the news about the "population disappearances" had become even more heated than before.

Across the world, at least nearly a thousand people had disappeared inside the Arena.

Among them, even Dragon Nation had more than ten professionals vanish.

The most terrifying part: every participant had activated livestreams as required, every professional inside the Hell Gladiator Arena was under global scrutiny.

Yet, they still vanished silently. No one knew how it happened.

There were no traces left on any battlefield regarding those who disappeared.

They just... vanished into thin air.

This event had stirred global panic.

Not to mention, the people who entered the Hell Gladiator Arena were all one-in-a-million top elites.

The fifth strongest expert from Cold Nation, Legendary-Class Professional [Ghost Shadow · An Jixiu], disappeared just half an hour ago in front of a million Cold Nation viewers.

Again, it was the same: livestream suddenly went black, then he vanished without a trace.

As the fifth strongest in Cold Nation, just below the Mythical-Class Frost Law King Kwon Ji-Hyun, An Jixiu had survived in the Otherworld for over a decade, possessing elite combat experience, awareness, and execution.

Across the world, there were only a handful of professionals capable of defeating An Jixiu.

The key was: world-renowned experts had their every move exposed in their livestreams. During An Jixiu’s disappearance, no one with the ability to defeat him had the time or opportunity to act.

Moreover, the "Ghost Shadow" profession has a skill to become a ghost shadow and stealth, even under crowd-control effects, rendering them untargetable and immune to attacks.

Even if he couldn’t win, with An Jixiu’s ability, escaping should have been no problem.

Frost Mage King Kwon Ji-Hyun had once run an experiment: even he found it difficult to kill An Jixiu.

So if even Ghost Shadow · An Jixiu couldn’t escape, just how strong was this "ghost"?

Just as Zhang Yue was reading this news, Chen Zijin had also come to the restaurant to eat and happened to run into Zhang Yue.

So, she sat down directly across from him, "You saw the news, right? Who do you think is behind it?"

Zhang Yue took a sip of tea and replied, "What do you think?"

In that moment, the two of them understood each other without saying it out loud.

At this power level, those who could possess such overwhelming strength, besides Zhang Yue, there was only one person left.

Chen Zijin rested her chin on her hands, frowning slightly as she said, "But I just don’t understand, what’s his motive for doing this?"

"From the beginning, he lured everyone into the Hell Gladiator Arena. Was his goal just to kill everyone inside?"

Zhang Yue had naturally considered this as well.

But if that really were his true goal, wouldn’t that be too... small in scope?

Besides, could this method really kill all the professionals in the world?

Of course not.

Just as Zhang Yue and Chen Zijin were speculating about this person’s goal, Ouyang Ling’er suddenly sent a message to Zhang Yue, ["Guild Leader, look at the news! You’re trending!"]

Zhang Yue opened his phone screen.

And saw one headline on the trending page that read—

[So the ’Ghost’ Was Zero?]

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