Heroes' Prison

Chapter 228 - 224: Best Individual Award

The host continued enthusiastically, "Thank you, Mr. Oster, the Federal President, and congratulations to God of Slaughter for receiving the Best Newcomer Award. Actually, the Thunder God is also an excellent newcomer, and everyone has witnessed their competition over this period. Let’s look forward to even more splendid performances from them next year..."

After that, the award ceremony stayed at its peak, and Huang Yi continued to watch.

Following that, three top-level awards were presented—

The Best Team Award went to the Japanese Aerial Team;

The Best Guild Award was claimed by the Chinese Xuanyuan Clan;

The Best Charm Award was snagged by Oda City, Japan’s national-level beauty.

So far, among the five major awards, the biggest winners are China and Japan, each having secured two of them.

The host scanned the entire audience and announced loudly, "Next up is the most important Best Individual Award! Currently, China and the United States both have 49 gold medals! Tied for first place in the gold medal table, but who has won this last gold medal? Now, may I invite Mr. Huang Huapeng, CEO of Era Corporation, to present the final award of this annual grand ceremony—the Best Individual Award. Let us welcome Mr. Huang Huapeng to the stage with a warm round of applause!"

Mr. Huang Huapeng walked out from behind the curtains with steady steps, nodding slightly to the audience and said, "I am very grateful to everyone for their attention to the annual celebration of The Second World. Last year, many outstanding figures were born in The Second World. Now let us take a look at the style of the 100 finalists!"

Mr. Huang Huapeng was concise, cutting straight to the point and started playing the promotional video of the 100 finalists.

At that moment, the screams were far more tumultuous than during the Best Newcomer Award. Each finalist essentially represented the strongest force of their country and caused tremendous uproar, as the most top-tier players gathered here.

"And now, let’s see which ten people have gone one step further and entered the nomination stage!" After the promotional video ended, Mr. Huang Huapeng immediately revealed the list of nominees and played their promotional video—

"China—Dragon Spike"

"Egypt—Pharaoh"

"Japan—Heavenly Dao"

"China—Dao Feng"

"Japan—Miyamoto Musashi"

"United States—Pope"

"New Zealand—Abigail"

"Russia—Giant Bear, Vinnie"

"China—Sharp Sword"

"South Africa—Soul"

...

Among the ten nominees, some of last year’s top players, like Kid from the United States, were missing. Additionally, there were dark horses like Abigail from New Zealand, Soul from South Africa, and Sharp Sword from China.

Next, Mr. Huang Huapeng, the CEO of Era Corporation, took out a red envelope and slowly opened it, as if he were unveiling each person’s hope.

At this moment, audiences around the world held their breath again, waiting for the climax to arrive!

Numerous manufacturers were watching closely, ready to sign the winner in record time to endorse their products!

The citizens of each nominee’s country were holding their hearts tightly, hoping for their countryman to win and celebrate nationwide!

The Best Individual Award is undeniably the utmost accolade of all the awards. Whoever wins this prize will immediately become a god among all players. It represents a supreme honor, symbolizing the highest level in the world!

Just then, Mr. Huang Huapeng finally opened the envelope and pulled out the card inside, glanced at it, and the name of the winner immediately caught his eyes.

He smiled slightly, looked up at the entire world, and declared, "The winner of the second annual celebration’s Best Individual Award is——"

On the big screen at the event, the expressions of the seven attending nominees were displayed.

Dao Feng had a calm expression!

Dragon Spike was stroking his chin!

Miyamoto Musashi sat upright with concern!

The Pope bit his lip!

Each nominee waited for that one final name!

In the next moment, Mr. Huang Huapeng announced the ultimate winner——

"Sharp Sword!"

The whole world paused, everyone was stunned, even Dao Feng frowned slightly.

"Who is Sharp Sword?"

"How could it be him? This person isn’t very famous!"

"I vaguely recall Sharp Sword being nominated for the Best Outlander Class last year, but he didn’t even get a mention. How come he’s suddenly shot up to the Best Individual Award?"

...

The crowd instantly buzzed with discussion. If it had been Dao Feng, Dragon Spike, the Pope, Heavenly Dao, those were names that would have elicited applause, as each of these individuals was a world-renowned figure, and it wouldn’t be surprising for any of them to win an award. But now, a barely-heard-of Sharp Sword had emerged, and many couldn’t recall any significant achievements he might have had.

Everyone stared fixedly at the big screen, ready to see what achievements Sharp Sword had.

However, Sharp Sword’s promotional video was also shrouded in mystery. From beginning to end, it only showed a clip of him killing a severely injured level 70 NPC in a small town. Beyond that, there was nothing.

His promotional video had no persuasive power at all. Compared with the achievements of Dao Feng, Dragon Spike, and the others, it was virtually negligible.

But soon, everyone thought of an explanation—the promotional video only publicized the winner’s known deeds, not including any of his secret feats of strength.

If Sharp Sword had won the award, it meant he must have something truly terrifying about him—his great deeds were secrets, never publicized; no one knew of them except for him.

The crowd suddenly felt a chill down their spines. How meticulous must one be to reach the level of Sharp Sword? Both to accomplish great feats and to prevent the system from triggering announcements—such conditions were already unimaginably stringent!

Huang Yi was full of doubts about this person too. That there could actually be such a mysterious figure in the world, who had kept everyone in the dark and burst forth like a dark horse, was astounding!

Huang Yi couldn’t help but take a closer look at this player known as Sharp Sword.

Sharp Sword was a man about twenty years old, around 175 centimeters tall, and very thin...

"Hm? Footprints!" Suddenly, Huang Yi was reminded of a long-forgotten memory!

Months ago, after completing a Rare Quest with the Golden Ring, he had gone to an area called "Courtyard of the Pantheons," where he first met Mr. Huang Sha and accepted his mysterious reward.

Back then, he had found a mysterious footprint in the "Courtyard of the Pantheons." From that footprint, he deduced the characteristics of a person that strikingly matched this player known as Sharp Sword—with the same age range, body type, and height.

At that moment, Huang Yi was almost certain that the footprint must have belonged to Sharp Sword!

Sharp Sword might very well be the first person in the whole world to have completed a Rare Quest with the Golden Ring and received Mr. Huang Sha’s mysterious gift. Then Agent 4 got hold of this information and finally told Huang Yi...

Huang Yi suddenly became wary of Sharp Sword. Such characters were too terrifying, so hidden and diametrically opposed to the open and upright image of Dao Feng, they were impossible to guard against.

To the outside world, Sharp Sword was just a dark horse that had suddenly surged ahead. Only Huang Yi knew that Sharp Sword was probably on the same level as Dao Feng, only not revealing himself.

"Sharp Sword," Huang Yi murmured the name to himself and then left the forum, returning to the real world.

By now, he had been logged in for over 30 hours, and he had been in a state of high tension the whole time, constantly fighting. He was very tired from holding on until now.

He drank some water and then lay down on his bed, closing his eyes.

The scorching sun slanted into the room, and the noise of the criminals outside faintly drifted in as if from another world, vague and indistinct; Huang Yi quickly fell into a deep sleep.

He slept for quite a while. When he opened his eyes, it was already deep into the night. Now, moonlight rather than sunlight entered the window, and an eerie stillness filled the air.

Huang Yi brushed his teeth, took a shower, and with his wet hair, he walked out of the cell into the corridor outside.

Suddenly, he saw the Prison Overlord Lei Shen, who was quietly smoking in the corridor, the intermittently glowing tip of his cigarette faintly illuminating the night and revealing his lonesome expression.

Seemingly aware of Huang Yi’s presence, the Prison Overlord turned his head, glanced at Huang Yi, and nodded slightly.

"Why aren’t you asleep at this hour?" Huang Yi walked over and asked.

"Ah!" Lei Shen let out a long sigh, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and offered one to Huang Yi.

Huang Yi lit a cigarette and silently smoked alongside Lei Shen, neither of them speaking again; only the white smoke hung in the air, blending with the darkness, while the sound of the burning tobacco whispered in their ears.

"You should get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day," Huang Yi said after finishing his cigarette, patting Lei Shen’s shoulder and heading back to his cell.

Lei Shen shook his head with a smile, watching Huang Yi’s retreating figure, and continued to smoke in silence.

Back in his cell, Huang Yi logged in again and entered the forum to check out the 24-hour hot posts—

"The annual festival comes to a close, China emerges as the biggest winner. Instakill’s last-moment counterattack defeats Thunder God to win Best Newcomer. Sharp Sword becomes the biggest dark horse in history, snatching the Best Individual Award in one fell swoop."

"Instakill and Sharp Sword’s identities remain mysteries, both have never accepted any form of advertising and have never attended any events, leaving the public wondering about their real-life identities."

"A gathering of talents makes China the strongest nation. Over two annual festivals, they produced three award-winners, forming a ’Sword-wielding Slaughter’ triad of awe. Coupled with two uncrowned kings, Dragon and God, they count five top-level players in the world, unmatched by any country!"

...

The forum was inundated with annual festival round-up news. Undoubtedly, the most hotly debated figures were Huang Yi and Sharp Sword.

People discussed Huang Yi because of his remarkable achievements;

People discussed Sharp Sword because of his lack of achievements.

The two of them thus became subjects of worldwide discussion for two entirely different reasons.

And the most attention-grabbing country, without a doubt, was China. This time, with Sharp Sword’s last gold medal, China surpassed the United States to become the number one on the medal table. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to cast your Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets at Starting Point (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)