Heroes' Prison

Chapter 416 - 406

Yi Feng was momentarily taken aback, having not expected Huang Yi to grant Jian Feng Kuai such significant powers. As the Master of Warrior Hall, he now stood at the third level of the guild’s hierarchy, on the same level as Yi Feng, and only second to the Guild Leader Huang Yi and Vice Guild Leader Qin Shiyu. In an instant, Jian Feng Kuai had leaped from being an ordinary player to becoming an absolute core member of the guild’s upper echelons.

However, Yi Feng quickly regained his composure, nodded, and said, "Alright, I’ll get right on it!" With that, he immediately turned and left to personally take care of the matter.

"Brother, I’ve broken into the top 1024 players worldwide, pretty awesome, right?" At that moment, Xiao Chunzi suddenly rushed over, grabbed Huang Yi’s hand, looked up at him with her small head raised high and puffed out her little chest, wearing a face full of pride.

Huang Yi crouched down, patted her little head, and laughed, "My little sister is really amazing! To enter the top 1024 while only being Level Fifty-something, something I definitely couldn’t have achieved. Now, the whole world is discussing you, you’ve become a big star!"

Xiao Chunzi, among the top 1024 contestants of the tournament, was the youngest and also the lowest level—only in her fifties. Yet she had fought her way through the competition and startlingly burst into the top 1024, shocking the entire world.

She was hailed by the media as one of the biggest dark horses of the tournament, drawing attention from gamers globally.

Some even boldly predicted that Xiao Chunzi could very well be a strong contender for the Best Charm Award at the next annual gala.

Gradually, the sky dimmed, and it was time for dinner. Huang Yi logged out of The Second World and went to check out the forums.

The forums were brimming with news of the tournament, with highlights of exciting matches, discussions about dark horses, debates about favorites to win the championship, and some like Poet, Heartless Reminiscence, and Wen Tao, even posted some statistical threads.

At this moment, Huang Yi clicked on a post by Poet for a closer look—"The fourth round of elimination matches has ended, ranking of guilds by numbers of players advancing."

This ranking summed up the personal and team competitions for each guild after the end of the fourth round of eliminations.

First place, Xuanyuan Clan

Second place, Heaven

Third place, Dongying

Fourth place, Ganges River

Fifth place, Amazon

...

Twenty-fifth place, Hero

Seeing the ranking of Hero Guild, Huang Yi was not surprised. Although it was only twenty-fifth, this ranking made sense to him; the further back it went, the more it reflected the actual number of top players rather than the size of the guild.

After the first round of eliminations, Hero Guild ranked sixth, as it was one of the top ten guilds worldwide in terms of member count, so it had many players advancing due to the large base.

But as the competition progressed and slots for advancing became fewer, the advantage of guild size diminished, and what mattered was the number of true experts. That’s when the advantage of the old-established guilds became apparent. Guilds like China’s Xuanyuan Clan, United States’ Heaven, Japan’s Dongying, India’s Ganges River, Brazil’s Amazon... These were the first guilds established in their respective countries, which initially absorbed the top-tier players, while those guilds formed afterward could only recruit those left over by these leading guilds—naturally, they couldn’t compare in terms of expert numbers.

The shifts in the rankings weren’t too dramatic. Compared to previous rankings, only the Sun Guild, Hero Guild, and a few recently prominent new guilds had significant changes, while the rest were veteran guilds with rankings that had stabilized.

Huang Yi exited and continued to browse through other threads.

"The fourth round of the elimination matches has ended with dark horses emerging frequently, creating an unpredictable race for the Best Newcomer Award next year!" At that moment, Huang Yi saw an interesting thread and immediately clicked to read it.

"After the end of the fourth round, the strongest 1024 players around the world have been determined. To get to this point, each one of them is a top-level expert. Out of a hundred billion players worldwide to select just a thousand, it’s like one in ten million can make it to this round, rarer than Rare Class numbers and fiercely competitive! And among these 1024 players, we can easily spot some dark horses."

"First off, among the 1024 players, there are a total of six from Common Race Classes. They have reached this point relying on the most basic races and classes, a feat tantamount to Ascension. This includes a leader figure among ordinary players—Yang Yuheng. From his match videos, it’s clear he still has some strength in reserve, and we can expect even more exciting performances going forward. Let’s look forward to seeing these six progress further."

"Second, among these 1,024 players, there are a total of 8 players who are below level 60; these lower-leveled players are basically facing opponents who are more than twenty levels ahead of them. They face a significant gap in terms of equipment level and skill quantity, but to have come this far is not easy either. Among them, the most eye-catching is Xiao Chunzi from the Hero Guild, who’s closely associated with God of Slaughter. She is only level 58, yet she has made it this far. Currently, the entire world is paying attention to this young girl, and we hope she can step into the last 64, bringing a breath of fresh air to this intense competition."

"In addition, this combat tournament has seen the emergence of some dark horse countries. These are nations with extremely small populations, some only amounting to tens of thousands, yet they still manage to have players advance to the top 1,024. The most shocking is the Vatican, a country with just under ten thousand citizens, yet one of them has made it into the top 1,024. This person is known as ’Little Chest.’ He was also the only player from the Vatican to be shortlisted for an award in last year’s grand celebration. Let’s remember his name, as this could become a legend."

"Last but not least, and the one I am most interested in, is a super dark horse! In this combat tournament, a mysterious guild has surfaced from Italy, named ’Divine Nation.’ The guild has a mere 500 members, barely enough to form a group, yet they have entered the top 1,024 in the team competition. The guild leader is T.N.T, a name with only three nondescript letters, but these letters are all too familiar to us as a type of explosive." (Due to Starting Point regulations, the letters T.N.T will be censored to ***, please be aware.)

"These 500 members did not show off previously and were not mentioned in the last two grand celebrations. No one from their guild was shortlisted, and they were barely mentioned on the forums. Nevertheless, their guild is extraordinarily strong; out of 500 people, 14 advanced to the top 1,024 in individual matches. To put this into perspective, even the renowned Hero Guild, including the Guild Leader God of Slaughter, only had 12 people qualify. ’Divine Nation,’ with just 500 members, has even surpassed Hero Guild in numbers of those who advanced! This guild is currently the biggest dark horse!"

Upon reading this, Huang Yi was slightly startled!

This guild was unheard of, and having 14 out of 500 members enter the top 1,024 was undoubtedly a formidable adversary. Especially the guild leader named T.N.T, those simple three letters invoked images of explosive T.N.T, packed with enormous power, capable of causing significant tremors upon detonation.

This T.N.T, truly felt like Sharp Sword, who was mysterious and even after receiving the best individual award, had hardly shown his face.

After this, Huang Yi stopped browsing other posts and immediately logged off.

By then, Sunset had completely set, and the winter sun always sets early, letting the cold wind rush in, feeling slightly chilly.

Huang Yi put on an extra cotton coat, opened the door to his cell, and went to the canteen.

The air in the canteen was filled with the fragrance of food, and it was bustling with loud voices, much warmer. Everyone was discussing news of the combat tournament.

After getting his meal, Huang Yi held his tray and looked around the spacious canteen. Soon, he spotted a European man with blond hair, in his thirties, exuding an artist’s aura.

All of a sudden, Huang Yi’s expression changed as if he remembered something and immediately walked over, stopping next to him.

At that moment, the man was eating while rhythmically tapping his slender fingers on the dining table. Noticing someone approaching, he looked up and glanced with his blue eyes.

When he saw that it was Huang Yi, he was slightly taken aback and said in not-so-fluent Chinese, "Brother Yi, hello!"

His expression was strangely awkward as if he didn’t know why Huang Yi had specifically come to find him. In Rose Prison, with thousands of criminals, the two had not had any interaction before.

"Cain, hello," greeted Huang Yi, nodding and smiling slightly before sitting down beside him.

This European man named Cain was no ordinary person; he was an Italian who, at the age of 15, had won the ’Olympics of the piano’ - the Chopin International Piano Competition, becoming the youngest pianist in history to win the award and hailed as the Chopin of the new era.

"What are you looking for me for?" At this time, Cain stopped his finger-tapping and turned towards Huang Yi to ask.

"In The Second World, you should be on the Italian Mainland, right? Have you ever heard of someone called T.N.T?" Huang Yi asked, referring to the biggest dark horse of the combat tournament he had just read about in the forum.

"T.N.T?" Cain repeated the three letters and nodded, "I’ve heard of him. He’s not very famous in our country but occasionally appears. He is considered a second-tier master. He keeps a low profile, and not much is heard about him."

"Do you know what he has done before?" Huang Yi continued to inquire while eating.

"Let me think," Cain bit into a fried egg, chewing thoughtfully.

After a while, he suddenly brightened as if he remembered something and said, "Oh, right! Some time ago, I heard he held an auction, but it wasn’t very famous. I just happened to pass through that city and heard about it from the promotional slogans of the auction house."

"Oh? Do you know what was auctioned there, what kind of items?" Huang Yi kept inquiring.

Due to Starting Point regulations, the letters T.N.T will be censored to ***, please be aware.