The people of both cities watched with eager anticipation.

Many whose lifespans were short hoped that a strong contender might secure victory for their city.

Yet there were also those who craved to see the people they loathed — those teams who bullied ordinary folk with their prolonged lives — meet their destined end within this building.

“This year has finally come to an end.”

The distant, majestic light of the sun slowly descended.

“Soon, it will be a new year.”

Luo Bin watched as the eternally full moon crept bit by bit to the center of the pitch-black night.

The rings on the quadrilateral models at everyone’s chest lit up on their own.

A point of light materialized in thin air before each person.

[I have obtained the invitation to the Demon Gear Millwheel.]

The point of light stretched sideways into a line as wide as a business card, then extended downward to take the form of an invitation.

Morrie of Pivot Town gazed at the glowing invitation before him; Lü Bu raised his hand toward it; Hong Haocheng’s fingers brushed the edge of the light; Cheng Yunze grabbed it in a firm fist.

In the dim, faint light, a hand that was once slender and delicate but now covered in scars and calluses lifted to retrieve the floating light invitation.

[I, the Great Quadrilateral, can use the channel contained in this invitation to appear at the entrance of the Arena City.]

In the darkness, this woman’s slightly chapped, soft lips parted and she spoke: “Diudiu, let’s go.”

“Yeah, let’s go, Sister Morrie!”

……

Swish, swish, swish! Across the city, several figures vanished into puffs of smoke.

The moment they used the invitations, mist rose and enveloped them, transporting them across hundreds of kilometers in a single step to appear before this towering, cloud-piercing marvel of a building.

The sound of water trickled by.

The few hundred who emerged one after another looked up in awe.

On the lake ahead, less than a hundred meters wide, stretched bridge corridors emerging from cascading water curtains. Triangle-shaped archways parted the water cascades left and right, revealing the gate leading to the Arena City.

“Those are the Xiongying Group members.”

Sharp-eyed individuals spotted another bridge corridor in the distance. Lü Bu—leader of Xiongying Group—and his attached Red Model members were heading together toward this countless-millwheel-structure fortress reminiscent of a demon king.

“They clearly don’t treat this arena as Silver-exclusive territory at all, these people.”

……

“The Xiongying Group has absolutely zero regard for us!”

Inside the boardroom of the Monster Hunter Alliance, all directors were gathered around the conference table.

“Aside from the gear rooms, a lot of this Arena City is open-air.”

Through the switching broadcast between Yan Yi’s several “actors,” the scene at the Demon Glory Hall was already clearly transmitted before the eyes of all directors.

“That’s Lü Bu! Are you seeing this!”

“Even if Lü Bu accumulates a principal of over ten-thousand quantum cycles inside, he won’t be sent onto a new Fate Track.”

“That’s right. If he’s dead set on eliminating our few elites here, I’m afraid even after he leaves, this city won’t have much of a place for us anymore.”

Everyone was deeply anxious. On the surface, this was their own color model’s arena, but it was clear that opposing models could also snatch rankings and replace Silver White as one of Scarlet’s “21 cities.”

And now, with Lü Bu from the Xiongying Group appearing, Headquarters didn’t even dare to send anyone to compete at this point.

“When is Yang Zicang coming back?”

Director Yu glanced at the newspaper in his hand and said, “Yang Zicang will come to compete in five days.”

“Five days!”

The dozen or so people seated on both sides of the large oval desk turned their heads in unison. One stood up in shock and anger, saying, “Who does that Yang Zicang think he is? Coming only after five days—by then, it’ll be too late!”

“I heard that the chief of that ‘City 23’ is also very formidable. If Lü Bu goes up against him within these five days, maybe we can profit from the conflict.”

“Are you stupid? By then, it’ll be time to decide the winner, and all you’ll get is to be a spectator! There’s no profiting from the conflict here!”

“Then what do we do? Do we just send Xiao Tong and the others to their deaths now?”

“Don’t we still have Liang Xi and Zhao Xuemei?”

“Do you think Yang Zicang would let them risk heading into that Demon Hero Hall right now?”

“Then what do we do!” One director suddenly rose in anger, slamming the documents in front of him onto the table with a loud bang. “Are we just going to wait here and be completely defeated?”

The bickering in the room instantly fell silent.

“Calm down, Xiao Tian.”

Director Yu placed the newly printed newspaper featuring Yang Zicang’s achievements on the table.

“It’s a new month, and our  Heroes List Gazette  is about to release a new issue. Everyone must work hard this time to ensure this newspaper reaches as many of our Silver White model owners across the city as possible.”

“Is now really the time for this, Director Yu?!”

The board member under the alias “Xiao Tian” tapped the table in frustration and snapped, “At a time like this, you’re still fixated on that newspaper of yours?! Just tell me—what use has it been these past six months?”

Whoosh! The newspaper was slid across the table, landing in front of Director Xiao Tian.

“At the very least, it lets people know who built this Demon Lord Hall, and why its creator has to wait five days to compete!”

In a flurry, the scraping sounds of chair legs and the clatter of ceramic cups filled the room as people scrambled.

Two hands quickly snatched the stack of newspapers from beside Director Xiao Tian, eyes wide as they read.

—According to insider sources, this “Demon Gear Millwheel Demon Lord Hall” was a modified Demon-Heaven-Class Arena painstakingly constructed by Chief Director Pu Ming and his colleague over several months to prevent the completely evolved version of the new Fate Track Demon Lord Hall from falling from the sky…

—…As a result, Yang Zicang, suspected of leaking secrets, was penalized by the Holy Ring Council and is unable to…

“…and also as a reward for Yang Zicang’s concern for the Electors of the old Fate Track here, he has been granted special permission to participate in the competition of the Arena City in five days’ time, despite his questionable loyalty—for which he has already given up a special opportunity that most would consider extremely rare.”

“What the heck is this?!”

“My god! This thing was built by Yang Zicang and someone else from that lousy corporation of his?”

Several directors were not even familiar with Boppoli’s name yet.

“How could this happen? When and where did he manage to do all this?”

Director Yu looked at the others.

“Do you think, with the arrival of Yang Zicang, this Demon Hero Hall will still be so overwhelming.”

“I… we…”

“Director Yu, but after all, that’s Lü Bu. Unless Yang Zicang can somehow deal with a satellite in the sky, there’s just no way he can win this match.”

Although the origins of this Demon Hero Hall gave a shocking connection to Yang Zicang, the threat Lü Bu posed from the high heavens was undeniable fact. No matter how impressive Yang Zicang’s Mind Dragon was, he could not reach the wings of an attacker dropping a radiance like divine retribution from above.

“Speaking of which…” One director turned toward Director Chen Yu, who was busily reading the newspaper closely on the other side of the table. “Director Chen, didn’t Manager Li by your side submit a plan to deal with satellites before? Does he have any way?”

“You mean that plan to shoot at a satellite from a hot air balloon, right?”

The few who knew about that plan found it both amusing and frustrating. “Let’s just drop it. Don’t make things difficult for that kid. He just got us free entry quotas into City 11.”

“Sigh…”

That night, teams began distributing newspapers throughout the city.

Many who were curious about the Demonic Palace but too afraid to go there soon lost their composure when they received newspapers delivered in the middle of the night.

Strange disturbances began springing up across the city one after another.

……

Lost Illusion Company.

Although it was the middle of the night, many people entered the venue. Apart from members of various “Special Action Teams” who had been granted a half-month leave, quite a few company employees who hadn’t slept also came. They all wanted to be the first to see their company’s masterpiece—a permanent Demonic Palace that, under the immense pressure of extremely scarce resources, time, and experience, as well as fierce competition from top designers, had been meticulously planned with resilience and had ultimately shocked both the Holy Ring Parliament and the company’s top brass, showcasing its terrifying power for the first time!

Boboli’s figure appeared outside the cube. He waved a few times toward the indistinct cube, then walked toward the front of the conference hall with a smile.

Before long, Wang Dingshan, Qiong An, and others arrived, along with Team Leader Fu and many familiar faces. Inside the venue, a huge curtain had been set up as a screen, and a bizarre Demonic Nightmare projector was displaying images of two cities onto it.

In the image of City 23, simply the contingent led by a figure clearly resembling Cheng Yunze alone numbered at least four to five thousand people.

And at this moment, the first batch of people had already entered the Demon Fang Chamber, encountering ferocious mutated monsters comparable to those in an A-class convergence zone. Cries of battle gradually began to spread and ripple through the Demon Fang City with the turning of gears.

“There are still casualties,” Boboli muttered, watching the teams on the screen.

Every time someone got hurt, his heart would twitch.

“What are you mumbling about over there?”

Jiaoma sat down beside him, her curious gaze fixed on his yellow hair.

“I’m just wondering how many will end up dead or injured. I…” Boboli shook his head with a hint of worry.

……

After the vanguard teams battled through the night, information about the general monster strength and other details of the Demon Fang Chamber began to spread across the two cities, as well as to the Hub Town and other cities keeping close watch.

“What? There are hidden common rewards inside it?”

Xiao Yushan and the others, who were preparing for the regular ranking battle in City 27, received the news and were instantly baffled.

“Treasure chests and Ability Spheres?”

“And someone drew out a Level 45-N Chrono Weapon.”

“You’re saying that inside that Demon Palace, every chamber has one or two treasure chests?”

“Yeah, but it seems only one chest of the same color can be opened per team.”

“This is huge! If those two cities’ people go in and clean out all those chests, the power levels of those regular teams will skyrocket!”

By noon, this news had almost spread across all the cities.

Real-time updates about the Demon Palace had become the hottest topic that no one could afford to miss.

But as a result, the experts in Hub Town grew increasingly puzzled expressions.

“Captain, why did I see my ability sphere in that guy’s treasure chest?”

“What nonsense are you talking?”

The man slapped a teammate on the shoulder, then froze.

“Wait, that climbing staff demon nightmare interface… “

“Hiss~”

Looking at the telepathic images that had been relayed God knows how many times, the captain immediately grabbed his hair in frustration.

“Didn’t I sell that thing to Mr. Boboli?!”