Lord of Prayer - Chapter 331 - 222: Magnetic Field Lunatic (2)
“I started a player rating thread on the forums. Quick, come join the discussion!”
The audience was overjoyed by the events unfolding in the competition. With a schedule this exciting, they found themselves eating an extra two bowls of rice with every meal.
Colonel Guan’s somewhat awkward voice came through. “Uh… The Joyful Sawman team has once again shattered expectations. This time, they’ve captured an unfinished War Mecha. As everyone could see in the previous matches, every member of this team possesses superb Forging Skills. It might not be long before they manage to finish building that War Mecha. When that happens, the other contestants are going to be in for a world of hurt.
Meanwhile, sixty-three contestants have chosen to form a Slaying Alliance to take down the Joyful Sawman team. I have to say, the sheer size of this group… it’s staggering, absolutely massive. It just goes to show how many people they’ve angered with their rampant pillaging. Of course, there are bound to be a few contestants in the mix just looking to take advantage of the chaos.
Hold on, let’s go to the cameras! The fourth-ranked qualifier, [Brother Long is here], and the fifth-ranked, [Thanks to Piyanzi for the Plane], have just run into the tournament favorite—the player who’s ranked first in the qualifiers for two years running, [Magnetic Field Lunatic]!”
Colonel Guan’s voice filled with excitement. He had a feeling an absolutely spectacular battle was about to unfold!
·
Wind and snow howled, blanketing the world in a vast expanse of white.
On the frozen surface of the lake, three figures stood.
[Brother Long is here] and [Thanks to Piyanzi for the Plane] were clad in Exoskeleton Power Armor, each armed with a Thunder Paste Rifle and a Thunderstorm Heavy Cannon. This was armor they had painstakingly crafted since the competition began. It was equipped with one hundred and eight Alchemy Matrices and boasted as many as seventy different functions, allowing it to adapt to a variety of extreme environments and provide immense combat power.
The two of them were like walking fortresses of steel, encased completely in their armor.
Across from them,
[Magnetic Field Lunatic] wore only a thin singlet. He had a tall, powerful build with well-developed muscles and bronze-colored skin. Facing the swirling snow, he stood with his arms crossed, his gaze as sharp as fire, impossible to meet directly, as he arrogantly looked down on his distant opponents.
It was two against one. They had the advantage of Exoskeleton Power Armor. They should have had the upper hand…
But [Brother Long is here] and [Thanks to Piyanzi for the Plane] didn’t dare to be the slightest bit careless. Cold sweat seeped from their temples beneath their masks, and their heart rates skyrocketed.
After a long while, unable to bear the pressure of the silent standoff, Brother Long was the first to speak. “Yao Hu, you go your way, and we’ll go ours. Let’s part amicably, what do you say?”
Yao Hu stroked his chin in thought, then gave a cold smirk. “I don’t think so.”
The expressions of the two men tightened as they prepared for battle.
“Now that we’ve met, there’s no way I’m letting you go. If you want to leave, you’ll have to escape from me with your own skills. Otherwise, just wait to be eliminated.”
Yao Hu spread his fingers toward the pair, his hand covered by a steampunk-style glove he’d crafted during the qualifiers. He grinned menacingly.
“Magnetic Field Rotation!”
As the Magnetic Gloves activated, violent streams of Thunder Magnetic Power began to spark and dance, spreading out wildly from him and sweeping over the two distant figures in the blink of an eye.
CRACKLE… Sparks flew from the Exoskeleton Armor, and harsh alarms blared. Just being swept by the magnetic force had instantly fried more than half of the one hundred and eight Alchemy Matrices!
“Magnetic Gravitational Field!”
Yao Hu let out a low shout, his fingers clenching into a fist.
A flash of Thunder Magnetism erupted. A grating screech of tortured metal emanated from the two suits of Exoskeleton Armor. The sturdy Enchanted Metal was being bent and compressed by an immense force. The faces of the two men changed drastically; if this kept up, they would be crushed into balls of scrap metal!
The two men activated their Essence Barriers in unison to resist. They fired their Thunder Paste Rifles and Thunderstorm Heavy Cannons. Thunderbolts boomed, cracking the thick ice and sending water splashing into the air. But Yao Hu merely opened his palm again and stated calmly, “Magnetic Barrier!”
BZZZZT… The sparking Thunder Magnetic Power formed a crackling web of lightning before him, blocking all of their attacks.
“So pathetically weak. You’d better just get eliminated now and save yourselves the embarrassment.”
“Losing to me is no disgrace.”
Yao Hu clenched his fist. An even greater surge of Magnetic Field Power erupted, shattering their Essence Barriers with overwhelming force and crushing the two suits of Exoskeleton Armor into balls of metal. Just before the final impact, the two contestants were teleported out of the match.
“How boring.”
With that one word, Yao Hu turned and walked away, his figure vanishing into the intensifying blizzard.
「In the broadcast booth.」
“Wiped? They were wiped just like that? After the fight began, contestants Brother Long is here and Thanks to Piyanzi for the Plane were eliminated by Magnetic Field Lunatic in less than thirty seconds!” Colonel Guan’s shocked voice rang out.
“I…” Meow Meow was left speechless, completely dumbfounded.
The live chat fell silent for a moment, the stream of comments dwindling to a trickle. But a second later, it exploded in a frantic deluge.
“????? Wiped? That… they were wiped just like that?”
“Holy shit, it’s the Magnetic Field Lunatic! Everybody get back!”
“Wait, what the hell? The fourth and fifth place qualifiers are that pathetic? They got wiped instantly?”
“Has anyone considered the possibility that it’s not that they’re bad, but that Magnetic Field Lunatic is just too strong? He’s ranked first in the qualifiers two years in a row. How could he possibly be weak? Last year he eliminated Li Chengtian and made it to the final showdown. This year he’s coming out just as strong. How were those two supposed to fight him? It was impossible.”
“They shattered on contact… Jeez, that’s terrifying. He’s a textbook supervillain.”
“The champion this year won’t be Magnetic Field Lunatic, will it? He seems a lot stronger than last year.”
“Don’t forget about the other contenders this year! There’s Han Danqing, the disciple of the current Celestial Craft; the disciple of the current Vulcan, [My Big Hammer is Already Thirsty]; the disciple of the current Dwarf Master… They won’t necessarily lose to Yao Hu.”
“It’s a clash of titans. This year’s competition is definitely stacked.”
“Ahem…” Colonel Guan snapped out of his stupor and remarked, “Contestant Yao Hu is as domineering and powerful as ever… So, who’s stronger, Joyful Sawman or Magnetic Field Lunatic?
Why do you guys keep asking these power-level comparison questions? If you’re that desperate for a definitive ranking, you should go start a forum thread about it somewhere else…”
“Just give us your opinion,” Meow Meow, the co-commentator, chimed in at the perfect moment.
“My opinion?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Colonel Guan replied, “Then it’s got to be Magnetic Field Lunatic. His power is terrifying. He’s a guaranteed top-three contender.”
·
·
The Matrix Core glowed, sustaining an Illusion that veiled the mountain forest.
Beneath the Illusion, the forest had been cleared to create a flat, barren clearing where a small wooden cabin now stood.
In front of the cabin, an Alchemy Workshop was set up. A massive, damaged Mecha lay on the ground nearby.
Zhou Chen and his team had dragged the unfinished Defender Seventh Generation Mecha from a collapsed cave. Their next task was to repair this ready-made superweapon.
In that time, the four of them had carved a path of destruction from south to north and east to west, eliminating countless contestants and looting untold amounts of resources. They were filthy rich; repairing the Mecha was just a matter of time.
“It’s Day Eight of the competition,” Chengzi said, spreading a map she’d drawn onto the workbench. “The blizzard should be here soon. We need to pick up the pace; getting caught in it would be a huge problem.” She picked up a pen and circled a few spots. “These locations offer a tactical advantage. We’ll head there after the zone shrinks.”
“358 people left. The pace of eliminations has slowed,” Li Yiliang noted, looking at the number of remaining contestants on the competition panel.
“Most of the contestants are just turtling and farming right now. The real match begins when the zone shrinks.”
Zhou Chen was sipping freshly squeezed orange juice through a straw and chewing on some spicy beef jerky when a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Hey, the contestants who get eliminated can watch the livestream, right? Do you think they’re watching us now?”
“Most of them are probably watching.”
Chengzi said with a helpless shrug, “But they’re definitely not cheering for us. They’re probably all hoping we die a horrible death.”
“Uh…” Zhou Chen said, chewing his beef jerky with a worried expression. “So, we’re not going to get ambushed for revenge after this is all over, are we?”
’He really didn’t want to get involved in that kind of mess.’
“If they want revenge, they’ll have to do it inside the competition. Though, you never know… Speaking of which, Li Chengtian got away. He’s definitely going to come after us. That is going to be a pain,” Chengzi sighed, vexed.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Zhou Chen waved a dismissive hand. “Once the Mecha is finished, a single Li Chengtian won’t be able to cause any trouble.”
