Gladiator of the Empty Tower Arena Chapter 58: Encounter

Wu Hui conceded defeat and descended one level, while Li Xiaojing won her match and ascended. By coincidence, they encountered each other right there.

Li Xiaojing was momentarily stunned, but Wu Hui seemed fully prepared for this outcome. “Meeting here isn’t so bad,” he said. “At least we can exchange information about the tower’s situation.”

He adjusted his glasses, showing no intention of fighting.

Li Xiaojing relaxed her guard as well and walked over to him. “Why are you here? I thought you’d be higher up…”

“I lost and fell,” Wu Hui replied, his expression as calm as ever. “Ran into a level three player.”

“Oh.” Li Xiaojing sat beside him, though the grenades strapped to her body were a bit inconvenient; she kept worrying she might accidentally set one off.

Wu Hui had no plans to fight Li Xiaojing here. In his estimation, they would exchange intelligence, and then whichever of them had more points would voluntarily lose. Their interests were long-term, and they would continue to cooperate in the future, so a fight between them was pointless.

All that talk in the game about how victory is glory and the enemy’s blood is a badge of honor… He had no interest in it.

Li Xiaojing, on the other hand, had grown somewhat excited after several battles and had been teased mercilessly by her sister for being violent. Eventually, she decided to give her sister a spanking when she got back—literally pinning her down and smacking her.

Li Xiaoyue wasn’t afraid at all; she figured she could just hypnotize her little sister when the time came.

Wu Hui tapped the arm of his glasses. He realized that only one of the people Li Xiaoyue had described overlapped with the opponents he’d faced. Although the sample size was too small for accurate data, he could still estimate that there were more players in the game than he’d imagined.

Somewhere between thirty and a hundred. If there were different zones, there could be even more, though theoretically, not too many would be in the battle arena at the same time.

The cumulative number of players who had participated in this game must be enormous by now. And there were definitely quite a few who were stuck here; the number of deaths and departures likely balanced out the influx of new players, keeping the overall population stable.

At this point, Wu Hui actually had fewer points than Li Xiaojing, since he’d lost a match. She didn’t want to concede just yet, hoping to spend a bit more time with him here.

They were on the sixth level of the tower.

Meanwhile, Zhao Xingluan had already reached the eighth level of the Sky Tower deathmatch arena.

On the eighth level stood another level three player.

A level three’s combat ability wasn’t necessarily superior to a level two’s, since some might be intelligence-based players or just unlucky with upgrades. But most were indeed stronger.

Moreover, in the Sky Tower deathmatch, intellect was not useless; the random maps contained many exploitable details.

All this is to say that among players of the same level, the difference in combat ability could be significant.

The opponent Zhao Xingluan faced was stronger than him—a player who had once reached the top floor for the final battle, lost, and had waited here a long time before finally meeting a new challenger.

The man wore a mask and black clothes, moving across the battlefield like a ghost, appearing and disappearing at will.

“Tsk.” Zhao Xingluan realized this opponent was truly formidable, the kind who was just a step away from reaching level four. Against level two players, Zhao could handle things with ease, but against the elite of his own level, the fight was incredibly tough.

Clearly, he still had much room to grow.

Zhao Xingluan accepted his defeat with composure; it was like climbing the rankings in a competitive game—once your rank was high enough, your win rate would always hover around fifty percent. If you got lucky and rose higher, your win rate would drop until you lost enough to return to that equilibrium.

The same thing happened if you were unlucky and lost several times in a row.

Sigh—time to start over again.

Returning to the seventh level, Wu Hui sat astride his wolf mount, gazing at the surrounding forest in silence.

It was a large map, so he didn’t see his opponent right away. The woods were deathly quiet, as if traps had already been laid, awaiting someone to stumble in.

But who had set those traps remained unknown.

When the map grew more complex, the game time became far longer. On a small map, victory or defeat might be decided in mere minutes, but on a large one, even finding the enemy could take half a day.

Still, Wu Hui’s glasses were extremely useful in such situations. He ran his hand over the bark of a tree, as if he’d found something.

There were markings on the trunk, as though something sharp had carved symbols into it—the meaning unclear for now.

But this tree held a hidden function.

The gladiator game wasn’t just about quantity; there were special challenges, like the ones Li Xiaojing had encountered in the Fog City scenario. This game had similar mechanics—sometimes unnecessary, sometimes impossible to attempt in the heat of battle, but now, perhaps, he could gain an advantage by making use of certain features in the scene.

By this stage, there was a good chance of encountering a level three or a powerful level two player, so preparation was key.

The tip of the Queen’s Blade pierced the trunk. With a swift slash, the tree responded as if a key had been turned in a lock—a click sounded, and the tree stood upright like a person. But its trunk was soon covered in frost, and the wolf mount lunged, biting off a chunk of frozen bark.

Beast Soul activated.

Minor King activated.

Wu Hui drove his blade straight through the trunk, seized something like a core, and tore it out with force.

What seemed a formidable treant was dispatched with ease, and Wu Hui received a buff to enhance his attack power. But he knew the cost—his position had likely been revealed by the noise.

Whether exchanging exposure for a buff was a loss or gain was hard to say.

For Wu Hui, drawing the enemy in was a good thing. With his glasses, he was certain the opponent wouldn’t be slow to arrive.

The enhancement crystal Li Xiaojing had given him was used on his glasses. Now, they not only displayed basic attributes but could also analyze the power and names of enemy skills.

Additionally, when he looked at his sister through the glasses, he could even see some attributes now. Intelligence and physical strength remained hidden, but charm was visible—eleven points, higher than Ren Yin or Li Xiao, but honestly, Wu Hui had never thought his sister was that beautiful…

Not that she wasn’t attractive, just not that much more than Li Xiaojing and the others.

Perhaps it was just familiarity dulling the impression.

He looked into the distance. In a corner, a figure flashed behind a tree trunk.

Clearly, that was the enemy—a level two player.

Their perception seemed decent, and in their hand was… a grenade?

Wu Hui donned his armor and took a step back.

Sure enough, a grenade sailed through the leafy shadows—almost invisible, but deadly.

The explosion made the wolf howl in pain.

But Wu Hui slipped silently behind another tree, quietly closing in on his ambusher.

ps: Second update today—this cold is really making me suffer… Please vote and add to favorites!