During the initial climb of the lower floors, a newcomer's ascent tends to be relatively quick.
In just a few days, Manman had already advanced to the 105th floor.
At lower floors, the scheduling for matches proceeds swiftly; in her first two days, Manman often had to fight several matches each day. Yet despite her constant wins and no demotions in floor level, the referees never increased her floor numbers by much each time—possibly due to her appearance and circumstances, which gave people an impression that she was "very weak," or because the referees were subtly looking out for her.
Even so, for a new fighter, her rate of climbing floors was already quite dazzling. At least on the Heavens Arena website, Manman's photo had appeared, and she was drawing a small but growing fanbase. Whenever Xiang Nan took her out around town, the odd passerby would sometimes recognize her and ask for an autograph.
For Xiang Nan, however, the matches below the 100th floor weren't meaningful from a pure skill perspective. Apart from Manman's very first match, which he watched in person, he hardly bothered to see any of the rest. Instead, he purchased tickets to the matches above the 200th floor, where he could watch battles between Nen users.
Watching match recordings vs. watching live combat are two different things altogether.
Observing real battles onsite let Xiang Nan catch more details about the contestants' fighting styles and tactics. He also gleaned a few insights to apply to his own growth.
On the other hand, the players who'd been tailing him seemed to have changed: instead of the guy in the T-shirt, it was now someone else. After a few days here, Xiang Nan found that the local situation in Heavens Arena wasn't quite what he'd initially assumed: there did not seem to be a lot of players, at least not scattered about randomly. Instead, it felt more like there was a single faction of players who had essentially "taken over" the place and were plotting something directed at all the new arrivals at Heavens Arena.
…
"Don't look back."
On the next day, in the plaza outside Heavens Arena, Xiang Nan sat on a bench with a newspaper in hand, while Manman—who had no scheduled match that day—sat beside him. Right in front of them, a huge flock of pigeons pecked at the ground, feasting on the food thrown by tourists. Manman held a cup of juice, sipping it while watching the pigeons flit around.
All this time, Manman had no inkling she was under someone's surveillance. The minute Xiang Nan told her, she almost turned around to look. He quickly stopped her.
"Over the last few days, I've seen several fights between Nen users and noticed something: certain contestants' information and even their faces remain obscured to me. Even if they appear on stage, it's as if they're blurred out—likely the system is deliberately blocking them." Xiang Nan spoke without raising his head, flipping a page of the newspaper. "That means those individuals must be 'canon characters' in the storyline… so apparently, by now, we've reached the point in the plot where Heavens Arena's storyline is in play."
"I saw it too—even among the onlookers in the stands."
Manman dared not move her head, replying softly.
As a contestant, she waited in the backstage corridors before every match; and from what she'd learned about the Heavens Arena setting, especially about those high-floor fighters, certain names or appearances she simply couldn't perceive at all.
That phenomenon aligned with what Xiang Nan described about the system concealing canonical figures.
Once a fighter gets above the hundredth floor, they get a private room, though Manman's area wasn't near the high-floor fighters.
Over the past few days, she had started drawing attention—she was something of a rising star—and each time she took the ring, she could better observe who was watching from the stands. The crowds had grown bigger and bigger.
"I tested it out. I can't sense them at all. By the same token, those plot characters can't sense me, which presumably means the system is shielding us from each other."
Xiang Nan recalled running into possible canon characters in the Heavens Arena's upper floors, then deduced from the system logic.
"Shielding us?"
"Yes, a kind of protection," Xiang Nan confirmed. "Think about it—this is Heavens Arena, home to many lethal monsters. If the system didn't camouflage us from certain key characters, we'd risk immediate confrontation from them. At best, we might get roped into trouble. So from the system's vantage point, it's giving us this protective measure.
"I suspect it only applies as 'newbie protection' so long as we're not strong enough to handle real contact with major canon figures. The moment we move beyond that stage, Heavens Arena, which used to be a resource-laden area for us, could become a deathtrap.
"Actually, canonically speaking, it's known that people like the Phantom Troupe, Hisoka, the Zoldycks—even some Hunter Association members and various underworld powerhouses—do show up here. Cross them without real power, you're done for.
"That's the reason you don't see advanced or older players flooding Heavens Arena. If you don't have the confidence to handle powerful storyline figures, you'd be insane to step into their domain."
Xiang Nan paused a moment, then gave a small grin.
"As for the crew tracking us, they must have gleaned your actual strength by now. They're not making a move because I'm here. Though they can't confirm whether I'm a Nen user, the fact I keep watching 200+ floor battles makes them suspect I might be. Generally, only those who can see Nen get anything out of watching those matches. A normal audience wouldn't see beyond fancy poses."
"So what do we do?" Manman asked nervously.
"From how I see it, there probably are a few stray players around, but not many. Considering the total player count in this world is around three hundred-something, the elimination rate having dropped further—there should be at least a handful in Heavens Arena by now. Don't forget all the new players behind us, plus older newbies from the last two rounds, at least 20 or 30 people. Yet it's unusual we've only found a single group controlling this place.
"Likely that crew is big enough to have a partial monopoly on Heavens Arena. They're intercepting and confronting every new arrival here. Possibly they want to hamper newbies from leveling up, or forcibly recruit them, or kill them to reduce player population—some sort of power play.
"I'm guessing there's a higher-ranked player behind them who has more system info unlocked and knows how best to exploit it."
"Boss, you're so clever," Manman said admiringly. Then she added, "But… didn't you say each round of the Extinction Game is random? If they group up, aren't they risking future missions being forced to PVP between themselves anyway?"
"Sure, if that happens, they'll kill each other. The entire group is built on the implicit system rules. If the next round requires them to fight to the death, so be it. On the other hand—if we two get stuck in such a scenario, I won't hesitate to kill you, either."
Manman gave a shy smile. "Fine, but… if that happens, can you, um… do it in a way that doesn't hurt? I'm afraid of pain."
Xiang Nan folded his newspaper, looked at her briefly, then stood. "Alright, let's get going. They've been tailing us for days, and I can tell they're about to make their move. We might as well give them a proper chance."
"Is there… going to be more fighting?"
Manman said with dread.
Even after days of arena matches, she hadn't quite adapted; there'd been little true personal growth. At best, she was no longer shutting her eyes in terror the moment the fighting started.
~~~
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