Chapter 659: Summoner’s Rift
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"The cards are fine."
After running the inspection process, Tom happily returned them.
Still, something felt... off to those who knew him.
Fleur narrowed her eyes as she studied the boy. She had no idea why he had suddenly started speaking like a security guard, so she shot Daphne a questioning look.
The young lady simply shook her head. She was already used to it by now. Tom was just like her. Sometimes his brain randomly short-circuited, and trying to understand him was pointless.
Right now, the important thing was the competition.
"Tom, can you finally explain the rules for this round?"
"Very simple." Tom smiled and waved a hand toward the wall behind them. A hidden doorway suddenly appeared across the previously smooth surface.
"Step through here, and you’ll enter today’s battlefield. Once you’re inside, the rules will naturally appear in your minds."
"Alright, off you go. The audience outside is already cheering for you."
Tom stepped aside with a radiant smile.
Combined with the boy’s inhumanly beautiful face, the smile was dazzling enough to make anyone freeze for a moment.
Unfortunately, everyone here already knew him too well.
Usually, the happier Tom smiled, the more miserable things were about to become for everyone else.
Fleur was the most straightforward. Before leaving, she lightly smacked the boy at the waist, counting it as advance revenge for the suffering she was probably about to endure.
Daphne immediately copied her, the two girls attacking from left and right with remarkable coordination.
"That hurt, didn’t it? Here, let me rub it better." As soon as the two girls left, Kamio hurried over solicitously, reaching out with her small hands to gently massage Tom’s waist.
Whether it actually helped was irrelevant. The emotional support was definitely on point.
The little fox really was the most considerate... clearly a sweet, understanding, and thoughtful little sister. Sigh, maybe he should repay her for all those rare Japanese materials she often brought him.
"..."
Ariana watched from nearby with an amused smile.
She couldn’t pull off this kind of gentle energy, though Jeanne definitely had the talent for it.
Speaking of Jeanne... Ariana suddenly wondered how she was doing lately.
The two of them were close friends, but ever since Jeanne’s resurrection, she’d spent less time in the study space. They’d practically become neighbors who never met.
"Tom, how’s Jeanne doing over there?"
Ariana deliberately stayed behind until the very end. Right before entering the passageway, she leaned close to Tom and quietly asked.
"Everything’s normal. She was a little bored at first." Tom blinked. "But Jalter keeps teasing her to pass the time, so the two of them are living very fulfilling lives now."
Fulfilling?
Ariana froze for a second, then immediately understood after thinking about the complicated relationship between the two Jeannes.
That’s not ’fulfilling.’ That’s straight-up harassment!
Poor Jeanne... Not only did she have to travel around the world doing missions, she also had to deal with harassment from her own dark alter ego. That was just tragic.
Of course, Ariana didn’t know Jeanne had already long since gotten her share of benefits, and that she’d claimed ’first blood’ both in the learning space and in reality.
If she knew that, she definitely wouldn’t be pitying her dear best friend anymore.
"Go on already. We can talk after the match is over."
Tom patted Ariana on the head and watched her disappear into the passageway.
...
..
Inside the Dream Arena, the crowd was already roaring with excitement.
Compared to the previous dragon-versus-human battlefield, this arena was even more breathtaking.
Separated by the towering walls surrounding the audience stands, the enormous stadium seemed to contain an entire canyon within it.
The battlefield itself was a diagonally symmetrical square map split into upper and lower halves by a river. Three lanes stretched across the terrain: top, middle, and bottom. Between them were narrow paths and hidden patches of tall grass, while strange monsters lurked in various corners.
On both the upper and lower sides of the river sat circular basins.
Though currently empty, anyone looking over the canyon could tell those areas definitely served some important purpose.
"Why does this canyon feel... ridiculously huge?"
One student frowned and voiced what many others were thinking.
At first glance, nothing seemed wrong. But the more carefully they observed, the stranger it felt. The proportions were subtly distorted.
..
"The way this Undetectable Extension Charm is being used has already surpassed me."
Inside an inconspicuous private box, Newt stared at the canyon and sighed in admiration. There wasn’t the slightest trace of jealousy or resentment at being surpassed, only pure satisfaction.
As the former greatest user of the Undetectable Extension Charm in the world, Newt saw something completely different from everyone else. The entire canyon had been cut out as an independent space and stuffed into the stadium. That part alone was still reasonable. He could accomplish that himself.
But what came afterward was absurd.
Tiny grid-like structures densely filled every inch of the canyon, and inside each grid was another miniature Extension Charm.
Like nested dolls. A large one containing smaller ones, which in turn contained even smaller ones.
Back when he first taught Tom, the very first thing he warned him about was the severe danger of stacking Extension Charms inside each other.
And now Tom had gone and turned it into an art form.
At this point, Newt genuinely didn’t know what to say anymore.
Ah, like waves on the shore, the new always washes the old away...
...
Just then, seven beams of light descended from the sky.
Four blue beams and three red beams landed at opposite ends of the canyon. The seven contestants had officially entered the battlefield.
As soon as their feet touched the ground, information regarding the match flooded into their minds.
It took over a minute for them to fully process it all.
The members of the blue team immediately developed strange expressions. The way they looked at one another quickly filled with scrutiny and suspicion.
On the surface, the blue side had an extra player and seemed to hold the advantage.
But among their four-man team...
One of them was secretly a traitor.
As long as the red team won in the end, the mole on the blue side would also count as victorious. And if that mole achieved the highest score in the match, then regardless of the final outcome, the mole alone would receive the fifty-point victory bonus while everyone else got nothing.
It was practically a solo victory condition.
Floating in the air above the battlefield, Tom watched the blue team’s changing expressions and burst out laughing.
Pretty fun, right? He’d spent two and a half painstaking months polishing this masterpiece.
.
.
.
