Ye Zi looked at her opponent being carried away on a stretcher, wanting to say something, but ultimately held her tongue.
Bai Mo then cast his gaze towards the other three arenas. In every single one, the captains were utterly dominating their opponents. Roughly estimating, these battles would all conclude within three minutes.
Arena Two was Yun Jie's home turf. However, by the time Bai Mo shifted his attention there, the battle was already drawing to a close, effectively entering 'garbage time.' The opponent, gradually losing sight and hearing, began flailing about like a headless fly, while Yun Jie stood aside, merely observing, disdaining even to deliver the finishing blow.
Only after his opponent's stamina was depleted and the two words "I surrender" were choked out, did Yun Jie cease unleashing his ability, allowing his opponent to regain his five senses.
"Why! Why do we work so hard and yet still lag so far behind you? We've reached a point where we can't even touch a corner of your clothes before losing!" Yun Jie's opponent cried out, unwilling to accept defeat.
"Why do you have the misconception that we've been standing still? It's only in novels that everyone else except the protagonist practically stagnates, where the so-called 'trash protagonist' advances at lightning speed while the surrounding 'geniuses' upgrade at a snail's pace. To take such things seriously is truly naive. Real geniuses actually work far harder than ordinary people! What are you going to use to catch up? Your life?"
Yun Jie nonchalantly delivered this final verbal blow, then departed with a sneer, leaving his opponent to begin questioning his very existence.
The remaining two matches were also settled within minutes, their outcomes without a shred of suspense. Especially for the captains who possessed a Life Field, most of them ended their battles in just a few moves.
The subsequent second round was an eye-opener for Bai Mo. Both Chen Sen and Liang Zhen Dao were in this group, and their matches turned into a personal show.
As soon as the battle began, Chen Sen in Arena One lunged forward with a lightning-quick stride, attempting to leverage his advantage in close-quarters combat as a martial artist. But after landing a single punch on his opponent, he discovered his fist beginning to go numb, with the numbness spreading. Only then did he realize his opponent was a poison-type Ability User.
To end the fight swiftly and prevent the poison on his fist from spreading throughout his body and incapacitating him, Chen Sen, for the first time, pushed his abilities to their absolute limit. He swept towards his opponent like a machine gun, delivering two strikes per second, directly pummeling the Ability User opposite him five meters into the air, blow after blow.
His opponent, whose enhancements weren't focused on physical conditioning, was directly battered into submission by this charge. The poisons he relied on for combat were utterly meaningless against the two-meter short-range attack's shockwave. Only some toxic substances, dispersed in the air, managed to get on Chen Sen, but before they could take effect, the poison-wielding Ability User was already unable to stand.
On the other side, Liang Zhen Dao relied on his ability to walk in the air, effectively 'kiting' his opponent and grinding him down without exposing too many of his trump cards. The entire match consisted of Liang Zhen Dao repeatedly diving down from above like an eagle, while his opponent passively defended below. Under the principle that prolonged defense inevitably leads to a breach, the opponent could only ultimately admit defeat.
All the other matches were one-sided. The more Bai Mo watched, the less interesting they became, so he simply zoned out in the waiting area for the third round.
"Third round, Vice-Captain Bai Mo, number twelve, please report to Arena Four." Hearing his name called, Bai Mo snapped out of his daze.
"Hello."
"Hmm, hello. Let's begin."
After observing the previous battles, the burly man felt that with his insufficient absolute strength, he absolutely had to strike first to have any chance of putting up a fight. Otherwise, if his opponent set the pace from the very beginning, the overall situation would be decided, leaving him no choice but to surrender.
So, from the outset, he charged directly at Bai Mo, transforming even as he rushed forward. His arms morphed into something resembling maces, bristling with dense, sharp spikes, while other parts of his body seemed to be covered in a layer of armor, making him look exactly like a heavily armored infantryman.
Bai Mo, however, seemed to have no reaction whatsoever, simply watching with wide eyes as his opponent's spike-covered arm smashed towards him.
"Didn't expect this captain to be so weak in close combat. Perfect chance for me to snag an easy win," the burly man thought, secretly delighted.
...
The crowd watching from outside the arena was also astonished.
"Why couldn't I have gotten such an easy opponent?" Many of the defeated contestants harbored this thought.
"He didn't take it seriously at all..." This was the thought that occurred to the other captains after they saw the look in Bai Mo's eyes.
"Boom!"
The burly man's attack landed squarely on Bai Mo, yet Bai Mo's clothes didn't even gather a speck of dust, let alone show any sign of injury.
Had it not been for the tremendous sound, they would have thought the blow hadn't connected at all.
He said nothing, merely grabbing the burly man's neck, ready to casually toss him out of the arena, thus ending this tedious game.
If it weren't for his desire to gather physical intelligence on foreign Ability Users, he wouldn't even have planned to participate in this competition.
"You bastard!" The burly man's eyes were bloodshot, and almost everyone simply assumed it was due to anger.
Suddenly, two dark red lasers shot forth from his bloodshot eyes. Many believed this risky move was quite brilliant, each mentally calculating if they could withstand such a sneak attack.
However, such a surprise attack could not bridge the enormous gap in their tiers. Bai Mo's Life Field merely gained two white spots, which returned to their original state in an instant.
After scanning the attack location with his spiritual sense, he forcefully flung his opponent, whom he held in his hand, out of Arena Four like throwing a ball, thereby ending the battle.
...
After leaving the arena, Bai Mo continued to hold his laptop, browsing through the research institute's achievements item by item. His mood was entirely unaffected by the previous 'battle.'
Or rather, it couldn't even be considered a battle; it was merely a formality.
It wasn't until the final round, which consisted entirely of crushing victories, that both challengers and challenged alike lost much interest. Only when Bai Mo noticed Yue Yu, the Vice-Captain of Squad Ten, whom he had been observing, in Arena Three, did he divert some of his attention from the data to her.
"Teleportation, unexpectedly." Bai Mo observed that as soon as the battle began, Yue Yu appeared directly behind her opponent. After delivering a punch, she instantly teleported to another blind spot for another strike, demonstrating a mastery of 'kiting' even superior to Squad Ten's Captain Liang Zhen Dao.
Bai Mo noted that before each teleportation, the organ inside Yue Yu's body, resembling seaweed, would exhibit a strong Spirit Energy reaction.
Withdrawing his attention, Bai Mo continued to pore over the data as if no one else were present. He had already finished gathering information on the remaining captains he could analyze.
"The competition concludes here. All victors, please gather for departure on the first floor of the Dao Academy Building at ten o'clock in the morning, three days from now," the host finally announced.
"This competition still had its benefits. At the very least, after being thoroughly pummeled, we've gained sufficient prestige. Those youngsters should be able to behave themselves for a while now, instead of constantly harboring idle thoughts." The Captain of Squad Six flexed his muscles, chuckling as he spoke to the other captains.
"Let's hope so."