48: The collapse of the beacon nation! The end of the ouroboros!

Lighthouse Country, Underground Command Center.

Dead silence, oppressive.

The air seemed to have solidified, so heavy it made people gasp for breath.

All the screens were frozen on the Dragon Country's eye-piercing "SSS" evaluation, as if silently mocking their failure.

The Blonde Director slumped in his seat at the head of the table, his eyes vacant and his face ashen.

Clearly, their beginning had been so perfect.

The top special forces, the most advanced genetic warriors, the most luxurious team composition.

They should have been the protagonists of this national destiny arena, the country that received the highest evaluation and enjoyed the worship of the entire world.

But why was the final result so cruel?

"It's intelligence... we lost on intelligence."

A hoarse voice rang out in the silent Command Center.

It was Ouroboros.

This strategic analyst, codenamed Ouroboros, had also lost his usual calm and composure at this moment.

He took off his glasses and tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose; the eyes behind the lenses were bloodshot and filled with confusion.

"From the very beginning, it's as if the Dragon Country had a map hack on."

"They knew the dungeon's content, the monsters' weaknesses, the clues to hidden missions, and they could even... directly air-drop equipment to their contestants!"

"Infinite-ammo desert eagles, high-frequency battle blades, electromagnetic pulse grenades, space displacement scrolls..."

With every name Ouroboros spoke, the Blonde Director's face grew a shade paler.

Every single one of these things was enough to change the course of a battle.

Yet the Dragon Country was continuously sending them to their contestants as if they were wholesale goods.

"We and they are simply not playing the game on the same dimension."

Ouroboros's voice carried a hint of despair, "We are playing a survival horror game, while they are playing a hack-and-slash game with a cheat engine."

"Cheat engine..." The Blonde Director chewed on the word. He suddenly looked up, staring fixedly at Ouroboros, "You mean, on the Dragon Country's side, there exists someone like a 'GM'?"

"I don't know."

Ouroboros shook his head.

"But that is the only current explanation. A mysterious existence capable of seeing through all the arena's rules and possessing extremely high authority."

"Find him!"

The Blonde Director slammed the table, his eyes bursting with frantic hatred.

"Mobilize all our intelligence forces! CAI, FIB, NSA! Dig him out of the Dragon Country for me, regardless of the cost!"

"And then?"

Ouroboros countered coldly.

"Bring him back? Torture him? Force him to reveal his secrets?"

"Is that not possible?!"

"It's too late, everything is too late."

Ouroboros's tone was filled with a sense of powerlessness.

"The moment the national destiny arena descended, we should have realized that the rules of the old era no longer applied. Our attempt to use real-world methods to interfere with the competition inside the arena was the most foolish mistake we've made."

He was referring to the plan codenamed Dragon Capture.

Looking back now, that so-called Dragon Capture plan was nothing but a huge joke.

They were here conducting some trivial cyber-attacks and smear campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Dragon Country was in the dungeon, frantically farming national fortune points and obtaining heaven-defying rewards enough to change the country's destiny.

It's like two people playing chess; you're still pondering how to stealthily move your opponent's pieces.

While your opponent has already picked up your King and thrown it into the trash can.

Dimensional strike.

This was a true dimensional strike.

"We lost."

Ouroboros put his glasses back on, his tone recovering some calm, but beneath that calm lay an even deeper despair.

"By losing the first dungeon, we've lost the future. From today onwards, the Lighthouse Country will no longer be number one in the world. We can only watch helplessly as the Dragon Country leaves us further and further behind, step by step, until we don't even have the right to look up at their backs."

His words were like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone's heads in the Command Center.

Yes, they lost.

Lost completely and utterly.

"No! I cannot accept this!"

The Blonde Director suddenly stood up, pointing at Ouroboros and roaring hysterically.

"It's you! It's all your fault! You were the one who proposed the Dragon Capture plan! You were the one who made us miss the best timing! You are the sinner of the Lighthouse Country!"

Facing the Blonde Director's accusations, Ouroboros just looked at him quietly, neither refuting nor defending himself.

That look was like watching a pathetic gambler who had lost everything and could only vent through impotent rage.

"Arrest him!"

The Blonde Director shouted at the guards at the door.

"For treason, lock him in the highest-security prison! I want him to spend the rest of his life in repentance!"

Two fully armed guards stepped forward, one on each side, grabbing Ouroboros's arms.

Ouroboros did not resist. Before being taken away, he just turned back to take a deep look at the screen, at the scene of the Dragon Country people celebrating wildly.

A strange and self-mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Dragon Capture... Heh, how could we mortals possibly capture a true Divine Dragon that soars above the nine heavens?"

After saying that, he was dragged out by the guards.

Inside the Command Center, dead silence fell once again.

After venting his anger, the Blonde Director also seemed to have been drained of all his strength, slumped back into his chair.

He knew that shifting the blame to Ouroboros was of no use at all.

The people above would not let him off.

The angry citizens certainly wouldn't let him off.

His political career, his everything, was over.

Just then, the red classified phone on his desk suddenly rang urgently.

The Blonde Director's body trembled; he knew who was calling.

With a shaking hand, he picked up the receiver.

From the other end of the phone came a majestic and cold voice, saying only one sentence.

"In fifteen minutes, come to my office. You need to give the entire nation an explanation."

"Beep... beep... beep..."

The call was disconnected.

The Blonde Director held the receiver, frozen in place in a daze.

He knew what kind of judgment awaited him.

His vision began to turn black in waves.

Finally, his body slumped over, sliding from the chair, completely unconscious.

The entire command hub of the Lighthouse Country, on this day when the first dungeon of the national destiny arena ended, fell into complete paralysis and chaos.

And this was only the beginning.

As the Dragon Country gradually transformed those hundredfold manifested rewards into actual national strength.

The Lighthouse Country, and the entire world, would in the future witness the rise of a colossus with their own eyes.

An opponent they once looked down upon and even tried to suppress would reign over this world in a way they could neither understand nor stop.

The dawn belonging to the Dragon Country had only just arrived.