Duel Arena!

The sun was setting in the west, and the daylight was fading.

Finally, before the sky could grow completely dark, Chen Ming arrived at the main city.

A magnificent, giant city stood tall upon the vast earth. Its walls towered into the clouds, reaching a height of tens of thousands of meters, stretching beyond the horizon. The surfaces of the walls were covered in the weathered marks of blades and axes.

[Myriad Beast City Lv9]

In Eternal, there were different levels among the main cities.

The higher the level of the main city, the more beings it could accommodate, and relatively speaking, the safer it would be.

For instance, the Level 9 Myriad Beast City before him could easily withstand an ultra-large-scale beast tide invasion.

Some Level 13 main cities had defenses so strong they could even repel an invasion by gods.

Chen Ming walked quickly toward the city gate.

[Notice: To enter Myriad Beast City, you must pay 10 gold coins. Subsequently, 20 gold coins will be deducted daily. If you have insufficient gold coins, you will be automatically teleported out of Myriad Beast City.]

[Before entering Myriad Beast City, please remember the following rules.]

[1. All forms of force are prohibited within the city. Violators will be fined 1,000,000 gold coins and forcibly killed once.]

[2. Within Myriad Beast City, all races are equal. All forms of discrimination and differential treatment are prohibited. Violators will be fined between 100 to 1,000,000 gold coins. (Note: Goblins may be discriminated against or insulted at will.)]

[3. Flight is prohibited within Myriad Beast City...]

...

"Myriad Beast City has a permanent population of over a hundred million. Just the daily residency fees collected amount to several billion gold coins!"

"If I have the chance in the future, I could definitely build a main city of my own."

In Eternal, players were capable of building their own main cities.

At the same time, whether one possessed their own exclusive main city was one of the benchmarks for measuring the strength of a civilization or race.

For example, the Myriad Beast City before him was one of the ten great main cities of the Beastman Civilization.

Of course, for now, Chen Ming could only dream.

After all, building one's own main city required not only a massive amount of manpower and resources but also passing a series of city-building quest trials.

With his current strength, he was not yet capable of building a main city; even if he succeeded, he wouldn't necessarily be able to defend it.

After all, plundering a main city was much easier than building one.

Shaking his head, Chen Ming recalled the Ice Emperor Wolf King into his summoning space, paid the 10 gold coins, and strode into Myriad Beast City.

Myriad Beast City at night was exceptionally prosperous, its streets filled with players of all sorts of unique appearances.

Fox girls with bushy tails, rabbit girls with long ears on their heads, giant players standing ten meters tall...

"Handsome human lad, want a foot wash? We have a new batch of cat girls who just arrived."

"It's only 1,200 gold coins per session."

A young woman with ox horns on her head suddenly grabbed Chen Ming, pitching her services with a mysterious air.

In the main city, as long as you wanted it, every form of entertainment was available.

Chen Ming glanced at her.

Do I look like some kind of perverted old lecher?

"Not satisfied with cat girls? We also have rabbit girls, fox girls, and human girls who just turned eighteen. We guarantee our customers will be satisfied."

"Of course, if you have any special fetishes, we also have Goblins, green-skinned monsters, and girls from the Giant race."

The ox-horned woman continued her sales pitch, refusing to give up.

Chen Ming waved his hands repeatedly in refusal.

Good grief, just how weird would your fetishes have to be to need Goblins or green-skinned monsters?

...

Late at night.

Chen Ming took a brief stroll through Myriad Beast City, and after having dinner, he found an inn to stay in.

"It's time to complete the Hunter's class awakening quest."

Muttering under his breath, Chen Ming willed it and opened the [Duel Arena].

Once a player entered a main city, the [Duel Arena] function would automatically unlock.

Furthermore, inside the Duel Arena, one would not be affected by the [Exhaustion Debuff].

As Chen Ming clicked to enter, his consciousness momentarily went black.

[Ding! You have entered the Duel Arena. Please select a mode.]

[Spectator Mode / Competitive Mode]

[Spectator Mode: You can spend gold coins to watch other players compete.]

The higher the rank of the players you choose to watch, the more gold coins required.

Current available matches to spectate: Two billion matches.

Highest rank duel: Supreme King (Spectator Fee: 1,000,000 gold).]

[Competitive Mode: Players participate in matches, divided into Solo Mode (1vs1) and Team Mode (2vs2, 5vs5, 10vs10). Different ranking mechanisms will be calculated separately.]

[Notice: In the Duel Arena, players can be resurrected for free without conditions.]

[Notice: In the Duel Arena, no recovery potions can be used.]

...

Besides these two options, there were also the [Duel Arena Shop], [Rankings], and more below...

As a Supreme Rank 9 expert in his past life, Chen Ming couldn't be more familiar with the Duel Arena.

He immediately chose to participate in a [Solo Battle].

[Ding! System detects this is the player's first time entering the Duel Arena. Current Solo Rank: Iron Rank 1 (0 Victory Points). Ranking: 5,860,524,200,000,000th.]

[Matching opponent for the player...]

[Matching, please wait...]

[Match complete.]

As the notification sound faded, Chen Ming felt his vision blur. When he regained his senses, he had arrived in a place resembling an ancient Roman coliseum, roughly the size of two football fields combined.

Surrounding the arena were tiered spectator stands, densely packed and capable of holding an infinite number of players.

Of course, given Chen Ming's current Iron Rank, there were only a few people in the stands.

"Momotaro, keep it up! You have to get that first win!"

A young girl who looked like a Priest was cheering from the stands.

"Momotaro, make it quick! Slay this human!"

"Momotaro, hack him to death!"

The few spectators were all the opponent's teammates and cheerleaders.

[Duel begins in ten seconds. You may check the opponent's information.]

A prompt popped up before his eyes.

Chen Ming looked across the arena. His opponent was a blond youth who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old.

Level 22 Warrior.

[10...]

[9...]

The countdown ticked away before his eyes.

"Hey you, just surrender. A Ranger Class without teammates to protect them is as good as dead once I close in."

Momotaro raised his greatsword, speaking with an air of extreme arrogance, as if victory was already within his grasp.

It wasn't surprising he thought so; after all, Rangers were notoriously weak in the Duel Arena, especially in the early stages when they lacked skills. Without teammates for protection, they were easy prey once an enemy got close.

[Countdown finished. Duel start.]

The moment the prompt vanished,

Momotaro charged directly at Chen Ming.

Skill—Charge.

"End this quickly so I can start the next match."

Momotaro thought to himself, but suddenly, he felt a slight chill in his chest.

Looking down, he saw an arrow accurately piercing through his chest.

At the same time, a dense cluster of damage notifications popped up before his eyes.

[You have taken Poison Damage: 7,521 points.]

[You have taken true damage: 3,000 points.]

[You have taken true damage: 350 points.]

[You have taken Physical Damage: 1,750 points.]

"Is he hacking?!"

That was the only thought in Momotaro's mind at that moment.