409: Chapter 409 The Way the Sky Was Dealt With

The entire wall was covered in blue energy ripples, flickering incessantly and casting a ghostly blue light over the faces of everyone on both sides.

Lin Yu stood right there in that cold light.

He looked at the burly man outside the wall holding a war hammer.

The burly man looked back at him.

Only a single wall separated the two of them.

Lin Yao sat behind him, clutching the bottle of mineral water in her arms.

She had stopped trembling, but she remained huddled in place, not standing up. Her gaze drifted past Lin Yu's back and through the flickering blue isolation wall, seeing the dense crowd of distorted faces outside.

Every single face bore the same word.

Hatred.

Lin Yao lowered her head and stopped looking.

In the center of the arena, inside that fan-shaped crater, the fingers of a severed arm were still slowly curling. It was a spasm triggered by residual electrical signals in the muscles after death; in this quiet interval, the faint sound of joints bending was captured by the audio equipment and broadcast throughout the venue.

The burly man raised his war hammer for the fourth time.

This time, he aimed at the slender maintenance tunnel seam on the isolation wall—the weakest point in the entire structure.

The hammerhead was raised high, poised to strike.

Lin Yu tilted his head slightly, his gaze falling on that seam.

Five words squeezed out of the burly man's mouth.

"I want your life in exchange!"

The hammerhead did not fall.

A hand reached out from behind the burly man and firmly gripped the end of the hammer's handle.

The burly man whipped his head around.

Standing behind him was a middle-aged man wearing a Organization management uniform. He wasn't tall, his temples were graying, and a nameplate with gold lettering on a black background was pinned to his left chest—Regional General Manager, Chen Jing.

His hand was on the hammer's handle, seemingly without much force. Yet, when the burly man yanked it twice, it didn't budge an inch.

Behind Chen Jing stood ten fully armed Security Personnel. They wore heavy tactical armor with visors down, holding energy rifles across their chests, muzzles pointed uniformly downward.

The ten of them formed a tight wedge formation in the chaotic stands, separating the burly man from all other spectators within a three-meter radius.

The burly man's hand was still gripping the handle.

"Let go."

Chen Jing spoke those two words. He didn't raise his voice, but in the brief lull of the venue's noise, they reached everyone's ears clearly.

The burly man didn't let go. He glared at Chen Jing.

"Who the hell are you?"

Chen Jing didn't answer him.

He turned his head and gave a slight nod to the Security Captain behind him.

The Security Captain stepped forward, pressing one hand down on the burly man's wrist while the other snatched the war hammer away. The entire movement was clean and efficient; before the burly man could react, the hammer had already been tossed three rows of seats away.

Simultaneously, another member of the Security Personnel crouched at the man's feet and pulled the power cord from the commentator's microphone.

"Vrrr—"

The microphone emitted a short crackle of severed current and then went completely silent.

The burly man's mouth was still open, but his voice had vanished. The venue's speakers no longer broadcast a single sound from him.

That moment of silence lasted less than two seconds.

Then the crowd began to surge again.

"They're silencing us!"

"They won't let us speak!"

"The Organization is trying to cover this up!"

Curses and shouts rose from the stands everywhere, but without the boost of the amplification equipment, these voices were scattered and disorganized, unable to coalesce into that overwhelming force that could rally everyone.

Chen Jing ignored the noise.

He took a silver handheld broadcaster from the Security Captain. This device was connected directly to the venue's main control console, with a higher priority than all other audio channels.

He pressed the power button on the side.

"Beep—"

A sharp electronic tone pierced through the entire venue. All speakers activated simultaneously, instantly suppressing the scattered shouting.

Chen Jing raised the broadcaster.

"I am Chen Jing, Regional General Manager of the Organization. In accordance with Article 17 of the Tournament Management Regulations, I will now read the accident liability report issued by the Research Department."

His tone was flat and unadorned, as if he were reading a legal document.

"First, the arena system logs show that this semi-final match officially ended at 17:42:03. The end was marked by contestant Yan Pojun triggering the Ultimate Field-Clearing Skill, at which point the qualifications of the one hundred and forty-one eliminated contestants were automatically revoked."

"Second, the system logs show that between 17:42:07 and 17:42:15, the aforementioned one hundred and forty-one individuals who had lost their eligibility ignored the evacuation warnings from the arena broadcast and entered the combat zone without authorization."

"Third, the skill released by contestant Lin Yao at 17:42:18 was a compliant operation within the context of the match not yet being concluded. Prior to the release of this skill, the arena system had issued red warnings three times, demanding all non-contestants evacuate the combat zone immediately."

Chen Jing paused for a second.

The faint sound of him flipping through papers came through the broadcaster.

"In summary, the Research Department has determined that Xu Biao and the other one hundred and forty-one individuals violated Article 9, Paragraph 3; Article 12, Paragraph 1; and Article 15 of the 'Summit of the Heavens Competitive Tournament Rules' by entering a restricted area without authorization. They bear full responsibility for this incident."

"Contestant Lin Yao is found to be without fault in this incident."

These words were poured clearly into the ears of a hundred thousand people through hundreds of speakers.

A vacuum-like silence fell over the venue.

It lasted for about three seconds.

Then came an even greater commotion.

It wasn't because anger had escalated, but rather confusion. Some spectators were processing the information, while others simply refused to accept it.

"Bullshit! People are dead, and you're still shifting the blame!"

"Your own arena management is the problem!"

But these voices were much more scattered now. Chen Jing's official determination had at least shaken the stance of some moderates.

Chen Jing continued.

"Furthermore, out of humanitarian considerations, the Organization will issue special compassionate payments to the immediate families of the one hundred and forty-one deceased. The specific amounts and distribution methods will be announced through official channels within twenty-four hours."

He put down the broadcaster.

Inside the arena.

Lin Yu stood before the isolation wall, having listened to the entire broadcast. He showed no reaction, his gaze still fixed on the dense crowd of faces outside the wall.

Lin Yao was still sitting where she was, arms wrapped around the bottle of mineral water. Hearing the words "without fault," her body relaxed slightly, but then she tensed up again.

Because she saw the burly man.

The burly man's arms were held by two members of the Security Personnel, but he didn't struggle. He was looking in another direction.

Underneath the seats in the third row of the stands, there was a backup broadcasting device. It was a portable megaphone used by arena maintenance staff for emergency communications, usually locked in a metal box under the seats. Now, the box's cover had been stepped on and forced open in the chaos, revealing the black device inside.