410: Chapter 410 A Life Must Be Paid for!

The burly man moved.

He slammed his shoulder into the security guard on his left. Another security guard tried to grab his arm but was kicked in the armor, the recoil sending him flying back.

Two steps.

The burly man lunged toward the third row and snatched a backup megaphone.

He flicked the switch.

"Buzz—"

The megaphone's frequency was different from the main console, but its output power was enough to cover half the arena.

"Chief Coordinator Chen!"

Holding the megaphone, the burly man's voice exploded over the stands once more.

"I'm asking you one thing!"

"After people have died, you pull out a report saying the deceased were fully responsible—is that supposed to help?!"

His voice trembled, but not from grief.

"The law is the law! Human decency is human decency! Tell me, you watched a hundred and forty-one people get ground into mincemeat with your own eyes, and then you pull out a piece of paper and say, 'Oh, it's their own fault, so they deserved to die'?"

The burly man turned toward the field, his arm pointing straight at the girl huddled behind the containment wall.

"Even if she isn't at fault according to the rules! She killed people! Her hands are stained with the blood of a hundred and forty-one lives!"

"A murderer sitting there drinking water, without a single apology! Not even a single tear!"

"If she wields the power to kill, she must bear the consequences of that power! This isn't a legal issue; it's the baseline of being human!"

These words were far more lethal than the previous insults.

Because they bypassed rules and facts, striking directly at the softest part of the human heart.

Across the stands, several scattered figures began weaving through the crowd. Dressed in ordinary spectator clothes, they were inconspicuous, but wherever they went, they leaned in to whisper into the ears of those around them.

"...A life for a life..."

"...They killed so many people, and they think they can just settle it with money?..."

"...That brother and sister must get on their knees and atone..."

These voices were faint, yet they spread through the crowd with extreme speed. The spectators, who had been briefly pacified by Chen Jing's official statement, found their emotions stirred up once again.

Out of the corner of his eye, the burly man glanced at a spot in the sixth row to his back left.

A thin man wearing a peaked cap was sitting there.

The thin man met his gaze and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

The corner of the burly man's mouth twitched. It wasn't grief or anger. It was a fleeting flash of calculated satisfaction.

The higher the compensation from the Organization, the more he would get as his cut. And the amount depended on the intensity of the public pressure.

He had to make a scene.

He had to make a huge scene.

Stir things up until the Organization was forced to pay an astronomical sum to settle the matter.

The burly man took a deep breath and held the megaphone even higher.

"Everyone! I'm only asking one thing!"

"A hundred and forty-one lives in exchange for 'no fault'—do you accept that?!"

"No!"

This time, the response was no longer scattered insults.

It was a rising, unified roar from across the entire stands.

"Apologize!"

"Make her apologize!"

"Make them kneel and kowtow to the dead!"

The crowd surged toward the containment wall once more. This time, even the Security Personnel were swept along by the human tide and pushed toward the entrance of the backstage tunnel. Two guards tried to form a human wall, but under the shoving of thousands, their line was broken within three seconds.

Chen Jing, flanked by two personal guards, retreated behind the metal doorframe of the tunnel entrance. His professional composure had shattered, and his forehead was covered in beads of sweat.

The order for a forced dispersal had already been issued.

It was useless.

The number of Security Personnel didn't even amount to a ripple in the face of a hundred thousand angry spectators.

In the arena.

Lin Yu stood where he was, motionless.

He watched the burly man with the megaphone outside the wall.

He saw the look exchanged between the burly man and the person in the peaked cap.

He watched the figures weaving through the crowd, spreading rumors.

He said nothing.

Outside the containment wall, the front of the crowd was pressed tightly against the surface.

Three people squeezed out from the surging tide of people.

Two men and one woman. They wore different colored clothes and had different faces, but their movements were surprisingly synchronized—side by side, they forced their way through the gaps in the human wall to the very front of the containment wall.

The man on the far right was in his early thirties, with a silver stud in his left ear and an old scar on his chin.

He raised both hands.

He pressed his palms flat against the surface of the containment wall.

His palms were against the cold crystalline material, fingers spread, all ten digits pressed evenly against the glass.

Through the wall, he stared straight at Lin Yu.

"Lin Yu."

His lips moved, mouthing two words. The containment wall blocked most sound, but Lin Yu saw the shape of his mouth.

Then, he smiled.

It wasn't a smile of anger or sadness, but the kind of excited, confident smile a hunter has when they've locked onto their prey.

The woman beside him pulled a miniature recording device from her pocket, and a red indicator light flickered on.

The lens was aimed at Lin Yu.

Man surnamed Wang slowly curled his hands against the wall, leaving two clear palm prints on the glass surface.

His lips moved again.

This time, Lin Yu understood the mouth movement.

"My surname is Wang. Remember me."

The burly man was still screaming in the back, but the megaphone had been snatched and silenced by a second wave of Security Personnel. Without the amplification, his roars were drowned out by the noise of the thousands around him, leaving only his mouth opening and closing incessantly.

Man surnamed Wang didn't look at the burly man.

His full attention was focused on the young man standing on the other side of the containment wall.

The arena's audio system was still functioning. The remaining speakers continued to transmit subtle sounds from inside the field to the outside; any word or breath would be heard by the hundred thousand people.

This was exactly what Man surnamed Wang was waiting for.

He leaned close to the containment wall, his lips almost touching the surface.

"Lin Yao."

He didn't shout; it was just a normal volume. But because he was close enough, the audio pickup on the wall's surface captured the name perfectly and broadcast it through the surround sound system into everyone's ears.

"My younger brother was Wang Lei. Twenty-three years old. A support for the Battle Axe Guild."

He paused.

"You crushed him. I couldn't even recognize his face."

In the center of the arena, Lin Yao's fingers tightened an inch around the water bottle.

The water inside the bottle sloshed, creating tiny bubbles.

Man surnamed Wang continued.

"I don't care who was at fault and who wasn't. I'm just asking you one thing."

"You killed my brother. Ask your own conscience! Is there even a shred of guilt in your heart? Do you dare to say that you are completely innocent!?"

These words held no anger, no screaming.

Instead, they were more piercing than the burly man's previous frantic roars. Because it wasn't an accusation; it was a judgment.

The entire arena fell silent.

Even the spectators in the front rows who had been pounding on the containment wall stopped and turned in unison to look at the center of the arena.