320 Let the Games Begin ?

"Roly Poly, activate invisibility now."

Once Zhao Yao gave the order, the fat cat used his power to conceal Zhao Yao, Matcha, the Serval, and himself from sight.

The disappearing act did not go unnoticed by the Cat King of the North. He instantly switched to Zhao Yao's video feed.

"Huh? It seems that either Daniel Wu or Tiny can become invisible. We can't see them and neither can the camera capture them. Well, I have to say this would come in handy in our competition. Let's see if they're able to use it to their advantage!"

After a pause, the King of the North continued, "We can tell from the satellite map that they've not moved at all since becoming invisible. We can only wonder what they are waiting for."

"Is it finally my turn to shine? I'm suffocating in here," Roly Poly complained.

The Serval cat's eyes widened. "There's another cat in there? Isn't that against the rules?"

"Yes, it is. This is called cheating," Matcha said unabashedly, extending each and every one of his claws, "Winning comes with sacrifices. I'll do whatever it takes."

The Serval's eyes shone brightly with admiration.

"I don't quite understand what that means," she admitted, "But I do know you looked super cool when you said it!"

"Alright, alright, knock it off," Zhao Yao waved a hand at the cats, "Tiny, who's heading to the finish line with sapphires in hand? Could you ask your seagulls to investigate from the video footage in the elimination zone?"

The Serval's eyes glazed white as she entered the mind of one of her seagull friends.

"Three sapphires are moving towards the beach right now. Wait a minute, Fishball seems to be sending us some kind of signal?"

"Signal?" Zhao Yao raised an eyebrow, "Take a closer look."

A seagull landed gracefully on the ground. It tilted its head in puzzlement as it looked at the cat, whom rushed forward to meet it. Fishball pointed at the ground surreptitiously. Then, he unleashed two beams of light on the ground, which displayed a line of text.

'The number tags have trackers. We can see every contestant's location on the big screen.'

The Serval read this aloud to Zhao Yao when she saw the words.

"That's good news," Zhao Yao said brightly, "Now we know where everyone is. Serval, station your seagull in the elimination zone and make sure it watches the screen closely."

He then switched to Dust Ball's power and spat out Gaia from the extradimensional belly.

A confused Gaia looked around at his new surroundings.

"Have I fainted again because I spent too much time on the computer?" he wondered aloud.

"You've not fainted. It's just your turn to contribute," Zhao Yao explained, tugging the number tag over the cat's head.

Gaia leaped onto the ground, then sunk right into it. The plan was to have him explore this little island and mislead everyone about Zhao Yao's actual location.

Of course, Gaia could not venture too deep into the earth or the tracker's signal will be gone.

*

"Hello there, brother. What were you doing just now?"

The Cat King of the North had snuck up to Fishball. He surveyed him with narrowed eyes.

"You weren't sending some kind of message, were you?" he asked sternly.

Fishball laughed at his face in response.

"Of course not! I would never do that. I felt a bit restless is all. I thought dancing might help energize me."

With that, he started twisting and turning his body rhythmically, flashing rays of colored light like a disco ball.

"Isn't dancing the best?" Fishball grinned.

He started singing and dancing on his own, his body drenched in vibrant colors.

The King of the North gawked at him.

"Your power is..?"

"It's more than just producing light, I guarantee you. The true power of the light is that it makes me really popular!" Fishball replied happily.

Sure enough, many of the cats have rushed forward, chasing the light and meowing loudly.

"Ain't this cat interesting?"

"Yeah! He's quite a good dancer, isn't he?"

The Cat King of the North watched wordlessly as a group of female cats surrounded Fishball excitedly. He pursed his lips, then walked back to his seat in front of the big screen.

He switched back to commentary mode in an instant.

"Let's check in on how our contestants are doing. Oh? Daniel Wu's invisible team is now on the move. Unfortunately, we can't catch them on camera. Are they going to stay invisible throughout the competition?"

Of course, the trackers were actually on Gaia, who was tunneling through the ground enthusiastically. With everyone's eyes off their backs, Zhao Yao brought Roly Poly, Matcha, and the Serval to the entrance of the pit stop.

"Hurry! A lot of people are heading to the entrance right now!" the Serval exclaimed.

The Cat King of the North noticed this movement as well.

"It seems that more contestants have located sapphires! They're about to reach the finishing line. Let's see who we have here."

Live footage of Yue Shan and his team was displayed on the screen. They were making a beeline for the beach entrance.

From the corner of the screen, Explosive Man could be spotted soaring towards the entrance as well.

"It's the Telekinetic Knights, with Explosive Man coming in fast as well! He might have had a setback, but he's back in the game again!"

"What will happen when they meet? There shouldn't be any conflict since they're all got sapphires, but you never know. Are we looking at our second, third, fourth, and fifth contenders for the next round?"

On a naval vessel many kilometers away, Inspector Ho watched the competition unfold with relief.

"Looks like the first round is successful. We won't have to step in at all," he nodded.

Lin Chen was standing next to him, his eyes on the screen as well. He said, "Explosive Man's going to be tricky to handle. If he makes it to the third round, he'll be a threat to Yue Shan."

"You're right," the Inspector agreed.

There was a steely glint in his eye.

"We've got to interfere in the next round then. He has to be eliminated," he continued.

Their discussion came to a halt when a disturbance was shown on screen. Both the Inspector and Lin Chen wore perplexed expressions.

The Cat King of the North was confused as well.

"Strange. It seems like there's trouble brewing between the Knights and Explosive Man. What's happening? Our cameras are unable to record sound, so we have no clue what they're saying.But everyone looks very, very angry."

*

The root of the problem was Zhao Yao.

Now that he was near the finish line, he needed to hatch a plan to secure a sapphire quickly.

"Inspector Ho already knows about my illusions. I can't conjure them openly, or my identity might be exposed," he thought.

"I need to manipulate my skill such that its true nature is undetectable."

He scratched the bottom of his chin thoughtfully and wondered, "How do antagonists normally antagonize people?"

His face was scrunched up as he went through some ideas. It lit up when he landed on a brilliant one. With a gleeful smirk, he created an auditory illusion that was sent to both parties.

After a beat, Explosive Man heard the Knights shout at him.

"Hey, moron!"

He whipped his head around, furrowing his brows at the trio.

He heard Yue Shan say to him, "Kid, if you kneel down now, kowtow to us, then hand us your sapphire, we'll consider just breaking one of your legs."

The Knights erupted with devious laughter after that.

The vein on Explosive Man's forehead was visibly throbbing. In a fit of fury, he launched himself into the air, glaring at the trio.

The three of them stared up at him, perplexed.

The tall one spoke first, "Why does that guy look so mad?"

The short one agreed, "He looks like he wants to slaughter us. Has either one of you ever offended him or something?"

They watched as he descended on them.

The Explosive Man's sent a chill down their spines.

"Telekinetic Knights, no one will be able to save you today. Give me your sapphires now, or I will rip you from limb to limb."