Chapter 29: Live Broadcast of Death

Han took a break for a few hours, and went to the training center at around noon as per usual. In the training center there was a row of public virtual pods for the use of espers that live at the base.

After picking one in the corner, Han took out the dark net access card from his necklace. Accessing the dark net required a login program as well as DNA information, so even if someone managed to get Han’s access card, without Han’s DNA information it will still be useless.

The dark net login program was really intelligent. It will automatically encrypt the data, so even the central control system will only know that Han used the virtual pod. About what specifically that pod was used for will be completely confidential.

Laying down in the virtual pod, Han pressed the start button.

The virtual pod and the laptop had similar functions but using the pod enhances the user experience. For instance, every day Han when visits Pathless Origin’s website, the laptop shows the website on a flat screen whereas the virtual pods will generate a virtual store and the experience was like shopping in real life.

After typing in the address on the screen, the login program verified Han’s DNA data and started connecting to dark net.

Very quickly, a virtual world appeared in front of Han’s eyes. The address led to a door with blood stains splattered across it. Han stood on the outside and read the descriptions displayed on the screen.

This website was called “Live Broadcast of Death”. It was a dark net video broadcasting website. The description was written as follows: “Chosen the most fearless esper warriors of Milky Way to fight to the death in Arena. Due to the amount of blood violence, please view at your discretion.”

Han was shocked for a bit, real people fighting to the death broadcasted live?

The dark net was really a screwed up place, they even have this?

With tons of curiosity, Han entered the website. A screen popped up to let Han choose the broadcasts he wished to watch. According to the rules of Live Broadcast of Death, the viewing will charge according to the fighters’ ranking. A fight between two star espers costed 100 GC, three star espers costed 200 GC, and four star espers costed 400 GC. And as for fights between five stars or above, it’s only available at certain times and it costed 1000 GC.

Other than that, there were also esper survival competitions and mass chaotic brawls, which were pretty expensive to watch and were only available during certain times.

Aside from watching live broadcasts, people could also watch videos from the past which only costed 1/10 of its broadcast price. So watching two stars fight only costed 10 GC. Han saw a lot of loyal fans. They all had a warrior they admired so they were willing to pay a large amount of money to watch the live broadcasts to get the most updated news about the fighters. They can also set bounties or give rewards to the warriors, so it was kind of like fangirling. Only just that what these guys fangirled about killing.

Han wasn’t some fan boy, so of course he chose to watch the cheaper replays for past broadcasts. After some consideration, Han felt like his fighting style was closer to a strength descent esper so he decided to watch a 2-star brawl between two strength descent espers. The system automatically withdrew 10 GC from Han’s account and sent him onto the battleground.

Virtual live broadcast had a huge benefit, and it was that the audience didn’t have to watch from their seats, they could also watch on the stage closer to the fighters. Han chose to watch the fight from up close. He figured that Pathless Origin sent him to this place because he wanted him to learn real combat experience from others.

Both fighters walked into the iron cage, which was spherical in shape and about 100 meters in radius, so the one losing had nowhere to run. The fight only stopped when one of them died.

As for the fighters participating in this duel, there was one muscular man in black hair and another blond middle-aged man that was smaller in size but still muscular.

The stopwatch counted down to zero and the green light flashed on. The two men charged at each other at the same time. They didn’t have any weapons other than their fists.

The muscular giant swung his right fist aiming for his enemy’s head, but the smaller fighter was very smart. He lowered his body to dodge while returning a hard punch into the enemy’s vulnerable belly region, and the giant shouted in pain.

A fight between two strength descent espers was the most brutal kind. After all the taller warrior had the height and weight advantage, and had a higher tolerance to the amount of hits he could take. He saw how sneaky the enemy was, so he held his breath, used his body to tank a punch and immediately swept his big right hand into the face of the smaller fighter.

Gengci~ (Sound of blood coming out)

That giant’s hand was like a block of concrete, thick and tough. The smaller fighter couldn’t dodge in time and the giant’s fingers hooked into his mouth and immediately ripped it apart! Blood start to rush out and it went all over Han’s face.

Although it was just a virtual environment, Han could still smell the thick scent and feel the warmth of the blood.

The smaller fighter was placed at a huge disadvantage. He covered his face and started to retreat towards a corner. But as a result, he was oppressed and received a hard beating. All he could do was raise his hands to protect his head.

Then when the smaller fighter was about to get killed, he intelligently spotted an opening as the enemy relaxed his stance. He quickly charged out of the suppression and grabbed the giant’s two arms with his hands, but he lacked the power and couldn’t move him.

Under desperation, the smaller fighter started to bite!

He took a huge bite at the giant’s ear and ripped it off along with half of the giant’s face!

Hong~

The giant fell to the ground, but the smaller fighter was not done yet. He took advantage of this and used his fingers to gouge the giant’s eye balls.

Then what happened after left Han in extreme shock. The moment the smaller fighter had the advantage, he started using the most merciless and brutal attacks like a mad dog to attack the enemy. When the fight was over, the corpse on the ground was already badly mutilated, even the stomach was ripped open.

As a spectator, Han had a sudden urge to puke. That fight was beyond Han’s wildest imagination, so at the verge of life and death humans can reveal that much potential and become that merciless. In order to survive, the smaller warrior turned from a human to a wild animal under Han’s own eyes.

The screen displayed the winner, the smaller fighter, and he was awarded a prize of 8 figures in cash. But there was no smile on his ace, because his mouth was ripped open and was still dripping blood. One of his eyes was already blind and the eyeball was dangling from the socket.

That’s when Han suddenly realized the reason why Pathless Origin told him to watch this merciless Live Broadcast of Death. This was the true face of a battle!

If it was just a virtual battle where no one could die and nothing was to be worried about, how could there be such desperate struggle in the face of death like what Han just witnessed? For survival, any moves or tricks that was conventional or unconventional could all be used. For survival, there was no rules you had to worry about.

And real battles were just as merciless!

Virtual battles can help someone develop their skills, but it can never teach the struggle in the face of death.

The fight had ended, and Han’s mood still couldn’t calm down for a long time. On Live Broadcast of Death, what he felt was the atmosphere of a real battleground. Everyone that participated in the fight were all like demons, putting everything on the line.

It was only here, someone can be taught what real battle was!

Train using the most extreme method, study the most merciless fights. Without realizing it, Pathless Origin, the odd man that Han met by accident, was leading Han into an unpredictable future.