Pillar of Yita

It’s an Alchemist from Elfendo—Fang Hong had seen such a scene just a few days ago. His gaze followed the direction of the lights and realized that direction should be the Port District.

What happened?

Fang Hong was startled.

”Someone’s leaving the VIP box,” Dill, who always observed closely, suddenly whispered, ”and quite a number of people too.”

Fang Hong looked in that direction and indeed saw many people coming out of the boxes, hurrying towards the Elfendo Spire. Judging by their outfits, most were bigwigs of the Southern Alchemists Alliance.

Among them were a couple of Grand Artificers in their gray-red coats, and the others were at least senior craftsmen.

But except for them, the attention of the people in the square was drawn to the lights in the sky, and no one noticed the details over by the stands. The competitors in the arena, of course, were even more focused on their match, completely unaware of the changes outside.

As Fang Hong was wondering, he suddenly felt his Communication Crystal move.

He quickly picked up the crystal and discovered that two messages had arrived simultaneously.

One of them was from Tianlan:

”Brother Ade, Sister Elisa said something happened in the Port District.”

Fang Hong’s heart tightened, and he quickly asked, ”What happened?”

”Seems like the Thornfish People are causing trouble.”

”Are they okay?”

”They’re fine, it’s just that the port is flooded. Mr. Big Cat plans to take Mr. Greyrock to the dry land on the east side of the dock.”

”And then, did the Thornfish People attack them?”

”Not sure, probably not... Communication broke off after that.”

Fang Hong glanced up, finally understanding what was happening, though he couldn’t be sure if the Thornfish People were specifically taking advantage of the competition to launch an attack. However, with communication cut, it seemed the city’s Puzzle Lock was activating, severing the connection with the Port District.

The Thornfish People often attack south of Long Lake and are not particularly high-level creatures. From the looks of it, the Elfendo Council had no intention of interrupting the competition, suggesting the attack might still be within control.

He then asked, ”Does Luo Yu have a Clockwork Fairy on him?”

Tianlan shook her head on the screen: ”No, they aren’t allowed to bring such things into the venue. But Luo Yu has already gone to the nearest alchemy shop to get one.”

Fang Hong nodded. He had a few Clockwork Fairies on him, but if he were to release one here, he’d probably be thrown out of the arena. So, after thinking for a moment, he just said, ”Let Parker and Xiangzi go and check it out first.”

Tianlan quickly nodded.

Just then, the third round of the match between the Shadow Throne and military craftsmen had ended. Fang Hong glanced at the score and concluded that the military craftsmen would hardly make it to the next round. It seemed that if the competition continued, their final opponent would most likely include people from the Shadow Throne.

He then glanced at the next message, which was a shock to him. It turned out to be from Red Leaf:

”Did you guys make it to the finals?”

”If you did, just wait—”

”I’ll come and beat you up soon!”

This vague message left Fang Hong utterly confused.

But during normal times, he might have felt a bit nervous about it. However, at this moment, he was in no mood to pay attention to it, so he just skimmed past it—because at that very moment, the next message popped up on his crystal.

He initially thought it was more news from Tianlan, but upon closer inspection, he realized it came from an ID he didn’t recognize.

But how did an unknown ID get on his communication list?

Fang Hong was startled, thinking he had encountered the legendary hacker—although the technology of this era had no means against the Summoners System, the Communication Crystal was an external device connected to the system.

While the officials have always claimed that cross-dimensional communication is the safest way, there has always been a long-standing legend in the community about top experts capable of hacking into it.

Fang Hong instinctively thought he had encountered a ghost.

That ID was called SSAT900822AX, a string of characters that made his head spin. The letters SSAT were somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn’t immediately connect it to any well-known names.

The message from the other side was:

”Mr. Ade, we would like to have a word with you.”

”What?”

”We are in...”

Suddenly realizing something, Fang Hong cursed to himself, ”Damn, cross-dimensional scam!” Without thinking, he immediately put that ID on the blacklist.

As he was about to put away the crystal, suddenly another message appeared in his vision:

”Can we talk?”

Damn, this isn’t over yet! Fang Hong couldn’t help being a bit annoyed, but as he looked at the ID of this message, he suddenly froze. This was someone he had added just a few days ago. He remembered the person claimed to be an official of the Super Competitive League posted in Ragnarok—

The other party had made some bizarre proposals to him at the time, then told him to think it over, after which there had been no further contact. Unexpectedly, they took the initiative to contact him now.

Looking at the message, he hesitated for a moment, intending to ignore it. However, suddenly Fang Hong recalled the participants from the Shadow Throne, his heart subconsciously moved, and asked:

”What do you want to talk about?”

”A way to help you win the match.”

Fang Hong saw this message and was stunned for quite a while.

He looked up, cautiously glanced around, thought for a moment, then typed: ”No need, I can win myself.”

But they quickly replied: ”That’s not certain, that young man named Rolin is no simple character.”

Fang Hong was a bit surprised: ”You know him too?”

”Of course, his background is far from simple.”

”Who is he?” Fang Hong asked subconsciously.

”Can’t tell you that for now,” the person replied, ”so, are you willing to cooperate with us?”

Fang Hong pondered for a moment:

”How to cooperate?”

Although he asked, he had no desire in his heart to get involved with these people.

...

Not far from the arena.

A military staff member with SSAT letters and the Stargate Ring insignia pinned under his coat was looking dumbfounded at his own Communication Crystal, listening to the emotionless prompt:

”Communication interrupted.”

”The other person has added you to the blacklist.”

”Damn it!” He almost threw the crystal away, ”That guy is too much!”

His companion looked at him speechlessly: ”So what now?”

”What now?” he replied irritably, ”Go arrest him!”

”But what about the match?”

”Of course, wait till the match is over, are you stupid?”

...