Age of Evolution

Chapter 223 - 223: 223: Road Robbery

Martial artists who obtained gemstone fragments would emit a faint glow, indicating they had gemstone fragments on them. This was intentional by the War God Alliance, as it encouraged martial artists to battle in the contest.

Lin Zhen’s acquired gemstone fragments caused red and blue rays of light to shimmer on his body, but he didn’t care, as there was no one behind him to see it.

“Ha! This is so exhilarating!”

Lin Zhen became excited as he searched for treasures. Although the number of Star Artifacts discovered in the ancient god ruins was increasing, causing their prices to fall drastically, they still weren’t very cheap.

The official prices for red gemstone fragments were ten million each, but if ten were exchanged for a Lower Grade Star Artifact, it could still be worth several hundred million.

Mid-grade artifacts were even more expensive, the cheapest being no less than a billion. Defensive artifacts were valued at two or three billion, while auxiliary artifacts ranged from six to seven billion or even ten billion.

High -quality Star Artifacts were basically priceless, starting from tens of billions and easily reaching hundreds of billions.

Top-quality Star Artifacts were almost priceless. Even the worst top-quality Artifacts would cost over a trillion and might not be affordable.

“I have already acquired two Lower Grade Star Artifacts, which should be worth at least four to five hundred million. However, blue gemstone fragments are somewhat rare in the grassland area.”

Lin Zhen’s windmill-like blade swept through another hundred-meter circumference, finally collecting another blue gemstone fragment.

“I’ll keep this up for another three hours. By then it’ll be afternoon, and I should be able to head towards the Sea of Flowers before springtime arrives.”

Occasionally, a mutant insect appeared, but it couldn’t stop Lin Zhen, whose 10-fold compressed Dantian was not just for show. Unless facing S-level mutant insects, A-level ones no longer posed a threat to him.

Unknown to Lin Zhen, many spectators outside had become extremely dissatisfied with his focus on acquiring gemstone fragments rather than battling others.

It had been over two hours since the preliminaries began, and though the audience hadn’t dissipated, the situation wasn’t favorable for Hua Xia. Besides Lin Zhen taking the first blood and becoming famous, Hua Xia hadn’t shown any substantial advantage in the subsequent battles.

Of course, the promotion list wouldn’t change for now. Nobody would reach the Garden Cottage on the first day, and perhaps only a few would reach it on the second day.

People now paid attention to the Kill Leaderboard.

Currently, Chris, ranked first, had killed twenty-five people, leading by a large margin. Following him was Huo Luofu with eighteen kills and a long string of names of foreigners: Duke, Ai Er, Bogba, Shah, Lanslow, Sang Ji, and so on.

It wasn’t until the twenty-second place that a Hua Xia person’s name appeared.

Feng Ni, a Hua Xia fighter from the Northwest Army, had killed eleven people.

However, this ranking was not his alone, as there were over a dozen people with eleven kills each.

Other Hua Xia fighters like Tang Wenbo, Duo Long, and Xin Rughai each killed ten people, while Tong Yuehu from Ice City killed fewer than ten people.

It appeared that Ma Yao and Wei Li hadn’t even scored five kills, and their rankings were tied with several others.

However, no one criticized these fighters; instead, most people blamed Lin Zhen.

Since Lin Zhen obtained the first blood, his kill count had remained unchanged, making it seem like he was idling, with no changes in his performance.

Due to the large number of participants, in addition to the leaderboard, people could also search for specific contestants.

Lin Zhen became famous for taking the first blood, and his search volume was now the highest, even surpassing Su Mingyue’s.

It was common knowledge that Su Mingyue, due to her identity and appearance, had countless fans around the world. Her popularity had always been high, especially as the cover girl for the War God’s Knockout event, capturing the hearts of many men and naturally garnering high search volume.

Since killing a person at the beginning, Su Mingyue hadn’t killed anyone else, which people understood. The Star Sky Divine Teaching didn’t advocate killing, especially for inherently good-natured people like Su Mingyue. She had only killed someone because she was attacked at first, and after that, she probably avoided others and didn’t want to hurt anyone more.

But Lin Zhen was different. As a little War God from a small martial arts club, he even managed to kill a Hall of Fame member. So, why hadn’t he killed anyone else?

This disappointed many Hua Xia martial artists who had high hopes for Lin Zhen and provided the opportunity for his critics to attack him.

There was a forum for this War God’s Knockout event, accessible to people worldwide, where they could check a War God’s performance and post comments.

Posts kept scrolling up, and nearly a tenth of them were related to Lin Zhen. “Haha, where are your great Hua Xia first blood experts? What is their ranking

“See, this is the best Hua Xia can do. Lin Zhen killing a Hall of Fame member was just an accident, time will prove everything.”

“Goddess Chris is mighty! She has made our European Union martial artists proud!”

“No doubt, Lin Zhen is hiding. He’s afraid of us, the Sand Russia people, seeking revenge. In your Hua Xia language, he’s just a rat.”

“I just searched Lin Zhen’s name again, and his ranking finally changed, but he has fallen to more than eighteen thousand, hahaha!”

The Hua Xia people were still trying to fight back, but Lin Zhen’s kill count remained stagnant, making their counterattacks seem weak and feeble.

Fortunately, other Hua Xia people like Tang Wenbo, Feng Ni, Duo Long, and others were still steadily advancing in rank, giving them some consolation.

However, this could not counter the disappointment in Lin Zhen. After getting the first blood, you should at least do something, otherwise, people will think you’re hiding.

For a time, people all over the world who were jealous of Lin Zhen for getting the first blood flocked together, forming a massive anti-Lin group.

Although Lin Zhen was somewhat disappointing, the Hua Xia people still tried their best to defend him. After all, he was from their own country. People didn’t expect him to get many kills now, but at least show some movement, just to prove that he was not hiding.

The online wars were raging, but they did not affect the War Gods in the virtual world.

It was gradually becoming cloudy in the virtual world, as if it would rain. The time had also gradually reached the afternoon, and the sky had darkened.

If it started raining, it might rain all night, and by the time the rain stopped, it would probably be summer.

Lin Zhen continued to sweep the area as he advanced, only stopping his rampage in the afternoon.

Seventy-five red gemstone fragments and twelve blue gemstone fragments were the rewards for his hard work.

“It’s about time, I should move on. If I set off now, I’ll reach the sea of flowers by nightfall.”

Lin Zhen recalled his liquid metal, stepped on the cloud accelerator, and headed towards the sea of flowers.

Although he couldn’t fly too high, Lin Zhen, who was not afraid of mutant insects, still used high-speed low-altitude flight to gradually approach the fence wall.

There were quite a few martial artists gathered near the fence wall.

Although many War Gods had entered the virtual world, not all of them were aiming for promotion.

After coming here and seeing the strength of experts from all over the world, many people became hesitant.

They knew they had no chance of obtaining promotion spots with their abilities. Still, they didn’t want to leave because they had opportunities to obtain Star Artifacts here. Even if they died, they would be disqualified, which is like a risk-free Ancient God relic.

If that’s the case, why not make some profit here before leaving?

There was a War God from the United States named Mario, a Hall of Fame member from Seattle Base City.

He had a flexible mind and analyzed his chances of promotion carefully. He felt that even if he delayed for a while, he could still get a promotion spot, so he decided to stay and become a robber!

Many people thought similarly, but most of them were not very strong and had no chance against Mario, a Hall of Fame member.

Mario did not kill too many people; he only gathered those who had no aura and no gains. Such people were of little use when killed, so he brought them together to form a band of robbers.

Whenever someone with an aura appeared, they would intercept and kill them. Most of the gemstone fragments they obtained went to Mario, but the others could still get some.

Those without aura would be absorbed by them, and the group grew larger and larger.

By dusk, the group had grown to thirty people.

With rich red and blue gem aura radiating from Mario, the surrounding War Gods were envious, but none dared to challenge him, as being a member of the Hall of Fame had proven his strength.

An Indian War God approached Mario in a flattering tone, “Boss, when are we going to the sea of flowers? We’ve been here for hours.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll go when it gets dark. It’s safer when everyone’s resting, and it’s harder to travel in the dark. We might even catch a big fat sheep if we wait.”

A black African Union War God sighed, “I’m afraid it’s unlikely. Most people have passed the fence wall by now, and the rest are just small fries; there’s no fat sheep.”

As Mario hesitated, considering whether to go through the fence wall into the sea of flowers now, a fast-approaching figure, radiating a rich aura of gems, appeared in front of him!