Blind Box World - SSS-Rank Eye of Truth

The moment the corridor’s light swallowed all three of them, the sensation of weightlessness hit as though the ground had been yanked out from under their feet. Ethan only had time to see his vision go dark for an instant; when he opened his eyes again, the circular arena from the strength test was gone, replaced by a ruined city so vast its edges couldn’t be seen.

Tall buildings crowded both sides of the streets, most of their glass windows already shattered, concrete covered in black scorch marks and long cracks. One structure had been snapped in half by something, its upper portion collapsing onto the building across from it, forming a concrete bridge dangling in midair.

Vehicles lay scattered across the boulevards, some reduced to bare metal frames, others pierced through the cabin by mutated trees. In the distance, an elevated railway had lost more than half its track, and old advertisement signs still clung to the walls but with text too faded to read.

There were no human voices, only wind whistling through broken window frames and the sound of old metal clinking together somewhere in the darkness.

Laira appeared to Ethan’s right, Ruo Yan standing a few steps to his left. Laira looked up at the surrounding buildings, frowned slightly, and said: "Another city?"

"At least this time there’s no sand getting in our shoes." Ethan replied casually.

Laira immediately looked down at her shoes, then her expression genuinely softened. "True."

Ruo Yan didn’t bother joining the conversation. She was still looking up at the sky, where a layer of blue-white light covered the entire city. It resembled a massive dome pressed down from above, but countless thin bolts of electricity continuously ran across its outer surface, occasionally colliding and producing cold crackling sounds.

Right then, a notification panel appeared in midair.

[Second round of the trial.]

[Survival Arena.]

[Number of participating representatives: 27.]

[Condition to pass: Be the last representative alive.]

Laira looked at the final line, the corner of her mouth slowly curving upward, while Ruo Yan frowned slightly. The announcement wasn’t finished.

[Every 60 minutes, the safe zone will shrink once.]

[Anyone outside the safe zone after the shrinking completes: Death.]

[Eliminated participants will release all accumulated Trial Energy.]

[This energy will be transferred to the person who directly eliminated the target.]

[Partners are permitted to assist their bonded representative.]

[A representative’s death means the entire formation loses its qualification.]

[No restrictions on combat methods.]

[No rules prohibiting kills between members of the same zone.]

[Only one victor.]

All three fell silent for a few seconds. Ethan reread the last line, then looked at the electromagnetic dome surrounding the city.

Only one victor meant that even if a Safe Zone sent in three or five representatives, those people would ultimately have to deal with each other. If they didn’t want to kill their teammates, they could still hold hands and wait until the dome shrank, then die together outside the safe zone.

This trial made no effort to hide its intent; it wanted to force everyone into becoming hunters, trading other people’s lives for their own power.

"Really not planning on letting many people make it back alive." Ethan exhaled.

Ruo Yan looked at him. "You’re only realizing this now? The first person last round was crushed into pulp."

"I still thought a competition between cities would at least maintain some decorum."

"You expected that from a ruin that knows how to laugh?"

Ethan couldn’t argue back, so he just tilted his head to look at Laira. She had her arms crossed, surveying the deserted streets as though selecting the most convenient direction for killing people.

"Kill twenty-six people and that’s it?" Laira asked.

"We don’t necessarily have to kill all of them ourselves."

"But in the end only one representative gets to live."

"I know."

"So what’s the difference?"

Ethan looked at her completely serious expression and fell quiet for a moment. For Laira, if one person wanted to kill him then she’d fight one, if twenty people wanted to kill him then she’d fight twenty; the number had never been an issue.

Ruo Yan was calmer than he’d expected, because she only looked at the announcement one more time before saying: "We don’t belong to any of the seven Safe Zones to begin with, and Silver Moon City only has you as its representative, so at least we don’t need to worry about killing people from our own side."

"Yeah." Ethan nodded, while studying the city ahead more carefully.

Twenty-seven people, a safe zone that shrank every hour, and killing allowed the victor to absorb all of the target’s energy. This mechanism was practically designed to push everyone into hunting.

The strong would only grow stronger with each fight, while the weak would have to find someone weaker than themselves before being hunted down by others. The longer it dragged on, the fewer people remained, but the survivors would become increasingly difficult to deal with.

It was a simple, brutal, and highly effective structure.

Ethan was still thinking when a bolt of blue-white electricity suddenly ran along the energy dome in the distance. The Eye of Truth activated instantly. In his vision, that massive wall of lightning was no longer just a killing barrier; every surging current of energy inside became clearly visible, carrying extremely powerful spatial and electrical fluctuations.

The corner of Ethan’s mouth slowly curved upward.

Ruo Yan caught the expression immediately. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing."

"You just smiled."

"I smile all the time."

"Not like that." Ruo Yan stared at him. "Every time you see something worth taking, your eyes change."

Laira thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "True."

Ethan looked at the two of them, felt he’d been misunderstood far too deeply, and decided to change the subject. "Laira, what do you want to do right now?"

"Go find Cassian."

"No."

"Roamer?"

"Also no."

"Irino?"

"No need."

Laira frowned. "Then who do we kill?"

Ethan didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached into his storage space. A folding chair appeared on the ground, followed by a large sun umbrella. He chose a clean patch of ground at the edge of a small plaza, set up the umbrella, unfolded the chair, and pulled out a bottle of water before casually lying down.

Ruo Yan stood beside him and watched him complete all of this, her expression gradually becoming unreadable. "...What are you doing?"

"Resting."

"This is a survival round."

"I know."

"Twenty-six other people are out there in the city, and they could be looking for us right now."

Ethan took a sip of water and looked at her. "Even better. Saves us the trouble of looking for them."

Laira understood immediately. She sat down on a fallen chunk of concrete nearby, long legs crossed, while Ruo Yan continued staring at Ethan in disbelief.

"You’re seriously going to sit here and wait?"

"Yep." Ethan pulled his sunglasses down. "Let them fight each other."

Ruo Yan glanced at the electromagnetic dome. "It shrinks every hour. Eventually we’ll be forced into the center too."

"I know."

"And you can still just lie there?"

Laira lightly patted Ruo Yan’s shoulder, then pointed toward the glowing dome. "That’s electricity. Thunder Wing can absorb electrical energy, and the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate also needs energy. If that thing really only uses electricity to kill, then the closer it gets, the more useful it becomes."

Ruo Yan paused, turning to look at Ethan. "You two have already thought about absorbing it?"

"I was just going to test it first." Ethan replied. "If the energy has too strong a spatial component or can’t be absorbed, we’ll move like normal. But if it can be absorbed..."

"Then no need to run." Laira finished, her tone perfectly natural.

Ruo Yan was silent for a long time, then slowly brushed Laira’s hand off her shoulder. "I’m starting to feel like out of the three of us, I’m the only one actually treating this as a life-or-death trial."

Laira laughed. "You’ll get used to it."

Ethan leaned back in the chair. He truly had no reason to rush. The others would find each other on their own, would fight, exhaust themselves, and kill one another. The energy absorption mechanic would make the greedy ones unable to sit still, because nobody wanted to watch their opponents grow stronger by the minute. Ethan just needed to wait for the strong ones to emerge on their own at the end, then deal with them all at once.

Forty minutes later, the first sounds of combat drifted in from over two kilometers away. A large explosion shattered the city’s silence, and black smoke quickly rose between the buildings.

Less than five minutes after that, a different direction erupted with the clash of metal, the crack of lightning, and the roars of Partners. The once-desolate city gradually descended into chaos.

Ethan remained lying under the umbrella. Laira had pulled out a bag of snacks, and Ruo Yan had finally given up trying to convince the other two, summoning the Necromancer to stand guard nearby.

Exactly one hour later, the announcement appeared.

[Safe zone begins shrinking.]

The electromagnetic dome on the horizon immediately blazed bright. A deep rumble of thunder echoed across the city as the massive dome slowly contracted, the bolts of electricity on its surface growing denser than before. Ethan rose from his chair, and the lazy look on his face disappeared.

"Laira."

"Yeah."

Half of the Thunder Wing on Ethan’s back materialized, while the portion of Thunder Wing that had fused with Laira’s dragon wings also expanded. The electrified metallic feathers trembled faintly, quickly resonating with the energy from the approaching dome.

Laira closed her eyes to sense it for a few seconds, then opened them. The corner of her mouth curved into a pleased smile.

"Edible."

Ethan smiled too.

Elsewhere in the city, a scream of agony suddenly rang out and went silent. A general announcement appeared in midair.

[Representatives remaining: 26.]

Not even a few seconds later, the number changed again.

[25.]

Ethan looked at the two consecutive announcements, retracted Thunder Wing, and lay back down in the chair. "It’s started. Let them keep going."