“Holy sh**!”

Xu Jingyao was still ranting in the chat when she suddenly noticed—

Li Nian had also joined the spectator seats!

And she just happened to be sitting right next to her.

She let out a surprised yelp and turned to Li Nian in confusion:

“Wait, what?! Nian-Sister, didn’t you say you didn’t want to waste money and time spectating fights? Why’d you suddenly come to watch Zhao Yudie’s match?”

She instinctively questioned her, then quickly realized something—

“Oh, I got it!”

“You’re here to watch Zhao Yudie beat the sh** out of that shameless bald guy, right? To get revenge for us?”

“You can totally relax! With Zhao Yudie’s strength, she’ll crush that bald guy, no contest!”

“I heard from the other spectators that when Zhao Yudie made her announcement, she had already hit a five-win streak!”

“Then, under the watchful eyes of the audience, she went on to get six, seven, and eight wins in a row!”

“This match will be her ninth consecutive victory!”

“Against that bald guy? Easy win!”

“And from what a lot of spectators are saying, Zhao Yudie has luxury gear and insanely strong combat instincts. She’s practically invincible among players of the same combat power!”

Xu Jingyao spoke with nothing but admiration and envy for Zhao Yudie.

She was completely convinced that this fight would be a one-sided stomp—

Zhao Yudie’s ninth straight victory was inevitable!

Li Nian, however, remained silent.

She simply stared at the bald man on the arena with a deep, thoughtful gaze.

After a brief moment of contemplation, she pursed her lips and dropped a bombshell:

“What if… he’s the mysterious ‘bald guy’ that made VIP players link a million duel machines?”

The second she said this—

Xu Jingyao’s eyes went wide in shock.

She snapped her head toward Li Nian, looking at her as if she had seen a ghost.

At the same time, nearby spectators who overheard her also turned in astonishment.

Before long, the entire spectator area erupted in discussion—

“Wait… could this bald guy really be the one who attracted so many veteran players to the Duel Zone?!”

“Nah, no way! He doesn’t look like he has any amazing gear.”

“Plus, if this bald dude can match Zhao Yudie, that means his combat power is only around 50. But that mysterious bald guy who pissed off those VIPs? His combat power must be over 100, maybe even a War God Ranking player!”

“Man, I hope this bald guy isn’t that bald guy. If Zhao Yudie loses her ninth win, that’d be such a shame!”

“Relax, there’s no way! Zhao Yudie’s luck is way too good for that kind of misfortune!”

While the audience chattered away—

On the arena, Zhao Yudie locked eyes with the bald-headed Jiang Ye and felt her heart skip a beat.

But she quickly shook it off, reassuring herself—

"No way my luck is THAT bad!"

"Besides, anyone who could piss off the big shots must have over 100 combat power. There’s no way they’d get matched with me."

"This match… should be easy!"

Jiang Ye, meanwhile, had no idea what the spectators were thinking.

He simply looked around at the growing crowd—

And felt ecstatic.

These spectators?

They were all money waiting to be earned!

At the same time, he noticed—

In previous empty arena fights, the battle would start immediately after a three-second countdown.

But this time—

Whether because of the large audience or because of Zhao Yudie’s special seat number—

There was actually a two-minute prep time before the match.

Which worked out perfectly—

Because in those two minutes, more and more spectators poured into the arena.

Meanwhile…

Inside the Duel Room of Beginner Apartment 1008—

Xiao Likun and Wang Qiang were staring at the screen for Duel Machine No. 2, absolutely dumbfounded!

Wang Qiang gawked, stammering in disbelief:

“T-This… this woman… looks exactly like Zhao Yudie!”

Xiao Likun swallowed hard and snapped:

“‘Looks like’?! F*** that, this IS Zhao Yudie!”

Wang Qiang’s jealousy exploded—his eyes turning bloodshot with envy:

“F***?! Who the hell is this bald guy?!”

“This lucky bastard actually ran into celebrity Zhao Yudie?!”

“And I’ve never seen Zhao Yudie in this outfit before! Black vest, black tights—just look at those curves…”

“Damn! She’s literally the peak of pure temptation!”

Xiao Likun nodded, completely agreeing:

“A celebrity is a celebrity. Her looks and figure are flawless! And that badass aura… F***, she’s exactly my type!”

“Damn! That bald dude! Even if he loses the fight, he’s already a winner in life!”

“Man… I wonder which Beginner Apartment Zhao Yudie is in. Her apartment mates are so lucky!”

“She looks crazy strong! That bald guy is definitely losing!”

While the two of them stewed in jealousy—

While all eyes were glued to the fight—

The two-minute prep time ended.

Zhao Yudie’s ninth-win battle officially began!

As soon as the countdown ended—

Dressed in all-black combat attire, Zhao Yudie shot forward like an arrow off the bow!

In an instant—

She left behind countless afterimages across the arena!

And those afterimages didn’t fade—

They lingered across the stage, making it seem like the entire arena was filled with Zhao Yudies!

From the spectator’s perspective—

It looked like the entire battlefield was covered in her figures!

And worse—

There was no way to tell which one was the real Zhao Yudie!

Li Nian, watching her fight for the first time, was stunned!

Xu Jingyao quickly explained:

“This is probably an ability from her armor set! These afterimages can’t attack, but finding the real Zhao Yudie among them is nearly impossible!”

“Plus, she can switch places between her afterimages at will! It makes her insanely agile!”

“And she also has—”

Xu Jingyao was just about to list Zhao Yudie’s other abilities—

When suddenly—

A wave of freezing air engulfed the entire arena!

In an instant—

The countless ‘Zhao Yudies’ scattered across the stage all froze in place!

And then—

They collapsed.

All of them.

Not a single one remained standing!

The entire audience went silent in shock.

Most of them hadn’t even processed what had happened…

When suddenly—

A familiar system notification echoed in the air—

【Ding! Congratulations! The contestant from seat G79-1049 has won the match!】

And with that—

Both duelists vanished from the arena…

The spectator area of the duel arena was dead silent.

A strange, eerie atmosphere hung in the air—

No one spoke for a long time.

Until—

A chorus of "Holy sh**"erupted one after another—

And then, the entire audience exploded in a tidal wave of discussion!

"Holy sh**?! Zhao Yudie got one-shot?!"

"And it wasn’t even because someone found her real body! All of her afterimages were wiped out in one go?!"

"Wait, what?! How?! No way an AoE skill should be that ridiculously powerful!"

"Exactly! Their combat power should be about the same, so how could an AoE skill possibly do this much damage?! This doesn’t make sense!"

"That ice-freeze effect that one-shot Zhao Yudie—it’s definitely not a skill! It has to be some kind of powerful item! There’s no way a skill at her combat level could be that broken!"

"Yeah! It has to be a high-tier item, probably one of those Survival Point-exclusive items!"

"F***! Zhao Yudie is so unlucky! She was so close to a nine-win streak… and just lost like that?!"

"So… does this mean that bald guy really is the one who pissed off the VIP elites?!"

"F***! I fully support the veteran players dropping in to our Duel Zone and wiping this bald bastard off the map for Zhao Yudie!"

"Yeah! He broke Zhao Yudie’s nine-win streak—this bald guy deserves to die!"

While Zhao Yudie’s furious fans raged—

Utterly ready to tear Jiang Ye apart—

Xu Jingyao and Li Nian just sat there like stunned idiots, blankly staring at the now empty arena.

Especially Li Nian—

Her gaze was still locked on the spot where "Bald Guy" had been standing,

Frozen in place, unable to recover from the shock…

Until Xu Jingyao swallowed hard, hesitantly poking Li Nian’s arm with a trembling finger—

“…Sister…”

“I just had a sudden thought…”

“…Maybe we weren’t scammed.”

“…Maybe we were flirted with.”