Apocalypse Gachapon

The third small cycle ended amidst undercurrents.

At the same time, the decision made by the races of the universe, after causing a great uproar, settled into calm. Except for those major races with absolute power, the other races were each considering their own response or directly began making arrangements.

Simultaneously, they paid even closer attention to this newcomer battlefield.

When the third small cycle ended, looking at the numbers on each leaderboard, they all gained a deeper understanding of this unique session.

This novice battlefield had the largest number of participants, with over thirty thousand people, making the competition extremely fierce.

With more people, casualties would naturally be higher—every race was psychologically prepared for this. But with less than half the time passed, the number had already dropped to under twenty-five thousand. Especially this time, the last ten percent were directly eliminated—nearly three thousand people.

Many races had lost all the people they sent, meaning their points would be reset to zero. So what if they sent three warriors in the end?

They had to start considering fallback plans.

Those with points at the top began to delve into their previously less considered various rankings, no longer focusing solely on the total points and individual points leaderboards.

Thus, some prominent figures from this novice battlefield began to enter everyone’s field of vision.

In the past, even if these novices were in first place, the races of the universe wouldn’t pay much attention. After all, they were just novices; no matter how strong, they were only strong among novices and not worth mentioning to many mature warriors. However, this time was truly different, involving numerous matters and interests.

The standout newcomers were one by one revealed, and then people began researching the reasons they could achieve high rankings.

These included those on the points leaderboard, efficiency leaderboard, etc.

Ye Zhongming was naturally no exception and was watched by many. Pulling out his development curve for comparison, everyone was shocked: Wow, this guy is addicted to killing! In less than ten days, he had already killed so many people! Most of his points came from this.

Without research, it was fine; with research, they realized: Do the rules of this newcomer battlefield encourage mutual attacks this much?

In past newcomer battlefields, although there were some stimulating measures, none were as direct and cruel as this. Mostly, they allowed mutual killing on the last day to acquire points or loot, which was already out of control.

But this time, killing someone earned one-third of their points. As the battlefield time increased, who would still hunt parasites? Everyone would kill people!

Of course, this also involved some choices. For example, amidst the frenzied slaughter, individuals could choose to hide and quietly hunt parasites, ensuring at least their own survival. In the end, with fewer survivors, points wouldn’t be low.

Also, killing people ultimately carried high risks. Some might gather a group of strong individuals to hunt together, using other point bonus rules to counter the onslaught of bloodshed. With more people, others wouldn’t easily provoke them.

After analysis, there were essentially only two paths in this newcomer battlefield: either collective hunting or killing for points. There was no third way. The idea of individuals with strong strength hunting alone—this elite path sounded plausible, but was actually a trick question. Such people would either hunt parasites for high points and then be surrounded and attacked to death, or they would simply hunt other newcomers for more points.

Regardless of which path, it would eventually become a confrontation between two groups: the hunting group and the red-name group.

In this regard, Helsky had seen the general picture, but Ji Ruiguang truly saw through it. His reason for proposing the Great Country Plan to Ye Zhongming was based on this trend, just giving a name to this behaviour.

Looking at the high points of these people and thinking they would use this interim period to become even stronger, eventually reaching an almost invincible state, many races could no longer sit still.

In the previous two cycles, they hadn’t paid much attention, hadn’t thought much, or had thought about it but hadn’t taken it seriously, wanting to wait and see. But they hadn’t expected that among this batch of newcomers, there were too many strong players, with a huge gap in strength between them and ordinary newcomers, causing severe polarization.

The final result would likely be a sharp decrease in newcomer numbers over the next few cycles, forming several large teams of indeterminate numbers. The number able to complete the trial probably wouldn’t exceed ten thousand.

Moreover, aside from the warriors selected by a few super major races, most of the famous people were from small, minor races. This was about to turn things on their head.

Not only were ordinary races unprepared for this, but many strong races were also the same.

By the time they could send warriors in, their own people might already be dead. What meaning would this newcomer battlefield have for them then? True, the warriors you send might be strong, capable of taking out many people. However, others would also send people in, and if they were weaker, it would only be by a slight margin. What then?

Anxiety and dissatisfaction began to emerge from within many of the races of the universe at this moment, spreading across several survivor fortresses and eventually forming a huge wave.

Several super major races were caught off guard.

They held a commanding position, true, but the other races were only united around them, not their subjects or even slaves. They weren’t afraid of a few races alone—they could always find an excuse to wipe them. But once over half the races united to make demands, they had to take them seriously, even… had to agree.

This was a matter of coercion; they could only compromise.

While Ye Zhongming and the others used these twelve hours to arm and strengthen themselves continuously, a temporary meeting was held among the races of the universe. After several hours of intense debate, both overt and covert, a resolution gradually took shape.

When Zizikaba flew into the sky to announce the official start of the fourth small cycle to the newcomers below, for the first time, he wasn’t crossing his arms, and his previously annoying smile was gone.

“Now, I announce the changed rules for the fourth small cycle.”

This sentence made all the newcomers below stand still.

Changing rules again? Were they going to increase store prices or something? Increase the number of eliminations?

Many newcomers who ranked lower immediately looked unhappy.

“First, a zoning system will be implemented. Based on individual points rankings, newcomers at each stage can only enter the corresponding areas! The hunting areas are increased to fifty.”

This one sentence caused an instant uproar below.

“Silence! Anyone who continues making noise will be killed directly!”

Zizikaba used his authority to suppress the below, then continued: “Now announcing the corresponding areas. Those ranked within the last 5,000 can choose areas 1 to 15. Those ranked between fifteen thousand and five thousand from the bottom can choose areas sixteen to twenty…”