Chapter 364 - 363: No Announcement

Chapter 364: Chapter 363: No Announcement

The word "wretched" was no longer sufficient to describe Shatterer’s horrific state.

He was like a stone statue ravaged by storms for ages, crumbling from the inside out.

His grayish-white stone skin, like ancient pottery struck by a heavy hammer, was covered in a spiderweb of cracks.

The cracks were filled with charred, rotting flesh, which sizzled and oozed dark red pus and blood.

"GHK... GHK..."

A wheezing sound, like a broken bellows, came from his throat. Each breath brought up a great gout of bloody foam, which spilled from the corners of his mouth, snaked down his cracked chin, and soaked his shattered chestplate.

The light in his murky red eyes was fading, flickering like a candle in the wind. His eyelids twitched uncontrollably, unable to even close. The muscles in his face spasmed and contorted from the excruciating pain and exhaustion, but he could no longer muster a trace of ferocity. All that remained was the dazed, grotesque mask of a man on the verge of death.

Seraphina Sinclair could see clearly that the backlash from Grace was devouring him from within.

Beneath his skin, the grayish-white patterns, like burnt-out circuits, dimmed piece by piece. Each time a section went dark, the corresponding part of his torso convulsed violently, as if invisible insects were gnawing on his marrow and sucking his bones dry.

His once-unmatched, ferocious aura had long since dissipated. A deathly gray color washed over his stone-like shell like a tide.

He tried to raise a hand, but his arm only trembled violently twice before he staggered forward, his hunched upper body lurching with the movement.

"You... GHK..."

The hoarse sounds that escaped were choked with bloody foam, never managing to form a complete sentence.

Finally, all sound turned into a single, long gasp, which came to an abrupt halt along with a final surge of blackish-red fluid.

This ferocious challenger, who had once sought to slay the top-ranked survivor, was now nothing more than a broken stone puppet consumed by the backlash of his own power. He stood amidst the ruins, slowly disintegrating, quietly awaiting his final collapse.

There wasn’t a shred of pity in Seraphina Sinclair’s eyes.

Water Dragon Roar, Moon Protection, Swift Steps, Moonlight Heart Protection Talisman...

If she had been missing any one of these items—even a single Moonlight Heart Protection Talisman—she would have been the one to die here today.

Shatterer was at the end of his rope, but the arena match wasn’t over. That meant he wasn’t dead yet.

He had said he’d be laid up for three days after using Grace. ’Perhaps... this is its negative side effect.’

Seraphina Sinclair crouched in front of Shatterer, carefully examining his condition.

The grayish-white patterns that had previously crawled over his body, granting him Strength, now encased him like fine threads spun by a spider.

Seraphina could clearly see his chest rising and falling, but beyond that, he was completely immobilized.

Having confirmed this, Seraphina didn’t hesitate for a second. She took a step forward, and the azure light of the Water Dragon Roar flared once more. With no flashy moves, she thrust it straight at Shatterer’s now-defenseless throat!

The Blade easily pierced Shatterer’s vulnerable neck.

His already fading eyes shot wide open, the last faint glimmer of light extinguishing completely. His body convulsed violently once, then fell silent.

A brilliant light enveloped Seraphina Sinclair once again.

Seraphina Sinclair knew the arena match was over.

When her vision cleared, she was back in her mobile cabin.

As far as she could see, besides everything that was already there, the cabin was now almost completely filled with a massive pile of supplies!

’When had Seraphina Sinclair ever seen a sight like this?’

The opponents she’d killed before were all clowns who had provoked her. Even Rex Shaw, the strongest person to have died by her blade, hadn’t had this many supplies.

Staring at the supplies before her, Seraphina was rendered speechless.

’Just who in the world was this Shatterer?’

’How did he collect so much stuff?!’

The sheer shock of the scene left Seraphina stunned for a good while. Even after she came to her senses, she didn’t immediately inspect her spoils of war. Instead, she opened the Zone channel.

’Shatterer was, after all, ranked number one in a Zone. Someone in the Zone channel has to know more about him than I do, right?’

She wasn’t after anything else. Seraphina just wanted to know how on earth he had obtained so many supplies!

But as soon as she opened the Zone channel, a single glance told her something was wrong.

No one was discussing her arena match with Shatterer.

No one at all. There wasn’t even... a single message mentioning her or Shatterer!

The channel was eerily silent.

All the topics still revolved around the difficult choices for this week’s C-level path. People were arguing, wailing, and cursing in their struggle for survival, but not a single word was mentioned about the arena match that had just ended.

A chill ran down Seraphina’s fingers as she scrolled through the rapidly moving messages.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

She immediately switched back to her private chat list and opened Chrona’s elite group chat.

The group was just as quiet.

Everyone had been discussing path choices an hour ago. After that, there was dead silence.

Everything was so strange, it was as if the person named Shatterer, and even his arena battle with Blacktiger Ford, had never existed.

’But that’s impossible.’

’An arena challenge is always accompanied by a system announcement. It should have caused a brief commotion, at the very least.’

’If none of that happened...’

Seraphina frowned and immediately went to check the mini-announcement board. ’That’s the source. If there’s really a problem, it has to be there.’

The mini-announcement board only displayed arena information. The most recent entry was a match between two players with unfamiliar IDs.

Unconvinced, Seraphina scrolled up several pages, but she still couldn’t find any record of her arena match with Shatterer.

As strange as it was, Seraphina finally understood the situation.

No one knew that Shatterer had used an arena certificate on her, and no one knew that she had killed him.

’This situation...’

Seraphina immediately recalled the discussion in Chrona’s group chat about the deaths of the second-ranked survivors.

Their deaths also went unannounced, and it was a large-scale event.

’Could it be... that Shatterer was the culprit?’

Idle speculation wouldn’t lead to any answers. Seraphina’s gaze slowly fell back upon the mountain of supplies on the floor.

Equipment, various materials, neatly stacked basic resources, and some strangely shaped items...

’This doesn’t seem like an amount a lone survivor could steadily acquire.’

"Upon successfully killing an opponent with an arena certificate, the killer will receive all of the opponent’s supplies!"

This line from a system announcement suddenly surfaced in her mind.

’Only by constantly using arena certificates and repeatedly killing other survivors... could someone accumulate such a terrifying amount of wealth in such a short time.’

’This seems to be the truth behind the incident with the second-ranked survivors.’

’She was just one step away... from being certain.’

Seraphina still needed to find the item that allowed Shatterer to do all this. ’What on earth helped him hide the arena certificate announcements?’

She took a deep breath. Just as she was about to start sorting through the supplies piled up in her mobile cabin, she heard an unusual noise.

Seraphina immediately looked toward the sound. A mountain of wood was tumbling down. A piece of wood near the bottom of the pile was moving, jostling upwards as if something underneath was pushing it.

Seraphina’s eyes sharpened, and her grip on the Water Dragon Roar tightened instantly.

She silently took half a step back, turning to the side to get out of the direct line of fire, her gaze locked on the pile of tumbling wood.

’It wasn’t an illusion.’

’Something was really moving.’

’Was it a final trick Shatterer left behind before he died? Or some kind of danger attached to the supplies?’