Lord of the Sky City

The research and release of the new generation of Armors have always been a war, and the frontline battle of this war will kick off in the Arena!

However, at this time, neither the Sigma Corporation nor the Uranus Corporation anticipated the involvement of a third party in this battle that was supposed to be solely theirs.
Your journey continues on empire

Actually, not to mention them, even the third party themselves didn't know that things would turn out this way.

After finishing the preliminary competition, Rocky didn't rest but immediately began preparations for the next match in earnest.

Having won the preliminary competition and secured a Combat Skill Rank, his next match would be a rank match, which is where the real competition in the Arena takes place.

To prepare for this match, everyone became busy. Orton and others were tuning the White Demon Armor based on the performance in the preliminary competition, and Rocky was also preparing for battle, as were Liliya and the others too.

The busiest among them were Liliya and her team.

The rank match is the true competition of the Arena. Although the format is mostly one-on-one, the danger level is no less than that of the melee preliminary competition, no, it is definitely higher than the preliminary competition because every participant who qualifies for the rank match is a winner of the preliminary competition, which means any opponent Rocky encounters in the rank match is capable of taking on nine opponents single-handedly!

In such a situation, it was natural for Liliya and her team to prepare in advance. The most important task was to understand the opponents ahead of time so Rocky could know his enemies as well as himself.

Fortunately, the Arena was very considerate in this aspect. The day after Rocky decided to continue in the competition, Howard, who was responsible for scheduling the matches, sent news. Not only had the match schedule been arranged, but the data of the opponents were also delivered to Rocky's hands.

Rocky's first rank match, according to his own request, was set for three days after the end of the preliminary competition, in the traditional one-on-one format. The opponent he had to face was a Fourteen-rank player—Ober.

Every winner of the preliminary competition has a minimum of Fifteen-rank. Although Rocky had performed exceptionally well in the preliminary competition, he still had to follow the rules, and normally, a contestant with Fifteen-rank, especially in their first rank match, would be matched with an opponent of the same rank. But this time, Rocky's opponent was an entire rank higher than him.

"An entire rank higher?"

Upon learning that his opponent was Fourteen-rank, Rocky glanced at Liliya and then asked, "According to the Arena's ranking rules, how many matches must a Fifteen-rank win to advance in rank?"

"Winning two consecutive matches allows direct advancement in rank, but even if you can't win consecutively, accumulating three victories guarantees advancement in rank."

Having thoroughly studied the various rules of the Arena, Liliya was able to provide the answer immediately.

Advancing in rank at the Arena isn't as difficult as one might think, at least not at the lower ranks. For example, to advance from Fifteen-rank to Fourteen-rank, one needs to win two consecutive matches or accumulate three victories in total.

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

Hearing Liliya's response, Rocky smiled, "Although the opponent's rank is higher than mine, it just means they've fought a few more matches than me. It's no big deal."

Rocky's reasoning wasn't without merit, for indeed the level of rank does measure an opponent's strength. For instance, the gap between a One-rank player and a Fifteen-rank player will be obvious, but the difference between Fifteen-rank and Fourteen-rank isn't that significant — after all, advancing from Fifteen-rank to Fourteen-rank just requires two or three victories.

However, no sooner had Rocky finished speaking than Liliya shook her head and then sat across from him.

"What's the matter?"

Seeing Liliya's serious demeanor, Rocky felt a bit puzzled — was there something wrong with what he said?

Indeed, he was mistaken.

"Rocky, your thought isn't wrong, but this time's opponent is different," said Liliya, shaking her head with resignation. She then handed a file to him, "Your opponent's name is Ober, and he's no insignificant figure."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Rocky looked curiously at the information in his hand, first noticing a photograph.

In the photo was a man in his thirties, with a buzz cut, a square face, and the corners of his mouth turned slightly upward, revealing an uncomfortable smile. This man was his opponent, Ober, who was thirty-three years old and had a fourth-generation Special Armor. He had officially begun participating in Arena matches a year ago and had participated in at least three to five matches every month since winning the preliminary competition.

As mentioned before, due to the point-based Rank system used by the Arena, contestants can keep participating in matches regardless of winning or losing, which led to the emergence of a considerable number of players who live off Arena matches. Clearly, Ober was one of them.

However, when Rocky saw Ober's information, he couldn't help but frown. Something seemed off about these details, right?

According to the data, Ober started participating in Arena competitions a year ago and has been competing in at least three to five matches per month. That means he must have participated in at least thirty to fifty Rank matches!

Having competed in so many matches, how is he only Fourteen-rank?

Liliya had just finished explaining that advancing in Ranks in the Arena isn't as difficult as imagined, especially at the lower Ranks. As long as one can maintain a win rate of 50%, no, even just over 40%, thirty to fifty matches should be enough to elevate a contestant to around Ten-rank. So, what's the deal with Ober? How could his Rank remain so low after participating in so many competitions?

With this thought, Rocky realized something was amiss and immediately looked further into the document. This further examination left him even more puzzled.

The information Liliya had given him had cost five hundred gold coins from the Shadow Alliance and was therefore highly detailed. It included not just the number of matches Ober participated in but also his win rate.

But the baffling part lay exactly there—Ober's win rate was astonishingly high!

He had taken part in fifty-six matches and won forty-nine of them, losing only seven. This brought his win rate to an impressive 87%!

This fact struck Rocky as incredibly strange. With such a high win rate, why was Ober's Rank only Fourteen-rank?

"What's going on here?"

At this point, Rocky couldn't help but look up and turn to Liliya.

"It's because of cheating."

"What?"

"Ober could win the majority of his matches with absolute superiority, but whenever his opponents surrendered, he would kill them," Liliya explained.

"Kill the opponents after they surrendered? Aren't such actions forbidden in the Arena?"

Rocky asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he turned to Liliya.

"Indeed they are forbidden. If someone does that, not only will their victory points be deducted, but their reward will also be halved, and they will be disqualified from competing for the seasonal championship," she replied with a nod.

But then she spoke helplessly,

"However, Ober clearly doesn't care about these penalties. He's deliberately using rule-breaking to suppress his Rank, allowing him to stay in the competitions for lower Ranks. In this way, he can not only continuously face lower-level opponents but his prize money isn't much affected either. After all, even if he only wins half the prize money per match, if the number of wins is high enough, it's still a significant amount."

"So Ober is quite notorious in the Arena and even has a widely known nickname..."

"The Rookie Killer—Ober!"