Star Dome Railway, I am surrounded by strange things!

When they couldn't stop the enemy from digitizing, the roundup was declared a failure, not to mention the fact that they had even more formidable teammates waiting in the wings. With no bounty to be paid, who would want to do a losing business for the Interstellar Peace Corporation?

Looking at the timid expressions of the hyenas, Silver Wolf shook his head in disdain. After sitting on the mecha rocking car for a few times without paying any attention to anyone else, the bored girl stood up, stretched herself, turned around and said to Sam, who was fighting with literal passion:

"Let's go, let's come back next time."

After saying that, the whole person turned into pixels and disappeared without a trace.

Sam, who was in a fierce battle with Jiang Yan, heard this and launched a fierce flaming kick, forcing Jiang Yan to block with his shield. With the recoil force, long tail flames shot out from his back, shoulders, and leg armor at the same time. The entire mecha instantly flew away like a rocket through the skylight opened by another Star Core Hunter, leaving behind only a few arrogant words:

"Lucky guy, remember to tell others that you saved your life from the Star Core Hunter Sam."

The brief but extremely intense incident did not last long from beginning to end, but it seemed as if the audience had watched an entire drama. Without the interference of the "Mourning Actors" chorus, the audience was quickly rekindled with the dark duel spirit by this fierce battle, and the scene exploded in an instant!

However, all this has nothing to do with the Star Core Hunters. They left in a small spaceship and just as they arrived in low-Earth orbit, they found an entire fleet waiting for them along the star track.

Faced with countless cannons pointed at them, especially the full-band jammers specifically designed to prohibit warping and teleportation in interstellar warfare, the Star Core Hunters showed no fear. Instead, they swaggered directly into the fleet flagship's engine bay and, escorted by the security elite, arrived at the flagship's reception room. A middle-aged man was waiting there with a look of ease:

"I've been wanting to see you for a long time, Star Core Hunter."

"That's not a gentlemanly way to invite someone, Mr. Osvaldo."

Kafka sat down with a relaxed look on her face and joked. Sam and Blade had no interest in the chairs and stood directly behind Kafka.

"I don't think the uninvited Star Core Hunters from countless planets care about this. To cut a long story short, Star Core Hunters, will you serve me along with the 'Slaves of Fate'?"

Osvaldo, the head of the market development department and a true figure who was qualified to participate in the board meeting, said something so calmly that it would make outsiders drop their jaws:

"I will not interfere with your 'script', even if it means becoming an enemy of the company. On the contrary, I will provide you with a lot of assistance to make your 'script' more concise and smooth."

"All I need is intelligence about which planet you're about to operate on. Of course, if you're willing to unfold a 'script' for me on a particular planet, I'll reward you generously. How about that?"

"Sounds like a good offer," Kafka responded noncommittally.

"I need a knife to break the closed order and cut through the hard shells. As a knife, you happen to be sharp enough, that's all. Apart from that, we have no connection." Osvaldo explained concisely.

"It seems that there is no loss for us."

"So, what's your answer?"

"It's a shame that Elio asked me to reject you."

Kafka still spoke in a relaxed tone, giving an answer that was enough to put them in a desperate situation.

"Oh? I'm curious, how did you escape from here in the 'script'?" Osvaldo asked, raising his eyebrows.

"You won't stop us, that's all."

"Yeah, why should I hold a knife that will cut my palm?" Osvaldo sighed.

"Go ahead and give my regards to Slave of Fate, though he probably won't need them."

"I will, Mr. Osvaldo."

Kafka stood up gracefully and left, leaving Osvaldo's flagship with Sam and Blade.

The negotiation ended without a sound or a trace, but the pursuit was far from over.

As soon as the Star Core Hunter's spaceship left the landing bay, all kinds of kinetic and energy weapons from the fleet behind it attacked the spaceship like a storm, but all of them missed and only hit the shadow of the spaceship that was teleporting away.

"Damn it! What's the jammer doing? How long has it been transmitting?"

The captain of the flagship roared angrily in the fleet channel, but he was soon shocked to find from the report that the jamming ship had completely lost its effectiveness since some time ago, but all the crew members at the control console were completely unaware of this and had always believed that the equipment was functioning normally. It was not until they faced the questioning of the flagship that they suddenly woke up from a dream and realized that they had already been hijacked by both word magic and hacking methods.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Osvaldo, the mission has failed." The captain walked up to Osvaldo with his head lowered and apologized to him in shame.

An entire fleet can't capture a small spaceship? What a shame!

However, Osvaldo, who was on the bridge, looked at the white Yarilo VI and the Star Train on the silver track, and said nonchalantly:

"No problem, just saying hello."

"Inform everyone below to put an end to this farce. There are many more planets waiting for our 'exploration'."

--------

Sorry for the late update, please add more to compensate

Oops, I've Been Caught by a Fool!: Chapter 141: Miraculous Development

Even without Osvaldo's instructions, the tournament, which had already literally exploded, was being frantically tried by organizers to find a way to wrap it up.

In front of the entire universe, they were beaten to a pulp by the Star Core Hunters and then walked away? If they couldn't fool people, wouldn't they be collectively expelled?

Jimi, on the commentary platform, looked at his "colleagues," some of whom were in mourning, some in rage. He knew that if he didn't do something, even if he was just a special guest host, he would most likely be blamed along with them. So, driven by a strong desire to survive, he immediately responded with wit and passionately explained:

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Dark Duel is truly a Dark Duel! Its only rule is to survive and win!"

"Mr. Giovanni legally summoned the Interstellar Peace Company's security personnel, intending to use the field advantage to capture Miss Silver Wolf!"

"Miss Silver Wolf even called for help from outside the arena, utilizing a wave of support attacks from her two vicious companions to successfully escape. But unfortunately, she also gave up the game."

"But before that, Mr. Giovanni had already lost his last Ether Spirit. So the result of this dark duel is—mutual elimination! My dear friends, have you guessed it?"

"Please allow us to take a moment to clean up the competition venue. After the commercial break, the competition will be even more exciting!"

Naturally, no one would believe this kind of nonsense spoken in a hurry, but the full effect of the show was enough to make everyone ignore everything.

After the sweaty Jimi finally managed to get through with it, he was greeted with a message that made him even more dizzy:

"What? Aside from the Xianzhou Division champion, Gui Naifen, and Xing, who inherited the overall championship, all registered Ether Spirits have been deleted? There aren't even any backups? What's the point of fighting?"

After hearing the news, Jimi was so frightened that the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Is this a big deal?

Are we going to just let these two fight in the finals? Would the other contestants waiting for the dark duel agree? If that were to be announced, wouldn't they just throw the "duel props" in my face?

OK, let's postpone it! We can hold it next month, and we can sell tickets again.

Unfortunately, as a seconded special guest host, Jimi did not even have the power to discuss the solution, and received a death order to end the competition as soon as possible.

Jimi, who had been driven mad by the endless stream of cruel things happening in this tournament, was terrified of being stabbed in the back by the players. He fiercely slammed his wings at the commentary desk, erupting with a rage that was enough to ignite the entire commentary desk.

"Enough, I've had enough! This kind of match is completely shady from beginning to end. Sooner or later, it will be rigged. Anyone can commentate on it. I quit!"

"Wait a minute, the original sender... Oh, Director Osvaldo?"

Although Jimi's company, Interstellar Peace Entertainment, wasn't part of the marketing department, Osvaldo, as a director, was still a powerful figure who could easily crush Jimi. After awkwardly glancing around with his bird's nimble neck, Jimi slid to his knees at lightning speed.

"Um, ah, well... although I have reservations about this decision, out of professionalism, I, Jimi, will still stand guard until the competition is completely over."

"What? Just follow the script? No problem, no problem. Jimi, a professional host like me can adapt to any situation."

Soon, the entire stadium's live broadcast signal was hijacked again, and the AI-generated Silver Wolf voice was played:

"Ahem—can you hear me? Hello, hello—"

"Although my competition was interrupted by those company dogs, you still can't even think of winning the championship while I'm away. It's just a dark duel, so why bother defeating your opponents one by one? I'll give you a small gift. See you next time, you defeated opponents. Bye!"

As soon as the words fell, countless arcs of electricity exploded in the contestant's booth. With the exception of Gui Naifen and Xing, all the contestants' Ether coins were completely reduced to coins as the Interstellar Peace Company security personnel manipulated the base station to forcibly overload it.

When things get truly awful and beyond repair, the simplest solution is, of course, to set the barn on fire. Who better to take the blame than a ruthless, unscrupulous Star Core Hunter? And she did exactly that, and it wasn't even an injustice; everyone just made up some lines to fit her character.

So shortly after this "emergency" occurred, the live broadcast signal was turned on again:

"Dear audience, just now, Miss Silver Wolf hijacked the competition base station and launched an indiscriminate attack on all the contestants, instantly wiping out all their Ether Spirits!"

"Jimi despises her gaming ethics, but under the rules of Dark Duel, everything is reasonable. This is a textbook surprise attack!"

This kind of complete nonsense commentary unexpectedly received a lot of applause and screams from the audience. After all, whenever the audience feels that "no matter what happens, they will not be surprised anymore", there will always be new and exciting things to break their cognition.

Under such wave after wave of brutal action, few sane spectators remained in the arena. Even after several regional champions were inexplicably hacked away, the audience didn't find anything amiss when the perpetrator was Silver Wolf. Because everything was a dark duel, everything was a dark duel. That logic made perfect sense!

After discovering that he had not been attacked by angry laser cannons or bazookas, Jimi became more confident and said passionately:

"Is Miss Silver Wolf going to win the championship of this Ether Front Tournament?"

"No! The latest news from the scene is that two strong men resisted Miss Silver Wolf's surprise attack! They are still alive! They are still eligible to participate! They are destined to achieve a higher ranking than the disqualified Silver Wolf. Let us applaud these two contestants who thwarted the Star Core Hunter's conspiracy!"

"They are Miss Gui Naifen from the Xianzhou sub-competition area, and Miss Xing from the Starry Sky Train, who defeated the previous champion using the Dark Duel rules to qualify!"

Following Jimi's explanation, the live camera instantly turned to the bewildered Gui Naifen and Xing. Even though they had been well prepared and had even rehearsed for several days, they had no idea that before Silver Wolf could do anything, the Interstellar Peace Company would shamelessly arrive with a fire dragon and burn down their warehouse.

But mentality is ultimately about comparison. Compared to the other players who had accumulated Ether Spirits for years, even decades, and were now crying and pounding their chests in agony as all their Ether Spirits were deleted, the two surviving players remained calm (bewildered) and responded with composure (prepared for the situation). They undoubtedly displayed the demeanor of a great general, and quickly received countless praise and applause:

"As expected of the pioneer of the Dark Duel, the nameless Dark Master who stole all of Miss Toppa's Ether Spirits and honor!"

"No wonder Miss Gui Naifen was able to break out from the encirclement of a group of immortals on the immortal boat. This ability is truly extraordinary!"

"Fight, fight!"

This high emotion quickly turned into cheers and screams, and as the two girls stepped onto the competition field, it eventually turned into a huge wave that covered the entire stadium.

"Next up is the champion of the Xianzhou Luofu Division, the famous Xianzhou anchor, gourmet, and paranormal expert, Miss Gui Naifen!"

Such an occasion was not a problem for Gui Naifen, who had been performing at a stall in Changletian for many years. Facing the gazes of the entire universe, she took out her gongs and drums without any stage fright, summoned Di Ting, performed a few pet tricks, and then said in a low voice:

"My little sister has just arrived in your precious place, so I'll show off my skills and perform for you. A few melons and two dates are not too little, and I'll spend a fortune to show my friendship. Please don't say anything gossipy, I'll give you a show to watch!"

"My dear family members throughout the universe, I'm Guinevere. If you think I'm doing well, please follow my livestream: Little Guizi Guinevere!"

This violent cross-platform traffic diversion almost choked Jimi on the spot. Seeing that the other party was about to speak, he quickly said:

"Next up is the hero of Beloberg, the unknown guest of the Thousand Star Tour, the pioneer of the Dark Duel, and the mysterious dark wizard who defeated the previous champion—Miss Star!"

Xing naturally lacked Gui Naifen's eloquence, but she had already decided to use the gesture of a strong person instead of words. So she raised her left arm horizontally, bent it to her chest, and held her ether coin tightly in her right hand. After forming the perfect posture she had practiced all night, she shouted the words of a strong person that were indispensable in a duel:

"Duel! My turn!"

Afterwards, without waiting for Jimi to shout the start of the game, Xing flicked the ether coin with his fingers, summoned the ether spirits and ordered them to attack. Then he took out his huge fire spear without hesitation, rushed to the front, and went straight to Gui Naifen who was about to summon the ether spirit.

Are you kidding? The Aether Front is known as the Initiator Front. So what's the point of not taking the initiative? As the "Dark Duel Pioneer," it makes sense for me to launch a surprise attack at the start! After all, the key to winning in a turn-based game is to make the opponent unable to act during your turn and be forced into prison. If you can't control their Aether Spirit, controlling their Summoner will work just as well!

As the scriptwriter, Gui Naifen was certainly prepared. Before Xing could charge, several gelatinous firecrackers exploded in her path, instantly unfurling several layers of giant mucous membranes in the air like bird nets.

After completing these, Gui Naifen calmly summoned the Ether Spirit:

"It's my turn!"

How could such a non-lethal weapon possibly withstand Xing, who was unleashing the Protective Flame? Almost instantly, the mucous membrane was completely transformed into black particles by the blazing amber lance, and Xing, drawing a long line of fire, easily passed through this barrier.

However, before she could rush to Gui Naifen, she bumped head-on into the three electromagnetic listeners that were originally under Gui Naifen's feet.

She can launch a surprise attack at the beginning, so it makes sense for me to lay mines before the start!

The audience was shocked to find that the little Di Ting, which they had originally thought was just summoned by Gui Naifen for the show effect before the game, was actually a bomb. No matter if it was pierced mercilessly by Xing or passed by Xing, it would immediately explode, emitting a large ball of dazzling electric arc, and the electric light seemed to have eyes and flew straight towards Xing's body.

Even though Xing used his lance to hit the last Di Ting far away like a baseball, the lightning still crossed the long distance and shot at Xing, who was forced to stop and use the lance to unfold the shield.

What's going on? Why are all these lightning bolts tracking?

After a long uproar, Jimi's passionate commentary resounded throughout the venue again:

"Thanks to the on-site security department for providing the information. It's graphite. She added graphite! The firecrackers thrown by Miss Gui Naifen aren't just to restrict Miss Xing's movements, but to cover the space above the ring with extremely conductive carbon filaments. This way, no matter how Miss Xing tries to dodge, she can't escape Miss Gui Naifen's pursuit. No wonder contestant Gui Naifen is wearing heavy power armor. It turns out it's for insulation. What a beautiful combo!"

All the audience suddenly realized that it was a graphite bomb used in war! As expected, it was a contestant in the finals, and it was really dark!

Using this trick, Gui Naifen successfully bought time and successfully mixed his etheric spirit with Xing's etheric spirit. But this was not the end. After using the Di Ting and Gel Firecrackers, Gui Naifen went even more crazy and continuously summoned various modified versions of Beloberg's autonomous mechas to launch a siege on Xing.

How could just throwing firecrackers and releasing dogs really be effective? So, during a break from discussing the script, Gui Naifen, a major anchor, capitalized on her expertise and, under the pretext of "helping sell the product," successfully obtained a large number of automatons from Bronya.

Although Beloberg did not have any strange profession like "anchor", since he was Jiang Yan's friend, Bronya would naturally not refuse this request, not to mention that she was also worried about how to deal with the old equipment after the Silver Mane Iron Guards gradually replaced their equipment with the Xianzhou standard equipment.

So Bronya simply gave Gui Naifen a large number of captain machines and enhanced machines that looked good and were even specially modified and strengthened, just to allow this "big anchor" to produce better program effects.

Gui Naifen did not disappoint Bronya. Under the siege of a large number of "Grizzlies", "Tooth Wolves", "War Dogs", "Beetles" and "Spiders", and even submarine-explosive mechas, the show effect instantly exploded!

The battle between the Black Tower and the Silver Wolf was so high-level that no one could comprehend the sheer amount of effort put into it by both sides. But everyone understood the automatons! Watching a mountain of high-end weaponry being thrown at them like they were free, only to be stabbed into scrap metal by the Amber Lance, was incredibly thrilling!

"This Dark Duel is way too dark! Is the championship prize enough? This submersible bomber... isn't cheap?"

"Who cares? As long as she looks good, that's all. Fight her! Fight her!"

"Quickly control the Ether Spirit to attack, don't give her any chance!"

"Wow! That fat mech jumped up! Smash it! Smash it to death!"

However, facing such a desperate siege, Xing did not lose instantly and quickly as the audience imagined. Instead, he dodged all attacks in a thrilling and brilliant manner as if he had opened his future vision. Every time he counterattacked, he could easily blow up one or even several automatic robots, winning cheers and support from countless audiences.

Well, the two of them practiced this action scene for several days and broke several automatic robots. It would be strange if it wasn't exciting.

However, even so, with Gui Naifen's unlimited reinforcements and supplies, Xing's chances of controlling his Ether Spirit are gradually becoming fewer and fewer, and the Ether Spirit's health and status are becoming precarious.

"Your life is like a candle in the wind, just admit defeat!" Gui Naifen proudly declared victory and issued a secret code for the next stage according to the script. Many viewers also believed that this dark wizard, whose way of playing the ether front was not dark at all, had basically no hope of turning the tables.

Fighting the Ether Front without even bringing a laser cannon, you still want to win? That's too stingy!