Chapter 68: Helmet Hell

Chapter 68: Helmet Hell Carlos’s business always came first with Iris, and her arrangements were lightning-fast. That afternoon, several ordinary carriages quickly left Ember City, heading toward the Withered Lands... ... In his room, Carlos’s vision showed Guard #1’s perspective, looking through windows at roadside scenery. "Traveling around the clock, skeleton soldiers don’t need grub or water. With relay stations constantly switching, roughly over a week to reach the Withered Lands." He did the math in his head. Over a week of travel, then about 10 days for Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to lead 10 ordinary skeleton soldiers to ’level up’ until hitting the requirements. By this calculation, when he arrived at the meeting point in three weeks, the timing would be spot-on! "Time to hit the hay!" Carlos closed his eyes, finally able to rest easy. ... Three days after the individual competition wrapped up, Ember Colosseum buzzed with fresh activity. "Look, teams are filing out!" "Strange, why aren’t the hotshots on the same team?" "What’s strange about that? Who would take orders from whom on the same team? They usually form teams with themselves as the star, looking for teammates who’ll play ball." "Look, why is little Carlos all by himself? Are those five upgraded skeleton soldiers next to him? Where are his teammates?" "Huh? Right! Could... could those five skeleton soldiers be his teammates?" "...This kind of setup is allowed?" "..." In the arena, Carlos formed a team with five skeleton soldiers. Plus being the individual champion at only 15 years old, practically every team had their eyes glued to him. "What nerve! Does he think he can single-handedly take on our whole team?" "No matter how much of a hotshot you are, can you really beat a bunch of us? We’ll show you what’s what during competition!" "...Is it possible little Carlos awakened too recently and hasn’t found the right teammates yet?" "..." The announcer’s fired-up voice echoed throughout the venue. "...The First Ember Tournament team competition officially kicks off! The first challenge will be the ’Stone Chair Competition,’ which tests how well team members work together!" As the words rang out, rows of stone chairs rose in the colosseum—seven per row. Each stone chair had a completely enclosed metal helmet. On the right armrest of each chair were twenty cylinders with lightning, frost, flames, stench, etc., all mixed up in different orders! "Please take your seats and put on helmets within 5 minutes. Teams going over the time limit will get the boot!" Competing teams immediately quit their chatter and walked to corresponding stone chairs in predetermined order. No surprise, Carlos was assigned to Row 1. He first directed five Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to sit and put on helmets. Then he sat down himself. The helmet adjusted to the right size as everything went pitch black. "In this teamwork competition, I seem to have another ace up my sleeve." Carlos thought to himself. Could human-to-human coordination hold a candle to his soul link with skeleton soldiers? ... After competing teams were seated with helmets on, the announcer smiled like the cat that ate the canary: "This challenge’s rules are pretty straightforward. On your stone chair’s right armrest are twenty cylinders. Every five minutes, you’ll get the chance to press one cylinder. If all team members press the same cylinder, you’ll successfully move on! If you’re not in sync, you’ll get hit with attacks matching the cylinders until you get it right! When team members can’t take the heat or pass out, the team fails and gets eliminated! During competition, any talking is off-limits! Once caught, the whole team gets the axe immediately! First round starts now!" After laying out the rules, competing contestants felt like a herd of buffalo was stampeding through their heads, mentally screaming: "What the heck is this? Shouldn’t team competitions usually be ’friendly’ sparring matches? What kind of screwy coordination test is this!" "Oh boy! Which cylinder to press? First? Second?..." "The order’s all scrambled too?" "What were those cylinder attacks again?" "..." Contestants looked grim and completely torn. Of course, this didn’t include Carlos and his Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards. "I have absolutely no intention of cheating, but..." Carlos didn’t hesitate to press the lightning-symbol cylinder, then ordered five Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to press lightning cylinders too. Right away, white stone chairs flashed crimson light as helmets automatically vanished. The announcer’s pumped-up voice rang out: "There it is! In less than 1 minute, our first advancing team showed up!" "???" Contestants found this absolutely mind-boggling. Some sharp cookies cursed, already figuring out who it was. "Congratulations to our Carlos and his five skeleton buddies for successfully advancing!" Contestants again felt like a herd of buffalo was trampling through their brains: "It’s you! You again!" "I knew it was you again!" "Cheating! This is flat-out cheating!" "Summoned creatures! Ha! I get it! I see what’s happening!" "..." Carlos stood up, leading five skeletons to the prep area. Pulling out red tea for a sip, he mostly sunk his consciousness into Guard #1’s vision, taking it easy while waiting for results. ... Five minutes passed without any team making the grade. Helmet attacks kicked in! Right away, contestants’ screams filled the arena. Those getting zapped by lightning shook like leaves. Those getting hit by flames had the smell of cooking meat drifting from their helmets. ... In the arena, medics stood at the ready, prepared to haul people away at the drop of a hat. Next to the medics stood a group wearing brain-printed clothing. They were ’Mental Research Institute’ members. Currently staring at alchemical instruments, picking up various info from the helmets. Occasionally swapping notes: "Lightning #5’s brain stimulation on Psionics users is pretty darn good." "#7’s spiritual activity shows clear improvement." "#13’s knockout gas effect is lousy." "#8’s frost shows slight internal invasion reactions." "..." Medics got the shivers, looking at contestants with eyes full of pity. In front of this group, three garrison battalion commanders seeing this scene looked like thunder, couldn’t help but ask: "Won’t such attacks mess up the kids?" "Can you swear on your mother’s grave there are absolutely no problems?" "These are all future rising stars. If anything happens to them, none of you people can run far enough!" "..." Mental Research Institute members heard this. Their leader, an old codger, slowly raised his head with a serious expression: "Please don’t worry your heads, these experiments strictly stay within Psionics users’ limits—absolutely safe. At the same time, these attacks provide incredible benefits for their willpower training, helping them understand spiritual energy essence and improve spiritual perception. Otherwise, the leadership wouldn’t have given our challenge the green light." The three commanders’ faces loosened up a bit. Just then, a contestant’s helmet suddenly let out sharp red warning sounds. A Mental Research Institute member immediately worked the alchemical instruments. The helmet detached and floated up. The contestant inside was foaming at the mouth with singed yellow hair, shaking all over. Medics yelled in horror: "Quick! Quick, save him!" Two medics hustled to carry away the convulsing contestant... This scene made the three commanders’ faces change like night and day: "This... this is what you call no problems?" High-tier spiritual energy erupted all around as the air got thick as molasses. The old man’s expression stayed rock-steady, pointing to various data on instruments, calmly explaining: "Don’t let how beat-up this kid looks fool you. You can sense his life aura—no danger whatsoever. His spiritual energy is even more lively." "That’s true." The three commanders admitted the old man had a point but remained somewhat on edge. ... In the prep area, Carlos’s eye twitched. He never expected the ’Mental Research Institute’ would openly run brain-zapping experiments under the tournament’s cover!!! "Keep your shirt on. Since leadership signed off, there shouldn’t be major problems." "I remember in later years, these stone chairs made it into academies as pain tolerance training equipment, much ’beloved’ by kids." Thinking this, Carlos felt better and went back to watching Guard #1’s vision. ... On the high viewing platform, leadership seemed caught completely off guard by current circumstances...