Chapter 1298
The entire international academic community was stunned into silence. They were completely numb.
The global media focused their cameras exclusively on the Elyndor delegation.
The foreign elites, experts, and competitors who had looked down on Elyndor during the opening ceremony now stared at the leaderboard with ashen faces, unable to utter a single word of mockery.
The host nation, Severia, suffered the ultimate humiliation. They were dragged through the mud on their own home turf.
Despite the organizers funneling all the resources and advantages to the Severian team, they were absolutely crushed by Elyndor.
They didn’t just miss the top thirty. The host nation failed to secure a single spot in the top fifty.
By the end of the fifth round, Elyndor had the highest number of competitors advancing to the finals.
They dominated the globe with absolute authority.
The crushing defeat left the other nations without even the will to complain.
The world only saw Elyndor’s ruthless victory march.
But no one knew the truth.
Every time Serena stepped onto the arena floor, every line of code she typed during the simulations, wasn’t just to win the competition.
She was hunting for a backdoor.
She never stopped decrypting the permissions for that hidden elevator.
Before the matches, during the intermissions, and after the buzzer sounded. As long as she was near a networked device, she was tearing through the organizers’ firewalls, systematically peeling back the security layers hiding the elevator’s core port.
She was a cold, calculating predator, tracing the faintest digital footprint straight to Obsidian’s throat.
She split her focus flawlessly.
Crushing the world’s top intellectuals with one hand.
And hijacking the arena’s internal network with the other, ruthlessly tearing apart the foundational code protecting Obsidian’s secrets.
Meanwhile, the Prescott family was descending into sheer panic.
Desmond Prescott hadn’t slept in days.
This was no longer just about losing a tournament.
It was about survival.
Obsidian was growing increasingly furious with his failures.
He stared at the massive broadcast screen, the Elyndor flags shining a blinding,
mocking red at the top of the leaderboards.
He hurled his crystal glass at the
wall, shattering it into pieces. His et
face was livid, his eyes wild with
fegor and anxiety
The elite Mutated Augments he sent to assassinate Serena at the hotel hadn’t
returned.
They had vanished without a trace.
And yet, there she was on the
broadcast, looking completely
unbathered and radiant as sh
publicly humiliated Severia time and time again.
What did that mean?
It meant she had quietly slaughtered every single Augment he sent!
It meant the secret of the Augments was likely compromised!
Those things were supposed to be unstoppable killing machines. How could a
twenty-year-old girl wipe them out?
Just how many secrets was the Elyndorian Captain hiding?
And who the hell was backing her?
Desmond’s dread deepened with every passing second until a vicious resolve took
over.
He couldn’t wait any longer.
If he didn’t eliminate Serena, and she
exposed the truth about the
Augments, his family wouldn’t just be ruined. Obsidian would slaughter every last Prescott to cover their tracks.
“Since a covert assassination failed,” Desmond snarled, a lethal glint in his eyes,
“we take her out on the arena floor p>
He immediately mobilized his most loyal operatives embedded within the tournament’s security force.
He armed them with custom-designed syringes loaded with Obsidian Neurotoxin.
They just needed to catch her in a blind spot. Just one second of proximity p>
One injection, and even if she didn’t die, she would be permanently paralyzed.
Backstage at the arena.
The corridor lights flickered dimly near the corner.