Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 75: Decaying City (4)

Outside the arena, Roukujou exclaimed with pride, "Fantastic! Pinky skillfully switched her mechanical arm to a sword blade, catching the opponent off-guard and piercing his cockpit, eliminating him!"

"But I must say, Pinky’s not getting enough attention," Roukujou added wistfully.

The audience questioned:

[Isn’t Pinky already quite popular?] fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

[Saltyfish, no need to be humble now.]

"No, that’s not what I mean," Roukujou glanced at Olivia, then continued, "If Pinky were more well-known, the opponent would have known about her quick arm-to-sword transformation and been prepared. But this opponent clearly didn’t anticipate it, exposing his cockpit to Pinky. He was practically handing her the chance to eliminate him."

[Oh, I see.]

[Guys, go to Olivia’s streaming channel. You should see her face.]

Olivia didn’t looked happy now.

Teammate A’s performance was baffling. With "Lady" right in front of him, he still had his firepower and bullets left. Logically, he should have easily dealt with "Lady," or at least taken her down with him. But instead, he got eliminated by "Lady" first. That was very confusing and frustrating, and Olivia had never seen any of Hephaestus’ being so slow and... stupid.

"It was a mistake," Olivia managed a strained smile at the camera. "Let’s continue watching the match."

The audience was less forgiving this time, bombarding the chat with questions:

[How could he lose like that?]

[What is Hephaestus’ teammate doing?]

Some more rational comments suggested:

[Perhaps Hephaestus’ teammate wanted to let the opponent get close enough to then use the remote cannon for a mutual takedown. But they didn’t anticipate the opponent’s quick action and died before firing.]

If Teammate A were there, he’d certainly cry foul. He was about to pull out a gun to finish his opponent just now, but her knife suddenly turned into a 20-meter longsword, killing him first. No one had seen that coming.

But the fans of Hephaestus and Olivia, blinded by the blunder, flooded the chat with questions. Olivia, no longer daring to delete comments, pretended not to see them and continued, "We must have faith in Hephaestus. He won’t let us down."

On the field, Philip saw another blue dot representing a teammate vanish, his felt quite frustrated. But it wasn’t the time for blame. He rallied his spirits, checked his situation, confirmed the elimination of an opponent, and then ran towards a further location.

With two opponents left and only three minutes remaining in the match, Philip just needed to survive without a total team elimination and prevent Oniyon from being captured to avoid an utterly disgraceful defeat.

With two minutes left, Yuka abandoned her search for the last member of the blue team. The city map was too complex; even if she found him, there was no guarantee of a kill in under two minutes. The effort wasn’t worth it.

Yuka turned back towards the square, searching for the blue team’s defensive position.

With just thirty seconds left in the match, Yuka finally located the submerged Oniyon in the center of the square’s fountain, grasped it in her mecha’s hand, and left the square.

[Congratulations to the red team for the victory.]

[Remaining players on the field: Red team - 2; Blue team - 1.]

[Oniyon status at the defensive point: Red team Oniyon - secured; Blue team Oniyon - lost.]

[The match is now concluded.]

In the commentary booth, Roukujou, satisfied, sipped his tea and addressed the audience, "Guys, this is a great result, Pinky’s team [Yeah, whatever] has won the final victory!"

[We knew Pinky was the best!]

[Pinky killed one mecha alone and helped take down another, amazing!]

On the field, Philip, seeing the end-of-match notification, was utterly disheartened. It wasn’t just him; Olivia and her live stream audience were also very disappointed.

In the last two minutes of the match, they helplessly watched Hephaestus, clutching his right arm, flee across the map like a beaten skunk.

After a silence, Olivia’s live stream erupted in comments. Some viewers started hurling abuses, the more rational ones remained silent, and others, agitated, stormed into Roukujou’s streaming channel.

[It’s just good luck, what are you bragging about?]

[If it wasn’t for Hephaestus’ team’s poor initial positioning and your team conveniently having a sniper, could "Lady" have won?]

[What kind of play was that?]

Roukujou’s stream viewers retorted with heated replies:

[Hope you get as lucky as them next time.]

[They are losing it.]

[Can’t believe it, it’s just a game, and someone’s actually so upset, yelling and crying like a baby?]

[Coming to the winners channel to vent frustration because your team lost, losers?]

[Let’s be fair, Origio had the time and opportunity to move initially, they failed because of their strategy. And now you’re blaming bad luck?]

Seeing the situation escalate, Roukujou quickly messaged Olivia and then disabled the co-commentary. He explained the situation to the newcomers, and turned off the live chat, finally calming the chaos.

Back at the starting interface, Yuka found her team had moved up a rank. She, along with Ayoi and Alex, exited the room and headed straight for Mr. Bald’s betting stand.

Mr. Bald, having just made a hefty profit, greeted them with a beaming smile, "You just missed an exciting match. Though the first fifty minutes made me sleep... Anyway, the team ranked third in the group matches defeated the second-ranked team. Right now, quite a few people are wailing and gnashing their teeth over it."

Yuka and her teammates exchanged glances. On the ranking board, Yuka had pushed down the teams previously in fourth and third place, while Ayoi and Alex had entered the top hundred.

"Shall we continue to play?" Yuka asked.

Ayoi and Alex responded, "Yes."

So the trio turned and left, leaving Mr. Bald scratching his head in confusion.

As Yuka and her team entered the room, they passed by Philip and his teammates. Neither group paid much attention to the other.

Lory, standing under the large screen in the hall, saw Philip and his team emerge. He approached and clapped Philip on the shoulder, feigning ignorance, "How does it feel?"

Philip shrugged off his hand and walked away with his teammates without a word.