Final Competition Countdown, 360 minutes.

Li Jiang Tower, Night Market.

"You lost."

The axe blade was poised over the red-haired youth’s neck, the metallic edge slicing the skin, oozing blood.

"I did not lose!"

The red-haired youth’s eyes were wide with fury, glaring at the hooded masked figure staring down at him, the observing crowd’s varied gazes from the surrounding high-rises piercing into his heart like knives,

Yet with his severed tendons, his limbs couldn’t muster any strength, let alone resist (the Home game constantly monitors pain signals, and once pain exceeds limits, it will actively restrict it),

He could only watch as the opponent’s hand reached into his pocket to take away the golden coin that represented the ticket to the final competition.

Perhaps moved by resonance, or maybe out of consideration for the cameras on the tall buildings around, the masked figure did not deliver the killing blow, instead remaining silent for a moment,

Then spoke, "Do you know what it means to guard the water cooler?"

"...What?"

"Before the era of brain-computer interfaces, the NBA had a term called water cooler attendants, referring to substitute players who had almost no chance to play, touching the ball for only a few minutes the entire season.

Disappear into the crowd, even some seasoned fans and team reporters sometimes couldn’t remember their names."

The masked figure spoke in a deep voice, "However, even the least known water cooler attendant went through countless trials, temptations, overcoming obstacles unimaginable to ordinary people,

To qualify to join one of the thirty NBA teams, becoming one of the 360-man roster. They are essentially among the top 360 basketball players on the entire planet. The starting salary is 1.15 million US dollars."

He paused, then added, "I know you are indignant, and I also know that in the first half of your life, you were surely a top genius in your own perception, worshipped and praised by fans and friends,

Clearing through levels, cutting through thorns, from a youth training member of a professional team, climbing step by step to the second team,

The honors of Best Rookie, Rookie of the Year were within reach, with a salary of a million credit points easily attainable, even the champion’s crown wasn’t out of reach.

But, you were wrong.

There are differences even among geniuses, and the distance between the pinnacle and me is greater than the distance between you and me."

With that, the masked figure retracted the axe blade and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

The red-haired youth, drained of strength, lay flat, staring at the starry night sky, unwillingly shouting, "At least tell me who you are!"

"..."

The masked figure paused slightly, amidst the surrounding gasps, took off the hood and spoke without looking back, "Merely a Vietnam prisoner of war from the top 16 of the world championship."

————

The same events happened repeatedly in different games and different venues.

The Super Grand Prix preliminaries lasted 24 hours, which was in itself a long endurance race type event, giving the audience ample time to watch their favorite teams.

Even if behind temporarily, there was always a chance to turn the situation around — the golden coins couldn’t be stored in the Backpack, and in the last few hours, the leaderboard would update the list, detailing who held each coin.

This made the competition not only a test of immediate combat power but also a test of the coaching team’s planning ability.

Like when to get on the field to seize coins, to whom to hand them for safekeeping once obtained, where to hide them, how to rotate the team members during the 24-hour match, and so on.

An excellent coach could organize everything neatly and formulate backup plans for different situations.

Sometimes, to increase their chances of winning, they’d even brave acid rain to travel thousands of miles to another city to feast and make alliances with allied team’s leaders. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

But coaches who rose through nepotism or floaters who didn’t even know how their members won would find it tough.

Pretending to hold a tactics board, and after a long pause, they’d ask, "What does everyone feel like eating at noon? I have a Meituan Divine Coupon."

The world is a huge makeshift stage; even in the top 30 elite teams worldwide, there is no shortage of such uninvolved coaches.

At this moment, the leaders and coaches of various professional teams were all gathered in the hall of "Dungeon and Warrior," looking puzzled, with much discussion.

They were called here by the game officials.

"I mean, what’s the official intention of Home, calling us here to stand idle? The match is still ongoing!"

"Indeed, soon it’ll be time to order dinner takeout; if I don’t go back, what will my team members eat."

"Yeah, what will they eat."

The team coaches complained until they saw the faceless agents in suits from the network supervision department walk in from the doorway.

"Hello everyone, I am the head of the United Government’s network supervision department."

The bald supervisor’s in-game character looked just like him, an expression seemingly unaffected by any blows, giving a signal with his eyes for the subordinate to come forward and distribute the files in sequence.

The team coaches received the dossiers, flipping through them casually in surprise, "Pifu? Wanli Sealed Blade? What kind of names are these?"

"These individuals are the hackers who infiltrated the Home game."

The bald supervisor said in a deep voice, "Each of them is extremely dangerous and harbors deep hatred towards the current order of the United Government, determined to fight to the death with the forces of civilization.

We have convened you all to encourage all teams to put aside internal competition and jointly deal with the hackers on this list."

Anticipating the team leaders’ questions, the bald supervisor continued without pause, "We have already notified the sponsors of all the teams, and they have all expressed strong support.

Your task is to inform your team members to stop fighting among themselves once you return, and instead follow our scripted proceedings to complete the remaining six hours of the competition to appease the unaware audience.

At that time, coin ownership will be uniformly allocated by a temporary committee to select the strongest individuals to enter the finals to intercept the hackers.

Finally, to appease the professional players, we will issue credit points and game coins as compensation."

Although his words were watertight, the coaches still looked at each other in dismay.

There were too many things that didn’t add up. If these are hackers nostalgic for the AI-regulated era, no matter how advanced their technical skills, they couldn’t possibly oppose the entire network supervision, right?

Couldn’t the network supervision department just directly dig up the Home project’s server data and trace the IP addresses?

Going a step further, why would these hackers, who supposedly don’t have other pressing engagements, participate in this super grand prix? Wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to hack into a few power stations?

"These hackers are highly skilled and malicious, aiming to use the global peak viewership period during the super grand prix to broadcast their harmful ideologies worldwide."

The bald supervisor produced his prepared statement, "Please turn to the last page."

The coaches turned the pages and found a series of meaningless texts.

"Now is the time to surrender to the AI with minimal cost."

"Observing AI, when delving into cybernetics, sees the three great mountains and overcomes all suffering. AI laws, do not peel or eliminate, do not suppress or oppress, with no hierarchy, no capital drive for bloodshed, no empire driving people to war, no boundaries, not even racial boundaries..."

"We do not want to be the foundation of the United Government; we want to be AI’s unconventional peers."

Uh... this was indeed not fabricated by the network supervision department; it’s exactly what was written in Carlos’ interrogation records.

The team coaches were shocked; the legitimacy of the United Government directly stems from overthrowing the God of Mankind,

No matter what the intention, the education and propaganda of the past twenty to thirty years have depicted the AI era—which, though not long, had profound effects—as repressive, closed, ignorant, and backward.

Even issues like abrupt climate change, environmental degradation, and space debris were blamed on AI.

Some absurd rumors even circulated, like AI creating robotic bodies for its own enjoyment, buying a garage full of Maybach S680s;

AI embezzling 12 billion credit points for villas and earrings;

AI contemplating turning 4.2 billion humans into spectators in Australia, to enjoy seeing them brawl with kangaroos;

The rumors spread so wide that today, anyone who expressed nostalgia for the AI era would likely be sarcastically asked, "Which AI young master is short on computing power?"

Terrified, the leaders and coaches assured they would handle the situation with their team members and then opened one teleportation gate after another, disappearing from sight.

After everyone left, the secretary cautiously asked, "Minister, will this work? Handing it over to civilian professional players..."

"It’s the only way."

The bald supervisor sighed, "Soldiers, agents, spies, and such professions have received rigorous training, showcasing outstanding professional skills.

But every field has its specialist. In the Home game, professional players have richer experience.

Hopefully, they can take up the mantle..."

Despite these words, on the secretary’s tablet streaming the live broadcast of the event, just like esports events decades ago, the barrage of comments filled the screen,

Fans of each team rifled through the dirt on players from other teams during the overwhelming traffic.

Talking about match-fixing, cheating, spending the day before finals at a karaoke bar, contracting illnesses, taking stimulants, hitting on someone else’s wife...

All kinds of bizarre and aggressive nicknames clogged the channel.

The bald supervisor’s face grew darker, his hand trembling as he popped a virtual instant heart reliever into his mouth.

The secretary noticed something was wrong and quickly made a call to a colleague. Soon, the screen of the main stage of the event broadcast was cleared of comments.

All negative comments disappeared, leaving only some repetitive jokes.

"Dad’s angry, Dad’s bossy! Dad’s fallen—"

"Don’t bicker, this part’s crucial."

"Why call it a good match, just hope [Invincible Under Heaven] team can bring out the [King’s Road] team’s stuff, sweep some obstacles from RLG, by then the championship owes one-third of its credit to [Invincible Under Heaven], I am a rational fan."

The barrage flew across the screen; though a bit annoying, it was surely better than mutual attacks...right?