Chapter 180: Colosseum

"You think this is already their limit? There's something even more thrilling a few floors underground. Want to go see it?" Lin Mu said with an ambiguous tone.

Yang Yi glanced at him, growing increasingly curious about this A-level Awakener from Guangdong Province, but there was still something more important waiting for her.

The first floor underground was guarded even more strictly; one had to pass through three steel gates to reach the underground area.

A roar filled with violence pierced through the door crack. Yang Yi pushed the door open, revealing a huge circular hall before her, resembling a Roman colosseum.

Surrounding the circular colosseum were tiered spectator seats, with an occupancy rate of about seventy percent. Higher up were individual private boxes, where distinguished guests who did not wish to show their faces sat.

At that moment, two C-level alien creatures were fighting in the center of the colosseum. A circular protective shield covered the area above, emitting dark matter energy to isolate the alien creatures' attacks and prevent accidental injury to the audience. The state of the two alien creatures was clearly abnormal; they seemed to have been injected with some kind of drug, possessing no intelligence, only the instinct to attack wildly.

The protective shield isolated the attacks but deliberately retained the sound and smell. A heavy scent of blood drifted out from the colosseum, filling the entire circular hall.

Amidst the continuous roars, soon, one of the fish-scale beasts was forcibly swallowed and eaten by the other snake-like monster.

A moment later, the colosseum carrying the snake monster descended. Yang Yi casually found an empty seat and sat down; Lin Mu and Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan followed suit, sitting beside her.

"Where do all these alien creatures come from?" Yang Yi asked.

"I'm not entirely sure either; it's all hearsay. Some say they were jointly captured by the military and police departments, others say they come from the Alien Creature Research Institute, and I've also heard they were sent over by the Awakener Administration Bureau... Before the sky anomaly appeared, alien creatures were relatively scarce, and tickets for seats here were hard to get. But after the sky anomaly appeared, a large number of alien creatures came to Earth, and the number of alien creatures here increased. As long as you have a membership card for this place, you can come in to watch..." Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan explained cautiously.

Yang Yi said nothing. After a long while, she muttered to herself in confusion, "What's there to watch? Didn't you see enough during that disaster a month ago?"

Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping.

Lin Mu suddenly said, "Of course, you wouldn't find it interesting, but for these ordinary people, the feeling brought by being food for the tiger versus sitting high up in the stands is worlds apart."

Yang Yi was stunned and fell silent.

The second alien creature fight began shortly after. This time, it involved B-level alien creatures. The audience downstairs quickly became excited, the atmosphere grew increasingly intense, and the air was filled with tension.

Yang Yi observed for a while and noticed several camera-like devices around the colosseum that didn't look like surveillance cameras. "What are those?" she asked.

"Live streaming, online gambling," Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan said. "People not present at the scene can place bets online."

"Where is it being streamed? The state doesn't allow this, does it?"

Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan smiled awkwardly. "They use foreign servers!"

"Can anyone see it?" Yang Yi asked.

"It's pushed based on big data; people who usually have an interest in this are more likely to be pushed the content..."

Not only could it attract wealthy and powerful people to watch the life-and-death struggles of alien creatures from above, but it could also utilize live streaming for online gambling. The owner of this Red Building truly had a "business mind."

Gambling, drugs, and prostitution; now only drugs were missing. She actually felt a bit of anticipation.

Moreover, the underground targeted alien creatures, and she herself had no good feelings toward alien creatures, so her feelings were actually not as strong as they were on the upper floors.

Before the two B-level alien creatures fought to a conclusion, Yang Yi stood up and left the spectator seats, walking straight toward the second floor underground. Zhang Zhang Zhiyuan and Lin Mu followed closely behind.

The second floor was still a colosseum, but the opponents fighting the alien creatures had become Awakeners.

And it was a B-level Awakener, who looked young, like a student. He had obviously just awakened his electricity control ability not long ago and was not yet proficient in using his powers. Whenever he made attacking or blocking movements, he instinctively used the methods of ordinary people rather than integrating electricity control into his subconscious.

Opposite him was a C-level alien creature with pale, cracked skin all over its body, six claws, and a head structure similar to a human's. This was a smart alien creature with an intelligence level equivalent to that of a human child of seven or eight years old. Its individual attack power was not strong; it usually relied on group cooperation.

At this moment, fighting against this B-level Awakener who had just awakened not long ago, the situation was actually evenly matched. The human and the alien creature were stuck in their respective corners, daring not to move.

The audience downstairs was dissatisfied. They came here to watch a hearty, bloody, and violent life-and-death struggle, not to watch two life-loving fellows perform a contest of who could survive longer.

A moment later, some semi-transparent mist slowly sprayed out from above the colosseum; if one wasn't paying attention, they wouldn't notice it at all.

About a minute later, the eyes of the human and the beast enveloped in the colosseum changed. Their eyeballs were bloodshot, showing a kind of irrational madness.

In an instant, the human and the beast huddled on both sides rushed at each other at high speed. They entangled and fought, tearing and scratching with no technique, almost relying purely on instinct.

This played to the alien creature's strengths, and it immediately gained the upper hand. The Awakener fell into a disadvantage, acquiring several wounds exposing bone on his body. Blood mixed with chunks of flesh fell into the arena, arousing even more ferocity in the alien beast.

The Awakener seemed unable to feel pain; he still fiercely lunged forward, fighting with his limbs and teeth, completely forgetting his awakened abilities.

Yang Yi glanced around the spectator seats. The people in the seats were just now beginning to show expressions of great interest, watching the performance with amusement.

Awakeners, who were usually superior to others, were now engaging in a life-and-death struggle with a wild beast under the leisurely observation of nearly a thousand people in the venue. His life, his struggle, had now become an object for others to enjoy.

These former ruling classes tried to use the lives of Awakeners to prove that they still held the power and dignity of the past, proving that they still possessed supreme glory.

This scene was absurd yet real. Yang Yi felt her heart sink heavily. She vaguely sensed an underlying confrontation between two forces: the holders of old power and the holders of new power. Although the manifestation was not yet obvious, the signs were already beginning to appear.

Heroes are tools in the face of power—she inexplicably remembered this sentence, seemingly from some TV drama.

Did those in power also view her—Yang Yi—as a tool? A tool capable of maintaining the existing power structure? Unknowingly, had she become a defender of the old power system?

They gave her glory, then used the power she controlled to add bricks and tiles to the old power system, tightening the screws on the massive political machine that had already been loosened by the impact of the new era?

Suddenly, that C-level alien creature sacrificed one of its claws, and another sharp claw stabbed into the Awakener's abdomen as swift as lightning.

Yang Yi suddenly stood up. At the same time, the entire world suddenly froze.

The expressions of the crowd on the spectator seats varied, maintaining expressions of excitement, anticipation, or preparation to cheer, like a frozen scene in a movie.

Not only this floor, but the entire Red Building, the five floors above ground and the three floors underground, every living creature, even a small ant, had stopped at this moment, as if insects frozen in amber resin.

Yang Yi walked into the colosseum. The sturdy transparent protective shield shattered silently before her. She crouched down and carefully examined the Awakener's wound.

Fortunately, the alien creature's sharp claw had only penetrated one finger's depth and had not completely pierced the internal organs.

But his face was already gray and desolate, and life was visibly flowing out of him. Yang Yi saw many needle marks on various parts of his body, and there were green and purple scars on his head, seemingly left by wearing some kind of instrument.

"How did you get here?" Yang Yi asked softly, restoring her appearance.

"It's you... Yang Yi!" He seemed to have a final surge of energy, his eyes shooting out eager light. "The God of Humanity... you are called the God of Humanity. I so much wanted to become you... They said that as long as I cooperated with their experiments, I could become an Awakener—I awakened! I awakened!"

He suddenly stretched his hands toward the sky, trying to emit a cluster of electric sparks. "I awakened electricity control ability! I am a B-level Awakener! Did you see it?"

Yang Yi looked at his hands that he struggled to extend—he had not triggered any dark matter fluctuations. His pupils had already scattered, and his eyes held only a last bit of expectation.

"Yes, I saw it," she said softly.

"She saw it... Mom and Dad, I have superpowers too, I became an Awakener... From now on, I can finally protect you..." He murmured, and the last glimmer of light in his eyes vanished like a meteor.