On the rooftop, Mo Ying looked down and saw... the walls of other buildings.

Although her spawn point was on the roof, the problem was that this building only had five floors. In a downtown district filled with skyscrapers, it could only be considered short.

Mo Ying tapped the screen of her watch. Bounty hunters were used to working alone, but in a team battle like this, it would be better to find a partner.

“Oh, we found someone.”

A voice came from behind her.

Mo Ying turned around. Two men and one woman had arrived.

“Hello, milady. Although you’re wearing a mask, I can tell there must be a beautiful face beneath it, so would you perhaps—”

The man with a coat draped over his shoulders spoke in a somewhat flirtatious tone before the woman beside him cut him off.

“Brent, don’t hit on ladies in a situation like this!”

She glared at Brent, then pointed at herself and the sleepy-looking man beside her.

“I’m Serena Ashford. He’s Dmitri Volkov, and he is—”

The man with a coat draped over his shoulders took over.

“I’m Brent Hayes.”

These three already seemed to have formed an alliance, Mo Ying thought.

However, Serena and Dmitri were not members of the Hayes family, yet they had managed to cooperate so quickly. That meant the force backing them was likely...

Heliox Consortium, a giant multinational corporation. Alongside the Hayes family, they were one of the great business powers, and the two sides were closely connected.

Though it was a company, it also possessed many Affinity Users.

“Mo Ying.”

Mo Ying nodded.

“So... are the three of you planning to come at me together?”

“Luck allowed us to gather at the very start. We have no intention of wasting that advantage.”

Brent had none of the burden of being from one of the Three Great Families. He saw nothing wrong with three against one.

Both sides drew their weapons, and the atmosphere grew tense.

The drone seemed to sense that a fight was about to break out here and slowly drifted over.

Brent moved first.

Terra Affinity Ability: Gravity Field.

He could strengthen or weaken gravity within an area.

Mo Ying instantly felt both her body and the scythe in her hand become heavier.

Brent then charged at her.

“Helios Online Marketplace will be holding a special sale next week! Many products will be discounted, so don’t miss it!”

Serena suddenly shouted toward the drone.

Brent stumbled and nearly got hit by Mo Ying’s scythe.

“Why are you advertising at a time like this?” he asked.

Mo Ying had the same question.

“This livestream has hundreds of millions of viewers. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wouldn’t it be a waste not to advertise? And it’s free.”

Serena stepped forward and placed a hand on Brent’s shoulder.

“Besides, advertising doesn’t stop me from buffing you.”

White light enveloped Brent.

Brent lowered his palm as if pressing something downward.

Gravity increased again, making it difficult for Mo Ying even to stand.

Serena was a Harmony Affinity User. The specialty of this Affinity was support, helping allies bring out stronger effects from their abilities.

“Exactly.”

Dmitri nodded, then pulled an old phone out of his coat pocket.

“Got outdated devices you want to get rid of? Visit our RevoLoop website. We’ll collect all kinds of old equipment and have experts appraise them. A phone like this one in my hand could get you one hundred Galt.”

Dmitri tried to smile, but his expression looked stiff.

Now experienced with this nonsense, Brent kept a calm face, though a trace of speechlessness could still be read from it.

Then Mo Ying looked toward Brent.

Her expression seemed to say: Why aren’t you advertising too?

Brent: “...”

“Oh? It seems the first clash has turned into commercial break time,”  Nine-Nine said.

“From Helios United Group’s perspective, I can understand why they’d seize this opportunity,” Lu Lin commented.

“Now that you mention it, I do have some old devices at home that need recycling...”

“Ahem. Right then, we can clearly see the advertisement is highly effective. Let us return to the match. At present, contestant Mo Ying is being suppressed by Brent’s enhanced gravity field, while contestant Dmitri is glowing all over. He appears to be a Radiance Affinity User. Surrounded by three opponents, can contestant Mo Ying break through?”

Dmitri held a giant sword taller than himself, radiating holy light.

He effortlessly raised it and brought it down toward Mo Ying.

Clang!

The scythe wrapped in black-and-gold flames blocked the descending blade. The shockwave from the collision forced Serena to take a step back.

“She blocked that attack even while under gravity suppression! It seems this contestant from the Bounty Hunter Association is not to be underestimated!” Nine-Nine exclaimed.

Mo Ying swung hard, forcing Dmitri back several steps.

Then she snapped the fingers of her free hand.

A flaming lotus appeared beneath Brent’s feet.

“Not good!”

Serena grabbed Brent and jumped backward. Dmitri remained where he was and took a defensive stance.

Boom!

The fire lotus exploded, but the three escaped injury thanks to timely evasion and defense.

“Looks like we need to be more careful.”

Brent cast a pale golden barrier over himself and Serena.

“In a one-versus-three battle, contestant Mo Ying is temporarily holding the upper hand! She’s not an easy opponent at all. But Brent’s expression has turned serious. Is he finally getting serious now?” Nine-Nine reported excitedly.

“That statement makes it sound like he wasn’t serious before,” Lu Lin said.

Still, he could tell Brent had been somewhat careless at first because of their numerical advantage.

“How will this develop next—wait?”

From the smoke caused by the explosion, Mo Ying suddenly burst out. Her scythe swung fiercely toward Brent and Serena, producing a heavy thud upon impact.

“You can still move that fast under an enhanced gravity field?” Brent stepped back a pace, while Serena was sent flying outright.

However, the power of the strike had been weakened by the intensified gravity. In addition, Terra Affinity excelled at defense, so the barrier only cracked before quickly repairing itself.

Moving under increased gravity was extremely taxing. Mo Ying shouldn’t be able to keep this up for long... no, hard to say, Brent thought.

Then let’s make it even harder. With Serena’s assistance, it should be possible...

Just as Serena was about to stand up, the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake. Then the rooftop floor directly collapsed.

Serena nearly fell back in again. Dmitri managed to steady himself, but shot Brent a resentful glare.

You reckless idiot who doesn’t care about your teammates at all. I should never have teamed up with you.

“Sorry!” Brent shouted as he charged toward Mo Ying, who stood at the center of the collapse.

Gravity intensified to an absurd level. Mo Ying dropped to one knee, about to fall along with the crumbling floor.

“The tide has turned! What can contestant Mo Ying do now to reverse the situation? Or is this the end?” 

A fire lotus appeared once more.

But this time, it bloomed beneath Mo Ying’s feet.

Boom!

Using the force of the explosion, Mo Ying launched herself straight in front of Brent.

Brent was shocked that she could still move, but he did not panic. There was no way she could break through his defense in such a short time.

But Mo Ying made a puzzling move.

Holding her scythe like a baseball bat, she swung with all her might.

Brent was sent flying straight into the sky.

“Home run!” a spectator shouted.

Then Mo Ying, who had been suppressed by gravity moments ago, leapt lightly into the air.

“As I thought. Your control over gravity weakens the farther you are from the ground, doesn’t it?” Mo Ying said.

“...”

Brent gave no reply, but the gradually returning normal gravity said everything.

“Heh. How did you figure that out?”

Knowing he could no longer deny it, Brent strengthened the barrier around himself as he spoke.

“When you jumped to dodge earlier, gravity weakened slightly.”

“You could sense something that subtle?”

Mo Ying swung her scythe toward Brent.

At the same time, after confirming Serena was unharmed, Dmitri also leapt into the air, his radiant sword poised to strike.

With one slash, Mo Ying cracked Brent’s barrier.

Then she turned and stared directly at Dmitri.

Dmitri met her gaze.

Then he saw the scythe flying toward him.

His massive sword was like paper before it—fragile beyond belief. It was severed in a single strike.

Then the scythe cleanly took off his head.

“Huh? What just happened? Contestant Mo Ying only looked at contestant Dmitri once, and contestant Dmitri suddenly fell from the sky as if he’d lost consciousness?” Nine-Nine exclaimed.

Brent also wanted to think about that question, but the current situation gave him no time.

With his gravity control weakened, he could only defend passively... or perhaps—

He pulled out a handgun.

The bullet was immediately knocked aside by Mo Ying’s scythe.

Well, looks like that won’t help either.

With that thought in mind, Brent watched as his barrier was forcibly shattered by Mo Ying.

Then she struck him once, sending him crashing down.

The nearby drone was caught in the aftermath and plummeted tragically as well.

Bang!

Brent hit the ground seeing stars, blood flowing from the wound on his chest.

Mo Ying landed after him, gave the equally dazed Dmitri another hit for good measure, then grabbed Serena, who had been trying to run away.

“Would you like me to give you one too?” Mo Ying asked kindly.