Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: alamerysl

"The task is complete. Remaining number of people in the venue: 10.

Competitor number 419, your number of kills: 46. Your ranking is: No. 1.

Congratulations on obtaining the qualifications to enter the semi-finals. Please wait 30 seconds to enter the concluding stage."

.

—Was this the end of the sacrifice ceremony?

Tyron's thoughts were indifferent as he returned his daggers to their sheaths.

He felt a powerful force suppressing him, preventing him from continuing his movements, and then the platform beneath his feet slowly rose.—

Little by little, the spectator stands came into view.

The audience was in the midst of an uproar, and the sound was like a tidal wave, mixed with high-pitched screams. "Number 419!"

"Look here!"

"Oh— Hubby, I love you! Hubby, you are so tall and handsome!"

Their hands held all sorts of things as they waved, and the colours seemed to form a glowing, undulating rainbow from Tyron's point of view.

They whistled tunes or shrill sounds, and tried to attract his attention in every possible way. As soon as his eyes seem to land on any area, hundreds of people in that direction would stand up to cheer and applaud;

They also threw all sorts of objects towards the stage. Coins, handkerchiefs, and even cellphones that turned into data and disappeared as soon as they fell onto the stage.

.

All of this were not things that should be happening after a massacre.

They should be treating him with fear, panic and hatred, rather than the exaggerated enthusiasm and worship that they were giving him now.

It was difficult for Tyron to understand this situation.

His expressionless face was well hidden under his hood. The audience only saw 'Player 419' absent-mindedly tilt his head, and immediately burst into a series of screams: "So cute!"

"AAAHHHH—"

"Hubby, you're number one! Hubby, you're so cute that I exploded on the spot! Hubby!"

Tyron crossed his arms over his chest and kept quiet regarding everything that was happening in front of him. He wondered to himself, &#k2018;Perhaps this was a country ruled by the God of Slaughter? So everyone finds glory in &#k2018;massacre’, and therefore the more I kill, the more popular I become?’

.

After 30 seconds of cheering, the other nine platforms rose one by one, each displaying one of the other remaining contestants from this great free-for-all battle.

Once again, screams and cheers erupted from the audience, which further confirmed Tyron's speculations.

After the ten players had all arrived, the host slowly stepped out from behind the stage and said, "Congratulations to these ten contestants for obtaining the qualifications to enter the semi-finals of Chaoyang Alliance's Golden League Class A World Championship! … Would the contestants please share some remarks?"

Starting from the tenth contestant, they all expressed their gratitude for their good fortune, and expressed that they would continue to strive for victory.

Although it was all very cliche, the audience still showed enough enthusiasm to express their respect.

Finally, when they arrived at the first place contestant, the host passionately said, "Congratulations to contestant number 419 for becoming the champion! According to the rules, the number one contestant can choose to reveal his real name now, you—"

"No." Tyron spoke indifferently.

The commentator coughed, and quickly became even more passionate: "419 is as mysterious and low-key as ever. In that case, what do you have to say to the audience?"

"Nothing." Tyron was still indifferent.

The off-stage audience: "AAHHHH—"

The host wanted to wipe the cold sweat off her back and quickly continued on in order to avoid embarrassment, "Our friends in the audience are too enthusiastic. Perhaps contestant number 419 is shy. Well then, next we'll enter the next stage…"

The audience quieted down a little, and a male voice abruptly sounded out: "Ahhhhh! Hubby, you're so cool—"

Host: "…"

Tyron: "??"

After two seconds of silence, the audience stands were filled with loud shouts, laughter, applause and hisses, and for a while the entire audience burst into excitement.

The host took the opportunity to adjust the atmosphere and said, "Contestant number 419 really has an amazing charm. He's so cool that people can't close their legs."

She borrowed a colored glow stick, and the audience really played along and whistled.

Tyron, who didn't understand: indifferent.jpg

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Tyron had his arms crossed over his chest and continued to use incomparably cool and indifferent expressions and actions to pass through the certification stage that followed. After achieving 'the target for this time's competition' and obtaining 'qualifications for the semi-finals', he followed the other contestants off stage and disappeared from the scene of the competition.

And then, he discovered that he had arrived at a street that was full of foreign and exotic things.

Everything seems to be made up of an unknown metal and illusory light and shadow effects. Pedestrians had all sorts of strange features, disappearing or appearing instantly from time to time.

Tyron was very certain that it was a world he had never been to.

He watched the pedestrians, and only acted after making sure that the local residents had also made similar movements. Then, he looked around and the surrounding words - he had been blessed by the God with the ability to read and listen to all the languages and words of all the worlds so that he could carry out his missions.

Tyron then entered a bookstore. He shuttled through it and memorized how all the books were categorized, then stayed in the section for educational books and quickly flipped through them.

The easiest way to integrate into a world was to live amongst the locals, but there was a risk of exposure. The second easiest way was to read through their educational texts and observe while reading. This method was comparatively slower, but safer way to learn.

Tyron was well versed in doing all of this. He had previously accomplished countless tasks in unfamiliar environments, and even in unfamiliar worlds. He knew how to be unnoticeable, which was only the most insignificant portion of an assassin's arsenal of tricks.

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From these texts, Tyron slowly learned the basic knowledge related to this world.

The world had no name. Everyone believed they were living in the "main universe".

In this universe, human civilization had already been developing for tens of thousands of years, from the initial barbaric era to the feudal period, then moving on to the development of scientific and technological advancement, until it became the current interstellar civilization. They even organized the 'Chaoyang Alliance', and began to develop together as one entity.

In this era, with the increase in the number of colonial planets, the amount of territory available for human expansion was vast and population density had already become very low. The real world appeared to be highly developed, but it was simultaneously very lonely, so very few people were active in reality.

People spent most of their time in the virtual network, and this included learning, entertainment, work, and sleep. There was basically nothing that one had to go offline to do. Even if their bodies had a physical problem in real life, there was also a full-service online consultation system and intelligent machinery that could service them.

Because 99.9% of physical labor had been taken over by intelligent machinery, and 50% of the jobs that required mental prowess had been replaced by artificial intelligence, a large number of the population was unemployed. But even if they were unemployed, the government would still provide them with enough benefits to ensure that they could live a very fruitful life - who told them to make human civilization's territories so vast, so rich in resources, that not providing benefits would be a waste?

.

Now, human beings' most important task was: Game Colonization.

This was a cutting edge technology released by the Chaoyang Alliance. It used the methods and infrastructure of virtual games to solve the employment problem for this large number of unemployed people.

People were employed to 'play games', and their job was to colonize each 'sub-universe' within the game. After a large number of players entered a game world, obtaining resources, power, and digital intelligence through their own efforts, the government also cooperated with players to research and develop these 'sub-universes'.

The so-called 'E-Sports A League' competition encompassed all the e-sports competitions within the Alliance that occurred within this setting.

This competition had already developed to become the largest league in the competitive e-sports industry. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars of were collected into bonus pools that players could compete for. A large number of clubs, media, management companies and their journalists, professional players, hosts, commentators, brokers and coaches were all gathered together under the large banner of this industry as they competed and made a living.

This industry chain worth billions of dollars was constantly spending and receiving money, and amongst this, the most eye-catching and brilliant representatives were, of course, the elite e-sports athletes who shone like stars.

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Tyron finished flipping through a book and slowly placed it back on the shelf.

Right then, he noticed a woman approaching from behind him, staring at his back for a good ten seconds.

Tyron's vigilance could not be seen from the surface. He turned around naturally, and seemed to inadvertently meet her gaze.

The woman was caught off guard when Tyron glanced over. She blushed and stammered, "So- Sorry, sir! I… I seem to have mistaken you for someone."

Tyron could see at a glance that she had no intention of leaving immediately.

Sure enough, she continued quickly, "But… But you really look familiar. If I may take the liberty to ask, are… are you Mr. Pei Rong? I… I'm your fan! I'm an old fan of yours, a crazy fan! I've been registered with the Plush Toy Support Club for nearly ten years!"

Tyron's heart jumped. His current real name was really registered as: Pei Rong.

However, he had no intention of interacting with anyone for the time being.

"I'm not. You're mistaken."

Tyron casually turned around and took another book off the shelf.

Sometimes, when an assassin aroused suspicion, the last thing they should do was to lose their cool and argue with others. Because once they opened their mouth to speak, they would be noticed; once they refuted other people's opinions, they would stir up their subconscious disgust; even if they were justified, they would expose themselves to more attention by attempting to dispel others' doubts with words or actions.

To get rid of suspicion, the most important course of action was to firmly, calmly answer with a "No, I'm not."

"Oh… Really…" The woman behind him seemed a little lost. "I, I'm sorry!"

.

After determining that no one was paying attention to him anymore, Tyron opened his profile panel - this was something he had only just learned to do.

This was rather interesting. The low-key and mysterious master assassin's identity now seemed to be that of a well-known star who was once a household name: Pei Rong.

Tyron roughly looked over 'his' life. He was born into a very ordinary family. His parents died early, and he had lived his days with a little sister. He had relied on his extremely excellent inherent features to climb, mix, and fight his way up. He eventually became a superstar, but retired two years ago because of an injury.

As for what kind of 'injury'… It was said that Pei Rong had a kind of hereditary mental disease. If he received even just the tiniest injury, it was very easy for him to develop various neurological symptoms. In the later stages of this disease, it could lead to brain death, and the person would become a vegetable.

This probably explained why the original Pei Rong suddenly died just before the start of the battle.

the author included this little chibi fan art in this chapter. isn't he cute?