The situation reversed in an instant.

One moment Shen Mo had held victory in his grasp — the next he was on the ground, his abdomen skewered by the iron hook, blood pouring freely. The hook connected to a nearly two-meter-long fine iron chain, locked firmly to Jefferson’s right arm.

A countdown appeared above Shen Mo.

“Mo-ge!!!” Tan Xiao braced himself on his arms and lunged toward the stage.

But the brawl stage was sealed off by an invisible wall — Tan Xiao couldn’t get through at all!

The clown inspector kept grinning broadly: “No rush, no rush~ The stage can only hold two players at a time. To get up here you’ll need to wait for the countdown to end…”

“This is cheating!” Su Man shouted from the audience. “Weren’t offensive items supposed to be banned?! Why can he use one?!”

The clown looked over at the audience with a smile. “That’s not an item~ This thing has always been a part of his body.”

Su Man: “How can that be?!”

“That’s who he is, isn’t it…” someone in the audience said. “I thought he looked familiar from the start — now it comes back to me. He’s the death-row convict Jefferson. He was a factory worker who violated safety protocols — his right hand was crushed by machinery. After that, he had that thing installed on his right arm… and used it to stab and kill over a dozen coworkers. Would’ve been sentenced to death, but he escaped during the arrest. Supposedly fled to somewhere around Mexico. There were news reports about it for a while…”

Another person muttered in frustration: “Damn it, with a monster like that up on stage, how are the rest of us supposed to earn any points?!”

“Hey! Look at the stage!”

The situation had shifted again.

Shen Mo — whose countdown had been nearly at its end — slowly began to sit up. One hand pressed over his blood-soaked wound; the other gripped the iron hook tightly.

A collective sharp intake of breath swept through the crowd.

“Who on earth is this guy?!”

“He must have been through the maze at least twice — otherwise how could someone with a wound like that even get up?!”

“…Even if he gets up, it’s useless. In that condition, he’s no match for Jefferson.”

The hall buzzed with murmuring. Su Man’s thoughts were a storm of chaos. She gave up her seat altogether, ran down to the edge of the stage, and stood next to Tan Xiao.

On stage, Shen Mo was slowly, inch by inch, withdrawing the iron hook from his flesh.

Su Man could barely watch, her back teeth aching just at the sight. The motion had to be slow, had to be steady — any rush risked the hook tearing the wound a second time, with severe damage to the organs beneath.

Jefferson clearly had no intention of giving Shen Mo that opportunity.

He raised his right arm and yanked savagely at the chain, dragging Shen Mo straight toward him. Then his left fist slammed down toward the gaping wound in Shen Mo’s abdomen!

The audience cried out.

Su Man went pale as a sheet.

But the expected scene never materialized. Shen Mo seized the iron hook and launched himself upward — one foot stepping onto the opponent’s shoulder, and then, using that iron chain, he cinched it around the hulking man’s throat!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two loops of the fine chain wound tight, and held!

Shen Mo dropped down from the man’s back, using his body weight and gravity to haul the enormous frame crashing to the ground! A thunderous boom — Jefferson fell. The countdown began.

The sequence of moves flowed like water, leaving the entire arena in stunned silence.

Someone cried out, unable to contain their shock: “Wasn’t he injured?!”

“He must have used some kind of life-saving item!”

On the stage, Jefferson’s face was scarlet, still thrashing with all his might, trying to roll on the ground to shake Shen Mo’s grip.

But Shen Mo was far too agile — Jefferson couldn’t break free. The chain only tightened further! Deeper and deeper! Until a fan-shaped spray of blood burst outward——

Jefferson’s head, in an explosion of red, parted from his body.

The countdown began.

10, 9… 7… 3, 2, 1……