Shen Mo did indeed go find that young boy.

The boy was far more straightforward than the big-bearded man — he agreed almost immediately. Perhaps because he had no other option.

All five gathered together, formally establishing their cooperative alliance, and introduced themselves to one another.

The young boy’s name was Lucas — transliterated as Lukas — an American, 18 years old.

The big-bearded man’s name was Leonid, Russian, 37 years old.

Tan Xiao was stunned: “Uncle, you look like you’re 50!”

The big-bearded man shot him a glare. “And you look like you’re 5.”

Tan Xiao blinked, touching his own face. “…Is it because I have chubby cheeks?”

The big-bearded man was at a loss for words: “……”

Was it really alright to partner with someone like this?

Lucas wasn’t yet familiar with them, and had no mood for banter. He asked Shen Mo with care: “Using this method, we can indeed get adequate rest and greatly reduce our risks. But after reaching the passing score, your teammates’ scores still won’t be enough to qualify. What do you intend to do about that?”

Tan Xiao and Su Man were only helping to temporarily hold scores — that didn’t mean Lucas and Leonid were willing to hand their points over to them for nothing.

Shen Mo replied: “After qualifying, I’ll stay on the stage. Players with 30 to 50 points lose 20 points all at once when they’re defeated.”

“Mo-ge!” Tan Xiao’s eyes went wide with shock.

Su Man was also startled. She looked at Shen Mo: “Mo-ge, Tan Xiao and I will do our best to earn points. We won’t hold everyone back.”

“No — your scores can’t be too high.” Shen Mo said calmly. “It’s best to keep your scores in the range of 0 to 9. That makes it easy to receive the transferred points from Leonid and Lucas. Once those two have claimed Battle King seats, we’ll figure out how to accumulate scores from there.”

At its core, Shen Mo’s strategy was to get the players most likely to become dangerous rivals seated on the Battle King throne first, thereby freeing up more opportunity for Tan Xiao and Su Man.

Leonid raised an eyebrow at that, his thick beard trembling along with his laughter: “Quite the ambition — you actually want to reach 50 points…”

Shen Mo said: “I don’t need 50. 30 is enough.”

Leonid: “……”

“The intent behind this rule,” Shen Mo added, “might be precisely to encourage players to form alliances with each other. It’s just that no one has realized it yet.”

“Even if they do realize it…” Lucas stared gravely at the players in the front rows, “…alliances among strangers aren’t that easy to form.”

The reason these five were able to unite was because Shen Mo held a decisive advantage. As long as Shen Mo made concessions, with self-interest as the driver, Leonid and Lucas had no reason not to cooperate.

The five of them discussed the plan for a while longer.

By now the stage had already seen more than a dozen brawls.

Some players had fought themselves into a red fury, going at each other with everything they had — injured or not — completely ignoring the score, as if driven by grudges.

Particularly those players who spent their lives steeped in fighting circuits; they were easily provoked, and once their emotions erupted, control became impossible. In a brawl arena where anger reigned supreme, maintaining calm was something not everyone could manage.

The Jester on stage looked like it was about to burst with joy, cackling continuously: “Fight! Fight! The last one standing will claim the Battle King throne!”

There was blood. There were injuries. And there were those who began to attempt cooperation — one deliberately losing points while the other kept winning — but the winner ultimately broke their word, refusing to share any points with their partner, causing both to turn on each other and brawl violently on the stage!

Events proved that without a foundation of trust, cooperation was simply impossible.

Leonid cracked his knuckles eagerly from the stands, itching to go: “It’s getting lively! Surely it’s my turn to go up…”

—