Ninth class citizen

Chapter 290 Lava Level
Countless thumb-thick blue-purple arcs of electricity lit up from the collars of the two second-tier martial artists, spreading throughout their bodies.

They could no longer utter a word, and collapsed to the ground, their bodies convulsing violently.

The electric arc flickered for about a minute, until the two people's bodies turned charred black and emitted a strong smell of roasted meat, before disappearing without a trace.

"Execution complete. The difficulty of the acid trap has been reduced to level one." The moment the electronic voice disappeared, the transparent protective shield also vanished.

The rain had completely stopped, with only a few drops of residual liquid occasionally sliding down from the top of the passageway, landing on the gladiators below, where they would be secretly wiped away and sniffed.

It was not corrosive and had no odor; it seemed to be just ordinary water.

But if it's just water, what's the point of the deaths of those two sacrifices?

A questioning gaze fell upon Chen Hao from behind.

He was well aware that his authority was being questioned, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

Because he had never heard of acid rain turning into water over time.

Steward Wu had never encountered such a situation before, and when he heard his subordinate's report, he thought he had misheard.

Each level in the Crimson Maze is a meticulously designed, randomly adjustable trap room, and the difficulty can be selected according to his wishes.

No one could disobey the young master's orders. Nan Rong's team faced all the highest difficulty levels today, five times harder than a normal hellish level. Even with sacrifices, heavy casualties were still expected.

But can anyone explain how the highly corrosive acid in the acid trap could inexplicably turn into harmless pure water?

It should be noted that beneath the corrosion-resistant floor of the checkpoint lies an entire underground river of acid. Whether it was the acid pool that Nan Rong and the others walked through or the acid rain they experienced, the source was actually the same.

So who exactly turned thousands of tons of strong acid into water?

"Investigate immediately!" Manager Wu frowned, then instantly grasped the situation: "Someone must have been planning this for a long time, injecting a large amount of neutralizing agent during the competition."

“But all the teams are traveling light, they don’t have that kind of equipment,” the subordinate asked blankly.

"Idiot!" Steward Wu exclaimed in exasperation, "It couldn't be a gladiator; it could only be someone from within our ranks who, before or even during the match, poured in the neutralizing agent through the acid replenishment valve—give Jia fifty minutes. If you can't find out the truth, he's dead!"

Eight minutes later, Jia Wu, the supervisor in charge of managing the Crimson Maze, tumbled and crawled to the feet of Steward Wu, crying out in grievance.

"I've reviewed all the maintenance records for the Crimson Labyrinth this month, and there really isn't anything unusual—even just a few minutes ago, the acid waves and acid rain were working perfectly fine!"

"So you should think more carefully about what exactly happened during this period of time."

"But manager, converting thousands of tons of strong acid into water requires a huge amount of neutralizing agent, and it's impossible to leave no trace!"

While Jia Wu was being dragged away shouting that he was innocent, Chen Hao had already led his men through the checkpoint.

The acid solution turned into water, rendering the subsequent steps meaningless.

As the alloy door behind him slowly closed, Ji Jun suddenly sensed something and turned to look back. He saw a ghostly figure squeeze out from the crack in the closing door.

"Sister, you're still alive?" he murmured, taking a step forward, but ultimately falling back to where he was.

Chen Hao turned around in disbelief, and when he saw Nan Rong, his eyes became extremely complicated.

He focused his consciousness back into the bracelet and found that Nan Rong's name had lit up again in the team member list. What was going on?

Chen Hao's mind raced, and a possibility came to mind.

Perhaps Nan Rong was too far from the group before, which prevented her from participating in the sacrifice.

Yes, this situation seems to have occurred before, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

The next challenge was just ahead, and no one dared to stop and rest.

"Everyone performed very well in that last round; we only lost three people, which isn't many," Chen Hao summarized.
"Generally speaking, after passing a level 3 level of hell difficulty, the next level is very likely to be just a normal level 1. As long as everyone listens carefully to my instructions, the number of casualties will definitely be less."

Chen Hao looked around and saw that the doubts in many people's eyes had eased. He knew that his words were timely and had somewhat improved the crisis of trust caused by the deaths of the two sacrificial offerings.

However, a small number of team members, especially the lower-ranking gladiators, kept their eyes darting away and refused to meet his gaze, clearly remaining vigilant.

But Chen Hao didn't really care too much about their opinions.

Low-ranking gladiators are generally considered expendable. If it weren't for the fact that the number of remaining members in the team would affect the captain's performance and rewards, he wouldn't bother with their lives.

And then there's Nan Rong. He was clearly in a death trap, but somehow he miraculously survived. He'll have to put in a lot of effort for the next challenge.
Chen Hao placed the wristband against the electronic lock that opened the checkpoint.

"Verification passed." The alloy door slowly slid open a crack half a meter wide.

"Shh, shh, shh." The sound of their footsteps echoed through the winding passageway. They walked for several hundred meters without encountering any danger.

"Captain, which checkpoint is this?" someone couldn't help but ask.

Chen Hao had been pondering this question. There were twelve levels in the Crimson Maze, and he had only encountered four of them before. He only knew about the others through hearsay, so he couldn't match them up at the moment.

"This place is so poorly ventilated, and there's a pungent, strange smell." A tall, mid-level gladiator wiped the sweat from his brow. "And it's getting hotter and hotter as we walk."

"Strange smell? Hot?" Chen Hao then realized that he was also drenched in sweat.

A terrible thought popped into his mind.

"This is the lava checkpoint!" he said through gritted teeth.

Today was such a bad day! I finally made it through the hellish acid trap, only to run into the lava level that everyone hates.

The Lava Level consistently has the highest death rate among the twelve levels of the Crimson Maze.

Even at the first level of difficulty, it rivals the hellish difficulty of other levels.

If you encounter a Hell difficulty level, even with sacrifices, you may still suffer heavy casualties or even be wiped out.

Chen Hao's expression was uncertain as he secretly calculated how long he could withstand the high temperatures, given his intermediate-level elemental resistance suit and defensive extraordinary items.

The lower-ranking gladiators were still somewhat bewildered, while the mid-ranking gladiators' expressions turned quite grim.

They had all heard of the infamous Lava Level, but because the probability of it appearing was extremely low, everyone took a chance—unexpectedly, they were really unlucky and it actually happened to them.