After the beast-master put the leopard back into the cage, Zhang Heng and Varo were asked to clean up the mess.
The two came to the arena with a cart. According to Varo’s statement, it was not the first time he watched an execution. During that time, he was one of the spectators. Although he sat on the top level allocated for ordinary citizens, he felt no discomfort, nor was he disgusted by it.
In fact, at that time, he was just as excited as the audience was right now. Surrounded by the frantic screaming and cheering, he would be naturally infected by the festival-like atmosphere. His adrenaline would start pumping, and his heartbeat would soar as if a grand play displayed in front of him. And the arena did, in fact, put on some plays from time to time.
In addition to feeding the beasts prisoners on death row, there was also another type of death penalty involving mythical or historical dramas. For instance, Icarus would make a pair of wax wings for himself and attempted to fly towards the sun. In the end, the wings melted, and he fell to his death. To reenact the legend, the arena would make the death-row prisoners put on the waxed wings. After that, they would find a way to launch him into the sky, watching him struggle in the air as he fell to death. Upon landing, his head would shatter into pieces, his blood at times even splattering as far as the emperor’s pedestal. Some prisoners would play Prometheus, whose hearts would be cut open and devoured by eagles in front of everyone…
It had to be admitted that the Romans did have some ways of entertaining themselves in this era. They had an uncanny ability to come up with the most creative methods to execute the death-row prisoners. From a modern-day perspective, many of these were extremely inhumane and bloody. Especially in the years when Nero was emperor, some performances were so bloody and brutal that even the citizens of that era found it hard to accept.
The current performance, at least, seemed to cure the appetites of the rowdy spectators in the stands for now.
When Varo stood in the arena, he did not feel too good—especially when he saw the two severely mutilated bodies in front of him, he almost vomited his breakfast. On the other hand, Zhang Heng’s expression remained unchanged. After enduring the Soviet-Finnish War and Black Sail quest, he was used to seeing dead people. Gruesome sights hardly affected his emotions now. When it came to weirdness and horror, the scene before him was nothing compared to what he saw in the basement of the Alien quest… not to forget the seaside town literally inhabited by monsters.
Varo trembled in terror when ordered to feed the lion in the cage. Knowing that he could no longer rely on Varo, Zhang Heng instructed him, “Follow me with the cart.”
After that, Zhang Heng hooked up the corpse on the ground with the hook in his hand, dragged them onto the cart one by one, and retrieved a half-eaten foot courtesy of the leopard.
While they were cleaning up, several horsedrawn chariots drove ceremoniously into the arena and circled around. The slaves standing on them were in flower crowns and wreaths, and they threw bread and copper coins toward the stands. The whole thing looked like an interlude performance of a modern sports event.
Some spectators stood up to receive the gifts, while some took advantage of the break to get a drink at the drinking fountain or simply chat with their friends. According to Varo, the gladiator performance should be up next.
The day was slated to be packed with stupendous performances.
However, Zhang Heng and Varo would not get to watch them. It wasn’t long before they cleaned up the bodies and were soon asked to return underground to resume their work.
Zhang Heng finally had the opportunity to check his character panel. What he cared about the most right now was the whereabouts of his game items. Before entering this dungeon, he was asked to choose the items he wanted to bring with him. The last thing he expected was for all of them to be all when he arrived here.
Name: Zhang Heng
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Player Number: 07958
Number of games completed: 8
Current game points: 0
Possessions: Infinite Building Block (B), Pestilence Bone Bow (B), Feign Death (C), White Horse Crown (C), Filter Lens (D), Paris Arrow (D), Lucky Rabbit Foot (E), Hunter’s Blessing (F), Oath Ring (F), Marble Soda (F)
(Due to the nature of this round, all your items have been stored at Red Nose Smithy. Player can retrieve them with the password: Vulkan)
Skills: Swordsmanship Lv4, Sailing LV3, Shooting Lv3, Language proficiency Lv2 (eight languages at daily communication proficiency), Lego assembly Lv2, Archery Lv2, Field survival Lv2, Driving Lv2, Vehicle modification and maintenance Lv2, Aerospace Lv2, Hacking LV2, Criminal Investigation Lv2, Make-up Lv2, Cowboy Lv2, Piano Lv1, Skiing Lv1, Rock climbing lv1, Herbology Lv1.
Evaluation: Player inherits a portion of the Shadow-set items’ power and possesses incredible swordsmanship. As an opponent in a battle, you don’t want him to land his hand on any blade weapons. He is a Lego master, spear master, and a highly-skilled cowboy. Including sharp criminal investigation skills and an ability to camouflage himself effectively, he has a higher chance of encountering enemies than an ordinary person. He is also Pestilence’s messenger with a white horse. Besides accumulating a considerable amount of sailing experience, he is also good at using bows and arrows. As for transportation, he can drive a car, fly an airplane, and navigate a spacecraft. Easily adapts to the wilderness. The skills he has mastered, strong combat readiness, along an ability to keep promises make him a rare gem among other players.
This time, Zhang Heng had left his Water-Soluble Metal and Betty’s Shell behind since they wouldn’t be instrumental to his survival in this dungeon. Instead, he brought Feign Death and Marble Soda. Other than that, his Shadow Key had depleted its final use after he passed his previous test.
Compared to the previous game, his skillset had undergone some changes. First of all, his shooting skills had finally upgraded to Lv3. This was also his third skill that was above lv3. Other than that, his cowboy skill obtained from the Western dungeon was now Lv2, and his herbology learned during the Alien quest had achieved Lv1.
Although the Proxy War’s dungeon was not designed to help players improve their skills or obtain game items, Zhang Heng had spent a relatively long time in the dungeons. While hunting down alien remnants to earn more points, he would take the opportunity to learn something new.
Basically, everything was what he expected so far. Next, he wanted to know what the system had to say about his game items’ whereabouts.
Of course, he was relieved upon discovering that his items were still there.
He could understand why the system would do something like that. He started the game as a slave this time. According to Roman law, everything the slaves possessed belonged to their master. All the items he brought into the dungeon were not that eye-catching except for the White Horse Crown. If someone saw a slave carrying the White Horse Crown, it would cause him a lot of unnecessary trouble.
After Zhang Heng checked on his character panel, he saw Varo was standing there in a daze not far away from him. There was a gloomy expression on his face.
