Chapter 17
The giant screen on the stage was broadcasting all the contestants live.
In order not to affect the contestants’ performance, special cameras fitted closely against the tunnel walls were used inside the course, so even after the contestants set off, the audience could still see what was happening inside the tunnels.
At that moment, everyone’s gaze was fixed on different screen panels. Some only watched the contestant they had accompanied, some followed old contestants from previous years, but most people were looking back and forth among the various panels, staring at the live feed of the competitors inside and searching for the one most likely to win…
A few newcomers were crawling with great difficulty. Some had been moving quickly at first, only to hesitate in confusion the moment they reached a fork in the tunnels. One contestant had even studied the wrong tunnel before arriving and actually gotten lost inside, cursing in frustration until the backstage staff controlling the live broadcast urgently muted his microphone.
The audience burst out laughing.
The preliminaries were not especially strict in selecting contestants, so all kinds of people showed up. Every year, there were always a few oddballs, sometimes even ridiculous enough to trend online. The organizers intentionally relied on those gimmicks to attract attention from netizens, so they did not explicitly ban contestants from engaging in exaggerated behavior outside the rules.
For example, at this very moment, one contestant had taken off his shirt and was panting and writhing while telling dirty jokes at the camera…
A member of the audience immediately shouted in exasperation, “Hurry up and censor him! I brought my child here to experience the charm of sports. What on earth are your contestants doing?!”
Of course, such cases were only a minority. Most of the contestants had no idea how chaotic the live broadcast outside had become. In their eyes, there was only the course in front of them.
Very soon, one contestant drew everyone’s attention.
“He’s crawling so fast…”
“Wow! He’s so smooth at tunnel-burrowing, this is a blessing for obsessive-compulsive viewers!”
“Huh? Isn’t that Meikai, last year’s runner-up in the tunnel-burrowing competition? He must’ve come this year to aim for the championship.”
“It’s only the preliminaries. For him, this is child’s play…”
Inside the tunnel, Meikai was crawling forward with every ounce of strength he had, almost as if he were driving himself on pure hatred.
As long as he thought of the people who had bullied him in the past, perhaps sitting there in the audience mocking him even now, his entire mind was swallowed up by anger.
He wanted to win. He had to win!
He wanted to become strong. He wanted to stand on the highest podium…
As long as he became more and more formidable, he could look down on that bunch of bastards in front of everyone and cast off the shame of the past…
The strength born of hatred pushed him beyond his physical limit.
But that limit did not last very long.
After turning across an uphill stretch, the audience suddenly realized that the contestant who had been moving fastest was getting slower and slower. He could no longer even get over obstacles with agility, as if he had completely burned through all his energy…
Meanwhile, elsewhere—
As Yomi crawled forward, he kept feeling the structure of the tunnel walls with his hand.
When he came to a downhill stretch, if he confirmed that the wall surface was smooth, he simply slid straight down. In other situations, he used all four limbs to move forward. Uphill sections were the most exhausting. Every time he finished climbing one, he would sit down and rest for a while, sometimes taking out the water provided by the tunnel station to drink a few sips, then eating a few bites of biscuits as well.
The audience watching the live feed commented:
“Isn’t this a little too leisurely… Sure, conserving energy makes sense, but this isn’t a marathon.”
“Judging by the distance progress, he’s in last place now. Maybe he knows he can’t place anyway, so he’s simply given up.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone come to the venue just to eat and drink… Oh my god! Why is he stuffing food into his clothes too…”
“Look how hungry the child is…”
“I can’t take it anymore, switch the screen already!”
“The supplies are meant to replenish the contestants anyway. What’s wrong with him eating some? If anyone dares cut his feed, I’ll fight them!”
“Exactly. He’s so small—if he doesn’t eat more, where’s he supposed to get the strength from?”
“Stop arguing! Look! He’s running!”
Everyone hurriedly looked toward the live feed for contestant number five, and then their eyes widened—
Inside the dim tunnel, Yomi stood at a fork. First, he reached out and tested the walls at both tunnel entrances. Then he took out two water bottles he had gotten from the supply station and threw one into each tunnel.
Rolling sounds echoed from both branching tunnels. One stopped very quickly, while the other kept rumbling for a long time before the sound gradually faded out of hearing.
Yomi decisively chose the latter. The moment he entered, he began running easily down the gentle slope.
The commentator said, “Contestant number five used the water bottles from the supply station to test the conditions of the two tunnels and precisely selected the best route! Number five is now rapidly overtaking the other contestants…”
At the same time, the route map on the screen showed the situation of that path: it was a tunnel leading straight to the finish line. Although narrow, it had no uphill sections and no obstacles from start to finish!
The audience’s mouths dropped open.
A few of the people who had just mocked contestant number five for eating hurriedly lowered their heads and covered their faces.
Their faces hurt too much!
At this point, many contestants inside the tunnels were drawing closer and closer to the finish line, and the audience, feeling completely immersed, all grew tense along with them.
Anxius stared fixedly at the live panel marked 5.
Inside the tunnel—
After choosing the fork, Yomi ran smoothly along the path. Although the route was easy, by the time he had covered half of it, the tunnel grew much narrower.
Yomi had no choice but to lie down again and crawl forward.
After crawling for a while, he suddenly felt that something flashed in the corner of his eye, and he turned to look—
Outside the course—
The commentator announced, “Contestant Yomi, who was originally in last place, is now neck and neck with contestant Meikai, who started out in first!”
At such a tense moment of fierce competition, the audience all consciously fell silent.
Since they could see the route map of that branching tunnel on the screen, they had already decided in their hearts that this tiny contestant number five would make it out smoothly.
Quite a few people had even already shifted their gaze toward the exit, waiting.
On the screen, the little figure that had been running dropped down to crawl once the tunnel narrowed. But as he crawled, he suddenly stopped and began feeling the wall.
The audience was baffled. “What’s going on? Hurry up and keep going!”
On the screen, after turning his head, the little figure’s face pressed directly against the wall-mounted camera. He seemed to be inspecting something. One eye came close, and suddenly the entire screen was filled with a single huge eye…
Just as the audience held its breath, that big eye swiftly moved away and was replaced by the other one.
A second later, the giant screen carried the boy’s muttering voice, trembling with restrained fear: “It seems like… there’s a snake in here…”
?!
The whole venue erupted.
Snakes were not actually frightening to Snarans, who themselves possessed all kinds of monster forms—but this was a competition venue, and some snakes were venomous. The thought of a contestant encountering an unavoidable snake in the course during the match was unbearable just to imagine!
Some audience members had already begun screaming:
“What is wrong with you organizers? This is outrageous! Hurry up and get him out! Look how small he is! The snake will swallow him whole!”
“Hurry!”
Some people had even already rushed onto the stage.
One of them was a tall man wearing sunglasses.
And that “cheer squad” from earlier had unexpectedly followed right behind him onto the stage.
The host, the moment he realized something was wrong with Yomi, had already urgently reviewed all the internal surveillance footage. He had only just figured out the cause and had not even had time to deal with it before seeing a group of people charging toward the tunnels in defiance of all attempts to stop them, fierce and overwhelming, even giving off a pressure impossible to resist…
He and the staff hurried to block them, and just in time they turned on the intercom and connected it to number five’s equipment, loudly explaining, “Contestant number five, hello! I’m the host! Please do not panic. That is not a snake—it’s the tail of the contestant in the neighboring tunnel! He entered a narrow passage and could no longer maintain human form, so he reverted to his original body to continue forward. There happens to be a crystal between your two tunnels, which is why you can see his tail. Please don’t be afraid—he is only another contestant, and no matter what, he absolutely cannot enter the tunnel you are in!”
He said all of it especially loudly, clearly for the benefit of the audience as well.
Only then did everyone finally let out a breath of relief.
Anxius, however, was already furious beyond measure. His face beneath the shadows had become terrifyingly grim. He snatched the intercom and said, “I’m coming over right now.”
Yomi had indeed been frightened. Part of it was the fear of snakes, but even more than that, the snake tail on the other side of that crystal had looked enormous—big enough to swallow him in one bite…
But once he heard the host’s explanation, that fear vanished without a trace.
And then, hearing Anxius say that, he immediately became anxious instead. “No!”
Those two words came out too hastily. Inside the cramped space, he had no room to brace himself, and his breathing was not smooth enough. The hurried sound that came out ended up sticky and soft, so to other people it sounded more like: “Bing…”
Anxius’s pupils contracted.
Yomi seemed truly afraid Anxius would come in, and shook his head, saying “No” again. If someone entered during the match, the contestant’s race would be terminated.
He took a deep breath, then immediately yanked off the headband from his head and blindfolded himself with it—if he could not see it, then he could overcome the association with snakes.
At this point in such a narrow tunnel, eyesight was no longer useful anyway. What was needed now was only speed.
Outside the course, Anxius stood frozen in place. His gaze lifted and locked tightly onto the figure who had covered his eyes and begun crawling with all his strength.
On the screen, the little thing who had been trembling just one moment earlier began moving. He crawled forward rapidly, faster and faster, more and more agile, almost like a rolling ball. No one knew where he was getting that burst of power from, but suddenly he lunged—
Anxius’s clenched fist trembled slightly, his thin lips tightly pressed together.
Every single movement the little figure made on the screen seemed to send an electric shock through him.
Karl, seeing this, was utterly stunned.
Someone who did not know any better might have thought the Crown Prince was in battle-preparation mode.
…No, that was not right. His Highness Anxius in actual battle-preparation mode was much calmer than this!
And at this moment, an extraordinary silence had settled over the audience with perfect unspoken agreement.
They stared at panel number five on the screen, not daring to blink.
Until several seconds later, at the tunnel exit of the finish line, two tiny lamb horns suddenly appeared…
Yomi summoned every ounce of strength and burrowed out of his tunnel. He had no time to wipe away his sweat. Pulling the headband off his eyes, he tumbled down the slide in one roll and came to a stop just before the finish line.
Thunderous applause exploded.
All kinds of shouting and noise mixed together.
Yomi stood up in a daze. His headband now hung around his neck like a little scarf. He paid no attention to anything else, panting as he stepped across the finish line, then stood there properly at attention.
The giant screens all around suddenly lit up, showing the celebratory transition visuals for the contestant who had taken first place: a celebrity spokesperson for Yuanqi Star danced cheerfully, then smiled and lifted her skirt in a princess curtsy.
Yomi had no idea where he was supposed to go. In his fluster, he saw the screen mention his contestant number, and so he immediately copied the gesture. Lifting his dusty pants a little, he bowed and bent his knees slightly toward the audience.
The audience seats fell silent for a moment—then completely lost control.
“Ahhhhhhh—!”
“So cute! I-I-I-I need an emergency heart pill…”
“I only came to watch casually, so why am I suddenly crying from excitement?”
“Oh my god…”
…
Yomi began rising onto his toes and looking around everywhere, searching for Anxius and the others. Then suddenly his body grew light—someone had lifted him high into the air from behind.
He hurriedly turned his head and met a pair of golden eyes.
At that moment, second place also emerged.
It was Meikai.
Dragging his crocodile tail behind him, the exhausted Meikai crossed the finish line. When he lifted his head and saw contestant number five being held up in front of him, he slowly came to a stop, seeming unable to process what he was seeing at all.
Amid the enormous uproar, a staff member in the corner suddenly shouted into a walkie-talkie, “Something’s wrong with contestant number seventeen… He seems to be stuck inside! Requesting rescue!”
