166: Is the red light flashing in the system's backend, indicating that the battle in New Delhi is completely out of control?

Rome, inside a presidential suite.

Jiang Ming casually turned off the live stream in front of him.

To him, the clamor and frenzy of the outside world were merely strings of cold, scrolling data on a screen.

He brought up the system panel.

A line of eye-catching golden numbers slowly materialized on his retina.

【Current Total emotion points: 23,874,551,988】

Twenty-three point eight billion.

Moreover, this number was still growing at a staggering rate of tens of millions per minute.

The shock, worship, fear, and debate generated by the seven billion people across the globe because of this grand play he directed... at this moment, it all transformed into a part of his power.

Jiang Ming's fingers slid gently through the air, bringing up the list of advanced contestants.

Rider: Isaac Newton (Winner)

Saber: Li Bai (Winner)

Berserker: Arjuna (Winner)

And... Caster: Furina de Fontaine (Bye)

The four names were listed side by side.

He browsed through the feverish predictions on the internet regarding the second round of duels.

Among them, the topic "Li Bai vs. Arjuna" had the highest heat.

The Eastern Poet Immortal swordsman versus the Western mythological hero.

One was elegant and free-spirited, shattering a National Machine with a single finger.

The other was violent and bloodthirsty, personally devouring the King of Vampires.

Just putting these two completely different styles together was enough to push the audience's expectations to the limit.

Major gambling websites had even opened odds, with support for both sides being almost equal.

Everyone took it for granted that the second round of battles would begin very soon.

However, Jiang Ming shook his head.

No.

It can't be that fast.

Three consecutive high-intensity duels had already raised the audience's emotional threshold to an extremely high level.

Newton hand-crafting a singularity, Li Bai's divinity descending, Arjuna devouring Dracula.

Any one of these scenes, if released individually, would be a trump card.

But throwing out three trump cards in a row, while satisfying for the audience, also raised their G-spots.

If the second round were to start immediately, no matter how exciting the fight, the emotional returns would suffer from diminishing marginal utility.

He had to... make them wait a bit.

He needed to let public opinion ferment further and let those experts argue over even more patterns.

He wanted the global audience, amidst endless speculation and waiting, to push their expectations and hunger to the absolute peak.

Only then, by starting the final battles, could he maximize the returns.

Since he didn't plan to start the next round in the short term, he might as well take a stroll through his "Mirror World" to find some new inspiration.

As soon as this thought arose, Jiang Ming's consciousness instantly detached from his physical body.

Everything in the real world receded rapidly; the luxurious chandelier of the presidential suite and the night view of Rome outside the window all turned into blurred light and shadows.

In the next second, his perspective had ascended to an indescribable height.

The entire solar system became a delicate glass sphere before him.

And that "Mirror World," identical to Earth, was a quiet replica suspended in the center of the glass sphere.

This was his backend control room.

The world shed its material shell before him, transforming into an ocean of light composed of infinite rule codes.

With a thought, Jiang Ming brought up the global map.

A blue planet model, no different from Earth, rotated slowly in front of him.

He zoomed in on the map and began to inspect the damage to the three battlefields.

With a light tap of his fingertip, his perspective instantly locked onto Mirror London.

【Battlefield One: Mirror London】

【Area Depletion Assessment: 7.8%】

【Major Damage: Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, London Eye... a total of 32 landmark buildings have structural damage.】

【Energy Residue Analysis: ‘Susanoo’ Chakra residue peak has decayed to 3.1%, ‘Universal Gravitation’ Noble Phantasm residue peak has decayed to 4.5%.】

【World Repair Module Assessment: Energy residue is naturally decaying; full reset expected in 72 hours.】

【Status: Normal.】

Only 7.8% depletion, lower than expected.

That old schemer Newton pulled the main battlefield into an Innate Domain, which saved a lot of work in repairing the world.

He's a good, thrifty employee.

Jiang Ming nodded in satisfaction, and his perspective switched accordingly.

【Battlefield Two: Mirror Washington】

【Area Depletion Assessment: 11.2%】

【Major Damage: The Lincoln Memorial plaza has sunk three meters as a whole, the Capitol Hill dome has collapsed, the White House West Wing... a total of 57 landmark buildings have structural damage.】

【Energy Residue Analysis: ‘National Machine’ Noble Phantasm residue peak has decayed to 8.9%, ‘Venus’ Noble Phantasm residue peak has decayed to 11.7%.】

【World Repair Module Assessment: Energy residue is naturally decaying; full reset expected in 120 hours.】

【Status: Normal.】

The battle between Li Bai and Roosevelt was clearly much more violent than the previous one.

Especially that final finger where Li Bai released his "Venus" divinity; it directly shattered Roosevelt's Innate Domain along with nearly half of Washington.

Jiang Ming's finger slid across the screen, preparing to pull up the data for the final battlefield.

Mirror New Delhi.

Among the three battles, this one was the most destructive and had the most disgusting scenes.

However, the moment his consciousness locked onto that area.

Buzz—!

The entire backend management interface jerked violently without any warning.

Immediately after, a blood-red warning box that covered his entire field of vision popped up in an extremely crude manner!

【Warning! Warning!】

【Unrecognizable rule conflict detected!】

【Area ID: IND.ND.001 (Mirror New Delhi) has an unknown logic error!】

【World Self-Repair Module... invocation failed!】

【Error Code: #@￥%&...* (Garbage Code)】

【Pollution Level: ???】

Jiang Ming closed the warning box that was still flashing frantically.

He directly pulled up the most fundamental detailed data stream of the New Delhi area.

The green progress bar representing "World Health" had now turned a dark red, signifying a severe abnormality.

And below it, the value bar representing "Abnormal Energy Residue" showed an even more inconceivable state.

Instead of decreasing over time,

it was actually climbing steadily upward along an extremely eerie, constantly accelerating curve!

【Current Abnormal Energy Residue: 137.4%】

【Abnormal Energy Residue 10 seconds ago: 137.2%】

【Abnormal Energy Residue 1 minute ago: 136.1%】

【Abnormal Energy Residue 1 hour ago: 124.8%】

This isn't right.

Something is very wrong.

It's like after a massive fire is extinguished, the temperature of the fire site doesn't drop, but instead starts rising on its own.

This completely violates the energy decay rules he set.