When the system announced the notice, all professionals within the Hell Gladiator Arena were shaken.
["Hell Gladiator Arena just started a few minutes ago? Someone already leveled up to 2 stars?"]
["Going from 1 star to 2 stars requires 100 points. Killing a hundred monsters only gives 1 point, which means you need to kill ten thousand monsters to reach 2 stars. Is this 'Zero' even human?"]
["You don't get it, do you? The fastest way to earn points isn't by killing monsters, it's by killing people. Killing one person gives 1 point. Kill a hundred people, and you easily get 100 points."]
["Doesn't that sound even more ridiculous? Everyone who made it into Hell Gladiator Arena is a top-level elite, one in ten thousand. Killing a hundred of them?"]
["Looks like the level reset really turned Hell Gladiator Arena into Zero's paradise. If you see Zero, RUN!"]
———
At the same time, over on Zhang Yue's side.
Although he had already reached the 2-star Arena Expert rank and gained qualification to enter the second-level arena, for now, Zhang Yue still couldn't proceed to the second-level arena.
Because, to enter the second-level arena, there was another hard requirement: the number of professionals in the entire Hell Gladiator Arena who had reached the 2-star Arena Expert rank must exceed ten thousand people.
Helplessly, Zhang Yue had to remain in the first-level arena.
Fortunately, staying in the first-level arena with a 2-star rank still allowed for point collection.
However, the amount of points earned was greatly reduced.
["Ding~ Congratulations on killing Lord-level [Hell Wolf King]. Since your points exceed 100 or your rank is above 1-star Arena Novice, your point gain in the first-level arena is reduced by 90%. You must kill 10 Lord monsters or 10 enemy professionals to gain 1 point. Current progress: 1/10."]
This is the price of staying in a low-level arena while having a high-level rank.
The higher the arena level, the greater the challenge the professionals face.
This setting is essentially meant to increase the difficulty of earning points.
To earn more points and increase one's rank, one must go to higher-level arenas with greater risk and difficulty.
Still, even though Zhang Yue couldn't go to the second-level arena for now and could only gather small points in the first-level arena, he didn't plan to slack off.
So, while his pets continued their usual activity, Zhang Yue also began his slaughter.
Before long, system announcements started to appear one after another.
[[System Announcement]: "Ding~ Congratulations to Lighthouse Nation contestant [Elfa] for reaching [2-Star Arena Expert]!"]
[[System Announcement]]: "Ding~ Congratulations to Dragon Nation contestant [Hidden Dragon] for reaching [2-Star Arena Expert]!"]
[[System Announcement]: "Ding~ Congratulations to Bear Nation contestant [Restiev] for reaching [2-Star Arena Expert]!"]
The stronger the player, the faster they reached 2 stars.
Zhang Yue wasn't surprised at all to see these names appear now.
He kept staring at the list of IDs in the announcements but never saw the name he most wanted to see.
That was, the warrior clad in gold armor.
Or maybe, his name had already appeared, but Zhang Yue didn't recognize it?
After all, that guy had hidden his ID from the very beginning, Zhang Yue didn't even know what his ID was.
Many names that appeared on the list were also ones Zhang Yue had never heard of.
Considering the strength of the Gold Armor Warrior, if Zhang Yue could be the first to reach 2 stars, that guy could never be lower than top three.
That was strange.
"Forget it…", Zhang Yue didn't think too much about it.
Since the guy had gone to great lengths to set up the whole Hell Gladiator Arena, he was bound to make a move eventually.
Before he did, Zhang Yue only needed to earn as many points as possible.
After all, the Mythical-tier Class Scroll reward for the champion of Hell Gladiator Arena was extremely important.
In addition, there was the fourth Netherstone hidden within the Hell Gladiator Arena.
While killing monsters, Zhang Yue kept an eye on the reaction of his sensing ring.
The ring continued to emit light, but it couldn't pinpoint the specific location of the Netherstone.
As for the last Nether Yellow Stone's whereabouts, Zhang Yue could only explore on his own.
Zhang Yue knew, this might be his only chance.
If he couldn't find the Nether Yellow Stone in Hell Gladiator Arena, he might never get a chance to access it again.
So, Zhang Yue didn't dare to slack.
He would explore the entire domain of the first-level arena before the second-level arena opened.
Although the first-level arena was divided into one hundred battlefields, based on the system's judgment and analysis, these hundred battlefields were probably layered instances, not one hundred separate territories.
So, if the Nether Yellow Stone really existed somewhere in the first-level arena, Zhang Yue would be able to find it within his own assigned Battlefield 52.
The Netherstone wouldn't appear in other battlefields of the first-level arena.
The Hell Gladiator Arena's entrance remained open. As long as a professional met the conditions, they could enter the arena at any time.
Currently, the number of participants in the Hell Gladiator Arena had grown to 102,000.
To open the second-level arena, 10,000 people needed to reach the 2-star Arena Expert rank, meaning the promotion rate had to hit around 10%.
For top-tier professionals like Zhang Yue, Elfa, and Kwon Ji-Hyun, maybe just a few minutes were enough to reach 2 stars.
But for the vast majority of contestants, it wasn't that easy.
After all, the contestants in this battle came from over 200 countries around the world.
Many countries had conflicts and were not on good terms.
Additionally, killing other professionals granted points faster.
Because of this, while earning points through monster hunting, one could frequently be ambushed by enemy nation professionals.
Many contestants' points fluctuated up and down.
Some were even brutally killed dozens of times in a row, directly losing the 10 initial points granted by the system, and got eliminated.
Once eliminated, they would permanently lose access to the Hell Gladiator Arena.
The number of 2-star ranked professionals was slowly increasing.
From the moment Zhang Yue became the first to reach 2 stars, it took a full hour before the entire Hell Gladiator Arena finally reached the 10,000 total 2-star Arena Experts.
And by this time, Zhang Yue's gains had already exceeded expectations.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Contestant: Zero]
[Current Rank Star Level: 2-Star Arena Expert]
[Current Arena Points: 124]
[Current Ranking: NO.1]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
That's right, even with a 90% reduction in rewards, Zhang Yue still managed to earn 124 points from the remaining 10%.
Far exceeding the required amount for leveling from 1-star to 2-star.
If there hadn't been that 90% reduction, Zhang Yue's current points would have broken through 1240 points.
If ranking from 2-star to 3-star also required 100 points, then based on his current rate, Zhang Yue could already have promoted to 3 stars.
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