At this moment, Yamato stood proudly despite being covered in blood. He looked toward Bai Cheng and cupped his fists deeply.

Bai Cheng nodded slightly and said in a heavy voice, "It's enough. Forfeit."

She knew that the true storm had yet to arrive.

#6271 Channel clearly had other Guardian Rank Employees, while Yamato was undoubtedly at the end of his rope.

If he held on any longer, he would truly die.

Liu San clearly understood this as well. Taking advantage of the fact that the next duel hadn't started yet, he immediately requested Bai Cheng.

"Miss Bai Cheng, there's no need to make Yamato forfeit. Just swap contestants directly!"

His tone carried a hint of urgency, as well as a trace of dissatisfaction with Yamato's defiance of orders.

Naturally, no one present wanted Yamato to be sacrificed. After all, they possessed absolute strength, so how could they allow a teammate to perish?

Bai Cheng nodded, then decisively chose to swap contestants on the light screen.

She glanced at the group of Employees behind her, first ruling out Purple Iris and Qingniao.

It wasn't that Bai Cheng wanted to waste time; it was just that since killing Employees also granted experience points, sending a King Rank Employee onto the stage would be a huge waste.

After all, experience points were already useless to them.

Instead of that, it was better to let the other Employees leech some experience points for free.

Lvdou was somewhat shy. Since Bai Cheng was actively seeking volunteers from the Employees, she wouldn't be the first to speak, instead looking toward her other colleagues.

Huang Yu, being a support, naturally excluded himself by default. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Lan Xiaoyu looked indifferent; if no one else stepped up, she planned to go.

But at that moment, someone was faster—it was Chi Yan.

"Miss, your subordinate is willing to go."

Bai Cheng nodded: "Good."

With that, Chi Yan walked toward the arena.

Due to Bai Cheng's request to swap contestants, Yamato was forcibly removed from the arena.

Lvdou and Liu San stepped forward almost simultaneously. However, the former was there to heal, while the latter... "You fucking idiot, who told you to disobey orders!" Liu San cursed angrily. "If you died, you'd have proven your strength, but what about us?!"

As Liu San continued his tirade, Yamato remained silent, while Lvdou quietly healed him from the side.

On the other side, the people from #6271 Channel were instantly infuriated when they noticed this scene.

"Damn it, we shouldn't have hesitated just now. We should have taken the stage immediately!"

"Great, now the opponent fucking swapped Employees!"

Swapping a contestant and a contestant forfeiting were two different things. After forfeiting, one could no longer participate; although they lived, it was no different from being dead.

But swapping was different—the original contestant could still take the stage later!

By this point, it wasn't surprising that every Leader's team in the channels that reached the Top 16 basically had two Guardians.

The reason the people from #6271 Channel didn't care at first was simple.

Because even if Yamato left the stage, he was already heavily injured and had no strength left to fight. So what if he could return later?

The key was that none of them expected the opponent to actually have a healer Employee!

While that wasn't rare, isn't this healing speed a bit too ridiculous?!

Across the arena, they could clearly see Yamato's injuries recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye. It looked like he would regain his combat power in no time.

"Tell me, isn't this fucking nonsense?!"

The Leader's team of #6271 Channel also had a healer Employee, but with his level, he was completely helpless against injuries on an Immortal-grade Employee.

Ultimately, it was because the gap in strength between the two sides was too large.

The Leader of #6271 Channel calmed down significantly after realizing this, and a smile even curled at the corner of his mouth.

"It seems the situation isn't as bad as I thought."

"Boss, what do you mean?" a lackey asked.

"That healer Employee of theirs can actually heal a peak Guardian, and the effect is so good. What does that tell you?" he asked rhetorically, before answering himself.

"It means the opponent's second Guardian is a healer!"

As everyone knew, an Employee who leaned toward support didn't have much combat power.

"Hmph, I've seen through everything!" he said confidently. "The opponent's plan is simple: use the Guardian healer to restore the first Employee's injuries and prepare for another fight."

"And during this time, they will naturally send out trash Employees to sacrifice themselves and stall for time..."

"In other words, from beginning to end, the only Employee they have with combat power is the one from before!"

After finishing his analysis, the Leader of #6271 Channel ignored the reactions of his lackeys. Wearing an expression of total control and insight, he burst into wild laughter.

He knew his subordinates must be full of admiration for him right now!

Jie jie jie, I really am a genius!

"No, that's not it, Boss," a lackey nearby said with a terrified expression. "The second Employee the opponent sent out is an Immortal-grade Guardian!"

The Leader froze upon hearing this, then grabbed the lackey's collar, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"What the fuck kind of joke are you playing with me!!"

But the lackey's face remained frozen in terror.

His hand pointed tremblingly behind the Leader: "B-Boss, our Guardian Employee was insta-killed by the opponent!"

"What?!" The Leader immediately spun around, only to see Chi Yan standing alone on the arena, while beneath his feet was a patch of charred remains.

At the same time, the information on the light screen snapped him back to reality.

【Please send out a new contestant within five minutes, otherwise #6217 Channel will be deemed to have forfeited...】

【Countdown: ...】

Boom—!

A bolt of thunder seemed to explode in his heart. The Leader felt his legs go weak and instantly slumped to the ground.

The lackey hurriedly supported him: "Boss, you have to pull yourself together, Boss!"

"Pull myself together my ass!"

Their entire team only had two Guardian Employees in total. Now, one had forfeited and one had died in battle; the reality before them was that they had already lost.

Next, all of them were going to die... A sense of despair began to spread, and everyone's hearts turned to ash.

Witnessing all this from not far away, Yu Nian raised an eyebrow: "What are those guys talking about? Why did I hear something about someone's mother?"

The Top 16 round soon concluded successfully. With Chi Yan personally taking action, the Top 8 duels were also smooth sailing, with almost no difficulty.

Soon, Bai Cheng and the others successfully advanced to the semi-finals.

But the duels of other teams were still ongoing.

Suddenly, an incredibly powerful King Rank aura swept across the field, directly shocking everyone present.