Chapter: 3402

In the end, he fled, injured and battered.

The landscape transitioned to a barren, rugged expanse of mountains, punctuated by scattered, weathered headstones.

A mournful northern gust shrieked across the stage, its haunting lament imbuing the atmosphere with an unbearable weight of sorrow and despair.

Filthy and blood-soaked, the youth stumbled onward, his strength finally abandoning him as he collapsed in a limp, lifeless heap.

The same audience that had eagerly demanded the eighth contestant's departure mere moments ago now sat in rapt, disbelieving silence.