CLANG!

The sound of metal striking metal.

The sharp edges of the high-speed objects collided, sending out a shower of dazzling sparks.

’As expected, an enchanted spinning top has the potential to become a lethal weapon.’

A mid-sized theater with a capacity of about six hundred was packed with an excited audience.

The stage had been converted into a large spinning top dueling arena.

It was a bowl-shaped ring over ten meters in diameter, made of reinforced solid wood and fitted with a three-meter-high steel mesh fence to prevent shattered parts from turning into deadly projectiles.

Inside the Dueling Disc, two blurs of blue and gold chased and battled, their rotation speed comparable to an angle grinder.

Above the tops, Spirit Body Illusions performed different attack moves with each collision.

Meanwhile, a young Dwarf sat at the edge of the arena, the closest person to the tops besides the competitors.

He was the commentator for this match.

"Whoa! A beautiful counter by Polar Golden Shield, blocking Gale Celestial Wings’ sudden attack!

"Although Polar Golden Shield is a Defense-type top, the competitor has installed an attack kit to boost its offensive stats, just barely making the weight limit at 98 grams.

"Look at that! Gale Celestial Wings with another beautiful diagonal attack! The angle is perfect, and it’s made Polar Golden Shield start to wobble.

"Gale Celestial Wings might be at a nearly 30-gram weight disadvantage, but that also means it’s more agile and has more options for offensive maneuvers.

"Beautiful! A fantastic heavy hit! Both tops’ spin axes are now tilted, their rotation speed has dropped severely, and the match is entering its final phase.

"Gale Celestial Wings isn’t trying to compete on endurance in the center. It’s still looking for an opening! Can it break through Polar Golden Shield’s rock-solid defense?

"This is dangerous! The two tops are stuck together! If it turns into a close-quarters brawl, the weight disadvantage will be a huge problem for Gale Celestial Wings.

"Oh no, it’s starting to wobble—wait! There’s a chance! Polar Golden Shield is about to give out too!

"Who will claim the final victory?

"Ah! They’ve stopped! They stopped at almost the exact same time! Please be patient while the judges confirm the result.

"The results are in!

"Polar Golden Shield! It’s Polar Golden Shield! It defeated Gale Celestial Wings by a razor-thin margin of less than half a second!

"Let’s congratulate contestant number 11 from the Riverfront District, Roger! He has won this preliminary match and secured a direct ticket to the year-end Spinning Top Battle Tournament.

"At the same time, let’s give a round of applause to contestant number 28 from the Belial District, Toma! Thank you for the spectacular duel your Gale Celestial Wings gave us.

"Don’t be discouraged! You still have a chance to participate in the Spinning Top Battle Tournament. The points you’ve earned in this qualifier will allow you to start from the third round of the open auditions.

"And last but not least, a big thank you to our title sponsor for this competition, Zog Beverages!

"Zog Beverages, accompanying you through the good times!"

Zog sat in the back of the audience. He had chosen not to watch the match from a private box.

’If you’re going to watch a match, you should be in the crowd, feeling their passion.’

’Hearing the commentator belt out these flashy, over-the-top names for the spinning tops gave him a complicated feeling—it was both cringey and hype at the same time.’

’That number 28 who lost seems pretty popular. I heard he’s published guides on top-kit combinations, and he’s not bad-looking either.’

’There was even a group in the audience who held up colored sheets of paper to form his personal logo.’

’There’s a special term for it, should be tifo.’

’It refers to the large banners or mosaics in the stands, which are quite visually striking.’

’A good culture. Worth promoting.’

’As for the whole "spinning top hooligan" aspect... it would be best if we could do without that.’

After the last Yo-Yo tournament, public demand for spectating all sorts of competitions had surged, and people often organized small-scale tournaments on their own.

There were tournaments for Yo-Yos, spinning tops, and Magic Cubes.

Where there’s demand, there’s a market. Zog had spun off the team that organized the Yo-Yo tournament and formed an association dedicated to running competitions and establishing rules.

Although it didn’t have many members now, he believed that sooner or later it could grow into a very large organization.

Therefore, Zog took precautions, establishing an anti-corruption department from the very beginning.

The members of this department had extremely high authority, but they all had to make a Contract with Zog. If they participated in corruption, the punishment would be more severe than for other departments.

’Can’t let the entire competition system rot from graft and corruption.’

This Twin Tower City spinning top qualifier was the association’s first independently organized competition. Zog had only offered a few suggestions and hadn’t been involved in the specific management.

’Today, he was here to inspect the results.’

’Overall, the effect was pretty good.’

That fast-talking Dwarf commentator was recommended by Bane Furnace.

Nowadays, more than half of all professional commentators were Dwarves.

Who would have thought that when Dwarf Clans got into a brawl, they didn’t just have fighters; they had spectators, referees, commentators, and even vendors selling beer and snacks to the onlookers—the whole shebang.

The rules were also comprehensive. They included things like: you could hit hard, but you couldn’t hit an opponent who was already down;

you were not allowed to continuously attack someone who could no longer effectively defend themselves;

after being knocked down multiple times in a row, a combatant was considered to have lost the ability to fight and could not get up again;

falling down on purpose without being attacked was considered a forfeit;

striking vital points was forbidden;

and the leader of each side could propose a one-on-one duel.

There was also a ton of detailed regulations regarding the number of participants, clothing material, glove material, and so on.

Dwarves were genuinely serious about treating brawling as a form of entertainment.

So naturally, "freelance commentators" emerged.

The role was usually filled by the Dwarf who was the biggest talker in the tavern. After Zog found out, he immediately made these Dwarf commentators official.

And out of respect for clan tradition, their shift system even had a rule that if their own clan got into a brawl, they had priority to go back and commentate.

Zog squeezed out of the celebrating crowd, which was jumping and singing. ’If I had this kind of strength back when I was squeezing onto the subway, I wouldn’t have feared any morning or evening rush hour.’

Today, Zog finally had some rare free time to visit the exposition.

As the boss of the conglomerate with the most exhibits at the expo, he hadn’t even had a chance to walk around. If he didn’t do it soon, it would be over.

He had spent the last few days busy creating a special version of his games for the Church.

The workload was immense.

In "Jump Jump," the Easter egg tavern boxes had to be changed to churches because believers weren’t allowed to drink.

In "Down a Hundred Floors," hitting the spikes at the top couldn’t be called ’death’; it had to be ’returning to the Lord.’

The most troublesome was the auto-battler. None of the attack animations could show blood, and extra cloth had to be added to all the heroes with slightly revealing outfits.

And they couldn’t die, either. All the death animations had to be changed to ’returning to the Lord,’ with their souls ascending to heaven.

The part that really made Zog feel like he was back home was that the Church actually had taboo words.

They even had to censor all the text in the auto-battler.

’What’s this? The pronunciation of these two words combined is a homophone for the true name of a Devil?’

’Utterly disrespectful!’

’Heresy!’

’I can’t tell if this is reality or a game anymore.’

Twin Towers Block was a huge success; the Church found no issues with it during their review.

It was exhausting, but seeing the followers of the Goddess use the Red Middle Launcher to enter the game, contribute faith to the Divine Remains, and then thank the Goddess for her gift...

...was secretly thrilling.

So this is what it feels like to be a Minotaur Deity.

Zog, the street-stroller, ambled through the streets. Many merchant groups that had met their trading goals had already left. Most of those remaining were large groups in no hurry to leave, or those whose goods nobody wanted.

As he walked, he suddenly caught a familiar, fragrant scent.

Zog pinpointed its location: southeast, -25 degrees, 230 meters away.

He ran and flapped his wings, rushing to the source of the scent.

He saw several Druids grinding some dark green, dried leaves.

"Is that... tea?"