<h4>Chapter 814: Winner</h4>


    Although Mark Reuss was now frightened and angry, there was nothing he could to the spectators, and neither did he dare stand up and interfere with Commodus’s decision. He could only sit in the stands and re at the people around him.


    He could only hope that Commodus was fair and would take his loss into consideration. After all, he was still Zhang Heng’s master. All he did was let his diators perform in the Amphitheatrum vium. Although the organizer had the right to decide if the diator lived or died or if they should grant them their freedom, they had topensate the school that owned the diator after doing so.


    The question was, how much should Zhang Heng cost?


    To Mark Reuss, Zhang Heng was priceless. After Sets, he was the strongest diator in the entire history of Rome. No one could put a price on him. However, that was just his opinion. Generally, this kind ofpensation was determined based on the diator’s first price tag and with reference to how long the diator had been performing. However, it appeared that Zhang Heng had been bought for a low price and hadn’t performed much in the arena either.


    ording to Gaby, the money he spent purchasing Zhang Heng was what an ordinary diator would cost. One of his selling points was his unique race. As for the number of times that he performed, Mark Reuss would suffer the most here. Zhang Heng grew at such an rming rate, transforming from the unnamed diator to one that everyone knew overnight. ording to all these factors, even if Commodus was generous, he would only need to pay him a few thousand Sestertius.


    This time, Mark Reuss had suffered from a significant loss. It was estimated that Zhang Heng could bring more than 30,000 gold coins to the arena in a year. Even if he only worked for three years, he would bring 90,000 gold coins to Mark Reuss. Comparing such arge sum of money to only a few thousand copper coins, Mark Reuss felt that he had lost a massive part of himself.


    Hence, Mark Reuss was now the most nervous person in the entire arena. The only hope that he had in his heart was shattered when he saw what Commodus did next. He had only organized this diatorial performance to win the hearts of the Roman people, so wouldn’t it make no sense if he went against the people’s will? Moreover, Commodus was actually trying to figure out a way to take Zhang Heng away from Mark Reuss. It was rare toe across such a good opportunity. After turning Zhang Heng into a free man, he would hire him to assist him.


    Of course, letting a diator be his confidant would definitely spark massive protests among the senior senators. However, this was not the first time he had done such an absurd thing. The two consultants that he had now weren’t from prestigious families. His aggressive recruitment of new people had proven that he wanted to fight against those senior senators.


    The empire was like an old man entering his twilight years, and it needed some fresh blood to rejuvenate it. Commodus had always believed that it was for the greater good. Hence, he could not be bothered by the feelings of the poor owners of the diator schools.


    After that, Commodus took the training sword symbolizing freedom from his entourage and threw it in front of Zhang Heng. At the same time, he announced loudly, “This is what you won for yourself.”


    His moves had also triggered a new round of cheers. The people seemed to be happy that their voice was taken seriously. The empire now had a good emperor who loved his people like they were his children. Mark Reuss was so angry that he fainted after he heard what Commodus said to Zhang Heng. When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Heng had already picked up the wooden sword.


    This also meant that thetter had regained his freedom, and he had nothing to do with Victor Arena from now on. Mark Reuss, who had just opened his eyes, fainted again. A second ago, he was the biggest winner of this diatorial show, and he was looking forward to the new future of Victor Arena. And now, he had be its biggest loser.


    Although Sartonilos and others did not perform well in this performance, most of them survived. After this whole thing ended, their reputation would be severely damaged. However, they could still find a way to repair it. Besides, the giant obstacles that stopped them from climbing to the top were now gone. In other words, they would have a chance to get to the throne again in the future. On the other hand, Mark Reuss was in great despair. Although his diator school imed the championship, he had now lost Zhang Heng permanently.


    Life was riddled with ups and downs, and this was a prime example. Perhaps the onlyfort Mark Ruess had was that Bach performed exceptionally well in this diatorial performance. He barely made any mistakes, cing him second only to Zhang Heng and Terufelos. However, Bach could neverpare with Zhang Heng in terms of poprity.


    ...


    Zhang Heng was also a little surprised when he picked up the wooden sword because he knew the arena’s rules. There were hardly any diators like him who were granted freedom after only a few battles. That was because the people of Rome would like to watch more of his performances.


    It seemed the time and ce where he acquired his freedom was unique. Just as everyone discussed what to reward him, the value of those rewards continued to increase as the crowd descended into a frenzy. It was then that freedom, the most valuable prize, was suggested by them.


    The crowd subconsciously followed along and shouted together. In other words, this was premeditated coercion and the use of public opinion.


    The question was, who was behind this n? Zhang Heng then looked at Commodus. He knew that Commodus wanted to recruit him into his team. All this while, Zhang Heng has been deliberately guiding Commodus to act ording to his will. He was undoubtedly a beneficiary of this incident. However, based on Zhang Heng’s understanding of Commodus, he knew that Commodus should not be able to pull such a highly devised n.


    The n turned out to be wless. Whoever had nned and carried it out must have possessed a superb political skillset. They were good at manipting their strengths and knew how to fully utilize them. Clearly, a new ruler like Commodus could nevere up with such a delicate n.


    Zhang Heng thought about it, and the only organization that was politically powerful enough to do something like was the Bnce de. ording to the agreement between the two parties, Zhang Heng was required to help Bnce deplete specific tasks, and Bnce de had to make sure that Zhang Heng could regain his freedom. Although Zhang Heng was supposed to get his freedom after he helped themplete the task given to him, he could not rule out that the Bnce de saw a good opportunity to help him regain his freedom. So, they decided to pay a part of the reward in advance. At the same time, it would also allow him to get closer to Commodus.


    If this was the case, Zhang Heng had just managed to prove some of his previous conjectures. The Bnce de was not as pure as it imed. Maintaining the bnce of the world was not its only mission. It was also a tool in the hands of a certain political force. The members within the organization might not know about it. Or maybe only members like Dadatis did not realize such a hidden agenda. They thought that the political force was to their advantage, but they did not realize that the rtionship between the two parties was actually reversed.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also received two system prompts. One of them was the 100 game points reward for winning the diatorial performance, and another notification was about the 50 game points reward for restoring the status of a freeman.