Of course, they could also conduct an investigation on each individual soldier to cover all of their bases. But, as there were tens of thousands of soldiers who placed a bet for the battle, the probability of finding their target among the soldiers would much lower. Therefore, they decided to start investigating the combat units first, as they had the higher probability of being the target.

...

As they fanned out, Lawrence did not leave.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have one more thing to announce!" Steve suddenly spoke up.

Everyone's eyes were focused on him. Just then, a huge amount of data was transmitted, while Marcus descended from the sky. Everyone was surprised by this, as no one knew why Marcus would come at such a time...

"I'm sorry, Mr. Steve, but I have something to announce." Marcus said.

Steve was stunned, but he nodded and said, "Then, make your announcement at once."

As Marcus landed, his loud voice could be heard clearly. "Ladies and gentlemen, I must inform you that the bet for today's battle has been officially cancelled. The money that you put in will be paid back to you in full."

Everyone in the room was stunned by this decision. The soldiers all thought that they had misheard him!

Steve looked especially gloomy. After all, he had allowed Sofia to put his 1 billion in original gold and all of his contribution points in the bet. And now, Marcus had announced the cancellation of the bet!

The soldiers who would have lost the bet did not bother to know the reason behind such a decision, they were just so relieved, they cheered immediately...

"That's great!"

"The Black Tiger Combat Unit must be feeling guilty! That's why they are returning our bet money!"

"Why cancel it? I bet on Steve to win!"

...

Steve asked coldly, "Why are you cancelling the bet? Have you gotten the consent from the military base camp to do so?"

With a sneer, Marcus looked at Steve and said, "We found out that you and Lawrence colluded in secret in order to win a lot of money in this bet!"

Upon hearing the shocking claim, a wave of verbal abuse erupted at the scene. The crowd was livid...

"No wonder Lawrence was losing. They were in on it together! It was a scam!"

"Darn it! They deceived us!"

"Fortunately, the Black Tiger Combat Unit found out in time. Otherwise, we would all have really been deceived by them."

"It must be true, as Steve's shady reputation is already known by everyone. It's not surprising that such a wicked man would do such a thing."

...

Most people ignored questioning the authenticity of Marcus' words, as they were just happy that they had found an excuse to retrieve their money that would have otherwise been lost in the bet! Of course, there were some soldiers who felt that Steve was a shady character and truly believed that he must have colluded with Lawrence.

"Hahaha, what a joke! Do you have any evidence that I was in cahoots with Lawrence?" Steve gave a big laugh.

"The proof is that, in the first few minutes of the battle, someone forked out 15,000 contribution points to bet on you to win. We also discovered that Lawrence's contribution points were inexplicably transferred out before the battle even began! Who else would place such a big bet, unless he or she was not absolutely sure that you would win?" Marcus grinned deviously.

In actual fact, Lawrence's contribution points were not transferred out before the battle. It was Marcus and his men who did that in secret! After that, they made up a lie to create a misunderstanding among the soldiers!

"If you don't believe it, here's a screenshot of Lawrence's contribution points the last minute before the game.

Marcus took out two screenshots and zoomed in so that everyone could see them. The first screenshot was a chart that was displaying Lawrence's contribution points, including the details of the contribution points being emptied. The second screenshot showed that someone had clearly taken out 15,000 contribution points and placed a bet on Steve to win the battle!

The atmosphere became immediately tense, while everyone looked at Steve angrily.

"You took these two screenshots as evidence, then linked them up based on your own logic. You can't prove that these screenshots are related to each other at all. What do they have to do with me? Moreover, are they even authentic?" Steve asked coldly.

Marcus sneered. "Others may think that you're only a recruit who does not have many contribution points. After checking, however, we found that you are the top recruit, who earned more than 5,000 contribution points before you even entered the military base camp! On top of that, you also received an inexplicable reward of 1,000 contribution points from the camp."

He then added, "You also challenged the Original Gravity Tower yesterday. Because you cleared eight levels in one go, you received a huge amount of contribution points. In total, you should have more than 10,000 contribution points. Add to that Lawrence's contribution points, and you would have about 15,000 contribution points altogether! Most importantly, your bad character is already known to all. People like you would do absolutely anything to get bonuses!"