Hearing William’s request, Cedric nodded silently with a complicated expression, indicating his agreement without saying a word.

  Looking at William — the one he had mocked before the match — now standing victorious after defeating his undead legion head-on, Cedric felt a wave of helplessness and shame wash over him.

  The slap in the face came so quickly that no matter what he said now, it would only humiliate himself further.

  So, he simply and quietly began to command the remnants of his undead army to slowly retreat from the battlefield and return to his god domain.

  The reorganized Zerg swarm did not allow the undead to retreat unchallenged.

  William continued to control his swarm, maintaining a half-encirclement formation as they closely followed the slowly retreating undead forces.

  Though Cedric had already admitted defeat and done so sincerely, the necessary precautions still had to be taken.

  In this manner, the remaining undead army, under the close escort of William’s swarm, took several days to return to the connection point of the invasion passage.

  Once the skeletal army had fully withdrawn from the battlefield, William immediately commanded his swarm to surround Cedric’s invasion portal tightly.

  Only after ensuring everything was secure did William finally relax.

  All that remained now was to quietly wait for the match’s time limit to end.

  At this point, there were still many participants who had not yet been eliminated.

  Their main armies had either been destroyed or retreated back to their own god domains, leaving only scattered followers hiding in various corners of the battlefield to avoid elimination.

  William didn’t bother to send out troops to hunt them down — these scattered targets were too spread out across the vast divine battlefield.

  Even if he did manage to track them down and eliminate them all, their connected invasion portals would allow them to send more followers back in.

  Given the current number of units under William’s control, spreading them evenly to blockade all the uneliminated players’ portals would mean only a few million troops per portal.

  At the same time, William would still need to dispatch a large number of Zerg to sweep the field for those hiding.

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  Without overwhelming numbers, any swarm blocking a portal could be overwhelmed by a sudden breakout, giving opponents the chance to rack up kills and retreat — a frustrating and unnecessary risk.

  For William, there was no need to go that far.

  He was better off maintaining the current battlefield situation and waiting patiently.

  With the overwhelming number of enemy followers he had already eliminated, the championship was essentially guaranteed.

  The remainder of the match entered "garbage time" — it had become nothing more than a game of hide and seek.

  Until the time limit was reached, the battlefield remained peaceful and quiet.

  “Match over. All contestants are to cease combat and immediately recall their followers back to their respective god domains.”

  A booming voice echoed across the divine battlefield — the match administrator was announcing the end of the competition.

  All remaining contestants promptly issued orders for their followers to retreat.

  Followers of various races emerged from hiding across the field and began returning one after another.

  As for William, he had already given orders days in advance for the swarm to return to their respective invasion portals and await further commands.

  Now, upon hearing the official announcement of the match’s end, he leisurely turned his gaze to the swarm still in the field and ordered their return.

  Having confirmed that no threats remained in the final days of the match, William didn’t waste any time.

  He dove straight back into his god domain to resume his usual genetic analysis work.

  The tense final phase of the match had felt no different from daily routine to him — not the slightest bit of pressure.

  As the match administrator disconnected the divine domains of the participants one by one, all of the student contestants gathered quietly in the void, waiting for the head referee to announce the final results.

  Once it was confirmed that all contestants had exited the battlefield, the referee wasted no time and announced the detailed results of the match right there in the void.

  “This match had a total of 607 participants. At the end of the match, 174 players remained uneliminated.”

  “Third place: Hou Yu — 14.34 million enemy followers eliminated.”

  “Second place: Cedric — 817.59 million enemy followers eliminated.”

  “First place: William — 1.98657 billion enemy followers eliminated.”

  “Would the top three please come forward to collect your rewards.” The referee concluded.

  William, who had nearly dozed off, suddenly jolted awake, golden light flashing in his eyes.

  "After all that effort, fighting tooth and nail to claim the championship, the time to reap the rewards has finally come!"

  With excitement bubbling in his chest, William shot off like a streak toward the referee’s position.