NOVPUB
Chapter 94: Competition Starts
John’s appearance was striking amidst this group which had worn similar aesthetic robes of different colors and designs.
Those who hadn’t seen him before now finally saw him and John found out that he kind of had enemies with his high soul sensitivity.
Not that kind of enemies, but he could feel many ill intentions toward him.
’I wonder why...could it be because of Azelis choosing me as her first apprentice and not that haughty bastard?’ John’s eyes gleamed coldly.
He still remembered the clear evil intent aimed at him from Rakim Lockham the moment his hand was cut off.
"Brother John, we heard what happened at the Arena last time."
"Yeah. Rakim cut off your hand, right? But in reality, you won that match."
"Since then, those in support of Rakim weaved a false narrative about you, so many people in the sect kind of don’t like you."
John blinked and then burst out laughing. "Is that for real?"
’Well, people are unsurprisingly easy to manipulate, especially in en masse methods.’
John’s reaction came as a surprise to them, yet not.
Perhaps, because if it were them getting this much hate all of a sudden, it would ruin their social life in the sect, and disrupt their progress.
"Well, it’s clear you don’t care about others, brother John. That’s nice."
"You surprised everyone on the ship last time, and seeing that you also reached the peak of Silver-rank, you are the only newbie among our batch who has a chance at a spot."
"But come on, brother John. Show us your Monsters. Look, if you go down, you’ll get many challengers."
"Nah, I am not going." John looked at the battle down below in the ring.
It was the big ring, so two people were fighting with their Monsters.
The rule was that they would fight with one pet Monster at a time.
"Does anyone know the tournament rules?" John asked as he looked at the gang.
"Nope."
"Nobody knows. They are made by Executives on the spot when the competition starts. How the rounds and eliminations will proceed is also a complete mystery."
John smiled. "That sounds good to me."
Suddenly, the audience cheered loudly as the seventeen-year-old curly blue-haired boy won.
"John Wicked!
John turned to the battle as a loud shout infused with a bit of soul energy resounded.
"What?" John chewed his saliva as he asked.
"Come down and fight. I challenge you."
"I reject."
"..."
"..."
"..."
John turned around and walked away while speaking to the gang. "I want to fight myself against other Tamers, with or without soul techniques, and no Monsters."
’My Monsters are busy training. And I’d better tell them to stop after an hour. I can’t have them dead tired right as the competition starts.’
’You hear me, Alfred?’
’Got it, John. I’ll make sure the three of us stop after an hour.’
Meanwhile, the first-year gang of six fellows quickly followed John.
Violet-haired Melissa said, "If you want to fight martial duels, let’s go there."
"Perfect."
...
John fought with random Silver-rank Tamers, but all of them were weaker than him in stats and technique.
Those who were elite and truly powerful were just watching and wandering without fighting.
John also began wandering, and he indeed found it fun to watch others fighting. To him, observing and recording whatever interested him could birth ideas that might benefit him.
As John was walking, he suddenly saw Rakin walking from the front with several fellows following him.
’Brother John, these seniors assholes like to bully us newbies regularly when there are no teachers around. But they won’t dare to do anything here.’
’They bully? What do they do?’ John asked, his eyes on Rakin and his walk giving a carefree and confident vibe with his hands in his pockets.
Rakin’s eyes flashed with a hint of jealousy.
’They just beat us in the name of sparring and giving us pointers when we are training in the arena,’ Davin said, his tone despondent.
’Some of them are also eyeing Melissa and other first-year girls, and some have already slipped. We brothers don’t have many fish left,’ Oliver said with a sigh.
John burst out laughing.
At this moment, he and Rakin were about to pass by each other.
Suddenly, John felt something touching his leg as an obstruction, and since he had just laughed and was walking at his current pace, he was about to fall.
Rakin’s eyes were glancing at him, a clear glee in them.
However, John didn’t jump, nor did he fall.
Instead, he simply used Metal Mastery to create a razor-sharp blade coating, which cut off the air pressure thread Rakin had created and dispersed it.
’Trash, you wash your neck and wait up there. You will lose in the most humiliating manner against me. This is my wicked promise to you, asshole.’
Rakin’s eyes flashed with killing intent as he replied. ’You will die at my hands.’
John blinked. ’Dork, you want to kill me because of what? Are you mental?’
’I don’t like you and you are an obstruction to what I want. That’s enough reason for me.’
’Okay, then I’ll make sure I make you feel worse than death while you live. Sounds fun, right?’
Rakin suddenly felt a chill and turned his head a bit, but John and his gang had turned left and were not in his sight anymore.
"What happened, Rakin?"
"You were talking with that John, right? What did he say?"
"Nothing," Rakin turned around and continued walking. ’Just that he will die sooner rather than later.’
’John Wicked. As long as you win a spot here and enter that dimensional island ten days later, I promise you that among those not returning alive, you will be one of them.’
...
Time passed, and when ten minutes were left, all seven Executives arrived. A few of them used soul energies and created exotic stairs stretching to the arena’s edge from the floating stadium’s audience platforms.
There were five massive audience platforms, massive.
Each one also had sections of stairs leading to different areas of the mountain.
The people of the city, both the professional Tamers and normal Tamers arrived at their convenience as not everyone had flying monsters among them, so they rode on their monsters while climbing the stairs.
The workers who had Monsters trained to boost their work and production usually ended up like that because of failing to rank up to King-rank.
The seats were roughly 50,000 and they were comfortable as well.
The city’s population was higher, so the seats were first-come, first-served, except for 1000 VIP seats, which were reserved.
The rest of the people could watch via various media like television, giant hologram screens active throughout the city, and big screens at various plazas.
The Silver-rank Tamers of the Ouroboros Sect who wanted to participate were supposed to stand on the 200-meter radius platform that was higher in the air than the battleground where the Tamers would fight.
The first round would be held there to reduce the number of participants to exactly 100.
In ten minutes, the whole stadium was packed full of people.
As the clock hit 8:00, screens all across the city and five screens in the air facing the audience platforms lit up, showing hundreds of Silver-rank Tamers on the higher platform.
Executive Mars, a man with long spikey dark brown hair looking in his thirties floated up with a crystal mic in his hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the competition to select the top five Silver-rank Tamers shall start now! Are you ready?"
Cheers and shouts resounded.
"Without further ado, allow me to state the rules of the first round, where only one hundred of you will survive to enter the next round."
