Chapter 281: Imperial Ranking War: Reactions

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The announcement of the Berserk Mountain God Empire’s elimination spread across the secret realm almost immediately.

For the teams still making their way toward the Rock, however, the news arrived at the worst possible time.

They had been moving with confidence.

After all, the World System had practically placed a bounty on the Heavenly Bronze Empire’s heads. Killing one of their representatives would yield five times the normal merit points, and with the Heavenly Bronze Team sitting so far ahead of everyone else, the temptation was enormous. The four remaining teams had spent the previous several days making their preparations, discussing possible strategies, and moving toward the exposed location of the Rock.

Some had already begun imagining what would happen after they arrived.

They would break through the defenses.

They would overwhelm the Heavenly Bronze Team with numbers.

They would claim the enormous bounty attached to their opponents.

It was an attractive thought.

Then the World System spoke.

[The Berserk Mountain God Empire Team has been completely eliminated.]

[All fifty participants have been removed from the Imperial Ranking War.]

[The Berserk Mountain God Empire’s participation in the Imperial Ranking War has ended.]

The reaction was immediate.

"What?"

A member of the Burning Firmament Empire stopped walking.

He wasn’t the only one.

Throughout the formation, people stared at one another with expressions ranging from confusion to outright disbelief. Some thought they had misheard the announcement, while others immediately began questioning whether the system had made some sort of mistake.

"Completely eliminated?"

"All fifty?"

"That can’t be right."

"They were the closest team to the Rock!"

The news didn’t make sense.

The Berserk Mountain God Empire had fifty people.

The Heavenly Bronze Empire had only fifty-one.

Even if the Berserk Mountain God Team was the weakest of the five, there was still an enormous numerical difference between fifteen assassins and an entire team of fifty people. Nobody expected the Berserk Mountain God Empire to win easily, but complete elimination was another matter entirely.

There should have been survivors.

At the very least, someone should have escaped.

Yet the World System had been very clear.

All fifty participants had been eliminated.

There was no ambiguity in those words.

The people who had been moving toward the Rock suddenly slowed down. The atmosphere that had previously been filled with anticipation became noticeably heavier, and the confidence that had been building among them was replaced by uncertainty.

The announcement had been like a bucket of cold water thrown directly over their heads.

The Heavenly Bronze Empire had just demonstrated exactly why they were ranked first.

It wasn’t because of some meaningless number on a ranking board.

It wasn’t because the World System favored them.

They were actually strong.

For six months, everyone had known that the Heavenly Bronze Team was ahead, but most had been able to dismiss the difference as the result of better preparation and superior resources. They had survived the calamities better than everyone else, accumulated more food, built a better base, and gathered more merit points.

That didn’t necessarily mean they were overwhelmingly stronger in direct combat.

At least, that was what some people had wanted to believe.

Now they knew better.

The Berserk Mountain God Team had been the closest to the Rock. They had gone there first, probably hoping to take advantage of their position before the other teams arrived.

Instead, they had become the first casualties of the confrontation.

"How long ago did they reach the Rock?"

"Not long."

"Then the battle was extremely fast."

"Or they were completely surrounded before they could react."

The speculation continued as the teams moved again, although their pace was noticeably more cautious than before.

Their plans had to be reconsidered.

The Burning Firmament Empire immediately began discussing whether approaching the Rock directly was still wise. The Deep Blue God Empire had similar concerns, while members of the Free Heavenly Paradise Empire began questioning whether they should alter their route entirely.

None of them wanted to become the second team to disappear.

The problem was that retreating wasn’t exactly a solution either.

The Heavenly Bronze Team knew their location now.

Their own location wasn’t completely hidden either.

And the confrontation would continue until the end of the Imperial Ranking War.

Eventually, they would have to fight.

Still, there was a difference between fighting on their own terms and walking directly into an enemy that had just annihilated fifty people without suffering the same fate.

Nobody wanted to repeat the Berserk Mountain God Empire’s mistake.

The teams had approached the Rock expecting a battle for survival.

Now, they were beginning to realize that they might be approaching a battlefield where they were the ones being hunted.

The thought made even the most confident members uncomfortable.

The Heavenly Bronze Empire had occupied first place for six months.

Perhaps they had forgotten what that actually meant.

Now the first blood had been spilled, and the answer was painfully clear.

The gap between the Heavenly Bronze Empire and the others wasn’t merely a gap in merit points.

It was a gap in preparation.

A gap in resources.

A gap in equipment.

And perhaps, most importantly, a gap in information.

The Berserk Mountain God Team had entered the forest knowing almost nothing about their enemy.

The Heavenly Bronze Team had apparently known everything about them.

That realization forced every remaining empire to reevaluate what they were dealing with.

Nobody wanted to be next.

**

Far away from the secret realm, in the imperial palace of the Berserk Mountain God Empire, the atmosphere was considerably worse.

The announcement had been heard here as well.

The Emperor of the Berserk Mountain God Empire, Valerius Draken, sat at the head of the council chamber in complete silence.

Around him stood the ministers and officials responsible for overseeing the Imperial Ranking War.

None of them dared speak.

Their faces were pale.

Some were trembling.

They had watched the representatives of their empire from the moment the Imperial Ranking War began.

They had watched every calamity.

Every poor decision.

Every shortage.

Every miserable struggle for survival.

And now they had watched all fifty of their representatives die.

The emperor’s expression was enough to tell them exactly what he thought.

He wasn’t angry at the Heavenly Bronze Empire.

That would have been foolish.

This was the Imperial Ranking War.

The entire purpose of the event was competition, and the World System had explicitly encouraged the teams to eliminate one another. The Heavenly Bronze Team had simply done what they were supposed to do.

If anything, the emperor could understand why Ren had ordered the attack.

What he couldn’t understand was how his own representatives had allowed it to happen so completely.

He had watched them for six months.

Every single day, he had watched.

He saw them struggle during the Extreme Heat.

He saw them nearly collapse during the Extreme Cold.

He watched them suffer through the Extreme Pollution and barely survive the Nuclear Fallout.

He had watched their mistakes, their arguments, their poor decisions, and their repeated inability to properly prepare for what was happening around them.

Not once had they done anything that truly impressed him.

Not once had he looked at them and thought, These are the people who will bring glory to our empire.

In truth, the emperor had expected them to be eliminated eventually.

He had simply hoped they would at least accomplish something before that happened.

He had hoped they would fight.

He had hoped they would show some courage.

He had hoped they would demonstrate why they had been chosen to represent their empire.

Instead, they had walked straight toward the strongest team in the entire secret realm and allowed themselves to be slaughtered.

The emperor’s fingers tightened around the armrest.

He remembered the day they left.

The representatives had been confident.

They had spoken loudly about the honor of representing the empire. They had sworn that they would return with glory, that they would make their ancestors proud, that they would show the other empires the strength of the Berserk Mountain God Empire.

They had said all of those things.

And now?

Fifty people had been erased from the Imperial Ranking War without even leaving a meaningful mark.

Was this the glory they had promised?

Was this the honor they had boasted about?

If so, then the emperor wanted nothing to do with it.

His disappointment was so profound that his anger had almost become irrelevant.

The ministers understood this.

That was what made the silence so frightening.

Had the emperor shouted, perhaps they could have endured it.

Had he cursed the representatives, perhaps they could have accepted it.

Had he demanded explanations, they could have prepared excuses.

But he did none of those things.

He simply sat there.

Silent.

The Minister of War lowered his head until it nearly touched his chest. The Minister of Resources stood rigidly beside him, afraid that even breathing too loudly might attract the emperor’s attention. The other ministers remained equally still.

Nobody wanted to be the first person to speak.

Eventually, the emperor stood.

His movement was slow.

For a moment, the ministers thought he might finally say something.

He didn’t.

Valerius simply turned around and walked toward the chamber’s exit.

His back was slightly hunched.

His steps were slower than they had been when he entered.

To the ministers watching him leave, it almost seemed as if the emperor had aged several years in the span of a few minutes.

Nobody stopped him.

Nobody dared.

The doors closed behind him.

The council chamber remained silent.

There had been no shouting.

No punishment.

No condemnation.

Not even a single harsh word.

Yet somehow, that silence felt heavier than any reprimand they could have received.

Because every person in that room understood what the emperor had been thinking.

The Berserk Mountain God Empire had not merely lost fifty representatives.

They had lost the last remaining excuse for believing those representatives were worthy of the honor they had claimed for themselves.

And the emperor had finally stopped expecting anything from them.

Outside the palace, the empire continued as normal.

Inside the council chamber, however, nobody felt like celebrating anything.

The Imperial Ranking War continued.

But for the Berserk Mountain God Empire, it was already over.