UNLIMITED SPEED

Noah was absolutely taken aback by the man’s words, he couldn’t help but shoot a gaze at James, who also returned it, fear seemed to be creeping into his mind.

“Let me clear up on that. For this year, you’ll all be grouping into teams of five. There are exactly one thousand one hundred, of you participants, which would equal to two hundred and twenty groups.”

“You may all be wondering how do you do this, that simple,” the man said, as he waved his hands causing hundreds of hand bands to fall.

“Wear those hand bands. Swipe it with your card and infuse your Mana into it. When you’ve done that your names will appear on the leader board,” the man explained as everyone did as he Instructed.

“There are going to be points for this game, as you gain points from the level of beasts you kill. There are magical Beasts that only range from the lower stage up to the middle stage. When you kill a lower stage beast you get 1 point, when you kill a middle stage you get 5 points, and when you kill a higher stage, you get 15 points. The more points you get the higher you get on the leader board.” He explained.

“Now back to killing yourselves. The cultivation journey is filled with competitors and harshness. You’ll have to fight and fight through out. This isn’t any different, only that with each kill you receive the points of who ever you kill,” the man announced, as gasps resounded inside the collusem.

Noah could already immediately see how those in the higher stage had an advantage, but that revealed a problem. The gasps stopped as the man opened his mouth to talk.

“You may be wondering, but we are in teams, are we going to lose all our points just from one member?. Well the answer is no. As a team you won’t lose all your points, but you also won’t stay a team through out the event. As a team each points a member gets, is added to your overall points, so if a member dies their contributed ponts will be deducted,”.

“This stage will last for only three days, and only the teams in the top hundred will qualify for the next stage,” the man explained.

A sigh escaped Noah mouth after that explanation, the first stage was more of a group work, which meant even if a member didn’t gain any points, as long as their team as a whole made it to the top hundred they would pass.

“Now for the second stage, since we’ll only have three this year. The members of the first hundred teams will then split into teams of two, with normal calculations that means a total of 250 teams, but things could go wrong.” He said.

“When you’ve become a team of two, you’ll be transported to a place where you’ll fight beasts for three days straight, there would be five waves where beast that range from the lower stage up to higher stage will appear. All you have to do is survive this three days, and your team will advance into the third and final stage.” the man stopped, giving them a few seconds to digest the information.

Noah found the second stage a bit bothersome, the fact that they would have to fight beast for three days posed two questions. One would they have time to rest?, and two, how long will each wave last?. Noah couldn’t help but feel like the man left those details out to increase the difficulty of the whole thing.

“Now the third stage which will only last a day, would feature the experts that had managed to survive the second stage. In this last stage, in teams of two, you are to fight and kill, or make your enemy surrender by utilizing the aspect of the hand band which teleports you out of the area.

“In this last stage you don’t really have to be in a team, since only ten people should be left. All you have to do is make sure that, only that number remains” the man explained.

“Thanks to the royal family, which has allowed you the option to surrender and be teleported out, only by using the hand bands. And for warning, it takes thirty seconds for the band to activate the teleportation Inscriptions and formations in the area, so beware,” the man explained.

“Now you all may be thinking, what the prize would be. That’s simple, the last ten individuals will get resources that will push them to either peak of tier 3, or the beginning of their 4, in a short period of time, but there are some conditions which are for later,” the man said,

While the entire place burst into chattering, every single person present apart from the VIPs, were gasping in surprise.

Noah himself couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise, ‘Tier 4!,’ he shouted in his mind, that was crazy, this really boosted his morale to win. Although the conditions the expert mentioned worried him, the prize was still stupendous.

“With that done, you all have one hour to form teams of five. When you have decided, place your cards on each others, then infuse your mana’s into it, to be identified as a team. The maximum is five so only that number can be allowed.” the man finished the explanation.

“And lastly you all can address me as Elder Michael,” he added, as he began to float towards the VIP area.

With that done Noah glanced at James, a sigh escaped his mouth. “Let’s go look for three others.” he said while James nodded.

Sweeping his gaze on the multitude of people, Noah could immediately see people already swiping their cards on each others, as their names were grouped together, on the massive screen’s.

“We should probably band together and search for people,” Noah advised, while James only nodded, after all Noah was the strongest.

The two walked among the crowd, Noah inspecting the experts he saw on the way, eventually he found someone.

[Kayla]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 35]

[Chances of death: 32%]

The person was strong so he walked towards her. “Hey do you want to join our team?,” Noah asked with a smile. ｎｏｖ𝚕．𝚌ｏｍ

The young woman who looked as young as Noah, had long brown hair, black eyes, was wearing a black robe, and was around 5ft5 in height, inspected the duo.

Then all of a sudden, a small condensed ball of orange flames materialised in front of her and shot towards Noah. Who frowned and simply caught the ball with his left hand, tightening his grip the ball of flames dispersed.

Noah wanted to complain about the attack when her voice rang out, “I’ll join your team,” she said as surprise filled her eyebrows.

Noah and James were totally taken aback by that turn of events. “…Okaay,” Noah replied unsure of what to do.

“That attack was strong enough to hurt most people in the middle stage, but you caught it with your hands. You’re strong,” she said.

Noah could only give a weird smile, truth be told the ball of flames had only felt warm in his hands, he didn’t actually think it was an attack, but now it seemed he was wrong.

“I’m Kayla. The daughter of two small merchants, and the older sister to three younger brothers,” Kayla Introduced herself with an out stretched hand.

“I’m Noah, the son of no one, and the brother to no one,” Noah introduced, taking the hand shake, while gesturing at James to do the same.

Kayla stared at Noah with a weird look, it seemed his introduction had taken her by surprise.

“Let’s go look for two other people,” Noah announced after James was done Introducing himself.

The two nodded, as they walked around, it took them over ten minutes, before Noah found someone suitable for his team, but immediately he was about to walk towards the man, someone got there before him, and the person was in the peak stage of tier 2.

[Desmond]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 46]

[Chances of death: 40]

Desmond talked to the man Noah had eyes on, the man seemed to agree, since he nodded.

Desmond turned and saw the figures of Noah’s incomplete team. “I am Desmond,” he said after coming closer to the trio.

“I’m Noah,”.

“Can you join my team we are almost complete,” Desmond said glancing at the man beside him.

Noah had a difficult expression, but he still glanced at the two humans behind him, seeing that they nodded, although James had a weird expression on his face.

“Sure,” Noah announced.

“Though i have another teammate. So you’ll have to remove him,” Desmond said pointing at James, in disdain

Noah’s expression immediately went cold ‘I see’ Noah thought.

“No can do,” Noah answered with his cold expression.

Thus greatly surprising everyone present, especially Kayla, Desmond and the other man.

“Can you repeat yourself,” Desmond said with surprise on his face.

“I said, that’s not possible. Kayla if you want to join him, you can but he’s not going anywhere,” Noah said in a chilling voice, for the first time in a while he began to actually lose his patience, while anger creeped up his emotions.

“Noah you don’t-,”

“Don’t give me that crap,” Noah cut James short.

A sigh escaped James mouth at that point. “Kayla!,” Noah called out. “I’ll stay,” she replied taking a step back, for a second there, her instincts screamed at her to escape from the danger which was Noah, further solidifying her belief that Noah was strong.

Noah simply nodded his head, while he turned around to go look for other participants.

“You’ll regret this,” Desmond shouted at him, while he also turned around, but this time a wrathful expression shone on his face, while he wiped the beads of cold sweat that had formed on his head, due to the fear Noah had inflicted.

Noah simply ignored this, as he continued walking, the group walked in silence, while Noah continued to inspect the experts around him.

Eventually the one hour time period ended, as two other figure could be seen standing around Noah, completing the team of five.

The first person was a man who looked to be in his early thirties, he had short yellow hair and brown eyes. He was around 5ft7. He currently wore a full body suit, but also had a silver coloured breast plate, metal knee pads, metal elbow pads, and a black boots. All flickering with multiple inscriptions.

[Mark]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 37]

[Chances of death: 32%]

The second man looked to be in his mid twenties. he had short black hair, brown eyes, was around 5ft7 in height, and was currently wearing a blue robe that was heavily filled with inscriptions.

[Steve]

[Tier: 2]

[Level: 34]

[Chances of death: 30%]

Gesturing for them to swipe their cards together, they watched, as their names appeared as a group on the screen, while their points were currently zero.

Noah was also surprised to find that he could check the leaderboard from the band on his wrist.

“Very well,” Elder Michael announced after everyone was done.

“You’ll all be sent to a forest in a distant place, but is under the control of our great nation,” Elder Michael continued, as Inscriptions lit on the ground.

“You’ll be sent to random areas of the forest, so be ready as there may be magical beasts present,” he added.

Every participant wore stern expressions at that point.

“Goodbye and good luck,” Elder Michael said, as the Inscriptions lit up even brighter, then the experts all disappeared.

“And oh….There might be a few surprises,” Elder Michael said, but the participants didn’t get to hear him, since they were all gone, but if they had, they would have also noticed that his aura gained a murderous feeling.

________________________

Till next week, i guess