[Earth, Capitol.]
Outside of the tower, the audience was shocked once again.
Just like when it was when Elijah and Alan were clearing the tenth floor…it had happened again!
The broadcast was black! Nothing could be seen, even the streaming system did not work! “What the hell?!”
“The fuck is this?!”
It was normal for them to be enraged, they paid so much to see the event but it couldn’t be fucking seen!
Harrison, looking at the riled up crowd, tried to pacify them.
[Please ca-]
But even his mana enhanced voice was drowned out by the uproar. ‘…’
Harrison, seeing the crowd, was stupefied. He sighed, knowing it would be hard to explain to them the reason for this.
The thing was, this was not in their jurisdiction…the blackening of the tower broadcast was not under their control! Even the malfunction of the streaming devices!
It was not as if the people didn’t know about this, they did, but the people refused to acknowledge it, even if they were aware of it.
The people, in simple words, were retarded.
They were angry because the broadcast cut off at the most opportune moment, when Alan Peccator was severely injured and instantly transported to the next floor. They wanted to see how he would deal with the next trial…But now they couldn’t even do that.
They wanted to enjoy this damn thing! Not to wait any longer!
Come on! Show us what happens next you goddamned tower!
Unfortunately, their cries would not be heard, and even if they were, the thing in question didn’t give a damn about them.
‘Sigh…Should I do it?’
Harrison activated his communication device and delivered his message to Ragnar, who responded.
[Yes, I think we should do it now, any longer and I am afraid they will cause a riot.]
Ragnar, also being a witness of the outrage, was aware that the common folk who were easily stirred up by something as trivial as this, would cause a riot. Besides, the deadline he set up was close already, although they would have to make some preparations to hold the two events together, they had to start it now.
[Ahem, ahem!]
Harrison spoke into his microphone, using the most amount of mana he could use without injuring the ears of a common fan. The arena fell silent soon, the rowdy voices that still remained were quietened by the crowd.
They all waited for the next words of the number one hero with rapt attention.
[I have to apologize for the issues with the Tower of Trials event, but we cannot do anything about this. However…]
However…What’s next?
[We can do one more thing to entertain you all and make sure your money has not been wasted…]
Somehow, he was able to create a sense of anticipation within the people with his simple words, a skill envied by many announcers. [I am proud to announce that along with the tower of trials event…The battle fest also begins!]
******
The second event of the Academic convergence, it was known as the Battle fest.
It was just the simple, basic tournament type of Event in which participants would move up the brackets by defeating their opponents, it was simple as that.
But that was what also made it so fun! Instead of the other events which were based on special classes of the students, like tanker, mage etc. Anyone could enter the battle fest, all they had to do was fight.
It did not matter who their opponent was, they just had to fight them. This was the reason why it was so popular. Sometimes it even surpassed the tower of trials in popularity.
The people simply loved spectacular and gory displays of people fighting one another with all they had.
Who wouldn’t? It was akin to watching an action movie in person. Student’s of various classes and strengths going at each other with everything they got, throwing all sorts of spells and skills at one another like there was no tomorrow. Although this may have been a common sight among the awakened, the common folk had no idea about this at all.
They were unable to approach the vicinity of a dungeon after all, entering the dungeon and seeing the awakened fight was but a dream. 𝑖𝘳.𝒸ℴ𝑚
The only occasions during which such a thing was possible…when dungeon breaks had occurred. And they couldn’t just enjoy the fighting when monsters the size of houses were trying to eat them, now could they?
This was why the battle fest was so famous.
And also why the applications were so crowded.
“Damn it!”
Alexander cursed as he tried to push away the crowd as gently as he could. If he accidently used a little bit of strength he was afraid he might break the bones of the people here, who were just as eager to sign up for the grand event.
They had met a lot of requirements, and most of their applications would be rejected. Only those from reputable guilds and families would be admitted without needing to go through this tedious process. “…”
Lucas trailed behind him, trying to say something but the sheer magnitude of the people here and their voices made it hard for his own voice to be heard.
“hey!”
“Fuck off!”
He cursed at anyone trying to stop. The ‘prank’ Alan had played on them had already made him angry, and at this rate, he would blow.
The station where they were supposed to sign up was hectic, there were 150 lines, and all of them were filled up with people breaking the rules. They were so bold even though this was the association. Young awakened especially were even getting into fights!
They were tired of this process, but no matter how tired they were, they still had to do this. They could only blame the fact that they were not in any guild or born in any prestigious family…
‘Come on!’
Alexander could have contacted his wretched family to register him for the battle fest, but he absolutely despised them. He would never contact them no matter what. Even if he let go of his pride and dignity and did it, the chances of them laughing at him were higher than the chances of them actually signing him up.
“Alex!”
“Shut up! I need to get there quickly!”
Alexander refused to listen to Lucas, who was desperately trying to tell him something, and charged forward. With each step he was closer to the damn registration booth, a sense of accomplishment would fill his body.
‘Come on!’
Finally…he had done it.
‘Yes!’
Without wasting another second, he pushed his Shield Identification in front of the woman at the booth, and released his mana in the surroundings. All of this was to make sure no bastard would come and disrupt him.
His gray mana, unique to the [Null] attribute escaped his body and formed a sort of shield around him.
The woman at the counter nonchalantly took his card and scanned it on a machine which would determine whether he was qualified or not. It seems as if this wasn’t the first time the woman experienced something like this, most hot blooded youths, clearly enraged from the conditions here, did this in order to stop others from interrupting them. Whether they could actually do it or not was up to them.
“…?”
However, as she scanned the card, a confused look appeared on her face.
“What’s wrong?!”
Alexander questioned, despairing at the thought.
‘Was he too late to sign up, and have all the positions been filled?!’
He hoped that was not the case and the machine was malfunctioning.
He wished for it to be the case!
“You…”
‘Speak faster you damn woman!’
“Are already signed up for the event, Alexander Wright, contestant number 111, in the second division…”
She gave him his card back.
‘…?’
The news came as a shock to Alexander…he was already participating in the event…how?
However, at that exact moment, before he could process the information his mana shield was broken and a fist struck his head.
“Fucker!”
Lucas retracted his hand and dragged Alexander away. After going against the tidal wave of people, he threw Alexander on the ground and was preparing to beat him up.
“What the fuck?!”
Alexander wouldn’t just let it happen though, he got up immediately and questioned Lucas’s actions.
Lucas shoved his phone into Alexander’s face and said.
“I already signed your ass up using my family dipshit!”
“…?”
Alexander responded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!”
Lucas grabbed him by the collar.
“THAT WAS WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO!”
He punched Alexander in the face for the last time, and sighed.
“Sigh…check your fucking phone.”
Alexander checked his phone…and saw the notification about his participation. Delivered to him about two hours ago. When Harrison Soubielle announced the beginning of the event.
“…”
Along with the notification came the division brackets, which showed what opponents he would fight in order to win his division.
Most of the other fighters were people he did not know, and some students from shield. Who he still didn’t know who they were. 𝘳𝑎.𝗇t
“Seems easy enough…”
He said, but Lucas signed yet again.
“Check the first division.”
“Hmm?”
Alexander checked the division beside his, the first division. The winner of the first division would go against the winner of the second, this pattern was repeated all across the 16 divisions, each consisting of 64 participants.
“…?”
However, Alexander couldn’t find anything special.
“Look closer, participant number 58…”
And when Lucas pointed it out, he finally found it.
“…”
“Yep, the dude from Alan’s team.”
[Participant Number 58, First division, Affiliation, Twilight.
Name: Kazikato Shimoshino.]
“…”
‘That’s who I will be fighting in the quarter finals huh…’
Indeed, Alexander and Kazikato’s divisions were incredibly easy for them…no doubt they would clash with one another when they won their divisions…
“Nice.”
Despite Kazikato’s feat of annihilating an entire guild by himself, and being regarded as the second strongest beside Alan Peccator in Predator…
Alexander was happy that he would be fighting someone worth it.
__________
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