Auditorium, Abalax World Academy.
Emilia was watching her three students on her tablet screen and just like her, everyone else in the auditorium was doing the same thing.
All the staff members had headphones on as they watched their students. The auditorium was thus silent and there were only the whispers of the moderators present at the back that was audible.
The door of the dark auditorium opened and the light from the outside seeped in, lighting up a portion of the dark auditorium. From the outside, a lady with her brown hair tied up in a bun, wearing a white shirt, black pants, and heels walked in holding a few files in her hand.
Despite such a disturbance caused by the lady, nobody apart from the moderators paid attention to her. All the staff members were busy watching their students and didn’t get distracted.
The lady walked towards Emilia and sat beside her.
Emilia noticed the lady sitting beside her. She took off her headphones and turned to the lady. “Is it time for that, Sel?”
Sel, Emilia’s secretary, the lady sitting beside her, handed her a few files and said, “that’s right, madam. I’ll look into it but in the meantime, please go through these files.”
Emilia took the files from Sel and skimming through them, she noticed that it would take a bit of time to go through them. She handed the files back to Sel and said,
“Keep them with you, Sel. I’ll go through them later. I have to keep an eye on my students, they are in a tricky situation right now.”
Sel nodded her head and took the files from Emilia and put them in her ring. She then took out a tablet screen from it and tapped on it a few times. Turning to Emilia once again, Sel said, “I’ll be activating it now, madam.”
Emilia just nodded her head, indicating her approval, and continued to watch Lith, Ralph and Dennis on the screen.
Getting Emilia’s approval, Sel tapped a few times on her tablet screen and stopped after a few seconds.
…
Blue Haze World.
Lith was flying above the glaciers and was following the footprints of a monster. It had been a few minutes since he was doing so.
“Attention, students. The safe zone is shrinking. I repeat, the safe zone is shrinking.”
Lith stopped in his tracks as he heard the announcement. ‘So it’s starting…’
“Imbue some spiritual power into the identity badge that you have and you’ll find the safe zones.”
The announcement was broadcasted throughout the Blue Haze World and was heard by everyone. Many were confused about it and had no idea what the safe zone was. Only the ones who had studied the previous tournaments knew about it but still, not a lot of information was available to everyone.
The academy had deleted many important things from the forums and only a little information was made available to the students. One of them being this, the information about safe zones.
“Let’s see where I am.” Lith muttered to himself and took out his identity badge.
He imbued a bit of his spiritual power just as he was instructed to and found the map of the Blue Haze World on it. Previously, the map wasn’t available and he had no idea where he was. He had checked his badge thoroughly before and knew about it. Only now was the map made available when the safe zone was starting to shrink.
Lith’s name that was written on the identity badge started flickering and in the next instant, the map of Blue Haze World was projected above it. The size of the map was adjustable and Lith could zoom in and out of the map too.
On the map, Lith saw a white line forming a circle. Inside the circle was 98% of the whole map and everything seemed normal. Outside the circle, the map was covered by a semi-transparent blue layer.
The circle was shrinking and the blue layer was expanding. Lith could tell that the inside of the circle was a safe zone and the outside wasn’t.
Lith then looked at a small red dot on the map. Around the red dot, the map was colored in white. Lith could guess that the red dot was him and the white area around him was the glacier region. He then noticed that the circle was still shrinking and the place where he was, it was about to be out of the safe zone.
Lith looked at the footsteps of the monster in front and then at the map. If he followed the footsteps, he would be rushing out of the safe zone and that wasn’t a good option. Lith thus left the monster’s trail and headed to the inner parts of the safe zone.
…
In a dense jungle.
Gunther, Sheng, Ji, and Ojas were standing in front of a temple entrance that was in ruins. The four were about to go inside but they heard the announcement that was broadcasted and had to halt.
“Damn it, we have come this far. I just hope that we are in the safe zone and would continue to be for the next two to three days.” Ji said, looking at the three.
“I hope so too.” Ojas added.
The four took out their badges and checked the map. They found themselves to be in the center of the safe zone circle.
“Indeed.” Ojas replied.
“Let’s not waste time and move inside then.” Sheng spoke this time, to which the three nodded their heads and walked towards the entrance of the temple.
Just as they were about to walk into the entrance of the temple, Gunther halted and looked around. The trio didn’t notice him halt and continued to walk inside.
“This seems fishy.” Gunther muttered to himself as he looked at the ruins around him.
He gazed at the trio walking through the temple entrance through and tried to look at the end of the corridor they were walking at. He found nothing at the end except for deep darkness.
“Well… I just hope that I return safely from this.”
…
In a desert region.
Ralph was sitting while taking support from a tree near an oasis and was looking at the map. He noticed that he was around the middle eastern region of the map. The region was too big and he was almost going to cross it.
He had spent 2 days and nights here in this region and guessed that, without any hint on where he was supposed to move, he must’ve roamed around in the desert region.
Ralph sighed in relief knowing that he would finally be able to get out of this place. He got up and walked towards a small pond to wash his face.
Sitting at the edge of the pond, Ralph saw himself in the pond. The condition of his clothes was worse than yesterday. His white shirt was torn in many places and was dirty and the same was for his pants. He also had no shoes on him and was barefoot.
Despite the poor condition of his clothes, he had a serious expression and was looking at himself with a calm and neutral gaze. Ralph was about to take some water from the pond and splash it on his face when he saw a dot from the sky coming closer towards him through the reflection of the pond.
Looking at the dot, Ralph muttered calmly,
“A new useless obstacle.”
.
.
.
…
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