Mendengar perkataan AlyxAtlas, para murid yang ekspresinya tadinya sudah mulai kembali normal kembali mengerutkan kening. Apa yang dikatakan AlyxAtlas hanya membuat situasi semakin buruk bagi mereka. Jika mereka berada di peringkat teratas dengan seribu poin dan menghabiskan seribu poin itu, itu berarti mereka akan langsung merosot ke posisi paling buncit.
Ini hanya berarti mereka harus bekerja bagai kerja rodi dan melipatgandakan usaha mereka, bekerja keras demi sistem peringkat agar bisa menyusup ke dalam lima puluh besar sekaligus bekerja untuk membuka kemampuan dan afinitas mereka. Bagaimanapun, hanya dengan membukanya mereka bisa mendapatkan kekuatan yang diperlukan untuk meraup lebih banyak poin.
'Duh... siapa sih yang merancang sistem poin ini? Apa mereka sengaja memperbudak kita? Mereka pasti senang melihat orang lain menderita,' batin Asher. Namun di balik keluhan kecil di dalam hatinya itu, otaknya berputar kencang menjalankan trik andalannya.
Meskipun Thomasinho dan AlyxAtlas tidak menjelaskannya secara spesifik, Asher bisa menebak kalau mereka telah menyembunyikan satu detail krusial.
Seseorang yang membuka elemennya bukan berarti bisa membuka seluruh elemen mereka sekaligus. Tidak, jika seseorang memiliki banyak elemen, mereka harus membayar setiap kali untuk membuka setiap elemen satu per satu.
Seseorang seperti Asher yang memiliki lima elemen harus membayar lima kali lipat untuk membuka masing-masing elemennya. Ini sangat merugikannya, yang berarti ia harus bekerja lebih keras daripada orang lain. Siapa pun yang berada di posisinya mungkin akan memilih untuk membuka satu atau dua elemen saja lalu menyudahinya demi menghemat poin, yang akan memungkinkan mereka tetap berada dalam peringkat lima puluh besar seperti yang disyaratkan.
Asher sudah bisa membayangkan beberapa murid dengan banyak elemen yang justru membuka elemen yang tidak mereka perlukan saat ini atau elemen yang penguasaannya tidak begitu mereka kuasai hanya karena mengira mereka bisa membuka semuanya secara bersamaan.
Asher sempat ingin tertawa namun ia menahannya. Saat ini ia benar-benar sedang ditonton oleh jutaan pasang mata.
Bersamaan dengan itu, para staf yang membawa nampan di tangan mereka mulai bergerak. Mereka membagikan gelang kepada setiap murid, dan tidak hanya itu, para staf juga mengambil cincin ruang milik mereka, memberi label dan mencatat isi di dalam cincin ruang tersebut sambil meminta para murid menandatangani sebuah formulir.
Bagaimanapun, seorang murid bisa saja kembali dan mengaku bahwa mereka memiliki artefak tertentu di dalam cincin ruang mereka yang telah dicuri selama Komisi Antar-Kekaisaran. Tentu saja, orang-orang tidak akan cukup bodoh untuk melakukan ini karena itu sama saja dengan menuduh Sang Penguasa melakukan pencurian. Namun, Anda pasti akan terkejut melihat betapa banyaknya orang bodoh yang benar-benar ada di dunia ini.
Asher mengenakan gelang itu di pergelangan tangan kirinya dengan ekspresi acuh tak acuh. Gelang itu terasa ringan bagaikan bulu. Begitu ia mengenakannya, gelang itu berbunyi bip, memindai dirinya dan mencantumkan daftar elemen miliknya pada layar yang tertanam di dalam gelang tersebut, sementara sisa saldo nol poin terlihat di bagian akhir.
Asher menatapnya sejenak, lalu kehilangan minat. Baginya, tidak masalah apakah mereka memblokir kemampuannya untuk memanipulasi Energi Astra, ia masih bisa memanipulasi Energi Astra yang ada di atmosfer. Asher langsung memutuskan untuk mengujinya sekarang juga untuk memastikan daripada mencoba nanti, dan yang membuatnya terkejut, ia bahkan tidak bisa memanipulasi Energi Astra di sekitarnya.
'Jadi mereka benar-benar memblokir semuanya,' batin Asher merenung. Namun Asher mengerti alasannya; ia sudah menduga bahwa beberapa murid yang lebih senior dan berbakat pastinya juga mampu memanipulasi Energi Astra di lingkungan sekitar.
Asher tidak tahu cara kerja gelang itu atau bagaimana benda itu mengkatalogkan kemampuan dan afinitas setiap orang hanya dengan memindainya. Namun setelah memikirkannya sejenak, ia memilih untuk melupakannya. Bagaimanapun, tidak peduli seberapa maju kombinasi teknologi dan kemampuan itu, benda itu tetap tidak bisa menghalangi Energi Bintang miliknya.
Asher masih bisa merasakan hubungannya dengan Energi Bintang, tetapi mengenai Urat Astra miliknya, bagian itu sudah lama disegel.
Selesai dengan tugas mereka, para staf berbalik dan berjalan pergi sambil membawa nampan berisi cincin-cincin ruang.
'Kukira hanya itu saja,' batin Asher.
At AlyxAtlas’ words, the students whose expressions had been returning to normal frowned again. What AlyxAtlas had said only made it worse for them. If they were at the top rank with a thousand points, and they spent that one thousand points, it meant they would immediately drop to the last position.
This only meant they would have to work like slaves and double their efforts, working both for the ranking system in order to squeeze into the top fifty and also working to unlock their abilities and affinities. After all, only by unlocking them could they gain the strength required to gain more points.
’Sigh... who designed this point system? Are they working us like slaves? They probably love watching people suffer,’ Asher thought to himself. But despite his minor internal complaint, his brain was spinning as it worked its usual magic.
Although Thomasinho and AlyxAtlas hadn’t specifically pointed it out, Asher could tell they had left out a crucial detail.
Someone unlocking their elements didn’t mean they unlocked all their elements at once. No, if someone possessed multiple elements, they had to pay every single time to unlock every single element.
Someone like Asher, who possessed five elements, would have to pay five times to unlock each element. This worked against him, meaning he would have to work harder than other people. Any other person in his shoes might just choose to unlock one or two elements and be done with it in order to save points, which would enable them to remain within that top fifty ranking as required.
Asher could already imagine a few students with multiple elements unlocking elements they didn’t need at the moment or the ones they didn’t possess the best control over simply because they thought they could unlock all of them at the same time.
Asher felt like laughing at the moment but held his laughter back. He was literally being watched by millions of people at the moment.
With that, the staff who held trays in their hands began to move. They distributed the bracelets to each student, and not only that, the staff also took their space rings, labelling them and documenting the contents of the space rings while also making the students sign a form.
After all, a student could come back and claim they possessed some type of artefact within their space ring and that it had been stolen during the Inter-Empire Competition. Of course, people weren’t dumb enough to do this, as it would be equivalent to accusing the Overlord of theft. But you would be surprised at how many dumb people actually existed.
Asher put the bracelet on his left wrist with an indifferent expression. It was as light as a feather. The moment he put it on, it beeped, reading him and listing out his elements on a screen built into the bracelet, while a point balance of zero could be seen at the end.
Asher stared at it for a moment, then lost interest. To him, it didn’t matter whether they blocked his ability to manipulate Astra Energy, he could still manipulate the Astra Energy in the atmosphere. Asher immediately decided to test it now and be sure rather than try later, and to his surprise, he couldn’t even manipulate the ambient Astra Energy.
’So they totally blocked everything,’ Asher mused to himself. But Asher understood why, he had already guessed that a few older and talented students would also definitely be able to manipulate ambient Astra Energy.
Asher didn’t know how the bracelet worked or how it catalogued everyone’s abilities and affinities by merely scanning them. But after thinking about it for a while, he chose to forget it. After all, no matter how developed the combination of technology and abilities was, it still couldn’t block his Star Energy.
Asher could still feel his connection with Star Energy, but as for his Astra Veins, those had long been sealed.
As the staff finished their work, they turned and walked away with trays of space rings.
’I wonder if that is all,’ Asher thought to himself.
"If you are ever in danger, just destroy the bracelet, and it will automatically teleport you back to this Coliseum," Thomasinho explained calmly.
Asher gazed at the bracelet on his left wrist again. It seemed flimsy, easy to break even by unawakeners.
’A trap,’ Asher mused to himself as he shook his head.
Although many people hadn’t realized it yet, throughout these four days, they would need to protect their bracelets. After all, with how weak and flimsy they appeared, if one was destroyed by accident, by a Monster, or for whatever reason that wasn’t intentional, they would be teleported back to the Coliseum.
And although both hosts didn’t say it, Asher was smart enough to understand that if anyone was teleported back to the Coliseum for whatever reason, that would count as immediate disqualification, whether they were within the top fifty or not.
’Although I’m sure some type of staff would be scattered throughout the battlefield or survival grounds in order to save students who couldn’t save themselves in time,’ Asher thought to himself as he knew that such a scenario was one hundred percent possible.
But again, the two hosts made no mention of this, leaving students to figure certain things out for themselves.
"Now, onto the next rule," AlyxAtlas spoke again with a smile on her face as she floated downward.
"The organisers of the Inter-Empire Competition recognise the difference that comes with fighting for points to unlock your abilities and also to stay on the rankings," Thomasinho stated with a smile, "which is why they’ve decided to bless everyone with the Zones," he spoke enthusiastically.
Both students and spectators fell into their thoughts as they wondered what the Zones were.
"If you are wondering what the Zones are, the answer is simple," AlyxAtlas spoke, "there are two types of Zones, both named after the Emovirae, the Positive Zones and the Negative Zones," her voice echoing from the speakers and into the ears of millions.
"The Positive Zones, as their name suggests, are there to help you. But they aren’t all of the same type. A particular Positive Zone could contain food, another could contain water, another could hold a bed and pillow," Thomasinho began to speak, "but those are just the least of the things the Positive Zones can do, as they can scale to the level of multiplying the points of a Monster or Emovira you kill within that Zone by two or even half, depending on the Zone. Some Positive Zones could even give you percentage-point discounts on unlocking your abilities, affinities, and Astra Energy," he explained calmly, pausing for a moment to make sure everyone, both students and spectators alike, understood.
Hearing this, many students’ eyes immediately lit up in fervour. Every Positive Zone helped them one way or another. Even the Zones with just beds and pillows would be accepted graciously.
Although unknown to them, each Positive Zone was a one-time-use Zone. Someone couldn’t use a Positive Zone just for another person to head to the same Zone and use it afterwards. Meaning, friends couldn’t help each other even if they happened to encounter one another.
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