The people in the arena are large in number and crowded the space but they all gave him a very wide berth. In fact, they moved as far away from him as possible when they recognized him, forming a wide space around him. He has his reputation to thank for that and the glowing crown on his head.
The crown designates him as someone that they shouldn't mess with. He checked his brand for his information.
NAME: Soverick Ghastorix.
POWER: Zero Step.
DESIGNATION: KING
SCORE: 0
RANK: 4,321,369.
A figure appeared above the crowds. It looks like some sort of spirit. It has a head and two arms but the torso ends at a narrow point like a short tail. The figure clapped and the noise of the chatting crowd died down. The clap drew all their attention to it and it also activated something that silenced the crowd. No one can talk no matter how much they want to.
The figure said to them, "Hello everyone. I am Candor, the spirit of Arena 28. Welcome to the first Unified Skill Index League. I am here to welcome you and introduce some things that you should take note of to you."
"This arena is one of the locations where the competition will be held. Arena 28 is a world fragment just like the other 46 arenas. It is a small world under my control and it contains 100 thousand people out of over 4.5 million participants. So all of you here are not the only ones participating in this competition but the people here will be your closest Competition for now."
"There will be 4 challenges during this competition. Your performance within each challenge will serve to determine your final outcome. You can always check how well you're doing by looking at and reading your brand. Take note that only the best 10% out of you can hope to get any reward. Since there are approximately 4.5 million of you, you need to be in a rank above 450,000."
"The best 30% will be endorsed by the racial council for adulthood while the best person among every one of you will get the opportunity to make a request from the first sage. It should also be noted that only the best 3 million of you can participate in the final challenge. The rest of you will be sent home. So you should all work hard."
"You might have noticed someone with a crown on his head. That person is the one with the highest odds of winning among all of you in Arena 28. All of you have been designated SOLDIERS but these 46 KINGS were given a special designation right from the start. Designations are more important than ranks. You can earn high designations by performing feats in the challenges."
"To summarise, the two most important things to take note of. The first is ranking which can be acquired by performing well in challenges and earning high scores. It is your performance relative to others. The second is your designation. It can only be acquired by going beyond the requirements for each challenge and making feats. Your designation is more valuable than your ranking but you can waste your time chasing feats and risk falling behind with nothing to show for your effort."
The spirit clapped again. This time, the world changed. The crowd was separated and scattered throughout the world. Then color began to appear in the world. Green grass grew out from the ground, clouds formed in the sky, trees sprouted from the ground and grew to colossal heights in seconds, and streams appeared spontaneously within the forest that was created. Everything happened in a blur to transform the blank world of white into a world full of wonder and activity.
Soverick whistled appreciatively. The power of the spirit impressed him. Its control of this world is perfect since the world fragment is its body. It can silence people as easily as it can displace them all over the world and it can morph the world to create a new environment.
He has been placed in a random spot within a thick forest. He can see various plants and animals all around him. There are birds flying about and calling to each other. There are ants and caterpillars moving about. All of these and more were created in a very short amount of time.
It all seems like a real world. Some might suspect it to be an illusion but it is not. It is as real as what you can see, smell, or touch in the real world but the mechanism that produced them are imitations of their real world counterpart. In other words, the caterpillar he is seeing is real but it is not the same on a fundamental level as a caterpillar in the outside world.
It doesn't make much of a difference to a mortal either way because it doesn't matter to them. This caterpillar will eat leaves and excrete just like the real ones do. It will pupate and become a butterfly. It can be eaten and it will provide the same amount of nutrients as the real one. It is almost indistinguishable from the one in the real world.
The only difference which only the powerful can find is that the Laws that make it up are different from the one that makes up the world but even that doesn't make one more real than the other. Who's to say this is not how the "real" world was created?
There are some native creation myths that describe the world to have been created in a matter of days when the world seems to be much older than that. And yet, here's a forest that should take hundreds of years to develop but was created in mere seconds. The trees even have rings that show their age to be hundreds of years old. Who's to say the universe of billions of years old wasn't created in 6 days? Then the creator rested on the 7th day. It might as well be hogwash but one thing is certain, time is relative.
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