Chapter 127: 127

Rumble—

The ground of the stadium started to warp . The ground rose and the sky turned upside down . Some awakeners were panicked and prepared to fight . Hak-joon also seemed a little embarrassed as well .

“Don’t be nervous . ” Su-hyeun shook his head and grabbed Hak-joon’s arm . “Nothing is going to happen . ”

“…Yes?”

Hak-joon looked around . Most of the awakeners were still calm in this mess . Hak-joon felt shame . He slowly took his hand off from the sword and looked at the changing landscape . They waited a little more . Soon, the world changed to white just like the Tower of Trials .

Rumble, rumble—

Su-hyeun lifted his head up . A small purple magic circle was drawn on the hand of Johnny Brad who was floating in the sky with Gordan Rohan . All of this was his work .

“Ok . Everything is ready . ”

Puff—

Johnny Brad disappeared like morning dew . At that moment, Gordon Rohan jumped down . He landed in the center of over a hundred awakeners .

“What do you think? I prepared a little bit for this,” Gordon Rohan said .

It was more than a little bit . The entire stadium was surrounded by lower-grade Ether stones . He needed a medium-grade stone to create and maintain hallucination skills at this scale .

“Somebody spent crazy money on this . ”

“That’s one of my strengths . ” Gordon Rohan smiled at the grumbling of one awakener and continued . “As you guys know, I am the host of this competition but also a participant . So, I tried to set fair rules . ”

“How can you be fair? The mission is private, and the rules of the final are also closed . ”

One Asian awakener spoke with a disgruntled voice . He seemed to think that it was unfair for Gordon Rohan, the host of the game, to participate .

“The missions are not my decision . They are not Johnny Brad’s decision, either . ”

“Then?”

“They will be random . Setting teams is the same . ”

“Teams…?”

“Are the competitions team games?”

People started to wonder .

Gordon Rohan answered . “There are a total of 175 participants, so we will solve the missions in teams of five . ”

“How will the missions go?”

“As I said, the mission you will get is random . And the teams will be decided randomly . too . ”

“How the hell do you set the missions and teams randomly—”

Ding—

Ding, ding—

Numbers from one to thirty-five appeared above the heads of everybody . There were five people with the same number .

“People with the same number are the same team . I am sorry, but my number is 35 . If I started from the beginning, the match would have an issue . So, please understand this . ”

“You are doing just as you please . ”

“Anyone who has a problem with me, just come out now and bring it on . I will just make you fail to qualify,” Gordon Rohan said, bobbing his hand .

There was no awakener who had enough nerve to come at Gordon Rohan . Some awakeners who couldn’t understand English also realized Gordon Rohan was trying to provoke them . But they didn’t pounce, either . Everyone knew that there was nothing good about fighting Gordon Rohan right here .

“If there is nobody, that is fine . Then, let’s begin . ”

Poof—

Poof, poof—

Five awakeners who had been standing throughout the stadium disappeared from their spots . They were the people who had number one above their heads . Su-hyeun looked at the numbers of Hak-joon and Song Hyeon-gi .

“Number 17 and 33…”

“You are the fastest one among us, Su-hyeun . ”

“Yes . You are right . ”

Su-hyeun’s number was three . Su-hyeun found other people who had the same number . Su-hyeun knew the faces of two out of the four .

He usually knew the names of other awakeners . But it was rare to know their faces as well . He could remember their faces by chance . It was not like he knew them well .

“I think you guys will be bored waiting . So, let’s just watch what is happening . ”

Snap—

When Gordon Rohan snapped his fingers, four huge screens appeared around them . On the screen, the image of the awakeners who just started the Ranking Wars appeared . They were summoned somewhere in the dark .

“Are they in Johnny Brad’s hallucinations?”

It seemed to be a space created from the hallucination skill, just like the S-Rank examination . Perhaps, they were given a mission in that space .

Su-hyeun could grasp how the competition would work . The problem was the detailed rules .

Su-hyeun took his eyes off the screen and looked around . He could sense the gaze of Johnny Brad, who was watching the players from somewhere .

It had been a long time since Su-hyeun admired someone like this . Johnny Brad’s greatness was different from simple strength . His versatility even made Su-hyeun surprised . It looked like he could make everything that he could imagine .

Su-hyeun, who had looked around for other four people with the same number, soon watched the screens’ back .

On the screen, numerous monsters appeared .

Act 9

The second-round test was over . It took 30 minutes for each test . The test had been continued for about an hour without break time . To finish all 35 teams, it would take almost a day .

“Good luck . ”

“Good luck . ”

The test of team number two ended quickly . Su-hyeun nodded lightly at the support of Hak-goon and Song Hyeong-gi . All five people who were given the number three rose up . Soon, their bodies disappeared .

Poof—

Suddenly, Hak-joon and Song Hyeong-gi disappeared from Su-hyeun’s view . The landscape also changed . The shining white turned to a dark area . Gray walls that were difficult to measure the height surrounded him .

“It is a very simple background . ”

“It looks like some sort of maze . ”

All five seasoned awakeners, who were summoned to the test site, checked the theme of the test as soon as they arrived . The test’s theme, background, and purpose all looked different based on the first and second tests; they could not get a hint or check the contents of the test before starting it .

Su-hyeun put his hand on the wall . He let his magic flow through the wall . He could feel the structure of the maze . Soon, a voice came from the sky .

[The third round of testing will begin . ]

[You must escape the maze as a team . ]

[If the wall of the maze is broken, the wall will be reconstructed in a different shape, and the location of the exit will be changed . ]

[There are traps and monsters in the maze . ]

[When the team escapes, your achievement points would be calculated . The two people who have the most points will be able to advance to the next game . ]

[If the mission fails, all five participants will be eliminated . ]

[If you commit murder, you will also be eliminated . ]

It was the same dry voice as the one from the Tower of Trials . Su-hyeun was surprised that they even reproduced things this much . It was very interesting . Also, it looked like the mission would not be easy .

He had to compete and work as a team at the same time . This part was quite different from the trials from the Tower of Trials . They usually happened individually .

[00:29:48 . ]

The remaining time appeared at the ceiling . There was not much time . Fortunately, as it was planned to reduce the time to introduce each other, the number above their heads were changed to their names .

“Then let’s begin . We will find something eventually . ”

“How about dividing the team?”

“I have a detection skill . Let’s find out the way with it first . ”

Each one had a different opinion . Su-hyeun looked around them and turned his body .

“Where are you going?”

“Follow me,” Su-hyeun said .

“How do we trust you—”

“I found the exit . All we need to do now is go . ”

“What…?”

The other four became blank .

“The structure of the wall was designed to flow the magic easily . I think it is because part of the hallucinations was made of Ether stones . ”

“Are you saying that you’ve grasped the surrounding structures by sending your magic through the walls?”

They were also S-Rank awakeners . They understood pretty quickly .

“Yes . You know well . ”

“But how can it be that easy?”

“Well . I guess the exit was close . ”

Perhaps the maze itself was not that difficult . But the difficulty of the traps and monsters in the middle was set to be difficult . Like Su-hyeun, they all flowed their magic to the wall to find the exit . But soon, they frowned and stared at Su-hyeun .

“Hey, look . It’s not the structure like you said . ”

“How do you say such obvious lie…”

They assumed the maze would be small because of Su-hyeun’s words . But the maze was too huge to figure out by just letting the magic out . In order to grasp the maze at a glance, it was necessary to spread a lot of magic over all ranges . Also, they had to remember all the results from that .

However, the size of the maze was so huge . It was impossible to send magic through the entire wall . But Su-hyeun was so confident . The other awakeners naturally thought that Su-hyeun was lying .

“Think as you pleased . ” Su-hyeun ignored the opinions of the four people and began to move . “I will go as I found out . ”

“W-what the…”

“Wait!”

When one of them tried to vent his anger, the only female awakener, Mirald, said, “Let’s just follow him for now . We don’t know the way anyway, right?”

“Umm…That is true . ”

“We can find the way while we go . ”

They didn’t like the fact that they had to follow Su-hyeun . But they had to hurry to find the exit anyway .

Four of them thought the same thing . Su-hyeun shook his head, listening to the footsteps of the other four following .

Su-hyeun got to know why Johnny Brad made such a mission . Five people teamed up, but only two people were able to go to the next stage . It was not a team activity . It was a competition to check and move forward a little bit more than each other . Moreover…

With this simple rule, everyone would have realized .

In other words, there was no foul .