Chapter 715: Leaving for the Venue
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The preliminary rounds of the Heavenly Star’s millennial tournament were over.
The final round, especially the final battle, was explosive and everything the audience could ask for. Sure, it became a little predictable in the end, but it’s still action-packed nonetheless, and nobody dared to complain.
By now, Dawnbringer was known to pretty much this entire Chaos Realm. Everybody who’s not living under a rock and had access to the Virtual Universe should know who he is, and there is no doubt that from this point onwards, his name will be remembered for times to come.
Though, compared to the hustle and bustle of the crowd due to the results of the preliminary rounds, the opposite kind of atmosphere was present in Cedric’s private chambers.
He returned to the real world without any fanfare of grand welcome. Instead, he was greeted by a peaceful silence, a warm room, and real food waiting for him to consume.
If you ask him, he’d prefer this more than the noise outside.
But even with the peaceful confines of his room, Cedric could still sense and hear the activity outside. It couldn’t be helped; his senses were just too sharp.
He was aware that his monicker, Dawnbringer, became a hot topic of the people outside. Given that he’s still on this cruise, most of the people who are talking about him here are important and influential guests, and they have varying opinions about him.
Now, Cedric didn’t give a damn about what they thought of him. He didn’t participate in the tournament to gain their approval or anything. He did it out of his free will. But at the same time, he also had no right to prevent them from talking since it’s human nature to do so.
What’s more important to him is what’s about to come next.
Cedric won’t lie. He was kind of expecting Philip to appear and congratulate him as soon as he got back. But it seems that the boss of the cruise decided to give him some peace and quiet for now, which, of course, he greatly appreciated.
However, he did receive a package from Philip in his e-mail. It was a generous present containing more than what the contract specified in their collaboration.
In this e-mail, Philip emphasized his deep gratitude for his performance and his great surprise upon learning that he was Dawnbringer all along. The hype and attention he brought to Philip’s cruise business was so immense that their servers were close to blowing up with how many requests they were receiving.
The amount of attention and opportunities Cedric presented for Philip’s business had, in truth, greatly exceeded their stipulated terms for collaboration. That’s why he decided to add some more in the latest package as compensation and a display of immense gratitude.
Of course, who was Cedric to complain? Everything he got was basically for free. Who was he to turn it away? Hell, it would even be rude to refuse it, so he should just accept it.
All the monetary compensation he received was immediately transferred to his bank account, including some of the more sensitive resources. This expanded his treasure vault a little bit, which was nice.
Additionally, Philip wasn’t the only one who was happy about his performance. The Golden Bangle Bank, too, was thoroughly impressed and decided to send him a generous package.
Their present contained far more valuable resources than what Philip sent in his latest package. Which was to be expected since they are the largest bank of all.
In addition to that, though, they even told him that so long as he keeps performing well, he could expect more free stuff from them.
Like Philip, the bank wasn’t pressuring him to perform better or try really hard. His performance was completely up to his desires. They won’t punish him for doing badly or underperforming, but they’d heavily reward him if he could achieve impressive results.
Also, similarly, the bank wouldn’t lean on him completely. They don’t need him to promote the bank since their reputation has already spread far and wide. But since Cedric was a Scarlet VIP, they couldn’t be stingy with him.
These packages were nice and all, but truthfully, the value lies in the message, not in the resources themselves.
Because while most of these resources were truly fine and rare, Cedric had no real uses for them. Even if he were to consume them all in one go, it wouldn’t promote his realm. At most, it’d allow him to exponentially increase his power, but that’s about it.
The resources he needed to make visible progress were too rare, ones that he couldn’t expect to get from some mere generosity.
Therefore, the real value of these things was in what they represent, and that is the harmonious relationship between parties.
After settling both packages, Cedric sighed and sank into the comfortable couch.
The real tournament will begin in a month. This time, he and the finalists from the preliminaries will face the seeded participants, introducing more peer pressure to this event.
Everybody was already looking forward to it; Cedric was too.
Ever since hearing about the seeded participants, he was already itching to meet them. Not because he wanted to make friends or to prove that he was better. It’s because he wanted to see what exactly qualifies them to be the seeded participants.
Was the gap really that much? What makes them special? And more importantly, what can he learn from them? These are the questions he wanted answers to, and none of them could be answered until he meets them.
1032 people.
That’s how many advanced to the real tournament. Yes, the number was a bit weird, but that’s simply due to draws and other aspects.
From more than 10,000 Immortal Level powerhouses that participated, only 1032 will proceed. The elimination was harsh and decisive, and yet every single one who passed was the cream of the crop.
Obviously, Cedric stood on top. Firmly holding on to the first place with no competition. The 2nd place, which turned out to be someone called ’Iron Fist,’ couldn’t even come close.
Yes, Fabros wasn’t in 2nd place in the overall ranking. He was 2nd place in the same group as Cedric, but not in the entirety of the Immortal League. He’s in5th place, barely performing better than the 6th.
Cedric wasn’t just first in his group; he was first in the entire bracket, and nobody could deny this because they’ve all seen his performance. Even Iron Fist was convinced.
But again, this was just the preliminaries. This isn’t the real tournament yet.
Nobody knows just how many seeded participants were about to show up. But it’s already certain that with their addition, the tournament will become increasingly hectic.
And honestly, Cedric was already looking forward to it.
Alas, he’s going to have to wait. It happens in a month, after all, and that shouldn’t be too long.
**
"We’re leaving now?" Cedric asked Philip, who personally showed up a day later.
"Yes," Philip confirmed. "The venue of the real tournament is quite far from where we are, so we have to start our journey soon so you can make it in time."
"I see. Thanks, I’ll trouble you then."
"It’s no trouble at all."
Philip, a business-centric man and a real Empyrean Level Powerhouse, will personally escort Cedric to the venue of the real tournament to guarantee his safety.
Cedric didn’t ask for this; it was Philip’s initiative.
In addition, people from the Golden Bangle Bank were here too to escort him. They’re a bit redundant, now that Philip was here, but Cedric welcomed them nonetheless.
Cedric initially thought that the organizers would arrange something to take all the participants to the physical venue of the tournament. And they could have done so, especially for him, but Philip and the bank decided to do it instead.
Either way, he’s just glad that he’d arrived there in time. He didn’t want to miss it, after all.
And so, through a separate ship, Cedric and his entourage started their discreet journey towards the venue of the tournament.
They left secretly and quietly. The ship had immediately gone into stealth as soon as it started flying to not cause any disturbance or alarm.
’I guess they’re trying to prevent being ambushed or delayed,’ Cedric thought to himself.
It’s not so hard to guess. After all, Philip was there to protect him. With his strength, they shouldn’t feel the need to travel like this. Alas, there were enemies scattered everywhere; some could even be found in the most unexpected places.
One act of carelessness could get Cedric killed; after all, humanity’s enemies won’t feel at ease knowing that they’re letting a genius like Cedric grow freely because it’s certain that he’ll become a huge problem to them in the future.
They will play dirty and use all sorts of sinister plans to kill him through and through. They’d only be at peace once they knew that Cedric couldn’t be revived anymore, even if it were possible.
That’s why he didn’t say anything about these current arrangements. It’s better to be safe than sorry, after all.