Chapter 723: The King’s Crown (VI)
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Ftoom!
The appearance of the forbidden zone was announced through a loud thunder that echoed across the entire battlefield. It was then followed by a streak of crimson that formed a massive swirl and started covering the areas that will be covered by the forbidden zone.
It’s called the crimson storm, and everything this storm covered was considered to be the forbidden zone. If any of the remaining participants were caught in it, they would be incapacitated immediately and thus eliminated from the tournament. If they didn’t want this to happen, they obviously have to avoid it.
Everybody received an indication of where the forbidden zone will start and how soon the crimson storm will cover those areas. Those who were caught outside the predetermined safe zone were forced to move if they didn’t want to be eliminated.
Because this was just the beginning of the crimson storm, the safe zone was still relatively spacious. The remaining participants of the tournament still have plenty of space to move around.
Although the forbidden zone forced some people to move, the conflicts it caused weren’t a lot, for now, at least.
At this point, the safe zone will shrink after every 2 hours. Judging by the size of the battlefield and the coverage of the crimson storm, by the final hour of this round, the safe zone would be limited to a mere 500-meter radius.
Isn’t that something to look forward to?
That said, since this was just the start, Cedric remained bored. He’s so bored that he’s too lazy to move from his position.
Why would he? Isn’t he perfectly fine here? The spot he’s in was too far for the crimson zone’s touch. And even with the hourly broadcast of his position, nobody dared to approach him. At most, the other participants would skirt around his area, never coming too close lest they provoke him. This applies to both commoners and seeded participants alike.
It seems that his act of eliminating a seeded participant struck fear in others. They didn’t want to risk their chances by provoking him, so they’re staying away.
And while their worries are valid, in truth, Cedric isn’t as barbaric or temperamental as they thought him to be.
Sure, he wants to fight, but that’s about it. So long as they’re nice about it, he won’t eliminate them.
The only reason why he eliminated Ragnar was because that kid was too rude and impolite. He’s too arrogant and disturbed his rest. If that kid showed some manners, at most, Cedric would send him away, not eliminate him.
Alas, nobody really dared to ask for his opinion, so a misunderstanding was created.
Because of this, Cedric could only be a spectator for now to appease his boredom.
As he spectated others, he was made aware of just how unfair the seeded participants were. So much sothat it is starting to make sense for him why they call those who didn’t come from ancient sects and organizations ’commoners.’
Every single one of the seeded participants was unique and born with special abilities that set them apart from most people. Take Ragnar, for example; he was born with the ability to command Heavenly Tribulation, and judging by how much he used it during his short altercation with Cedric, he had a decent mastery over this ability, which minimized its backlash for him.
It’s special abilities like this that set them apart from common life evolvers. So far, Cedric had seen someone that had absolute control over sound; he had also seen one who could elementalize his entire body. There’s one who could unleash a goddamn plague that causes everything to rot from outside in. There’s also one who could call upon the names of her slain enemies to fight for her.
Every single unique ability of the seeded participants was something they were born with; hence, they’re called the Chosen Ones by some. Furthermore, their abilities have been honed to the point where even the concept laws have to bend their rules to accommodate theirs.
And that’s on top of the skills and techniques they learned from their backgrounds. Add the fact that they’ve been raised in resource-rich environments, and the disparity just widens even more.
The fact that only a handful of people with special abilities like this are born at a given moment shows just how unfair the world is.
The ancient sects and organizations fought to claim people like them. They scour the entire chaos realm in hopes of finding them and raising them as their own to fulfill a certain purpose. Some would even go as far as brainwashing, threatening, or using other despicable methods just to bring them into their fold.
Once they’re in, the sects and organizations will condition them mentally to forge a belonging. And since they got them young, it’ll only take a certain amount of time for them to completely rewrite the personality and memories of these people.
So much so that they’d start to think that they truly were the chosen ones and that they stood worlds apart from other people even though they once were like them too.
Of course, not everybody does this. Only some. A decent bunch of ancient sects and organizations never forced anybody to join them and doesn’t resort to despicable tactics like this. Even so, the sheer difference between environments causes a noticeable change in one’s mentality anyway.
It’s truly unfair to compare them to common life evolvers simply because their starting point was leagues ahead of everybody. Ordinary life evolvers simply couldn’t bridge that immense gap with just effort and luck.
That’s why ordinary life evolvers aren’t a match to the seeded participants here. The only way they could stand a chance is by teaming up against one, but even then, the battle was hard-fought.
At this point, Cedric’s fellow finalists realized that they have to team up to stand a chance. Now, the seeded participants have to face the siege of multiple people at once.
Some were being pressured, and some were doing just fine.
It’s because of this that Cedric had the chance to see some of the secrets that the seeded participants were hiding.
However, it would’ve been more fun for him if he discovered it with his own abilities. Alas, they don’t seem to like him very much, and there’s no helping that.
He could only wait until the safe zone shrinks some more to see if this changes, though.
**
A few more hours passed since the crimson storm appeared.
By now, the safe zone has shrunk considerably, and it forced some parties to clash. The finalists of the previous round are still moving in groups, hunting down seeded participants for the crown.
Interestingly enough, one group actually had some success.
It was the group led by Fabros. Through their combined efforts, they managed to take a crown from one of the seeded participants.
Alas, Fabros only got to enjoy the crown for two hours before it was taken away from him by the same guy.
Because even though Fabros and his team managed to take the crown from that person, they weren’t able to eliminate him. By the time they’ve got the crown, most of them are also beaten and battered. Fabros could only run away with the crown knowing that it’ll be taken away from him soon.
And that’s precisely what happened. The previous holder of the crown located Fabros and got the crown back from him. The person also wanted to eliminate Fabros, but one of his teammates sacrificed himself to save him. That teammate was eliminated, not dead, but he did save Fabros, so he’s still in the game.
Because of that, Fabros also entered the leaderboard. Although he’s at the very bottom, his appearance in there still held a deeper meaning for most of the audience.
As for the rest, they were still struggling. However, Fabros’ success was like a shot of adrenaline for them, causing them to feel more energized and determined.
Aside from that interesting development, another thing that Cedric was paying attention to was the clash happening next to him.
There is a seeded participant named Yohan, fighting against ten people at once near where Cedric was located.
Yohan didn’t want to come this close to this place. It’s these persistent ants that forced him here.
They just won’t leave him alone, and they seem to have the vitality of a cockroach since they just refused to stay down. Yohan blamed that other commoner who got into the leaderboard. Had that one not succeeded, maybe these fools wouldn’t be all so gung-ho like this.
However, what Yohan was wary of isn’t necessarily these ten ants that are tirelessly chasing him. It’s the evil star that is nearby called Dawnbringer.
Yohan has been paying attention, and he knew that Dawnbringer hasn’t moved since the beginning of this round. Whether he insisted or was just too lazy to move was a mystery, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s here.
And from what he gathered so far, it seems that this was exactly what these ants were aiming for in the first place.
’God damn it! This can’t go on! I can’t be the second-seeded participant to be eliminated! I have to kill these ants as soon as possible! ’