And we are back to the usual language indicators.
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’Okay, so a little over a hundred or so contestants, of which there are several obviously strong people and way more hiding their abilities...yeah, I can already tell this shit is probably gonna go sideways real fast,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he looked over the competition.
[Do you want us to do any sabotaging for ourselves? Do it better than Inky and Pinky?," Razorstella suggested.
[Razor, that’s dishonorable!]
[Oh, turnabout is fair play, Nepherage! They started it.]
[So we should end it!]
[Wait...,] Spring Brawler interjected, [shouldn’t Frosttusk be the one suggesting revenge? Since he’s technically running the stuff?]
With this realization made, the kaijin and Zhen Liu turned their attention towards Frosttusk, who remained silent for a solid three minutes before finally sighing and giving the group an answer.
[We...already...got...revenge...besides...I...prefer...up...close...and...personal...]
’Noted. Besides, if this goes the way I think this is going to go, the main clan is going to be the least of our worries...probably.’
[What makes you say that, maestro?]
’The various powers and desires I’m sensing all around us like a fog, and how I can detect at least...three very negative feeling ones.’
’I’m honestly surprised I’m not suddenly condensing cores left and right right now.’
=Don’t you remember when you condensed Frosttusk’s core? You couldn’t do so because you weren’t able to isolate his desire and had to be in a certain range? Similar logic to this situation.=
’Yes, but I thought I got over that limitation because I am now a Grand-hold up, what the fuck am I sensing?’
[Something...off...?]
[Someone we can fight?]
[I think he means that guy over there...the one trying to suppress the fact they got dragon force.]
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"Man...if I knew this competition was going to attract so many people, I would’ve dressed better! Or at least done my hair better," Zhen Guo complained.
"No shit," Zhen Xing agreed, "this is like three, no, five times bigger than the Prospector Challenge back home!"
"More like ten times bigger...," Zhen Feng commented as he stared up at the stands filled with people, "the crowd is honestly making me nervous."
"We can’t be more nervous than how grandfather is probably feeling."
Hours ago, the Zhen branch clan had a miracle happen as all of the members of the younger generation had all managed to simultaneously breakthrough to the Aether Master stage thanks to the pills provided by the main clan (and the interference of one well-meaning young man with a questionably demonic gun).
Much celebrating was done that evening, Gao Ren even made a delicious apple pie for the occasion.
Of course, there was also a small...event...that could’ve gone badly had it not been for the intervention of that aforementioned young man. If one was conscious and in the area at the time of this event, they would’ve heard the sound of crackers breaking into pieces...granted, they weren’t crackers.
In the morning though, i.e. today, the branch clan arrived to the competition venue, were quickly divided into two groups: contestants and audience, and then sent off into two different directions within the arena.
The audience group consisted of the branch clan elders, their spouses, attendants, children deemed too young to fight and of course, the clan patriarch.
They were originally going to be seated at the more general seats, since the branch clan hadn’t been formerly identified as such yet, until the clan matriarch themselves noticed them and proceeded to invite them over to their more private section of the stands, in essence, a skybox made of aether and runes.
What unfolded before Zhen Liu and his cousins’ eyes, was an awkward dance of etiquette that none of them could properly comment on, that ended with the branch clan sitting in the skybox...looking awkward as fuck...as least the patriarch did anyways.
Speaking of Zhen Liu and his cousins though, they were sent directly into the arena grounds in order to mingle and see who exactly their competition was going to be.
Well, Zhen Liu was scoping out the competition(conversing with his kaijin) while his cousins were trying to see if they recognized anybody within the crowd of contestants.
It was kind of difficult to make out specific faces within a crowd of a hundred or so people, but they could make out some people that were vaguely familiar to them, possibly related to someone they knew, and some individuals that they sincerely hope hadn’t noticed them yet.
"Ah shit, isn’t that the main clan girlie and her entourage over there? They haven’t seen us yet, right?," Zhen Xing asked.
"No, but if you keep talking, they might," Zhen Guo replied.
"Wait a minute...that girl over there...ain’t that the same symbol that Zhen Yue’s fiancée uses? Think she might be related to him?," Zhen Feng noted.
"If she is, I sincerely hope I don’t have to fight her," Zhen Yue surprisingly answered.
"Because it’d be awkward as all hell to possibly beat up your fiancée’s cousin because of our internal family affairs?"
"Yes...precisely that."
"Well...at least he’s not here?"
"Okay, I swear I have seen that guy’s face before and it driving me nuts!," Zhen Hai commented as he spotted a young looking guy with a weirdly easy going vibe to him.
"What? You think it might be an ex-boyfriend of your girl or something?," Zhen Tai asked.
"No, most of her exes are...missing....its just something about that guy’s face is really familiar..."
"I...ya know what? Me learning about what happened to those exes will probably be hazardous to my health."
Of course, while the Zhen Clan scions were discussing about other people, other people around them began to discuss about them...and not in necessarily a good way.
Evidently, none of the scions paid enough attention to the word being said to want to do anything about it, but a certain group of individuals posing as puppets had very different, very violent ideas in mind.
Zhen Liu was just about to lightly admonish his kaijin for their thoughts, until a light pulse of aether thrummed throughout the arena and silenced all forms of chatter that was happening within it.
The source of this aether pulse turned out to be a middle-aged Aether King that floating mid-air in blue tinted robes, or to be more polite in regards to identification, it was the Hero Elder, Zhen Xun Po.
’Of course they’re going with a grandiose display of power,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared up towards someone who was technically his elder.
’Not like there’s a bajillion cases where flagrant displays of power don’t actually work-OH WAIT!’
As he stood, floating above the crowd and arena, several aether tools in the shape of bats suddenly began to orbit around Zhen Xun Po like a moon around a planet.
<{"Testing, one, two, three! Mhmm! Is this thing working? Hello?"}>
The moment people heard that little verbal statement, everyone understood immediately that the aether tool in question was a translator of some sort, something that would be perfect for a rowdy crowd...or a riot.
<{" Greeting and saultations, one and all. I am humbled that so many of you, from all over of the world have to come to participate or watch our little competition."}>
A small wave of laugher occurred as soon as Zhen Xun Po made that joke.
It wasn’t good, but it was appropriate for the time being.
"The amount of contestants this fine day is the largest we’ve seen while hosting these games, over one hundred and twenty eight of you had signed up to participate in this contest, and all one hundred and twenty eight of you have arrived on time!"
"One hundred twenty-eight?! Holy shit?!"
"Damn, that’s a lot of fighters."
"How are they going to determine who will move on to the next round though?"
This murmuring continued for awhile until Zhen Xun Po picked up where he left off.
"Now, you must all be wondering how are we going to host a tournament with over a hundred contestants in a timely manner? Well, the answer is simple: we’ll be eliminating half of the contestants via Lottery Elimination!"
With the snap of his fingers, Zhen Xun Po summoned forth a strange looking device that looked a bit like a giant fish bowl filled with several glowing colored balls that were floating inside of it.
’Wait...it can’t be that simple of a qualifier round...can it?’
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.