[The Author has continued the story....]
A notification that Arin never thought he would ever see. His reaction to this notification was valid; after all, this meant a lot of things.
'... Wait.... Why didn't I think of this?' he thought, struggling to keep his body in check.
'The novel wasn't completed.... It just went on hiatus, and now.... now....'
'The Author has continued the story....'
Firstly, there was a high chance that a lot of things would change due to the Author continuing the story.
'This timeline is around the middle of the novel,' Arin thought, 'but even with that, since the Author has continued the story, there's still a chance that the chapters he or she is writing now might affect my current timeline.'
'Ah, this.... This isn't good....'
At this point, Arin was confused. He kept staring at the notification, trying to see if it was actually real.
'Calm down.... Calm down.... Don't panic.'
Arin kept telling himself this, but it was barely working; after all, his head was currently in a mess. After all, he didn't even know what was going to happen next.
More importantly, the things he knew might somewhat change due to the Author's interference.
'No.... As long as they were already written, and I'm currently in this timeline, most things should still remain the same.'
This was what he told himself, but honestly, he was struggling to believe it.
What if the Author just released a chapter that would change everything?
At this point, one thing became clear.
'My knowledge is now limited.....'
Now, he only had knowledge about what would happen until the novel went on hiatus. As for what was currently happening since the Author has continued the novel, he had no idea about that.
The future was already happening, and he didn't know a single thing about it.
"Ugh.... Don't you have ears? Move, man!"
Arin was instantly snapped out of his thoughts by a boy's angry voice.
He then looked around, finally taking in his surroundings.
He was currently in a large clearing in the Academy along with the other first-year students. This was one of the training centers of the Academy.
They had all formed a large circle, with the middle of the circle being where the competition would take place.
Arin was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize he had been standing in one spot for a while and was slightly blocking others.
Without saying anything, he adjusted, giving way for the boy.
For a moment, he didn't even care about the competition. The notification he just received was enough to take his full attention.
'What do I do next?' Arin thought. 'Should I ignore this notification and just carry on like I've been doing? Or should I just live normally and not do anything anymore?'
Now, he was stuck between two options.
Even though he was an extra in the novel, he could literally die at any time now if the Author wrote something that would affect this timeline.
"Everyone! The competition is about to start!" One of the teacher's voices boomed, instantly drawing the attention of all the students.
"Yes!" they all exclaimed excitedly, ready for some action.
'I shouldn't think about this here.... I might make a rash decision,' Arin thought, realizing that he was still not fully calm. Moreover, this wasn't the right place to think about this.
For now, he decided to avert his mind towards the competition and focus on the notification later.
Well, he did just that, but in the end, he would never be able to completely distract himself from such an important and deadly message.
Orion walked towards the circle and stood in the middle of it.
"Without wasting much time, let's start this competition!" he announced.
"There are only three rules," he began. "Firstly, a fight will last for only three minutes. Once those three minutes are up, and there is no winner, that fight will be postponed."
Most of the students were thinking that the time frame was quite short, but they knew that Orion had his reasons for doing that, and it would certainly be related to the main tournament.
Another thing was that he mentioned that the fight would be postponed if there was no winner between the two fighters. That meant that today wasn't the only day the competition would hold.
It would probably hold for two more days; after all, the first-year students were quite many, and time wasn't also on their side because they would have to take Magic Theory class first.
"And before I forget," Orion continued, "I'm proud of the students of this Academy. Only a few decided not to take part in the competition, and I won't blame them."
"They know that they're not strong enough, so they have decided to use that as a drive to increase their training and become better."
The students couldn't help but clap. Orion said this in a way that didn't make those who decided not to take part in the competition feel down. Instead, they could proudly raise their heads up high, and they felt even more motivated.
"As for the second rule," Orion said. "Your opponent loses either when their back touches the ground or they surrender."
It was a simple rule that they all easily understood.
"And the third rule. If you know that your opponent won't be able to stop a certain attack and will be SEVERELY injured by it, stop the attack just before it hits."
The students were about to point out something, but Orion had already continued.
"Don't worry, that also counts as a win," he said, addressing what the students were about to complain about.
Even though he or the teachers around would be able to stop the attack even if the attacker didn't want to stop it, he still didn't want to take any chances. After all, like Riya said in the meeting, the students of Greenfield Academy were not to be underestimated.
"With that, let this competition officially begin!"