The first in line, Elias, stepped forward. Shrugging his shoulders, a pile of badges appeared in the air.

The Absolute scanned them, taking only an instant before declaring, "42 badges. Fail."

Elias' expression crumpled. From the set of his shoulders, he had been expecting it since the Absolute had declared that 200 badges were the requirement.

I have around 2500 badges of 2944 in total. With that, even if people deliberately gave all of their tokens to separate contestants, only two would manage to pass.

Did I go overboard? At this rate, it's unlikely even one person other than me can pass - with how spread out the badges are, it's possible only Taren collected 200.

As the warrior stepped to the side, defeated, there was a visible sag in almost everyone else's shoulders.

The next up was Taren. Yi Qiang watched closely as, waving a hand, the noble conjured a heap of badges. Again, in less than a second, the Absolute spoke with an approving tone, "206 badges. Pass."

Taren passed. Not a surprise.

Ilien was next in line. He did slightly better than Elias with 65, but it was still nowhere near the dividing line. Ilien walked sullenly to sit on the ground next to the similarly solemn Elias, displaying the most sincere emotion Yi Qiang had yet to see out of him.

Restra, as Yi Qiang expected, performed the best out of the three of them with 73 badges. But it wasn't enough.

The red-haired youth, now significantly more subdued than before, stepped aside as well, declared to have only 34 badges.

By now, the Absolute was slightly confused. The ones in the front were the strongest, and yet, if the badges weren't with them, where were they?

Yi Qiang quickly answered the question in the man's heart, however, when he stepped forward. With his single step, dozens of neat stacks of badges appeared around him.

Even one of the most powerful men in the kingdom was human, evident from the tremble in the Absolute's voice as he announced, "2458 badges. P-pass."

As Yi Qiang walked to the side to stand beside Taren, he noticed the complicated emotion in the Absolute's eyes. All the shellshocked gazes directed at him were also new, but the marksman had never concerned himself with the attention of the majority.

Though he seemed to be distracted with some significant deliberation, the Absolute continued the badge count, effortlessly announcing each participant's failure.

Soon enough, everybody had gathered in two groups. One held Yi Qiang and Taren, the only two who had passed by the set rules, and the other held everyone who hadn't.

Ilien, in a surprising feat of self-control, managed to hold back almost all of his anger at Yi Qiang, only leaking some of his fury at the marksman.

Yi Qiang was too concerned with the Absolute to care, however, watching him as he stood in silence, taciturnly observing all of the contestants.

After around 30 seconds, the man spoke.

"Since we can't have only two people moving on to the next round, I suppose I'll have to make some adjustments. Top ten highest badge counts move on, everyone else... go home. So that's you, you, you, you," he continued, pointing at ten people, some of which recognized. Among the ten was Yi Qiang, of course, as well as Taren and the other Four. The previously-dejected red-haired youth was also among their ranks.

With the Absolute's final decision, Yi Qiang was startled by a screen popping up in front of him.

Quest Cleared!

First Stage of the Empire Contest

Experienced gained!

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

You now have the opportunity to move on to the Second Stage.

 Yi Qiang quickly summoned his status, refraining from cheering at the new level of 111. His leveling progress had slowed down significantly, after all, from 100, so ten levels had a new weight to them.

It was equivalent to 65 stat points, after all, and that meant a lot to the current Yi Qiang.

He refrained from allocating them, however, when the Absolute started to speak, staring directly at the marksman.

"As I said, the more badges you gather, the more benefits you can enjoy; that said, if we're going by badge numbers, I might as well give you first place in the contest right now. I think I'll drag this out a little longer, though. Rest assured, you'll feel the effects of your performance this round soon enough.

"For now, all of you follow me."

The participants who didn't make it into the next round had already been shooed away by the guards in the area, meaning that only nine people were staring at Yi Qiang in undisguised envy. The healthy amount of fear mixed in boded well for their futures, however, so the marksman didn't mind.

Instead, he opened up his status screen as they followed the Absolute, allocating the necessary points and then settling to walk in silence.

A few minutes in, the Absolute stopped, letting an exasperated scoff.

"We'll never get there at this rate.

"How about we call this round 1.5; keep up with me. Don't worry; I'll make it somewhat possible."

Yi Qiang glanced at Elias - he was likely to be the one with the most trouble with following the Absolute. Of the three factors of fitness - defense, speed, and strength - Elias was the least gifted in quickness. As such, he would possibly find it quite the challenge to live up to the Absolute's expectations.

Round One and this have both emphasized on speed. Is that how the remainder of the contest will go, or is the Absolute following a specific plan? I suppose I can only find out by hanging in there.

Elias sported an ugly expression on his face, but he silently watched the Absolute's back, waiting for the man to kick off.

They didn't have to wait long - in not even a second, he was in the air, sailing at speed Yi Qiang found easy to match, but it was unlikely the other contestants would feel that way.

The marksman took the initiative to take the lead, choosing to stay on the ground and trail behind the powerhouse.

It was with no surprise that Yi Qiang discovered that Taren was similarly capable of keeping up, using some abstruse footwork, flashing forward in long strides.

That's true; I've yet to find an active skill that boosts my movement. I've been relying on my Agility. I should look for something that could improve my speed.

Yi Qiang filed away the thought in his mind and glanced back. Elias was, surprisingly, not in the last place, seemingly relying on his absurdly powerful muscles to stomp on the ground and shoot him forward. To his surprise, no one was lagging too much - it seemed that instead of a test of physical ability, this would be a test of stamina. And, if Yi Qiang guessed correctly, the Absolute would do his best to push everyone he could to their limit, straining each contestant's will to continue.

A test of willpower is not something that can intimidate me.

   Ten minutes in, the majority of the talents were breathing hard.

Looks like he does intend to make us work to move on. Because the first stage wasn't hard enough.

Thankfully, Yi Qiang's stamina regeneration was monstrous thanks to his incredible Constitution. Thanks to the number of points he had in the stat, Yi Qiang wasn't even winded from the exertion so far. At the rate they were going, the marksman could keep up for a few more days.

The Absolute, seemingly having heard Yi Qiang's thought, suddenly sped up slightly, such a small amount that the marksman could hardly notice it, but it felt like a death sentence for those struggling to keep up already.

The next ten minutes were a select sort of hell for the contestants in the back. The terrain had changed halfway through, becoming steeper and more uneven, which further exhausted the young talents that were already pushing into their limits.

Of course, they still had energy left. Even so, Yi Qiang knew from personal experience that it wasn't so easy to use it - pushing oneself to their limits was a trying task that requires willpower, determination, and the ability to transcend beyond the present.

Matters were not simplified by the Absolute's steady increase in speed, making the difficulty increase even to the point where Yi Qiang was beginning to feel his energy lessen. 

  By this point, Yi Qiang's estimate was that they had already traveled a few dozen miles from where they began, with much of it being rough terrain. With that in mind, it was no wonder everyone was having trouble.

 Taren was breathing slightly heavily, but the impact of all the recent exertion wasn't enough to make a noticeable difference.

  Elias was on his limit, but the fire in his eyes left no room for doubt within Yi Qiang that he would push himself to the point of harm - there was no way the barehanded fighter would fail merely getting to Round Two.

  Already, one contestant was left behind. The Absolute didn't give any indication that he noticed it, leaving Yi Qiang to assume they had some system in place for those who couldn't keep up - the marksman couldn't believe the kingdom would leave their talents just stranded there, unshielded from whatever hidden dangers were present in the miles they had already traveled.

  Thankfully for the other geniuses, they only traveled three more miles before reaching the base of a colossal volcano. Yi Qiang's sharp eyes could see countless large beasts roaming around on the surface, but he put the thought of having to fight them out of his mind. 

 The Absolute, surveying the smaller group, said, "We're at our destination. I'll give you all half an hour to rest before we move on to the second round. 

"Make the best use of it you can. You'll certainly need to be in your best condition for this."