"Welcome, welcome! To a new round of.."

"Who is going to be the next god!" The crowd roared in anticipation, stock sounds of clapping and whistling rang out, warming up the atmosphere and trying to hype up the viewer.

"Oh, sorry.. seems like there was a typo" he coughed gently into his fist. "Of course I meant to say: Who will be the next powerhouse?" The same level of enthusiasm and cheering filled up the hall, as if to show their enthusiasm wouldn't diminish with just a simple error like that.

"I'm your beloved host for today again, Staan, and I'm glad to be able to tell you that we prepared many fun games and challenges today again!"

More cheering filled the empty hall, giving an illusion of millions of people watching live as the camera panned over masses of land and different planets, showcasing the huge diversity of the viewers.

"You know the drill and so do we! But for any new viewers joining us today, I'll be explaining some of the rules today.

First, the candidates participate in games or challenges we thought up, with the ranking determining the type of powerup they will be getting!" Staan said with a bright smile while gesturing towards a huge board that appeared out of nowhere.

"It doesn't matter which power system our dear candidates follow. Precious resources and pills to make cultivation feel as easy as a nap! Magic stones and rituals to boost inherent capabilities! Qi enhancements and training manuals in time chambers, boosting abilities in seconds! Amazing nanites able to absorb hidden energies to power wondrous abilities! Anything you could ever think of.. at the tips of your fingers!" He gestured excitedly, almost falling into a trance at the mention of gracious amounts of boons up for grabs.

"But of course, just simply giving them out isn't going to be enjoyable to watch right?" He smirked towards the cameras and basked in the animated shouts of the crowd.

"Of course our participants have been notified of the first rule, but not the others. We'll introduce them one by one before continuing on with the rules. Our first candidate!" He chuckled, mirth filling his voice as a light appeared in the darkness, shining upon the first contestant.

"Look at this beautiful healthy fur! Those angry jagged horns screaming murder! Sharp claws ready to rip apart it's prey and look at those eyes!" He cheered as the camera panned over the creature's pale green eyes. "You can see and you can feel it's intelligence! Make no mistake, viewer, for if you think it's just another beast, you'll find yourself disemboweled with that being your last thought!"

The creature, resembling an adorable light brown and white striped weasel, chittered slightly and chased it's fluffy tail. It caught up to it and gave it a few gentle bites, cuddling it in an adorable gesture.

"Yes! I wouldn't believe my eyes either when I first witnessed it being a participant! This dangerous beast appeared in stories long forgotten, eating huge dragons for breakfast!" He looked down confusedly at the hints written on his cards, before looking back at the fluffy creature basking in the warmth of the spotlight, slowly nodding off. He took out a handkerchief to wipe away some sweat that built up from nervousness. Had they accidentally grabbed the wrong participant?

He coughed lightly to alleviate his nervousness. "It doesn't have a huge backstory yet, having been.. born.. just a few days ago?" His enthusiasm petered out as his smile grew strained. Heads will definitely roll when he finds out which jokester decided a newborn, monster or not, has been chosen to participate. "Please welcome our first participant quietly, as I'm sure they will do their very best." Stock footage of soft claps was heard, as viewers tried to let the fluffy being nap in peace.

He forced joy into his voice as he continued talking. "The next participant!" He said as another spotlight turned on, blinding the next participant with it's brightness.

"Look at those dangerously narrowed brown eyes, showing murder at the slightest slight! Look at that toned swimmer's physique hidden by those noble robes! The tanned skin and calloused hands show how hard of a worker our next participant is!" He introduced the youth animatedly.

"I have eyes and accept when I see Mt. Tai." The youth spoke arrogantly but neither overbearingly nor servile, with just the right amount of respect while flicking his sleeve.

Not surprised in the slightest, the host continued after the youths' antics. "Having come from a farmer's family, his family was tragically murdered as a young master passed by their hamlet. Said young master didn't like how a goat bleated absentmindedly and decided to get back face by razing the quaint village from the face of earth! He came back from hunting to find everyone he ever loved dead! But that's not everything dear viewers!" Staan continued in a conspiratorial tone.

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"There was someone who survived, if just barely. As he walked up to him, the poor old man gained a sense of clarity and told him about the looks and name of the young master! But wait, not only did the old man talk about the perpetrator, he took out a piece of parchment and drew an almost realistic rendition with just his blood and finger. The moment he realized he was done, he fell back down to the ground, having breathed his last breath." He finished retelling the origin story of the second contestant while suppressing an eye roll at the blatant foreshadowing. "Do you want to introduce yourself to the viewers?" Staan put on an encouraging smile as he looked away from the camera towards the youth.

"Yongzhong Xiaoshe. My parents were told our family name Yongzhong means rising. They wanted an awe inspiring name for their first born son and asked for the word dragon in the olden tongue. They wished for me to rise to the top and grasp my own fate like a dragon looking over the world!" Xiaoshe answered proudly as his hair and robe fluttered heroically.

"How are you doing that?" Staan watched him incredulously. "There is absolutely no draft." Noticing how he was embarrassing the youth he quickly changed gears and diverted the topic as he saw the youths cheeks slowly turn red. "Anyway. Let's give an applause to our second contestant! Yongzhong Xiaoshe!"

More stock whistling and cheering filled the halls as the viewers clapped.

"Our next contestant!" He said with renewed excitement as the next spotlight came down. "Long red hair, flickering dangerously like a flame, green blue eyes looking like they can see through infinite futures with clarity! And look at her body dear viewers! We all know adventurers from the place she comes from start out from rank F, but her cups are clearly shouting double D- alright where is he."

Staan stopped his introduction as the newest contestant, a red haired beauty, looked at him in confusion. "Where is the scriptwriter? I promise not to hurt him." He ground out as he gnashed his teeth, his visage morphing into a pained smile.

Staan took a few deep breaths as his taut facial muscles calmed down into his patent host smile. "Noble born to one of the few pillar families in her world, she showed talent for magic at a very young age! Sadly, if she continued on her genius ways she wouldn't be here today." He looked into the camera with a sad smile. "Like every genius easily rises to the top, they fall as easily but even further than common people. Her adversary? Modern media and laziness. Slowly getting consumed by one story after another, with its colorful depictions of amazing other worlds, she stopped putting effort into her magical training."

Said girl was now grimacing and glaring at the host.

"Oh how far have the mighty fallen. Her family gave her an ultimatum and tried to force her into an arranged marriage! Alas, no knight on a white horse came to her rescue and to sweep her away, her only choice being to participate in this very show to gain enough power to change her fate!

The ultimatum her parents gave her, was to beat her fiance, an A rank adventurer specialized in fire magic in a duel!" Staan paused as boos echoed across the hall.

"Tragic fate isn't it? How could her parents, her own flesh and blood force her like that?" He pretended to wipe away a tear before continuing. "But we talked about fate before and are talking about it again!

Is her name Shen Long? Is she also a rising dragon trying to control her fate? Let's find out later today after the ads!" He cheered grandly, waiting for the red light at the camera to blip out before dropping his act.

A crew appeared out of nowhere, bringing snacks and refreshments to the contestants and Staan.

"Alright. Who wrote today's script?" He demanded as he looked at the waterboy. "Go find out for me. I almost destroyed my host act today because someone had a giggle while writing." The nervous boy disappeared as quickly as he appeared, only to appear again after a short moment.

"Uh.. Mister Staan, sir. I checked in with the crew and nobody seems to know?" He answered nervously, wringing his hands as he waited for Staan's reaction.

"Nobody seems to know?" He raised an eyebrow in askance. "What do you mean nobody knows? Scripts don't appear out of nowhere." He underlined his sentence by gently slapping his hand against his cards, containing said script. "You do know how they work, right boy?"

"Y-yes sir! Mister Staan sir! The script only appears as you read, so you can't look at the other cards to find out about their content!" The boy rattled down, like they were taught during orientation.

With a sigh Staan prodded further. "So if they don't appear before I read them, that means they need to be prewritten right? Of course the show could have hired a prophetic god who watched the show in the future to write down it's context as we go. It could also be that another strong being with multiple thought processes and able to slow down time perception for himself is writing the script directly as we go.

But it does not change one fact. Someone is writing it or someone has written it. Go on, you'll have time till the next commercial break to find out who it was."

The boys eye twitched nervously as he answered quickly in a broken squeaky tone of voice. "Sir, sir yes sir!"

Staan drained his cup of the liquid ambrosia as he watched the boy disappear. Earnest new personnel is so hard to find nowadays, he thought, might need to give a go ahead to hire that boy permanently.