Beep beep
A weird sound woke him up the next morning. He looked around and saw that the holographic menu of the ID card had been activated and showed a notification.
'Finally,' he thought as he read the message 'New information has been updated' in the notification.
He reached for his ID card and opened the notification. A new window popped out, it was the information about the first phase of the tournament.
'All participants, please report to hall 209 at 6 pm for the first phase orientation. The hall's location should appear highlighted in your holo maps. Please take note that any participant who isn't present at 6 pm o'clock will be automatically disqualified from the tournament.'
'8 am… seems like I still have a lot of time left,' he thought as he looked at the clock. 'Anyway, I should grab something to eat.'
He left the room after a couple of minutes and headed for the dining room. After eating took advantage of the training room to kill some time and soon enough it was already 5:30 pm.
Meanwhile, in some other part of Sunrise City, a tall serious man was standing in front of the window of his office, contemplating the academy grounds he was in charge of.
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"Is everything alright Principal Smith?" asked a man from the door.
"Yes, I was just thinking about her request," the man answered.
"Even if she was the one asking you know that we could have refused."
"Yes, I know."
"Are regretting your decision then?"
"I don't think so."
"Even though it could put the whole academy in danger?"
"It certainly could backfire."
"Then why did you agree?"
"Hmmm… I guess you could call it a 'hunch'"
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"You bet the future of the academy on a 'hunch'?"
"If my 20 years of experience as a principal taught me something, is that sometimes you just have to follow your gut. Plus, if I'm right, this could place Knox Academy among the best academies in Sunrise City."
"Or send us straight to the bottom."
The principal nodded, however a look of determination could be seen on his face.
'It all depends on that kid now,' the principal said.
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The clock marked 5:45 pm when Seth got to hall 209 and most of the participants were already present since no one wanted to risk being late and getting disqualified.
The hall was absolutely gigantic however the incredible amount of participants still made it seem crowded with people. It was impossible to guess how many participants were there but the number was definitely around a few thousand.
In the remaining 15 minutes, a couple of hundred participants more arrived and at 6 pm o'clock, the doors completely closed. At the same time, a holographic projection appeared in the center of the hall.
"Welcome participants, I'm the Black Guard operator that will be in charge of supervising the first phase of the tournament. You may refer to me as Delta. Please listen closely to the first phase explanation as it will be explained only once," said the man wearing a white mask and a black uniform in the hologram. Before he began the explanation the projection of a large city that seemed taken from a post-apocalyptic story was shown by the hologram. The buildings looked worn out and some of them were missing parts, almost as if they had been old battlefields. The vegetation growing all around the city and the buildings made them seem even more deserted.
"This is one of the many 'fake cities' built by the HSA for different scientific tests. They are as big as a major city center occupying around one thousand kilometers squared. The first phase of the tournament will be taking place in these 'fake cities'," the man started saying. "To put it simply, the first phase consists of a survival test. You will be boarding different planes that will take you above the fake city airspace, and from there you will parachute into the test area. The objective is to survive for a week in the test area while gathering points," as he finished saying this the image of the fake city was replaced by him. "There are two ways of getting points. To explain the first way I need to explain what you will be facing when getting to the test area," he said as the image of a monster-like creature appeared in the hologram.
"These are bio-engineering made beasts developed by the HSA called 'Thirio', and they will be the biggest threat in the test area. Not only are they faster stronger and bigger than normal animals but they also can possess different kinds of esper abilities," as he said this nervousness filled the hall, the creature in the hologram not only looked absolutely terrifying to the participants but also incredibly strong without taking into account the possibility of it having an esper ability. "They are all different from one another and can have different shapes, sizes, strengths, weaknesses, and abilities," he said as images of different thirios appeared in the hologram. "The first way to obtain the points you will need to pass the first phase is by killing these thirios. Since not all of them are equally powerful the number of points you will receive after killing one will depend on the strength of the thirio. However, you will have no way of knowing the thirio's strength and point award, you will only know the point award after killing it and receiving the respective points. In case more than one participant kills a thirio, the point award will be split among them depending on their contribution to killing it," as he finished saying this the images showing the different kinds of thirios disappeared.
"The second way of getting points is by defeating other participants. If you decide to engage in combat against another participant the loser will be the first to fall unconscious. When your opponent has fallen unconscious an option will appear in your interaction menu that will allow you to claim the point award. After activating this option the unconscious participant will be disqualified and teleported back while the winner will receive the points for defeating him. Again, you will have no way of knowing how many points you will receive after defeating another participant before defeating one," he said. The atmosphere in the whole hall tensed up as most of the participants decided that winning points by defeating other participants would be easier than by facing the thirios, even if they didn't know how big in point award the difference would be.
"After one week has passed those who have gathered 10 000 points or more will be able to request a teleport extraction to leave the test zone while those who haven't met the point requirement will still have another 3 days window to gather the lacking points. After the second time limit has passed those who still haven't met the requirement will be teleported back and disqualified. Please note in any case, those who get teleported back because of disqualification will have to pay for it. With this the first phase explanation has concluded, the planes will be ready for take-off in one hour, be ready by then," he said before the hologram disappeared and the hall's doors opened.