The sounds of muffled voices called Sam back up from the abyss, and he slowly opened his eyes to reveal the blurry sight of his room. It was packed with people and Sam slowly moved his hand up to his face, feeling a jolt of panic as he felt his skin. He was no longer wearing his mask and everyone here could see him in the flesh. Scrambling backwards, and only hitting the wall, Sam heard a strange noise. It sounded like the crashing of soft and gentle waves onto a sandy beach. With a start, he realized that it was the noise of people cheering. Cheering for him. He got up with a groan and started to get out of the bed before he realized that he was not fully clothed. Before he could embarrass himself further, someone handed him some clothes. He looked at the person to thank them and saw that it was Eduardo. The man had a grin on his face and as he opened his mouth, Sam knew that he was about to say something embarrassing.
“Don’t worry Sam, none of us saw your little friend.” Sam started laughing but then choked at what the man said next. “It's not like it would be visible anyway.”
Staring at the man in astonishment, Sam didn't know whether to laugh or hit him.
“Eduardo? What’s gotten into you?” The man winced at the use of his name, but then shrugged. He had exposed Sam’s name after all.
“Somebody told me that it would cheer you up. Normally I would not resort to such crude humor, but our mutual friend believed that it would be effective.” Sam flashed Eduardo a look of annoyance, mingled with amusement.
“And who exactly is our mutual friend?”
“That would be me,” Profound Visionary said, with a smile creasing his already lined face. As Sam looked at him with a look of disbelief, he raised his hands in defense. “What? Before I entered my monastery, I lived a life of vice. Back in Beijing they called me the One Eyed Dragon. I’m sure that you can guess why if you’ve ever seen a Chinese dragon.”
“Hah! You crazy old bastard. I doubt you’ve changed a bit!” Eduardo said, slapping the other man’s back. Unsure of what exactly was happening, Sam waited for an interlude in the conversation.
“Um, am I missing something here? Did you two know each other before?”
Eduardo shook his head before explaining.
“No, when I was trying to convince Visionary here to join our group, he used his Dao to mingle his memories with my own to ascertain my character. That made it so I have these very strange images in my head, ones that might not be fit for this public space.” The man winked at Sam and his companions before falling silent.
“Well… That entire conversation was a little too much information for my tastes. Anyway, what exactly is going on here? Who are these people?”
Eduardo let out a breath, his face more serious now.
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“When you were gone, uh, things went south. You were the only one preventing the spread of the taint that surrounded the second and third rankers. Your strength made it so that they, not exactly, were deterred, but did not want to have to deal with the consequences. Without you here, everyone started to split into camps, and this was only accelerated after your return. It seems that piece of shit pink alien had been purposefully creating discord by inflaming their emotions towards you. They already saw you as a threat, but now they see you as an enemy. Some people did not want to follow them so they suffered the consequences. Apparently weaponized aura use did not count as violence under the contracts. Poor Theodore here hasn't been able to speak properly since he was blasted by their combined force.”
Sam tried not to giggle, but it escaped him anyway and he felt like an asshole.
“Sorry, I expected you to say something like “poor Jimmy,” not a name like Theodore. Oh come on. Nobody else thought that was a little disingenuous?” Everyone stared at him until he started to feel really uncomfortable. Eduardo cleared his throat and continued.
“Before we continue, you should check your notifications. When you were unconscious, there was some information pertaining to the continuation of the tournament. It might be useful to you.” Sam opened up his interface and checked. Sure enough, there was something there.
Continuation of the interrupted 1st Tournament of Planet Earth.
Because of the unforeseen consequences that led to the unintended perversion of the tournament to further the agenda of Berrigious Elevantus, it did not continue in the intended manner. The new rules are outlined below.
There are 250 combatants left, who will continue in the order that they were originally scheduled to fight in.
There will be no outside interference, save for the spectators watching the event.
The prizes shall be granted as listed below.
250-50th place:100,000 Credits.
50-25th place:250,000 Credits.
25-16th place:250,000 Credits and 1 Rare Skill.
16-5th place:500,000 Credits, 1 Rare Skill and one customized G Rank weapon.
4th place:1,000,000 Credits, 1 Epic Skill and one customized G Rank weapon.
3rd place:1,000,000 Credits, 1 Epic Skill, one customized G Rank weapon and a Faction Creation token.
2nd place:1,500,000 Credits, 1 Legendary Skill, one customized G Rank weapon,one Faction Creation token and a choice between a personal F Rank training robot or a month of tutelage by an E Rank fighter.
1st place:2,500,000 Credits, 1 Legendary Skill, one customized G Rank weapon, one Faction Creation token, a personal F Rank training robot, a month of tutelage by an E Rank fighter and a Mythical Title.
Sam almost lost it as he read the rewards for the top places. Just the credits alone from first place were 5 times more than his entire net worth, and the other rewards were worth five more. Sam immediately knew that he had to place first, no matter what he had to do to get there. If he was not able to, then someone else would, and it most likely would be the Overlord, making him even more of an unassailable bastion of power. He paused for a moment, seeing something strange. There was a weird transition with the rewards, with the third lowest rewards bracket going all the way down to 16th place instead of 15th, or 10th as would have been more normal. Sam realized why, which was because of the way that a tournament worked. By the time that the match had worked its way down to the last 16 fighters, there would be an even number of them, allowing for the beginning of the finals. It must have been like that so that all of the finalists would get rewarded for their efforts. Perhaps Sam was barking up the wrong tree, but time would tell if he was right. For now, there were more important things to do.