"That one," Jing pointed in Aukhman's direction like a proud mom in a children's playground. "Isn't he interesting looking?"

"Not bad, not bad indeed." Silver Fang said with a light chuckle before he pointed toward where he was.

"What kind of creature is that?" Jing asked as he gazed at the black spherical creature with creepy eyes that hovered over the others without interacting with anyone.

"He said his race was the Larys." Silver Fang said.

'Interesting, but I don't care either way,' Jing thought with a wry smile.

"You're still Body Tempering?" Dmitri, the bear suddenly said with a slight frown.

"Yeah," Jing said with raised eyebrows. "But I would be breaking through in a while. How did you know?"

"We have Qi," SilverFang said. "We can move it through your body and detect how many meridians you have opened, or in this case lack thereof."

"I can break your spine in half with a swipe of my staff." The bear growled as he walked on four. "How can you help us tomorrow?"

Silver Fang's eyes narrowed, but he continued reassuring, "He will be fine, don't worry."

Jing merely glared at him, their eyes meeting, before he averted his eyes to look at the throng of monsters and people without saying anything else. 'What's wrong with this guy?' He thought.

As he glanced at Aukhman once again, he knew that the shared connection between the two was still present even in this realm. Tapping into it, he asked, "What are we doing here?"

Aukhman paused his conversation with another demonic creature before he replied, "You can just meet the other players and build some allies here if you want. The reason you're here is because the main episode had already been released and some of the viewers had decided to enter the portal of beginning to learn more about the players. Unlike you, they can see the players' real identities both in the previous and new world in front of them, and some other information."

"Oh? That's why I can hear all of them whispering from here." Jing said. "But what next?"

"That's it," Aukhman said. "They will be studying you for a while, making preparations for who to watch first, who to support, and those kinds of questions. The main host of the games will make an appearance shortly, and you'll be sent back. Something very interesting will happen before that though."

"What is it?" Jing asked.

"You'll see," Aukhman simply said with a mysterious smile and cut off their mental connection.

Jing continued talking with Silver Fang, finding a bit of refuge in his presence amidst all of the chaos that he suddenly found himself in. After the last confrontation with Dmitri, he didn't know how to amicably mend the bridges, and so things remained slightly tense between the two.

The other imaginary characters surrounding them were quick to notice the famous trio, they called them the first killers from what Jing gathered. Most of the players were antagonistic as they hatefully glared at them, and it wasn't that difficult for Jing to imagine why. They were still all overwhelmed by the abruptness with which they were transported into the game, and so to say they all had a lot of unprocessed issues would be putting it mildly. Issues that they found to be easy to just channel toward the three targets.

But others approached to ask several questions, some of which were harmless, and others were too personal. Just as Jing was getting overwhelmed by the barrage of questions from the dragon Toothless and Zoro, something that felt like a fever dream, a loud voice echoed through this dimension they were in.

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." The voice bellowed with a majestic tone, capturing the attention of every individual present.

Jing glanced up and saw a plump, stocky demonic creature flying above them with a wide excited expression, its purple skin and long white fangs hardened by its deep piercing red eyes. With bat-like ears pressed gently against its head, it seemed regal and powerful, adorned in a simple rustic robe. However, the most notable characteristic about it was its ridiculously large size that towered over everything present.

Loud otherwordly music accompanied the creature's appearance as it danced in a very smooth manner with its wings harmoniously moving in tandem with the rest of its body. After just a few seconds, it came to a sudden halt and spoke with its booming voice, "Now that all of you have watched the premiere and learned as much as possible about our dear players, let us into the main final event before all of their journeys would be released."

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An anticipatory beat followed, like a drum roll, just more pulling before he said, "The final lottery for the start of the games will be..." Even more, beats followed, "The Dreamweaver Cataclysm's Fragment!"

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of gasps, cheers, and frenzied yells. Even the representatives seemed shocked, and only the players were just as clueless as they were a minute ago.

Before he could even start asking Aukhman what had just happened, a giant black and white dice so large that everything present looked like a grain of sand compared to it appeared. However, unlike a normal dice that only had six sides in total and showed one on top at a time, this one was slightly different. It had a lot of sides, how much Jing didn't know, but what he was certain of was that it showed four sides on top as gazed down at it.

"The first throw will be of elimination, the second one of choice, and the last one maybe we will finish with a circle." The gigantic demon spoke in a carefree manner.

The multi-faceted dice's faces began to shift before they reflected the different races in each one. Through some unseen force, it was pushed with a strong force from below making it fly upward as it rotated at an unimaginable speed.

Jing's eyes followed it as he looked up before it fell down once again. As if it met a hard surface, its fall stopped and began following the remaining of its momentum to the side. In a few seconds, it finally stopped!

The crowd's synchronized cheer followed its every step, and when they saw the final result they all sighed in dejection.

The demon spoke once again, "It seems like Xenithians, Umbralis, Goblins, and Taurens aren't so lucky this time around." The moment the last word echoed in the ears of everyone present, he gently waved his hand and made four discs disappear with all of the players inside of them. Without wasting a beat he continued with a grin, "Now unto the selection process." The strange dice melted like a lump of clay before its shape began to gurgle and change into a cube, becoming a normal six-sided dice with the remaining races on each face.

The dice soundlessly jumped up once again as if an invisible god had kicked it from underneath and began rotating. Jing and the rest of the crowd glanced up and down at it once again, when he saw the final winners he was caught off guard.

Humans!

The crowd cheered, the fact that the winner in the final lottery was an underdog was the best resolution they could hope for as it would make the game more interesting.

"Humans, Humans, Humans," The demon said with an amused smile, waving his hand once again the other five races disappeared leaving only the human arena.

"Now into the moment of truth," The demon said. Behind him a giant multicolored circle appeared out of nowhere with more than 90 sections, each one had the image of one of the human avatars present. Jing's eyes were sharp, and he immediately noticed the smiley fox face with a light green floral background.

The otherwordly drum roll followed as the circle began to spin rapidly. The hundreds of millions of pairs of eyes latched into it with everything that they had. Until... "Stoned Gandalf!" The demon yelled and the crowd erupted in their frenzied cheers once again. "Where is Stoned Gandalf, show yourself." The demon hovered above their arena with his colossal body and gazed at them as if he were looking at an interesting collection of trees.

A very tall old man with a black wizard hat, black robes, and a long staff raised his hand anxiously as he stepped forward.

"Here you are," The demon's almost sinister face twisted into a wide smile. Beside him, a staff like the one most of the representatives were holding appeared. "Now," The demon continued with a mysterious smile. "Make sure you hold on to it tightly."

The staff dashed through the air and entered Stoned Gandalf's forehead before it disappeared completely, and with its disappearance, Jing's eyes jolted open.

Affected by the abruptness of it all, his heartbeat quickened as he began surveying his surroundings. A closed door, a dimly lit room from the faint light that filtered through the big window behind him, and all of the boys he knew were busy cultivating.

Above Shen Yun and Zho Tu's bed, there was an open short window at the very edge of the ceiling, and it suddenly glowed with a bright light! Zho Tu sprung up to his feet, and jumped down from his top bunk bed, alerting everyone in the process.

He pushed the wide window open, and the cold breeze sneaked into their room at the opportunity. Jing could see a thick pillar of golden light descending from the heavens above the whole outer sect in an almost ethereal light.

"My God!" Zho Tu exclaimed. He frantically turned around yelling, "Do you see that?!"

Jing was about to get down and join him in his shock and wonder when Shen Yun stood up with a frown. He was already annoyed after being disturbed by his cultivation. He stood beside him, clicked his tongue in annoyance, and said, "What are you talking about? Are you seeing things now?"

Zho Tu's eyes widened, "No," He protested, he pointed in a particular direction. "Look at that pillar of light, why is it there?"

Wang Fei had also stood up by then and was following where Zho Tu's fingers pointed, "I don't see anything," Wang Fei said.

Jing's mouth couldn't help but slightly open at the realization!

Zho Tu's face terrified face turned to look at his but he swiftly averted his eyes, feigned a sense of casualness, and spoke as he gazed there with a deep look, "I don't see anything either Zho Tu." As he if he remembered something, he explained, "From the manuals we've learned, I read that there is a phenomenon of golden light that happens inside when someone is close to a breakthrough?"

"True..." Wang Fei comforted from the side although his tone was very uncertain. "Maybe you're just close to breaking through and that is why you see it outside?"

Zho Tu's eyes were still locked on Jing's face, and after a second or two of silence, he closed the windows saying, "Yeah... That must be it..." The four then returned to their particular beds and resumed their cultivation.

Jing, however, was shook!

In the darkness of his closed eyelids, he began pondering, 'Zho Tu is a player?! How is that possible? He tried to save my life.' Thus, in an attempt to solidify his certainty, he texted Silver Fang.

Kenneth: Did you see that golden light?

SilverFang: Barely, but I knew it was coming from your direction.