Chapter 1436 (1/2)

Randidly stood on a wooden board that he had hastily covered in Engravings to support his weight. He tapped his foot twice on the board to test it and then smiled when the Engravings began to glow emerald; this would do. After releasing a light breath, he floated down from the edge of Kharon to hang over the sea of people who were waiting below for him to speak.

It was the first day of the tournament. The goal was to push through today and finish all the preliminaries.

Although the number of participants had been cut down by Tatiana to only twenty thousand, there were almost ten times as many people waiting below bright eyes. Even if they didn’t plan to compete, far too many people came for the spectacle of this first world tournament. At the edge of the vast crowd were tall platforms topped with powerful cameras; Tatiana had jokingly informed Randidly that his tournament was going to be the first difficult test that the recovering broadcast companies would need to handle. He was going to be a television star.

The demand to see the fights and watch the most powerful individuals on Earth was extremely high. Even if there were a lot of people currently who still felt that the pre-System Earth was an infinitely preferable alternative to the violent present, they couldn’t deny power had become necessary. They could only thrive when they could overcome the threat of monsters. Subconsciously, the values of the world gradually shifted under the weight of necessity.

Randidly’s gaze swept over the crowd. Compared to the immense weight of bodies below him and the size of Kharon behind him, he was a relatively small figure floating between them. Plus, he didn’t activate his images at all. He just looked down in wonder, a human standing before the weight of humanity.

These people hold the future of this planet in their hands.

With Randidly’s senses, he very quickly had an accurate impression of the capability of the gathered people. And what he found within the whispering sea of bodies surprised him. Although he had largely been disappointed with the capabilities of the average population after scanning the Orchard, the group in front of him was different.

But that gradual separation of power made sense. These were truly the Earth’s elites. They embraced Randidly’s call for images and had spent the last two years frantically training. Probably more than that, considering the recent bustle surrounding Dungeons. There were several images present that Randidly didn’t recognize, but would be able to put up a good fight against someone of Alana’s caliber.

These people would rag up the mean strength of Earth, even while the Median remained weighed down by the majority of the population that was content to be protected.

Almost instinctively, Randidly bared his teeth. The Nether Nebula that he had so carefully suppressed while he was within the Dungeon spun freely around him. Heh, although no one is a match for me individually, if all of them combine their power, it will be very difficult for me to win…

...should probably leave them with some confidence, with them heading straight toward the First Calamity. But still, six months of image training has me itching for the chance to fight… It’s almost become a habit...

Randidly’s heart began to softly pound. The weight of all the gazes of the people below him became weight that spun into his Nether. After being thoroughly and purposefully strangled within the Dungeon, Randidly’s Nether greedily absorbed this ambient weight until a tiny void appeared at the center of the nebula. The edges were tinged with grey, causing Randidly to highly anticipate how his Nebula would continue to grow. If it could reach the weight of the innocuous grey bubble…

But right now, I have other business. Randidly abruptly refocused his gaze on the light reflecting off of the lenses of the distant cameras. I won’t be here to fight against the First Calamity. I can’t stick my fingers too deeply into this tournament that will capture the imagination of the entire world.

“Welcome,” Randidly said softly. But with that word, Randidly also included a wave of his image’s strength. It wasn’t a concrete thing; Randidly didn’t suppress the surrounding area with either the Grim Chimera, Stillborn Phoenix, or Yggdrasil. Instead, only that formless potency that made those three images terrifying spread out to cover the waiting crowd. Combined with the subtle touch of Randidly’s Nether, the weight he released on his audience was enough that he could clearly sense which individuals had hidden their powers from his initial scan.

Before that weight, the lurking predators subconsciously reacted before they could help themselves. His eyes flashed side to side, marking the people of interest below. During the process, Randidly’s smile widened. This will be an interesting tournament.

But then, as he opened his mouth to continue, someone forcefully pushed his way through Randidly’s aura. “You are the Ghosthound, right? Let’s see if you are as strong as they say! Azure Claw!”

Randidly blinked as one of the unknown images that had been hiding its presence blazed immediately to life. A young man with spiky blonde hair leapt off the ground and shot upward toward Randidly and his wooden board. The man glowed with blue energy and the spectral form of a Siberian tiger imposed itself on the young man, making it seem like a tiger was pouncing upward with malicious intentions.

The man was quick, but… not quick enough that Randidly wouldn’t feel awkward bullying this obviously weaker individual.

Randidly’s eyelids twitched as he considered the fact that most of the world was watching this. The blonde-haired man traveled upward at a painfully slow speed, giving Randidly far too much time to think about what was happening. Some idiot just had to try and to test himself against me… well, this IS the sort of place that the Earth is becoming… But please wait for a more appropriate time to try and become the main character of a story… Ah, didn’t I just decide to make sure I kept my images out of the public eye?