Chaper 352 - The rules of the third event (Patreon)

In the living room, Tess, Sophie, Gareth, his right-hand Adam, Samuel, and I all sit together. The silence is somewhat awkward, but I'm enjoying it.

Everyone else is outside doing their things and having fun, but I'm here helping Tess. Well, that and I'm also curious about what silly things they are here to say.

Adam, who before the 2nd event wanted to have a talk with me about the events at the end of the 1st, is looking at me. Even now he is in his suit, the older man sitting super straight. He seems to be around 60 years old in his face, but his movements do not show it at all.

He moves as energetically as a young man would. That's also an interesting thing to think about. How will the system influence someone, let's say, 100 years old?

Getting a few levels and stats into constitution should help that person a lot. Even Lily alone should be able to improve some things. In the end, even people close to dying could be brought back to their much younger bodies.

Now that I think about it, could Lily heal things like cancer, HIV? Something like genetic diseases? PTSD? Oh, actually, wouldn't Sophie be better for mental problems?

It's all interesting to think about.

But cutting off that thought, I look back at Adam. According to Tess, Adam is one of the richest men from Germany or something like that. Who cares, I bet I have more shards. And it's not like money will be that useful after a while when we return to Earth.

“Sset, I would like you to reconsider once again. I know you dislike Samuel, but I do not think he is wrong,” Gareth says.

“No, as I said before, Group 4 isn't interested in following the stupid rules you guys set up. I know what Samuel is trying to do and what he hopes this kind of authority show now will do after the tournament,” Tess answers in a calm tone.

Gareth smiles patiently, “This is not about what will be after the tournament, this is…”

“I know,” she cuts him off. “But don't act dumb. And you, Samuel,” she turns to him, “you are weak so do not try to order me or anyone from my group.”

“Yeah, Samuel, don't do that,” I add.

“Noname, this is serious. What we are trying to do is to have some order here. It’s calmer now, but many things are still going on. We need to set some rules we will follow even after getting to Earth. Just releasing a bit of our mana is enough to kill a lot of people.” Samuel's voice is the kind I dislike. Someone used to giving and following orders. A person who likes to stick to the rules.

“Why bother? We will do that in future tournaments and after getting to Earth. Some of us, not you Samuel, will be powerful enough to just order around lower difficulties if you want to keep order.” I say.

Isn't it simple?

“But what about Hell difficulty and Beyond?” Adam asks for the first time, his calm eyes on me.

Tess continues instead, “We will deal with that as well. We might not have a Champion before the tutorial ends but we should have a few candidates and set some rules. Plus, we will learn more from the tutorial; that's what it is for, right?”

As the conversation continues, they seem to be taking her more seriously. Tess is only around 20 years old, so even though they are trying to, it's harder for Gareth, Samuel, and Adam to take such a young woman seriously right away.

Yet, Tess and, by extension, group 4 cannot be ignored. We have three people in Beyond. We have Sophie with her mind-blending. Now that I think about it, Lily is a Beyonder but also the strongest healer in our round of the tutorial, and I don't think that will change. We have Biscuit and Noodle too, and best of all, we have me, hehe.

Group 4 is scary indeed.

“See you later,” I say, already bored of the conversation, and teleport to the anchor I placed on the roof. There I meet Lily, who holds a twisted chunk of flesh, a finger bone next to it.

“Did you get bored already?” she asks.

“Samuel was about to start talking about great responsibility coming with great power. Or call me a teleporting atomic bomb or something else he likes to do.”

She smiles, “He is not that bad, just uptight.”

“Obviously, he would be nice to you, you are very important. But you should check how he treats people from lower difficulties. The man would set up some kind of martial law if he could. But he is weaker than us so he treads carefully.”

“Hard difficulty people aren't that weak.”

“Very weak, Tacita here killed Samuel already a few times when he bothered her,” I gesture.

“Tacita here?” Lily turns to the side where Tacita sits. She then jumps up, clearly surprised by the girl who sat there for who knows how long without her noticing.

“H-how long…” Lily whispers.

“She was here even before I came,” I say and wave at Tacita who waves back while looking at the bone and piece of heart Lily experiments with.

“You can't do that! You have to at least let me know when you are nearby!” Lily complains to the mute girl.

Tacita quickly carves into the roof.

ʕ◉ᴥ◉ʔ

Well, it’s not like I don’t understand her reaction, “Anything interesting you learned from the bone? The guy used to be very tough.” I ask Lily.

Lily's eyes shine excitedly as she turns back to me, “Yes! That bone is perfect!" She pauses "Should I talk in front of her?"

"It's too late for that, she knows a lot of things and already knows my name and most of the other's names because of her sneaking around. You guys didn't notice her most of the time."

"Oh..."

Tacita´s hand turns into blur and she carves something else into the roof.

(；☉_☉)

"It's fine, just don't spread it around."

(￣^￣)ゞ

I gesture at Lily to continue.

"I have some trouble with the heart as it's something much more complex, even being damaged and old now. But with the heart, I could maybe help you with your Therm… with your heart. Not now, but sometime in the future and without that annoying healing aura of the tournament.”

That sounds really promising, upgrading my heart with Lily's help should be possible, but I do not know how much we can influence its mana generation, it's still something that feels as difficult as using ambient mana. But maybe we could make it so it compresses mana more. Even now it's only around 10 to 20%.

“But the bone is much better,” Lily continues. “It will work well with my skill so I should be able to make my bones even stronger. I also think I will be able to do the same for you. It will take some time as your Constitution is trash and I don't want to hurt you, but we can do it.”

“There is a question if I want to. I saw some interesting traits that influenced skeletal framework and making them stronger could make it more difficult to use such traits.”

“We can try to do both, but not here. The healing aura is annoying and heals me before I even make proper changes.”

I start thinking, “Maybe we will be able to make some nice stuff for group 4 together. We can try to give my eye to others. If the are too strong, we can weaken them a bit and make it so they ‘awaken’ gradually. It will probably never be as strong as the original, but I saw some healer on the 5th floor making it so my eye is easier to accept for my disciple.”

“That sounds difficult. Oh, I also tried to create a mark that I would leave on people and that would heal them when activated. The one you told me about. It's really bad right now, but in a few weeks, I should be able to create stronger ones.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“No problem! You can get rid of your pathetic healing passive and I will give you a lot of marks.”

My healing passive is trying its best!

While pinching Lily’s nose to punish her, I turn to Tacita, “Do you need something?”

She shakes her head.

“Just hanging around?”

A nod.

“Well, I will leave you guys so you can have some fun together,” I then place an anchor and teleport to the workshop where Isabella already is.

The little empath stands in the corner over the table, her blue flames melting the metals I gave her and trying to make things from them.

To not disrupt her, I get to my table. It's time to make a few more items.

***

In the end, I create five more items in a few hours, and this time I set the starting price higher. 500 shards each, even though the materials for one item are around only 50 shards.

I set the time of the auction for 1 hour and then close the window.

After a bit of waiting, a notification pops up.

The 3rd event - Avatar Confrontation will start in 12 hours!

Everyone from Hell difficulty will be able to create their avatar, for which they can choose a [Restriction]. The avatars will be placed in separate arenas.

Hard, Normal, and Easy difficulties will then be able to challenge these avatars. Each challenge will cost shards:

Easy difficulty - 5 shards

Normal difficulty - 10 shards

Hard difficulty - 30 shards

The avatars won't have emotions and won't have any memories other than the ones required for combat and using their abilities. The only goal of the avatars will be to defeat their challengers.

For defeating the avatar, the challenger will receive suitable rewards according to their performance and the strength of their opponent.

Note: There is no cap on the number of participants who can simultaneously engage the avatar in one challenge.

Note: A Hell difficulty attendee can create a single avatar, with any [Restriction]. The avatar can be challenged three times at most.

Note: If an avatar defeats the challengers, the creator of the avatar will receive rewards as well as all the shards paid for the right to challenge the avatar. The system claims 10% of these shards.

Note: The creator of the avatar can add additional rewards for beating the avatar to entice more challengers. The additional rewards can be shards or items. The additional rewards will be lost in case the avatar is defeated and split among the challengers according to the challengers' performance.

The avatars can be placed in 12 hours and it will be possible to challenge them during a 24-hour long timeframe.

Okay, that's a lot.

Opening the notification again, I jump up and sit on the table I was working behind and read it again. I'm glad the Avatar won't possess any memories or emotions. If it did I don't think I would be willing to set one, not after the 5th floor.

This is not an event I would expect but it sounds fun enough. The most important things are, Hell difficulty people will place avatars so there can be 31 avatars at once, with or without [Restriction]. Each avatar can be challenged three times, which means people from other difficulties can join up to 93 fights against someone from Hell difficulty.

The interesting part is that there is no limitation on the group. That means over 2 thousand people can challenge a single Avatar if they are willing to pay shards each for the challenge.

That makes deciding the level of [Restriction] a bit more fun. Alone, no one from Easy difficulty would be willing to challenge someone like Tess or Lily, but if they create a big enough group and the girls place some [Restriction], they might get some challengers. Placing additional rewards could also help.

However, there is a bit of a problem for me. A very big one.

Will there be anyone dumb enough to challenge my avatar? Especially after the end of the second event?

Damn.

But it's too soon to give up already. I already have an idea. It's time to use our group 4 psy-ops unit and the uselessly handsome man.

Reaching out, I touch the web that is over our house and Sophie responds.

(What?) she asks.

(I need you to get the twins and connect with Channeler. Tell him to come here and to bring as many of his friends as he can. Useful ones only.)

(Will do so. But what are you planning? You saw the notification, right? You are screwed.)

(Worry not. I just need you guys to help me with a disinformation campaign.)

This will be fun.

***

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