Chapter 508 - Days MMXLV - MMLXXVIII

For the next couple of days, I tried my best to focus on the relationship with Sudarshana. We managed to finish our project and began the review process. She also started looking for a publisher for the translated book.

There actually were many offers, but we wanted to choose the best and spent the earnings on some charity.

In the meantime house in Dwarka got roughly finished and I began the process of taking care of the interiors. I used it to somehow get closer to Tihana after the incident with the Korean show. It worked a bit, but we still were not ok. Sudarshana also helped a lot.

Meanwhile, the idea of a tournament started spreading throughout the internet like a wildfire. We had to help it a bit, asking the correct questions, pretending to be viewers, to the streamers, who returned to their homes after spending few days in Arc.

It was a slow process in the beginning, as the messages vanished in the stream of many others, but eventually, they got picked up, and the whole idea started growing. The fact that new gates appeared in Brazil, and the US itself only escalated the whole situation.

Even the fact that Russa and China had the gates and kept them as a secret, came out to the public, and people started going crazy. Tabloids, internet sites, and TV news started slowly talking about the possibility of conflict, and also law regulations towards hunters, to somehow keep them in check.

It all hit our city at some points, and people just couldn't stop talking about who would win if some kind of fight started.

Followers of Divine Tree were sure that our city is the strongest and kept pushing this message. They kept arguing that we were the first to connect to Earth and that I, the messiah, was living among us.

To be honest, I thought this whole idea was done, and behind me, but it reemerged. I realized it might be hunting me forever.

I tried to contact The Great One a few more times, but he wasn't responding, which was making me a bit worried. Not of him, but more about what was going on behind the curtain. I thought that maybe he wanted us to resolve the issue by ourselves, or maybe something bad happened somewhere and he had to interfere.

Will and the rest of my friends went heavy in hunting as the worries of the upcoming conflict spread. They really went nuts on gathering as many crystals as possible when the news of a meeting among the countries that possessed a gate on their territory was made public. The content was going to be kept a secret, which rose many questions about the fate of the world.

It was a worldwide affair, as there was heavy opposition from those who didn't have access.

I personally tried to squeeze some informstions from Wolf, but even he was being kept out of the loop. Everything became kinda worrying before the big news hit the entire world. A tournament was announced to evaluate the capabilities of the hunters, and build relationships among the cities behind the gates so we all could work for benefit of the humanity.

At least it was the official one. The unofficial was a bit different. None of the countries managed to seize any of the devices, despite some crazy efforts. They were forced to cooperate in various ways, but the world need to know the real strength possessed by the powerful individuals.

They needed to know where they stand, and with whom to ally.

It all spread like wildfire, and every country around the world was suddenly invited to the table. It took few days, but eventually, it was decided that there will be a simple stadium build on the edge of the Sahara desert, just for the hunters themselves, and the filming crew which was supposed to make the whole thing available to the public around the world.

A free event for the masses, which actually demanded it heavily.

The speculations went crazy as more informations about hunters from each place got revealed. Everybody talked about the favorites, fighting styles, types of magic, and skills in possession of the extraordinary individuals. The hype was insane.

Companies around the world went mad to use the faces of hunters to promote their products. William managed to appear on a few commercials. Sanders suddenly was the face of a boxing gym chain. Nobuo was promoting Japanese alcoholic beverages.

We all were invited left and right to appear on TV shows, on the internet, give interviews and so on, but nobody had time for that. Between hunting, and earning money there was not even enough for a proper rest.

Since our group was the first one, we became popular very quickly but the individuals from other cities also emerged to the public. A feces that I didn't recognize started appearing left and right in commercials, giving the interviews, and doing their best to catch up in the popularity.

The works on the grand event began. An alliance of companies started to build the multi-million facility in Africa just to host it.

More data on the course of the event was being published, and even the music artist from the whole world was invited to perform at the starting ceremony. The Olympic games or football world cup was a joke compared to the popularity this thing got. People seemed to only talk about this.

It became kinda nuts for me. I tried to go hunting myself, but there was always something coming up, always something to do instead. I was confident in my abilities, but there was always this weak sparkle of worry deep inside me, that maybe I won't be enough.

Fact that The Great One still was silent didn't help. No matter how hard I tried to contact him, there was no response.

This period of time came to an end with 24 357 720 points remaining on my account, and 21 class points.