Chapter 462: A Look at the Competition

The line to get to the scanners wasn't nearly as long of a wait as the one that he had just left. It had taken him over three hours of waiting in line for him to get to the registration desk which was way too much in his opinion. If Joshua didn't have the ability to listen to the radio with his system then he probably would have ended up waiting until later to get registered. He might have had to come out in the middle of night when there would have been less people to sign up which is something he was sure several of his guild members were probably doing since he didn't see any of them waiting in the line the entire time.

Luckily the second line he had to wait in seemed like it would only take thirty minutes or so of waiting before it would be his turn to get scanned. There were several scanners set up with over a dozen of them so the line was moving at a decent pace. It only took the system ten seconds to scan you for your stats and all of your other information so things were moving along a lot faster than the other line had been going. Joshua was starting to wonder if the big hold up with the other line was the fact that you had to read through all of the guidelines before you could register. You couldn't just flip through them and sign on the dotted line otherwise the system wouldn't register it.

While waiting in line Joshua was trying to decide whether or not he should display his information. He knew there was no way he was going to display all of his stats like a few idiots had done in an attempt to scare people off, but as the leader of a guild it didn't sit right with him to just hide everything and move on like he was just another member of the crowd. This tournament was going to be another huge opportunity for his guild to gain more attention and the same could be said for the entire alliance.

When Joshua saw some of the people showing off their actual stats he couldn't do anything, but shake his head at their stupidity. Showing off your job was one thing, people could generally infer what kind of stats you'd have by your job as long as they knew enough about it, but just showing off all of your stats would leave no cards to hide. After all your stats could be altered by more than just your job. Soul beast usually had a part to play in someone's overall stats while secondary jobs could also give a slight boost in some cases so showing them off just gave everyone a clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses.

Eventually Joshua decided it would be best for him to show off the bare minimum, but he didn't plan on showing his job or stats so that people could start planning for him ahead of time. His high level in itself was going to grab a bunch of attention and that was more than enough in his eyes. He wasn't sure how Laura and Madalyn planned on handling the same situation, but he figured they'd be doing something similar.

While waiting in line Joshua noticed someone interesting to him finally stepping up to get scanned. He didn't know the person himself, but the man gave off a rather powerful aura that told Joshua that he was extremely experienced and didn't cut any corners when it came to gathering strength. Since the man looked like he was in his early thirties Joshua was fairly certain that he was much older before the second phase. His experience didn't seem to just come from fighting beast either based off of the way he moved and was constantly prepared to react to anyone that he walked by. His presence drew some eyes from the crowd as he walked up to the scanner and he casually waited with his hands held behind his back.

The person's stature wasn't all that impressive standing at five foot eight, but Joshua knew that height didn't mean everything when it came to a fighter. He had black hair that was tied in a short pony tail at the back of his head and he wore shades to keep his eyes hidden. His face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl and from the way he carried himself Joshua was certain that he was a former member of the military. He was clean shaven except for the thick mustache that he had over his frowning mouth. Joshua didn't know who this person was, but he was interested in seeing if he would display most of his status for everyone to see.

The scanner got to work quickly and after a few seconds it displayed a portion of the man's status. His name was the first thing that was shown and that was Rex Harvey. Beneath his name his level was shown next and that was what surprised everyone in the room. The man was level eighty-one which was easily the highest level that had been shown during the time that Joshua had been inside of the battle arena. The next thing Joshua noticed was his affiliation. Rex turned out to be a part of the World Government Guild and from his level Joshua was fairly sure that the older man was one of the leading members. The last thing that Joshua took notice of was his job which was blank meaning he hid it from the display along with all of the rest of his stats.

After the man was finished he didn't bother wasting anymore time and left the scanner in the same overbearing way that he had stepped up to it. With long strides and a scowl as he ignored everyone he passed while making his way out of the battle arena. Joshua realized what the whole play was for and knew that this was the World Government Guild's way of stating their presence in the upcoming tournament. Joshua doubted the man was the strongest member they had since he just randomly waited in line instead of having a news crew around to witness the situation, but it still got its point across. Joshua knew that most guilds only had a few members at that level unlike his own so anyone that showed up with those kind of stats was going to be a true contender in the tournament.

It took a little bit for everyone to settle down after Rex had left, but not more than a few minutes later another odd group were making their way up to be scanned for the tournament. In total there were four of them. Two of them didn't stand out too much outside of their levels being a bit high at level seventy-eight. That was much higher than most of the people that were signing up for the tournament, but what Joshua noticed about their statuses was that they were members of the Raider's Guild. It was a name he was familiar with and had seen a lot of since they had recently become a large scale guild that worked alongside the World Government Guild.

It was the other two members of the group that stood out to Joshua. One was a person that wore almost nothing, but black and every part of their body was hidden. The thick jacket they wore made it hard for Joshua to even tell if they were a man or a woman. They wore a mask to cover their face as well which made it impossible for Joshua to notice anything that stood out about them. The only thing that Joshua was able to tell about the person was the fact that they had a rather lithe frame and stood around five foot six inches which made them shorter than most of the people in their group. Even so the two that had gone beforehand looked at the much less intimidating person with a bit of fear.

Joshua could tell why this was the case because of the amount of aura that the person had in comparison to those two. It wasn't a giant amount more like in the case of Joshua, but it meant that the person had at least few levels more worth of strength and even more important was far more dangerous than those two. It didn't take long for Joshua to confirm this as the scanner showed that the masked person was level eighty-one just like Rex had been and was a member of the Raider's Guild. What surprised Joshua was the fact that their name simply showed Seven in its place. Their job was hidden as well.

The three members of the Raider's Guild waited to the side as the last person of the group walked up to be scanned as well. This person carried himself with an extreme confidence that grabbed the attention of everyone around him. The man was fairly tall only being a few inches shorter than Joshua and he was fairly broad shoulder with a bigger frame. He didn't have any hair on his entire head with no beard in sight and his head shaved clean. There was a scar on his face but it seemed to be something he had gained from before the first phase with how old it looked and how it seemed to have healed up over time.

The man wore a black suit and he looked like the perfect image of a mob boss from the past. The aura he gave off was nothing to scoff at either since the man seemed even stronger than his subordinate that had just gone up and they both clearly had the aura of people who had killed a lot in the past and not just the beast that you would fight as an explorer. When the man started to get scanned he calmly stood there with a smile that could send a chill down anyone's spine. From the way some people in the crowd seemed to shrink and hide from his eyes it was clear to Joshua that this man already had a fairly dangerous reputation.

Soon the display behind the scanner popped up showing that this man was the leader of the Raider's Guild and simply went by the name of Boss which was interesting. His level was eighty-two which put him at a higher level than both Rex and Seven while his job was hidden as well. After the man stepped down from the scanner his group left with him in the lead and the other three following a step behind him. Most people standing near the exit just to watch the show stepped out of the way of the dangerous group as they made their way out of the room.

Joshua sighed a bit at all of the surprises, but he was happy when he noticed that his turn was going to come up soon.