Chapter 607 - Gathering Game

Many of the contestants smiled arrogantly, knowing that they had stood out before the entire world. Amber's words served to show them that yes, they were truly the Chosen Ones of this era, haha!

Amber noticed their complacent and arrogant expression, smiling widely with enjoyment. "Now, let's reveal the results of this round!"

1st – Money Lover: 0:23:10 taken. 100% customer satisfaction. 5235 points. (India)

2nd – Business Lord (Akainu): 0:24:19 taken. 100% customer satisfaction. 5200 points. (Central Country)

3rd – Tech Guy (Sanji): 0:19:24 taken. 100% customer satisfaction. 5175 points. (England)

4th – Massage With Happy Ending: 1:45:01 taken. 78% customer satisfaction. 3450 points. (Mexico)

5th – Foot Mistress: 1:45:22 taken. 78% customer satisfaction. 3445 points. (Italy)

6th – Naked Waitress: 1:46:37 taken. 77% customer satisfaction. 3395 points. (Brazil)

7th – Dainty Maid: 1:47:09 taken. 77% customer satisfaction. 3335 points. (France)

8th – I Wash With My Body: 1:48:14 taken. 77% customer satisfaction. 3265 points. (Japan)

9th – My Knees Are Sore: 1:48:49 taken. 76% customer satisfaction. 3250 points. (China)

10th – Boss' Number 1 Secretary: 1:49:15 taken. 76% customer satisfaction. 3215 points. (Canada)

(Author's Note: Money Lover has been changed to Indian and Sanji to English. They were formerly both part of the Central Country.)

When the contestants saw the ranking, their faces froze. All the smiles filled with confidence seeing themselves at the top were wiped away, as all eyes fell onto three fellows.

The first was a slim, bespectacled guy who had permanently narrowed eyes. His thin lips were flat and his short nose twitched occasionally.

With his dark green eyes and blonde hair, he gave off the feel of someone intelligent. His skin was a bit pale and his height was average, just slightly shorter than Draco.

Interestingly, he wore a green tweed suit, which made most exchange a strange look.

Next to him was a thick and tall man who looked to be at least, 6 foot 5. He had a light bronze skin tone and a very hairy body. His hair was cut short and slicked back, with a full beard that stretched from his sideburns to his chin. It was thick and very well kept.

His face was squarish and hard, making him possess a tough demeanor that made one feel hesitant to fool about. He wasn't handsome per se, but he was far from ugly.

His suit jacket was dark-blue in color and his long-sleeved shirt was a mixture of green as well as yellow. His suit pants were also dark blue and he wore black loafers.

His hands were coarse and his skin was rough. He had a cigar in his mouth and a nonchalant expression as he smoked it.

The final fellow was a young man who was handsome as well as suave. He had dark green hair that was spiky, forming short bangs on his forehead. His skin was surprisingly pale and his face was round, but tapered to a point.

His suit was all white, with a red long-sleeved shirt as well as a handkerchief tucked into his front pocket. He wore golden square-rimmed glasses and had dark brown eyes that were piercing.

When he saw everyone look his way, he smiled and puffed out a ring of smoke from his cigarette. Though, his smile looked more like a dangerous smirk that promised retribution and suffering.

No, he wasn't trying to provoke everyone, that was just how he normally smiled. Sanji had a rare case of resting evil face syndrome.

When they gazed at these three, the fellows on the stage couldn't help but display a wide variety of emotions. Mostly, despair and sullenness. Then, their eyes tracked to Amber, filled with hatred and intention to kill.

Amber simply smiled. "Just as I said, only someone like the AI could judge who among those three could come out on top. The results really are close!"

"As for 4th place to 32nd, anything could have happened! I hope there was no fool among them who had any large ambition on taking home gold!"

Many in the crowd gasped. What a wicked and cruel woman! Instead of brushing them off or apologizing, she had rather opted to rub it in further. What's more, she was using hydrochloric acid to do it!

Many couldn't help but start to fear her.

As for those contestants who were glaring at her, many of them struggled, but eventually could only cough out thick wads of blood due to their hurt pride.

"And now, the country rankings!"

｢First Inter-Player International Competition

Country Rankings Top 15 (Overall):

1. England - 56,888 points (-)

2. Central Country - 52,304 points (-)

3. France - 49,310 points (-)

4. Mexico - 45,458 points (-)

5. Canada - 44,774 points (-)

6. India - 44,100 points (+1)

7. Japan - 43,789 points (-1)

8. China - 36,424 points (+1)

9. Ghana - 36,374 points (-1)

10. Italy - 35,328 points (-)

11. Brazil - 32,410 points (-)

12. Russia - 30,974 points (-)

13. Germany - 28,628 points (-)

14. Scotland - 25,370 points (-)

15. Spain - 24,432 points (-)｣

Barely any changes, only India overtaking Japan and China doing the same to Ghana. Rather than causing happiness, the faces of all parties became incredibly solemn. They understood that it was going to be hard to change the current state of the rankings without certain events occurring.

Right now, the English seemed poised to be the winners with the gap they had on the rest, and even the Central Country was struggling to keep up.

Mexico, which had originally been stipulated to be the winner, was at 4th place with a noticeable gap from France. Meanwhile, Mexico's anus was being sniffed by Canada, India, and Japan who were like wolves waiting for them to slip up.

Right now, the only events left were the Gathering Game, the Group Tournament, the Quality Battle, the Picking Game, and the Raid. The one that would decide the most changes in the rankings would be the Group Tournament, so a lot of pressure was on the shoulders of the Combat Contestants of each country.

Amber clapped her hands and sent these Tradeskill masters away. She then folded her arms behind her back and smirked.

"Now, for the second event of the day, the Gathering Game! Will the contestants for this event please appear on the stage?"

Another set of 200 contestants manifested, all of them wearing their countries' uniforms. Only the Technical members wore this kind of garb as the Tradeskill and Combat members would not acquiesce.

They all had their pride and would wear what they wanted. After all, their countries came chasing after them, not the other way round. It was the Technical contestants who were mostly non-gamers and were external help.

These members glanced at each other warily, knowing that the next game was going to be a hands-on one.

The Gathering Game would have a group of contestants rush into a valley where items and materials had been randomly placed. They would have to gather as many as they could, and after 3 hours all their items and materials would be converted to an overall score, with the highest one winning.

This was a game based purely on Luck, nothing else. If your Luck stat was poor, then you would only find rubbish throughout the game.

While the contestants and the crowd were gazing at everyone and anyone, the members of Umbra had extremely bleak expressions as they gazed at one fellow inconspicuously mingling at the back.

Fitter Cleric!

The one man they dreaded for this kind of game mode!

The one man who for the sake of overall fairness should be banned!

The Canadians like Gentle Flower and Cold Summer were smiling calmly, not even bothering to watch the event as the results were obvious.

All the members of the other countries had black faces as they collectively prayed to the Goddess of Luck to abandon him for once.

Essence was even the most direct as he clapped his hands in devout prayer and loudly proclaimed:

"O' great Goddess of Luck, do you not see that the fellow called Fitter Cleric is a supreme fuckboy? While you bless him with your power and love, he has gone to find another woman to play with! Punish him! Show him your wrath! You go, girl!"

Fitter had heard him snitch him out and made a mental note to properly engage this 'best friend' of his in a life-and-death fight once all of this was over.

Amber clapped her hands and manifested the stage. It was a lush meadowland with countries and variations to the area. There was no wildlife within, only resources of the mineral or flora kind.

"You have 3 hours to gather resources! Contestants are forbidden from harming or robbing each other! Any attempts will result in immediate disqualification! If two parties see the same resource at the same time, it depends on the skill and Luck of either of them to obtain it first."

Amber announced the rules and then snapped her finger. Immediately, the timer began and all the contestants rushed into the arena to gather what they could.

The only one walking calmly and nonchalantly was Fitter Cleric, who was casually roving the area with his eyes. It wasn't even 10 seconds later when he saw a glowing plant near two small rocks.

｢Horus Grass – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Alchemy, Cooking.｣

Fitter lazily went over to pick it up, then stored it. He then walked for another 3 seconds before spotting another material that was practically calling to him.

｢Sheva Stem – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Alchemy, Scribing, Scrivening, Cartography etc｣

He casually harvested this as well. Before Fitter could even take another step, yet another item called out to him…

And so on. This went on for the entire 3-hour duration, items that were so rare that Draco would have to scour the likes of the Tower of Babylon's exchange list for score points were rushing to throw themselves at Fitter's feet like groupies.

Seeing this, the face of Essence became black as he roared to the heavens. "Ptoi! What Goddess of Luck?! You are simply a cuckold!"

Many paled, fearing that Essence would be struck down by the Goddess of Luck for daring to slight her. However, how could they know that the Goddess of Luck was as if she was currently enlightened to the conundrum she was facing?

Instead of losing Luck, Essence was rather blessed with more of it.

This matter…

Sigh.

Well, there wasn't any normal person who played this game or existed in the game, so there was that.

When Amber called for the event to end, the contestants were teleported from where they were to the center. Before Amber could say anything else. many of them glared at each other with red eyes, ready to kill.

"Motherfucker, you stole my precious Uncommon grade herb!"

"Oh please, blame yourself that your fingers were just too slow. How can you get your girl off with such skill?"

"Oh wait, there's me to do it for you, bwahahaha!"

"YOU…!!"

The place looked ready to erupt in utter chaos before Amber clapped her hands and made all the contestants freeze. She then smiled amicably, but it seemed very cold to onlookers.

"No fighting during my competition unless I say so, capiche?!"

The contestants nodded in agreement, as Amber allowed them to make such movement at the least. Once they were released, they became docile, but the hatred was still there.

As for after that, Amber couldn't care less. Rather, she said: "Now that the Gathering Game is over, it's time to assess your harvests! Please present them in the assessment panel before you!"

The contestants seemed excited to show off what they acquired. Many rushed to place their own within, displaying their quality and grade. Most were Common and some even had picked up Trash-tier Items, but more than a few cockily took out Uncommon Items.

There were also those who deliberately posed and took a long time to place their Rare materials within, which made their fellow contestants gasp. However, they were so lost in their own world that they didn't notice that the crowd was entirely silent.

If one turned to look, they would see that apart from the Canadians who were struggling to hold back laughter, the rest had constipated expressions and were hiding their faces in shame.

Finally, when it was Fitter's turn, he walked forward slowly. Many of the other contestants were not even looking at him as they felt this fellow couldn't do well.

Look at his nature of going last, clearly he was ashamed of his poor harvest!

However, when Fitter removed the Horus Grass and put it in, the faces of the contestants froze. They did not believe what they saw and many had to do double and even triple-takes to make sure.

Their lips twitched as they shakily assumed that this was his lucky catch of the day. He probably took it out first to show off so that what he brought out later won't be criticized!

Fitter next pulled out the Sheva Stem and placed it within. This time, the contestants felt like something was wrong. Many wore smiles of confusion, like they had become stupid.

Fitter did not stop there as he pulled out a slew of other materials.

｢Kilua Leaf – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Cooking, Brewing｣

｢Visus – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Alchemy｣

｢Fire Stone – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Engineering｣

｢Deunian Beans – Material

Rank: Epic

Use: Alchemy｣

｢Lothr – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Alchemy, Cooking, Brewing｣

｢Hush Dew – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Divination｣

｢Porta Flower – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Alchemy, Brewing｣

｢Dragon Blood Grass – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Alchemy｣

｢Elementium – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Smithing｣

｢Gemcore – Material

Rank: Legendary

Use: Magical Engineering｣

Fitter continued to take out more Legendary Items, although his total haul 'only' numbered around a hundred, the sheen alone had made it obvious to everyone that his was of a far superior quality than the rest. Were it not for the cap the AI had put in place, Fitter would have surely even found Divine Items.

By the time Fitter was done, the eyes of the other contestants were hollow. They had been thoroughly slain by this act, their will to live suppressed to the very bottom.

Even a cruel woman like Amber felt a bit worried for the mental well-being of those contestants, but couldn't stop the show from going on. She waved her hand as the results were displayed.

1st – Fitter Cleric: 110 Materials, 35 Epic, 75 Legendary. 9,250 points. (Canada)

2nd – Hunter King: 550 Materials, 123 Trash-tier, 238 Common, 188 Uncommon, 1 Rare. 3,213 points. (Central Country)

3rd – Gay Emiya: 520 Materials, 129 Trash-tier, 229 Common, 162 Uncommon. 2,894 points. (Japan)

4th – Skagger: 510 Materials, 130 Trash-tier, 235 Common, 145 Uncommon. 2,755 points. (Ireland)

5th – Jax Dwams: 495 Materials, 135 Trash-tier, 220 Common, 140 Uncommon. 2,635 points. (Ghana)

6th – Wife Beater: 493 Materials, 140 Trash-tier, 215 Common, 138 Uncommon. 2,595 points. (Russia)

7th – King Leo: 491 Materials, 147 Trash-tier, 213 Common, 131 Uncommon. 2,522 points. (England)

8th – Escargot: 488 Materials, 149 Trash-tier, 210 Common, 129 Uncommon. 2,489 points. (France)

9th – Amigoooooooo: 485 Materials, 155 Trash-tier, 205 Common, 125 Uncommon. 2,430 points. (Mexico)

10th – Huang Xiaolong: 480 Materials, 157 Trash-tier, 203 Common, 120 Uncommon. 2,372 points. (China)

The valuation the AI used was; 1 Trash = 1 point, 1 Common = 5 points, 1 Uncommon = 10 points, 1 Rare = 20 points, 1 Epic = 50 points, 1 Legendary = 100 points.

That was why Fitter Cleric over there was creating a huge gap with everyone. The entire stadium was in an uproar at the great upset this would cause when the country rankings were displayed, but the core members only looked like they had headaches.

Canada hadn't appointed Fitter Cleric as the leader, despite being in the Technical part for nothing. Once they had heard Amber announce that the Technical section had no points limit, they knew that the moment the fellow was fielded, chaos would ensure.

Lo and behold…

｢First Inter-Player International Competition

Country Rankings Top 15 (Overall):

1. England - 59,410 points (-)

2. Central Country - 55,517 points (-)

3. Canada - 54,024 points (+2)

4. France - 51,799 points (-1)

5. Mexico - 47,888 points (-2)

6. Japan - 46,683 points (+1)

7. India - 46,305 points (-1)

8. Ghana - 39,009 points (+1)

9. China - 38,796 points (-1)

10. Italy - 37,673 points (-)

11. Brazil - 34,445 points (-)

12. Russia - 33,028 points (-)

13. Germany - 30,643 points (-)

14. Scotland - 27,355 points (-)

15. Spain - 26,397 points (-)｣

What an upset!

Canada had jumped from 5th place to 3rd, pushing down France and stepping atop Mexico!

Essence's Stalker's eyes became red as he saw only Fitter, rushing forward with a roar.

"BASTARD FITTER, HAND YOUR LIFE TO ME!"

Seeing Essence rush at him with rage, Fitter's eyes curled into crescents. He deeply enjoyed the feeling of suppressing this bastardous fellow, especially after the way he had beat up Slim Fatty.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten his earlier prayer, either!

Amber quickly instructed the AI to separate the two, preventing Essence who was huffing and puffing like a giant from moving. As for Fitter, he walked over and kissed Slim Fatty in an exaggerated manner, loudly remarking;

"Tsk, tsk, imagine being slated to be first, yet ending up in fifth place. Well, I guess I'll just enjoy my BRONZE medal with my babe who will enjoy a SILVER one, while OTHER fellows get NOTHING, hahaha!"

Many faces changed as they could only watch Essence explode once more, this time coughing out a wad of blood. Only Kiran had been able to make Essence cough blood since the tournament began, and that had required him to transform into his Super Warrior form!

Fitter however, had only needed to say a few lines to cause the same effect! Tsk, truly, siblings and best friends knew the best means to cause damage.

"And now, we move onto the group stages for the Group Tournament. Can the various contestants for the countries appear in their groups for this event?" Amber inquired hurriedly lest anything else happen.

The moment Amber said this, she clapped her hands, turning the arena back into a battle stage from the meadowland. Fitter and the other contestants were sent away, and in exchange, a thousand people appeared on the arena in groups of five.

The Group Tournament was underway!