Chapter 48 Arena Of Fire

The crowd of cultivators were split amongst two groups, one on each end of the Arena of Fire. Having all completed the registration process and been assigned a number, they were now waiting to be called up by the restaurant waiters tasked with watching over this floor. One side began with the person assigned number 1, while the other side began with the last—406. Xuan was number 389.

"First—Contestant 1 versus Contestant 406. Defeat is determined by either surrender or being knocked out of the arena. Please enter the ring."

From the left side of the arena, a large, bulky man walked forward with a confident smile painted across his face. He'd charged straight for the ring as soon as the announcements finished, granting him the number 1 spot. He wasn't just an idiot, however—Xuan could tell that this man was one of the few rare types who actually had the strength to back up their big words. He was a Flowing Qi realm cultivator according to the Divine Asura Eye—Seventh Layer, to be exact.

"Haha! This is my first opponent? What a joke, what a joke!" The man laughed boldly as he saw the other person enter the ring—a young, refined gentleman with a fan in his hand. He wore glasses and had a beauty mark beneath his chin, not unlike the one Xuan had beneath his eye.

"Greetings, this brother. I am Li Shu, an aspiring poet who seeks to comprehend the mysteries of higher cultivations so that I may write better poems."

The young man said this with a gentle smile, completely unlike Zheng Kuang's. His was fake, whereas this person's was genuine and not 'practiced'.

"Bah! You cultivate to write poems?! Ha, this is going to be the easiest fight of my life!"

From an objective standpoint, that wasn't a false statement. Li Shu was only a Ninth-Layer Core Formation stage cultivator just like Xuan. However, one's cultivation level at a glance did not represent their whole strength. The victor of this battle had yet to be determined—and judging by the confident gleam in Li Shu's gentle but piercing eyes, Xuan believed that he would be the one to take the crown.

"Very well," Li Shu said, bringing his fan up to cover the bottom half of his face. "Now then, let the pen fly."

With a somewhat interesting way of declaring his preparation, the battle between the two began as the spotlight centered on them. Immediately, the big man rushed towards the elegant and cultured poet, like a cheetah chasing down a rabbit. He had a bloodthirsty look in his eyes, and although killing wasn't allowed, crippling someone was totally within the rules. After all, without risks involved, a fight would be no fun to watch.

But his opponent was no normal rabbit.

With a movement too fast to even react to, the poet's arm appeared to suddenly snap upwards in a perpendicular angle to his body, pointing at the charging man with what looked like a stylish black pen.

Then, in a single instant, the battle was decided.

A powerful stream of black ink shot out of the pen's tip, striking the big man straight in the chest and sending him flying backwards, out of the stage. His eyes widened at the sheer strength of the impact, and the audience's eyes all turned as big as marbles as well while they witnessed this cruel yet strangely beautiful scene. The ink drew a pattern in the air as the poet turned around and clicked the button near its rear tip, causing the gust of black energy to be absorbed back into the pen and disappear.

"What in the world was that…"

"The pen's ink blew that hunk of a man that easily…?! That must be some incredibly powerful artifact!"

'… Fools. They only see what is on the surface,' Xuan thought in his head, narrowing his eyes slightly. 'That man… he's someone to watch out for."

After several other battles and removals of unconscious contestants, it was Xuan's turn to fight. For his opponent, the employees called up Number 18, who was… a little kid.

'… Well, this is anti-climactic.'

After witnessing so many intense fights earlier, facing a little kid like this was… somewhat disappointing. Of course, Xuan couldn't be mad about an easy victory, but still, he wasn't sure whether to call this good luck or bad luck. At first, he thought this kid may have had some special powers, but…

"P-Please go easy on me, senior!"

'… Yeah, no. He looks like a normal, innocent Body Tempering stage kid, whose only combat experience is throwing rocks at the neighborhood bully.'

As the spotlight focused onto the arena, Xuan let out a sigh.

A few seconds later, the light shifted to just him alone, and on the other end of the platform was a sobbing little boy. Xuan had not held back out of respect for the kid's bravery, but looking back, perhaps he should've made his punches a bit lighter… okay, a lot lighter. This bordered on child abuse—no, this WAS child abuse.

At least he hadn't used Soul Techniques—which, to be frank, probably would've killed the boy.

*****

<Floor Cleared!>

<Advance: 1 -> 2>

<Obtained Health Restoration Pill x1.>

<Obtained Qi Restoration Pill x1.>

Xuan blinked at the notifications that appeared from his System, as his body was teleported to the second floor of the Tower of Flames.

'… This is it for the rewards? Really?"

Xuan did not recall being this cheap.

Sure, it was the first floor, but still, only Health and Qi Restoration Pills that could be found anywhere? And only one of each at that?

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'Oh well. My goal is simply the Sealed World Pearl… the other rewards don't matter too much, I suppose.'

<Congratulations! You have reached Ninth-Level Comprehension of the Hidden Dao of Copium!>

<Obtained 0 Credits.>

'What in the fuck…'

Was the System making fun of him? Or was this the mysterious supercomputer's doing? Because Xuan knew damn well this shit didn't exist in his previous game life.

In any case, the clown notifications disappeared soon after, and Xuan turned his attention to the lobby of Floor 2. As expected, there were a lot less people here, though still a considerable amount. The maximum capacity of it would be half of however many contestants are back on Floor 1 at any given time, since whoever won a duel could ascend while the one who lost must remain. Now that Xuan thought about it, the employees hadn't mentioned anything about retrying in the rules… so theoretically, someone could just keep trying again and again until they get paired up against someone weaker than themselves—like that kid Xuan faced, for example.

Of course, that was under the assumption that they would be able to remain in a well-enough state after a match to continue fighting.

Xuan didn't have to worry about this, however—he was more curious about how the System managed to adapt itself to the little climb-the-tower mini-game going on here, featuring floor-advancement messages. He should be the only player in this region right now, given that most people have yet to obtain a fast and reliable transportation method like Flying Swords—or, in Elysium, Star Shuttles. As such, it should be impossible for any other player to be in this area at the moment… unless they also receive a teleportation talisman of some sort, which the odds weren't very high for.

With that being said, the System was still able to adapt on its own, and even somehow incorporated item obtainment messages. For normal NPCs, the victory rewards were probably manifested in their hands or something when they ascended, but Xuan's System automatically sent his rewards to his inventory, resulting in the notifications.

This may seem like a small detail, but it may, in fact, be hinting at something bigger—which was exactly what Xuan was curious, and wary about.

'Is the System… developing its own sentience?'

Like an AI?

The thought wasn't impossible. He'd read enough system-genre novels to know that was a thing. However, then the question came—did this apply to only his System, or everyone else's as well?

As he stepped by some other contestants eating at a nearby table while waiting for their turn to fight, however, Xuan got his answer.

"Hey, did you get a weird text thing when coming up as well? It was like a pop-up message of some sort…"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that as well. It looked really… I don't know… 'futuristic' and stuff. Dunno where it came from, but I like the design."

"It's probably just some array inside the Tower of Flames at work, to let us know what our rewards are. That said, I haven't received my rewards yet…"

'… Oh. This is going to be… a problem.'

Not for Xuan individually, but for the world as a whole. He'd forgotten the important fact that NPCs now had Systems as well, even though they might not know how to activate or use them. As such, when they ascended in the Tower of Flames, their rewards, which should've been manifested in their hands or something like Xuan had initially thought, were automatically sent to their inventories instead.

Right now, since the rewards was just a Health Restoration Pill and a Qi Restoration Pill, not many people were making a ruckus, but… as the floors progress and real rewards start to become offered for victory, a riot might—no, will—erupt. That much is for certain.

'What should I do…'

Furrowing his eyebrows in thought for a bit, Xuan pondered. This was his wife's restaurant—he didn't want to see its reputation tarnished by people making a scene. However, to salvage this situation, he'd have to somehow reach the ears of everyone in the building, while making sure not to forget about his 'other' quest too—namely, reaching the top of the tower and obtaining the grand prize.

'… Ah.' He blinked after some thought. 'I have an idea.'