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nNing looked back towards the black, almost pillar-like tower. ‘We’re supposed to defend this?’ he wondered. ‘From what?’

n”Let me now explain the rules,” Genesis continued.

n”Next to each of your group is a tower, that if destroyed will mean that you lost the round. If that happens, you can think of yourselves as dead.”𝗈𝚟𝐿xt.𝗇𝓔t

n”The thing you will be protecting it from are monsters that will spawn every hour. The last 2 teams that remain standing will move on to the next round of matches,” Genesis spoke.

nGenesis was about to continue when his head turned slightly as if to look at someone.

n”I am getting there,” he said, probably answering a query from one of the group.

n”One of your fellow participants asked what 1000 on the tower means. That is the health point of your tower. Each monster will be able to deal a certain amount of damage every hit, and that tower will be bearing it if you cannot stop it.”

n”However, fear not about the tower becoming a liability during your battles. It will instead help you quite a bit. Behold.”

nAs soon as Genesis’ words ended, Ning and the others heard some movement from behind them. When Ning looked in the direction of the sound, he saw a section of the black tower, around 20 meters high slowly morph and opening up.

nFrom inside, a small cylinder appeared and it slanted below as if pointing towards the forest that was not 100 meters away from them.

n”That is a turret that will help you fight the monsters. So long as the monsters enter 50 meters, the turret will attack it. No matter what the monster is, the turret will damage it,” Genesis said.

n”For the next bit of information, I will require your group to choose a leader amongst yourselves. You will have exactly 5 minutes to do so. If you fail to choose a leader, I will choose a random one amongst you,” Genesis said.

nImmediately, Ning saw a blue panel appear on it with 5 faces appearing in it with nothing but a bold title that said ‘Choose your leader.’

nThe 5 faces were of course his own and the other 4 people.

nNing was about to press on his face when he stopped. “Should we discuss this, or go with our choices?” he asked the others who had been simply staring at the screen.

n”I don’t mind as long as it is not me. I’m done being a leader,” Drake said slowly in a tired voice.

n”I— I don’t think I should become a leader either,” Nova said as well.

nNing turned to Issi to ask for his opinion on the matter but Derel spoke before them all.

n”What’s the hold-up?” she asked. “There is no need to bother discussing such things, little worm. Of course, I shall be the leader.”

nNing turned towards Issi who simply shrugged his shoulders. Ning sighed at that response.

nHe looked towards Derel and realized he wouldn’t like a leader who would keep calling him a little worm.

nSo, without much thought, he pressed on his face. “So we choose on our own.”

nEveryone else made a half nod before pressing as well. “Hah, I hope you worms chose correctly,” Derel said before obviously pressing on her own face.

nWhen the result came up, her face suddenly frowned. “I see your little worms have yet to grow a brain for yourselves,” she said.

nThe result was 3 for Ning, 1 for Issi, and 1 for Derel.

nNing gave a thankful look towards Nova and Drake who had most definitely taken his side and made him the leader.

nDerel snorted a few times, but in the end, she let go of the matter, not before saying that the lack of power had numbed their minds.

nAfter the 5 minutes were over, Genesis looked at them all and waved his hand.

nSuddenly, Ning saw something grow on his head which freaked him out a little. But after seeing what it was, he sighed in relief.

nIt wasn’t just him, however. Everyone in his group had the same thing appear on their head.

nA crown.

nMore precisely, it was the same crown from the first tournament.

n”Now, for the leaders,” Genesis said and something appeared on the crown of each of the 10 leaders.

nNing looked at his own crown and saw that on one of the 5 indentations on the cylinder of the crown, there was now a pure-white, oval-shaped gem stuck firmly on it.

n”With the gem, you leaders will now get access to a specific set of skills that the fake system of mine will grant you,” Genesis said.

n”First of all, you can now view the other contestants,” Genesis said.

nNing was surprised a little and thought of wanting to see the other contestants. Suddenly, 10 different screens appeared on a single wide panel in a 5 by 2 grid.

nEach of those grids showed a view of the different groups, probably from where Genesis stood.

nNing tapped on one of those screens and the screen opened up to fill the panel.

nThe group of 5 from that group consisted of 2 men, 1 woman, 1 mecha, and 1 humanoid monster that Ning could only recall a single word for, Orc.

nNing made a motion to zoom out the image and the image went back to the 10 grids. Ning looked at one of those grids, his own, and checked how they looked.

nHe was a little glad that because of the top-down view of the grid, and with the hooded cloak of Drake, the people wouldn’t be able to see his dying face.

nSince no sound came from those images, they wouldn’t be able to tell that he was so weak.

nAlthough, Ning did wonder what was the point of giving vision on the other groups. Was that a motivation thing? Or…

nAs Ning wondered, Genesis opened his mouth again and spoke.

n”Next up, you can choose the upgrades.”

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