Kill The Old Ones!

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The preliminary round of the City vs. City Tournament continued, and it’s the only thing that the whole human civilization was paying attention to right now.

They watched as hours passed, sometimes filled with action, other times incredibly mundane. Yet even so, the passion, the struggle, and the heat of the tournament went on.

The audience watched as teams clashed against each other. They saw how some teams lost members while others left with their numbers intact. They watched clever and sinister ambushes, straightforward clashes, fickle alliances, betrayals, and so on.

The live broadcast did its best to highlight the action at all times to maintain the frenzy, but even they can’t capture every moment or every subtle activity that may or may not have an effect later down the line.

Then, at the sixth hour after the tournament began, it happened.

The map began shrinking.

Everybody had been told of this: that the Verdant Expanse will shrink periodically. It was a mechanic of this tournament that forces conflict and fights.

There was no storm or massive radioactive cloud that surrounded the map, no. The edge of the Verdant Expanse quite literally crumbled, dissipating to nothingness. Anything or anybody caught within the erosion dies immediately. There’s no saving them, no hidden resurrection mechanics, nothing. Once a teammate is caught in that crumbling erosion, they’re done for.

And a few people did get caught up by it.

The disappearance of the map’s edges didn’t eliminate whole teams, but it did take down a couple of people who weren’t fast enough to outrun it. It did cause damage to optimistic teams.

It doesn’t stop there.

The shrinking of the map caused teams, who originally weren’t meant to find each other, to cross paths.

And while some of the smart ones prioritized fleeing from the erosion, the schemers tried to assault other fleeing teams in hopes of throwing them to the maws of the void.

This had varying results. Some succeeded, others failed, some took enemies with them, and some took their fellow teammates with them due to fear.

All in all, it’s chaos. Even Terry had a difficult time commentating on the fast-paced events. It was exciting, frustrating, disappointing, dramatic, and so much more. But it also thrilled the audience.

The shrinking of the map lasted for a whole hour before it stopped. And when it’s over, 15% of the outer edges of the whole Verdant Expanse are gone, just like that. The areas lost won’t return, and so were those who disappeared with them.

Amongst those who were far from the area were the C-City Team and the D-City Team.

With that event over, the next shrinking will take place tomorrow. But even though they have hours to spend before it happens, it still made the teams nervous. Some of them were already thinking of going to the center of the map to avoid that thing.

Just like this, the preliminary round continued.

On Day 2, the main event was ’The Smog.’ The whole map became covered in mystical smog that not only lowered visibility but also suppressed the sense of martial artists.

Nobody could see anything beyond 10 meters of them. Even those who prided themselves on excellent senses found themselves suppressed and stifled because the smog completely barred their means of scouting ahead.

This forced the teams to slow down in their exploration, because with them being blind like this, the whole Verdant Expanse suddenly became incredibly dangerous. Nobody knows where monsters might suddenly appear; they might not even know which way they’re going.

What makes this even more dangerous is the fact that the shrinking of the map will eventually take place, and with the whole map being covered in the smog, they might run towards it instead of running away from it.

Although there’s an advantage for this event, nobody really thought much of it. Yes, the merit points they’ll earn for the whole duration of this event might be doubled, but so what? Teams were prioritizing safety over everything, so they’re not earning much at all.

This, however, resulted in Central City’s team being highlighted.

Because unlike their blind peers, the C-City team moved organized and as a unit. They didn’t lose each other because of the fog, and they were advancing with purpose.

The main reason for this was the Sound Transmission Talisman. The smog didn’t suppress their ability to communicate with each other. If the smog gets a little too thick while also starting to affect their hearing, the telepathic messaging function of the talisman allows them to communicate loud and clear to each other.

They also made a compass with the materials they got from the Whispering Forest. They just got out of the forest by the start of Day 2, and this was a very helpful tool to have considering the kind of event they have right now.

Magnus also made a scanner and a tracker as one tool. The scanner could scan the environment, and it has a tracking function that could point towards monsters, resources, and teammates.

Everybody has one of these, and they were very easy to use. With these tools, the C-City team wasn’t slowed down by the smog.

Even when the shrinking took place on Day 2, the C-City team wasn’t all that worried. They stayed compact as a unit as they dashed towards the north, following their compass.

To be fair, the erosion was far behind them.

However, its threat was very real. It doesn’t matter if it’s far; if it’s there, everybody will run away from it because that’s certain death.

Once the shrinking stopped, another 15% of the map was gone.

30% of the map disappeared even before Day 2 was over, and some teams have already been eradicated.

The reigning champions, R-City Team, were still holding on, but they’re down to four people.

Central City and Desolate City teams were still intact.

Interestingly enough, the bottom-ranked team in the previous tournament—Popular City (P-City)—was still going strong. They’re not only still complete but also at the upper half of the current merit point rankings.

As feral as they looked when they were introduced, they sure worked hard to claw their way to the top.

**

Time passed and soon, Day 3 began.

Day 3’s event was ’Resource Bloom’—all manner of resources will bloom, or rain, all over the map. During this event, collecting resources gains merit points regardless of amount or type. Each resource collected will provide varying numbers of merit points.

Additionally, treasures will be born. These treasures, upon collection, will provide massive merit point rewards to the team that grabs them. They won’t be useful for the tournament, though.

The caveat is all resources—especially treasures—contain varying intensities of the ’Berserk Greed’ curse; it’s a maddening effect that not only stokes the fires of greed within a person’s heart but also makes them irrational to the point of attacking everybody who might covet their belongings.

This event was...intense, to say the least.

The Berserk Greed curse can be resisted. Those with strong willpower can just ignore it. The stronger their willpower was, the less susceptible they were to being affected by the curse.

But not everybody has strong willpower. And the treasures that appeared out of nowhere were definitely cursed. They don’t even need to be touched to lure people towards them; just their existence alone was a severe temptation.

Every team struggled here. There was no escaping the resource bloom because it was everywhere, and they couldn’t exactly forbid themselves to not grab them for the sake of earning more merit points.

The most miserable teams were those who happened to be nearby when treasures appeared.

At the very moment that the treasure appeared, the curse began spreading its lure. Some teams, who believed that they had decent willpower, succumbed immediately and started competing with each other to take the treasure for themselves.

They killed those who got in their way, regardless of whether they’re from the other teams or their own.

Even when the treasure disappeared and turned into merit points, the effects of the curse lingered. The more a person was exposed, the more berserk and mad they became.

Of course, the shrinking happened as well. And because of the curse, more teams were swallowed up by the void.

This event gutted the numbers of the remaining participants. It was the most chaotic event ever, and the audience was forced to watch in horror how bad it was.

By the end of Day 3, teams were either severely exhausted or hollowed by the horror of what they’d done. Once the effect of the curse was gone, it was either relief they felt or bitter realization.

Some teams, like C-City under Adrian’s lead, managed somehow. There were close calls, yes, but they paced themselves. They earned a lot and minimized their losses. But it definitely had been an exhausting ordeal to get through an entire day like that.

And other teams, sadly, went down to a single participant. Why? Because they killed their own under the effect of the curse. They earned a lot of merit points, yet at the cost of the lives of their teammates and the grim future of their city.

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