SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

Another System screen appeared.

[Hell Difficulty: ??? / 98,124]

[Survivors needed to pass the Assessment: 1,000,000]

Xithali looked at the empty air in front of him, where there was likely a screen visible only to him, before chuckling.

"Only ninety-eight thousand participants. That’s an automatic failure," Xithali said.

He shook his head before continuing in a casual tone. "Did you know that until Integration of Universe-53, the System never gave people any preparation time? The moment it arrived, the Trials would begin immediately, and because of that, many people believed the apocalypse was some kind of game, dream, or prank."

"Almost every time, Normal or Hell Difficulty ended up being the most popular choices, and that caused an incredible number of failures. That’s why the System eventually decided to give everyone five minutes of preparation time. Now people can understand that it isn’t a game, prank, or dream before they have to make their choice, but that also means most people are smart enough to avoid Hell Difficulty."

Xithali spoke as though he were explaining an interesting piece of trivia rather than discussing the survival of billions of people. Alex found the way he talked about everything increasingly strange, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself for now.

Alex gripped his wand a little tighter.

His brows remained furrowed, but there was also a faint hint of anticipation in his eyes. What would happen now that they had failed the first Assessment, and would the System introduce new monsters or change the environment?

Alex knew he should probably be more worried about the situation, but the thought kept interfering with his concern. If new monsters appeared, he might have the opportunity to learn new types of spells from them, although he knew perfectly well that the monsters would be dangerous.

Still, he could not completely suppress that thought.

He had done his best during the Assessment. He had fought monsters, protected people, and saved many lives in Hell Difficulty, so it was not as if he had intentionally tried to make Earth fail.

"This guy is weird," Sophia suddenly said.

Alex looked toward her. "What do you mean?"

"Why is he talking like this is some kind of show? He keeps explaining everything as if there’s an audience watching him, and he sounds like he’s giving them some kind of commentary," she said.

"Maybe that’s just his personality. Or maybe he really does think of us as the audience," Kevin replied from the side. He clenched his fists while speaking, clearly trying to keep himself calm.

Sophia looked at Xithali for another moment before quietly muttering, "Maybe."

Alex did not say anything.

He had noticed the same thing, and something about Xithali’s behavior felt wrong even though he could not identify exactly what it was. The choice of man’s words and his theatrics did not suit the situation. Still, this was not the time to dwell on it.

"Now, first, I will distribute the rewards!" Xithali announced as he snapped his fingers.

Alex immediately noticed several people around him looking at their System screens. The bodyguards Ben and Edward, who were both members of his faction, were among them, and judging by their expressions, they had received something from the System after Easy Difficulty passed the Assessment.

Ben noticed Alex looking at him and said, "The reward is three silver boxes. That’s what I received."

"Same for me," Edward added as he examined his own screen.

"Three Reward Boxes. That’s actually a pretty good reward," Tina said, glancing at them.

Then, Xithali spoke again. His cheerful voice made everyone look toward him, and the atmosphere immediately became more serious when he mentioned the failure penalty.

"Now, it’s time for the failure penalty. Since two difficulties failed their Assessment, the rate of Integration will increase by fifty percent. What does that mean? The amount of Origin Energy flowing into the planet will increase by fifty percent. But don’t worry, as I said, this is also a type of reward. Stronger monsters will now appear, and so will precious resources!"

The moment he finished speaking, the entire world suddenly shuddered.

The ground trembled beneath their feet, and the nearby buildings began shaking as windows rattled and dust fell from some of the walls. Several people stumbled, while others immediately looked around in panic because the sudden earthquake reminded them of what had happened when the monsters first appeared.

Alex could feel something else changing. The Origin Energy in the air was rapidly increasing.

People began screaming, and some instinctively tried to move away from the buildings around them. The earthquake brought back memories of the people whose close ones had died during the System’s arrival, making many of the survivors’ fear that another disaster was about to begin.

Alex looked toward the sky, and his expression immediately became serious when he saw the blue cross widening. The change was obvious now, and Alex had little doubt about what would happen next.

"Calm down!" Alex shouted, reinforcing his throat and lungs with mana, allowing his voice to spread across the school grounds despite the noise.

He added, "Monsters will probably appear soon, so stop panicking and prepare yourselves. Protect the normal people around you and get ready to fight!"

His words seemed to give the others something to focus on.

People began moving instead of standing around helplessly, and those who had already fought monsters started organizing themselves. Most of them had at least some experience with the creatures by now, so they were no longer the same helpless survivors who had faced the first invasion without knowing how to fight.

Alex dashed toward the school gate as the others prepared themselves.

He had almost reached the entrance when a crack suddenly appeared in the air directly in front of the gate. It looked like an invisible sheet of glass had shattered, and the cracks quickly spread outward before the entire space tore open.

..

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