Chapter 1405 - A Little Bonus Event

The atmosphere in the room instantly changed as the words of the Abundant Emperor lingered. In retrospect, perhaps one shouldn’t have been surprised. While it wasn’t odd for a system event to reward everyone who made it into a certain ranking, such as the top 10, the system also absolutely loved to single out one person to get an even better reward.

Even if this wasn’t a typical system event, that still seemed to be the case. Given his wording, the antechambers had only been a warm-up for the real fight between the eleven of them,

“You really should have expected this,” the Abundant Emperor chuckled. “Now, with your questions done, we should move on to the final event of this stage. You may have been wondering what happened to all the many treasures obtained by the Administrators who fell within the antechambers, and I have some good news for you. They’re up for grabs. Their value in Prima Credits, that is.”

Hearing what the bonus would be, Jake had to admit it didn’t even sound that great. Would it be a lot of Credits? Sure, but compared to the title and other rewards, this really did fit the bill as just a bonus.

“Not that excited, eh?” the Abundant Emperor said, seeing their reaction. “I’m not going to give the exact amount, but there are a lot of Prima Credits there. You’ll also come to realize that Prima Credits will only become more and more important as time goes on. Just as a teaser, one of the things Prima Credits can be used for in the next stage of the event is to bring in reinforcements from the outside.”

That did make the Administrators a bit more invested, as the emperor continued.

“Moving on. The winner gets 50%, second place 25%, third 10%, with fourth and fifth getting 5% each, with the final 5% split among the bottom five. Based on this, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out that unless one places decently high, the reward will be rather lacking,” the Abundant Emperor said. “I know that usually for events like this, it’s a winner-takes-all kind of system, but I’ve decided everyone should get at least a little extra for making it here. Oh, and I’m sure you also realized one issue with this breakdown. It’s made for ten people.”

Turning towards Jasper, the Abundant Emperor looked apologetic as he shook his head. “Unfortunately, that means at least one of you will have to voluntarily step out. Don’t be too sad, though. In fact, consider if stepping out might be the best decision for you. I’ll even sweeten the deal.”

Waving his hand, the emperor summoned a magical representation of his following explanation.

“If you decide to leave, right here, right now, you get 5% of the total value, with every-“

“Okay!” Jasper interrupted the Abundant Emperor immediately, making the Majordomo nearly blow a gasket, but fortunately, the emperor just laughed.

“Duly noted, but please allow me to finish,” the emperor said before continuing. “As I was saying, if you choose to leave right now, you get 5% of the total value of all the treasures, with the next person after that getting 5% of the value now left over. This will continue until either no one wants to step out, or a single person remains, that person naturally getting all remaining Prima Credits. We all understand that? Great.”

The visual example of a bucket of water being slowly poured into progressively smaller cups seemed unnecessary to Jake, but then again, Wintermaul and Jasper were staring intently at it and nodding along.

“We already have our first volunteer, but who else is willing to step down and not join what comes next?” the emperor asked, and instantly, William raised a hand.

“I will,” he said, Jake instantly getting disappointed. Given how the karma and metal mage had made it to the throne room, Jake really wanted a chance to see what he was truly capable of, so for him to just give up and leave like that sucked.

Was it also definitely the best decision on his part, and probably even the best for their Territory as a whole? Sure, it probably was, but that only made Jake slightly less miffed. The chances of William making it into the top five, much less winning the entire ordeal, were extremely low, and even if he made it there, there was a good chance he would be competing against Jake. Assuming Jake didn’t end up crashing and burning, that is. For the record, he didn’t even consider quitting for a single second, and wouldn’t even if he found himself utterly outmatched.

No, what he instead feared was that the Eastbound Monk would speak up. The monk had so far shown a clear dislike of violence, so for him to skip this fight was entirely in-character. Then again, he hadn’t left his antechamber despite the chance to, so he clearly wasn’t opposed to fighting if he had to.

As Jake was considering whether the monk would stay or not, the Disciple of Lucenti surprisingly spoke up.

“So will I. I have no desire to get involved in what comes next,” the white stag said. Yeah, all right, Jake was really disappointed about that one. He’d love to have seen the upgraded version of the Great White Stag, but alas, not this time around.

The Abundant Emperor nodded in acknowledgment before glancing around the room, his eyes ending on Davion from Valhal. The man chuckled at the gaze and spoke.

“Not saying my chances are good considering the company, but there’s no fucking way I’m passing up the opportunity to fight such wonderful opponents,” the Warlord said with a grin, definitely fitting how one from Valhal should act.

“A respectable choice,” the Abundant Emperor nodded, paused for a few seconds, and then spoke again. “Seems like the rest of you are staying? More than I expected, this was kind of set up to encourage at least five people to leave, as that would likely be the wisest choice if you aren’t confident in a high placement.”

“Would be a shame to doubt myself before even giving it a shot, and besides, even if I die horribly, I’ll have had fun doing so,” Davion shrugged, more or less sharing Jake’s thoughts. Of course, Jake probably had a lot more confidence in himself.

Granted, it was a pretty strong lineup.

Aisha, Jake, the Sword Saint, the Demon Prince, Davion, the Eastbound Monk, Wintermaul, and finally the Golden Forest King. All of them had come out on top in an antechamber full of other powerful monsters, and now they would have another battle. Jake was already expecting people to team up on him, but it was also possible that the Eastbound Monk would be targeted; at least Jake was very confident Wintermaul would go straight for him based on how the elemental had been glaring daggers at the monk ever since it had been revealed he was Sylphie’s killer.

“Great!” the Abundant Emperor said as he clapped his hands together. “Out with those who’ve decided to end their journey here.”

The Disciple of Lucenti and William were immediately sent elsewhere as the cyclops turned to the cat-like creature sitting beside Jake.

“Do come back to visit if you ever get the chance, my little friend,” the Abundant Emperor said to Jasper with a smile before the Planeswarper also disappeared while waving goodbye.

Standing up, the Abundant Emperor suddenly teleported back and started growing at an extreme rate, quickly reaching his true height of roughly a kilometer. Towering over them, the emperor sat on his throne and regarded the remaining eight Administrators.

“This world, its artificial nature, leads to certain limitations and rules,” the voice of the cyclops boomed throughout the room, his size increase definitely making him sound more powerful. It also helped that some energy was poured into his voice now.

“However, there are also benefits. Opportunities. One of those is that existence has a certain... malleability. It can be shaped. Manipulated. Formed. You have already experienced this as leaders of your Territories. The ability to terraform. Know that such an ability is but a fraction of what can be done. Be it destruction...”

Snapping his fingers, he caused the walls and roof of the Palace of Abundance to suddenly explode, unveiling an endless void in all directions that seemed to be closing in on them.

“... or creation.”

The void was instantly replaced with a vast plain that stretched into the distance, mountains in one direction, a cold wind blowing from another, and based on the feeling of water affinity somewhere nearby, likely a giant lake or perhaps an ocean. They remained standing on the tiled floor of what had once been the throne room, now just an out-of-place platform in the middle of a land that seemed to have never seen any sentient life.

“This land shall be your stage. You will find no treasures in this newly formed world, and your only purpose is to be the last person alive. Kill each other, team up, end your own lives; it’s all up to you what you wish to do next. Such is the wonder of being able to make one’s own choices.”

Jake prepared himself for what would come next. His first plan was to create distance between himself and the other seven while trying to decide who his first target would be. While it seemed logical to team up with the Sword Saint and the Forest King, Jake didn’t take the initiative to do so, and neither did they. He also knew why.

Even if it was stupid from a strategic standpoint, none of them wanted to actually team up in a scenario like this. If it happened organically, fine, but they were just as likely to fight one another as any third party. All three of them wanted to be the last one standing, after all.

“Choices...” the Abundant Emperor said, smiling. “Can make life so much more interesting. So let’s make this a little more interesting. I would be bored if you all just started going at one another. So let’s do this.”

Jake felt an invisible energy wrap around his body as he was suddenly sent floating upwards. All eight of them experienced the same thing, with a few resisting, Jake included, but this wasn’t the kind of thing one could resist.

When they were all several kilometers in the air, the emperor looked up at them and waved. “I look forward to seeing who will remain in the end.”

With a wave of his hand, Jake was suddenly blasted backward, accelerating to extreme speeds with no sign of slowing. He barely managed to see that the other seven shared the same fate, including that they were all shot in eight different directions. Trying to orient himself, Jake saw the world pass him by below, and then, after flying for roughly twenty seconds, he came to an abrupt stop.

From the open plains and the platform that had once been the throne room, Jake now found himself floating over a large archipelago with hundreds of small islands. To one side, past the water, was a vast mountain range, and to the other, a forest sprouted past a small beach.

Behind him, though, was the most interesting thing. The archipelago didn’t stretch on for very far, but instead, it abruptly ended. Like a flat planet, it suddenly stopped, the water falling over the edge, and an island was even cut in two. The water that fell over the edge didn’t keep falling; it started flowing backward a few kilometers down before returning to the body of water.

One would think they were on a disc, given what Jake saw, but they weren’t. The water was deep, extending over a thousand kilometers, with a thick seabed below that stretched farther than Jake’s senses could reach. Yet at the same time, he saw the world end, the edges making the plane appear less than ten kilometers thick.

It made no sense even as Jake looked at it. It was both a thin plane and a world extending downwards endlessly at the same time. He could experiment and try to figure out what the hell was going on, but instead, he focused on what was far more important than deciphering the world casually created by the Abundant Emperor.

Scanning his surroundings, Jake found the environment filled with dense mana, yet with Pulse he couldn’t detect a single other soul. There truly was no life in this world, and from the looks of it, the Administrators had each been sent to their own little corner. Well, probably not corners, as Jake guessed the world was a disc of sorts. The point was that they were all very far from one another.

Just then, Jake got another system message, which he quickly checked, nodding when he saw what it was about.

Objective: Be the last Administrator standing.

Administrators remaining: 8/8

A simple objective that would be incredibly difficult to achieve. Easier than it had appeared just a few minutes ago, though, as the Abundant Emperor’s decision to spread them out was massively advantageous to someone like Jake.

One had to remember that at his core, he was very much a stealth archer.

Jake was at his strongest when he was on the hunt and could get the first strike. His opening arrows were all insanely powerful, and if he had the opportunity to use them, it would drastically change the outcome of many fights.

Take the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord. She was incredibly powerful and definitely worthy of being a Chosen, but she had also been rather frail. Defensively, she relied on her Heartsoul Cultivation skills, and while he was sure she had some life-saving measures that would automatically activate, one could only imagine how their fight would have gone if Jake got the jump on her.

It was no exaggeration to say that if she didn’t have an extremely powerful life-saving skill, he could kill her with his opening arrow. Even if he failed to land a lethal blow, she would be significantly weakened, and the subsequent battle would be far easier. One of the few reasons why Jake could even take on far more powerful foes in the first place was due to nearly always starting the fight with a big advantage due to just how powerful a Protean Arrow fired from stealth was.

Flashing a smile, Jake looked into the horizon where he already felt the direction of all seven other Administrators. Not due to anything the Abundant Emperor had done, but due to his own quick thinking. Before they had all been flung away, Jake had placed a Hunter’s Mark on everyone else, allowing him to track their positions. That’s also how he knew they had been flung in entirely different directions. His only issue was that he couldn’t tell who was who, as halfway through being flung away he had also vaguely felt all their positions get scrambled, perhaps specifically to avoid anyone knowing the direction of any particular Administrator.

Not that it mattered who he targeted first, and fortunately, it seemed that Jake wouldn’t even have to choose. Turning his head, he realized that one of his Hunter’s Marks was moving toward him, making Jake smile a little upon realizing that he hadn’t been the only one that had left some kind of mark on the other Administrators.

Or perhaps this particular person was targeting Jake specifically, which was actually even more exciting to consider.