NOVEL NEXT 85. The Final Stage
Shen materialized on what looked like the AP Arena. The bleachers were separated from the stage by a tall stone wall, the same material the ground was made of.
He wasn't alone. The sixteen-year-olds from the US that he recognized were all around him, including Alicia, Evelyn, Sandra, Bob, and, unfortunately, Scott.
Shen was wearing a robe, Scott was naked save for his boxers, and all others wore leather armor. Weapon-wise, Shen had a spear in his hand, Alicia and Evelyn had a dagger each, Sandra wore spiked metal gantlets, and Bob held a longbow.
The others in the group people had similar F- equipment. If the system had outfitted them, a fight was coming.
Dozens of other groups appeared throughout the Arena too. None were in the bleachers; everywhere was in the middle, ready to fight.
Shen's group was relatively close to a wall, but there was a group in-between.
Tutorial - Final Stage
Congratulations on reaching the very last stage of the Pioneer Tutorial!
Over 100 million 16-year-olds entered this tutorial.
Only 917 remain, of which 40 are from your country.
There are 57 groups here. Some groups only have people from a single country; some have people from multiple countries. Everyone in here won against the fifteen-year-olds on the sixth stage.
In previously integrated worlds, separating all Pioneers among every nation created many issues. There was too much division and intrigue, making those worlds lose focus of what mattered: the Void.
Most of them fell.
We have tested many different ways to remove the issue with varying degrees of success. In this Pioneer Tutorial, we'll make the winners from each age group be from the same country.
Shen saw nothing wrong with that. Nothing positive either. It was just something the Alliance had decided on.
Tutorial - Final Stage
Fight the sixteen-year-olds from other countries.
The winning country will fight the final boss. That's when the four sixteen-year-old Pioneers, one of each stat, will be decided.
All participants' stats other than the one they picked to reach this stage have been set to F-.
All participants' health pools have been set to 50.
Each participant can only attack or be attacked by those competing for the same stat as them. You'll see a green ball above the head of those you can fight.
People of other stats and their attacks will go through you, just as you and yours will go through them.
Groups can score points by being the last to lose all members of a stat, for a max of four points. If the survivors die after scoring a point, the group will keep the point.
The group with more points at the end will move forth to the final boss. The tiebreaker is scoring first.
Dying will not disqualify you from going to the final boss.
Whoever survives until there's only one group remaining will receive 20,000 AP.
There was no mention of blocking any energy other than stamina. Shen felt his qi and moved it through his body. It felt marvelous.
Everything had been relatively straightforward until the last sentence. The AP reward would make people not take chances for fear of losing it.
But the system didn't want that.
Tutorial - Final Stage - Middle Boss
One Void Scout will appear every ten seconds in the middle of the members of the country with the most people still alive.
The Void Scout will be able to attack and be attacked by anyone.
We'll only get rid of Void Scouts with power equivalent to a C-rank. Any weaker one will remain.
You don't have unlimited energy or willpower in this stage.
Don't waste time.
Not removing D-rank Scouts would make the stage about luck if enough time passed; whoever the D-rank killed last would be the winner.
Having a Void Spawn appear in the middle of a group might prove fatal if they were all together. The system clearly wanted them to spread out.
"Divide yourselves into people of the same stat so you can fight others together," Shen said to his group. The wisdom given to him by the Concept of War let him determine the right course of action at once. "We must stay as far from each other as possible. That way, if we're the group with the most people and the Void Scout appears in our midst, it won't matter. We'll be so distant from each other that the Void Scout won't be close to anyone. Spreading out will also increase our chances of survival in case we find a bigger or stronger group."
Black lightning fell from the sky in the middle of a distant group. Shen was glad their group wasn't the largest, though they were pretty big.
But he wasn't glad about the alien thoughts—even if they had his voice—invading his mind, telling him to join the Void.
"Agility fighters," he continued, "come with me. We're the fastest and will go to the opposite side of the arena to increase the gap for any Void Scout to appear. On the way, only engage in a fight if you either have no other choice or if you think you can kill someone quick enough. The main goal is reaching the other side. We'll go together, but spread out and reach the other side alone if we get overwhelmed. Getting as far as possible will aid the entire group's survival and give us a shot at winning the whole tutorial. It's more important than each individual or the AP reward for staying alive."
Another bolt of lightning fell from the skies on another group.
"The other three stats must get to the nearest wall. The wall is the safest place because you can't get surrounded there. But you can't stay all together in case everyone from agility dies.
"Magic fighters go right, strength fighters go left, and resistance fighters pick the largest group to go with and protect them from Void Spawn."
"Go!" Shen urged after they just looked at him like idiots, except for a few.
"Who made you the leader?" Scott asked.
Yet another black bolt fell upon a distant group.
Shen felt they were wasting time. His group of forty was way too large compared to the average groups of four to eight around.
"Being the strongest did," Shen replied. "I told you the best path of action, and if you think about it, you'll see that. But we don't have time. A Void Scout might appear here any moment."
He got to the edge of the group and raised his spear. "Agility fighters, come!" he yelled and waited a few seconds.
Four joined him, Bob included. From the short daggers and the longbow in another one's hands, Shen guessed they were also agility participants, but they didn't move.
"Let's go," he said, turned, and ran.
Many people had been standing still, making plans, discussing. Black lightning fell, but Shen noticed it was in the middle of the same group as the last bolt. They had quickly dealt with the previous Void Scout, so not enough of them had died. Since their numbers hadn't decreased enough, the system hadn't focused on another group.
They weren't so lucky this time. They attacked the humanoid monster, but their attacks did nothing. It was D-rank.
Shen felt adrenaline fill his body. There was a D-rank Void Scout in the arena already.
Shen kept his speed to par with the others but was still slightly ahead. Their path brought them straight through a small group of eight with two agility fighters, a male with a bow and a female with a whip of all things.
He turned his path slightly to the right to go for the agility people and filled his spear with Sharp Qi. Both noticed him, but it was too late for the archer; Shen's spear beheaded him.
| David Peretz (E) | 147,062 → 147,162 AP
Shen tried to also swing against the whip-user without stopping, but the girl stepped back really quickly. He ignored her and kept going for the end goal, the wall on the other side of the Arena.
The fifty-seven groups were pretty distant from each other. Some started moving finally, while Shen noticed two had attacked everyone nearby like locusts from the very beginning.
Black lightning fell.
Shen kept running. He killed two others before reaching the middle of the arena. A few moments later, ten agility fighters from different groups moved to intercept him.
"Don't stop!" he yelled to his people and kept going.
His path led straight to three interceptors.
One of the three used a spear like him, the other a thin and slightly curved longsword, and the third two daggers. Shen went for the one with daggers first because it had a lower reach.
He filled his body with Combat and Zephyr Qi, and his spear with Boundless, Sharp, and Zephyr. He used his Zephyr-Gale Footwork to the utmost and took everything he could from his E+ agility.
They were fast, but in fights of agility against agility, the slightly faster or the less stupid won. They had no defenses except for their weapons and the feeble F- leather armor they all wore.
Shen swung his spear from top to bottom. The guy with the daggers stupidly raised his blades, crossing them to intercept the spearhead. Shen merely pulled his spear a little, enough to not get impeded, and kept his attack. The idiot never took his body out of the way.
When Shen's spear had passed by the daggers, he thrust, and his spearhead went through the boy's skull.
He ducked just in time to avoid an arrow coming for his head and twisted to avoid another. Two of the ten interceptors were long-range attackers.
The spearman had gotten close enough and thrust against Shen as the swordsman swung from the other side.
Shen Backstepped.
Every agility fighter in that stage should have E+ agility. However, Shen had a D+ movement art on level 5, was using Boundless Qi for faster speed, and his insights on Zephyr had reached heights higher than ever.
The spearman was only halfway to turning back when Shen thrust his spear against his skull and killed him. Then he traded a few moves against the swordsman. The boy was good, but a Backstep later, he was dead too.
| Ren Suzuki (E) | 147,562 → 147,662 AP
He dodged two new arrows and checked the situation with his four companions. Since the long-range fighters were attacking him, and Bob was also a bowman, the close-range fight was of four interceptors against two of Shen's group—one of each group had died.
Shen considered leaving them to their luck and focusing on the wall, but losing so many of this group's agility fighters here would be a significant blow. Since the enemy archers weren't a true danger, he rushed at the closed-range warriors.
One of their archers yelled a warning, but the sound of fighting all around, especially the spells, made it hard to hear him. Shen got to the back of two people and dispatched them before the others noticed something was wrong.
When the two finally realized something was wrong, one was stupid enough to turn completely to face Shen. The sword from one of Shen's companions pierced his heart from behind for an instant kill.
The previous close-range fight of four versus two turned into a one versus three. The interceptor tried to escape, but an arrow from Bob hit the girl's leg, and the stumble was enough for Shen to behead her. The archers, the only survivors of the interceptors, ran for their lives.
"Keep going! For the wall!" Shen reminded them and led the way once again.
They killed five other humans and a Void Spawn on the way, losing none, and finally reached the wall.
"What now?" Bob asked.
"Now we kill," Shen replied. "The others will need our help to deal with the Void Spawn sooner or later. We must finish all agility fighters quickly.
"There's a chance we are the last ones remaining of our group already—a small chance to be sure, but a chance nonetheless. We need to split too, so someone must stay here. I should focus on killing. Will anyone volunteer to stay?"
Bob raised his hand. "Me."
He was their only long-range attacker, an excellent choice to stay there in this situation.
"Focus on survival," Shen said. "Run if you must. You two, come with me. We'll make arcs around this place, getting further and further from here, killing all agility fighters we see." One of them had a shortsword, and the other the two daggers that seemed so common in agility fighters. "Follow my lead. Avoid Void Spawn unless it looks like it's coming for Bob. Let's go."
He picked a random direction and ran alongside the wall until they reached a small group. The group had only one agility fighter that was easily disposed of. From there, Shen and his companions did as he had told them, moving in an arc around Bob until they reached the wall on the other side. Then they got further away from Bob, reached a point Shen considered far enough, arched around Bob once more.
The plan was to do that until they were the only agility fighters remaining in the entire arena.