Chapter 228: The Regional Selection (Prologue)

The City Qualifiers were over.

For more than a month, the cities of New Liberty had watched their academies fight.

From City A to City AF, students had battled monsters, conquered territories, stolen resources, completed objectives, fought rival academies, and, in some cases, survived situations that had never been part of the tournament organizers’ plans.

Some academies had emerged victorious, others had been eliminated, some had walked away with injuries, and a few had become names known throughout the country.

The City Qualifiers had accomplished exactly what they were designed to accomplish- they had separated the strong from the weak.

But that was only the beginning, because New Liberty had never intended for thirty-two cities to produce thirty-two champions merely for those champions to stand around and celebrate.

The next stage was waiting.

The Regional Selection.

New Liberty was divided into four major tournament regions- the Northern Region consisting of Cities A through H, the Eastern Region consisting of Cities I through P, the Southern Region consisting of Cities Q through X, and the Western Region consisting of Cities Y through AF.

Each region contained eight cities, and each city had produced its own victorious academies. And now those academies would meet.

There would be no more fighting solely for the honor of representing a city. There would be no more local rivalries, and no safety provided by familiar territory.

The strongest academies from eight different cities would enter the same battlefield, and only the strongest would survive.

The announcement was broadcast simultaneously across the entire nation.

Every major screen in New Liberty displayed the same symbol. A massive circular emblem divided into four sections- Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western.

Then the tournament emblem appeared in the center.

Millions of people stopped what they were doing. Students gathered around televisions, families crowded around screens, hunters watched from guild halls, military personnel watched from command centers, and even the wealthy families that had been following the tournament from private residences turned their attention toward the announcement.

The voice of the official announcer echoed across the country.

"The City Qualifiers of the Inter-Academy Selection Tournament have officially concluded."

Cheers erupted across several cities, and the announcer continued.

"Thirty-two cities entered."

The screen displayed the cities: thirty-two cities, thousands of students, hundreds of academies, and now, only the strongest remained.

"The next stage will determine which academies possess the strength necessary to advance beyond their regions."

The screen changed, and four enormous symbols showing the various regions appeared.

"Welcome..." The announcer’s voice became heavier. "...to the Regional Selection."

Unlike the City Qualifiers, the Regional Selection would not last for weeks. It wouldn’t need to. The participants entering this stage had already proven themselves. They were the survivors, the champions, and the monsters among monsters.

The Regional Selection would therefore be significantly shorter, and significantly more dangerous. Each region would have its own designated battlefield, and these battlefields were not ordinary hunting grounds.

They were enormous artificial environments capable of supporting hundreds of high-level awakened individuals simultaneously.

Mountains could be generated, forests could be expanded, rivers could be redirected, the weather could be altered, monster populations could be adjusted, and the entire battlefield would be monitored by an enormous network of observation drones.

There would be nowhere to hide. At least that was the intention.

Then came the rules. The screens changed again, and a single sentence appeared.

[REGIONAL SELECTION OBJECTIVE!]

[REACH THE REGIONAL CORE.]

That was it. One objective- no complicated list, no collection of points, no requirement to kill monsters, no requirement to defeat rival academies, and no requirement to capture territory.

Every participating academy had exactly the same objective: Reach the Regional Core.

But there was a problem. The Regional Core was located at the center of each battlefield, and nobody would be given its exact location. They would have to find it, and even after finding it, they would have to activate it.

The announcer continued.

"The Regional Selection will consist of multiple stages."

The screen divided into three sections.

[STAGE ONE - THE MARCH]

Every academy would begin at a different location within the region. Their first task was simple: Find the path toward the Regional Core.

The battlefield would contain monsters, environmental hazards, hidden routes, abandoned structures, and false paths.

The participants would need to navigate the region while preserving their strength. The farther they traveled, the more dangerous the environment would become. There would be no elimination requirement during this stage, but that did not mean there would be no fighting.

Other academies would be there, and nobody was obligated to help anyone else.

[STAGE TWO - THE CONVERGENCE]

Once enough academies reached the inner region, the battlefield would change. The safe routes would disappear, the environment would contract, and the remaining academies would gradually be pushed toward the same area.

At that point, avoiding other participants would become almost impossible. This was where the true Regional Selection would begin.

Academies could fight- they could cooperate, form temporary alliances, betray those alliances, and they could even eliminate competitors.

Nothing prohibited it. The only thing that mattered was continuing toward the Regional Core.

[STAGE THREE - THE REGIONAL CORE]

Eventually, the surviving academies would reach the center, and there they would find it: the Regional Core.

It was an enormous structure buried within the battlefield.

Only one thing would matter: Activate it.

The first academy to successfully activate the Regional Core would claim victory for its region. The remaining academies would be ranked according to how far they progressed and their overall performance.

And the strongest academies would advance to the next stage of the Inter-Academy Selection Tournament.

The announcement ended.

For several seconds, the entire nation remained silent. Then... the internet exploded. News channels immediately began analyzing the rules, tournament experts began predicting which academies would advance, families began comparing their heirs, academies began studying the competitors from other cities, and students who had only recently celebrated their victories in the City Qualifiers suddenly found themselves facing an uncomfortable reality.

They weren’t the strongest anymore. They were simply among the strongest. There was a difference, a significant one, because the academies entering the Regional Selection weren’t just competing against their neighboring schools.

They were competing against the best academies from eight entire cities.

And somewhere among those academies were students whose abilities had never been fully revealed- students carrying ancient bloodlines, students possessing inherited powers, students who had never encountered a genuine equal, and students who had already become monsters in everything except name.

Four battlefields were being prepared for four regions, thirty-two cities, hundreds of academies, and thousands of awakened students.

One objective: Reach the Regional Core.

The Inter-Academy Selection Tournament had entered its second stage, and this time, there would be nowhere for the weak to hide.