CHAPTER 703: WHISPERS OF THE SEEDS

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Cedric could feel their gazes.

To be fair, they’re not really hiding it. Even if they were, it couldn’t have escaped his senses, so he’ll discover it anyway.

He could also hear their hushed conversations. It’s with this that he discovered that, apparently, he did something so outrageous.

Cedric cleared all 100 waves available in the first round. That’s the outrageous thing. And apparently, he’s the only one who did so. The rest couldn’t even make it past the halfway point; the second place in this round only reached the 55th wave before being eliminated.

Because of this, he was placed directly under the spotlight. By now, everybody who’s not living under a rock knew of his monicker: Dawnbringer.

’Well, it is what it is.’ He shrugged after getting to this point.

He couldn’t have possibly predicted that nobody else would clear the first round like he did. After all, there were all sorts of people here, each from various backgrounds. He thought that at least one or two would’ve sailed through this round as well as he did. Alas, he was wrong.

Now that it has come to this, all he could really do was to face the music. Fortunately, he’s not really a stranger to fame.

Once the 1st round of the preliminaries was over, the participants received a notice telling them that the 2nd round will begin after three days, enough time for everybody to recover to their peak state.

It wouldn’t have taken Cedric that long to recover. He was spent, yes, but a few hours of rest will do. But obviously, the event doesn’t just cater to him; it has to take others into consideration as well.

So, right now, Cedric was having a meal.

A virtual meal. They’re not allowed to log off from the virtual world during the preliminaries, after all. While the food wouldn’t satiate his real body, it’s enough to make him satisfied for a while, at least.

But even as he minded his own business, the murmurs of other participants around him were ruining the mood.

He could practically see their hostility to him manifesting in reality. He found that quite hilarious for some reason. They’re projecting their incompetencies onto him. How cute, really.

Even when some people deliberately raised their voices in an attempt to elicit a reaction from him, Cedric remained indifferent. He’s not a stranger to tactics like this, and he’d be a fool to fall for it.

The louder these people are, the more inferior they are. If all they could do was to project their bitterness to others and pull down everybody who’s ahead of them, then they’re not really worth his precious time and attention.

After having his fill, Cedric found himself a resting spot. It’s in the depths of the forest. It’s quiet there, and his only companions were the peaceful and docile creatures of this virtual world. Nobody followed him here. More specifically, nobody dared.

Everybody knew that what he did to those monsters in the first round, he could easily do to them too. Even those who were trying to provoke him earlier knew this too; they were only brave enough then because they were surrounded by people and this place was a non-aggression zone.

But even as he isolated himself, Cedric could still eavesdrop on their conversations from where he was. And to be honest, their topics were somewhat interesting.

**

"I couldn’t have expected that a dude with a face like that would turn out to be so fierce."

"Right? That’s what I’m saying. It’s really wrong to judge people based on their looks nowadays."

"He’s too good. I feel inferior to him as a swordsman."

"I’m pretty sure you’re not the only one."

"Yeah. The majority of the swordsmen who are watching this either idolize him now or feel crushed by the sheer distance between them and real expertise."

"I have no doubt that the sword sects are scrambling to recruit right away. His inbox must be exploding with e-mails by now."

"The Thousand Sword Sect, Heavenly Sword Sect, and the Divine Sword Sect...do you think those three planned on recruiting him too?"

"Obviously! How can they not? That Dawnbringer has become a star at this point, and it’s not just empty fame; he has the skills to back it up. I mean, we all saw how he skillfully dealt with those monsters, right? And holy shit, that final wave! That’s insane! He’s insane. There’s no way they wouldn’t try to recruit him."

"But...the seeded participants..."

"What about them? Hmph, they’re just the lucky ones! They’re not a big deal. I’m sure they’re trembling in their boots right now with Dawnbringer’s existence."

"Excuse me. What, or who, are the seeded participants?"

"Ah, sorry about that. I forgot you’re new here. The seeded participants are geniuses from top sects and organizations like us who have been given the right to skip the preliminaries. They’ll join us in the actual tournament."

"What? Why? Isn’t that a bit..."

"Unfair? Well, yes, it is!"

"How’s that allowed?"

"Because the world is inherently unfair, that’s how. You have to understand, their backgrounds are far from ordinary. The sects and organizations they’re from have existed for a very long time; they’re ancient. Some have produced Empyreans, some have participated in wars that determined the fate of this chaos realm, earning them glory and status, and some have roots extending even beyond the Heavenly Star Chaos Realm."

"The depths of their power are something that we mortals couldn’t possibly imagine."

"Rumors said that this event was originally made for them to show off. We...are just stragglers who are trying to take advantage of this event. What we considered as a life-changing opportunity was, in truth, just another event for them, nothing special at all."

"The seeded participants were the real prodigies the world needed to see, and those sects wanted to show off the real future pillars of humanity. They are extremely talented and had access to resources none of us would even dare to imagine. Their skills should be the real deal too."

"They could probably do the same thing Danwbringer did, maybe even better, who knows? But like I said, they’re the real focus of this event, not us. We’re just riding this wave to fish out some benefits."

"Stop kissing their asses; they won’t pick you even if you’re a choice."

"Don’t be so mean. Some people might be listening!"

"Then let them listen! I don’t care. Hmph! What ’future pillars of humanity’? Hey, you! Don’t listen to this fool, and don’t you start idolizing those people too."

"They’re not special. They’re humans, just like us—inherently flawed, emotional, and progress-driven creatures. They have their own agenda too, and if it all comes down to it, they won’t hesitate to bury everybody around them to save themselves. They’re not saints, and they’re not gods either. They’re just humans who had some bullshit luck in the genetic lottery and plot armor. That’s all they are."

"I’d rather support Dawnbringer myself rather than follow them around. At least, Dawnbringer isn’t as pretentious as them. He feels and looks more human than them."

**

With how passionately that one guy hated the seeded participants, anybody would think that he had some bad history with them.

Cedric didn’t care, though, but the existence of the seeded participants was certainly something he looked forward to.

He didn’t know that there would be seeded participants before eavesdropping on this conversation. He knew about those ancient sects and organizations, not enough to understand them completely, just enough to know that they exist and what they’re capable of. Being a Scarlet VIP gave him access to some of this information.

Cedric knew that they’d probably send some people to participate in this event too, which is a normal expectation for anybody. He just didn’t think that they’d have a privilege like that.

’I nearly underestimated them.’ He smiled wryly at the thought.

He initially felt disappointed that he was the only one who cleared all the waves in the 1st round. It made him think that the descendants of those ancient sects were a bit disappointing.

Now, he stood corrected. It’s not that they’re disappointing. It’s because they weren’t here at all. They’d start showing up in the real competition, not in the preliminary rounds.

Cedric let his thoughts wander. He was anticipating the encounter already. He wanted to know how many of them there were, what their specialties were, and so on.

All of these were making him excited and looking forward to meeting them. Maybe he could finally meet his match in one of them.

And just like this, time passed and the three-day rest was over.

Whether the participants were ready or not, the 2nd round of the preliminaries will begin.

Once again, a massive screen appeared above the realm. Paul and Lisa returned, greeting the audience and the participants once more with their energetic and exaggerated gestures.

Not long after that, the contents of the 2nd round were finally revealed.

"Skill Check."

That’s what they’re calling the 2nd round. As soon as the words appeared, they were followed by an explanation from both Paul and Lisa.