All this might've seemed to take a long time, but in reality, it was barely a few seconds that passed.

Zephyr saw his alias appear at the number 3 spot, on full display for all to see.

He had thought of going with ZeroOne alone, but he decided to add that little touch to make it more domineering.

With the two names already on the list, his was still very reasonable...

He breathed out, looking back at the bird guy who still seemed to be having a hard time trying to call up his panel.

Zephyr debated walking off and potentially allowing the guy to know he was one of the three who had been ranked already, or staying still and acting like he was also trying to call up the ranking panel.

He decided on the latter, staying still for more than half a minute, simply watching as more names started to get ranked. Some with domineering names, and others that were rather tame.

But it was still a slow trickle.

It wasn't until a full minute later before things changed.

Suddenly, as if a floodgate had been opened, a stream of names poured into rankings by the hundreds, then by the thousands, tens of thousands, at which point Zephyr couldn't even keep track of the rapidly scrolling list.

"Damn…!" Zehyr whistled. "It's almost like a great filter has been crossed." The gap in origin talent between most of the champions who took more than a minute to call up their ranking panel seemed to be very minimal.

The bird guy in the distance paused in his movement and his eyes became unfocused like he was looking at something else.

He had finally called up his ranking panel.

Zephyr quickly took the opportunity to move. At least it should tell the bird guy that he was done with his own setup — enough to make him slightly wary, knowing that Zephyr ranked higher than he did, but without knowing by how much exactly.

And most importantly, he wouldn't even think Zephyr ranked close to the top.

There were already 433,000+ ranked names and counting even faster, so it provided Zephyr with enough anonymity that the guy couldn't even begin to guess which alias was his.

The bird guy refocused on Zephyr for a second as he left, but went back to setting up his panel right after, giving Zephyr the leeway to leave without hassle.

There could be no fights or coercion, but the Voice of The World never said anything about trailing a person.

Zephyr was sure if he sat down to think carefully, he could find some technical loopholes that didn't cause harm, but could still be a nuisance to another champion.

So he was thankful this guy wasn't going to be one. He wasn't really planning on slugging around with some other person at the moment.

As he put more miles between himself and the bird guy, he finally started to consider which direction to take.

It wasn't really the oases that were his concern, rather it was the general direction he should take. He had five good options.

He could head directly north. There were two large oases in that direction.

In fact, all the four cardinal points, except for the east, had at least one large oasis in their general direction, the north being the only direction to have more than one large oasis, with one of them being the largest in the whole desert.

He was kind of stuck in a dilemma. The reason being that he knew he wasn't the only one who spotted the various oases during their descent. So, just like him, other Champions would be heading towards the various oases, basically camping around its vicinity, or directly within until the twelve hours were up.

'Should I still go there…?' Zephyr thought as he put a hand under his collar to let some air in. 'Damn… it's actually really hot here…' he frowned, squinting up at the sun again. The air around shimmered from the intense desert heat.

He wasn't supposed to feel this hot, at least not yet. His body could take way more than this.

'Aegis, what the hell is going on…?' Zephyr huffed. 'How hot is it right now for me to be feeling this uncomfortable?!'

Ambient temperature readings are 138°F (55°C)... and it seems to be increasing ever slightly.

"What?! That's way too high!" Zephyr hissed.

It seemed he'd still have to get to an Oasis regardless. There was no second option… Not with this heat—

Just as Zephyr had that thought, he paused in shock as a realization dawned on him.

"Are we being herded towards the oasis by Origin…?"

It seemed like that was exactly what was happening. If Zephyr was already feeling like this, then others would be having it way worse.

Zephyr cursed, realizing he had no choice. He needed a good source of water to survive in the first place. He could last longer than normal people without water, but now with this heat...

He gritted his teeth, looking between the north and the west.

Hopefully he'd not end up in one where any of the crazies were.

He didn't know what would happen if he tried entering into a different sector, the Voice of The World never explained what would happen in that scenario clearly.

But he felt it would do him good to move to a location close to the border of another sector, even if he couldn't enter at the moment.

He knew at some point, they would be allowed to enter.

Thus, his choice between the North and the West.

To the north, beyond the fringes of the desert, was a black, arid looking land which transitioned into white, snow filled lands the further north one went.

Zephyr didn't know how he'd fare in a cold environment, but he reckoned he would do better than in extreme heat.

He naturally hated heat with a passion. So he'd rather he took his chances with the cold instead.

And he didn't really need to go that far north anyway. He could always just settle in the cooler black lands for a while.

His second option was the west.

He had seen a green and lively forest in that direction during his descent.

And being that he already had the experience of surviving in a forest environment, he could use that to the fullest.

In fact, it was the most logical choice to make. The north held two large oases that would draw the attention of most of the champions... The crazies included.

He didn't know about 'Queen of The Dunes', but he was sure 'Lord whateverhisnameis Supreme' was going to be there...

He didn't want to meet any of the two right now. So, being that the south was not even in the conversation — it was the farthest from his present location, and was a swampy, riverine terrain — the West was his only logical option.