"Win? I don't want to discourage you, but your combat prowess is really lacking behind. Even though your cultivation speed is…well… abnormal. The estimated winner for this tournament is Flint and he has reached the 6-Star Body Refinement Realm. Speaking of Flint, I wanted to warn you. He put a bounty on you. Whoever can eliminate you will receive 20 qi pills from him."
"Flint put a bounty on me? Why?"
"Why? Well, you obviously made him lose his face in front of everyone and also, he lost his Fire Fist to you. His family was not pleased about him losing it, they put him under pressure to get it back. And he has quite the arrogant nature, his face is him more important than his life. Do you still want to enter the tournament? Many will target you."
"I think I don't have any other choice. I will do it."
"Did Teacher Bolt explain to you how the tournament is going to proceed?"
"Ehm…No. I think he will be here in a bit…so, yeah."
"No need to wait. I will explain it to you. Right now, we are in the preliminary rounds. They consist of 16 group fights. Each group has 10 students fighting against each other and only one can emerge victorious from each group. The groups are differentiated by letters. Group 1 is called A Group and so on until P Group. After each group has its winner, the tournament progresses to the Eight-Finals. There will be 16 students and 8 fights. The fights won't be a group fight anymore. It will be a one on one. The winner of A Group will fight against the winner of B Group and so on. After the Eight-Finals will be the Quarterfinals and so on until the Finals. The winner will receive a reward from the principal. Every year has its own reward, so I can't tell you what the reward will be. Ouh right, you aren't listed in any group. How are you going to enter the tournament?"
"No need to worry about that. Thank you for the explanation, Ryu." From behind Zayn and Ryu, Vown's voice could be heard. He emerged from within the crowd and joined the conversation. He was alone here. The principal could not be seen anywhere.
"Where's the principal? I thought he was coming with you." Zayn noticed the absence of the principal and asked about it.
"Ahem… He had to finish something up. He will join the tournament a bit later, but he already entered you into the tournament. You're in the last group, P Group. The last group isn't completely full, I think there are only about five others in your group. We don't have exactly 160 students, so the last group doesn't have 10 contestants. See it as an advantage."
When Zayn asked about the principal, Vown startled a bit and made something up fast. On their way to the tournament, the principal noticed that he did not prepare a reward for the winner. He wanted it to do that in the last week before the tournament, but who could have guessed that they would learn about the Zero Heart Realm and be inside it for six days straight. Now he had to prepare a reward in the last few hours. That is why he did not come with Vown to the tournament.
"Ryu, when will the last group start to fight?"
"I think one group remains, then the last group will start."
Zayn, Ryu, and Vown waited for the other group to start and also watched the fight. Zayn also used the time to clear up one question he could not ask.
"Daisy, what happens if I don't complete the quest?"
"The Daily System provides two kinds of quests in general. One is an open quest. An open quest has only an open statement, like "Kill a Wolf", this means that the host has to kill a wolf to fulfill the quest, but if he doesn't kill a wolf, it does not mean the quest is failed. The quest can also be fulfilled a later time. This kind of quest will never expire, as you could also kill a wolf in a hundred years. So, not completing an open quest doesn't have any consequence at all. But there's also a closed quest. A closed quest is a quest which has specific time, place or other limitations, like "Kill a Wolf before midnight". This kind of quest has to be done under the specific limitations. If it will not be fulfilled, a punishment will be received. The punishment will be unique every time and not in any way pleasant to the host. So, the host should try his best to fulfill these kinds of quests. Sometimes, the punishment will be displayed with the quest so the host will know the consequences of his action. The current quest also falls under the closed quest group, as "Win the Tournament" specifies this tournament and not tournaments in general."
"…"
'Punishments? Not pleasant to the host? Isn't being here punishment enough! This is bullshit.' Zayn got enraged. He wasn't in any way interested in receiving a punishment. It was not like was a pessimistic person and did not believe in himself at all but watching the group fight in front of him showed him the disparity between the students and him. His battle experience was far lacking behind, as he did not fight any cultivator at all. Even if Zayn were a street fighter on earth and accumulated many experiences in fighting, it wouldn't guarantee his victory. The movements and the fighting styles were completely different and far superior to earth's, as the earth had not any way to include qi in their fights. Even though the tournament was for the first graders, and many were trash in comparison to the seniors, for Zayn these were high-level maneuvers.
"Kid, what's wrong?" As the Infinite Star was bonded to Zayn, he could see any distortion in Zayn's mood. He immediately recognized his rage and then his frustration.
"Infinite Star, do you think I can win the tournament?"
"Win the tournament? Hahahahahahahahah! Kid, don't misunderstand me, with my Infinite Star Arts, the ultimate qi cultivation technique, the cultivator can easily jump up half a realm to fight stronger cultivators and with your 3-Star Body Refinement Realm cultivation your battle prowess should be around the 8-Star Body Refinement Realm, but unfortunately you never fought with qi ever before. This will restrict your battle prowess. Fighting against a 6-Star Body Refinement Realm Cultivator will be your hardest challenge. Making it hard for you to win. Those 3-Star and 4-Star worms shouldn't be a problem in a one on one. I will try my best to coach you in the fights, but it won't be good enough as a substitute for battle experience. But I have to say, I never saw you as the ambitious one, kid. I'm impressed!"
Zayn saw a chance. The estimated winner of this tournament was Flint and his cultivation was the 6-Star, Zayn's limit, according to the Infinite Star. So, if he tried his best maybe he could win against Flint. He already won once against him, so why not again?
As Zayn was in thought, the group, fighting right now, finished. The winner this time was a girl, but Zayn did not pay any attention to the fight at all. He knew it was his time to fight now. He emerged from the crowd and entered the arena, along with five other students, all male.
Everyone were surprised to see Zayn, as they thought that he escaped after hearing of Flint's bounty. After their surprise, a frustration came over the crowd. None of them were in the same group as Zayn so they could not earn the 20 qi pills from Flint. Four students of the five with Zayn on the arena, looked towards Zayn as if they saw a pot of gold. These four were thankful to be in this group. Each of those four knew that with their cultivation they could not win the tournament, but with Zayn's appearance now, they could at least earn them 20 qi pills. The last one of those five did not care about the bounty. He did not look over to Zayn once.
As soon as the fight started, the four students surrounded Zayn and attacked him simultaneously. Zayn saw the attacks coming towards him and he tried to find a way out of their encirclement.
Vown and Ryu were worried. Ryu never thought that the bounty was that sought after, he thought that only a few would target Zayn, but now four were attacking him at the same time. Vown would have never believed that four students would work together to defeat one. They just threw their pride away.
The crowd was silent. Everyone was interested in the 20 qi pills, but not one in the crowd would throw their pride so easily away as those four.
Zayn tried his best to see any opening in their attacks or an escape at all, but he could not find any. The attacks drew closer and closer
'Wtf?!? I can't dodge that!'