The Sounds of high-heels clicking against the cold marble floor resounded within the giant hall. Adjourned by white ceiling lamps, the place is glowing akin to a crystal palace. On the wall, you can see paintings of humans revolting against various unknown creatures painted in deep senses of art-making them look almost alive. The paintings look ancient yet modern with their own unique style. Students feel their breath taken off upon landing their eyes on such majestic-looking paintings. They feel terror, astonishment, worship, and many other complicated emotions they couldn't quite explain.
The receptionist did not forget to provide an explanation for each painting while they walked. Coupled with her clear-voice and beautiful appearance, many people involuntarily listened to her voice seriously, including Kael.
Kael was surprised about the information leaving this woman's mouth since he knew all along that she wasn't a teacher, but a third-year student. He learned the other day that different colors of the tie represent different years. Green Tie as the tie he was presently wearing was referring to his grade, one-year student. Blue-Tie on the other hand served its purpose as a tie for second-year students. Whereas the Red-Tie was for third-year students, the same color of a tie the woman ahead of instructor Alisa currently wore.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Kael realized that they finally arrived at their destination. A huge white door that looks unbreakable with no flaw was revealed. Above it, a huge number of "one" is written in a huge and bold way. On the door's side, you can see a scanner-looking-device was planted, allowing only a certain person to access it. The woman then quietly took out a card from her pocket and hovered it in front of the scanner.
The scanner took a fraction of a second to identify the card, and immediately, the door slides open by itself, creating a gap little by little and eventually, developing a wide road for people to walk through.
Following Instructor Alisa's steps, Kael's eyes slowly registered the insides of the chamber. Surprisingly, the place is full of capsule-like-thing. The object seems similar to the radiation capsule he entered on the first day he arrived at Bintang Academy with each capsule possessing its own monitor, showing a green straight line, acting like an Electrocardiography.
While the students looked around the chamber in awe. They didn't notice that a man in his middle twenties is slowly walking towards them. His brown hair was combed neatly, while a pair of translucent glasses is attached to both of his eyes. His posture is tall-straight, brimming in a confident and sophisticated aura. The moment he arrived, he sweetly greeted the crowd with a smile, "Hello, what a pleasant day for me to be bestowed by many new beautiful faces here."
Shooting a teasing smile at him, instructor Alisa smirked, "Am I a part of that many beautiful faces, Bob?"
"If you want to, darling." The man winked at her, not noticing the deadly stare directed to him by Instructor Jerome. He then continued while facing the student's crowd, "I'm the supervisor of this chamber, you can all call me Mister Bob, or Sir Bob."
"I bet you're confused as to what are the functions of this capsule. Some of you might relate this to the radiation test you took two days ago. However, you're wrong! This capsule had an entirely different goal! So, all of you should use your head a bit and try to guess!" Bob excitedly exclaimed, earning an amusing laugh from Instructor Alisa, "Gosh, did you actually think you're teaching kindergarten students? Why are you still playing this guessing game? Cut the crap and tell them already."
Coughing at Alisa's remark, Bob glared at her and reprimanded her, "Save me some dignity in front of these young people, you fox."
Without giving her a time to respond, Bob continued his explanation, "As you know by its name, this place is called Artificial Colosseum it is not called that for nothing. After the disaster, dozens of years ago which destroyed almost all of the seven wonders of the world, our nation, Aldebaran, tried to make a replica of them to gain another pillar of support for humanity. Based on that idea, Aldebaran tried to construct the Colosseum, but was stopped before they even began building it. Because some of the higher-ups had other proposals. Instead of making it as a decoration, why not return it to the original purpose of the place itself?"
"Later on, with the support of technology, Aldebaran was finally able to rebuild the colosseum, but in the sense of virtual reality. The artificial colosseum also had a server that covers the entire Aldebaran's Continent, which means that with these capsules, you can actually connect to any divergent across the Aldebaran Continent."
Kael, after hearing that, had the same expression as some of the students, he was dumbfounded. During the meteor shower long ago, many lands suffered an extreme earthquake. This leads to a crack deep within the Earth, thus making the initially divided five major continents to be blended with each other. At the end of the day, from five major continents, only two remain, being opposite to each other, Rochester and Aldebaran.
As a result of this phenomenon, different nations can cope with the aftermath of the disaster quite easily by sending their troops to support each other's arms. Or so they thought. Because of the abrupt appearance of mutated animals, the peace, humanity sought was no longer an option. However, due to the majority of humans who survived being in the Aldebaran Continent, Rochester was left alone with only some humans and thus they couldn't fight back against the mutated animals on par. From then onward, Rochester's occupant shifted from humans to mutated animals.
As time flew by, Aldebaran's continent was divided into 8 counties with each county having its own academy. Each academy was separated by a long streak of distance, hence, hearing Mister Bob told them that the artificial Colosseum server covers the entire Aldebaran continent, Kael and the rest of the students gaped in amazement.
"Besides challenging strangers, you can also challenge registered mutated animals. How is it? Interested already?" Mister Bob raised one of his eyebrows and asked.
The students exchanged glances with each other before saying enthusiastically in a chorus, "Yes!"
"Good, but unfortunately, half of you had to transmit into chamber two as each chamber only had a maximum capacity of 30 persons."
Before everyone had time to react, Jerome quickly moved forward and shouted, "My group will take this place."
Alisa is momentarily stunned before regaining her senses and a wicked smile blossomed in her face, "That won't do, Instructor Jerome. I was the one who asked the receptionist to lead us here earlier. Doesn't that mean the one who is supposed to use this room is my group?"
"But you clearly followed my idea of coming to sector one, first." Jerome rolled his eyes at her.
"Oh? I completely didn't expect this petty side of yours, Instructor Jerome. Why must you bring up the past in this argument?"
Jerome's mouth twitched, 'Aren't you the person who brought the past in the first place??'
Finding that he would never win an argument with Alisa, Jerome shook his head and let out a sigh of defeat, "Fine."
Giving Alisa a side glance of dismay, Jerome grumpily departs from the place after asking the receptionist to tag him along.
Watching his departure, Alisa exhaled a deep sigh while inwardly wanting to pull her hairs in frustration! Damn! She really messed up the entire situation once more this time.
Alisa then felt her shoulder sink as Bob's hand had patted it.
Without sparing him a look, Alisa pouted, "Laugh! Laugh all you want!"
Instantly, she heard Bob's joyful laughter ringing beside her ears.
Giving him a disapproving look, Alisa wriggled her shoulder to brush his hand off her. She then pointed on the capsules with her hands and ordered, "Go and choose whatever capsule you want and enter it. Further instruction will be provided once you are inside."
Nodding their heads, the students made their way to the capsules and began to enter one by one.
Kael crawled to the capsule and lay on his back comfortably. Staring the white-ceiling in anticipation, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him a minute later. It was a Jerome with his white coat lab on. Flashing Kael a smile, Jerome asked, "What's your name, lad?"
"Kael Lys, Mister Bob."
"Alright Kael, I want you to listen to me attentively from now on. After you enter the Colosseum, you'll be required to fill a form of identity. I hope you write it correctly as any prizes or gift from the colosseum will be gifted according to the information you provided. There's still a lot of things, but you can learn them by yourself later."
"So, are you ready?"
Nodding his head, Kael replied solemnly, "I'm ready."
Kael is more ready than anyone to explore new things. Coming from a little town, Enardo, he realized his knowledge was so shallow. More importantly, he could probably increase his level by fighting against an opponent. This is the main reason he's overjoyed, to know there's finally a glimmer of hope of him leveling up.
"Alright, but let me attach these devices in your body, first. To avoid any mishaps, we need to monitor your body condition throughout the time you're in the artificial world."
Kael nodded his head obediently and let Jerome put electrodes on some part of his body. Then, he watched the monitor which initially only showed a green straight line, turned into a pattern upside down.
"I'm gonna close the cover, now. Don't forget to chant "Engine Start" to initiate strings of commands. I wish you good luck."
Afterwards, the capsule's cover went to close and Kael immediately surrounded by temporary darkness before replaced by a dim-light like emergency light. Taking a deep breath, Kael mumbled in a low voice, "Engine start."