Those people who didn't think they had anything to gain by coming over to perform their fans were the only people worthy of his respect and concern. He had to at least be concerned because if they don't care to perform, they must have something else to rely on.
Even if they had nothing to rely on, the fact that they remained quiet and solemn before this game is worthy of respect. After all, at this point, the destiny games have stopped being a game.
They can die permanently in this game. It is a glimpse of what is to come in the expert league.
Only those who want immortality are thinking of passing this game and advancing. These are far and few in between.
Many of these competitors don't dare to advance. They would prefer to fail and have to repeat the professional league than pass it and have to brave permanent death onwards.
He can't blame them, to be honest. If there is someone they should all blame, it is Icon.
Icon was the one who forced the destiny games on everyone. Even if he thinks little of the people who don't dare to advance, he is currently having a spat with Icon, so he will take their side over Icon's.
This is what he was thinking as people came over to insult him, and while the black crow was introducing all of them to the audience.
He briefly wondered who was the moderator between the crow and the silver woman.
He has seen an ability like this before. It is rare, but it has appeared before.
He thought to himself, "If I am right, the silver woman should be a summoner class super and the crow should be her bonded pet."
In the cases he has seen, pets of those in the summoner class can also speak. It is rare. And in those situations, their pets are usually very powerful.
His thoughts were on this and a lot of other things except the people accusing him of being evil. When the people berating him saw that he was unresponsive to their words, they lost interest in talking to him and left.
Nothing interesting happened after that. Finally, the black crow was done introducing them to the audience and whetting their appetite.
It said to the 76 of them, "I think that's enough for introductions. I hope you're ready for the game, as it will start in ten seconds. If you're not, then I wish you all good luck."
Then the black crow turned back to the audience and said, "By the power vested in me by the Tower of Destiny, I decree that this game can begin."
Its decree made the competitors and the platform disappear. They were replaced by a large arena in the shape of a rectangular box.
The rectangular arena was divided into tracks with different types of obstacles on different sections. Each competitor was placed in one of the tracks, waiting for the countdown to finish so that they could start.
Many large display cubes, numbering 77 in total, appeared above the spectators in the space where the platform used to be and showed what each competitor was currently doing.
Each competitor had four screens on the sides of the display cube dedicated to them. This way, their actions could be seen from various directions.
The largest cube with the largest screens was at the center. It showed what the moderator was currently focused on and commenting on.
The spectators could focus on any screen and make them enlarge in their vision until it fills it up. They could focus on two or more screens at the same time. They had the freedom to watch anything they wanted, however they wanted it.
Right now, they were all watching the competitors as the game started. Some of them cheered, and some of them booed. But a lot of them were nervous for their preferred players to win.
After the ten-second countdown came a loud sound, which signified the start of the game. The players took off immediately.
They ran in a straight line forward, as that was the only direction they could run to. But despite running as fast as they could, they didn't appear to have left their position.
But the players were getting closer to the obstacles because the space between them and the obstacles was reducing as they ran forward.
This is because the track was behaving like a treadmill. As the players ran towards the obstacles, the area behind them shrank and disappeared.
The rate at which the obstacles approached them and the area behind them shrank is directly proportional to their speed. So those who were faster met their obstacles earlier than others.
Augustus was the fastest one. This wasn't because he was using his Juggernaut's Force ability. It was simply because he was the strongest and there was no speedster around to compete with him.
What he was using was pure speed. It was not as spectacular as his true speed with Juggernaut's Force, but it still made him stand out and caused an uproar.
The crow shouted in excitement, "Look at him go. Looks like Augustus ate well on the foreign battlefield. Looks like the other players are in trouble."
By eating well, he meant that Augustus killed a lot of people and gained a lot of permanent destiny. As an experienced entity, he could tell that Augustus was the strongest and also why that is the case.
His speed made him stand at the head of the pack. It made everyone focus on him.
Even the silver woman had stopped eating and was watching the game earnestly. His fans and enemies wanted to see how he would manage against the first obstacle.
The distance between the starting line and the first obstacle was a kilometer. If he had the Mach 6 speed of Juggernaut's Force, which is 6 times the speed of sound, he would be able to cover that distance in less than a second.
Since he was using his normal speed, he was much slower. Normally, 10% of his total power was assigned to his speed, but he can use his Solid Material Shifting ability to shift most of his physical attributes into speed.
He shifted the 10% power of strength and 20% power of his constitution to speed. This increased the allocation of his power to speed from 10% to 40%.
Since his total power is slightly above 100,000,000, his speed became 40,000,000 or 4 × 10^7.
He had a speed of 10 meters per second when he had the power of 100 in speed, and speed increases by one fold for every 10 times increase in power. Therefore, his new speed is 10 meters per second × 7.4.
So it took him 14.2 seconds to reach the first obstacle. It is a far cry from his speed with the Omega Juggernaut's Force, but it is better than the second best, who only has a speed of around 60 meters per second.
Every player has the same arrangement of obstacles. The first obstacle on their track is a white panther. It is a large panther the size of a bull.
He has the choice to kill the white panther or escape from it. If he escapes from the panther, it would count as overcoming the obstacle, but he will only earn one third of the game points available. Only by destroying the obstacle can he earn every point available.
He decided to kill the panther. His choice was based on the level of threat that his Extraordinary Perception saw in the white panther.
It was dangerous to him, so he decided to kill it.
It wasn't as if he had a choice in the matter. The white panther was very fast. It was exactly as fast as him, so he won't be able to escape even if he wanted to.
The white panther stared at him and growled. It slowly paced across the track, effectively blocking his way.
When he came close to it, it dashed at him. He morphed into the steel and graphene hybrid alloy that he created. It was a hard material that looked like obsidian but had the property of ultra-high carbon steel alloy.
He didn't transform into his steel or diamond physique because they were related to identities that he didn't want traced back to him.
This is also why he didn't form blades with his arms or metal claws on his hands when he fought with the white panther. He simply changed his fingers to sharp claws and pounced on the white panther.
The two of them struck each other and began to wrestle. The white panther was far weaker than him, and even though its claws and fangs were sharp, it couldn't hurt him.
Its claws created sparks when they scratched him. But he wasn't so helpless against the white panther. He was so strong that he tore the panther apart.