Chapter 537: Lock and Key
"Prepare to feast your eyes upon the magnificent Pocket Dimension that I have prepared for all of you," Barnaby announced as he once again stepped out of the stage. The white platform split in half and slowly crawled out of view, revealing a giant hole in the middle.
Within this chasm, everyone could peek through and see a ginormous world that seemed to teem with life and variety. It looked really big, as if they had stepped into a new world entirely.
"Here’s the rules of the game: To comply with the rules of the Association, the normal fighters and Maugnetics are separated into two distinct parts of the Pocket Dimension.
Five of your ordinary fighters will land on the left side of the world, while the Maugnetics are put onto the right side. Both cannot interact with each other, but the results of one will heavily affect the other."
The Pocket Dimension world was separated into two through an opaque wall that split the land in half, stretching all the way to the skies and all the way underground, just like Barnaby said.
The left side was further separated into five sections, each one having its own terrain and topography.
One was a desert covered with mounds of sands. One was a mountainscape with several high-reaching snow-tipped mountains. The other was an overground labyrinth made out of some kind of stone. The fourth was a dense and thick forestry rich with plant and animal life. And the last one looked like it was inside a volcano with magma flowing through the cracked ground and geysers spontaneously spouting steaming hot water all over.
"We shall call the left side as the Key.
The Key side has five sections, each one corresponding to a single drop of Spirit of Old. There shall be only one designated fighter per company allowed inside each section at a time.
The goal of those fighters is to find one of the keys hidden somewhere in the terrain. There are enough of these keys for all fighters in the section. If you are able to obtain this key, then your company will be eligible to obtain a single drop of Soo.
If you can’t find it or you get knocked unconscious, then your company will be forfeiting their chance to get that specific drop of Soo.
So, there are two choices for all of your fighters. First is to focus on finding the keys hidden in the environment. Mind you, I have made it very hard to find. Or you can choose the second option, which is to eliminate all of your opponents from contention.
If you are the only person left in the section, then even if you haven’t found the key, then your company is immediately eligible for the drop of Soo.
Now, let’s talk about the right side of the territory named Lock."
The right side was only about half the size of the left side and had only a single uniform terrain in its entirety. It looked like any normal piece of land, with a bunch of trees, a river that ran through from North to South, and a small mountain to the side.
The only interesting piece about the right side called the Lock, was the dome structure in the very middle, which seemed to be made out of glass like a greenhouse.
Michael could see five pillars inside the glass dome, each one containing the vial of Soo.
"Now, the right side of the Pocket Dimension is reserved for the Maugnetic of your company.
Your goal here is to get inside the glass dome. To do so, you must have at least one key in the possession of your teammate from the other side.
Once you have entered, then you can touch one of the pillars and obtain the drop of Soo for yourself. Of course, if your team was only able to get one key, then you’ll only be able to unlock one drop.
As before, you have two choices in getting the Soo drops. First is by relying on your teammates to get the keys that you need. And second is to simply eliminate your opponents until you are the only one left.
If you are the only Maugnetic left, then all the Soo will automatically be yours to obtain."
This game basically had two modes of winning. First is to follow the rules, like getting the keys and using it to get the Soo. And the second is to defeat all the other opponents until there was only one man left standing.
And because the Rising Six were intelligent, they quickly understood the rules of the game and began strategizing with their teams.
They began to discuss who among them would be put onto the magma section, the snowy mountain section, and all the others of the Key region.
And of course, since there was only one Maugnetic allowed in this game, it was obvious that each company chose the strongest among them. And for the Rising Six, those were none other than the Rising Six themselves.
And while all of them had serious expressions and wore their game-face on, there was a completely different vibe going on in the Reborn company VIP suite.
"This is bad... I forgot to put the pizza in the oven," Zion muttered out with a ghastly expression.
"You idiot," Jaku reprimanded him. "Now what are we going to eat later?"
"URGH! Can I go back?!"
Watching this, Max and the other Vanderbilts were completely stunned. Even though they were perhaps entering one of the biggest stages in Metropolis, they weren’t even taking it seriously at all!
They didn’t know if they should worry for them or not. After all, the Rising Six were formidable all on their own. But in this auction, they’d have to fight them all and somehow win!
They would have thought that they would be knee-deep in planning by now. But instead, they were just worrying about pizza.
"Umm...Michael, is this okay?" Max asked.
"Nah, it’s fine. I’ll have our chefs bake the pizza before we arrive."
"No, the auction!"
"Oh that...they’re ready for it, I think," he said, tilting his head with a little bit of doubt.
Thankfully, Sheina got everyone’s attention to focus on the task at hand. "Everyone, please prepare for the auction properly.
"Um... what are we supposed to do again? I didn’t understand it, hehe," Zion chuckled to himself.
Sheina wanted to smack her little brother, but she restrained herself knowing that they had to be in the best condition possible for the game.
"You just have to worry about finding the Key in your region," she stated.
"Or...you can just wait until someone else gets it and you can steal it from them!" Fudge suggested with an evil grin.
Jaku overheard this and immediately considered it. "Hmm...that’s quite a good idea. I can just sleep for the majority of the game and let all the others do the work for me!"
"....I’ll just quietly find the key. I don’t want to fight the others," Umisu muttered out shyly.
"Hohoho, that is indeed a reliable plan, miss Umisu. I shall copy your idea as well. I will be digging the ground and find that key no matter what!....I just hope that I don’t find any bones there... shudders..."
"Grieve, you are made out of bones!" Michael reminded him.
"Oh...hohohoho I forgot!"