The Glorious Evolution

Crack!

Immediately after, the crystal floor started cracking under the weight of the Rifters, forcing everyone to swiftly bolt in the direction of the walls.

The bottom of the pit had a radius of one hundred meters, which was massive compared to the rim’s radius of three meters at most.

As mentioned in the game’s description, the pit got narrower the closer to the rim, which made the Rifters understand one thing.

Speed was king!

They had to swiftly climb to the top ahead of everyone else, so they wouldn’t be forced into a chaotic fight on the platforms near the rim.

Levi knew the same, but unlike them, he didn’t sprint to the nearest wall. He had already chosen the best route for his strategy to succeed.

The first hurdle...He had to survive the cracking crystal floor...However, because he was placed in the center, he was already at a disadvantage.

Boom! Crack!...

The moment the first Rifters got themselves secured to the walls, they turned around with cruel smiles and started bombarding the crystal platform with projectiles!

Ice Spikes, Gale Javelin, Ash Arrows...An elemental rain falling from the heavens, forcing the sprinting Rifters to evade and block, their expressions as nasty as they could be.

One even retaliated...A humanoid plant girl with long violet lilac flower hair, wearing a low-cut dress made out of violet leaves.

She slid on the crystal floor to evade a chilling arrow before she pointed her five wooden fingers at the assailant.

”Bastard!! Take this...Thorns Machine Gun!”

Her wooden wrist started spinning on its axis while firing a hail of thorn-like, sharp bullets from the tip of her fingers!

”Sh*t! Ice Shield!”

The assailant was a thin snow yeti with long silky fur, exposed chest, and a face hidden behind a mean-looking mask. He swiftly manifested an icy shield and took cover behind it, holding it with one hand while using the other to remain glued to the wall.

Pew! Pew! Pew!...

The thorn bullets kept piercing the shield halfway or breaking during contact, but it still held strong against the barrage.

”Stonebite has gone and done it; he pissed off Thornlily, and now he has to brace against her anger while the rest of the Rifters are already climbing!”

Gamemaster Gadget commented passionately, hovering outside of the pit, yet still had a full sight of every Rifter and conflict.

With such omnipotent authority, he felt like he could see everything at the same time and pick the best scenes for the watcher’s entertainment.

As for the watchers? They were given the option of either unrestricted viewership, allowing them to see the game as it was from the skies...Or, accept the Gamemaster’s vision, making them able to see the game from his omnipotent perspective, which was streamed live to many other watchers in their homes.

Of course, everyone chose the latter.

As the viewers were awaiting excitedly to see which one would give in first...Stonebite’s shield or Thornlily’s barrage.

But suddenly, a slithering, dark, chained staff’s crown appeared out of nowhere and tightened itself on Thornlily’s right ankle...Levi’s signature move.

”Huh?”

Startled, she turned around to find Levi rushing towards her, two celestial stars aligned perfectly in the position of his eyes, shimmering in the void.

”You dumb f*cker, I am helping us escape the cracking floor!”

Thornlily turned around with a heated look and aimed her machine gun at Levi while Stonebite laughed in delight.

”Thank you, bro!”

He thanked him, but he didn’t bother to spend another second near them, chasing after the other climbers in their section.

Unbothered, Levi kept moving his head and body subtly, evading only when necessary, like he could already predict the thorns’ trajectory before they reached him!

He was using echolocation to lock down a ten-meter domain around him, making him nearly deaf to the noise outside of it, but perfectly immersed with anything going on inside.

It was the same technique used against Demetris, only an improved version of it...He had learned his lesson after Nurah pierced through his small domain, giving her a chance to ambush him.

In no time, Levi neared Thornlilly and launched his counter-attack. He slid against the last barrage while pulling his chains, forcing Thornlily’s legs to split up.

As she was falling down, Levi was there to meet her, smashing her hand with his staff, turning her aim at the distance, clueless climbers!

Pew!

One of the Rifters hadn’t expected an attack from the bottom and paid the price, his thigh pierced by a stray thorn!

Arghhh!!!

He groaned in pain for a moment before a tremor shook his bones. He felt it...His entire leg went numb; the thorns were poisonous!

The worst part, he was putting most of his weight on it.

As he felt his leg turning into stone and then the rest of his body slowly, all he could do was gaze in despair at the pool of dark tar and bones, reaching out to claim his soul.

Unbeknownst to any of this, the moment Thornlily’s machine gun was pointed to the sky, Levi pulled up with a nasty uppercut at her chin, breaking her jaw in an instant while throwing her body a couple of meters above ground.

Thornlily’s body was hollow wood with intelligent fungi as her brain, making her weight no less than twenty kilos; a single punch from Levi was enough to send her flying!

Yet, he wasn’t done.

Levi tightened his grasp on the chains, keeping their length at two meters. Then, he started spinning in his place, uncaring about the breaking crystal under him or the wailing bones’ screech.

He kept spinning the flail, limp Thornlilly under the stunned eyes of the viewers...His auditory vision was fixed on the climbing blue spiritual aura.

’Now.’

Then, he freed her ankle, sending her flying in the direction of none other than Stonebite!

The other climbers froze for a split second, their widened pupils affixed on Thornlily’s body, nearing the clueless Stonebite, who was focused on his climb while keeping a thin ice shield protecting his back.

Only when he heard the sudden whooshing noise did he turn his head.

”Huh?”

Dumbfounded, his widened pupils reflected Thornlily’s body getting bigger and bigger until...Boom!

Dust rose, the wall shook, and two bodies fell headfirst into the crystal floor near the wall, shattering it at once.

Just like a domino effect, the crystal kept breaking apart from the half facing Levi, rushing to the center!

If it wasn’t for the other half holding strong in the back, the entire floor would have shattered at once.

Aaaaaa!!! Shiit!! I have to jump!!..

The Rifters closest to the walls swiftly ignored the attacks from above and jumped on the nearest walls to them, eating some of the bombardment in the process.

Some made it, and some got hurt badly midair, turning their bodies upside down as they fell to an eternal embrace.

Still, they had a better chance than Levi, who was more than ten meters away from the wall...the furthest of them all!

-Holy shit, holy shit, that was one wicked sequence! But didn’t he ruin himself?-

-To throw a Rifter at another like that, how mad! He didn’t even care about himself!-

-I knew it, only psychopaths will wear such a deviant mask!-

The watchers’ eyes gleamed in shock and amazement for a moment before they turned sympathetic at the sight of shattering glass, rushing towards him, akin to a tidal wave.

”Heh, he is good, but quite dumb.”

Ssek-Varr sneered while standing sideways on the wall, his toe pads making it nearly impossible for him to fall off.

”A newbie will always be a newbie.”

Webwalker shook his head from a different location, standing above a Rifter, who was cocooned to the wall.

They had already started their hunting session for Nocrix credits, knowing that no one in this game was capable of being faster than them.

Although the Nocturnal Ring’s system did its absolute best to ensure a balanced matchmaking, it was nearly impossible not to give some Rifters an advantage.

There were too many races, and each one had its own type of skills.

All the program could do was ensure that Rifters wouldn’t be put into games that were absolutely unplayable for them.

Such as winged non-humanoid races being put in this game while removing their flight capabilities.

”Three Body Problem, tsk, more like a...Huh?”

Before Ssek-Varr could finish his insult, his glossy orbed eye flickered as he watched Levi fling his staff’s crown into a hardened stair-step embedded in the wall before him.

Then, it spun around it once, twice, and latched into it hard.

Just as the crystal was about to shatter from under Levi’s legs, he jumped and ordered the chains to pull him up, a bony, thin hand almost touching his feet.

In an instant, Levi arrived at the step and pulled himself up, crouching on top of it, akin to an Assassin’s Creed character, scanning the perimeter for his next assassination.

-...-

-...-

-...-

As the dazed viewers gazed at the orbiting stars under his hoodie, they didn’t know what to think or feel...His face gave them nothing but questions.

But one thing they knew for sure.

From the first moment Levi made his move until he arrived at the step, not a single movement was wasted as if everything was planned out from the very beginning!