Opening Ceremony 2

Everyone fell silent as the prominent woman scanned the hall of this year's contestants.

"Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 100th year of the Superhuman Tournament. My name is Evris; you may recognize me as last years winner. I will be your host for this year, a true honor, considering this year's games mark an important anniversary."

As Evris's beautiful, collected voice echoed throughout the hall, people murmured with excitement at seeing her recognizable face.

Kaden was obviously elated.

'I swear these lucky numbers are doing something!'

He looked at Evris with infatuation and admiration —though mostly just infatuation.

She had a lion's mane of black hair flowing down her back. Her face held sharp, menacing features but seemed composed. She was wearing a suit, which accentuated all of her proportions and more reinforced her stature and allure.

Beyond that, her body was coated with what could only be considered an otherworldly aura — an intensity that could even be felt from where Kaden could be seated; the signs of a person blessed by the otherworldly powers granted by the tournament.

'So this is what it feels like.'

Kaden, like many others in the audience, had never seen a real, breathing superhuman before. Most of his exposure had been through the internet or the propaganda videos that were shown in school, so this was his first time experiencing the full brunt of what a superhuman actually was.

And to say that it was anything besides overwhelming was an understatement.

Kaden grimaced, glancing at the others around him, who wore similar expressions on their faces.

'Could I obtain this level of power?'

Kaden had not put much thought in the "reward" of the tournament itself; he was more interested in the challenge of the game. But seeing this woman in front of him, his motivations begun to sway — if only slightly.

Evris smiled, looking at the faces of determination and awe, and slowly receded her powers.

"As you can see, the powers I had fought for last year have become part of me permanently. Now, it is time for one of you to accomplish a similar feat."

Murmurs of excitement echoed through the hall.

"Of course, this year holds a different challenge..."

The hall tensed up in anticipation.

"This year, instead of the usual one-on-one bouts, we will be having group-oriented activities, where competitors will have to cooperate with others to pass challenges."

'What!'

Kaden almost screamed out loud.

'This... this is not good...'

Kaden had always been a single-player gamer, so this news was catastrophic to him.

"This new tournament environment will be held in the virtual dreamscape developed by fellow superhuman Peor — a new feat of incredible engineering that he felt was fitting to unveil at the tournament."

'A virtual world...'

Think of all the possibilities. A place of where the laws of this world could be melded. A place where he could finally live out the stories he read and day-dreamed of as a kid. Kaden felt excited but also a little worried about the uncertainty as to what he would be actually getting into. 

'Wait... but then, how would we gain our powers if we are within the virtual space?

As if on cue, Evris pulled Kaden from his pondering with an answer.

"You may be asking yourselves, how would we be able to progress our power in a virtual environment. Well, here's the cool part. The virtual space is completely in sync with your actual body, so any progression you make in the virtual world with your powers will be transferred."

That makes a lot of sense.

Evris shifted her posture on stage and opened up her arms.

"With that out of the way, would you like to learn a little bit about what you'll be getting into for the first phase of the tournament?"

Cheers erupted from the hall.

"Good, I like the enthusiasm."

A projector suddenly began displaying a picture of a lush, green forest landscape.

"The first phase of the tournament will be a week-long event. You will be paired up with two other contestants — both the local dwelling beasts as well as other groups of contestants will be your opponents. You will be scored based on the elimination of contestants, elimination of beasts, and any other 'events' that may occur during the phase."

While listening to Evris, Kaden could not help but be excited.

'A battle royale!'

This concept was very familiar to many of the contestants, as many games had used the idea.

This setting seemed ideal for Kaden as well, as there was more than one way to secure points besides attacking other contestants.

Kaden also paid close attention to the last note on 'events.' These events could be a way to enforce groups to move against each other or be a way to secure more power. Assuming he was correct, this battle royale would be anything but normal.

Kaden felt it would be wise to stay on the side of caution and start planning ways to make the most out of the situation.

The only outlier being whoever he would be paired up with.

Kaden glanced to his right towards the barbarian woman and then to his left at the prince charming.

'Please anything but these two.'

They were walking problem makers — for sure.

Evris continued, explaining that this phase of the event will end when at least one fourth of the contestants were eliminated or when a week had passed. Considering that there was 10,000 people in the tournament, they were aiming to whittle them down quickly. 

"Later tonight, you will be given a booklet of the rules. There are way too many to list off here during a speech, so you'll have to read that on your own time."

Some grumbling could be heard in the audience. To Kaden, the rules where nothing more than a benchmark to see what he could exploit, so he would definitely take a good look at them.

Evris waved off the audience in understanding.

"Yeah... Yeah... I get it. Rules suck. But take a look at them. You don't want to be disqualified and not know what you did wrong."

Kaden nodded in agreement. Evris reinforced his thoughts — he would make sure to read them.

"And finally, what many of you may have been waiting for: after the ceremony, all of you will go to the assessment building to get your foundation!"

Many cheers erupted from the hall with excitement.

What everyone had wanted to know was when they would get their foundation, and it seemed to be sooner than they thought.

Evris continued in a more serious tone:

"I will warn you again: This year, there will be a change to how you acquire your foundation. Instead of being able to choose, you will be given yours without any choice."

Now this was surprising.

Something that had always stayed consistent throughout all the years of the tournament was the concept of choice — a way to give the tournament a sense of fairness in how it progressed. It is why decision-making, at least to Kaden, was the most important aspect that someone could have when participating.

So to say that this change was monumental would be an understatement.

'What are those old farts thinking...'

Kaden could only ponder to what the game-makers were doing and why they decided to create such a change in the structure to the tournament. Anniversary aside, it felt as though they were trying to uproot the entire concept of what this tournament was supposed to be.

Kaden shrugged to himself and gave up on trying to peer into the inner machinations of the game-makers minds. It was pointless to spend energy on such thoughts.

Raising her hand, Evris calmed the hall.

"Don't worry, though. Any other power that you obtain will still involve 'choice.' It's just the initial foundation that has changed."

'Okay, that's good.'

Kaden sighed.

He was banking the possibility of winning solely on the fact that you had the ability to create your own path when it came to accumulating power. If that was taken away from him, it would have just ruined the fun — ruined what he felt made the game interesting to him in the first place.

Some relief was seen in the eyes of the contestants as Evris took a long breath and smiled, clasping her hands together.

"Well, that about wraps up the opening ceremony. A final word of advice as a prior contestant: Don't overthink too much; it will get you eliminated."