The Tale of the Void Emperor

Aby, the pixy fairy, looked at other orchos celestials and talked to them telepathically, 'They are all going to lose their money.'

'Yeah, but what can we do?'

'Hehe, I know some people who are here and told them to bet on them winning instead of betting against them.'

'Holy...their winning odds are surely going to be very high because they are late. Hey, this is a chance to earn money. But only tell this to people that you know very closely. We have to limit this to a small number of people.'

'Yeah. Let's do it, hehehe.'

As such, some people in the audience received messages from orchos celestials and were startled after hearing them.

'Are you serious?'

'Definitely! Bet on them winning in the first round to earn more because after 1st round, everyone will know their real capabilities, and their winning odds will be lowered.'

'Alright, I'll trust you. I am going all-in with 10,000 Etons on them when they arrive here.'

Similar things happened to tens of people more.

....

"Before entering, we must tell you something," Dreevindo said as he stopped in front of the golden ring while facing Athan, Lily, Huarin, and Mimi.

"What?" Athan said as he raised his eyebrows.

Blankrino looked at Mimi and then at Athan, Lily, and Huarin before saying, "this young girl's origins are actually very high profile. The Kings at the stadium would definitely have more information regarding her than me."

Dreevindo nodded before he looked at Lily, "So if you don't want to raise a commotion or attract attention, then you should let her enter into the strange space that you are always using to disappear."

'I will stay inside the ark space,' Mimi telepathically said to Lily, Athan, and Huarin, "even though I want to stay outside, I don't want to trouble you. Anyway, I can leave freely once this battle game of theirs finishes, right?'

Athan smiled gently and said, 'yep. Once the battle game finishes, you can come out. I will give you a new look and a new dress that suits you as well. You will accept this gift from me, right?'

Mimi smiled happily and nodded, 'of course! Hehe, I can't wait for it.'

Lily understood Athan's intention and agreed with him. After all, they want to hide Mimi's real identity so that her parent's enemy and people who are looking for the Ark of Exordium won't find her.

"We will let you out very soon, Mimi," Lily said with a smile as she patted Mimi's hand, and right after that, Mimi disappeared.

Dreevindo and Blankrino raised their eyebrows at that as they still couldn't see through this trick of Lily.

'Did you sense anything?' Dreevindo asked Blankrino.

'Nope, no clue.'

"Alright, let's enter now," said Dreevindo as he entered the golden ring first.

...

On the other hand, the audience, waiting for fifteen minutes, saw the golden ring pulsing as several people finally came out.

Athan, Huarin, Lily, Dreevindo, and Blankrino arrived while Mimi stayed inside the Ark space.

Seeing them, the audience started booing on them and hurled curses.

However, this only lasted for a few seconds as a middle-aged man with white patterns on a dark blue robe arrived in the stadium as he floated in the center and thundered, his voice suppressing everyone's voice.

"WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, WE WILL START THE GAME IN ONE MINUTE!."

"The last three candidates are registered. You all have twenty seconds to finalize your bets for the first round!!"

Almost everyone started betting on Athan, Lily, and Huarin that they would be out in the first round.

No one bothered to do the superficial inspection on Athan, Lily, or Huarin like they did on other candidates. If they did, they would find that Lily and Huarin definitely were more powerful than other candidates.

At the same time, Athan would be an enigma to them since they wouldn't be able to inspect anything of him, not even his body aura, because of Athan's void robe and void mask.

...

The people managing the betting house in the ground below the stadium were shocked as they saw statistics on a large screen in front of them.

"What the heck? Why are those 67 people betting on the last three candidates winning? Some people even betted as high as 20,000 Etons on their wins."

"It's strange but not at the same time. They are usually not lacking Etons, and also seeing that the odds of their win are 1:100, of them getting 100x in return if those three pass the first round, they would bet out of greed."

"Yeah, that's possible."

"But if they win, then we will suffer quite a loss."

"It's not our money in the first place. We will just earn less if they win, that's all."

...

"The first round is the Trial Domain round! One by one, each candidate will enter into the trial domain and defeat a Risor-grade monster! Top 32 who kill the monster fastest will enter the second round!"

After saying that, the middle-aged man, who was known as Sinish, took out a pulsing dreamy blue cube from his storage and put it on the ground at the center before it turned into a five-meter tall door with dark blue patterns on its borders. The door was a portal door leading to the Trial Domain.

Afterward, Sinish waved his hand as ten square meters large display also appeared in the sky in all directions so that everyone could see the battle.

"Candidate Yorin! You will enter first," said Sinish as he looked at Yoring, who was the first candidate to arrive here.

Yoring nodded with excitement and nervousness in his eyes as he entered the portal door.

*Roarrrrrrr!!*

Right after that, everyone saw a lavatic scenery filled with smoke and ashes on the screen.

There was also a giant three-headed humanoid monster with four hands. The monster looked demonic with red skin and two large horns. Its eyes were bright crimson with a yellow iris in them.

The screen zoomed out to see more area as Yoring appeared on the screen, approximately one kilometer away from the monster after he entered through the portal door.