Chapter 770: Chapter 770. The national Competition begins.

Eventually, Julian arrived outside the hotel villa with the elf lady. The elf lady giggled, blew him a kiss as she floated away, and nodded warmly to Kailen. Julian winked at her as she chuckled flirtatiously, shook her head, and disappeared.

After the woman left, Kailen noticed Julian’s gaze somewhat carried a hint of melancholy. Using emotional resonance, realization flashed through Kailen’s eyes.

"So he lost his wife in the edge region of the universe due to vampire clan politics? The one-night stands... they are all coping methods to dull the pain of his loss... to think I thought he was just having fun," Kailen mused to himself.

However, he didn’t ask Julian anything. He had to respect Julian’s privacy. If Julian was not willing to share something like that with him, he would not ask. Some things were very personal, even among friends.

Friends, huh... No doubt... Julian was a friend. This fellow stood with him even when the Insidious Assassin Syndicate was hunting him down and the whole Southern Continent thought his end was set in stone—why won’t he consider Julian a friend? Kailen was not one to easily call someone a friend. Trust could be costly if one gave it to the wrong people, after all. Julian had earned his trust with his actions.

Julian did not even notice Kailen in thought, because these thoughts flashed through Kailen’s mind in just a moment.

"Let’s move," Julian said.

"Yeah," Kailen nodded.

The duo turned into streaks of light and bolted off. Their destination was the NGU general HQ.

**** 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

As announced, the whole empire would be watching the NGU national competition today through streaming platforms across the empire, and the official streaming platform of the NGU general HQ. Currently, everyone’s screens were blank. However, the screens suddenly went live.

The 15 participants had arrived at the NGU general HQ, and they were all standing in a very large forested region with a dome towering above it.

****

Kailen and Julian observed their surroundings. They had been led here the moment they arrived at the NGU general HQ. The moment they arrived, the other participants looked in their direction with complicated expressions.

At this moment, Tawaki Xi also arrived. He looked in Kailen and Julian’s direction, smiled, and nodded to them. Kailen and Julian also nodded back. That ended the interaction between them.

Currently, all the participants were standing in a forested region with a dome above them. The NGU president and some higher-ups were before them.

The president spoke. "Has the broadcast started?" he asked.

One of the NGU general HQ higher-ups replied, "Yes, sir."

"Alright. Since the whole empire is watching, let’s not waste time anymore," he said, then pointed towards a sealed entrance in an open clearing in the forest as he stared at the participants at the same time. "That is one of the four natural secret realms of the NGU general HQ. It’s where you’ll be having the national competition."

The participants nodded in realization. The same applied to the rest of the empire, watching the broadcast.

The NGU president continued, "Participants are to kill chaotic beasts in the natural secret realm. Rankings depend on the number and strength of chaotic beasts killed. Killing among participants is allowed. Participants that are killed will have their names disappear from the rankings.

The competition stops when there are ten participants remaining, right after which you’ll all be ejected from the secret realm. The ranking of the remaining ten participants at the time of the end of the competition will be fixed , and will be used for the final rankings.

If no participant representing a guild is in the top ten at the end of the day, the guild has naturally been eliminated from the national competition. There can be a situation where more than one person from the same guild is in the top ten rankings.

As you are already aware of, the first-ranked person will obtain a slot to enroll in the Venzula Empire Academy. The second to tenth rank will obtain membership into the NGU. Guild leaders of guilds the top ten participants are from will obtain leadership roles in the NGU."

After his words, glints of coldness flashed through the eyes of several participants. Everyone understood what the rules implied. Five participants had to die.

The spectators from across the empire were equally stunned, too. This competition would be very ruthless.

At this moment, guilds who had finalists participating in the national competition were silently praying in their hearts, definitely not out of concern for their members, but for the benefits the success of their members in the national competition would bring to them.

After these words, the NGU president scanned the participants one last time before he moved close to the sealed entrance. The moment he arrived before it, he placed his hand on the sealed entrance. The sealed entrance tore open, revealing a small, ethereal open entrance.

"What are you all waiting for?"

At his words, the participants shot towards the sealed entrance.

"Oh, one last thing..." The participants paused and looked at him.

"Nanocameras are being sent in with you. The empire is watching, after all."

The participants wanted to kick this man in the guts... if they could. They thought he wanted to mention another rule. But this senior wasted their time to stop them and tell them this? Naturally, none dared to express this feeling. They didn’t want to imagine the consequences of disrespecting a senior. They nodded respectfully and entered the natural secret realm, leaving the NGU higher-ups in the domed forest region.

The citizens of the empire had their eyes glued to the holographic screens. The broadcast did not focus on what was happening with one participant at a time. The screen had split into 15 sections. All 15 participants were being covered at the same time. This way, if a spectator wanted to focus solely on one participant, they could just zoom into that participant’s section to observe them more clearly.

Several across the empire were placing big bets through the NGU betting platform on who would die, who would win first place, second place, third place, fourth place, in that manner. Several placed bets on Kailen Darkhaven obtaining first place. Others betted on Tawaki Xi. There were some who also betted on Julian Seir obtaining second place.

Some even placed bets on other participants they deemed underdogs to obtain first place. They did this because of the high amount of money they would get if those people won the first place, since the possibility was currently deemed very low. All the same, the NGU was using these betting avenues to earn large amounts of gold coins.

After these bets were placed, the audience focused fully on their screens, ready to observe the sagas which will unfold in the natural secret realm.