Chapter 71 - The Dark Appears

Knowing that Aryan has zero knowledge about the outside world, Yoshino handed over her virtual tab to Aryan with a web page article, describing about the Virtual Arena and the Chakra Insertion Tube.

The contents of the page were as follows:

Article On Virtual Arena & Chakra Insertion Tubes

Virtual Arena:- 

Invented by: Hioroki Aizawa

Description: A cubical barrier projected over an arena with the help of the GCMI projector made by collaboration of the Aizawas and the Nicolas.

Working: The GCMI projector uses chakra energy, virtual reality and the technology of augmented reality to create a barrier above the arena, for cultivation practitioners to fight inside.

Special Features: Competitors can go all out inside the barrier and the redeeming feature about this is instead of getting life threatening or fatal wounds they will get light wounds only. But the pain will be the same as that of a fatal wound.

Chakra Insertion Tubes: 

Invented by: Jeff Nicolas

Description: A cylindrical barrier to inject your chakra into the Virtual Arena.

Working: The Chakra Insertion Tube (CIT) uses virtual reality and augmented reality technology to transfer the chakra energy inside the Virtual Arena.

Special Features: After the competitors input their chakra energy inside the CIT, it sends the energy to Virtual Arena, to analyse it and to make the final adjustments to withstand their fight.

For example, if a fifth stage practitioner and a sixth stage practitioner are about to fight, it will make the adjustments such that none of them individually nor combinedly could break the barrier. The analysing system will make the barrier strong enough that even with their strongest attacks, they won't be able to break it.

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"I see, that's how it is," said Aryan with a content look on his face and returned the pad to Yoshino. Till then he didn't know about augmented reality and virtual reality, nor did he wanna know about them for the time being. All he wanted to do was to enjoy the fight before him. His first fight after taking birth in the new world. He had seen and used some spells with his gramps in Heaven's Garden, but never had seen a real fight.

The 2D square on the top of the Arena glowed again and took the shape of an enormous blue coloured cube. Both the participants standing below released their chakra energy even more than before. At one point the CIT around them extended and connected itself to the Virtual Arena above. The system projecting the Virtual Arena analysed their chakra wavelength, frequency, propagation speed and made the final adjustments of the cube.

Sir Jean took out his measuring tablet to see their energy levels and found it somewhat same to that of a third stage cultivation practitioner. Aryan took a peek at the device and saw the detailed information of energy conversion rate, loss rate, equilibrium stability graph, wavelength stability rate, cube wall rotation rate and so on...…

Each word on the tab was giving him a headache, he knew the meaning of two words only, one was energy, the second was loss, apart from that all the remaining words made him feel uncomfortable.  

'Just how developed is this era, we can now measure the chakra energy in numbers and other values,' thought Aryan.

After the final adjustment it was time for them to enter the Virtual Arena. The way of entering was unique on its own that Aryan had never seen before. Both of them stood still and closed their eyes.

Whooooish!!

The CIT sucked them inside the Battle Arena and returned them their chakra energy that they had used before. Aryan couldn't resist his curiosity and asked Sir Jean about it.

"Ahh… that I think it's not mentioned in that article. Let me tell you one more thing, after they enter the Virtual Arena it will return them their energy, the Virtual Arena takes the energy just to analyse their power levels and its destructiveness."

"I see."

"Yes, let's enjoy the match, kiddo."

Meanwhile, down in the arena, Howk and Sam had successfully entered the Virtual Arena and were waiting for the signal. On Sir Jean's confirmation, the floating screen beeped and showed Start!!

Both of them created distance between them and summoned out their Soul Weapon, Aryan observed their actions and blurted out "Both of them are in 5th stage."

Sir Jean heard his muttering and said, "None of them are in 5th stage, both of them are in their 3rd."

"What?!!"

"Yes, they are in the 3rd stage."

"I see, then they have the Wizard titles."

"Yes, they have." replied Sir Jean.

Listening to the conversation, Yoshino was feeling like she was hearing the conversation of two old men and she was like a kid seated between them, completely ignored.

Down in the Virtual Arena Sam had a bow in his hand as his spirit weapon while Howk had a frisbee as his spirit weapon. In ancient times it was common to see a bow as someone's soul weapon, but a frisbee as a soul weapon was something new for Aryan. He was both confused and excited at the same time. Confused because he had never seen anything like a frisbee as a soul weapon. And excited because he was eager to learn how that new weapon works and its power.

Sir Jean asked Aryan whether he knew about that weapon on Howk's hand and as usual he shook his head to convey that he didn't know anything about it. Sir Jean told Aryan that Howk's soul weapon shouldn't be mistaken as a frisbee, cause it may look like one, but on a closer look he could tell it's not a frisbee but a disc.

Aryan was confused by his statement and took a careful look at Howk's soul weapon and to his surprise it was not a frisbee to begin with but a disc like weapon. It had a white lining around it, that was emitting a white light making it look like any divine weapon.

'The heck is that weapon, it looked like two concentric circles two me,' Aryan pondered.

Now that he had found something that had piqued his interest he was paying more attention to their each and every movements. Earlier he mistook Howk's weapon as a frisbee so he asked Sir Jean about Sam's weapon. 'God knows what's that weapon in his hand that looks like a normal bow.'

So he asked his Uncle Jean about it.

Sir Jean laughed at his dumb question and replied, "Lil boy, you aren't mistaken this time. Sam's soul weapon is a bow."

"I see, just confirming again," said Aryan laughingly. 

Inside the Virtual Arena the match had already started, some were cheering for Sam while the others were cheering for Howk.

Sam took aim and shot five arrows in one go, Hawk dodged them all with flawless movements and plunged towards Sam with the disc in one hand. Finally the fight had started for which everyone was waiting eagerly all this time.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the International Cultivation Fair inside a shop a group of people were standing in rows and before them was a person seated on a black sofa.

His height was average, hands snow white, smoke was oozing out from his surrounding and the room was chilly. But none of the people standing there were feeling the cold.

All the peoples standing there had their hoodies on and none of their faces were visible and the same goes for the person seated on the sofa.

"All preparations complete?!!" he asked in a grave tone. 

One of the people from the group came forward and replied, "Everything is done, the security is taken care of, all of them are replaced by ours except two."

"Uhhhh.... What?!! Who are these two?!!" the person seated on the chair asked angrily.

"Victor and Howk are the two names that we couldn't deal with."

"Why?"

"They are in the arena now, we couldn't invade that place."

"Why?" he asked again.

"That person is there, observing that place."

The person seated on the sofa removed his gloves, pointed it towards the person replying to his question and made a clockwise gesture. 

Suddenly the space around him twisted and..... 

"All preparations complete?!!" he asked in a grave tone. 

One of the people from the group came forward and replied, "Everything is done, the security is taken care of, all of them are replaced by ours except two."

"Uhhhh.... What?!! Who are these two?!!" the person seated on the chair asked angrily.

"Victor and Howk are the two names that we couldn't deal with."

"Because they are in the arena?"

"Yes, sir."

"And that person is observing that person?"

"Yes, sir."

"So, how should we proceed?"

"We can take them off guard during the interval period," another person replied from back.

"Good idea," praised the person seated on the sofa, removed his gloves again, pointed it towards the people standing before him and made a clockwise gesture...…

"All preparations complete?!!" he asked in a grave tone. 

One of the people from the group came forward and replied "Everything is done, the security is taken care of, all of them are replaced by ours except two."

"Uhhhh.... What?!! Who are these two?!!" the person seated on the chair asked angrily.

"Victor and Howk are the two names that we couldn't deal with."

"Because they are in the arena?"

"Yes, sir."

"And that person is observing that person?"

"Yes, sir."

"We can take them during the interval then," he suggested.

One of the people from the group came forward and praised the person seated on the sofa.