Chapter 29: Facilitator

Without any windup, Hugh gathered his strength into his balled-up fist and punched the bag. The sound created from the collision reverberated throughout the facility, silencing the chatter. The man from before attacked the scarecrow yet there was no sound so people wondered where the sound came from. They couldn't believe that it came from Hugh's punch.

If one were to look closely, there was an indentation the shape of Hugh's knuckles in the punching bag. The indestructible testing machine was damaged to this extent yet people did notice any difference.

The facility was quiet. Their hearts stopped as they considered the possibility of Hugh having untold power hiding in his fists. Beads of sweat poured down their faces as they regretted betting so much of their money against Hugh.

Even Max, who stayed around the facility to see the failure of Hugh, had his jaws on the floor as he looked at the aftermath done by Hugh. He couldn't believe that a nobody was able to be at his level, and gods forbid exceed his strength.

They all looked towards the display next to the power ranking with bated breaths. The results of the punch will determine whether Hugh was the real deal or not. Some dreaded the anticipation and stomped their feet in the ground. Some of them balled their fists until it trembled.

[Desire Intensity]

Calculated Desire Intensity: 201

[CONGRATULATIONS HUGE! You have reached the top 10]

The world seemed to stop as they all stared at the result of the calculated Desire intensity. 201. An unbelievable number came out from the calculations of the machine. Everyone was wide-eyed as they rubbed their eyes, thinking that their eyesight had given them the wrong information but the display was still the same.

A Desire intensity of 201 is reserved only for those who had advanced to the first rank. It was impossible for an unadvanced person to reach 201 because that was the limit for the talent of a person with regards to their Desire. Even the teller watched the results with disbelief colored all over her face. She had a brief thought that the machine had malfunctioned but that was impossible. Even if there was a chance that the machine malfunctioned, the Desire intensity would appear lower, not higher.

She knew that Hugh was strong enough to reach the top 10 from their interaction before but she never thought that Hugh was this strong.

Their tongues were tied into a knot as they watched Hugh's in-game name climb the ladders of the power ranking and settled on the very first spot. He was officially the top 1 person with a Desire intensity of 201, the best in this world and probably other worlds too. Nobody had ever heard of an unadvanced surpassing the 200s.

"This machine is broken!"

"There was no way that number is true right? I'm dreaming right?"

"This guy lied! He's actually in the first advancement, that's the only way to explain why he has a Desire intensity of 201!"

"Yeah! Bring us our money back!!"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

People started to clamor all around them as chaos dominated the facility. The money they bet against Hugh was now gone in the wind. Most of the people bet their whole life savings as a risk to have a big payoff which meant that some of them were now dead broke. Nobody believed the result given by the machine because of its absurdity.

They rioted against the machine and forced themselves into the facilitator's room, complaining about the unjust result of their bets. They almost created a stampede as they all knocked on the doors while shouting their pleas.

"Is this how the ranking facility cheats?!"

"Yeah, I can never trust this facility ever again because of this."

"How could you guys let a guy who is in the first advancement ranked in the unadvanced power ranking?!"

"Give us our money back!"

"Give us our money back!"

"Give us our money back!"

The spectators shouted in unison towards the facilitators. While all the chaos was happening all around him, Hugh looked at the results of his Desire intensity and smiled. He was satisfied with the results given by the machine and turned to walk away from the facility.

He was now in the center of attention so any move he made was noticed by everybody. They created a barrier and surrounded Hugh to prevent him from escaping. They will not let him get out of this place until they get their money back.

"Where do you think you're going, cheater?"

"Yeah, I don't know what tricks you used but we're too smart to not notice that!"

"You should have aimed a little lower than that and we wouldn't have noticed your cheats."

"You got too cocky eh?"

Hugh watched the mob form a circle around him. He didn't seem flustered and concerned about his current situation. The others might have thought that he was stuck with them but the truth was that they were stuck with him. He was ready to unleash all of his powers to teach this mob their lesson but before he could, a voice spoke in the distance.

"Settle down, people."

A calm voice traveled to everyone's ears instantly as they turned to look in the direction of the facilitator's room. They stopped rioting and anticipated the facilitator as he opened the door.

As soon as the door opened, a bearing pressure bore down on all of them. It affected everyone that rioted in the facility and they were forced down into the ground. Hugh felt the pressure that bore down on him and remembered the incident with professor Kain. The professor used the same trick on them but this had a different feeling to it. He couldn't explain the difference in feeling because it was abstract.

When Hugh felt this force from professor Kain, he was forced into the ground and he had trouble keeping his head from hitting the ground. This time with his transformation activated, he was able to withstand the pressure enough to keep standing.

His knees were bending but his back was straight with an unyielding spirit. He stared at the man that produced the domain and saw him walking towards him. The man had a beard and had thick pointy eyebrows and the two of them locked eyes.

"Hoh...So the testing machine did not malfunction after all."

Seeing Hugh was able to stand after putting pressure, the man affirmed that Hugh had the power to back the numbers he received. After the test, the man released the pressure and everyone in the ground panted as they felt exhaustion.

They looked towards the facilitator with fear and worship in their eyes. The show of strength instilled a great fear in them that made them shut up about their complaints. They did not dare shout at the facilitator now.

"Do you guys still have complaints?"

"....."

Everyone was silent

"I can assure you as the facilitator of the ranking facility here in this planet that Huge was legitimate."

Everyone looked up at the facilitator and gasped. They knew that a facilitator couldn't lie about this but they still felt frustrated that something impossible had happened. They looked towards Hugh and people's emotions were conflicted. If the facilitator's words were true, and it probably is, then that means Hugh was a monster with unsurmountable talent that this world or universe had never seen before.

They felt conflicted about how to approach him from here on out. Should they apologize or should they offer him gifts as a form of reconciliation? Some were still stubborn and still believed that Hugh had cheated but they would not say that out loud or risk infuriating the facilitator.

"Come with me."

The facilitator looked at Hugh and gestured for him to come into another room more private. Hugh followed the facilitator with full-on alert. He was ready to fight the facilitator if it had come to that but he still displayed the proper decorum.

They entered the room and it was a small room with just the basic necessities. It had chairs and a desk, that was it. It was minimalistic, to say the least, and it even looked like the chairs and the desk were made with the cheap stuff. There was not much space in the room and it even felt a little cramped for a person with such high prestige.

"So Huge, how were you able to reach the 201 Desire intensity?"

The pressure reappeared again and doubled down on the intensity. Hugh was stuck in his chair and his head was being forced down but he used all of his strength to resist. His muscles constricted and generated more power for him to raise his head in arrogance.

He panted as he finally raised his head and looked directly at the facilitator and smiled.