"And with this, the Qualifier Round draws to a close," AlyxAtlas spoke as she remained suspended in the sky. "I remain your host, AlyxAtlas."

"And I remain your host, Thomasinho," Thomasinho stated with a smirk.

"And we shall see you all in a day," AlyxAtlas added. The moment those words left her lips, the two of them immediately vanished from where they floated, as though they had never been there to begin with.

The moment Thomasinho and AlyxAtlas vanished, the live spectators immediately surged forward. They tried to leap into the open space and rush toward the students like crazed fans. This was their chance, how could they simply sit back and miss it? But unfortunately for them, before they could even get very far, enormous wall-like vertical barriers of Astra Energy rose into the air and sealed off the entire open space, shielding the students from the incoming crowd.

Staff members immediately poured into the arena as various healers moved from one student to another, each attending to whoever needed them. They regenerated severed limbs on the spot, healed grievous injuries, and even performed psychiatric treatment for those who had suffered severe mental trauma throughout the Qualifier Round. Those whose bodies had been affected by extreme heat or freezing temperatures due to the unique environments they had endured were also given specialised treatment.

Some had simply fainted from sheer exhaustion. Some had collapsed from hunger, while others had turned deathly pale because they had pushed their Astra Veins far beyond their limits, draining every last drop of Astra Energy remaining within them.

All in all, not everyone remained conscious throughout the announcements that AlyxAtlas and Thomasinho were making. People like Asher and Arianna didn’t require any healing whatsoever, as they were simply too powerful to have suffered any injuries.

Some students were wrapped inside various healing cocoons before being gently lifted into the air and carried away from the stage.

A healer approached Asher with the intention of treating him, but Asher politely declined. His eyes shifted toward where William, Ryaen, and Vaelric were currently receiving treatment.

Asher walked over toward them with a light smile on his face. The group of four friends had already gathered together, all of them sitting on the ground while the healers finished tending to their injuries.

"Sigh... I feel like shit," William spoke as one of his broken fingers was restored by a healer.

"At least you gained ten thousand platinum coins, no?" Asher asked as he lowered himself onto the ground and sat beside them, completely unconcerned with the lofty standards the world now held him to.

William couldn’t help but smirk.

"I guess so," he admitted.

He had never possessed that much money all at once in his entire life. Of course, he planned to give his father a few platinum coins while keeping the remainder for himself.

"Are you even supposed to be here?" Ryaen asked as she rotated the shoulder that had just been healed.

"What do you mean?" Asher asked, genuinely confused.

"Shouldn’t you be establishing connections with the other top-ranked contestants and all that? Or better yet, signing autographs for your fans?" she explained as she stared at Asher with her black eyes.

Asher’s gaze shifted toward the spectators, who still hadn’t left the Coliseum, before he simply shrugged.

"Maybe after the Inter-Empire Competition. And as for the connections... I don’t really need them for anything," he replied flatly.

He remained silent for a brief moment before asking, "So... how were the past four days for you guys?"

He was genuinely curious, as the information available online didn’t exactly contain anything regarding William and the others. They had ranked too low for anyone to waste time filming them.

"Sigh... I don’t even want to talk about it. All I can say is that once I return to the Zarethorne Empire, I’m immediately diving back into training," William stated, clearly annoyed by the fact that he had only managed to rank somewhere within the three hundreds.

"You shouldn’t beat yourself up over it. There was no way you could defeat upperclassmen who were that much stronger. Your opponents weren’t first-year students like back at Star Academy," Asher spoke, trying to console him.

"At least you were ranked within the three hundreds. I ended up in the four hundreds," Vaelric said as he shook his head. He preferred not to dwell on the matter. After all, this Inter-Empire Competition had been nothing short of an eye-opener for every one of them.

"I still don’t know how Ryaen managed to sneak into the lower one hundreds. It seems you’re far more monstrous than everyone gives you credit for," William couldn’t help but comment.

Ryaen simply smiled. She was genuinely satisfied with her own ranking. Just as Asher had said, it had been impossible for them to compete equally against such overwhelmingly powerful upperclassmen. The fact that she had managed to finish within the lower one hundreds was already a testament to her efforts, determination, talent, and training. She had never harboured the unrealistic dream of suddenly topping the rankings.

"The biggest mystery here is how Fatty Wang managed to reach thirty-first place. He isn’t even stronger than us," Vaelric spoke as his brown eyes shifted toward Finch, who had remained silent the entire time.

After spending so much time with Asher and the others, it was only natural that Vaelric had picked up William’s nickname for Finch.

"You’d be surprised," Asher spoke before Finch even had the chance to answer.

"You know how?" Ryaen asked.

Asher smirked before replying, "Of course I know how he did it. No need to spoil the fun. Once our Space Rings are returned, just turn on your phones and find out for yourselves." His tone remained calm.

Asher’s eyes then shifted toward Finch, who didn’t seem to be in the mood to speak. He simply lay flat on the ground and stared silently at the sky above him.

At that moment, Fatty Wang was seriously considering how he was supposed to survive the next round. He knew that without the Positive Zones and his Good Luck, he never would have survived this far.

’I wonder if the world will now definitely believe that I possess a Good Luck Ability,’ Finch thought to himself.

Personally, he didn’t want anyone to know. If he had wanted people to find out, he would have told William the moment he awakened three years ago. If the truth became public, people would naturally begin making absurd assumptions, jumping to ridiculous conclusions that he could manually manipulate both his own luck and the luck of everyone around him.

’Well... I wonder if my Good Luck Ability can work on such a large scale and somehow prevent people from assuming things like that,’ he concluded with a mental sigh.

’I should focus on how to survive the second round... I’m basically a rabbit trapped inside a den full of lions,’ he thought to himself. ’One day... I have twenty-four hours to find an answer.’

His resolve slowly began to harden, determination gradually replacing the anxiety lingering within his heart.

_____

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Don’t worry, the one-day break won’t be dragged or anything like that. And before you complain, the students and the unawakened audience need the break; they aren’t robots.

Also... sighs... thanks for reading.