"Sabrina!"

"Sabrina!"

"Sabrina!"

"Sabrina!"

"Evan"

"Evan"

"Evan"

"Evan"

"Victoria"

"Victoria"

"Victoria"

The over-excited fans of the celebrity disciples were screaming till their throats hurt. Michael's pavilion was silent. He was sitting on his seat calmly reading the book he bought from Lord Information. For merely fifty badass points, he changed the look of the book and the content inside. IF others looked over Michael's shoulder, they could read about the intricacy of building a business empire.

Taking his eyes away from the book, Michael looked at the stage to see fifteen people remaining. All of them were heavily breathing, even Sabrina who seemed like having an easy time had sweat drops on her forehead.

Evan was bleeding in the corners of his mouth while Victoria had a small cut on her forearm.

"It's getting interesting, isn't it? Who's gonna be the last remaining 10" Ishihara asked,

"Among those remaining on the stage, Sabrina is holding the higher number of elimination by throwing the participants off the stage. She had eliminated 4"

Michael listened to James Hall comment,

"Evan stands next to her after eliminating 3 participants by knockouts and Victoria holds the record of two elimination by knockout and one by throwing off the stage"

"Look out!"

Suddenly everyone's gaze turned at Evan when he shouted. The runes and the arrays placed on the battle stage really drew Michael's attention. They amplified the voices of participants to make the crowd hear what they were talking about while battling. On the stage, participants could hear the crowd cheering but not the commentators talking.

Michael saw Evan shouting at Victoria as a bulky muscular mountain running towards Victoria like a crazed rhino. Michael could hear the loud thud noise as he was running towards Victoria. Somewhat thinking about Victoria gonna get thrashed put a smile on Michael's face.

However, when the man was just about to spear Victoria, Evan threw himself in the path, pushing Victoria away from the man's path.

Boom!

When the man clashed with Evan, their collision produced a loud booming sound.

"Whoa, that's outta hurt," James Hall said,

"Evan!" Victoria lost her composure when she saw Evan getting knocked down by the bulky man. The other participants quickly turned their focus on Evan, it was an amateur move that was capitalized by Sabrina. She suddenly pounced at a nearby participant. When he felt a gush of wind, it was too late as Sabrina threw him out of the stage with a powerful punch to his chest.

On the other hand, Michael saw Victoria throw herself at the muscular man with enough force to make him stumble down. While the coordinators came to check whether Evan was knocked out or not, Victoria was punching the muscular man sitting on top of him.

"Knockout"

The coordinators gestured at the crowd after seeing Evan's unconscious body.

"Idiot" Michael sighed before putting his focus on the book again.

*******************************************

After three hours of the Body Strengthening stage first round and a break, they finally began the first round for the Core Formation participants.

"Core Formation participants please come to the stage" Michael heard Darius's voice.

"Good luck brother Ghost!"

"Kick their ass Ghost" Elder Reiner shouted excitedly.

"GHOST!"

"GHOST!"

"GHOST!"

"GHOST!"

Under the showering cheers of the pavilion, Michael flew out of there towards the stage. Just like Michael, Alex and Celina too received thunderous cheers. After all, they both belonged to MorningStar, one of the biggest sects in Elon.

The sun has already fallen into the horizon yet the lights above them kept the arena as bright as a day. As Michael reached the stage, he saw thousands of eyes landing on him. There were several unknown faces that stood beside him, keeping their distance from him for some reason. No one dared to form an alliance or even talk to him. For them, he was one of the biggest threats that stood in the way of winning the tournament.

Michael couldn't care less about what they thought. As far as he was concerned, he was going to win this thing.

"Ghost" suddenly while the participants were gathering on the stage, Michael heard someone calling his name. Michael looked in the direction of the voice to see Andrews walking towards him. Despite Andrew's worried dull face, Michael immediately recognized him and greeted him with a smile.

"Andrews Winston" Michael firmly shook Andrew's hand

"I never expected to see you here. The last time I saw you, you were still at Boyd Strengthening stage level 1 and on the verge of dying"

"Thank you for saving me Ghost, I just wished I got the chance to thank you under different circumstances," Michael noticed Andrews's eyes moved towards the princess. Everyone looked at the princess but there was something different in the way Andrews looked at her. Then Andrews stood there beside Michael watching the fans in front of them.

"I need to win this, Ghost" Andrews's voice sounded so serious,

"Then you shouldn't hold back anything Andrews" Michael turned his head to look at Andrews,

"Because I won't" Andrews couldn't help feeling a chill running through his spine.

"Hold still everyone" As Michael turned his gaze away from Andrews's the coordinators instructed them to hold still. Since they were on the stage, Michael couldn't hear what the commentators were talking about.

Ethan, Emelda, and Diana felt their heartache seeing Ghost and Andrews preparing to fight each other. Although it might be inevitable, they still didn't want the two of them to end up in the same group and fight each other.

Emelda closed her eyes, praying to the gods to put Michael and Andrews in different groups.

Michael looked up at the chakra to see it rotate faster and faster before sending light orbs down. The very next moment, Michael felt a warm sensation as he looked at his hand to see a red translucent layer covering it.

The participants soon looked at the stage where the king was sitting. Just like during the Body Strengthening stage round 1, they saw a white orb traveling towards the stage but this time, it flew straight to Ashton.

It was Ashton's end of the deal to make Michael and Alex fight each other as Michael had no control over the chakra to make it possible. Hence, Ashton had to do something to put Alex with Michael.

In a blink of an eye, the white orb of light turned red when Ashton touched the orb. Michael cracked his neck, preparing himself for the round. He looked around and saw Andrews had a blue light, Alex and Celina had a yellow light while Peter and Paul had green light layers on them.

"Well this is disappointing" Michael sighed inside. If a celebrity disciple ended up in the same group as him, he could have beat the hell out of them to earn even more badass points.

But when he looked at the red layered participants, he noticed all of them looking at him.

"The green, yellow and blue layered participants can now leave the stage and enjoy the battle until your turn comes" Michael heard Ishihara's voice as the other participants started to leave the stage.

"Good luck Ghost" Andrews was well mannered enough to utter these words before leaving. Michael was walking to the center of the stage when he heard a cold female voice coming from behind,

"You will pay for everything"

Michael didn't even need to turn back to recognize the person, it was a very familiar voice. Still, Micahel turned back with a cold smile to see Celina and Alex looking at him,

"Oh, I am planning to" Michael knew what he said would have reached everyone's ears but he didn't care because today, Alex will die.

Michael didn't feel any pity for killing Jane and he would certainly not feel any pity killing Alex. It seemed like fate wanted Michael to take away Celina's loved ones one by one.

"No weapons, only hand-to-hand combat" the coordinators reminded them before taking off into the sky. They floated several meters above in the sky watching over the participants on the stage.

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

The fans of Michael kept cheering as loud as they could. Their thunderous cheers reverberated the arena. For a moment, Michael closed his eyes, mentally blocking all the noises to put full focus on the battle before him. He felt a warm sensation running from his head to toe. He knew it was the runes scanning him for any potions or runes on his body to enhance his traits like strength or speed. The system made sure the APD wouldn't be detected by any scans.

Waiting for the coordinators' signal to begin the battle, the participants surrounded Michael forming a circle around Michael.

In the VIP pavilion, Ethan leaned closer seeing Ghost getting surrounded by the participants.

"It is not fair," He said,

"It makes sense for them to eliminate the highest threat first" Norvin, the golden babaroo said while eating an apple casually.

"One vs twenty-four huh?" Then everyone heard Michael's calm voice.

Ethan didn't see a tiny bit of fear or worry on his face. On the contrary, Ghost remained in the center with a calm smile.

"Guys and gals, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way," Michael said looking at the youngsters before him.

"You are in no position to say that Ghost, humph" a fully plated armor-wearing participant snickered. He even covered his head with a metal helmet that looked like the helmet of thor.

Ignoring the youngster's words, Michael said,

"The easy way you 24 can fight among yourselves and eliminate fifteen people yourselves"

Ethan's eyes went wide hearing the words coming out of Ghost's mouth. If Ethan didn't know Ghost was his son, he would have said Ghost is the most arrogant guy he had ever seen.

"I don't know if he's being serious or kidding," James Hall said,

"You might be a genius but at this moment, you're just like the rest of us" the youngster in armor took several steps towards Michael as the others followed him. Little by little, the circle of people was getting closer to Michael.

"You clowns really think taking away my cultivation would make me you, hahaha" Michael burst into cold laughter,

"Get him" Michael's words instantly made them snap as pouring petrol into a fire. They all rushed towards Michael in all directions. The first one to reach Michael was the armored youngster who trash talked him. He threw his fist aiming at Michael's face to knock him out with a single punch. However, Michael evaded the punch while grabbing another youngster by his leather shirt. In lightning-fast movements, Michael tore the leather shirt and sent him away into the crowd with a swift kick. His training with Gaya and the fighting technique gave him inhumane speed even without the arch energy.

The armored youngster never expected Michael to move that fast. Before the guy could react, Michael tied his arms around his back using the leather shirt he had just torn off.

No matter how much metal armor he wore, with his hands tied behind his back, the youngster paused no threat to Michael. When the crowd came too close, Michael grabbed the armored youngster by his neck and used him as a center pole, kicking the crowd in a circle like in the matrix movie.

*******************************

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