February 22nd. Today was the last day of the Rule Period.
The Solloma Empire's Grand Competition was also about to enter its final stage.
The finals venue had been moved to the capital's largest event center. Before the competition officially began, a long line of beautiful women and handsome men took the stage to warm up the crowd, dancing and singing their hearts out.
The venue, large enough to hold tens of thousands, was completely packed. Even though every ticket had been scalped to several times its original price, countless Ascenders were still willing to pay.
Many audience members sat down with beer or soft drinks in one hand and an enormous bucket of popcorn in the other, as if they had come to watch a movie or an ordinary sporting event.
Some had even brought braised meat and other cooked food, drawing strange looks from those around them. Once the competition started and the contestants were fighting until they were bloody and mangled, would they still be able to eat meat?
After taking their seats, the audience still had some time before the match began, so they started chatting with the people around them.
"Hey, man, did you snag that ticket yourself, or did you buy it from a scalper?"
"I got it myself! Finals tickets were insanely hard to get. I almost missed out!"
"Haha, same here. Hey, man in front, did you get your ticket yourself?"
The Ascender in the front row turned around and sighed. "My luck was terrible. I didn't get one, so I bought a scalped ticket for triple the price... It hurt to spend the Ascension Coins, but this is the finals. It's worth it to see something like this once in a lifetime."
The young man seated beside him laughed. "Triple the