"After all, it was the Heavenly Furnace."
Gustav, who had been watching from within Floating Light, let out a soft sigh.
As a director of the association, no matter how headstrong Gustav was, he still had to provide every contestant with an explanation.
Why they had been eliminated, where they had fallen short, what they lacked, and where they had made a fatal mistake.
Or rather, for the sake of his own position, everything he did had to be explainable—clear enough for anyone to understand at a glance, so they would not misjudge his intentions or arrangements.
The starting point of every measure had to be a fairness everyone could accept.
Even if the standards were harsh beyond measure.
Round after round of eliminations and duels were perfectly suited for that. As long as the winners were strong enough, the losers would have nothing to say. From duels of absolute fairness, absolutely precise results would naturally emerge.
Even though everyone knew that such brutal eliminations still could not compare to reality.
Reality did not have to be reasonable.
Neither did the Heavenly Furnace.
There was no need for lengthy, bloated procedures, nor for drawn-out duels. The heat was sufficient, and the materials had finished growing. Since that was the case, it was time to stoke the flames and burn away the dross, triggering a true transformation through convergence!
If the method of selecting geniuses was to have everyone duel in an environment fair to all, then the method of forging the strong was to cast them into this desperate situation that was absolutely unfair to everyone!
Who needed fairness or reason?
Wasn't that precisely where the cruelty of Embers lay?!
Boom!
In the brief dead silence, thunder suddenly erupted within the simulated world of Floating Light.
And in that fleeting