The Competition Begins

"Everyone, assemble!" A tremendous voice rang in their ears.

Boom! Whoosh!

After hearing the voice, thousands of people rushed toward the central plaza by various means.

Sett knew the competition was about to begin, so he jumped straight out the window and headed for the plaza.

A full thousand people assembled in the plaza. Every one of them was a Giant Axe Warrior. Even though they were all only Planetary Level, they were still a thousand geniuses.

"Wow, a whole thousand Giant Axe Warriors. What an incredible sight."

"Yeah, a thousand Giant Axe Warriors, and in a month, only one will be left."

"Mm. I wonder which lucky one will make it to the end."

A man stood before the Giant Axe Warriors. He wore black from head to toe, and his eyes were like black holes. Just one glance made it feel as if you were falling into them.

No one knew what level of strength the man had as he said, "The Ganwu Branch of the Giant Axe Arena has prepared this Golden Giant Axe Warrior competition. All one thousand of you are contestants."

"I'll briefly explain the rules. They're simple: survive. Once the competition begins, we'll drop you at random across a planet."

"The competition will last one month. Over that month, nine hundred and ninety-nine of you will be eliminated. The one who survives to the end will become a Golden Giant Axe Warrior."

"At the start, the entire planet will be open to you, but as time passes, we'll gradually shrink the area where you can survive. Anyone outside that area will be killed instantly by us. To stay alive, you'll need to move into the safe zone and kill everyone you come across."

"As long as there are still people alive, the safe zone will keep shrinking until only one person remains."

As he spoke, the man waved his hand, and a watch appeared on each of the thousand Giant Axe Warriors.

Sett raised his wrist to take a look. The simple watch had only one display.

"This is a tracking watch. It shows you the safe zone. Also, if anyone comes within ten kilometers of you, the watch will mark their location."

After the rules were explained, the thousand contestants boarded the spacecraft again, guided by the staff.

This trip was much shorter, though. In just an hour, all one thousand were dropped at random across Ao Planet.

"Damn, is this a real-life battle royale? This planet's so huge, I'll die of exhaustion just running around." Sett grumbled after being dropped in the Wilderness Zone.

Ao Planet had once been used to raise exotic beasts, so most of it was wilderness, with traces of human activity in only a few places.

That meant that during this month, the Giant Axe Warriors would have to keep moving toward the safe zone while also watching out for other Giant Axe Warriors and exotic beasts.

After all, there were still Star Level exotic beasts on Ao Planet. Although the Giant Axe Warriors were powerful enough to kill ordinary Star Level beasts,

some beasts traveled in packs, and running into one could be extremely dangerous.

Fortunately, everyone was at the ninth level of Planetary Level. At full speed, they could fly ten kilometers in a second, so there was no awkward risk of failing to reach the safe zone in time.

"Mm, the safe zone will update in two days. It's two thousand kilometers away from me—not too far." After landing, he checked the safe zone marked on his watch.

At the start of the competition, the entire planet was open, but as time passed, the safe zone would grow smaller and smaller, which meant the fighting would become more frequent.

"I should conserve my strength. I can get some training in during this time." Sett planned to use this time to train properly.

Training in the Virtual Universe was effective, but it couldn't compare to the experience of a real-life fight for survival.

Even if he didn't run into any other Giant Axe Warriors at first, there were exotic beasts everywhere to help him hone his skills.

"Let's get moving!" Sett didn't fly through the air. Instead, he started running along the ground.

He made his way toward the safe zone, occasionally attacking an exotic beast to get some practice.

"Mm, that beast just now was probably at the second level of Star Level. It was huge, but I still killed it with two punches." Sett looked toward the beast he'd just fought.

The lizard-like beast was a full thirty meters long, with a head seven or eight meters across.

It was also at Star Level. Even taking a couple of steps across the ground made the earth tremble.

When Sett saw the enormous lizard, he naturally went over to throw a couple of punches and warm up.

Although there was a whole major level between their strength, his comprehension of the Domain of Space and his sliver of Law Comprehension made it easy for him to defeat the giant lizard.

The exotic beasts were powerful, with immense natural strength, but they weren't very clever. They only knew how to rely on brute force.

To Sett, they were like blank sheets of paper. He dodged the lizard's swinging tail, took advantage of its momentary stiffness, leaped up, and punched its head apart.

Rumble!

The earth shook, and a tremendous roar came from the distance. Soon, a huge herd of beasts came into Sett's view.

"Crap, I got carried away and ran into a herd." Sett looked at the charging beasts and thought.

More than five hundred exotic beasts charged at Sett, led by one at the fifth level of Star Level.

Normally, a Star Level beast couldn't have so many underlings, but one day, a great number of powerful beasts had suddenly disappeared.

The strongest beasts left on the planet were only at Star Level, and the beasts' brutal survival-of-the-fittest instincts had set off a major reshuffling of the pecking order.

There were plenty of Planetary Level beasts, but far fewer at Star Level.

Naturally, most of the Planetary Level beasts had submitted to the Star Level beasts' overwhelming might.

The beasts might have been simple-minded, but the Star Level leader still felt fantastic. Having hundreds of underlings suddenly follow it was the ultimate experience of being king of the beasts.

It used to be the underling of a Universe Level beast, but now it had risen to the top. The feeling thrilled it.

When it spotted Sett, whom it had never seen before, it didn't bother asking questions. It simply led its underlings in a charge, ready to tear him apart.

"Roar!" The leading beast's eyes were bloodshot, and it was a full size larger than the others. It roared at Sett.

"Mm, the leader's at the fifth level of Star Level, and none of the others are at Star Level. They're all at Planetary Level. If I take out the leader, the rest won't be a problem." Sett couldn't be bothered to run. Seeing that there was only one Star Level beast in the herd, he decided to kill the leader outright.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Golden light filled Sett's Domain of Metal, while the profound Domain of Space spread around him. His Domain of Metal had reached the seventh layer, and his Domain of Space the fourth.

This greatly improved his control over the surrounding space in battle.

Generally speaking, a Star Level warrior who could comprehend a domain was considered quite talented. A Universe Level warrior who could comprehend laws was considered a genius.

The simple-minded beasts were even less likely to possess domains or laws.

That was Sett's greatest advantage, even though he was only at Planetary Level.

"Haymaker!" With a trace of the Law of Metal empowering him, his enormous fist blazed with even more intense golden light, like a small star, as he drove it toward the herd.

Rumble!

The enormous fist, like a star, struck the herd and erupted in a massive explosion.

In an instant, more than half the beasts were gone.

The Planetary Level beasts weren't even at the ninth level, so naturally, they couldn't withstand Sett's Innate Secret Technique.

If laws increased the power of ordinary secret techniques by fifty percent, then they increased the power of Sett's Innate Secret Technique by at least twice as much.

And he had only comprehended a tiny trace of the Law of Metal.

"So this is Haymaker? Killing hundreds of beasts with one move—that's impressive." Sett was a little surprised, too.

He hadn't expected to become so powerful in the blink of an eye.

The Star Level beast leading the herd had avoided a direct hit from Haymaker, so it wasn't badly injured.

But the shock wave had scorched its beautiful fur, as far as it was concerned, and that sent it into a towering rage.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" It bellowed three times in a row, venting its fury, then charged at full speed, ready to tear Sett apart.

Rumble! Its body was over twenty meters long. It raced forward like a tank, bearing down on Sett.

"Hmph, you could've stayed on the road to heaven, but you chose to charge into hell!" Sett wasn't afraid as he saw the giant beast rushing toward him like lightning.

Pummel!

With the secret technique and domain amplifying his power, along with his sixteenfold Force Application Technique,

Sett's punch seemed to carry an aura of destruction as he drove it toward the giant beast's head.

"Die!" Sett roared.

His fist collided with the beast's head, killing it instantly. Its body flipped through the air from the force of its momentum before crashing back to the ground,

but it was already a corpse.

"Mm? This guy seems pretty capable. I'll wait for him here."