Chapter 7: Exploring the New Planet

Discord: https://discord.gg/N7Y3Rstew2

===========================================================

After his odd experience with a rude party trying and failing to punch him, instead punching the other parties lights out in retaliation, Mark left the signing booth and started exploring the city. Much to his surprise and wonderment, the entire city still mostly retains the overall structure of the original city, just with some improvements here and there.

The roads are mostly clean, except for the occasional garbage that the wind blows out of the trash can. The skies look a beautiful light blue color with, as far as he could tell, very little signs of pollution. Looks like they cleaned up their act since he was around as a mortal. Or the Chaos Energy just cleared out everything it could that was hurting the planet itself.

Standing in the sidewalk, Mark looks up and sees the flying cars wheezing about with great speed. Deciding that he wants a car like that, he waves his hand and spawns a Bugatti that would have been made in 2050 if not for the changes that Earth has experienced. The Bugatti is entirely matt black with a baby blue on the skirts. It has a spoiler on the back and the windows are entirely blacked out.

Completely disregarding the shocked faces that most of the people on the streets were giving him, Mark opened the door and got in. The door opened automatically upwards, and when Mark got in, it closed the exact same way. Then the Bugatti hovered a little higher on the ground, 1 foot to be exact and then took off into the sky.

During this entire sequence, the people around where Mark was, had just gotten over their initial shock. Their shock is quite justified as well, as they believe that Mark had taken the car out of a storage ring or device. Those types of things are quite expensive due to the materials needed to make them and the people needed to make them as well. Their shock is not just the fact that Mark 'owns' a storage ring or device, it's the fact that it is big enough to carry a full blown, multiple ton car without breaking.

But enough about that, let's get back to the competition. After Mark summoned the car, he drove around the city, slowly exploring the well-built and lit city of New York. Then when he finished NYC, he gave his car a boost and left for the other cities in the world and explored all the places that had civilization in them. After a full thirteen days of exploring Earth without rest, Mark directs the car to drive to Mars.

The journey to Mars took a little under one hour of travel time, and Mars was almost on the other side of the sun now. Mars trips are normally canceled when Mars is too far away from the Earth as the journey would takes days, and at the furthest it could take weeks. So, everyone usually goes when the journey takes no more than five hours, and those vehicles can gain some good speed in space.

Once on Mars, Mark continued to explore the entirety of the planet and its cities. Unexpectedly, they differed massively from Earth humans in their day-to-day lives and livelihoods. The planet's population are also colonies and attempts from multiple different countries at obtaining more resources for themselves. Selfish bastards.

Exploring the planet of Mars and the colonies there took just two more days, so Mark went back into space and created a small and invisible space station home. Driving the Bugatti into the garage/hanger, Mark parks the car as the doors close behind him. Then gravity comes back, and the car softly lands on parking mode, then it turns off.

Mark heads towards the door leading to the main room, opens it and it shows just an average home with a kitchen, living room, one bedroom and one bathroom. He will just live here for a little while, until the competition starts, then he will delete it when it is time to head to the new planet.

-=-=-15 Days Later-=-=-

In a little space station orbiting the Earth's moon, The Moon, Mark is watching tv when his HoloGlass. The competition will begin soon, seeing this Mark turns off the tv and then snaps his fingers, teleporting to the competition avenue. Looking around himself, he notices that it is still in New York City. Mark is standing in front of a small building with a massive entrance.

Just looking towards the entrance, Mark can already see that people are getting thrown back into the air with massive force and others are moving forward unimpeded. Then a massive fight breaks out that escalades into a brawl between the entire crowd, seeing this Mark creates a shield around himself and walks through the massive brawl. Everyone looks at him with hungry and hatred filled eyes.

Reaching the door, Mark enters and is surprised for a moment when the doorway scans, or tries to scan his age, and true name. Looking up at the doorway, he stops time and scans the doorway, getting what he wanted to know, he unpaused time and gives the scan what it needs to confirm. Walking forward, he encounters a clam crowd, which in contrast to the bloodbath happening outside, is a surprise.

In just a little under ten minutes of Mark walking through the door, all the participants are inside the hall, that is noticeable bigger inside than outside. When everyone was confirmed to have arrived in the hall, someone walks out into the stage overlooking all the different participants this year and starts talking.

"Hello participants, Today marks the first day of the competition. In the following moments, we will begin testing you with the Wall of Knowledge. After that part is done, everyone still in the competition will go to the left of the stage and enter the doors. Behind the doors is the first test of the competition."

As he finished saying that everyone in the building looked over to the left side of the stage and saw a bright red door. Seeing as everyone was paying attention, the man on the stage continued, "Now there will be no speech, or anything of that sort. Just know that this could be YOUR chance at greatness, don't let it slip away!"

"Now, to the left of me is the Wall of Knowledge. When your name is called go up on stage, touch the tablet and pour your Chaos Energy into the tablet." After he said that, a massive pitch-black wall with zero blemishes on it, was rolled on stage by a couple of workers.

After that, people's names began to get called and they all want on stage. The previous registrations did require people to name their cultivation level, but they have no way to confirm it. In this day and age, where normal people could life for hundreds of years and there are cultivators that could live for millions, but they don't know that yet, they are naturally cautious of people and need to confirm for themselves.

"Mark… "

As Mark heard his name being called, he walked on stage non-hurriedly and then put his right hand on the tablet. As he poured Chaos Energy into the tablet, a hologram appeared right beside the tablet showing his information.

[Mark.

Understanding - High.

18]

*Hisss* As his information was being showed in the hologram, everyone in the building gasped at the results. Murmurs quickly began to circulate around the hall of participants as they talked about Mark and his cultivation. You see, everyone here was at least 50 years old with a cultivation of [Learner – Low to Middle] stage. The reason why everyone gasped was because Mark can be considered a global powerhouse.

But don't underestimate the fact that it is named [Understanding]. A [Understanding] person can live for, theoretically, millions or billions of years, and the fact that he is a [Understanding – High] is even more absurd. A [Understanding] cultivator can, theoretically, destroy worlds with a single punch. Not a single person has reached [Understanding] in the thousand-year history of the cultivation era. The strongest person in the world, besides Mark, is the person Mark gave the cultivation manual to, and she is a [Learner – Peak].

"Well shit." Said Mark after seeing the eyes of everyone in the room. Then he reversed time to the point of where he was walking up the stage and did everything again.

"Mark… "

Mark went up the stage and touched the tablet, then injected Chaos Energy into the tablet and the same thing happened.

[Mark.

Learner – High.

18]

*Hisss* Everyone again hissed, but this time for a different reason, they saw Mark's cultivation and age, and they were surprised. How could someone so young be so strong, its incredible. Its genius.

Then everyone else that was called ranged between the [Learner – Low and Middle] levels of cultivation. The only one interesting was the guy that Mark knocked out in the signing booth and the Martian guy, both were in the 'same' level as Mark.

After that whole process was over, everyone finally entered the door and they all appeared in a forest. 'Looks like the door was a teleporter.' Thought Mark as he looked around himself, there were trees and grass everywhere, but no animals or monsters. Just then, a massive screen appeared in the sky above the players, then it talked, "Players, all of you are on a private island. You will battle each other in a survival of the fittest match for the first challenge."

"The only way for players to leave the island is to either 'die' or yell out 'I quit'. The players that 'die' will not actually die; they will be teleported outside the island when they receive life-threating damage. You can begin." Then the screen disappeared. Immediately, Mark supersped throughout the whole island and found the 100 most powerful player and teleported them to the center of the island. Then he 'killed' everyone else.

Once everyone was in the center of the island, they all immediately attacked each other, and the ones left standing where Duckie Dweeb and Dizz 'Nutz. Then Mark appeared and they proceeded to have an epic, three-way battle that ultimately ended with Mark as the winner.

Then all the participants were put in a dream without them knowing, testing their willpower and if they can recover their memories. Everyone was sent into their ideal life, if they can figure out that they are in a dream and escape, they pass, if not, they don't. They only really have to pass two of the three games in the competition to pass, and they are considered to pass when they either get the top 100 or there is a specific requirement like in this one.

The first one's to pass were obviously Mark, then Duckie and 'Nutz tied as the second place. Then Mark and the rest that awakened were sent to the venue of the next competition, were they will remain 'asleep' until the rest awake. Once everyone woke up, they were all sent to the same venue and them a soul pressure fell on them. The soul pressure would cause massive strain on their bodies and mind, this test is to see their determination.

Obviously, Mark gained first place, not even reacting to the soul crushing pressure set on everyone in the hall. Then in the second again was Duckie and 'Nutz, and they were straining and struggling to stay standing upright. Once the time was up and everyone completed the game, they were teleported outside to the same hall where they were tested.

Then they were sent home, Mark got priority on the trip as he won all the games in first place. The trip would be in seven days, so on the 17th of March, 3022. Mark went home and the rest of the time was spent watching TV.