Rise or fall

In the midst of the bustling crowd, Frederick maintained his usual calm expression, seemingly unaffected by the sudden teleportation. Instead, his mind was filled with thoughts as he watched the storyteller above him.

"This story should be relatively straightforward to comprehend. Your task is simple: survive for a month.," the blue-skinned storyteller declared.

Hearing this, the candidates couldn't help but glance at each other. If all they had to do was run away, they should be able to get through it. However, something bothered them.

"Will there be any monster like in the main hub world?" a woman interjected suddenly. To her great surprise, her voice was amplified as she spoke. It seemed as though someone had ensured that everyone would hear her question.

"Monster... As you all may already know, only candidates and what you call 'monsters' are allowed to stay in the main hub world. As all Main stories take place there, I would understand your concerns. However, no. There won't be any 'monsters' at least this time. " the storyteller replied with a smile. The woman seemed unpleased by the answer for some reason and wanted to ask more questions, but the storyteller brushed her off.

After a few moments of silence, a young man took a step forward and shouted loudly," Who do you think you guys are? Isn't it a bit unfair not to even let us choose whether we want to participate in the chronicles?" Once again, his voice was amplified as he said these words.

Yet, the storyteller's answer left everyone speechless.

"Yes, this is undeniably unfair. You did not consent to this. It is unfair. But you should get used to this. Unlike what most of you think, the Chronicles are not fair.

At the beginning of the Chronicles' selection, some of you started in dangerous locations within the Main Hub World, while others started in safer zones near the gates to side stories, granting them an advantage for survival; it's unfair.

Some among you might blame your weakness on illness or age, arguing that it's unjust for them to compete against adults in their prime; it's unfair.

Others may point fingers at their main authority. Some started with a rare and powerful authority, while others could only fantasize about possessing one. This, too, is unfair.

Let's forget about the Chronicles, even on your home realm, all of you had unfair lives. Some of you had wealth at birth, some had health, some had luck and some had all of those. In the end, humans will always find something to fault their weakness. Most of you don't understand this. The nature of life—is injustice."

A deep silence followed his words. None of the candidates knew how to respond.

After a moment, a voice resonated once again. "Give us more information about this story then!" exclaimed the same man who had asked his earlier question. He was getting impatient.

"You can't really expect us to follow this story without any explanation!"

As if the man had freed everyone, a wave of indignation spread through the crowd. Many people started yelling and expressing their disagreement, while others listened silently or tried to ask questions about the story.

Yet, the storyteller remained silent, wearing only a smile in response. It didn't even move or flinch as the voices of the crowd rose.

Frederick stood a bit apart from the large crowd of about a few thousand people. He already had the answers to most of his questions, but he was still interested in any information about this story.

With a wave of the hand, all the candidates were suddenly silenced, and their shouts and complaints stopped. Looking around, Frederick saw their attempts to speak, but nothing came out of their mouths. The sudden silence was extremely deafening.

"Please allow me to continue," the storyteller declared, disregarding the panicked looks of the crowd.

"Of course, this story wouldn't be so simple. Soon, you'll find yourself on one of the numerous islands prepared by the Chronicles. To survive, you must navigate from island to island, aiming for higher ground. Every five hours, the lowest islands collapse, meaning that you will have to constantly move if you don't want to fall to your death."

Before anyone could even react, the storyteller added. "Anyways, the time allocated for questions is almost up. I will leave you with some parting words: The Chronicles doesn't favor stagnant candidates. This is especially true for this story." the storyteller concluded as he suddenly disappeared from the room.

Immediately after the storyteller's disappearance, the space started to change, and a white light enveloped the candidates. With a flash, everyone was teleported somewhere else.

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Frederick found himself alone and in a completely different landscape. After adjusting his eyes to the light for a few seconds, he looked around.

He stood alone amidst a desolate expanse of yellow stone. The air carried a hot breeze and the smell of ash. Above him, the sun blazed brightly, its scorching rays descending like blades. Yet, the most oppressive aspect was the suffocating temperature.

But what truly caught Frederick's attention were the pieces of land floating in the sky all around him, resembling entire cities lifted from the ground, defying gravity.

Each floating island was connected by a series of networks of long, narrow bridges crafted from the same yellow stone as the ground below. Intriguingly, some islands soared higher in the sky while others hung lower. Looking up, there was a seemingly endless number of islands above him.

Turning his attention to his surroundings, Frederick noticed that he was standing on a floating island, just much smaller. Looking beyond the edge of the island he was on, he glimpsed that nothing was under his island.

A pure void was beneath the ground he stood on, stretching as far as one could possibly see. As he was watching the void beneath his island, he then turned his sight on the blue window that appeared

<The Main Story "Rise or Fall" has officially begun.>

<Time 4 57 until the first collapse: hours minutes>

Closing the message window, he then focused his attention on the three surrounding candidates next to him. He was indeed not alone. Among all those candidates, all of them had various expressions. Some expressed determination, some frowned oddly, while others seemingly thought deeply.

All of them stared at each other a bit wary but mostly embarrassed as none knew what to say.

"Uhh... Hey, we- how about we work together?" a candidate suddenly proposed as he stepped forward. He was a young man with tanned skin and a pretty good-looking appearance.

"Good idea. There's no point in fighting each other anyway. You all know that being wounded will lower our chances of survival. So instead of fighting, how about we work together?" said the woman as she looked at Frederick's shoulder wound.

Hearing the woman, Frederick observed her carefully. She was probably in her late thirties and wore a tight black suit. Her short black hair was tied in a ponytail. Her face was not beautiful, but she had an attractive body. Like the rest of them, she had a backpack on her back and was seemingly more or less prepared for this story.

After a moment of observation, Frederick decided not to say anything. The others nodded and agreed with the woman.

With a smile, she added. "Very good. How about we start introducing each other? My name is-"

BANG!

Before she could even finish her sentence, Frederick immediately shot the woman in the head with his pistol. Everyone froze for a second, which was clearly enough for Frederick to shoot again, adding another victim to his score.

BANG!

Before the woman's corpse could even hit the floor, Frederick had killed two of them. In less than a single second, he shot twice and easily killed two of his "allies."

"W-what are you doing?!?!" yelled a middle-aged man. Unlike the rest of them, he did not have any visible gun and wore a strange white robe. With panic, he quickly activated his authority, and a sudden blinding light engulfed Frederick, temporarily blinding him.

BANG

While Frederick was stunned, the middle-aged man was also surprised. He thought his authority, Blinding Shine, would have allowed him to take advantage and would be able to retrieve at least the gun of the woman, but to his shock, he saw a bullet hit him right on his stomach before he could reach it. It was as if Frederick did not need his vision to know the middle-aged man's general location.

His face immediately paled, and his body fell heavily on the ground as a puddle of blood quickly formed on the hard stone. Frederick quickly regained his vision and looked at the dead bodies around him.

"Buffoons," he uttered as he swiftly dispatched the middle-aged man who was attempting to crawl away.