Chapter 217: Tournament Rewards
[Remaining Information: Insufficient access]
Zich stared at that simple name and remained silent for a long time.
"Who is he?"
"I don’t know." Jack answered without the slightest hesitation.
Zich turned to look at him.
"Even you don’t know?"
"I’m only one of Power Evolution’s developers. I’m not the true controller of this world."
Jack spread his hands, a trace of helplessness entering his voice.
"In fact, regarding the identity of the person ranked first, even the entire development team does not possess complete authority. We can only access an extremely small portion of his battle records."
"The only thing we can confirm is that he has existed on the rankings for a very long time. Ever since Power Evolution was first opened to the public, his position has never changed."
"No one has challenged him?"
"Of course people have."
Jack smiled.
"But all of those challenge records have been hidden."
"We can only see the results."
"How many people won?" Zich asked.
Jack did not answer immediately.
He raised his head and looked toward the very top of the rankings, the smile on his face gradually fading.
"Zero."
That single word caused the atmosphere around them to become silent.
No one knew how many powerhouses had attempted to challenge him.
Nor did anyone know which races those challengers had belonged to, or what kinds of power they possessed.
But from beginning to end, not a single one had succeeded.
Zich looked once more at the name surrounded by black mist.
There was no fear in his eyes despite the seemingly unreachable gap between them. Instead, a trace of interest, one that even he himself had not noticed, gradually appeared within his gaze.
Jack took in his reaction.
"After seeing that kind of difference, don’t you feel despair?"
"Why would I feel despair?" Zich asked in return. "They stand higher because they entered this place before me and have trained for far longer."
"I’m only Level 18 right now. Comparing my current self to them would be meaningless."
Jack was slightly stunned.
A moment later, he suddenly laughed.
"As expected, anyone capable of becoming champion must have something abnormal about their brain."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Of course."
Jack raised his hand and closed the ranking board.
"At least when ordinary people see those names, their first reaction is usually to question the meaning of their existence, not calculate how long it will take them to catch up."
"I didn’t calculate it." Zich spoke calmly. "Because there isn’t enough information yet."
The smile on Jack’s face immediately froze.
Then he helplessly shook his head.
"All right. It seems you’re even more serious than I expected."
As the ranking board slowly disappeared, the vast data platform around them returned to calm.
Zich briefly examined the Battle Hall, Mission Hall, and personal training areas.
Inside the Battle Hall, tens of thousands of battles took place every second. Apart from matches between players of the same level, there were also cross-level challenges, restricted-class battles, and fights conducted within special environments.
The Mission Hall was even more complicated.
Some missions required players to survive for seven days in an extremely cold region without any supplies.
Others required players to command an army composed entirely of dynamic data and defend against an enemy force more than ten times their size.
There were even missions reconstructed from racial wars that had truly occurred in reality.
However, with Zich’s current access, most of the content remained locked.
Even so, the areas he could access were still astonishingly vast.
Only when his mental connection time in the real world approached its limit did the system finally issue a reminder.
[The duration of this connection is about to reach the recommended limit.]
[Would you like to exit Power Evolution?]
Zich did not remain any longer.
"Exit."
[Saving personal data...]
[Data saved successfully.]
[We look forward to your next login.]
The world before his eyes began to collapse rapidly.
Jack’s figure, along with all the data surrounding him, transformed into countless silver-white particles of light before being swallowed completely by boundless darkness.
Just before Zich’s consciousness fully departed, Jack’s voice sounded once more.
"Zich. The next time you log in, you can try one of the special scenario simulations."
"With the way you fight, that place should suit you very well."
Before Zich could ask for further details, his consciousness completely returned to reality.
The next second, he slowly opened his eyes.
The familiar ceiling appeared within his vision once more. The sunlight outside the window had moved far from its original position, clearly showing that he had remained in the simulation world much longer than he had perceived.
Zich sat up on the bed.
The login device bearing the ancient tree emblem still rested quietly beside the bed, but the green light that had flowed across its surface had completely faded.
In the corner of the room, Slimy lay on the floor with several empty bowls of unknown origin piled in front of it.
The moment it saw Zich wake up, it immediately raised its body.
"Bo!"
"I was only inside for a while."
Zich glanced at it.
Slimy immediately pointed a tentacle toward the empty bowls on the floor.
"Bo! Bo!"
Zich fell silent for a moment.
"You already ate three meals?"
"Bo."
Slimy nodded seriously.
Zich decided not to continue discussing the matter.
He reached out and picked up his phone beside his bed. The instant he unlocked the screen, a dense series of notification sounds rang out almost simultaneously.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—!
Dozens of unread messages instantly filled the screen.
The message at the very top was from the president of the Players Association.
Arthur Magnus.
Zich opened it.
The contents were extremely brief.
[All of the champion’s rewards have been prepared.]
[Once you have rested, you may come to the Players Association headquarters to collect them at any time.]
[There is no need to make an appointment. Contact me directly.]
After reading the message, Zich’s gaze paused briefly on the words "champion’s rewards."
As the champion of the Chosen Tournament, the rewards he received naturally could not consist only of the trophy that symbolized his glory.
However, too many things had happened after the tournament ended. He had first met Razeil, then returned home, and afterward entered Power Evolution.
As a result, only now did he finally have time to deal with these matters.
Zich was about to close the communicator.
But in the next moment, the number of unread messages from another contact caused his finger to stop in midair.
[Helen: 27 unread messages.]
Zich: "..."