<h4>Chapter 429 The Race </h4>


    ?Moriarty and Ambrose slowly opened their eyes after they got attacked by a bright sh of light.


    However, as soon as they did, they came across a spectacr sight.


    They were surrounded by a sea of yers, and it was impossible to count them all as there were simply too many!


    Surprisingly enough, they didn''t hear any sound, even though one would expect that it would be loud enough to not be able to even hear their own thoughts!


    "What in the world?" Moriarty looked equally surprised and looked around at the other yers in astonishment.


    All the yers near him were equally shocked and tried to speak to others, but it looked like others except their teammates were able to hear them.


    "Just how many yers are here…" Ambrose thought out loud with a shocked look.


    "These must be all the registered yers." Moriarty said. "Last time, I heard half a billion teams were registered, meaning at least over a billion yers!"


    "I guess this must be the highest number of people gathered in the same ce at once." Ambrose said with a truly impressed look. "That also means these are all our opponents."


    When they looked across the sea of yers, which spanned probably hundreds of kilometers in every direction, they felt quite intimidated by the sheer scale of thepetition.


    At that moment, an enormous figure emerged from the sky, casting a shadow across the entirend of yers. The figure was big enough to be seen hundreds of kilometers away.


    "Hello, everyone." His voice sounded calm and not overly loud, but still, all the yers were easily able to hear him as if he were talking just beside them.


    "My name is Graham Loch, the Game Master of Martial Online." He spread his arms around and proudly dered: "And this is the Tournament of Champions."


    ''That must be Be''s father.'' Ambrose thought while being under heavy pressure, but inwardly, he added, ''Father-inw.''


    "As you can see, you are surrounded by your fellowpetitors." Graham said, and he pointed his enormous finger across the air. "You may wonder where you are right now."


    "Well, you are in a different dimension." He said as if that were just some casual fact. "As some of you might remember, the new update contained Dojo Wars, which will also take part in different dimensions, but in much smaller ones.


    "This dimension is almost as big as the real one, and this is where the first round will be held.


    "The first round, The Race, is as simple as it sounds. It is a race to the finishing line, and the first 10,000 teams to cross it will qualify for the second round."


    He then waved his hand, and a massive screen appeared in the sky. It showed three different sections.


    The first one disyed a shabby-looking wastnd that had experienced droughts. It looked like it was inhabitable and unfit for any form of life.


    "The first section is a hundred-kilometer-long run across the deste wastnd. However, it won''t be as dull as that; don''t worry. We added some extra elements to make it exciting.


    "Such as, you''ll now be able to feel hunger and thirst, and those will be luxuries that you''ll have to manage carefully to survive if you happen to find them before they are taken by other yers.


    "There won''t be enough for everyone, so you have to hurry up~"


    The second screen then showed a rocky mountain towering across the destend, and it looked treacherous and deadly.


    "The second section is this one." Graham pointed at the second screen. "You and your teammate have to climb to the summit before reaching the final straight to the finishing line."


    Snap—he then snapped his fingers and showed the third screen.


    It showed a road made of clouds that led straight to a golden finishing line in the sky.


    "And the final straight to the finishing line." Graham smiled. "However, be careful not to fall down from the cloud road; otherwise, you''ll have a big fall to the ground below."


    After yers heard that, they became more cautious and started thinking about the sections.


    It sounded like they wouldn''t be able to only focus on their own race. All the yers would be able to sabotage them, such as by shoving them off the cloud road near the finishing line!


    Their eyes narrowed in suspiciousness, and they eyed theirpetition intently.


    "Like I said, 10,000 teams that first cross the finishing line will qualify, and the rest will be disqualified." Graham said and made the screens disappear. "However, it won''t be as simple as that."


    Everyone again turned quiet and turned to look at the Game Master with great intensity.


    Snap—Graham again snapped his fingers, and all the yers had their hands and legs tied to their teammates.


    "For the race, you''ll be tied to your teammate, literally." Graham smiled. "Also, your levels are reduced to level one."


    Moriarty''s and Ambrose''s eyes widened in surprise, and as they checked their interface, they saw that they were back to level one.


    "This…" Moriarty narrowed his eyes and looked at his hand, which was tied together with Ambrose''s hand. "This is unexpected."


    "…" Ambrose tried toprehend the new information. "Even the strongest yer in the world can get disqualified in the first round if they aren''t fit enough."


    "Mm, that''s very harsh." Moriartyughed. "However, this is quite exciting!"


    "I agree." Ambrose smiled. "The first round will test our real physical abilities without any help from our stats. It will truly separate the skilled yers from the rest."


    "However, have you seen this?" Moriarty looked behind the sea of the yers and said, "Some yers start hundreds of kilometers away from the starting point. They are at a huge disadvantage."


    "I noticed the same." Ambrose said. "There''re simply too many yers to put them all on the same starting line. I don''t think they underestimated their tournament''s poprity."


    "Yeah." Moriarty nodded. "Luckily, we are rather close to the starting line, perhaps a dozen kilometers away."


    "I wonder how they decided where yers start." Ambrose thought out loud. "It would suck if it''spletely random."


    "Let''s just focus on this for now." Moriarty said and started stretching his limbs. "Once the race starts, everyone will rush at the same time. It will be fucking chaos."


    "Yeah." Ambrose sighed. ''Because levels got reset, I lost my Formlessness and all of my skills. With Formlessness, I could just fly with Moriarty and win this easily. But I guess it won''t be as simple as that.''


    "Once the countdown reaches zero, the race will start." Graham snapped his fingers, and an enormous countdown appeared above him, already ticking down from one minute.


    "Now, if you''ll check your interface, you can see your own ranking and how many teams have finished. Good luck, and may the best team win."


    As he snapped his fingers, he disappeared into specks of light.


    Moriarty quickly checked the interface.


    [Team: Phoenix Quill]


    [Ranking: 1,578,056]


    [Teams Finished: 0]


    He then turned his focus on the countdown and gulped nervously.


    The countdown quickly reached zero, and a loud gunshot echoed throughout the air as the signal of the beginning of the race.


    "Argh!" Moriarty and Ambrose instantly took off, but after their first step, they almost tripped, as did the rest of the racers.


    "Shit, we''ll need cooperation!" Moriarty shouted. "We can''t afford to stumble over each other!"


    "I''ll follow your rhythm. Let''s go!" Ambrose shouted, and then they fell into a synchronized rhythm, and even though it looked quite difficult at first, they started to hang over it.


    However, they soon reached their final obstacle as they tried to pass the teams in front of them, but it was impossible because all the yers were pushing and bumping shoulders in a chaotic frenzy.


    There simply wasn''t any space to pass!


    That was the trouble of having over one billion yers in the same race.