49 First Main-Story

As the purple energy wave was getting closer to Frederick, his body moved as he narrowly dodged it. Despite his amazing agility, a few strands of his hair were disintegrated, and his pants had a slight burn mark from the mayor's attack. Luckily, it seemed like his trenchcoat was fine.

'If that touched me, I would have died.' thought Frederick calmly as he ignored the burning sensation on his head.

Antoine's attack caused a lot of dust to fly everywhere. Using the dust screen, Frederick used this opportunity to disappear from view.

The mayor frowned as he watched the cloud of dust rise into the air. His senses were telling him that the man had vanished, but he didn't believe that the other party could vanish so easily.

Watching around him, Antoine quickly discovered Frederick's location. It was as if he could constantly track the other man's movements.

"Where do you think you're going, fucker?!" exclaimed the mayor as he lunged and punched toward Frederick.

As if sensing the danger, Frederick dodged, albeit just barely.

'There's something is unnatural with his perception,' thought Frederick as he tried to gain some distance

'He shouldn't have such high perception. It is as if he could constantly see my general location. If we add the fact that he was reading something and the fact that he asked for my coat, then it is very likely that he has an authority similar to worthy eyes, which can more or less detect an item.'

Frederick quickly discarded the idea that Antoine had enough attributes to see his status. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked for Frederick's coat and would have chased him by all means.

As Antoine was about to launch another ranged attack, a hunter suddenly emerged from the ground, causing his strike to miss and directing his energy in a random direction.

"Shit!" cursed the mayor, who had been forced to waste a small portion of his energy to defend.

This was Frederick's only advantage; unlike the mayor, he had a way to conceal himself and would become difficult to see for most hunters. As Antoine was struggling with the hunter, Frederick used this opportunity to take out his rifle and reload as fast as possible.

With a cold gaze, he aimed the barrel at Antoine. Frederick didn't hesitate, and with the trigger pulled, the sound of a shot rang through the area as the bullet shot through the sky and was only brutally stopped by the golden shield.

Yet Frederick was not disappointed. The golden barrier seemed to have flickered a little, showing the mayor's limits.

Antoine turned his head and looked at the source of the shot with a furious expression, but before he could even respond, Frederick shot once again, only to be blocked by the shield.

Despite the two attacks only taking a fraction of a second, the hunters were starting to catch up to both of them.

Seeing this, Frederick ran away without hesitation. He didn't even try to shoot anymore. Even if the bullet managed to go through the golden shield, the bullet would be too weak to pierce the mayor's sturdy body.

Antoine didn't have time to chase him anymore. Although he wanted Frederick's item, it wasn't worth risking his life for it. He had to keep some energy for the main story. Suppressing the voices in his head that wanted him to continue his chase with great difficulty, he took a deep breath before resuming his fight with hunters

Looking behind him, Frederick saw that the hunters had completely surrounded Antoine. The mayor's frustration was clearly visible, and he was glaring at Frederick. If looks could kill, Frederick would have been long dead.

Ignoring him, Frederick continued to run away as the number of hunters pursuing him started to drop and would instead focus on Antoine.

After escaping from the hunters' encirclement, Frederick directly found a hiding spot.

Yet, unknownly, he learned a lot about the mayor's authority. From what he saw earlier, Antoine's authority allowed the user to use a kind of very destructive energy. The energy could also be used to enhance the user's attributes.

However, Antoine had either no experience in controlling his power or had a curse which made the user's control deteriorate. This was the only thing that allowed Frederick to escape.

'This is either a gathering of multiple medium authorities or ... a high tier.' thought Frederick. He knew that the mayor's authority was very powerful, and it wouldn't be easy to deal with him.

But now was not the time to dwell on this. After checking the wound in his arm, he started to slowly bandage it using some cloth, hoping that it wouldn't reopen. He had nothing to disinfect, but his body was now more resilient to sickness, so he could only hope for the best.

As he was doing his first aid, Frederick suddenly saw a message from the chronicles.

<The main story will now begin. All candidates imminently undergo teleportation. Please be patient.>

Suddenly, Frederick disappeared from his hiding place.

After a flash of white light, he found himself in a gigantic room. The space was immensely tall, its roof made of a kind of glass, revealing the sky above. Pillars adorned the area, and the floor boasted intricate patterns. Surprisingly, not a single wall was in sight. It was like an endless space filled only with pillars.

'It seems like I am not the only one.' thought Frederick as he looked around. There was an uncountable amount of people all around him.

The crowd was packed, and nobody dared to speak or make a sound.

Yet, despite their silence, Frederick could feel their nervousness. The atmosphere was extremely tense, and it seemed like there was an invisible pressure oppressing everyone present.

<A 5 190 storyteller will soon be dispatched in sector 221; please patient>

"Sector... It seems like not all candidates will be participating in the same sector. But if I had to guess, it's very likely that they will still have the same main story as us, just in a different location," Frederick pondered aloud as he kept bandaging his own arm.

"What does it mean by storyteller?" asked a man with a rough voice, his face filled with anxiety. After a few moments of silence, another man answered.

"I mean ... Isn't that pretty obvious? The chronicles have sent us here for the main story and a storyteller is probably here to explain rules."

"No... no, no no, I don't want to die! I want to go home! " yelled another person in the crowd."

"Fuck you, shut the fuck up, bitch!" yelled someone in response.

"Do you think you're the only one? I want to go home, too... I never agreed to participate in this!"

Many candidates were whispering among themselves, cursing the chronicles, the universe, or even each other. Some people were crying, while others were trying to maintain their calm. A group of men could be seen, visibly angry as they were about to start a fight.

However, before anyone could react, a loud sound resonated.

"We welcome you, candidates."

A voice suddenly resonated in the massive room, causing everyone to look around, searching for the origin of the voice. However, no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find the speaker.

"... The voice came from above," said a woman who was pointing the ground.

Surprisingly, many followed her fingers instead of what she said. When they saw that there was nothing on the ground, they finally realized that the woman was either making fun of them… or maybe it was related to her curse.

However, those who looked down were too embarrassed to say anything and finally looked up. Soon, everyone noticed a figure floating in the air above.

Floating above the ground, a strange creature came into view. Its body resembled that of a human, but it lacked eyes, instead sporting a single red gem where its eyes should have been. Its skin was a shade of blue, and its lips were devoid of color. The creature wore a peculiar pink robe that did not suit it.

However, its most surprising feature was its collar. Around its neck, there was a metal ring that seemed to be glued to it.

"My name is Arzogon, and I will be the storyteller of the 5 190 221th sector. I will now explain the rules of this story; please listen carefully as I won't repeat," the blue-skinned being declared as he stared at the crowd below.