Chapter 714: Interlude: Is Dawnbringer a Threat?
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The final round of the preliminaries was over. However, its aftershocks still rocked the entire realm.
Anybody who’s not living under a rock and had access to the Virtual Universe knew of the tournament. And if they knew of the tournament, they would know Dawnbringer too.
Those who watched knew how he dominated the preliminaries. So much so that the distance between him and 2nd place was worlds apart.
Dawnbringer’s dominance has already conquered everybody who participated in the preliminaries. However, there are still some people who aren’t impressed. Some didn’t even take him seriously.
And most of these people were the seeded participants who are yet to make an appearance.
**
In a sealed realm owned by a powerful and ancient sect, a few people sat in a room watching the livestream of the preliminaries.
"Well? What’s the verdict, folks? Is he a threat?" Someone asked with an amused tone.
"Tch. Him? Not even close," one sneered in contempt. "I don’t know what the organizers were smoking by letting a seeded participant bully some commoners, but they’re too obvious."
"So you think that he’s a seeded participant too, huh?"
"What could he be?" The same guy rolled his eyes. "There’s no way that dude is a commoner. His achievements are practically impossible to achieve without the help of the Ancient Sects."
"He’s from the Golden Bangle Bank. Are they really that bored to send one of the seeded participants in the prelims? That doesn’t sound right to me."
"It could be propaganda."
"Yeah, it totally could be propaganda. But what kind of propaganda is it? Giving false hopes to commoners? For the sake of recruitment? To beautify the image of the bank to people?"
"Whether it’s propaganda or not is none of our concern. What I want to know is if he’s a threat to us or not."
"Hardly."
"Yeah, no."
"I don’t think so."
"Oh? We’re sounding mighty confident, aren’t we? I love to see that. But I’d like it more if you can explain to me why. Why do none of you think he’s a threat to us? And don’t you tell me that he’s a mere commoner. We’ve been in this situation before, and it didn’t end well for us."
The rest of the people in the room flinched ever so slightly upon hearing that part. They knew what this person was referring to.
There had been a commoner who participated in the tournament before. His performance wasn’t as good or as dominating as Cedric’s, but he’s still impressive.
The Seeded Participants collective looked down upon him. Never thinking that he’s a threat to them and even openly mocking him. But when the actual tournament started, he steamrolled everybody. He nearly tied forfirst place, which was a crisp slap to everyone’s faces.
And since he was a commoner through and through, it proved that his talent was way better than the seeded participants, and that caused the ancient sects and organizations to be greatly displeased with their seeds.
As a result, everybody was punished, and this stain left a permanent mark that, up to this day, these people couldn’t get rid of.
Obviously, they didn’t want a repeat of that accident, so it has become a routine of the seeded participants to watch the preliminaries to scout the competition. And if they ever see a potential threat, then they may or may not make a move.
"Come on, start talking, you guys. We don’t have all day."
"He’s good. That’s something we can’t take away from him. But from the snippets we’ve seen so far, we can accurately gauge his total strength. Great Law of the Sword. That’s his biggest reliance. He’s got good instincts too, but nothing too outrageous. However, if that’s about it, then yeah, he’s not going to be a serious threat."
"Agreed. It’d take more than just great laws and good instincts to compete with us. And I personally can’t imagine him hiding more because Sword Laws takes an incredible amount of dedication and effort to learn. It’s strong, yes, but not omnipotent."
"I totally agree with him. Sword Laws are very demanding. My brother is a swordsman too, and if it wasn’t for his stubbornness, a trait that most swordsmen have, he’d be sitting here with us."
As more people talked, they became more convinced. In their minds, the Great Law of Sword was strong, yes, but it’s nowhere near enough to rattle them.
Like that one guy said, it’d take more than just that and good instincts to compete with them: seeded participants.
"Okay, show of hands. Those who don’t think that this Dawnbringer is a threat to us, raise your hands. Otherwise, keep your hands down. One, two, three!"
Out of the ten people in that room, eight people raised their hands, except the spokesperson who had been asking about others’ opinions, and there was one guy who didn’t raise his hand, and this was noticed by everybody.
"I didn’t raise my hand because I’m the spokesperson and had to show some neutrality. What about you? Do you think he’s a threat?"
"A threat, huh..." The one guy who didn’t raise his hand scratched his head with a confused expression. It’s like he’s having a difficult time trying to explain himself.
"I think we have completely different ideas about what ’a threat’ means."
"To you, anybody who’s powerful and talented enough to shake the confidence and hegemony of the Ancient Sects and organizations is a threat. To me, the possibility of such a talented person being converted or being scouted by enemy races ’IS’ the threat."
"Have we, as people and humans, become so drunk on status and power that we no longer see commoners as humans too? When did we become so...I don’t know, overbearing and distrustful of our kind? So much sothat, in our eyes, the possibility of them producing a one-of-a-kind genius was simply impossible?"
"Seriously? Is that what we are now? Have we become so thoroughly embarrassed about that one time a commoner managed to outshine us that that’s all we can think about?"
"Have we become so desperate that we have to cling to our reputation as if that’s the true source of our power and not our hard work and life evolution achievements instead?"
"What are we doing, exactly? Is this what our life evolution is all about?"
Silence.
Complete and utter silence.
It’s clear that they weren’t expecting this. These people knew each other, and obviously, they too know that this person was strongly opinionated. But they didn’t expect that he’d be this strongly opinionated.
"I get where you’re coming from, but it’s bad for us if this commoner repeats history. That would just mean that we, the ancient sects and organizations, are starting to become redundant."
"And that’s enough to justify villifying a completely innocent and extremely talented commoner? Is this the case of it’s us or them? Have we really gone that far? That desperate?"
"..."
"See, I get that I’m sounding so morally righteous and indignant, but the thing is, aren’t we all commoners at one point too?"
"..."
"Or have you all just conveniently forgotten about your roots and become so complacent because of your current status?"
"..."
"The ancient sects and organizations outsourced us, you know? We were commoners too, once upon a time. And we just happened to hit the jackpot in the genetic lottery, which made them take notice of us."
"Sure, it is our duty to uphold the reputation and dignity of the sect. But if your way of doing it is by trampling on a potential ally, friend, or comrade, or worse, by making him hate us so much that he would willingly surrender to enemy races, then what kind of reputation and dignity are you really upholding?"
"..."
"So, if you’re asking me if he’s a threat, my answer is no. He’s not."
"Could he become one? Oh, absolutely, especially if he discovers what we’re trying to do to people like him."
"And you’ve all become so obsessed over yourselves that you completely missed a point. He’s not just somebody the Golden Bangle Bank recruited. He’s a Scarlet VIP."
"!!!"
When he mentioned that, the faces of the other seeded participants warped in shock. To confirm his words, they thoroughly looked at information they had gathered so far, and what they saw confirmed what he just said.
The reveal made them blanch, and for a very good reason too.
"Yeah, you didn’t see that one, huh? Had you all decided to make a move on him because of your narrow-mindedness, can you even begin to imagine just what kind of disaster that would be for us?"
"Touching a Scarlet VIP of the Golden Bangle Bank? How’s that any different from inviting genocide to our sect?"
Some nervously swallowed. Deep down, they thanked the gods, the heavens, the saints, and all imaginary figures for not making them think that Dawnbringer was a threat and not making them make a move on him.
Because if they truly had, they would invoke the wrath of the Golden Bangle Bank, and that’s a tragedy that even they, ancient sects and organizations, wouldn’t be able to save themselves from.