“Hey, let us join, we’re really strong,” brown-haired twins approached Stark, summoning their weapons and showing them to him, “We can be useful!”
“Get out of here,” a two meters tall man pushed them out of the way as he began to flex his muscles in front of Stark, “I can smash the heads of all these monsters easily, just accept my invite-”
A ninja girl drop-kicked him out of the way and landed in his position, though, “I can be stealthy and take out monsters from the back!”
Over and over, people kept coming around Stark, displaying their powers in front of him as a way to impress him and possibly make him want to recruit them.
His team had Lana, a powerful archer, Sora, the strongest classifier in the entire year according to the chairman himself, and Stark, who was respected by Sora herself.
Who wouldn’t want to join this almost guaranteed win group?
[You have received 643 party invitations!]
Sora and Lana stood beside Stark, looking at him as he was making his decision.
“Well,” he began to speak, and he immediately the surroundings became infinitely quieter, “It’s not that you guys are useless, but I pretty much can beat the rift by myself, so all I need is half decent people that won’t annoy me,” Stark said the entire truth, as he truly ONLY wanted people that wouldn’t be annoying over those that would keep asking questions and press him to participate.
“…”
“Is this guy crazy? Beating a rift by himself?”
“I mean, maybe if he teamed up with Sora, then she could carry him to victory, but otherwise this is just stupid.”
Stark’s bold declaration caused murmurs to ripple through the crowd.
But…
“See, this is the reason why I’m not choosing any of you,” he just shrugged, “Anyway, lets get this over with so you don’t annoy me.”
Stark opened the panel with all the [Party Invitations], making everyone anxious as they could see that he was scrolling through all their names.
And then…
Stark closed his eyes.
“What?”
“Just pick someone, dude.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Stark replied.
And so to everyone’s shock, while his eyes were still closed, Stark began to randomly scroll through the party invitation, not even looking at the screen.
After a few seconds of constant movement, he clicked on the [Accept] option of a person whose name he didn’t even know.
“YESSSS!” he heard a girl’s shout from the crowd, “THANK YOU!”
And just like that, Stark kept repeating that same process 46 more times, every time he selected a person, he would be hearing a cheering in the crowd, followed by dozens of other angered noises from the people who weren’t selected: of course, those that were chosen were extremely happy and found justifications as to why Stark did that, while the others would just keep letting out insults.
Of course, once someone that was insulting Stark for doing this by sheer luck was selected, they would IMMEDIATELY switch their dialogue and go on his side.
But what can I say, that’s a human’s selfishness, isn’t it?
And eventually…
[Your party is full!]
Stark opened his eyes again then shrugged, “Sorry, can’t recruit anyone else!”
“FUCK YOU!”
“I swear to god I’m going to rip your eyes out, you little shit.”
Those that were invited into the party surrounded Stark as all the others angrily shouted, ready to actively attack him for doing something as dumb as choosing the people in this important trial at random.
Was he crazy? Or was he just reckless? Or maybe it truly was that he believed he could take the rift by himself.
‘Well, if they attacked I would have just beat all their asses, but oh well,’ all the other students left, deciding to create groups between one another.
All of [Stark’s Group] was now cheering as they had been selected.
But…
“Just don’t come close to me during the rift, and we’ll be good,” Stark positioned himself in front of everyone and spoke, “Let me do my own thing, and you’ll pass the first trial easily.”
“Alright.”
“Yessir!”
Surprisingly, all these people listened pretty damn well, maybe luck was truly on his side!
[Timer: 1:32:58 left!]
And so just like that.
[Timer: 54:11 left!]
The remainder of the time passed, with nothing else happening besides some more drama in the room, since people actively fought for places in the more powerful groups.
Karl actually even hosted a mini-tournament between four people for the last spot, and the winner was selected.
[Timer: 5:00 left!]
[Be quick!]
At this point, almost everyone had already gotten inside a group, except for a few people who didn’t even bothered looking for one, instead just opting for luck to do the rest of the work.
~DING, DING, DING~
The bell animation appeared on the screen again.
[Timer over, all groups have been formed, and people without a group have been randomly assigned to one!]
[It is time to start the final part of this entrance ceremony: picking the rift!]
The chairman and teachers had been sitting on random chairs that appeared out of nowhere and discussing private matters, while the students were quite literally fighting for a spot in the top groups.
And so once the [Team Gathering] phase ended…
~SNAP~
He snapped his fingers, and all the chairs they had been sitting on disappeared, none of them were taken aback though, all standing up at the perfect moment, their timing immaculate.
“Very well,” Theodore snapped his fingers for the second time, and a beautifully carved table, worth millions of rher coins, appeared on the stage, and he gestured dramatically toward a large, ornate box that had appeared on top of that table.
Stark eyed it, feeling the anticipation rising in his veins as he REALLY wanted to get that [Death Rift] card, thus giving him the rift that contained the ‘Godless Demon’ apostle as its final boss.
“Each group will draw a card from the [Drawing Box]. The card will reveal the rift you’ll face. Some will be easier than others, but make no mistake, each has its own challenges,” he explained for the second time as it had been more than three hours since they read the text on that screen.
Lana leaned in closer to Stark, whispering, “You think we’ll get a tough one? Would be perfect if we got the easiest one, hehe~”
But unbeknownst to her, the black-haired boy was actually aiming for the hardest one of all, although Stark knew that if he said that to his team, then they would surely try to stop him, even Sora would possibly attempt to bind him, and with her reputation, she would easily be selected as the new leader.
Though, he couldn’t see any universe where Sora would do something about what other people said, especially since he had saved her and proven his strength already.
“Doesn’t matter, just need to get in and out,” he said nonchalantly, clearly avoiding the question.
The chairman gestured to the box, his voice booming through the lobby, “All of you should have just received a number on your panel ranging from 1 to 50, it was selected at random and it will be the order you will pick a card in!”
~DING~
And just as he said, a panel appeared in front of Stark, it was completely blue, with the number 8 written in white.
“So I guess we’re picking pretty early, that’s good, it means we have less chances to pick the [Death Rift] card,” Lana sighed, and everyone else in the group felt happy too.
After all, the bigger the number, then the higher your chances of picking that hellish card that the holographic screen had told them would be almost impossible to complete at their level!
Well… that is as long as it wasn’t picked by another group.
And honestly, everyone, even Karl and all the strong classifiers didn’t want to get it.
“Group number one’s leader, please step forward and draw.”
A nervous looking girl in group one gingerly stepped forward, and arrived in front of the table with the box floating.
“Please place your hand and pick a card,” Theodore, “I promise there is no scary monster inside.”
She reached a trembling hand into the box and pulled out a card.
And as soon as she did…
~DING~
The holographic screen that was set above the stage, which everyone could see, flickered to life, displaying the name of her chosen rift: [Forest of Shadows].
In addition to that, the card she had picked was actually displayed in front of everyone too, rotating around slowly as to allow people to read the front and back, much like when the [Death Rift] card they had been shown, although this one wasn’t blurred.
Stark didn’t read the info as he wasn’t bothered though.
More groups passed, each getting their cards.
And eventually…
“Group number eight’s leader, please come forward,” Theodore spoke, and Stark knew it was his time.
“Good luck!” Lana nodded, while Sora just kept looking at him normally.
If only Lana knew that with Stark, luck wasn’t a factor at all.
