I Can Only Cultivate In A Game

The crowd hung onto Instructor Elric every word.

"Each successful rescue is worth five points. The warrior with the lowest score will be disqualified from the Versus Phase."

He paused for dramatic effect.

"There are traps in the city. Not every path leads to salvation. Show us you have the skill, judgment, and heart of a true warrior."

With that, he raised his hand.

A flicker of mana danced around his palm, signaling the start.

"BEGIN!"

A sharp chime rang out.

The five remaining warriors darted forward in a blur.

Victor emitted a burst of qi causing his figure to streak forward at incredible speed as wind curved around his form.

Reed wasn't far behind. He swiftly leapt across cracked pavements, while Elyra moved like a gliding emerald wind.

She left a green afterimage behind due to her skin tone as she darted toward a collapsing building.

Zeke and Mara on the other hand, took different directions.

Zeke activated his movement skill causing a bright glyph to spin under his feet as he glided across rough surfaces while Mara invoked an enhancement that coated her limbs and eyes in golden light.

Victor narrowed his eyes, observing the simulated wreckage before him.

Rubble was scattered across the street. Part of an apartment complex looked caved in.

His senses stretched outward as he activated a Void Emperor Bloodline technique that allowed him to sense his environment in vibrations.

A strange ripple passed through the surrounding debris, outlining the hidden mana signatures within.

"There," Victor muttered.

He kicked off the ground, zipping through the broken remains of a shop.

He proceeded to raise his hand, coalescing qi rapidly around it.

"Piercing Fang!"

A beam of sharp qi cut through a stone pillar that was initially falling onto a student trapped beneath debris.

Victor stepped in, grabbed her arm and yanked her out in one fluid motion.

A whistle rang out, confirming the successful rescue.

"Five points!" a commentator called out.

Victor wasted no time. He darted forward again, cutting through alleyways and scanning for anomalies.

Along the way, he passed a burning child who was crying.

"Did he just ignore that child?"

"What the hell is wrong with him?"

The spectators were shocked as Victor sped past.

The moment he did, the burning child exploded, causing a radius of fifty feet to burn down.

"Just as I suspected," Victor smirked as he kept making his way forward.

The spectators were wowed when they realised that it was a trap.

Victor couldn't sense any space density from it which was why he knew it was a trap.

"I'd be toast if I had gone close," he whispered while shifting course toward a nearby signal spike.

Elsewhere, Reed grunted as he shoved his shoulder into a slab of concrete.

He hadn't sensed anything until he felt a subtle heat beneath his foot...

A hidden figure coughed from within the stone, barely visible.

He slammed his hand on the rubble and lifted a huge chunk of it.

"I got you, kid," he voiced while sweat dripped from his brow.

"We're literally age mates..." The rescued shot him a glare.

Meanwhile, Elyra was cleaning house.

"She's already got three rescues?" someone in the audience cried.

The screen above the arena flashed stats:

Elyra Vorn – 15 pts

Victor Revenant – 10 pts

Reed – 5 pts

Zeke Moren – 10 pts

Mara Veylin – 5 pts

Victor slid to a halt near what looked like an abandoned truck.

A strange smell hit his nose... It gave off a faint burning scent.

He turned to the side and barely spotted movement under a warped street sign.

A hidden trap.

He gritted his teeth. "Nice try."

He flipped back just as a surge of false rubble exploded upward—clearly meant to delay or injure.

Then he leapt straight through the dust and mist upon catching sight of the real mana signature hidden under a wrecked mailbox.

"Found you."

He stomped his feet onto the ground, causing a burst of qi to sweep out.

Fwwhiii~

This in turn caused the debris to levitate, exposing a student.

He moved swiftly and pulled the student out from the wreckage.

One of them faked a cough and then nodded in thanks.

Another whistle.

"Fifteen points!" the commentator shouted. "Victor catches up with Elyra!"

A roar echoed from the crowd.

In another section of the city terrain, Mara was struggling. She had found two 'victims' but fell for a trap that sapped her stamina and mana reserves.

Much to her frustration, her golden glow dimmed.

Back on the battlefield, Victor met eyes with Elyra briefly from across a cracked plaza.

The two gave subtle nods. A silent challenge passed between them.

Ten minutes left.

Victor turned and raced toward the far end of the destroyed map where a wrecked train cart lay tilted across a collapsed bridge.

"Someone has to be there," he muttered while spreading his qi out.

Wind gathered under his feet.

He dashed across the ruined structure and leapt over obstacles repeatedly.

A section of the ground gave way beneath him, but he activated Wind Glide and flipped up in mid air.

Sure enough, a student was pinned underneath the train's steel wall.

"Hang tight."

Victor proceeded to place one hand on the wall and lift what weighed more than two thousand five hundred pounds like it was a piece of paper.

He swung the wall away like a kite and grabbed the student.

He noticed a trap at this moment about to detonate so he swiftly jumped back while secretly activating a wind barrier.

The glyph detonated but majority of it's force was negated by the wind barrier.

Whistle.

"Twenty points!"

Crowd: "HE DID IT! HE'S TIED WITH ELYRA!"

A few more minutes ticked down.

Reed managed to pull in two more rescues. Zeke barely got one more. Mara failed to reach another victim in time.

When the timer ended, all five competitors returned to the starting point, slightly sweaty, with expressions ranging from satisfaction to grimness.

Instructor Elric reappeared mid-air.

"Time's up. Results have been calculated."

The giant screens lit up:

Elyra Vorn – 25 pts

Victor Revenant – 25 pts

Reed – 15 pts

Zeke Moren – 20 pts

Mara Veylin – 10 pts

Elric's voice boomed.

"Mara Veylin, you are hereby disqualified."

A respectful applause followed as Mara lowered her head. Her pride hurt but her composure remained intact.

She bowed to the crowd before stepping aside.

Elric continued.

"The final four will now proceed to the last stage… The Versus Battles."

The crowd exploded.

Victor's eyes narrowed slightly.

Now… it was truly time to fight.

...

The crowd stirred with anticipation as a wheel appeared on the holographic screens above the arena and spun the remaining four names.

It was time to find out which two will be battling first.

A wave of silence spread across the spectators as the wheel was spun twice, revealing the first match:

Elyra Vorn versus Zeke.

Murmurs rolled through the arena like a growing tide. "That's going to be a bloodbath," someone whispered.

Others weren't so sure. Zeke, after all, wasn't just some average student. He had carved a name for himself among the upper brackets of the competition, notorious for his aggressive warrior techniques and raw adaptability.

Not to mention he was A ranked.

Many assumed him to be on the same level as Victor or perhaps even stronger.

They were sure he would put up a good fight at the very least.

Elyra stood in her usual silence with her green skin almost glowing under the radiant arena lights.

She looked as if she didn't even acknowledge the crowd or the opponent in front of her. Her sword rested on her back like a sleeping god.

Zeke stepped onto the battlefield with the confidence of a man convinced he'd already won.

His armor was bronze with intricate white engravings of mana symbols, that further enhanced it's sturdiness.

He had slicked-back blue hair with angular cheekbones, and a smirk that stretched wide with arrogance. "Let's get this over with," his voice echoed through the arena. "Unlike the others you humiliated with one swing, I won't go down so easy."

Elyra didn't answer.

She didn't even spare him a glance.

Her fingers only moved only once... gripping her hilt.

Zeke clicked his tongue. "You must think you're invincible. But let me tell you something... there has never been a single thing I've wanted that I didn't get. This legacy blade? It's already mine."

The battlefield began to shift.

Smooth tiles groaned and separated as the terrain terraformed into spiky hills and broken stone.

Crumbled towers rose like crooked teeth, while broken lampposts and debris turned the area into the ruins of a war-torn city.

The signal was given.

The match began.

Zeke surged forward like a launched spear, swinging his blade horizontally in a move that could split steel beams.

Elyra raised her sword and met the attack with a single-handed parry. A booming clash rang out, cracking the ground beneath them.

With a snarl, Zeke unleashed a combo of warrior skills...

[ Iron Barrage Has Been Activated ]

[ Momentum Cleave Has Been Activated ]

[ Thunder Lunge Has Been Activated ]