Everyone was woken up early the next morning. After having a big breakfast, they were all escorted underground. The underground of Fontaine heavily contrasted to the surface. It was hot, humid and many people down there were working extremely hard.
After exiting one section all students found themselves in a room with the tall man standing up on a stage.
The man introduced himself as Neuvillette and said that he would be explaining how the upcoming event was going to commence.
"We have decided to take a different route from the traditional layout of the tournament by introducing a new type of preliminary qualification round. A battle royale."
Everyone gasped and started immediately whispering to eachother. Most students were actually excited about the idea of having a free for all.
Neuvillette settled everyone down before explaining the rules, "Everyone will be placed in random locations in an arena with a ten kilometre diameter. The environment will be mostly a forest type setting and you all will have to battle it out until there are 16 people left to qualify for the main tournament bracket. There is a 5 day time limit and if more than 16 remain, contestants will be eliminated based on a point system that will be tracked during the battle. Your performance will determine the amount of points in this tournament. Creatures such as hilichurls or ruin guards will also be present with you in the arena. As you will be spending many days in the arena, you all will have to find a way to survive by obtaining your own food and water. We have made sure that there is enough goods to sustain everyone here. Each passing day, the border will shrink, enclosing the area to encourage more fighting. Everyone will be given a device that will map out the area and display the position of the border. They will be guarded by clockwork mecha and exiting the border will result in elimination. Now speaking of eliminations, an elimination is determined whenever one yields in battle by pressing a specific button on their device or if they are unable to continue. Although this is a free for all, alliances with other contestants can be made to work together. Do I make myself clear?"
Everyone nodded silently.
"Good. Now..."
A door opened revealing an army of robotic figures.
"Each of you will be escorted to a designated location underground, by a clockwork mecha. Please remain with them until you are in the arena.
Kitayuu was given the device that was talked about in the preview and took one last look at his friends. It was obvious that he wanted to try to find them and try to travel together as a group.
Everyone was escorted through a massive underground tunnel network. The smell was rather unpleasant, but everyone was too excited about the upcoming battle royale event to care. The clockwork mecha motion Kitayuu to enter an elevator. Upon entering, it immediately shot up to the surface. Kitayuu found himself in a forest, he checked his device and saw he was close to the centre of the battlefield. There was also a timer counting down the seconds until the battle started. Kitayuu decided to try to go more outwards and position himself there in hopes of avoiding conflict in the middle. There was also a 24 hour countdown for when the barrier would shrink.
As the contestants finished positioning the countdown was now almost zero. The lower the number went. The more nervous Kitayuu felt.
"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"
