Thomasinho and AlyxAtlas simply moved on to the final name on the rankings.

"And it’s time to introduce the star of this round. The man who is the hardest-working individual one moment, and in the next, the laziest Young Master in existence," AlyxAtlas began to speak, her voice almost fanatical, as though Asher had completely won her over. "The man who treated every enemy he met as nothing more than a source of entertainment. The man who created the record for the first million points ever achieved. The man who then went ahead and shattered his own record by achieving two million points. The man who treated the entire Inter-Empire Competition as nothing more than a vacation. I give to you... The Dominator, Asher Wargrave!!!" AlyxAtlas’s voice boomed through every speaker within the Coliseum.

Asher saw the spotlight descend upon him. He remained calm, his purple eyes slowly scanning the crowd before he simply nodded, just as Arianna had done, a faint smile appearing on his face.

Throughout the history of the Inter-Empire Competition, nobody had ever even touched the five-hundred-thousand-point mark. Although Arianna had technically touched that record, no one truly acknowledged it, as Asher had gone on to surpass the one-million-point milestone. Besides, even if the five-hundred-thousand-point record were to be recognised, Asher had still been the very first person to cross that threshold. Those were points he had already accumulated before his battle against Xal’Thar.

ASHER!!!

ASHER!!!

WARGRAVE!!!

WARGRAVE!!!

UNDERDOG!!!

BLACK HORSE!!!

THE DOMINATOR!!!

THE DOMINATOR!!!

The world itself seemed to shake as every Empire shouted at the top of their lungs. Buildings quaked across the entire planet, and had they not possessed incredibly sturdy foundations, many of them would have collapsed long ago. At this point, Asher had become the most beloved contestant. His popularity completely dwarfed even that of Arianna Haellight.

To everyone, he was the perfect man. Rich, tall, handsome, powerful, possessed a touch of madness, yet also capable of taking things easy and relaxing without a care in the world. Who else possessed all of those qualities? Simply no one.

Although Arianna Haellight was outrageous to the point that she had doubled the score of everyone below her, Asher was even more absurd because he had tripled the score of someone as ridiculous as Arianna Haellight herself. And if the points acquired by those ranked below third place were taken into consideration, the sheer scale of the difference only became even more incomprehensible.

If that wasn’t madness, then what was?

"As the man of the hour, the greatest winner, and the world’s favourite from this Qualifier Round, why not fly up here and say something about the Qualifier Round?" Thomasinho stated as he grinned at Asher as though he had just won some unknown lottery.

Asher didn’t want to go up there, but he could practically feel every single pair of eyes fixed upon him. He couldn’t help but sigh before simply floating upward, a small smile appearing on his lips.

Thomasinho passed the microphone to him, and the whole world instantly fell into complete silence as they listened with rapt attention to whatever this once-in-a-lifetime genius had to say.

Asher placed the microphone near his mouth before speaking.

"It was... too easy."

The moment those four words left his lips, he simply floated back down and allowed Thomasinho’s microphone to remain suspended in mid-air before its owner.

Everyone was dumbfounded. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

They had expected some kind of heartfelt speech. Something about how he had worked tirelessly to achieve his current strength despite failing his Awakening twice. They had expected words of encouragement, inspiration, or perhaps gratitude toward those who had supported him.

But in retrospect, only someone like Asher could possibly say something like that. After all, his words couldn’t have been any truer.

For him... It had simply been too easy.

And with that, the silence vanished as his name echoed throughout the entire Coliseum once more. Thomasinho and AlyxAtlas both shook their heads in exasperation, as even they had expected some form of lengthy speech.

"Since we’ve finished talking about the rankings, we shall now be moving on to something else," AlyxAtlas spoke calmly.

"The Family Head of the Elox Family from the Vandross Empire has decided to reward every single student who survived until this moment with ten thousand platinum coins each," Thomasinho announced with a smile.

At those words, everyone’s eyes widened in pure shock, especially the commoners and students. Who didn’t know the value of platinum coins? To grant them on such a scale spoke only of immense wealth. After all, when calculated, that amounted to roughly seven million platinum coins in total.

A great number of students couldn’t help but smile. Although they hadn’t entered the top fifty, they were already beginning to reap the rewards of their hard work. Those who hadn’t managed to survive until the end could only grumble in jealousy and frustration.

Although most of them didn’t know who the Elox Family Head was, or even what the Elox Family represented, they honestly didn’t care. What mattered was the hard cash.

William couldn’t help but smile at such an unexpected windfall. Even Finch was grinning from ear to ear. Teo Swig also couldn’t suppress his smile, as this would serve as an incredible starting fund for when he graduated from the Star Academy. After all, Academy Points couldn’t be converted into coins.

"Now, information regarding the next round will be given one day from now," AlyxAtlas began to speak. "Although one day may seem far away, it is the ideal amount of time. The students need time to rest, recover, return to their peak condition, and prepare themselves before continuing the Inter-Empire Competition," she explained.

"And not only that," Thomasinho picked up. "Many of you here are still Unawakeners. You’ve remained awake for four straight days thanks to the assistance of the Overlord, but at the end of the day, you can’t completely cheat biology. So by this time tomorrow, everyone is expected to have fully recovered and returned to their peak condition, because one day from now, the Inter-Empire Competition will finally come to an end," Thomasinho added in finality.

Although many people wanted to protest that one day was far too long and that the next round should begin immediately, they all recognised the truth behind Thomasinho’s and AlyxAtlas’s words. Everyone needed rest, both the students and the spectators alike.

They could only grumble and reluctantly accept reality. But at the very least, they had received confirmation that the Inter-Empire Competition would conclude the day after tomorrow once it resumed, meaning there would be no more breaks after that.

So even during the one-day break, anticipation remained at an all-time high as people couldn’t help but eagerly look forward to what was yet to come. For many of them, the wait itself had become another part of the excitement, only making the upcoming finale feel even more significant.