Chapter 112: The World's Number One

The 30th day of the preliminaries—the final day.

In the shattered Sixth World Zone, Luo Yuan sat cross-legged in the void, patiently awaiting the end of the preliminaries. His ranking in this zone was indisputably first place, yet he felt little excitement. The preliminaries had been far too easy for him. Naturally, he secured one of the thousand slots allocated to the Qianwu Cosmic Nation, meaning he didn’t even need to participate in the subsequent arena battles.

He resolved to log off and break through directly to the cosmic level.

“Preliminaries countdown: 60… 59… 58… 57… 56…” A grand, resonant voice echoed in the minds of all the survivors across the one hundred world zones, stirring a restless impatience among the warriors scattered throughout the realms.

Chaos reigned in every zone as the final countdown neared its end.

But Luo Yuan waited silently.

“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1! Teleport.”

In an instant, all survivors vanished from the hundred world zones, and the virtual worlds they inhabited collapsed one by one, dissolving into nothingness. At the same time, the final rankings of each zone were fully released to the public.

The preliminaries were over.

The candidates had been chosen.

…

Luo Yuan was transported above Black Dragon Mountain Island.

“Beep!” “Beep!” “Beep!” “Beep!” “Beep!” “Beep!”…

A series of notification sounds rang out.

“Luo Yuan, you currently have 6,898 call requests. Now it’s 7,894 and still rising,” the mechanical voice of the intelligent assistant announced.

“Ignore them all,” Luo Yuan said calmly. A whole month in the virtual battlefield had taken its toll; he felt a bit weary. Yet the virtual world’s one hundred percent realism was truly impressive.

As long as one existed within the cosmos, consciousness could instantly connect to the virtual cosmic network, allowing countless people to enter. Within the virtual cosmos, myriad secret arts could be simulated, even the fundamental laws of origin themselves…

This was truly terrifying. Perhaps the fundamental laws no longer held any secrets within this virtual cosmos!

The Virtual Cosmos Corporation was one of the five great giants of humanity in the cosmos.

None of the other four giants had mastered such technology to build a “Virtual Cosmos”—this was the exclusive domain of the Virtual Cosmos Corporation, a testament to their profound foundation.

“I should leave the virtual cosmos first,” Luo Yuan decided.

Whoosh!

His consciousness returned to reality. Luo Yuan awoke in his ancient-style palace study. Jiang Fang stood nearby, her face blossoming into a radiant smile upon seeing him awake.

“Welcome back, Luo Yuan. You’re truly incredible,” Jiang Fang said, stepping behind him to massage his shoulders.

Luo Yuan smiled and pulled her into his embrace. Together, they walked toward the bedroom.

…

In the Virtual Cosmos, above Black Dragon Mountain Island, in the Jiuxing Bay residential area where Luo Feng lived.

Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God sat separately on wooden chairs, having gathered immediately after the preliminaries concluded.

“Hey, where’s the third brother?” Hong asked.

“Don’t know, probably just tired,” Luo Feng replied.

“Haha, come look! The third brother is amazing—he single-handedly annihilated the entire Sixth World Zone!” Thunder God laughed loudly as he opened a light screen showing footage.

“What?!” Hong and Luo Feng were stunned as their eyes fixed on the headline news displayed on the screen: a video capturing the terrifying scene of Luo Yuan alone decimating the entire Sixth World.

“My goodness, that’s the realm beyond the domain—the World Realm—and it’s the strongest chaos world. This is a legendary state I’ve never seen before. At the stellar level to wield the power of worlds, the third brother is incredible. He firmly holds the top spot in the universe. The gap between us and him keeps growing,” Luo Feng said, both amazed and disheartened.

“Alright, Fourth Brother, don’t be down. The third brother is a prodigy among geniuses. We should be happy for him. Both of you did well too—one ranked 982nd, the other 51st,” Thunder God said with a smirk. “As for me, I had terrible luck. I ran into the ‘Wildman’ from our zone—a complete monster. He’s definitely crossed the threshold into the fundamental laws of origin. One move, and he killed me.”

“That strong?” Luo Feng and Hong exchanged surprised glances.

“Yep.” Thunder God smiled. “If you and the Fourth Brother meet the Wildman, you’d probably fare better than me. You both made it into the top 1001. The arena finals might pit you against him.”

“I barely squeezed into the top 1001. The Fourth Brother is definitely stronger,” Hong laughed, looking at Luo Feng.

“Yeah, the Fourth Brother is very strong,” Thunder God nodded.

Though older than Luo Feng, both Hong and Thunder God still felt like they were looking after a younger brother with astonishing combat power.

“But now, I can’t even see the third brother’s back. He’s on a completely different level from the rest of us,” Luo Feng whispered.

“Fourth Brother, keep working hard. You’re not far behind. You’ll definitely become stronger,” Hong encouraged, patting Luo Feng’s shoulder.

Luo Feng smiled and nodded.

…

Preliminaries ended!

The top 1001 from each world zone passed through the preliminaries. Across the hundred zones, that totaled 100,100 people. Moreover, the number one from each zone directly received a final slot.

The Qianwu Cosmic Nation had one thousand slots reserved for the peak battle of human geniuses from across the cosmos. These thousand would represent the entire Qianwu Nation, competing against numerous geniuses from other cosmic nations… to determine the most outstanding figures among all humanity.

Of the 1,000 slots, 100 were taken by the first-place finishers from each world zone.

That left 100,000 people competing for the remaining 900 slots!

Luo Feng, Hong, and Nabini from Black Dragon Mountain Empire would contend among these hundred thousand strong warriors, with only 900 qualifying.

The elimination rate remained staggeringly high!

Those who secured the final slots were all enviable super geniuses—coveted elite seedlings sought after by countless organizations and factions, each considered “top-tier elite.”

…

With preliminaries over, others would face the arena finals in a month. But Luo Yuan wasn’t particularly interested in the arena battles. He had already secured his final slot and only needed to wait for the other 900 qualifiers to emerge, after which they would collectively represent the Qianwu Cosmic Nation against talented fighters from numerous other cosmic nations.

During this month, Luo Yuan experienced the “troubles of fame.” Many factions from Black Dragon Mountain Empire sought him out. Not only that, several super organizations within the Qianwu Cosmic Nation dispatched envoys hoping Luo Yuan would join them, just to have him hold a nominal position in their ranks.

“Reject all. Reject everyone,” Luo Yuan said firmly.

“Just tell them I’m in seclusion preparing for the cosmic breakthrough and can’t be distracted,” he sighed, helpless but having no better choice.

…

Solar System, Mars.

A desiccated, barren desert planet. A sleek, pure black flying saucer-shaped spaceship rested in a massive crater hundreds of meters wide.

This ship was one of Luo Yuan’s backup vessels, now serving as his temporary seclusion base on Mars.

“It’s time to break through to cosmic level,” Luo Yuan said excitedly.

With a thought, the attribute bubbles in his attribute space burst one after another, their immense power merging into his body.

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