Chapter 1242 The Versus Battle Challenge Author's Note: Unedited Chapter ------------------ "Yuhiko will be joining us for the next major challenge... you guys can try to get accustomed to her and ask her questions if you want," Gustav said before standing to his feet. 'She is damn hot,' This thought was running through a number of the boys minds as they stared at her. Matilda was all too familiar with the gazes of some of the male teammates here and roll her eyes at them. 'If only they knew,' She thought before walking towards her bedroom. Endric stood too his feet as well and followed after Gustav. He had never been the type to concern himself about a girl's look. The last thing on his mind was a girl right now. "Are you finally going to tell me or what?" Gustav voiced as he paused his movement in the passageway. Endric paused his footsteps as Gustav's back remained turned to him. He was silent for a few before speaking. "It is a sensitive issue since we suspect it is related to that... that is why I cannot speak freely on this matter," Endric stated. "Now you're like the system... choosing to withhold information from me," Gustav was instantly able to tell what Endric was hinting at. "That's not it... I will reveal more when I am sure of my assumptions which is why I said to watch out for Falco," Endric voiced while stretching his hand forward in the direction of Gustav's shoulder. "If you're not gonna say anything, then don't say anything," Gustav stated before walking away without turning around. Endric's hand paused in mid air as he stared at Gustav's departing figure with a conflicted expression. He let out a heavy sigh before turning around. ... ... ... The next day arrived very quickly. At this time, both the citizens of the Planet Ozious as well as all the guests gathered from across galaxies had gathered in the arena. The IYSOP participants were currently in their waiting quarters as the time of the next challenge drew closer. The arena was currently undergoing a change that had everyone's faces brimming with interest as well as astonishment. The grounds were getting covered in a layer of gold that spread all across the area which was well over a hundred thousand feet radius. Unlike the time of other challenges that occured on the ninth disk, within this area, the vicinity wasn't expanding in size. It would seem that the next challenge did not require it to be outrageously massive. As the grounds turned completely gold, puplish plated layers suddenly began to extended in certain area. Thess purplish plated areas elevated, forming stages that covered radiuses of five thousand feet each. Each purplish plated layered platform was at least a hundred feet away from the next and by the time they had finished appearing all over the arena, there was up to a hundred and fifty of them. At this point everyone was well aware that these were battle stages. The challenge being versus battle made it quite obvious, however they didn't realise that this wasn't the end. After the stages had been formed, different kinds of structures began to appear on them. Some of them started forming streets with buildings on them. Some formed a forestry kind of area with beautiful terrains. On some, very weird terrains with active volcanic mountains had been formed. "Woah~" These stages weren't just stages anymore, they were practically locations at this point. Each stage being over five times larger than a football field made it so that it was possible for them to contain natural environments. After the stages had turned to natural environments stationed for battles, beams shot down from the sky upon every one of them. Zhiiihhh~ Zhiiihhh~ Zhiiihhh~ Zhiiihhh~ Zhiiihhh~ Zhiiihhh~ A dome of sorts instantly, appeared all around the terrains that these stages had formed. This of course was to make sure any battle that happened with any of the stages, would not disturb the spectators or others in the surrounding stages. Thiiiihhhhh~ When it was finally time for the challenge to begin, the podium where Handler One was stationed began to elevate. "Hello once again everyone..." He began speaking as the floating screens above the displayed the different battle stages well as a design that showed the name of the challenge. "As mentioned earlier, today's challenge is a versus battle challenge. Let us welcome the participants to the arena first of all," He declared, causing the participants to walk out of their waiting rooms in droves. Although the arena was very much packed due to the stages that housed multiple terrains, there was still enough space for the participants to move in between. Cheers~ Cheers~ -"Yaaahhhhhhh!" -"Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth!" -"Draconets! Draconets! Draconets! Draconets! -"Indulus Prime! We are the greatest!" -"Ozis Tupo! Ozis Tupp!" The spectators went bonkers cheering in support for their respective planets. Thiiinhhh~ Thiiinhhh~ Thiiinhhh~ Thiiinhhh~ In the midst of the cheers, glowing numbers began to appear above the heads of every participants on the arena like a holographic display. "Huh? You have some number on your head," Glade said to Teemee. "You have it too," Teemee responded. "I think we all do," Angy voiced while looking around with a confused expression. -"What are these numbers?" Everyone instantly became curious upon the appearance of the numbers. It would have been easy to figure out, if everyone had the same numbers, however, the numbers varied. Some participants happened to have way higher numbers than others. "I shall now explain the versus battle challenge in detail..." Handler One stated, causing the arena to quieten. "The numbers hovering above each one of you, displays your points for the current challenge. I believe you lots are wondering why everyone has a different point, well that's because the points happened to have been extracted from each planet total accumulation since IYSOP began..." Gasp~ Woah~ Whaaa~ The spectators had different reactions upon hearing this and the arena soon turned noisy again but Handler One continued. "The points each planet has gathered since the start have been unequally shared amongst teammates. Our systems have randomly shared these points which is why some teammates have way lesser than the others. The combined number of points displayed above the heads of teammates still remains equal to the total number of points that the group has gathered since the start of the competition... However... with the setting of the versus battle this could change," The crowd went up in a frenzy again as Handler One continued to explain. "You have a thousand points... I wonder what this means," Angy said to Gustav. "I guess we're about to find out," Gustav responded while staring at the five thousand and fifty points, hovering above Angy. He had made a quick calculation of how many points it amounted to after tallying the numbers hovering above everyone and confirmed that truly it was the number of points they had gathered since the start. He was surprisingly given the lowest points out of everyone. "Upon the system's generation of one hundred and fifty participants from different planets, each of them would head to the respective battle location and pick a planet to face. After picking the planet, they'd have the chance to pick an opponent as well from that planet... this is where the points come into play..." Handler One went on to mention that if a participant picked an opponent from the group of twenty who had a lesser number of points than them, the opponent would have no choice but to agree to the battle and move to the battle location. However, if the participant picked an individual who had a higher point than they did, the selected opposition could chose to decline battling them. Then they'd have to pick someone else till their next turn. "If after being picked, you lose to your opponent, five hundred points will be deducted from you and added to your opponent. If you have less than five hundred point, you will incur a minus which will of course be debited from the rest of your teammates," Handler One kept explaining. "A participant with an higher point can decline battling another participant with lower points, three times. At the fourth decline, the computerised artificial intelligence will deduct a random number of points and add it to the opposing participant who issued the battle," At this point the arena was very loud. The versus battle was really going to be more intense than they anticipated. It was practically a point stealing challenge since participants who get picked to choose their opponents could pick someone that they were sure they could defeat. To top it off, a participant couldn't refuse if their points were lesser. The ones with higher points really had more advantages. The captains didn't even have the power to choose who to send out or anything like that. The only thing that offered a medium of protection against more powerful opponents was points. So long as they had higher points, they could protect themselves from stronger opponents. "This will be much more interesting than I expected," A smirk appeared on Gustav's face as he muttered.