Since the Reality Emulators opened, all the 100 participating trial zone teams entered them in less than a minute.
When the Earth's Alpha Chosen entered their respective Reality Emulators, they entered a shared virtual space.
Unlike Round-1's pure white space, the shared virtual space simulated a plain barren land as the battleground.
However, that space wasn't too vast as its dimensions were only that of 1 km x 1 km x 1 km, and beyond that border, everything was empty.
As soon as the Earth's Alpha Chosen set foot on the barren battlefield, the details on Round-2 appeared in front of them.
[1. Survive under the onslaught of monster hordes, where each 10-minute long Monster Wave consists of a hundred monsters.
2. Followed by 10-minute consecutive breaks, the monsters in each passing 'Wave' will be a Phase higher than the last one.
3. The only two ways to proceed further were to either clear the monsters in each Wave or survive until the Wave duration ends.
4. The Round-2 Evaluation Score will mainly depend on surviving a higher number of Monster Waves.]
That gave an understanding to them of what would happen in Round-2. Soon, those details were replaced by a 60-second countdown, indicating the time left for the 1st Monster Wave to begin.
Ever since they entered the virtual space, Jay stood at the very center of the barren battlefield and stood with his eyes closed as he said nothing.
The Earth's Alpha Chosen followed his suit and stood nearby in silence as the countdown trickled.
Twenty seconds passed, and Dante couldn't take the silence anymore and initiated a conversation by asking Jay, "Shouldn't we also work on developing a strategy? After all, it is better to have one planned than facing the Monster Waves empty-handed."
The rest of the Earth's Alpha Chosen looked at Jay and waited for him to say something.
However, Jay didn't open his eyes, nor did he say a single word. The awkward silence continued for ten more seconds before a cluster of dark clouds manifested above them in succession.
Those clouds diffused into the ink-black fog in the next fifteen seconds and engulfed the entire battlefield except the 100-meter radius around Jay.
The appearance of ominous-looking fog confused and worried half the Earth's Alpha Chosen, but when the other half, who knew it was Jay's ability, explained it to the others and calmed them.
Despite not being to extend their senses into the ink-black fog, they could still sense the terrifying power it contained.
That was even more so for Henry, Gabriel, Brandon, and Sergei, who possess Fire, Wind, Lightning and Darkness Innate Talents.
They felt as if the ink-black fog was an unstoppable force of nature.
Ever since Jay learned of the Thunder Miasma element's weakness, he came up with the idea of spreading out the Thunder Miasma in the area around him to make up for its slow movement speed, which created the skill .
When Jay entered the Reality Emulator, he closed his eyes and began to sense the maximum range he could extend the 'Thunder Miasma Field'.
Jay estimated that he needed to expend 95% of his entire Spirit Energy reserve to cover the entire battlefield.
Other than the initial cost of using the , it would need a constant expenditure of Spirit Energy to maintain it.
So, when spreading out the field, Jay excluded the top three-fourths of the battlefield and a dome of a 100-meter radius so that the maintenance costs tied off with his regeneration of 19.8 Spirit Energy per Minute.
Due to that, the Thunder Miasma Field didn't cover the area 250 meters above the ground level and the 100-meter radius around him.
Since his Spirit Energy Regeneration and the maintenance expenditure for the were at a balance, Jay wouldn't have to continue providing extra Spirit Energy, which makes it easier for him to control the grey thunderbolts within the ink-black Miasma.
By the time he was done with the preparations, there were ten seconds left for the 1st Monster Wave and only then did Jay open his eyes.
He then announced, "For now, we don't need a strategy. Just kill any monster that manages to cross past the fog.
Like I said before, clearing the Monster Waves results gives us a higher Evaluation Score than simply surviving. But there is something that I didn't even mention to the Atlans and the Rock Magmoids.
Clearing each Monster Wave as quickly as possible will result in an even better Evaluation Score. So, aim to finish the monsters as soon as possible but don't expend more Spirit Energy and Stamina than needed."
Jay hid this information from the other two teams not because he didn't want them to score higher but because following that method would only affect them adversely as they reach higher Monster Waves.
If it weren't for the , Jay wouldn't even have mentioned to the Earth's Alpha Chosen about clearing the Monster Waves as soon as possible.
Upon noticing some of Earth's Alpha Chosen be lax about Round-2, he gave them a pep talk in his own right, "Don't let our ranking in Round-1 get into your head. I am reminding you all once again, our target was far from just ranking 1st among this Trial Region. I expect you all to give it your best shot.
If it motivates you, I would like to add that at the end of the Tournament, you all shall receive RP (Reward Points), based on your individual Evaluation Scores."
Those last words excited the Earth's Alpha Chosen. Among them, the ones at the low-end level spectrum like Gabriel, Kasim and Henry even exchanged glances at each other as if they were competitors.
They desperately needed more RP to level up and wanted to escape from being the bottom feeders of their team.
Dante wasn't clubbed together with them anymore. Ever since Dante's shocking display of burst in overall attack power, he was considered one of the team's strongest members, despite being the lowest levelled one.
As fuel to the fire, Jay's words ignited their fighting spirits, and they wished nothing more than to kill as many monsters as possible during the initial Monster Waves.
Soon, the countdown ended, and 100 Tier-1 Low-Phase monsters were spawned uniformly at the four borders of the barren battlefield and frantically ran towards the center from all directions.
There were all kinds of monsters among them, and that included Aerial-type monsters as well. But no single monster was of the same race, and each of them was at Lv.3, i.e. the peak of Tier-1 Low-Phase.
Three seconds had already passed since the countdown ended, but the Earth's Alpha Chosen could hear no roars or growls from the monsters. There wasn't even any noise disturbance from the stampede of the monster horde.
They even doubted if the 1st Monster Wave began or not. However, their doubts were answered by the bunch of notifications that appeared on the fourth second.
[Congratulations! Your team have successfully cleared the 1st Monster Wave.]
[Due to clearing the 1st Monster Wave within the first five seconds, a 100% bonus Score was added to the Round-2 Team Evaluation.]
Individual Contribution Score:
Team Score: 2000 (1000+1000{Bonus})
Looking at their individual contribution, Gabriel, Kasim and Henry didn't know what to say.
Those three placed their hopes on the initial Waves because only then would they have leeway to score more kills.
When they recollected the memory of Jay telling them to kill any monster that manages to cross past the ink-black fog, their lips couldn't help but twitch involuntarily.
Their best chance for that was the first six Monster Waves because any beyond that would become increasingly harder, and they had to fight together with the entire team, which would limit their contribution.
Meanwhile, Jay chose to skip the 10-minute break after the 1st Monster Wave and proceeded with the 2nd one.
A similar situation was repeated with the 2nd and 3rd Monster Waves. They both were cleared in five seconds without them having to move a finger.
Those three began to wonder if they could even see monsters from the initial waves pass through the strange fog.