Affinity:Chaos

This was the first time the group of four were seeing him, so they found his behavior downright outrageous.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" One of the youths on the stage asked.

"A proud fool, that's what he is," Another said.

"Let's kick him out before fighting to see who stays," One of them suggested.

The others nodded to this suggestion since they all had a common enemy, Grey.

Grey opened his eyes to see all four youths walking towards him, one female and three males. He narrowed his eyes to a slit, before standing up.

'Looks like I should eliminate three of them and challenge the number on the rankings and be done with this,' Grey said to himself.

After coming to a decision, he vanished.

With the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, three figures were sent flying from the stage, all landing outside the stage at the same time.

A young man was the only one Grey left on the stage, the reason for this was because the young man was the strongest and naturally deserved to go through.

He turned to look at the supervisor, and it was unexpectedly the same man from the previous day.

"Can I challenge someone now?" He asked after walking close to the man.

"Not yet, your names will have to be registered into the geniuses rankings before you can challenge someone ahead of you. Take note, you only have three chances," The supervisor said.

"I only need one," Grey replied.

He went back to his seat while his name and that of the young man were registered in the geniuses rankings.

A huge stone descended from the sky, and at the top of it was the word Origin Plane boldly written on it. Below it were names along with numbers. It went from number one to fifty.

Grey's name appeared at number forty-nine.

Grey was naturally the one who caught the most attention. The reason for this was because he was someone unknown in the region, so the majority of the top Factions here were hoping to recruit him.

These competitions are held by the Factions of a region. It is done in every region, and it's what they use to fish out hidden talents. They've managed to get multiple from these competitions, and currently, they're all vying for who would be able to lure Grey to their Faction.

Unfortunately for them, Grey was not the least bit interested in joining any Faction right now. Even if he wanted to join one, it would be one that can protect him until he grows strong enough.

The top fifty were rewarded with some essence stones and an elemental weapon each. Grey kept his before walking away from the stage.

Sylvia told him not to challenge the person in the first position yet since she would like to watch others fight. If Grey challenged the person ranked first and easily defeated them, then the others would lose their will to fight properly since the first place was taken.

Grey sat down and closed his eyes, making simulations of arrays once again. Sylvia promised to remind him when it was time for him to challenge the person who was first in the rankings.

The geniuses rankings are updated monthly, and the person who is number one for those in the Origin Plane was a young lady who was at the Peak of the Plane. She was said to be a rare Light and Darkness Dual Elementalist.

After those in lower ranks challenged each other. It slowly moved to those in higher ranks, with the intensity of battles increasing as the ranks increased.

The rankings kept changing with almost every challenge, with many people losing their previous positions, and new people going higher.

Ezra Mason, the young lady ranked number one, and Jesse Hanks, the young man ranked number two. They were both at the Peak of the Origin Plane, and each of them was a Dual Elementalist.

One of them had the light and darkness element which was a rare combination, and the other has the space and fire element.

"Ezra, looks like you'll be losing your number one rank today," Jesse said coolly.

"You've grown stronger after your expedition, but I don't think you will be able to defeat me," Ezra said with a smile.

"Heh, we'll see about that," Jesse smiled before flames erupted around him.

Just as he was about to attack, he heard a voice calling for them to stop.

"Stop!"

They turned to look at who was speaking, and it was other than Grey.

"What are you doing? Why are you interfering in their match?" The supervisor in charge of that stage questioned coldly.

The judges from the different Factions also looked at Grey oddly. They all had an interest in this masked boy, but they didn't understand why he would stop the most anticipated battle in the Origin Plane.

"As much as I'd like to see them fight, I don't want to fight against a weakened opponent," Grey said.

"Meaning?" The supervisor asked with narrowed eyes.

"I want to challenge them right now, after I'm done with them, they can fight for the scraps," Grey said nonchalantly.

His words invited rage from the crowd, Ezra and Jesse, as well as the judges from the Factions, especially the two Factions Ezra and Jesse belonged to.

"Be careful what you wish for, boy. You might have some potential, but don't forget that others your age are already in the Overlord Plane," One of the judges said coldly.

The meaning of his statement was as clear as day for all to see.. If Grey was really talented, then he wouldn't still be in the Origin Plane.