Chapter 332: Ch 332 : Rewards For The Winner

[GAME OVER.]

The red text burned against the crimson sky of the Colosseum, hanging there like a decree from the heavens.

Mr. Bunny, floating on his invisible throne, clapped his little paws together. The sound echoed like thunder in the silent, blood-soaked arena.

“Congratulations!” the rabbit cheered, his serrated teeth glinting in the twilight. “You have proved that battle is not merely about who has the sharpest sword or the hottest fire. It is about the mind. You have won the Battle Royale without staining your hands with a single drop of direct blood.”

“This achievement is rare,” the rabbit mused, checking a pocket watch that materialized from thin air.

“It grants you 1,000,000 Merit Points.”

Samantha slumped against the broken pillar. Her mana was full, her body was uninjured, but her spirit felt heavy enough to sink through the floor. She fell to her knees, not from exhaustion, but from the crushing weight of relief.

“I survived,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “It’s over.”

“The remaining prizes will be calculated by the Heavens,” Mr. Bunny said, waving a paw dismissively. “For now, goodbye, little champion. May we meet again.”

SNAP.

The rabbit snapped his fingers.

It wasn’t a sound; it was a command to reality. Before the auditory signal could even register in Samantha’s brain, the world shattered.

The red sand, the black walls, the smell of death, it all fractured like a mirror struck by a hammer.

Her body dissolved into light.

Panic flared in her chest. Her Intuition hadn’t warned her of an attack. Was Mr. Bunny killing her too? Was the prize for winning the ultimate release of death?

WHOOSH.

Her eyes snapped open.

She gasped, sucking in a lungful of air.

The stench of blood was gone. The oppressive heat of the crimson sky was gone. Instead, the air smelled of incense and ancient stone.

She was back.

She was sitting in her high-backed stone chair, her hands gripping the armrests so tightly that the stone was beginning to crack. A blue System Panel floated serenely in front of her face.

“GASPP!”

Samantha clutched her chest, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She looked around frantically, her eyes wide with lingering trauma.

She expected to be alone. She expected to see the empty chairs of the friends she had watched die. Or perhaps she expected to see Shenlong and Thea waiting to congratulate the sole survivor.

But what she saw stopped her heart cold.

Surrounding the round table were seventy-nine Demigods.

Elder Tesser was there, rubbing his neck with a grimace, as if checking for a blade.

The Dwarf Elder was there, flexing his arm, the same arm that had been eaten by the rabbit.

Zen was sitting right next to her, blinking rapidly as he touched his own throat.

They were all alive.

“You… You…” Samantha stammered, her face draining of color. “But I saw… I saw you die.”

She looked past them to the center of the room. A massive holographic screen was suspended in the air, playing a highlight reel of the Colosseum.

It showed Zen placing the sword against his neck. It showed the light fading from his eyes. It showed Samantha standing alone in the center of the carnage.

The realization hit her like a physical blow, knocking the breath out of her.

It was a simulation. A game.

“A game…” she whispered.

Panic began to rise in her throat again, but this time it was a different kind. It was shame.

She had manipulated them. She had deceived them. She had watched her friends die one by one, planning their funerals in her head, preparing speeches for their family.

And they had been watching the whole thing after their death.

She slowly turned her head to look at Zen.

The Wind Demigod was staring at the replay screen, rubbing the lingering sensation of a slit throat. He turned to look at Samantha.

She flinched. She expected anger. She expected him to scream at her, to summon his wind blades and strike her down for the trickery.

But Zen wasn’t angry.

He started to laugh.

“Hah… Hahaha!” Zen slapped his knee, the sound echoing in the silent hall. “I killed myself! By the Old Gods, I actually killed myself!”

He looked at Samantha and grinned. It wasn’t a smile of madness; it was a smile of genuine, impressed disbelief.

“You terrified me, old woman,” Zen chuckled, shaking his head. “I really thought you were dead. When you stood up… I thought I was seeing a ghost.”

Across the table, Elder Tesser leaned forward. The crystalline giant nodded respectfully.

“A brilliant strategy, Samantha. We were fools playing gladiators in the mud, while you were playing Chess in the clouds.”

Instead of hatred, Samantha saw respect in their eyes.

They had experienced the power of the System firsthand. They had felt the realism of the simulation, the pain, the despair, the adrenaline. It was indistinguishable from reality.

And they realized the true value of what God Cosmos had given them.

Under his guidance, they could experience death a thousand times. They could refine their battle instincts, test dangerous strategies, and face impossible odds without ever actually risking their lives.

It was the ultimate training ground.

DING.

A golden notification appeared in front of Samantha. It was bright enough that everyone in the room could see it.

[Congratulations on your win, Demigod Samantha.]

[Reward: 1 Million Merit Points for Winning + 1 Million Merit Points for Winning without any injury + 1 million for Winning without injuring anyone]

The respect in the eyes of the 79 Demigods was suddenly mixed with a healthy dose of envy.

THREE million.

They had just browsed the System Shop. They knew the value of a point.

One million could buy resources that would take their universe a thousand years to gather naturally.

But this envy was just the appetizer. The main course dropped a second later.

DING.

[Additional Reward: The Archive of Mastery.]

[You are rewarded with the Knowledge of any ONE Art, Profession, or Law of your choosing (SS-Grade).]

As soon as the text appeared, a sub-panel unfurled like a scroll, cascading down to the floor.

The eyes of the Demigods went wide, threatening to pop out of their skulls.

This wasn’t just a library. It was a treasure trove of enlightenment.

These were SS-Grade techniques. In their backwater corner of the multiverse, an S-Grade technique was a clan heirloom. SS-Grade was a legend.

If a mortal comprehended even 50% of one of these manuals, they would have a 100% chance of reaching the Demigod Realm. The only bottleneck would be their own talent, not the technique.

Samantha scrolled through the list with a trembling finger.

[Weapons Mastery: Void-Severing Sword Art, Heaven-Crushing Hammer Technique, Shadow-Weaving Dagger Arts…..]

[Professions: Nine-Revolutions Pill Alchemy, Celestial Formation Arrays, Divine Gardening & Spirit Nurturing….]

[Strategy & Games: Cosmic Go (Strategy of War), Battlefield Commander Arts….]

And then, at the bottom, the list shifted to the Forbidden.

[Laws: Law of Space: Short-Range Teleportation, Law of Time: Chrono-Stasis, Law of Fire: Eternal Flame….]

“Laws…” Elder Tesser whispered, his crystalline body vibrating. “It sells understanding of Laws?”

Comprehending a Law usually took millennia of meditation and luck. Here, it was a downloadable content pack.

“Lady Thea…” Samantha whispered, overwhelmed by the choices. “Can I get some time to decide what to pick? This is… too much.”

Another panel appeared, replacing the voice of the a mechanical robot.

[You do not need to refer to me as Lady Thea. The System is an automated consciousness, separate from Demigod Thea.]

[And Yes. You may redeem your reward at any time. The library updates in real-time as other Systems across the Multiverse upload new data.]

“Oh… okay, System,” Samantha breathed.

With a thought, she minimized the list.

Immediately, the other Elders swarmed her.

“Elder Samantha! Choose the Sword Art! We can practice together!”

“No, choose the Pill Alchemy! Our universe needs better healing medicines!”

“Ignore them! Pick the Law of Space! Think of the tactical advantage!”

They were like children surrounding a friend who had just bought a new toy.

But Samantha politely declined them all. “There are too many choices, and only one chance. I need to think about this.”

Just as the crowd was calming down, the System decided it wasn’t done showing off.

DING.

[Additional Reward: Artifact.]

[Item: The Gem of Illusions (SS-Grade).]

A beam of light shot out of the panel. Materializing in Samantha’s hand was a fist-sized gemstone. It swirled with multicolored mists that seemed to shift and change every time someone blinked.

The room went dead silent.

An SS-Grade Artifact.

In their multiverse, only the High Lords of the Central Universes possessed such items.

Their “Green Crystalline Alliance” controlled a resource-poor universe. They didn’t have a single SS-Grade item among them.

Samantha now held the GDP of an entire universe in her palm, ’heck, if she traded it with those big families from central universes, she could earn tens of universes, each one better than their current universe’

The Elders looked at the gem with naked greed, but also fear. The System had given it, and the System could take it away. No one dared to snatch it.

“A festival,” the Dwarf Elder muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. “We need to hold a universe-wide festival to celebrate this.”

But before the hype could settle, before they could even begin to process the shift in power dynamics, the System dropped the final bombshell.

DING.

[Note: The rewards listed above are merely the ’Welcome Package’ for the First Champion.]

[To understand the true value of your allegiance to God Cosmos, please refer to the pinned post on the Global Forum.]

[Thread Title: Benefits of Following The God Emperor Cosmos.]

[Author: Light.]

“Light?” Tesser frowned. “Who is Light?”

“It sounds… Casual… But when I say it… It suddenly feel authoritative, i can imagine him as a young teacher, what kind of sorcery is this…” Zen whispered.

Eighty fingers clicked on the link simultaneously.

The article opened. And as they read, the true terror and the true glory of their new patron was revealed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep