NOVEL WEB Chapter 219: Stunning Everyone!
"It's 999 spiritual hertz," the old man announced, standing up in dumbfoundedness.
"This... this is impossible."
"Even natural-born people who've been steadily accumulating spiritual hertz shouldn't have this much."
"Yeah, unless they're nobles who use strange methods to artificially boost their spiritual hertz."
"Even then, he looks so handsome and young, could he be one of those fallen nobles from the stories?"
As whispers spread, a woman nearby blushed after locking eyes with Grey, now the center of attention.
"Isn't that the handsome guy from the library?"
Murmurs echoed through the crowd like wildfire. In an instant, the entire coliseum erupted into noise.
The old man frowned as he surveyed the chaotic scene. With a wave of his hand, a small grimoire floated out of his pocket.
The pages turned on their own, and he pulled out a quill, beginning to write upon it.
"Shut the fuck up."
Grey's eyes locked onto the overwhelming spiritual aura radiating from the old man's hand. It surged and expanded, almost a foot tall, and then exploded violently.
Bang!
An invisible, terrifying shockwave rippled outward.
Everyone nearby found their mouths forcibly sealed shut, as if by instinct.
No one could move their lips, not even an inch.
Silence.
A pin-drop silence.
Even Grey couldn't open his mouth. He stared at the scene with stunned eyes, a flicker of caution rising in his heart.
'I underestimated this world. This grimoire has the power to alter reality itself.'
Fortunately, he hadn't grown suspicious until now.
In hindsight, he could have easily pummeled this old man into the ground. But would the old man's quill be faster or would he be?
Grey didn't want to find out. He could surprise and destroy his enemies with ease, but if they were prepared with grimoires that could bend reality itself, things could get truly dangerous.
Grey didn't expect the old man to waste a whole page in his Grimoire just to silence the crowd.
That silence stretched on for a solid minute before anyone dared to speak again.
"You may enter now," the old man said, pointing forward with the most pleasant smile he could muster.
"...Okay." Grey stepped forward, moving beneath the excited crowd who, though silent, buzzed with their own private speculations.
Lucy was the most stunned of all.
'How is this possible?' she thought. 'He only awakened his spiritual energy with the Awakening Stone just yesterday.'
If the people behind her knew this, they'd be utterly flabbergasted, stunned into complete silence.
Not just them, if this was true, the entire world might spiral into chaos.
Grey had awakened not long ago, yet his spiritual energy surged so fiercely it could shake the very foundations of the world.
He might even become breaking news across every corner of the realm, for this was absolutely unprecedented.
Even the old man standing before him seemed unnervingly calm, perhaps hiding his own disbelief.
Only one question burned in Lucy's heart:
'How did he do it?'
She struggled to believe her own eyes, feeling as though her reality was crumbling.
Without hesitation, Grey stepped inside, walking down the pitch-black passage ahead, swallowed by blinding darkness.
A man stood quietly before him.
"You're the one with 999 spiritual htz?" the man asked.
"Yeah," Grey replied casually, shrugging his shoulders.
"I didn't expect it," the man murmured in a low, almost incomprehensible voice as he handed Grey a small token.
"What's this?" Grey tilted his head, curiosity piqued.
"This token identifies you. Your name doesn't matter, only the strength of your spiritual htz," the man explained respectfully.
"Alright," Grey said, taking the token.
He continued forward into the venue, and as he did, the darkness vanished. The sun flooded the space with blinding light.
Grey squinted, feeling the intense heat pressing down on him, a wave of nausea washing over him.
The passageway led Grey straight to the center of the coliseum.
On one side, numerous participants filled the stands, their murmurs buzzing like a distant storm.
Atop the stadium stood a pink-haired man, radiating pride and strength. His eyes were sharp and focused, and he held himself with the rigid posture of a seasoned general.
Grey stared at him, stunned, before his gaze swept across the other participants filling the arena.
'This feels… odd,' he thought, shaking his head as he stepped forward.
The man ahead heard the footsteps and spun around, a frown crossing his face, a face that seemed to scream: Wanna fight?
But when his eyes landed on Grey's token, his expression froze. Without hesitation, he stepped aside and said hurriedly, "You… you may proceed."
Grey nodded and stepped forward with slow, deliberate strides.
Everyone's expressions mirrored that of the first man he'd encountered, respectful and almost reverent. As he walked, the crowd instinctively parted, clearing a path that led him straight to the front.
'Eh?' Grey was utterly flabbergasted. Not only were these people making way for him, they were showing him deep respect without him saying a word.
'I didn't actually want to be at the front of the line,' he thought, feeling a bit out of place.
Since he was already there, Grey took a moment to study the short, pink-haired man standing nearby.
Their eyes met.
"Oh?" the pink-haired man smiled, his gaze flickering down to Grey's token. "I didn't expect today's batch to be this impressive."
Time passed in the blink of an eye.
Gradually, five hundred people gathered on the open ground. The short pink-haired man nodded approvingly.
"This should be enough for this batch," he declared.
A messenger quickly moved off to relay the order to stop sending more people.
"Top ten individuals with the highest spiritual htz, please step forward."
Immediately, ten people began walking forward, one step at a time.
Grey stepped forward as well, his 999 spiritual htz clearly marking him as part of the group.
However, when the count was done, there were eleven people standing before them.
One of them had walked forward without knowing that they has smaller quantity of Spiritual htz!