Reborn as an Extra

Morning, the opening day of the Tournament.

The National Stadium of Elven Empire, Near the King's Memorial.

*Boom*

Fireworks lit the morning sky above the stadium and a lot of reporters flocked all around the stadium.

Influential people from all over the world who had bought extremely expensive tickets to watch this tournament live filled the stadium's seats to the brim.

With today's technology it's possible to use a hologram to watch the tournament from the comfort of your home, but seeing it all from your own eyes feels completely different after all.

Thus, no seat in the stadium was left empty today.

Media and reporters were all flocking in excitement, TV channels all over the world were focusing on telecasting this tournament.

The whole world seems to be boiling over this massive-scale event.

The government even declared the opening day of the tournament a national holiday in the human empire so that everyone could enjoy and watch this event.

But the most shocked were not the netizens, but the participants themselves.

…

Inside the waiting area, Room 1.

"Uh, I thought the meeting of gods is a very secretive meeting… then why are we showing off in front of the whole world?" (Liam)

All the students looked at Jin with complicated expressions on their faces.

Jin shook his head and said in an apologizing tone.

"I was going to inform you about this to you guys but I ended up drinking a bit too much yesterday and ended up sleeping all night long so… uh, forgive me…" (Jin)

Jin smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"The tournament was indeed going to be held in a secretive manner just like it always has been, but during this meeting of gods, we have altered the rules a bit…" (Jin)

"From now on, the meeting will be held in disguise of this tournament… we will tell the world that the reason why so many SS-rankers have gathered here is because of the tournament…" (Jin)

"This is being done to improve the secrecy of the meeting even further…" (Jin)

Rio and others squinted their eyes at that answer.

"Why go so far to hide the meeting even more after all these years? They should have done something like this hundreds of years ago if they really wanted to keep things secret…" (Link)

Jin nodded his head and said in a calm tone:

"The thing is…" (Jin)

(Here Jin explained the upcoming 'calamity' to the students to give them basic knowledge about the things happening in the shadows….)

(I am not going to repeat it again, go back to the previous chapters if you have forgotten about it…)

"So, we are trying to use this tournament as a way to keep the general populace calm and distracted from the fact that more and more dungeons are opening as time goes…" (Jin)

"With this tournament, we can keep people busy for at least a few years as they will be focusing on the rising stars that will emerge from this tournament…" (Jin)

"SS-rankers will be able to get the armies ready in the meantime when the interest of the populace gets shifted from the SS-rankers…" (Jin)

Liam frowned at Jin's words and said in a doubtful tone:

"This idea likely won't be feasible, it has too many flaws, and there's no guarantee that people will focus on the new rising stars that hard…" (Liam)

"And even if the idea succeeds…. We can't hide the truth for long… when the amount of mana and miasma becomes high enough, the demon armies will start their invasion…" (Liam)

"No wait…. Perhaps the reason why the demon army has been so quiet these past few years is all because of this reason… they might already be preparing for a full-scale war…" (Liam)

The atmosphere in the room became tense after the students learned the deeper truths about this world.

"Sigh… I am ashamed to put the burden on you children, but even we are out of options, we need some time to prepare…" (Jin)

"If the data gathering results of the AI solace had come out a few years earlier, we could have had more time to prepare, but we kept the AI busy with building the spaceships, thus it had to divide its calculation power…" (Jin)

"Dividing the calculation power caused the data gathering to slow down… now we have a very small amount of time left…" (Jin)

"How much time do we have?" (Link)

"Around two to three years at most I think… it can even be earlier…" (Jin)

Link clenched his fist tightly in frustration, Liam sucked cold air with widened eyes and everyone else was also shocked by this declaration.

"J-just three years?...." (Link)

Among the shocked crowd group, only Rio's face remained as expressionless as always.

He knew that this calamity was coming from the very first day he arrived in this world, thus he wasn't surprised in the least.

'The reason why I have been pushing myself so hard, the reason why I resorted to stealing the chances of the protagonist, was because I knew that such a massive calamity was coming…' (Rio)

Rio had been preparing for this since day one, and thus he was not as shocked as the others.

'Moreover, this first wave is nothing special, the real trouble will come when 'that' being descends…' (Rio)

In a chaotic world destined to be ravaged by endless hordes of monsters, being weak is the original sin.

Thus, Rio had decided to become strong from day one, if he had left everything to luck, he could have never reached the level he has today and his life would have been entirely dependent on luck.

In a story where the hero alone shines and enjoys a lavish life, extra characters like him die in hordes every day, thus to defy the destined fate, Rio has decided to become strong.

'The chance of this planet surviving 'that' being is very low… who knows if this story has a bad ending in the first place…' (Rio)

Rio had read the story till the chapter it had been written at that time, but he never read the real ending of the story, so he isn't sure if this world has any hope or not.

'The situation of this world might be hopeless, but there should be some way to at least save Lia and myself from this disaster…' (Rio)

All Rio cared was about Lia's safety, if she's safe he doesn't care about the rest of the world, he's not a hero and there's no point in trying to be one.

Just when Rio was contemplating in his mind about what to do in the future, Link suddenly placed his hand on Rio's shoulder and said in a confident voice.

"Hmph! If Rio and I work together in the future, we can certainly keep the monsters in check! I don't think I will lose as long as Rio is by my side!" (Link)

Hearing Link's words, the whole group was stunned for a moment but then they all smiled and nodded their head.

Even Jin laughed in amusement.

"Haha, yes, with the two of you holding the sky up for the human race, we don't need to worry about the future that much…" (Jin)

"Who knows, you two might already reach rank SS in the next few years! And unlike the half-assed SS-ranker like me, you two will certainly be much stronger!" (Jin)

A look of pride appeared on Jin's face as he thought about how he had once taught these two personally and his students might surpass him soon.

Seeing Link's blind trust in his ability, Rio was quite surprised in his mind but his face remained emotionless.

'You are placing too heavy a responsibility on my shoulder… but I guess protecting your back till everything seems hopeless might not be a bad idea either…' (Rio)

Rio has always had a vague feeling that there is definitely some connection between Link and Fade.

Fade seems 'lucky' like a genuine protagonist but his personality is straight-up 'weird', on the other hand, Link has the 'bad luck' of a villain but his capabilities match up with that of a person 'favored by the world' itself.

'Strange… very strange… my plot sense is tingling violently for some reason…' (Rio)

The only person who was able to sense something amiss and was able to snap out of it properly was Link too.

Link noticed the presence of a 'mysterious force' without Rio even telling him beforehand. (Referring to ch-129, read it again if you don't remember it…)

'There is definitely something going on behind the scenes…' (Rio)

'Moreover… according to the AI solace's data… everything started around the time when Alverto attacked Drift city… is there some connection between this Alverto and this calamity…' (Rio)

The reason why Rio wasn't sure is that Alverto was never mentioned in the original novel, thus Rio doesn't know much about him.

…

…

Author's Notes.

Yo! It's your beloved author here!

It seems that the mysteries of this world deepen the further you try to find answers, maybe the secrets of this world are indeed as deep as the abyss…

Question of the day.

Now that you know the reason why Rio has been so hell-bent on stealing the chances of Fade, what would you choose to do?

1. Steal (Steal the protagonist's chances and survive some way or other!)

2. No (I will just accept my fate as an extra and die peacefully…)

By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.