Throughout the rest of the journey, Lucifer kept trying to convince the old man about how it was a good idea to divide the world into ten domains where all ten competitors could fight freely without interfering with others.
"If you divide the World into ten domains, it's much more efficient and safer. For example, instead of fighting amongst ourselves, we can focus on fighting the enemies. One of your three seeds is already dead in the last exam. I don't want to have to kill another if they interfere in my trial," he explained, mentioning about Mander to give a little more push.
The Trials this year were already very dangerous since the grandson of one of the Generals had died. If one more died like that, then questions were going to be raised on the old man. It was that concern of the old man which Lucifer wanted to exploit.
,m "I understand what you're trying to say, but that still doesn't remove the main concern," the old man responded. "If we divide the world into ten territories, giving each of you your own territory to kill, then it is going to be unfair to some."
"Isn't luck also part of one's strength?" Lucifer retorted. "If one is truly capable, why would they worry if they get a strong enemy or weak? Why would they care for it? The person who is truly worthy of winning won't give an excuse that his enemies were stronger than others."
"If you do a random draw on who gets which of the territories, that should be fair enough. Who gets stronger territory to destroy can go about doing that, and whoever gets weaker will destroy weaker. You can give points accordingly," he added. He really wanted to convince the old man, and he was also succeeding to some extent.
"Moreover, this unfair thing that you're worried about... When is life actually fair? Had this trial actually been hair? The last exam was more about luck, wasn't it? Mander faced me and died. If he had faced someone else, he would've been in the final as well."
"Raayi's opponents didn't even have a chance. If they were paired with someone weaker, they could've been in the finals as well. The fairness is non existent in these trials since the beginning. Luck has been playing a role far more prominent than you think. So why not let luck play a role here as well?"
"If I'm supposed to win, I will win even if I get the strongest territory and if I'm not supposed to win, I'll lose even if I get the weakest territory."
That was the last strike that Lucifer was convinced was going to do the magic. And he was right as well. His words actually managed to convince the old man.
"Alright. I see some sense in your words. I'll go with this format, but there's one more thing..." The old man flashed a grin.
Lucifer had won half the battle by getting the man to implement the Territory System in the last trial, but there was one more thing left.
He also needed to convince the man to give him the strongest central territory, which was going to be the hard part since he himself had to suggest a random draw to convince the old man. But before that, he looked at the weird smile of the old man, finding it somewhat strange. Just why was the old man smiling like that?
"What thing?" he asked.
"You advocated for this Territory System. Generally, I would've thought that you did it because you wanted to try your luck in getting an easier territory, but knowing you, I know that won't be the case," the old man answered. "Still, since you said that it isn't unfair if one gets the strongest territory to destroy, I want to see you take on this challenge."
"I want to see you keep your word," he added.
Lucifer frowned, wondering if the old man was actually talking about what he thought. He kept his expressions under his control to not laugh. Through those words, he could feel what was coming. It seemed he didn't even need to convince the old man to give him the strongest territory.
The old man was himself going to give him the strongest territory since he talked so lightly of it.
"Instead of making it a random draw, I'll assign territories to everyone accordingly. Since you suggested it, I want to give you the strongest territory to destroy and see if you can still stick to your words that it's not unfair.'
"Instead of a random draw, the weakest will be given the weaker territories, and the strongest will get the strongest territories. Other than you, everyone will get the territories assigned to them according to their current rankings," he further explained.
He somewhat expected Lucifer to be surprised or at least somewhat shocked since he was getting the hardest challenge, but for some reason, he felt that Lucifer was happy instead.
He considered Lucifer to be a very strange person at the core. He was like Ron, who appeared to be getting more excited as he received a harder challenge.
After everything was decided, the old man sent his men to call out the other nine finalists as well.
All the finalists were called to the Central Control Room, where they all stood in a line.
The old man informed everyone about the new format of the final trial. He also assigned everyone territories right before them.
As he declared before, Lucifer was given the strongest central territory to face. Raayi was given the territory which was considered to be the second strongest by the Star Alliance. Ron received the third strongest.
As everyone was assigned territories, they weren't informed that they were getting stronger and weaker territories. To the students, all territories were the same, so they didn't feel jealous of each other. Only Lucifer and the staff here knew about her difference in challenges that the stronger ones faced.
By the time the old man finished explaining, the ship was also near the World of Summons.
"From here, you will be directly sent to the territories that belong to you. Moreover, there is also a change. You'll be there for two days now before being pulled back. The ones who kill the most in those two days will receive the most points."
"The new points will play an important role in your final rankings, so I hope you give it your all. And show this world what happens when you go against the Star Alliance!"
The old man signaled the ones on the control to send everyone down.
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