Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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The Combat Arena was built in a large domed collesium.

It looked ancient from the outside, but the interior was filled with all types of modern technology. Its size was enough for hundreds of thousands of people to watch simultaneously. There were large holographic screens above that allowed those at the back to see the match with more clarity.

The arena sure was popular in communal worlds. After all, there were no lack of people who had pent-up aggressions that needed to be satiated. Even if it wasn't them who shows up in matches, the curiosity and the heat of the battle are enough to entertain a lot of people for a while.

Cedric didn't go to the combat arena himself; he tuned in to the livestream from the comfort of his own home, lying down in his bed while munching on some snacks he bought along with him.

He tuned in to the fight of two rather rowdy individuals. The moment he brought up the livestream, he was immediately greeted with loud cheers and roars from the audience. He could even make out several voices shouting about some gambling stakes.

'Hm, I guess the concept of gambling isn't something foreign to these folks too.' He muttered inwardly.

Cedric then focused on the match and observed the participants. The one that's on was a 1v1 match, red vs. blue, a somewhat typical and easily understandable theme.

The participant on the red side was a creature that looked like an orc. It has green skin, a bulky body, and squarish jaws with its lower fangs protruding out of its face. It seems to be a male orc, and he's wearing some tribal armor made from metals and cloth pieced together.

He's wielding a greatsword that's almost as huge as his body, and his aura was definitely just as intimidating as his appearance.

On the blue corner, the participant was another male. He had the head of an eagle, a humanoid torso, large wings that flapped furiously behind his back, aiding his speed and flight, sharp talons, and sleek feathers that gleamed under the glare of light. His sharp predatory eyes gazed at the orc like he was some kind of prey to be hunted.

He took advantage of his flight capabilities to maintain distance from the orc, sending flurries of sharpened feathers to harass him from above.

Despite facing the rain of sharp feathers, the orc didn't bother hiding or evading. He just allowed the feathers to strike him, confident that it wouldn't hurt him or even graze his skin.

And it didn't. Despite his shabby armor and appearance, the orc's physical body was too tough for the feathers to penetrate; they couldn't even pierce the cloth on the armor he was wearing.

Cedric watched as the birdman(?)'s face went solemn. His talons gleamed dangerously, and his large wings flapped behind him. He turned into a wild bullet, cutting through the atmosphere and breaking the sound barrier.

The orc watched in anticipation as his enemy came. Once he was a certain distance away, the orc stomped one foot forward, shattering the ground beneath him. He wound up a swing that was full of opening and recklessness.

Then, as they were about to clash, the birdman suddenly shifted his flight, narrowly avoiding the swing, which could've definitely killed him. His speed increased sharply, appearing behind the orc, who's still in the middle of his swing.

Cedric saw the birdman smirking slightly, celebrating his victory early. He charged from behind with his talons stretched out, aiming for the head of the orc. But to his shock, the blade of the orc's greatsword shattered his chances of victory.

As it turns out, the orc knew that the birdman wouldn't commit to the clash, so he borrowed the momentum of his initial swing to transition into a spinning slash. He didn't stop at the first spin either; he continued spinning while chasing after his fleeing opponent.

The momentum of his swing, the strength at which he did so, and his meager understanding of concept laws turned him into a tornado that sucked the birdman in and tore him to shreds with no hopes of escaping.

There was no censorship here. The horrible fate that happened to the birdman was completely displayed for everybody to see, making the already rowdy audience turn even more ferocious with their cheers.

It's the orc's resounding victory, and the collesium shook from the audience cheering his name. The orc raised his greatsword with both hands and made some tribal sounds, which seemed to be a ritual to celebrate his own victory.

After a minute or two, the birdman reappeared on his corner, pale and slightly miserable. He stood shakily and looked at his opponent with begruding respect.

The orc marched to him and offered a hand, which the birdman took. After that, the fight was concluded.

'Ah, so dying in the combat arena won't kick you out of the virtual universe. However, from the looks of it, the experience of death still feels real.'

'Well, that's nothing new to me then.'

Cedric isn't a stranger to virtual battles or dying in a virtual world. He grew up suffering from the Hell Dives after all.

He continued watching the livestream of the combat arena to see more matches. He saw all sorts of creatures participating in battles, which gave him the impression that all the fighting in there just doesn't stop.

Cedric saw a match between a shapeshifting crocodile and someone whose throat could puff out like a toad to either scream really loudly or belch out some seriously corrosive acid. There was also a match between a ghost and a harpy, and many more.

He watched as much as he could before he eventually got bored. He figured that even if he watched the livestream for an entire day, he wouldn't see every alien type that he had seen roaming the communal world participate.

There's just too many of them here, after all. And not all are interested in participating in a heated battle. He also couldn't expect aliens that had pacifist cultures to appear in there. Plus, his curiosity can only go so far. He had other matters to attend to.

So, after he was bored from watching the matches, Cedric began studying the Cosmic Map of the Virtual Universe.

To say that it was huge would be an understatement. Without the convenience brought by the V-hubs, it would take thousands of years for anybody to completely roam the entirety of it, and that with the state-of-the art spaceships too.

Putting it in perspective, anything that shines from a distance is a location that you can most likely visit, assuming that there's a V-hub on or anywhere near that place. Of course, there are some places that you can't go without permission or sufficient status, but even as a common citizen, there are at least several thousands of worlds where Cedric could freely come and go as he pleases.

Each world looks and works differently from another, having their own charm, culture, and history.

Most of these worlds looked the exact same as their real world counterparts, so visiting them here isn't any different from being there in reality. This means that the world he's in, the one that looked just like Prime Earth save for the multiple moons, was a real world that he could possibly go to in the future as well.

And since this was the virtual universe, going to and from one place to the next wasn't a big deal; he just needed to pay the fare, and he'd be teleported to anywhere he pleases. That's the convenience brought by the V-hubs.

This was just for the common worlds. The ones that require a certain level of authority or status were the'must-ssee' ones at least, because these worlds are the ones that have significant reputations and wealth to be reserved for only certain people.

These worlds are either trial grounds, secret realms, locations of sects or organizations, or important places where opportunities and fortune were everywhere.

Cedric doesn't dare to dream of visiting all of them because there's just too many, but he did want to see a lot, which urges him to find even more ways to upgrade his citizenship as soon as he can. As for visiting them in reality, that's even more unlikely unless he manages to become a cosmic-level life evolver, which he still doesn't know how to do until now, by the way.

However, the real reason why Cedric wanted to study the cosmic map wasn't just because he wanted to see how many worlds he could potentially explore. It's also because he was optimizing his options. After all, his plan was to climb the social ladder and increase his cultivation at the same time. Therefore, he had to be wise when choosing his career here to prevent wasting his time.

"Well, I have a lot of options here, and most of them can give me a steady way of earning a living."

"But that would take too long, so I guess I have to take some risks, huh?"

Cedric gazed at a certain crimson spot on the map, one that's emitting an eerie and murky sanguine gleam.

"Old habits die hard, it seems."