My Infinite Cultivation System-Chapter 105: The hunting period is about to begin

He looked up at Jaros, his expression shifting to one of scholarly curiosity. "Tell me something more about this battlefield. What do we have to do? What are the rules? How does the ranking system work?"

Ares, who had been fuming in the background, seemed ready to explode. Both Jaros and Alex had ignored his warnings, his frustrations, his entirely reasonable concerns. They acted as though his words were nothing more than background noise, insects buzzing in the heat of the day.

But he said nothing. He had learned, in the hard way that survival taught, when to speak and when to be silent. He would wait. He would watch. And when the inevitable happened, when Alex’s recklessness finally caught up with him, Ares would be there to pull his sister away from the flames.

Jaros, meanwhile, had settled into the role of instructor with surprising ease. His massive frame relaxed slightly, his metallic skin catching the light of the setting sun, and his voice took on the measured cadence of someone who had explained these things many times before.

"Every month, a hunting period begins and lasts for three days. During that time, you must survive. You must kill. The rules are simple. You cannot kill fellow geniuses from the same universe unless they have betrayed you first. Outside of that restriction, anything is permitted. Any method. Any alliance. Any treachery."

He paused, letting the weight of those words settle.

"The more you kill, the more points you gain. Each kill is assessed based on the strength of the opponent, the difficulty of the battle, the circumstances of the victory. The system is not arbitrary. It has been refined over countless cycles, and it rewards skill and courage as much as raw power."

Alex nodded slowly. It was a simple system, but simple systems often hid depths that were not immediately apparent.

"And the ranking?" he asked.

"The ranking is visible to everyone. It updates in real time during the hunting periods. Between periods, it remains static, a monument to what has been achieved and a challenge for what is yet to come."

Jaros gestured toward the distant board where the rankings glowed with pale light, visible even from this distance.

"There are also the spectators, though I do not know how much truth there is to the rumors. It is said that supreme beings sometimes watch the battles of the geniuses. Beings more powerful than sages, more ancient than the realms themselves. Some say they choose disciples from among the participants, elevating them to heights that ordinary cultivators can only dream of."

He shrugged, a gesture that looked almost comical on his massive frame. "I have never seen such a thing. I have never met anyone who has. Perhaps it is just a story told to make the killing seem more meaningful. Perhaps it is something more."

Alex considered this. The idea of supreme beings watching, choosing, elevating, fit with everything he had observed about how power worked in these realms. The strong did not simply dominate. They curated. They selected. They cultivated the ones who showed potential, the ones who might one day become something more than they were.

"Is that so?" he said, keeping his voice casual. "Then when will the next hunting period start?"

Jaros’s expression did not change, but something in his voice shifted. Became heavier.

"Tomorrow."

Alex’s mouth twitched. Of course it was tomorrow. Nothing about his arrival in this realm had been convenient. Why would this be any different?

He took a breath, steadied himself, and asked the next question.

"And how long does each session of this battle of the geniuses last?"

"For one hundred years here. The current session started around five months ago. After this session ends, the next will begin five hundred years later."

Jaros studied Alex as he spoke, his ancient eyes reading something in the young man’s expression that Alex could not quite hide. The titan had seen many newcomers arrive in this battlefield. He had seen them confident, fearful, arrogant, desperate. But this one was different. This one had survived an encounter with Sofia Haris and had emerged not broken, not humbled, but calculating.

He was very curious about what Alex would become.

Alex’s gaze drifted toward the ranking board, the numbers glowing in the fading light like stars that had descended from the sky.

First place. Valerias Aurelion. Five million points.

Second place. Sofia Haris. Four point five million points.

Third place. Rael Timber. Four million points.

The numbers dropped sharply after that. The tenth place had barely broken a million. The hundredth place was at two hundred thousand. And below that, the names blurred into a mass of competitors whose points were measured in the tens of thousands or less.

Alex turned back to Jaros.

"How many points do you have?" he asked, his tone genuinely curious.

Jaros’s face, metallic and imposing, turned a shade that might have been embarrassment or might have been anger. The transformation was subtle, but Alex caught it.

"Do not ask useless questions," the titan said, his voice gruff. "You should rest. Tomorrow the geniuses will not be your only enemies. There are catastrophic creatures here as well, remnants of battles fought before any of us were born. They hunt during the hunting periods too. Killing them gives you points as well, though not as many as killing a rival genius."

He turned away, his massive shoulders squared, his dismissal of the question absolute.

Alex understood immediately. Jaros’s points were low. Low enough that the question was painful. He did not press further. Instead, he let his gaze drift to Ares, and his expression shifted. Not quite a smile. Not quite a sneer. Something in between that managed to convey disdain without a single word.

Ares caught the look.

His face reddened. His hands clenched. The frustration that had been building since Alex’s arrival finally found an outlet, though not the one he wanted.

"Bastard," he said, his voice tight. "I am third among all of us in points. I have over thirty thousand points. Even Jaros has only around fifty thousand. If you are so superior, if you are so confident, then show us. Get that many points in five months."

He stopped. His breath caught. A chill ran down his spine that had nothing to do with the cooling air.

Jaros was looking at him.

The titan’s expression had not changed. His face was still metallic, still impassive, still unreadable. But his eyes. His eyes had become something else entirely. They were the eyes of a predator who had just been reminded of a weakness he preferred to keep hidden. The eyes of a being who had survived in this battlefield for five months by being underestimated, by letting others believe he was weaker than he was, by never revealing the full extent of what he was capable of.

And Ares had just told a newcomer exactly how many points he had.

Ares realized his mistake immediately. His face, which had been red with frustration, went pale with something closer to fear. He had fallen into Alex’s trap. The newcomer had asked a question, had been rebuffed, had looked at him with disdain, and Ares had been too angry, too proud, to let the insult stand.

He had revealed information that was not his to reveal.

"Ares," Jaros said, his voice calm. "Meet me within one hour."

It was not a request.

Ares opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. No sound came out. He looked at Alex, and what he saw there made his blood run cold.

Alex was smiling.

It was a small smile, a mocking smile, the smile of a man who had achieved exactly what he intended and was pleased with the result. He had not asked Ares for his point total. He had not needed to. He had simply created a situation where Ares would reveal it himself, driven by pride and frustration and the desperate need to prove himself superior to someone who clearly did not consider him worth noticing.

Then Alex sat down, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.

Ares stood there for a long moment, his fists clenched at his sides, his heart pounding. Then, slowly, he walked away to meet the fate that Jaros had prepared for him.

---

Alone in the darkness behind his closed eyes, Alex allowed himself to think.

The point totals were staggering. Five million for the first rank. Four point five million for the second. And the third, Rael Timber, with four million. The gaps between them were small enough to suggest fierce competition, constant battles, a relentless drive to climb higher.

He had zero points.

He had not even participated in a hunting period yet, and already the top two geniuses had marked him as a target. One wanted to devour him. One wanted to destroy him. And everyone else, every other genius in this battlefield, would be looking for him tomorrow, hoping to claim the reward that Valerias had offered. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Looks like it will be very difficult for me to handle this task," he thought.