In an open grassland, a large crowd of Climbers had gathered. Among them was Yuuki and Alchimie, who stood together some distance away from the others, watching as a Moderator began speaking. Although both of them could feel the anxious gazes of everybody around them; players who recognizes them. Alchimie wouldn't have been a problem, but the players were anxious about being placed on a team opposite to the Ranked 1 Player. Since although Alchimie was ranked 10th, he wasn't really a combat powerhouse, compared to Yuuki who had proven his legendary skills, capable of decimating tens of high-tier players on his own during the Eternal World's height.

"Welcome! This is Floor 2's trial! I am the Moderator and you will be partaking in this trial site's challenge in just a moment. First! Allow me to explain the rules!"

With a wave of his hand, an interface showed up in front of everybody present there. "Look! This is the map of this trial site. The area occupied for this trial ends wherever the barrier ends! So, there's no need to worry; you'll know when you're going out of bounds. Though you wouldn't be able to."

The map contained five circles; fives points in the trial site they are set to compete in. "The rules of the trial are simple! I call this trial, Domination: Occupy any of these points from A to E and do not let the opposing team occupy them! How to occupy a point you ask? Simple, just stand within its bounds and call forth your flag like this!"

The Moderator opened his hand and a blue colored flag appeared within his grasp. "See?! Stick it in within the bounds of that point, and you've occupied it! It's that simple, just do not let the opposing team do the same thing to your occupied points. The trial will end after an hour. After which, any team that had a higher count of occupied points will then be winners and be given the Key of Ascension towards Floor 3. But! You can prematurely end the trial by occupying a minimum of three points and holding it for five minutes. You don't necessarily need to be within the bounds of the point to continue holding it, just leave your flag there, though once that minimum number was decreased, the five minute countdown will reset, so good luck!"

As soon as the Moderator had finished, he began leaving and turned his back towards the crowd, but he turned back to face them again as if forgetting something. "Oh, and aside from disallowing usage of potions and elixirs during the trial, you cannot… I mean, CANNOT… die during this trial. So fight to your hearts' content. Though the heavily injured participants will be teleported out of the site and treated immediately by me, thus disqualifying them from the trial. Other than that, good luck!" He then vanished after he was done speaking.

As soon as the announcement was done, every Climber present had their bodies disintegrate into blue pixels. There were no panic among the crowd, they were already used to this method of transportation.

Yuuki opened his eyes, and when he looked around, they have already been transported to another part of the grassland.

As his eyes surveyed his teammates, Yuuki recognized a familiar face. "Hey." He called out to Alchimie.

"Why?"

"That's the guy from Floor 1. He fought that son of Zeus. you saw him in the Neural Network, right?"

"Oh yeah… He's our teammate, huh? Is he a protagonist-NPC?"

"Pretty sure he is…"

Yuuki began made his way to Jose but the Moderator's voice that's coming from all direction had caught their attention.

"Why don't we get into action? Start!"

"Tsk!" Yuuki clicked his tongue as he and his companion dashed forward along with their tens of other team members.

"So what's the plan?" Alchimie asked as he did his best to keep up in speed.

"Of course, win." Yuuki then sprinted faster, leaving the former in the dust.

"Right…"

[Tenth Form: Shadow Step]

Yuuki, with his speed, arrived first into the nearest point and quickly summoned a flag. He erected it into the ground and immediately dashed away towards the next point way before his teammates nor the enemy could do arrive to the first.

In response to this, Alchimie had summoned numerous golems from his Inventory and secured the first point as soon as he arrived there.

"Oh… Do you need any help here?" One of the NPC Climbers asked him.

"Nope, nope, just go capture the others. I can hold this on my own."

"All right…"

The players pass by him to go capture other points and despite them recognizing him, they only smiled and nod towards him as he did the same, since they don't have any time to slack even when Yuuki's a part of their team.

"I'll probably just send the golems out…" He waved his hand and a couple of small humanoid golems came out equipped with weapons made of sharpened stone and armors. "You guys go provide backup to others or distract enemies." With that command, the golems went to work and quickly sprinted away.

"Sigh… We'll win, won't we?"

…

After securing the second point and having other teammates hold it off, Yuuki was already nearing to the third one to capture it when his sync rate shot up.

"—!!" His eyes widened as he casually took a step back to dodge the bullet that's flying towards him.

He stood still in his place as he looked to the direction from whence it came from.

"Tsk… that geezer is here?" He spoke in annoyance. Soon, another bullet shot towards him which he dodges and he began sprinting towards the sniper's position: A small hill on the other side of the trial site.

"He'll pick off the others here one by one if I don't eliminate him now…" He made his way as he casually dodges the sniper shots headed his way.

…

"Gramps, what now?" A young man asked the old man holding a sniper rifle, lying amidst the grasses while he remained seated with his legs crossed.

"He's making his way here, get ready." The old man replied as she fired another shot.

"Of course…" The former smiled nervously.

Yuuki dodged that shot, and now that he's nearing them, he launched his offense.

Yuuki placed his hand on the handle of his katana as powerful gusts of wind swirled all around him.

[Ninth Form: Downfall of Castles and Countries]!

All of the wind around him then began converging and entered the scabbard. As soon as every bit of wind was contained, Yuuki unleashed its force by quickly drawing the blade and he slashed forward horizontally.

Whoosh—!

The wind transformed into a massive slash which travelled quickly towards the enemies, severing everything in its path!

"Dodge!" The old man shouted. They jumped up as the tip of the hill they stood atop just seconds ago was sliced and blown off by that attack which continued travelling even after doing such damage. Finally crashing at the barrier of the trial site that resulted in its violent shaking that was felt throughout the entire site.

Rumble—!

"Samurai… really is a monster…" The young man remarked as his smile was wiped away by anxiousness.