Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 527

Chapter 527: Newbie Track

A shock rolled through the basin. Hundreds of awakened jerked forward with wide eyes, mouths parting, breaths catching all at once. A few outright shouted in disbelief.

"Two tracks?!"

"Twice the rewards?!"

"That’s insane!"

Magnus didn’t bother calming them. He simply waited until the cacophony tripped over itself and died down, the silence growing sharper as every awakened stared at him with a burning desire for further explanation.

He delivered just that. "The ’newbie’ category will have a single difference, in that instead of fifty, their teams will hold a maximum of twenty people. And the term newbie, in this case, will cover the following. Those who awakened less than one year ago, those aged sixteen or below. And those who received their first experience point less than six months ago."

The explosion of reactions was immediate, full of theorizing and confusion.

"Three different circumstances qualify?!"

"That’s so specific...!"

"Damn it, I just turned seventeen!" someone shouted from the left sector, throwing his hands up in despair as several nearby guildmates smacked their own foreheads.

"My little brother awakened thirteen months ago... fuck!" another groaned, slumping against his staff.

A girl in a jade jacket whirled on her friend with wild eyes. "Wait just a moment...! I finished my guild’s course a little over seven months ago! No way I’m this unlucky!"

"RIP, haha!" a girl with Filipino features patted her back. "Guess you’re out of luck."

"Screw you!"

The basin descended into chaos, featuring disappointed screams, jealous complaints, relieved cheers, panicked recalculations.

But Kaiden wasn’t confused. One look at Magnus told him everything.

The man was announcing the rules, not designing them. His posture was too relaxed. His eyes were too detached. His tone is too neutral. Someone like Magnus would’ve created harsher, narrower categories, especially if his own promised favor was on the line. Social fairness was the least of his concerns.

"Those aren’t his rules," Kaiden murmured to his girls.

Luna nodded. "Too inclusive."

Aria crossed her arms. "Too reasonable."

Nyx snorted. "Too not-designed-by-major-assholes."

The Association had mandated it, they could tell. Every line of the criteria screamed bureaucracy. It was carefully constructed, featuring airtight fairness. They truly just wanted the country’s fresh blood to fight and the worthy to receive these rewards, potentially skyrocketing their rate of growth.

As for the need for these three categories...

The first criterion was the least controversial: anyone who had awakened less than a year ago was classified as a rookie. Simple enough. A single year was barely enough time for most awakened to adjust to this new life, let alone master their bodies, abilities, or mana flow. Unless someone was blessed with monstrous talent or had access to absurd resources, they simply didn’t grow fast enough to compete with veterans. No one argued with that one.

The second rule, however, was where confusion had exploded earlier.

Sixteen or younger.

Why should age matter?

Why should sixteen-year-olds who awakened early qualify when many had been awakened for years?

But the explanation was rooted in the reality everyone in the basin quietly understood: awakenings in the early teens weren’t too uncommon, rarely, some even awakened as young as thirteen, yet almost none of them were allowed anywhere near a real battlefield.

Their guilds kept them sheltered, monitored, and protected.

If they were taken hunting at all, it was to the easiest dungeons or low-risk zones where they were effectively chaperoned the entire time.

Their growth was intentionally slowed to keep them alive during their most volatile developmental years. And the truth was simple; if a sixteen-year-old had what it took to stand here, ready to compete in an event like this, they deserved the right to be recognized as a rookie. The talented did not deserve to be unjustly punished, the association reasoned.

But the final rule was the one that made the least sense to most.

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