Hansen started to explain the rules of the competition after distractions were removed from the scene.
The Sansara world inside the Sansara array was as massive as one could imagine it to be. It had abandoned cities and resting spots that could be called safe zones. Dueling inside the safe zone was forbidden.
Various regions inside the Sansara array bore resemblance to real-life places. The weather conditions depended upon where the participants or teams had been spawned.
The participants were shocked to learn that they would all start from zero inside the Sansara world. Meaning they would all have restrictions placed on their powers that would make them no different than an F-ranker. From mana reserves to body stats, the rankers would face limitations on everything that elevated them from being mortals.
It meant that everybody summoned inside the Sansara world would be standing at the same start line. Being an Adept or an Expert didn't matter at the beginning of the event.
To level up, rankers needed to earn Karma points. And leveling up would allow them to lift the restrictions placed on them step by step. These level-ups would enable them to get rid of the world's restrictions completely.
This is where the Expert rankers who were the cream of the crop had a massive advantage over the others. They could level up more than the Adept rankers and finally show their true potential in the end.
Karma points can be earned through team-based and individual battles. They can be used to level up and get special perks in the Sasara world.
The rankers were not allowed to use their weapons and other combat-oriented artifacts inside the Sansara world. They would remain locked inside their storage spaces and be inaccessible to use.
Only the weapons, artifacts, and perks obtained through the spending of Karma points can be accessed inside the Sansara world. This was another way of equalizing the huge disparity between rankers of different backgrounds.
There were no monsters or beasts to fight in the Sansara world. There were only opponents and their teams. So Karma points can only be earned by slaying other participants.
At the beginning, high-ranking entities had to give up all their advantages. But they would be the ones dominating the event in the end. That is if they survived long enough in the game.
Just as Hansen had warned the participants at the start, the rankers entering the Sansara world could experience death after someone killed them for Karma points. The Sansar world could temporarily separate souls from their bodies. Thus, the rankers would experience a true out-of-body experience inside the event when they died inside the event.
When they were about to die, their bodies would be teleported to the nearest safe locations called Life and Death altars. And their souls would be subjected to a different test.
Passing or failing this special test would determine whether they would be able to stay inside the Sansara world or not. Of course, failing the test would mean that the rankers would get kicked out of the Sansara world and the event itself by proxy.
If the 'dead-in-the-event' participants managed to pass the special test inside the Life and Death altar, their bodies would be healed by the altar and their souls would be placed back inside. These rankers would be allowed to resume their participation in the event after accepting some penalty for their overall progress.
Passing the special test at the Life and Death altars was not easy. This test was what gave most rankers trauma in the past. So not dying was the most sensible option a ranker could follow in the Sansara world.
The Karma points would reset to zero after death. Even if a ranker passes the test and joins the contest again, they might not get the weapons and artifacts they had earned through the spending of Karma points earlier in the event.
A limit was not set on the supposed resurrection of rankers. As long as the rankers were mentally capable of passing the special test again and again, they would be allowed to be inside the event. Of course, they would also have to face the repercussions of compound penalties along with them.
The kingdom of Edinburgh didn't want to endanger its young fighting force at the cusp of a war with the kingdom of Layos. So it did everything it could to ensure the safety of the participants without compromising the practicality of the test.
This is why moderators were also sent inside the Sansara world. Their job was to ensure the proper operation of the array systems within the separate dimension. It was their responsibility to keep the maximum number of participants alive throughout the event by regularizing the teleportation of the mortally injured rankers and looking after the souls that had been separated from their natal bodies.
There was a reason these moderators were needed. There was a brief delay between the activation of the safety mechanisms that ensured the young rankers did not die even after sustaining life-threatening injuries. If the assailants did not follow discretion and make use of this small window, the mortally injured rankers' souls would permanently separate themselves from their bodies. It meant that the participants would die for real.
The participants were told to allow safety mechanisms to kick in. However, not everyone would listen to the request. Or it may be that not every ranker would be able to control their aggression in the heat of battle. Thus, moderators like Rufus were sent inside to supervise the situation.
Deaths were bound to happen at events like these no matter how many safety mechanisms were put in place. There was no assurance that the post-death experience the rankers felt during the event was going to be a temporary phenomenon or their new reality.
Unfortunately for some rankers, the Sansara world would become their final resting place, no matter what kind of background they had. It would only be their dead bodies that would enter the real world from the separate dimension.
