When it came to the personal questions it quickly turned out that almost nobody actually cared about the Chosen themselves.
Pinkype would loudly announce a name and moments later one of the audience members got teleported into the middle where they could ask a single question or if things became interesting hold a short conversation before being sent back.
"Next is Tungar the Stonemaker!" Pinkype announced dramatically.
A broad-shouldered man with a massive beard extending nearly a meter below his face appeared before Thalion.
"I have a question for Thalion. Is it true that you were only F-grade when you won the first system event and if so how exactly did you manage that?"
Technically that counted as more than one question but apparently nobody cared.
"Yes to the first part and as for how…" Thalion shrugged lightly. "In the end it was mostly just one giant battle between all the Chosen and I happened to snatch the big treasure at the end."
He definitely didn’t intend to explain the details further.
The man bowed respectfully and vanished again.
In his place appeared a woman with long crimson hair stretching to twice the length of her entire body.
"I was once considered one of the stronger witches within Morgana’s coven," she introduced herself proudly. "You are human yet your eyes resemble those of a vampire. Am I correct in assuming you walk the path of blood?"
"More or less," Thalion answered briefly.
Completely ignoring her would probably have been rude and considering his glowing eyes the answer was already fairly obvious anyway. Many of his abilities had likely already spread through rumors regardless.
"Interesting." The witch smiled slowly. "Do you perhaps know how Nyssa and Solan view witches? I could certainly teach you a thing or two in the future."
Thalion had to admit this conversation was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
"I honestly have no idea," he answered mostly hoping someone else would finally ask less disturbing questions.
Unfortunately that definitely didn’t happen.
The next woman appearing before him looked absolutely ridiculous in Thalion’s opinion. Huge lips, an exaggerated hourglass figure, and breasts somehow larger than her entire head.
"Greetings Thalion," she purred seductively. "How is your love life currently? Do you already have a girlfriend? You are interested in girls right?"
"Gods ask one of the other Chosen that question not me," Thalion answered with obvious disgust. Were there truly no limits whatsoever to these questions? If he had a girlfriend it would have been incredible stupid to say that out loud infront of the entire mutliverse.
To Thalion’s amusement the goddess immediately began asking the other Chosen the exact same question and most of them didn’t exactly have impressive answers either.
Apparently both Ryan and Ethan already possessed some sort of harem which honestly didn’t surprise Thalion in the slightest.
Still, extraordinary work by the idiots. Now they would probably have the female half of the multiverse trying their luck.
From time to time Thalion at least got short breaks whenever either a human or elf clearly belonging to one of the factions appeared merely to praise their Chosen or speak about how incredible it was for them to become so powerful at such a young age.
Then finally someone asked a far more serious question.
"Thalion this question is directed at you. The other Chosen clearly all want you dead but you are still only E-grade. Are you genuinely confident you can defeat them?"
Immediately the entire audience leaned forward wanting to hear the answer.
Yet Thalion hesitated for a brief moment.
Of course he wasn’t confident in defeating all those Chosen right now but openly admitting that obviously wasn’t an option either.
Unfortunately he realized his hesitation alone had probably already revealed enough.
"Hmm…" Thalion finally answered slowly. "I think only time can tell."
That response immediately earned several disappointed reactions from the audience but honestly what exactly had they expected?
He definitely wasn’t about to publicly tell his enemies that he currently stood weaker than them or that massive upgrades were already on the way.
After what felt like hours of increasingly ridiculous questions Pinkype finally interrupted once more.
"This was the final question for today’s episode!" the host announced loudly. "But before we move on to the betting segment regarding who survives the longest I have prepared one final surprise for all of you."
Pinkype spread his tentacles dramatically outward.
"I have invited the Oracles themselves and they shall now gaze into the future of each Chosen who entertained us today."
To Pinkype’s right side three identical women suddenly appeared simultaneously.
"Please honored Oracles begin with our elven guests and grant them guidance for the harsh times ahead!" Pinkype exclaimed excitedly.
The Oracles wasted no time and immediately appeared before the first elf.
If their guidance truly was accurate then the advice they gave was incredibly valuable.
The first elf received information about a hidden treasure perfectly suited for his path while the others were granted similar hints regarding opportunities, dangers, and future growth.
Yet Thalion found the Oracles deeply unsettling.
His title insisted that everything was normal but every now and then he caught the three women staring at him.
Thalion paid close attention to the Oracles’ words because after hearing the first two pieces of advice he began suspecting that the useful information merely existed to make everyone trust the manipulation hidden underneath.
Especially when they reached Eric.
The Oracles told him he could only truly free himself through war and followed that statement with a disturbing speech about how rotten roots had to be cut away and how certain people never deserved to live because they only dragged him down.
That was the moment Thalion became absolutely certain something was terribly wrong with them.
He also noticed that both Eric and Elara received similarly grim and destructive advice while none of the others did.
Thalion had seen Eric fight before.
The man definitely wasn’t merciful by nature.
The entire chamber fell silent when the three identical women suddenly teleported before Thalion himself.
"Actually never mind. I don’t need any insight into my future," Thalion immediately said before the Oracles could even open their mouths. "That would just make life boring. Thanks for the effort but no."
Gasps echoed throughout the audience.
To them it probably looked as if Thalion had just rejected the opportunity of several lifetimes combined.
Maybe he was wrong.
Maybe he was simply imagining things.
But at this point he honestly felt safer refusing them entirely. Hearing their guidance could still subconsciously influence him later even if he consciously rejected it and that alone already made the risk unacceptable.
For a few moments the Oracles merely stared at him silently before all three closed their eyes simultaneously as if they hadn’t heard him at all.
Thalion wasn’t sure whether they were already peering into his future anyway but just to be absolutely certain he interrupted again before they could continue.
"Ey didn’t you hear me? I don’t want you looking into my future."
That finally caused the three women to open their eyes once more and the synchronized motion looked incredibly disturbing.
The moment Thalion noticed they were about to speak anyway he immediately cut them off again.
"I seriously don’t care what you have to say. Just leave me be."
The more insistent the Oracles became the more suspicious Thalion felt.
The audience however clearly had a completely different opinion.
Open-mouthed spectators stared in disbelief as the Oracles simply smiled warmly at Thalion before vanishing again.
And strangely enough that smile only convinced him further that he had just avoided something incredibly dangerous.
Doubts still lingered inside his mind but he forcefully shoved them aside.
He sincerely doubted he had truly lost much by refusing some vague prophecy about his future.
Pinkype looked utterly bewildered and barely managed to recover enough composure to end the broadcast. Even his voice cracked several times from sheer disbelief over what had just happened.
"This concludes the... fifth episode of Beyond the System." Pinkype stammered. "Next time we shall speak with the vampire and orc Chosen originating from the same planet as today’s guests. Have a good... good time and until next episode... goodbye."
The vision of the studio disappeared as Thalion’s consciousness returned to his real body standing in the middle of the plaza.
Hopefully he hadn’t spoken out loud during the transmission because otherwise this would become incredibly awkward.
Shaking his head he stepped off the circle but before he could leave Nyssa suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Well that turned out far more beneficial for our faction than I originally hoped," the goddess admitted. "By the way should we accept that red-haired witch who offered to teach you?"
"Honestly I don’t care. Do whatever you think is best," Thalion answered before greed quickly resurfaced inside him. "Though learning more about rituals probably wouldn’t hurt right?"
"Nyssa ask him why he rejected the Oracles." Solan’s loud voice suddenly echoed from somewhere behind her.
"If you want to ask the mortal something then get your fat ass off the couch and come over here yourself.," Nyssa snapped back. "Though I also want to know. Why did you react like that? The Oracles helped countless gods ascend throughout the eras already. We will probably need to apologize to them later."
Thalion disliked being treated like some stray animal that had just ruined the neighbor’s garden but he still answered honestly.
"Something is wrong with the Oracles. I’m not entirely sure what exactly but didn’t either of you notice it?"
"What did he say Nyssa? Is he at least going to apologize to the Oracles?" Solan shouted again from somewhere in the distance.
One of Nyssa’s eyes visibly twitched before she slowly turned around.
"Do I look like your personal messenger?," she hissed furiously.
"Now come on don’t be like that. I need to focus on my avatars. There are so many gods wanting to join our faction."
Solan’s voice echoed from somewhere in the background but after a dangerous hissing sound escaped Nyssa all of a sudden the golden elf himself appeared inside the projection.
"Now to the important part. Why exactly did you insult the Oracles like that?"
Nyssa quickly brought him up to speed which Thalion silently appreciated.
"Bah the Oracles evil?" Solan scoffed loudly. "You simply need to visit them once and you’ll realize how ridiculous that sounds. They aren’t even combat gods. It would make absolutely no sense for them to harbor malicious intentions since they possess practically nothing besides those three planets. And honestly what exactly was I even supposed to notice?"
Clearly the god didn’t really believe him though thankfully Solan still seemed to be in an excellent mood.
This show must have benefited him far more than Thalion originally expected.
Still he calmly explained why he had distrusted the Oracles in the first place.
"Hmm…" Nyssa muttered slowly afterward. "Looking at it from that perspective it does feel rather odd."
The goddess replayed several moments from the broadcast together with Solan who had suddenly become far quieter than before.
"Dear when exactly was the last time you personally consulted the Oracles?" Nyssa suddenly asked.
That question visibly made Solan uncomfortable.
"Eh not that long ago but it wasn’t anything important."
"And what exactly was it about?" Nyssa insisted immediately.
"I’ll tell you later. This isn’t something meant for mortal ears," Solan answered quickly though it was obvious he desperately wanted to change the subject.
"Fine whatever." Nyssa sighed. "Either way today turned out incredibly beneficial for us. Your friends want to stay a little longer for training which honestly is desperately needed."
The goddess crossed her arms.
"Today was a major victory but you need to leave soon and locate the teleportation circle to Integrated Space as quickly as possible. Hunt as much as you can because important D-grade trials aren’t very far away anymore. Also please send me those clothes back. Their value skyrocketed after today’s show."
"After today’s success I’ll personally train your companions myself," Solan added before disappearing once again. "You just focus on leveling. That’s most important."
"Why exactly do you need the clothes back?" Thalion asked curiously. "Can’t you simply order those two goddesses to make another set?"
He deliberately kept his true thoughts hidden.
Honestly it was good that his friends were now receiving personal training from gods because Thalion suspected his own lucky streak was slowly coming to an end.
He wouldn’t evolve anytime soon and if he failed to remove the mark of the system it might take even longer.
Would the gods still remain this generous once he stopped standing among the strongest fighters?
Probably not.
Most likely they intended for him to participate in future D-grade trials either to support one of their descendants or someone important who paid them well.
Also he absolutely couldn’t reveal to the gods why he was intentionally delaying his own evolution.
Then suddenly an idea struck him.
"Oh right one more thing." Thalion looked toward Nyssa. "I assume people usually have to prove themselves before fully joining your faction. Could you perhaps ask around for remnants or works left behind by Ankhet or Amun Ra?"
Thalion doubted that would directly solve his problem but perhaps it could give him some direction.
"Sure. I can ask around for those old remnants," Nyssa answered casually. "If I remember correctly I might even possess one or two things connected to them myself."
For a split second Thalion almost wanted to hug the goddess before remembering this was merely a projection.
Thankfully he controlled himself quickly.
They absolutely could not learn what he was truly planning otherwise this pleasant arrangement would end quiete fast.