Ocean Master

Apart from Sebastian who benefited the most from the last Doppelganger test, Captain Omega was undoubtedly the next best benefactor.

Colonel Tada was an Atlantian military legend!

This was a man who despite his death was still famous in the Atlantian military, his achievements were once-in-a-lifetime achievements and were all recorded in the Atlantian hall of glory.

As a soldier who trained to the legendary Gold Realm, the Colonel was due to a promotion in rank but this promotion never happened because he died before he could take hold of his next official bestowed military rank.

Of the numerous iconic things that Colonel Tad was known for, he was known more for 2 iconic things. His iconic bald head that created the terrifying killer move, Whirlwind Vibranium Head, and his iconic weapon, the Martial Textbook!

The martial textbook seemed like a diminishing name to be given to an extremely powerful iconic weapon, but it reflected the Colonels' battle style.

Just like Captain Omega, Colonel Tada was a straightforward man. He hated solving problems with his brain, he would rather break every obstacle with his fists and his boxing chains than start thinking calculatedly like a nerd.

This martial style was what enabled him to create his iconic killer move alongside his bald head, and was what gave the name to his iconic weapon.

Unlike with his brain, Colonel Tada was a genius fighter. For the first 30 years of his life, this Colonel never suffered a defeat, both in friendly duels that were organized in safe settings and unbridled war battles.

He knew so many martial skills in his head that allies and enemies gave him the nickname of the martial textbook maniac!

This was what spilled over to his iconic weapon.

Now, Captain Omega succeeded in inheriting this iconic weapon of a legendary soldier of his race as his gain for his basic success in the last test.

The reason for his double-joy was the fact that he gained more than just the iconic weapon of this legendary soldier of his race.

Colonel Tada put a clause in his inheritance for whoever was to inherit his boxing chains. If that person's personality was Intune with his martial style, then this lucky inheritor could also inherit all his martial knowledge and killer moves. 

Coincidentally, Captain Omega was the best fit for his personality. He was just like a reincarnated version of the dead Colonel.

With this, Captain Omega succeeded in buying one and getting five. The benefits of this inheritance could not be quantified, he hit the jackpot!

The only thing that diminished his joy was the fact that his race's ultimate mission was still up for grabs. His inability to finish the test with an acceptable grade meant that he already lost the race for the ultimate inheritance.

Now, the question was, who would get the ultimate inheritance?

…

Sebastian and Captain Omega were not the only success stories of those that took the last Doppelganger test, the rest were just not as exceptional.

Apart from extreme situations like in the case of Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid, most of those with a measure of ability before entering the inheritance ground succeeded in getting some slight results from the test.

The average time of acclimatization to their new selves was 5 days.

Examples of slight success stories like this were the deadly predator Racoon, the Speed Demon, the Space Beast, Old Mak, all the elders of the shark clan, Lieutenant Lookman, and some other exceptional competitors.

In the case of Old Mak, after spending 5 days to acclimatize to his new self, he drafted a rough plan in his mind for 2 hours before attacking the U.S President's vacation mansion with all his strength.

Even if he was not too good at such meticulous thinking stuff, Old Mak was still a bonafide clan head of a powerful shark clan of Great White Sharks where a little intelligence was needed to keep the clan afloat.

This powerful Great White Shark was not a pushover. 

During his first attack run, he only got to the gate of the vacation mansion before the resistance got too fierce for him to breakthrough.

Unlike Sebastian, he didn't insist on going all-out on his first try, this veteran predator believed that there was power in being prudent.

He ruthlessly abandoned all his progress till now and escaped.

With his 5 healing skills, he was able to lick his wounds and recover to his peak state before the next day which was the last day could dawn completely.

This time, he planned his attack more meticulously before engaging.

Prudence paid its weight in gold to him. 

After an unrelenting attack barrage on his part paired with his wise battle decisions, he managed to overcome the soldiers' defenses for a second, barely entering the mansion before he was ganged up.

Before he died, he was pulled out of the virtual-reality domain.

His reward for his above-average performance was a special and powerful magic gadget that complemented his thunder and lightning magic domain, granting him another powerful trump card as a reward for his efforts.

Old Mak did not get the ultimate inheritance, but he retreated satisfied.

Lieutenant Lookman's scenario was almost the same, with the only changes being that his reward was a powerful magic Trident that was far more powerful than the current magic weapon that was in his possession.

All the other competitors with an above-average performance all received benefits, only those with average and below performances suffered.

None of them were spared, they were ruthlessly left to die.

…

Apart from the successful group of competitors like Sebastian and Captain Omega, the mildly successful group like Old Mak, Lieutenant Lookman, the Space Beast, and others, the failure group, there was another group, the survivors' group.

The survivors' group consisted of predators or Atlantians who were powerful and talented enough to have fallen into the successful or mildly successful group but were betrayed by their luck.

A perfect example for this group was Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid of the Atlantian Annihilation Division Fleet.

This Atlantian military leaders' luck was so bad that he suffered the fate of being transformed into a worm. This was one of the hardest transformations to acclimatize to be a wide margin, only second to the snake transformation.

Being someone who lived his full Atlantian military career and life with a healthy body, healthy arms, and legs, suddenly being subjected to the task of adapting to a worm body was torture of extremist levels.

He wasn't even given the leisure of having legs, he had to crawl on his body. The body structure and mechanism were too different for any significant breakthroughs, and this was where this Atlantian soldier was stuck.

Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid gave his very best as he was one of the soldiers who knew exactly what was at stake, but in the end, he failed to get any substantial results that could improve his chances.

Despite not even being able to put up a fight against the U.S soldiers that manned the military outposts, this soldier was still able to preserve his life.

No matter how much incompatibility that he had with a worm body, he was still an Atlantian Lieutenant Colonel with a firm foundation and deep reserves.

His skillset and mastery over origin magic reflected his rank.

With the advantages that he had over other competitors, he was able to make sure that he remained alive even though he could not attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid hoped to persevere and to keep on trying until he achieved success. This was so that, even if he could not get success, he would be relieved knowing that he did his best.

Unfortunately, life and his luck played petty tricks on him, it was now the 7th day but his progress in adapting to his body was still minuscule. He was still stuck.

Despite this, this soldier never gave up hope. His eyes were on the prize.

His relentless effort paused though when he received an overriding communication request from one of the deep delvers that reported to him.

Only one word was communicated, but it had a lot of implications.

"Target has been taken!"

On hearing this, Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid's eyes that were hiding a bit of weariness in them became as sharp as daggers again.

The deep delver said the target has been taken, not the target has been acquired, which meant a lot of things to his acute military senses.

He already understood what the deep delver meant, but he was deep in thought. If the unique skill was already taken, then who took it?

He didn't pay too much attention to this though; this was because he knew that he needed to act extremely fast if he wanted to intercept this ultimate inheritor of the unique skill.

The plan of the Atlantian army did not just end here, they had other contingencies in place, especially for a scenario like this.

In the plan, if something like this happened, they simply needed to flip the table, scatter the game, and restart the game with their own rules this time.

Originally, they were stuck in a chess game as pawns where they had to move according to the rules set by the Sea King's will who was the game master. They had to do this to have a chance at getting the ultimate inheritance.

But now that the ultimate inheritance was already taken, from the experience of other monster inheritances, the will would have already dissipated which meant that all the defenses of the inheritance ground would decrease in efficacy.

This was the perfect game board for the deep delvers to exercise their advantage. These cyborgs could show their full value here.

In this scenario where they already lost the game, and the game master was dead, the Atlantian soldiers had to resort to extreme means to win the game by force. This was when flipping the board comes.

By flipping the board with their tyrannical strength, they scatter the game, setting it up for a new game to start freshly.

In this new game with no game master and an undecided winner, they forcibly make themselves the game masters who set the rules, this was Atlantis' strategy for this setback.

Perhaps, this was a fantasy ambition to others, but the overlord Atlantis was perfectly capable of fulfilling this ambitious move.

The predator who got the unique skill must be intercepted! This could not be compromised. Lieutenant Colonel Arachnid already had some guesses but he could not be sure, all he knew was that he needed to act fast.

He dialed a communication detail into his comm.

"All deep delvers, listen to my command!"

"Override the rules of the inheritance ground!"

"We are going out!"

Before moving, the Lieutenant Colonel dialed another communication detail.

"Commander, you can now enter the game!"