Chapter 170: New Format
Bart waited for the thunderous cheers to die down before speaking again:
"Everyone, I'm sure all of you are excited for the championship stage to start so I shall hand things over to the one who will explain the rules. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Valenzia City's City Lord, Blas Alinsky."
A sharp-looking middle-aged man who donned a long black robe with a golden dragon print at the back slowly ascended the stage with a dignified aura, charisma oozing out of every pore in his body.
Beside him was a young man who seemed to be one of his close aides.
Upon arriving onstage, the middle-aged man faced the crowd and gracefully bowed before opening his mouth to speak.
"Everyone, just as host Bart said, I am Valenzia's city lord, the one who is spearheading the proceedings of this tournament."
"I'm sure everyone wants to see these brilliant representatives face off against each other as soon as possible so let me directly proceed to explaining the rules."
"This year, we made a few changes to the rules in order to test the depth of each roster"
"First one is, the championship stage this year will not follow the format of the knockout stage because ultimately, these young representatives are adventurers so we added a few different methods to decide which academy is better."
Blas paused for a bit and waited for his assistant, Alex, to step forward and show everyone a small mana-powered jar.
"Everyone, this is one of the two new mana-powered machines developed by Manasoft Corporation. Inside this small jar are five different formats of matches and each match-up will have to compete using the format that this small jar generates at random."
"Due to this, the representative rosters' entire skillset, be it duels, survival, and creature combat, will be tested."
"As such, I want to introduce another invention of Manasoft Corporation."
Multiple thin blue laser lights suddenly shot out from the corners of the four large arenas and the main arena, slowly making contact with each other to form a huge laser dome.
Shockingly, once the blue laser dome was formed, a simulated ecosystem appeared in the middle looking like an exact copy of an adventurer zone.
There were tall trees, creatures roaming around, blue skies, rare herbs, and many more. It was like the dome contained its own small world.
Naturally, upon seeing such awe-inspiring developments, everyone's mouths were agape.
Feeling utterly amazed by the new technology introduced by the world's leading mana-powered device corporation.
"As you can see, as long as one is capable of controlling the contents of this simulated world, we can even simulate creature hunts inside which is one of the formats contained inside the small mana-powered jar."
"Fret not, even if we generate a strong creature inside, the representatives can only damage it while it wouldn't be able to hurt the representatives."
"However, if the creature kills a representative inside the dome, the representative will be transported out, meaning that he/she is already eliminated."
"Are there any questions?"
Blas asked in a stern voice as he scanned his eyes amongst the sea of representatives and nodded upon confirming that they had no questions before continuing:
"As for the specific format, the first three matches will be decided in a single match while the semifinals will be a best of three, then, lastly, the finals will be a best-of-five series."
"That's all from me, the match-ups will be posted on the huge holographic screen a few moments from now."
Blas slightly bowed before gracefully descending from the stage along with his assistant, Alex.
A few moments later, the huge holographic screen lit up, prompting some of the more passionate people in the crowd to cheer upon realizing the blazing hot match-ups.
Meanwhile, Shye looked lost in his musings as the designated staff member led the Colzen representative group toward their academy station.
'We got pretty lucky in our first match huh?' He thought as he absent-mindedly followed the staff member.
Their first match was against another championship-stage first-timer, Oboni Academy.
Shye believed that Amarantha Academy was stronger than these guys so they shouldn't be a problem.
However, after that, it would be constant hard battles and if he wanted to win, he had to adjust his mentality.
After a few minutes of walking, Shye snapped back to reality upon seeing their championship stage academy station.
Akin to a small luxurious suite, they were greeted by wide glass windows embedded on intricately designed beige-colored walls.
The ceiling of their academy station had a gentle dandelion lighting and in the middle was an opulent inactive ceiling fan.
The entire academy station already had the perfect temperature due to the mana-powered air-conditioner so turning the ceiling fan on was completely optional.
At the far end of the academy station was a huge blackwood table with corresponding blackwood chairs where one could dine or have a meeting.
In addition to this, There were also other mana-powered appliances such as a refrigerator, a hot-and-cold water dispenser, and an enormous mana-powered holographic television.
Lastly, two sets of sectional sofa chairs were neatly arranged in two different locations, allowing those inside to enjoy a close view of Large Arena 3.
Seeing such a huge disparity between their knockout stage academy station and their championship stage academy station, Shye was slightly dumbfounded.
He didn't expect that there would be academy stations like these.
After recovering from their initial stupefaction, the Colzen representatives enthusiastically settled in as they waited for their first match.
'Well, their first match should not be a problem for them so it wouldn't hurt to let them relax a bit…'
Dean Privett thought to herself, a warm smile plastered on her face as she observed her students comfortably sit down on the plush sofas.
Unfortunately for them, the organizers were too efficient.
Just a few minutes after they sat down, the designated staff member already walked closer to the deans, informing them that it was time for their first match.
Of course, Shye and the others were already familiar with this sequence.
'Well then…Let's go earn some points…'