Chapter 209

Um.

What kind of reaction is this?

Duma's team members and captain stared at each other... After a moment of pure black hair, the team member finally realized that the simple word "hmm" was all the answer he could receive, and his captain had lowered his head again, immersed in the transaction processing on his personal terminal.

This kind of behavior would be described as arrogance by others, but in Duma Academy, especially by Shen Yijing, it seems extremely normal.

Duma College is such a place where the elite class reigns supreme.

Shen Yijing himself didn't like chatting with others. He talked the most when he was commanding his team on the battlefield.

Except in necessary social occasions and combat periods, it is almost impossible to have a private conversation with him for more than 3 minutes - and someone has actually timed these 3 minutes.

If you were to ask who in Duma Academy was so boring, and who was so bold, it would be the team member who was trying to gossip about the captain's private affairs. Leonardo Hayes.

The man's name was Leonardo, and Hayes was his family name.

"Captain..." Leonardo, who was in the same grade as Shen Yijing, took two tentative steps forward, still unwilling to give up, and wanted to talk to Shen Yijing about something.

Without even looking up, Shen Yijing called his last name: “Hayes.”

Leonardo stood up straight subconsciously.

Shen Yijing said: "If you are free now, go check everyone's progress and inform them to gather five minutes early. We will not be the last team to enter the assembly center."

Leonardo was the vice-captain of Duma Academy. He wasn't as impressive as Shen Yijing, but even as a freshman, he was already the "little captain" in the eyes of the seniors. He diligently followed Shen Yijing around as a sidekick for two years, finally becoming the vice-captain during the summer between his second and third years.

Accepting the task meant that the casual conversation had been unilaterally and completely ended. Leonardo might be a little more familiar with Shen Yijing than others, but this "little" was not enough to give him any special treatment in front of Shen Yijing.

Leonardo said, "I understand."

The deputy captain left the meeting room happily.

Golden Uriel Academy is also preparing to go to the rally center.

The assembly center is an auditorium located next to the garden you see when you first enter the building area. There is a green boardwalk connecting the garden to the building.

After all the school teams participating in the senior league arrive, a players' meeting will be held at the assembly center to do things like pre-match mobilization, schedule reading, announcement of instructions for the contestants, etc. The above are all essential process links for holding a league, commonly known as "sense of ceremony."

Jiang Yunu had already read various written versions of the regulations. She had a good memory for words and was familiar with all of them. However, it was really uninspiring for her to sit in the auditorium and listen to people repeating the things she had memorized over and over again. The overly soft backrest of the chair also made her drowsy.

When Jiang Yunu was about to fall asleep, Solok patted her urgently.

Jiang Yunu propped up her drooping eyelids again and muttered to Sorok, "Have you started talking about anything useful?"

Before Solok could answer, the gloomy captain of the Romphi School next to her glanced at her.

The seats arranged for each school team at the assembly center are as follows: the approximate seating areas are divided according to the district to which the school belongs, but within the seats in the first district, the second district, and the third district, which school will sit on the left, which school will sit on the right, and who will sit in the middle is entirely determined by the captains of the school teams in the district.

And among the reserved seats, the school team captain and vice-captain must sit in the first two rows, followed by the team members from each school.

Jiang Yunu naturally sat in the front with Sorok.

To Sorok's left was the vice-captain of the Star Hunting Academy, and to Jiang Yunu's right was the captain of the Romfei School.

Jiang Yunu was suddenly glanced sideways and thought she was disturbing others by mumbling. She thought Romfey's captain looked a bit serious, but she didn't expect this captain, who was as gloomy as a bladed mushroom, to say, "First time participating in the league?"

Jiang Yunu glanced at the stage where the speaker was still making an impassioned speech and nodded slightly: "Yes."

"It's almost done," said Romfeld's captain. "After we finish explaining the players' instructions, we should be discussing the special stages of this tournament and doing the first round of the draw."

Jiang Yunu quickly looked at the other person with an expression that said "You are such a good person."

Wow! It seems her feeling in the apartment elevator was right. Romphi's captain has a gloomy temperament, but he is still a friendly person overall!

She was always open and forthright in her emotions. If she had a crush on someone or was grateful to them, she would express it without hesitation. She would stare straight at them and sincerely say, "Thank you."

Romfei's captain was not used to being looked at like this, and he turned his head away when he was looked at by Jiang Yunu.

"Continue listening when you wake up," Captain Romfeld said. "You'll be conspicuous if you sleep in the front row."

Jiang Yunu decided to speak her mind directly, and she continued to say sincerely: "You are really a good person."

Romfei's captain: "..."

Solok was about to give Jiang Yunu a similar reminder, but he didn't expect that the captain of Romfell next door had already done it. He could only pat Jiang Yunu's arm again and whispered, "Keep listening."

Jiang Yunu was reminded by the two captains of his own team and other teams to cheer up.

Fortunately, the empty and repetitive formal explanations and instructions for the players have come to an end.

"Next, I will explain to all the contestants the special level of this league—the seven-story trial tower!"

Seven-story trial tower?

Jiang Yunu immediately became alert when she mentioned something related to level-breaking challenges and combat. She also remembered the floating platform with a tower-shaped building in the outer square of the central platform that she had seen from afar.

Is that the Trial Tower?

The explanation quickly confirmed her guess——

"The Seven-Story Trial Tower, located between Stages 2 and 3, is a seven-story indoor challenge structure that will officially open after the first round of the league. During its opening period, all competitors will be able to challenge the tower. The difficulty of the levels within the tower increases with each floor, and major level mechanics change every three floors. The topmost level is 'Hell Level', which will comprehensively test the competitors' comprehensive combat proficiency and is extremely difficult to complete."

The competition committee gave a very detailed explanation of the seven-story trial tower. In addition to the overall conceptual introduction, it also emphasized the reward and punishment mechanisms of the trial tower.

"Tower completion scores are not tied to league results; the two are independent of each other," said a representative from the competition committee. "This means that any competitor can attempt the tower without any psychological burden. Failure will have no impact on your school's points calculation or ranking. However, if a competitor is lucky enough to complete the entire tower, they will receive personal rewards beyond imagination."

As to what this "unimaginable personal reward" was, the person on the podium deliberately left it a mystery. He only gave a meaningful smile to the contestants who were buzzing with discussion below the stage, but did not continue to speak.

"This generous individual prize will not be announced until the first contestant who completes the challenge appears," said a representative of the competition committee.

Jiang Yunu wasn't too interested in the mysterious individual prize, but if someone told her that the Trial Tower had diverse level mechanisms and increasing difficulty, she would really want to go and see it right away.

After talking about the Trial Tower, the appetites of all the contestants were whetted, and then it was time for the final part of the gathering - the draw to determine the stage for the first round of competition.

The league base has multiple battle stages, and each stage has different battle maps and competition mechanisms. The stage where each round of competition will be fought is determined by on-site drawing during the rally.

The representative of the competition committee is responsible for drawing the positions for the first round of the competition in front of all the contestants.

As the serial numbers of the different stages scrolled across the screen, the previous buzzing noises all disappeared, and the entire venue fell silent.

Soon, with a slight tap from the race committee representative, the rolling stopped.

——Number four.

"Congratulations everyone," the representative said. "In the first round, you will compete in a team match on stage four. The battle map is called—Banner of the Stars."

[Banner of the Stars] means that there will be a large number of flags as numerous as stars on this map. They are either obvious or hidden in various places on the map, and will emit a certain glow to attract the attention of the contestants and hint at their own positions.

Find the flags and mark them. At the end of the countdown, the team with the most marked flags will be ranked first and receive the highest points for the round. The remaining teams will be ranked in descending order based on the number of flags they have marked, and will receive decreasing points.

"It sounds a bit like the point-grabbing in the exhibition match," said Jiang Yunu.

This time, Solok was finally able to answer his own vice-captain before the other school's captain did: "The difference is that the points can be plundered after being occupied, requiring both offense and defense, but the exploration and marking of flags is a complete quick attack and sweep. The marking is irreversible and cannot be plundered."

Jiang Yunu blinked slightly. "Then it sounds like a 'plundering war' could easily happen in front of a flag that's about to be marked."

Romfey's captain suddenly interjected, "But at the beginning of the match, no one wants to bother engaging in combat. At least in the first half, all teams will focus on exploration, spending as much time as possible searching for flags rather than wasting time fighting right from the start."

Captain Romfi's words make a lot of sense.

Fights for ownership of a flag can break out in the latter half of a game when there are only a few unmarked flags left on the field. At that time, competition for even a single flag can become intense.

Jiang Yunu, who was participating in the league for the first time, listened obediently to the instructions of the two experienced captains on his left and right.

When the dust settled on the first round of competition, this long gathering of players was finally coming to an end.

The first round of competition will start 20 hours later. These 20 hours are reserved for the contestants who have just arrived from afar to rest, get some sleep, replenish their energy, and plan team tactics in advance.

When leaving the assembly hall, Jiang Yunu stood up with Sorok and waited for the school team members in the back row to gather around them.

The students of Duma Academy had already gathered a few rows of seats away and were about to follow their team leader, Shen Yijing, out of the auditorium.

Jiang Yunu felt like she was being glanced at again for no reason. She followed the gaze and looked back, and her eyes met with Captain Shen of Duma.

Seeing Jiang Yunu looking back, Shen Yijing turned around and led the Duma Academy team towards the exit of the auditorium.

Jiang Yunu: “?”

Could he be waiting for me to see him? Jiang Yunu was puzzled and thought even more strangely.