41 First round - Part 1

8th February 3068 (Monday)

There was a three-day break after the end of the preliminaries. Normally it's just one day, but since there was a weekend right after, the break ended up being a long one.

It was both a good thing and a bad thing for the participants. Good since this would give them time to analyze the opponent's movement and prepare the counter, and bad for the same reason.

Usually, not much is revealed in the preliminary matches since the participants aren't allowed to use any magic above general class. But for someone like Kat, whose abilities are already popular and can be countered by mechanical means, this extended break was really disadvantageous.

"Ladies and gents! Welcome to the first round of the First-year ranking tournament. From here, the real tournament finally begins!"

A loud cheer echoed throughout the arena. The crowd had significantly increased compared to the preliminary matches. That was expected since, compared to preliminaries, the duels from now on were regarded as the real deal.

"Every match from here will be a duel between these thirty participants with the addition of two wild cards. The wildcards will be announced once the other participants choose their numbers from one to thirty. Now, you guys need to remember that wildcards have been selected carefully, not just based on their performances in this tournament, but also their overall abilities."

"Wildcards?"

"There were no such things last year though?"

"Is it really fair? Sounds shady to me."

"Well, the judges are doing it… so maybe."

There was a pause as gossip started throughout the arena. This was a new addition to the traditional method of organizing a tournament. So, even though the announcer tried to put it as casually as possible, these noises were unavoidable.

"Anyways, I would like to request that all thirty participants come up on stage and pick a number from the lottery box."

All thirty of them slowly came out of the waiting area and walked towards the stage. On the center of the stage, there was a lottery box, and an instructor was standing right next to it.

Razak, Kat, Yasumi, and Asa were walking together, while Raiden, who was walking in front of them, looked somewhat displeased. However, that displeasure wasn't just because Asa was hanging around with someone else, but also because this was a tournament. And by what he believed, in a tournament, they were competitors first and everything else second.

And even though Raiden didn't notice, Asa too was feeling a little guilty since she rejected Raiden without trying to know him properly first.

Even though she made an attempt by asking him to be friends with her, he was too broken to understand back then. And this was the sign that things were not meant to be despite both parties trying their best.

The atmosphere was somewhat intense since all the competitors were together, but despite that, Kat looked lazy. And that wasn't because he had to be here for the lottery.

In fact, he would be happy if a lottery decided the whole match. But the fact that every three out of four participants were the fist-fighting type was the reason enough to make him feel like going home and lying on the bed. And the occasional stares Daichi, who was walking right in front of them alongside Raiden, wasn't helping.

Once they reached the stage, all of them stood around the lottery box. With the thirty of them up there, even that big stage looked small.

"Now, when I call your name, please step forward and pick a paper from within this box. And remember, there are magic sensors around this box to detect any fluctuation in mana, so I suggest you don't try anything because that would mean instant disqualification."

Battle MMs could be shaped differently based on the preference of the user, and that made it easy for people to sneak them in at any venue. So, as a precautionary measure, magic sensors came into practice. They could detect any fluctuations in mana and show the graph exactly how the phone-like MMs could.

"Also, please only reveal your number once everyone has picked their paper"—the instructor lifted his trans-pad—"Now, Ren Ongaku, Richi Shindo…"

The participants walked up to the lottery box and picked a paper in the order their name was called.

"Now, show me your number one at a time in the same order."

After saying that, the instructor started calling everyone's name once again, and the participants displayed their numbers in the same order.

"Kat Fectum Nerdy."

Kat showed the number written in the piece of paper he selected, and it was number 11.

Likewise, Razak's was 22, Yasumi's was 3, Asa's was 8, Raiden's was 14, and Daichi's was 18.

After everyone was assigned a number, the screens displayed a tournament bracket. Each box on the bracket was assigned a number, but the names hadn't been filled yet. And as it was being displayed, the announcements began.

"This, you see, is the bracket for the upcoming rounds from here and out. It had already been filled with a random set of numbers, and now that those numbers have been assigned to each participant…"

As she was saying that, the tournament bracket was filled with the names of the participants. Two names were missing because the wildcards were yet to be announced.

"...these are the duels that we will get to see in the first round!"

Kat sighed when he saw the bracket. "Dude, you got it easy. Mine are all brutes."

"The way I see it, you have the advantage against most of the competitors in your block… though there is him."

As they were talking, Miza continued the announcement.

"Now, after carefully analyzing the abilities and performances, judges have selected these two to be the wildcards… Souta Arasi and Shiro Arai!"

After she said that, the two remaining names were added to the bracket.

No cheers came from the audience since most of them were still confused about this new system and doubted its genuineness.

After that announcement, the participants walked back to the waiting area. Only one block's match was going to be organized today, which meant both Yasumi's and Razak's matches would be the next day.