Chapter 249: Opening Ceremony and Rules (First Update)
July 15 was the official start of the High School League.
Early in the morning, Su Hao and the others set off from the Pro League Village to a large battle hall in Dragon City University.
On the way, he noticed that there were more people on campus, but it wasn’t as crowded as he had imagined.
Su Hao knew the reason.
The High School League was indeed the only large-scale compet.i.tion made public to ordinary people, but it was a live broadcast. Although there were live audiences present, the audience were elites from various industries, leaders from various schools, reporters who were permitted to come, and cheerleaders from various schools, etc.
Fatty Ren wanted to come, but he couldn’t get a slot. The only way he could enter was to dress as a cheerleader… But Fatty Ren wasn’t one. With that figure, even if he was dressed as a female, he would be eliminated.
Su Hao heard that Fatty Ren rented a villa outside Dragon City University and watched the TV live stream “up-close” in a rich and benevolent way.
They entered the battle hall through a small door. The whole battle hall was bustling with noise and excitement, but when it was about time, Su Hao discovered that only half of the audience seats were occupied. Those who didn’t know much would think that the High School League wasn’t popular.
The opening ceremony was approaching. At this moment, a figure in a black suit flew into the sky, as his penetrating voice spread far and wide.
“Everyone, please be quiet. Now, let me introduce the important guests of this year’s league.”
A certain president, a certain Heavenly King, a certain…
Some of the people mentioned were big bosses that Su Hao had heard of, while some others were big bosses that he had never heard of before.
“Those should be big bosses active in the New World.”
The host in a suit didn’t give a very grand introduction, nor were there any cameras around. After the host read out the names of some big bosses, he changed the topic, “Now, the two specially invited commentators will explain the rules of the compet.i.tion to everyone.”
With the help of Psychic power, the host flew down from the audience seats. At the same time, the central screen finally started to function as a man and a woman appeared on the screen.
“h.e.l.lo, everyone. I’m Huang Tianlei, the commentator for this season,” the man in his thirties on the left said with a smile.
“h.e.l.lo, everyone. I’m the commentator for this tournament, Si Yue Rong,” the young woman on the right said with a smile too.
The big screen displayed their ident.i.ties.
They were both master-level Sprite Trainers.
Among them, Huang Tianlei had become a master eight years ago, and was now a quasi-Heavenly King. He possessed very rich battle and commentary experience. He had once commented on the “Supernova Cup”, a compet.i.tion of higher standard than the High School League.
It was just not publicized.
The beautiful female commentator, Si Yuerong, was also an experienced commentator who explained countless compet.i.tions of various sizes.
“In the following matches, we will explain the unique skills, profound meanings, and secret teachings of sprites to the audience and unveil the mystery of the world of Sprite Trainers.”
Huang Tianlei said, “For this league, the partic.i.p.ants include Dragon City University, Whale Island University, Fiery Bird University, Black Dragon University, Magic City Sprite University, Yunhua Sprite University… The 108 universities have gathered the top students from the various universities and formed 108 teams to bring us exciting battles.”
“Now, let me read the rules of the league.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “The High School League is a team compet.i.tion with schools as units. The whole league is divided into two stages, the group stage and the elimination stage.”
“During the group stage, the 108 universities will be divided into four groups. Each group will consist of 27 universities, and each university team will have to battle the other schools in the group. Finally, the four teams with the highest scores in each group, which makes it a total of 16 teams, will advance to the elimination round.”
“The group match is a round-robin battle. Five contestants from each school team will take turns to fight and each contestant can only send out one sprite. Once all five opponents and their five sprites are defeated, the team will win.”
In the lounge, Su Hao slowly typed out a question mark.
The league rules that he previously understood didn’t seem to be like this?
Mentor Ma gave him a look and said, “Every team has to fight 26 rounds during the group match. If we fight according to the combat simulation rules, how long would it take? Besides, Dragon City University doesn’t have that many combat venues.”
“There’s also an unspoken rule. Among the four groups, we, Dragon City University, and Fiery Bird University are definitely divided into different groups to avoid encountering each other in the early stages.”
As expected, commentator Huang continued,
“The top 16 elimination rounds will be carried out in the form of team combat. What is team combat? I’ll explain it in detail…”
“The team to reach the top is the final champion of this High School League. They will receive rich prizes provided by the a.s.sociation of Sprite Trainers, the sponsors Green Shade Group, Red Lotus Group…and other partners.”
…
At the opening ceremony, after announcing the rules of the compet.i.tion, the two sprites of the commentators started a performance match on the battlefield below.
There was no clear winner, but the cool effect of the two extraordinary-level sprites’ unique skills was enough to make every ordinary person kneel down in front of the TV while watching the live stream.
Many audience and partic.i.p.ating students were also staring fixedly at the two sprites on the field.
A Moon Empress and a Thunderous Pig King.
Especially that graceful and n.o.ble Moon Empress who wore its crown like a moon flower on its head. Every time it made a move, beautiful petals danced, causing waves of screams in the stadium.
It was beautiful and powerful.
No wonder Huang had the ability to become the commentator for the league.
In the Whale Island University lounge, the information about the two sprites in Su Hao’s eyes became more and more detailed as the battle continued.
“That Moon Empress is probably at extraordinary mid-level while the Thunderous Pig King is much stronger than the Moon Empress, be it in terms of acc.u.mulation or killer moves.”
But on the field, the two sprites were evenly matched. They fought back and forth, surrounded by danger.
Actually it was all acting.
“Indeed, it doesn’t matter whether it’s strong or not. Eventually, beauty is the matter of a lifetime.”
…
In the afternoon, Su Hao was browsing the forum.
There were a lot of hot posts about the morning opening ceremony of the league.
But the most popular topic among the idiotic netizens wasn’t discussing which team would win the champions.h.i.+p, or which was the most handsome contestant, but…
Moon Empress!
The man whose dream is to become the crown: “The Moon Empress is so beautiful, so strong! When I’m 16 years old, I must contract a confinement flower, sob sob sob!”
Can sprites have babies: “I love it, i love it. The Moon Empress is mine. Draw your swords, everyone ~!”
The human-shaped sprite is very tall: “Moon Dancer, Moon Empress, Fluorescent Demon, Fairy Yue Ying, Trading Puppet… When I have money, I must contract all the human-shaped sprites!”
A pa.s.serby: “Go wash up and sleep upstairs. That sprite is not something that can be obtained with money. Don’t ask me how I know. I spent 5 million and still failed to evolve my sprite into a fairy Yue Ying!”
The head of the Moon Empress fan club: “I just want to see the Moon Empress. How is a rough battle in the league interesting~!”
Su Hao was rendered speechless.
The style of this High School League was indeed not right, but one thing was for sure — having a Moon Empress, debuting as an idol was something that could be done in minutes!
Why not…
He looked at b.u.t.terfly. b.u.t.terfly was also browsing the forum as it replied with a “Gurgle ~!”
He could only continue to browse the forum. After browsing for dozens of minutes, he came across some posts discussing the players of the league, but… none of them mentioned him.
“The audience this year is really bad!”
At this moment, NPC Mentor Ma pushed open the door and entered. “Come, come, come, take a look at our grouping and battlefield number.”
“We’re in the third group. The stronger schools in the group include Yunhua Sprite University and Magic City Sprite University…”
“We’re going to fight four rounds tomorrow. Our first opponent is Vine Demon University.”
Mentor Ma glanced at the school team members present. “Who’s going up tomorrow?”