352 Chapter 352: Stuff Happens (1/2)

”Amelia, you're up.” Harrison turned to the blond loli who he thought belonged to the Assassin clan. ”Tomorrow is the scouting stage. Time to show us what you can do.”

”…”

Everyone was staring at Harrison, completely baffled by his behavior. They stared at the blond loli for a few seconds, and then turned back to their captain.

”Why are you asking a middle school student to take part in the match tomorrow? She's not even a student from our school.”

”But…” Harrison protested against Pearl's objection. ”…what else am I supposed to do? We're supposed to be copying Battle Frenzy. This is where Wang Zhong sends Amelia into the scouting stage, and she rekts the Assassins from the so-called A-ranked academies so hard that everyone either feels as if their faces got slapped or they start expressing their surprise over how such a talented genius actually came from a supposedly 'trash' school like Jing Tian Academy is. You know, the usual Chinese webnovel clichés.”

”Get serious!” Pearl snapped, hitting him in the head. Harrison winced.

”Sorry.”

”Sorry about that.” Sheila was kneeling next to the utterly confused girl and comforting her. The blond middle school student continued to gape at us for a while, and then nodded and left. She was still completely bewildered over what had just happened.

”Besides, didn't the TO already say that they are not doing that scout stage, tank stage bullshit?” This time it was Craig Carlson, who was folding his arms as he watched our great leader. ”It's just five free-for-all matches in five different maps.” He then raised his hand and grinned broadly. ”I volunteer to take the first map.”

”Sounds good to me.” Harrison nodded. ”We'll go with that then.”

”I'll take the second map,” Theodore added after a while.

”Leave the third map to me,” Cody said darkly, leaning against the wall and almost disappearing into the shadows. We all glanced at him, startled. As always, he erased his presence so easily that we almost forgot that he was here.

”That's settled then.” Harrison glanced at me and Bu Fan. ”The fourth match will be either one of you then.”

”Ugh…let Richard handle it.” Bu Fan waved his hand dismissively. ”I'll do my part in the finals instead. I don't want to give away my magic and trump card just yet.”

Harrison glanced at me, and I shrugged.

”Fine with me, unless someone really wants to participate.”

”No, I think it's safe to say that you should handle the fourth map.” Pearl giggled. ”Just in case anything goes wrong and we're desperate for points.”

”Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!” Craig complained. ”You think I'll lose?”

”Nobody said that.”

”Now, now…” Dong Fang Yue Chu quickly cut in to placate everyone before it could escalate into a fight. He turned to Harrison. ”And you'll be responsible for the captain match at the end, right?”

”That's correct.”

”Then I guess we should start preparing for the coming matches, right?” Dong Fang Yue Chu shifted his gaze across each of us, almost as if he was challenging us to object. None of us did, of course. We all knew how important preparation was.

However, Harrison cleared his throat uncomfortably. Conjuring a holographic screen with his smartphone, he waved for us to take a look at the matchups.

”Um…that's precisely the problem, guys. Not only are we not told the specific maps, we have no idea who the representatives are for the other teams. Not unless we spy on them, but even so there's little point, given how over fifty teams are participating. There's no way we'll be able to gather the information in time, and learn each and every participant's magic, fighting style and abilities. Suffice to say, we are going in blind.”

”This is really meant to be a free for all, huh?” I sighed. Harrison nodded grimly.

”Yup. They are trying to keep us on our toes and surprise us. Expect the unexpected, deal with twists in real-time, and all that. It'll be very difficult for us to prepare if we don't know who is participating in which round. We won't be able to come up with adequate countermeasures.”

”We still have to come up with a strategy, though,” Theodore pointed out.

”Of course,” Harrison conceded. ”But we don't even know what the map would be…yet. They still have yet to announce the first map.” He turned to our spear-wielding friend, concerned. ”Craig, the pressure on you will be immense.”

”I can handle it,” the Crimson Spear Society president replied confidently. He grinned and thumped his chest. ”Hell, that's why I volunteered to go first in the first place. If anyone can deal with this pressure and emerge victorious, it will be me.”

”Good to see that you're as confident as ever,” Sheila remarked with a smile. ”But don't get complacent and underestimate the enemy.”

”Hah! Who do you think I am? Just watch, I'm going to earn our first ten points!”

While Craig bragged, I checked the information I received on my smartphone. Out of the five hundred academies who participated in the tournament, only half of them had survived elimination in whatever city districts they were assigned to. Each city district originally had a hundred teams, but now each had a little over fifty teams left. And out of these fifty teams, only the twelve top teams would make it past the qualifiers.