Heroes' Prison

Chapter 414 - 404: The Rwanda Team

As days went by, the much-anticipated martial arts tournament officially commenced!

The tournament began with a grand sea elimination, which took place on the Two-Dimensional Battlefield. Players did not need to register; the system automatically sent out invitations, and those who did not wish to participate could simply choose to refuse.

Players who opted to join were teleported to the Two-Dimensional Battlefield to fight random opponents in a single-round battle. The victor would advance, while the loser was immediately eliminated from the competition.

Such sea eliminations continued for five rounds, progressively selecting the top one billion, top one hundred million, top one million, top 1,024, and finally, the top 64 players. With ten billion players worldwide, narrowing down to the last 64 would take over a month.

Team matches, however, had a slight variation, since the number of participating teams was far less than the number of players. Moreover, the schedules of team matches and individual matches were staggered to accommodate players participating in both.

In the individual competition, Huang Yi had no worries—he had been granted Name Bestowing, which had allowed him entry into the top 64 in advance.

As for the team competition, he didn’t need to be overly concerned either. Their team was quite strong, and the system would arrange for them to avoid other strong teams in the early rounds. There wouldn’t be much of a problem, and he usually did not need to fight personally as the members of the Hero Team could easily win the battles.

Three days later, the first round of sea elimination ended!

In individual competition, the Hero Guild saw over four million of its members progress into the top one billion; in team competition, more than eleven thousand teams moved on to the next round. Each participant received a certain amount of Stone Exchanges.

That day, after finishing breakfast, Huang Yi went online to browse the forums.

"The first round of the martial arts tournament has ended, with a statistics summary of the advancement of the major Guilds."

The number one ranked post of the past 24 hours was a statistics thread posted by the well-known forum personality Wen Tao. Huang Yi immediately clicked to take a look.

"The first round of the martial arts tournament has concluded, and the major super Guilds indeed exhibited exceptional strength, with a member advancement rate far exceeding the average. Hereafter, I have combined the numbers of advanced members and teams for each Guild and listed them in a ranking order."

First place, Heaven

Second place, Xuanyuan Clan

Third place, Dongying

Fourth place, Sun

Fifth place, Hall of Famous Generals

Sixth place, Hero

Seventh place, Martial Way

...

Currently, the Hero Guild is temporarily in sixth place; climbing higher would be quite challenging. The competition will become more intense going forward, and the number of top players each Guild has will become more critical. Right now, many of the top players in the Hero Guild, especially those Rare Class Holders, are still in the midst of growth and lacking some time.

Wen Tao then provided an analysis in his post.

"From the rankings, we can discern some issues. Some of the old-established Guilds, such as Heaven, Xuanyuan Clan, Dongying, and Hall of Famous Generals, were among the first Guilds and recruited members under the highest conditions, absorbing a batch of the most outstanding talent early on. This is the foundation of their strength. Now, at the moment of true competition, their power is manifesting, leading to a higher ranking."

"However, Guilds like the Sun Guild and Hero Guild, which were established later, particularly the Sun Guild, which recently surged to first place in member count, have seen very aggressive recent growth and possess a high market value. But the quality of their members does not match that of the veteran Guilds. From this, we can predict that as the tournament progresses, and after the second and third knockout rounds, the advantage of having a large number of members will diminish, and the quality of members will prove to be increasingly important."

"During the entire knockout stage, this ranking is unlikely to fluctuate too much. But that’s only until the knockout stage. Once it gets into the round-robin of the top 64, it’s hard to say—the performance of each Guild’s seeded players will come into play, and this is more or less the same for all Guilds."

After that, Huang Yi logged out and looked at other posts.

"The first round of knockout matches concludes, leaving behind a great regret—the former world number one, Dao Feng, did not participate in the martial arts tournament!"

Upon seeing this post, Huang Yi was startled; he had not expected Dao Feng to retire so completely that he wouldn’t even take part in an event like the martial arts tournament.

Before this, countless people had looked forward to the martial arts tournament in hopes of witnessing Dao Feng’s elegance once again! His legend had been circulating for two years, his former position unshaken, representing an absolute unfathomable strength, an invincible presence that had firmly held the title of the world’s number one for two long years—an accolade universally recognized.

After his retirement, the whole world saw a fierce struggle for supremacy, with six masters known by their bestowed names—God of Slaughter, Thunder God, Pope, Dragon Emperor, Heavenly Emperor, Giant Bear—and others such as Sharp Sword, Miyamoto Musashi, Kid, and Pharaoh, it was difficult to pick a universally recognized number one. The title tended to rotate among them, with no one able to hold on to it for long.

Dao Feng was a legend, unprecedented and likely never to be replicated. However, the absence of such a key figure from the tournament, which was claimed to be a feast for top-level professionals, was undoubtedly a huge disappointment. Even if someone won the individual championship and earned the Martial Emperor Title, its prestige was somewhat diminished.

Huang Yi continued to browse other posts and then entered The Second World.

...

In the subsequent period, Huang Yi devoted himself to level grinding, but his speed of Level Up was no faster than a crawling turtle.

Meanwhile, players from all over the world were competing in matches, unable to focus solely on level grinding like him. Sometimes, the same player or team had to fight several matches a day, maintaining a constant tension.

Gradually, the tournament proceeded through the second and third elimination rounds.

That day, the tournament finally reached the fourth round of eliminations, culled down from 1 million to 1,024 players. From this round on, battles became more intense, and if not managed well, it could result in the complete elimination of all players from a particular country.

Starting from this round, players could choose to watch others’ matches, and real-world TV stations would select some of the more exciting events to broadcast live with commentary, just like the NBA. The tournament was becoming increasingly spectacular.

By this point, the number of individuals and teams from the Hero Guild that had advanced had significantly dwindled, with only some high-end competitors and teams remaining.

That day, Huang Yi finally participated in his first match. As team leader, he personally led a team of five hundred from the Heroes’ Guild into battle.

However, the match ended without even being fought. When Huang Yi led his team, grandly Teleporting onto the Two-Dimensional Battlefield, the opposing New Zealand team, upon seeing the familiar figure of Huang Yi, immediately chose to forfeit without even fighting. The disparity in strength was too great, as Huang Yi alone, with his Legal Protection Class Talent, could annihilate all of them by himself.

Eventually, this group of opponents took a group photo with Huang Yi, and their team leader, beaming with joy, shook hands with Huang Yi before opting to concede.

As a result, with Huang Yi at the helm, the Heroes’ Guild breezed through the competition. Opponents either forfeited or were swiftly obliterated with the force of thunder, posing no significant threat.

After successive victories, the Heroes’ Guild finally arrived at the last match before entering the top 1,024, moving into the final round of eliminations, vying for the last 64 spots!

That day, the Heroes’ Guild faced a team of black players, presumably from Africa. Some of them used avatars identical to their real-world appearances, with distinctly recognizable physical features.

"Oh! We’ve actually encountered the God of Slaughter’s team! We’re doomed!" As soon as they were Teleported to the battlefield, the African team’s leader caught sight of Huang Yi and his companions from afar, momentarily stunned before muttering a complaint.

And this very complaint suddenly echoed in the ears of the entire Rwandan audience through the live broadcast on television. This team was the last remaining Rwandan team, now the sole representation of their country in the tournament.

The leading team leader, when translated into Chinese, was named "Blessings in the Rain." He was the first in Rwanda to earn National Honor Points and the country’s top player with strong capabilities, successfully advancing to the top 1,024 in personal matches.

However, with a smaller population, the number of elite players in their country was not high. This team was the strongest force assembled by all the guilds in the country, and it was quite an achievement for them to have made it this far.

Now, the entire Rwandan nation tuned in through the live broadcast to watch this match, with all their hopes resting on this team.

But upon realizing that their opponents were the renowned God of Slaughter, they immediately lost hope.

"God of Slaughter, hello!" At this moment, the Rwandan team’s leader, "Blessings in the Rain," courteously greeted Huang Yi in Chinese. The rest of his Rwandan teammates also focused on Huang Yi and his group, with various looks of curiosity, excitement, or dejection in their eyes.

"Hello, friends from Africa!" Huang Yi also politely returned the greeting.

"Facing you, we’re practically already defeated, but no matter what, we carry the dreams of our whole nation on our shoulders, and we will put forth our full strength to battle against you," Blessings in the Rain declared with determination.

And the group of players behind him all showed resolute expressions, watched by the entire populace of their country in that moment.

"Friendship first, competition second. Let’s consider this match a fun game, and I hope you all enjoy it. Likewise, we will fight earnestly against you," Huang Yi nodded towards him.

"Preparation time is over, the match officially begins!" Just then, a System Prompt suddenly rang out from the void, announcing the end of the preparation time and the official start of the match.

With this command, the Rwandan team displayed their exquisite coordination, instantly forming an extremely rational tactical formation. Each player’s position was carefully considered, clearly the result of long-term teamwork. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, we invite you to cast your Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets at Starting Point (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)