In the following battles, Garen and Fervale continued to defeat their opponents instantly, and the matches slowly reached the middle stages. Most of the classes had been defeated, and soon there were only ten classes left, they advanced to the Winners Bracket.
And five stronger teams were decided in the Losers Bracket playoffs as well, so they had the right to challenge opponents in the Winners Bracket.
Class C5, Garen’s class, had just about managed to squeeze into the end of the Winners Bracket. After Sara lost four matches consecutively, they were in ninth place. Their ranking was basically held up by Fervale and Garen.
“I have disappointed you.” Sara was in a very bad mood.
Instructor Hamm did not say anything, he merely patted her shoulder.
“It’s alright, sort yourself out, and just do your best in the finals tomorrow. You’ve already reached this point, it’s already better than our class ranking before this,” Garen comforted her.
“You don’t need to say it, I understand.” Sara’s head was lowered, her expression pale.
Fervale stood at the side quietly, the successful consecutive wins had helped him recover some of his confidence.
The sky was growing dim, and after a whole day of matches, the participants and the audience alike were exhausted. They announced that the matches would continue on the second day, and the whole arena retired for the night.
Garen politely refused to go celebrating with Instructor Hamm and the others, walking out of the arena on his own. He walked towards Aier and Mina, who were wandering around the sidelines.
“Congratulations!”
“Congrats to us all.” Garen exchanged a glance with Mina, smiling.
“Nono… What I said before was… a little impulsive…” Aier apologized in a tiny voice, his face red as he fidgeted.
“It’s okay,” Garen waved his hand. “Come, let’s go eat first.”
Mina said with a smile,
“Why don’t you come to my workplace to eat? You’ll be giving us business, and the food there tastes pretty good too.”
“Sure.”
Garen did not really mind where they would eat.
He walked with the two of them, and also got to understand the many different interesting things that happened in the arena today. He had been focused on preparing for the matches, so he missed many of the other match-ups, but Aier and Mina did not. They had always been choosing and watching the other matches through the display screens.
According to the two of them, in this year’s qualifiers, the ones who were most favored in Grade C were Bally and Merseus, who plowed on through their matches. And that Caus also only lost one match, due to an accident. These three were commonly recognized as the strongest in Grade C.
The first two were especially considered prodigies among prodigies, they had at least Level 2 overall power at such a young age. They were only seventeen or eighteen, but they were already equivalent to those experienced pilots who had been training most their lives, this was the terrifying difference in talent.
Compared to them, the other Grade C students at average levels, students like Aier, were still struggling to get a few subjects to Level 1. They had not even come into contact with most of the subjects, much less participate in actual battles. Only those who had reached Level 1 in all the compulsory subjects would have reached the minimum requirement to join actual matches, because these subjects were the most basic aspects of controlling Mechs.
Now, Grade C was divided into stages here in the arena. Bally, Merseus and the others were in the first stage, having reached Level 2 standards overall. Caus, and the dark horse that defeated him were at the second stage, they had basically reached overall Level 2 power, which meant they had at least one or several subjects at Level 2. The difference between them and Bally’s group was that they had not yet achieved Level 2 in all subjects. Garen believed that he was at this stage as well, as were Fervale and that black Mech pilot he had defeated a while ago. After that, Sara and the others were at the third stage, people at this stage could use the Mech to batte smoothly, but they only had very basic moves and techniques, there was nothing particularly outstanding about them. It depended on who was familiar with the movements, or who was thinking brightly, there was very little difference between them.
Take Garen’s Concentrated Fire Laser Cannon technique for example, that was a Level 2 technique. To Level 1 fighters, that sort of technique meant that they would be one-shotted, it was the same for those opponents who weren’t good enough at dodging.
But when it came to guys with Level 2 overall power, there was no way they could be defeated in one hit.
“So your next opponent might not be someone you could defeat so simply, using your Concentrated Fire technique.”
Mina told Garen solemnly as the three of them sat in a coffee shop’s sweets corner.
Garen nodded, of course he knew that, but that was not his problem. His main problem was his Willpower, if he had enough Willpower, he could use his own fighting skills when it came to Mech combat. But now his Willpower was too underleveled, his actual Willpower was not even at Level 1. He could not even control the Mech fluidly, in other words, this body of his was in the same grade as Aier, Mina and the other regular students, or perhaps even worse. He had to rely on the Moonfang just to get into this qualifier match, which was full of prodigies.
It must be said that Blackboard Academy was a huge force that controlled several provinces, several thousands or even tens of thousands of students joined the school every year. This ranking competition chose the elites from among these students and had them battle each other.
“But having reached this placing, our class has definitely improved. Now we just need to keep steady and we’ll have succeeded.” Mina was very optimistic, even if they were in ninth place, they could still get a ten percent exemption off their tuition fees, and they could even use some special facilities or locations that were restricted to the top ten. These benefits were shared by the whole class. With these benefits, they could also earn a little extra outside. All of this evidently cheered her up greatly.
“It’s hard to keep steady as well, the ones who lost towards the end were all very strong elites,” Aier sighed beside them. He was a frank person, because he had said some mean things to Garen before, he had been apologizing all the way, and now he was back to normal.
“I heard that there was once all the classes in the Losers Bracket chose to challenge one ranked class, and then they wore that class down so they could kick them out and take their place. You need to be careful of that,” Mina nodded.
Garen had naturally also investigated information like that before, so he just nodded nonchalantly when he heard that.
With his combat experience and battle awareness, plus he had more than just the Laser Cannon in his arsenal, he just needed to be careful of the Moonfang’s time limit. Everything else was negotiable, as long as he did not get caught with his pants down like just now.
“Relax, I’ll do my best.”
Just then, a group of students sauntered in from outside the coffee shop. They all wore Grade C uniforms, and had fierce expressions. As soon as they came in, they started looking around, as though they were looking for someone.
“Where’s An Yixuan?” the boy in the lead, about eighteen or nineteen years old, asked loudly.
The coffee shop fell silent for a while, a few of the waiters in charge of sending food and drinks stopping in panic.
“I’m An Yixuan.” A young boy with a cold expression stood up in the corner, staring at these newcomers calmly.
The boy in the lead immediately walked over, surrounding the table with his group of people.
“Come, let’s go out for a chat.” Their voices instantly became smaller.
The others could not really hear it, but seemingly because Garen’s body had achieved the second grade of the Hellfrost Peacock Technique and improved his senses somewhat, he could vaguely hear a few words here and there.
“Next… match… surrender… or else…”
He could still understand the gist of what they were saying.
“An Yixuan is one of those few students in the Winners Bracket that has no influential family background at all,” Aier leaned forward and explained in a small voice. “I bet those people want him to concede the next match. Nono, you have to be wary of this move as well.”
Garen frowned.
Watching the group surround An Yixuan as they walked away, he could vaguely hear that they seemed to be tempting and threatening him using the way his family would be treated at work.
Most of the students in the Blackboard Academy were either rich or powerful, they all had special family backgrounds, and a web of influence that spanned the whole Blackboard Region. In other words, they just had to go back and tattle a little to their families, then they could already threaten the lifestyles of regular families. This was the result of great social inequality.
The other side was evidently using the influence of this inequality to tempt An Yixuan into purposely losing the next match. This was a deal, but it was also a threat.
He raised his head and saw that both Mina and Aier were looking at him somewhat worriedly. Instantly, he smiled slightly, showing a hint of calmness.
“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. I’ll deal with it properly.”
All three of them came from families at the bottom of the rung in the academy, even before, Mina was not from a particularly rich or famous family. This was the main reason the three of them ended up together. Watching An Yixuan get pushed out by a bunch of rich and powerful heirs now, they felt a sense of pity and sympathy.
But there was nothing they could do.
According to their normal paths, a student like An Yixuan would have been enrolled in the school due to his excellent results. His tuition fees must be a heavy burden on his family, and even if he was sure to find a high-income job after graduating, it would still be unlikely that he could join the Blackboard Academy as an elite. As a graduate, however, it was very likely that he could join the government or military pilot teams. If he were to offend these powerful people now, it would be really hard for him to progress later.
“Won’t the Academy do anything?” someone asked softly.
“It’s not that they don’t do anything, they’re allowing this on purpose. The Academy’s higher-ups believe that family background is also part of someone’s power, if someone could overcome that with their own talent and IQ, that would mean they are truly a prodigy, and then the Academy would truly prioritize them as a talent.”
“But what if they went overboard, and the students they had been raising for so long were accidentally destroyed by assassins?”
“The higher-ups have eyes on us, they have limits. I don’t know what the limits are, though, I just heard that from my cousin who’s in the Elites.”
Garen and the others listened to their discussion from the side, Aier and Mina feeling pretty bad about it.
Some cakes and bread arrived at their table, as well as some specially-made fruit plates, but the three of them only ate a bit before they realized they had no appetite. These were all man-made foods, after all, not natural, and upon hearing those words, they grew even unhappier.
Some calls came from Garen’s Terminal, they were all from the class. Instructor Hamm asked where he was eating, and whether he wanted to go out to karaoke to relax. Garen rejected him. His younger brother called to say he had seen him on TV, even if it was just a flash of his name through the match broadcasts, that was still enough to make him extremely excited.
And then that younger sister who wad rarely ever seen actually called him, asking him about how the matches were, as though raring to show off to her friends.
Throughout that meal, Garen never stopped receiving calls, and was actually busy for once. It took a long while before the calls finally slowed down.