This pillow sword meeting is a grand event before the New Year for most people who do not participate. For most contestants, this is an opportunity that must be grasped every three years.
The venue for the Pillow Sword Society is set up on an open plain outside the city of Salyuhi. From the south gate of Salyuhi to the King's Provincial Avenue, if you walk along the avenue for a few miles, you will see a conspicuous and spectacular circle. Circular venue.
On the road from the avenue to the venue, a wide boardwalk has been laid. Both sides of the road are dotted with branch tents set up by various shops in the city. The most popular are restaurants and pubs, followed by some quite famous ones. Equipment shops, material shops, and even some candy shops have opened branches here. There are also some traveling businessmen who cannot afford to set up such a large tent, so they just sell various magic potions or various raw materials from other places on a wool blanket. The quality is unknown. . There are also many vendors with food carts selling a variety of fried, grilled or boiled snacks.
There are still a few days until the competition starts, but this area is already as lively as a market. There are already many young students who love to go to the market in groups, holding various soft drinks and drink cups. It was modeled after a circular venue, with temptingly fragrant snacks held between elbows as they walked between the stalls. Some younger students were waving small flags in their hands. The animation on the flag flashed a picture of a certain contestant winning the championship. This was to cheer for a certain senior in their college.
After passing through the lively market area, we arrived at the foot of the ring venue. The entire venue is built with a wooden structure, and the key support nodes are supported by bronze poles. The venue is divided into three rings from top to bottom, and each ring is separated.
The floor closest to the main battle platform is naturally reserved for high-ranking officials and nobles who spend a lot of money. There is also a raised square stand facing north and south, which is specially prepared for His Majesty the King and members of the royal family.
The members of the middle layer are mostly wealthy businessmen, declining nobles, or the ambitious middle class.
The tickets on the top floor are the cheapest and are naturally reserved for ordinary people who can afford it. Of course, the audience on this level also had a harder time. They had to climb up the zigzag ladder on the outside to the top of the ring venue before finding their seats. In order not to waste the time of these people looking for seats to watch the game, there were more than a dozen folding ladders like this.
The luxurious audience on the middle floor and the bottom floor enter through the wide entrance on the south. Members of the royal family enter from the royal entrance on the north, so that they can go directly to the north stand.
The entrances on the east and west sides of the venue are the exclusive passages for the players. There are several spacious tents erected at the entrances. Some are for the players to rest, some are used by the competition committee to conduct physical examinations for the players before the game, and the remaining few It is used to store players' personal equipment.
This is the new rule for this pillow sword competition - the weapons and accessories that each contestant will use must be registered before the first game. These equipment will be used until the end of all games and cannot be used in the middle. Update equipment. The equipment used in the competition must be returned to the competition committee for re-inspection immediately after each competition. Violators will be directly disqualified from the competition.
Since the Pillow Sword Tournament is a game that lasts for several days, many players will modify the attributes of their equipment based on their opponent's past performance. For example, if the opponent is good at using fire magic, they can mark all their defensive equipment with red. Brown stone to enhance your fire resistance. In the past, the rankings of those aristocratic players with strong financial resources would not be too bad, because they could modify their equipment overnight based on the data collected. So Alvin was quite worried when he bought the staff last time.
After the new rules came out this time, it was undoubtedly a blow to the noble players, so it attracted a lot of complaints. But there are also many civilian players, such as players from colleges like Shepherd, who still applaud.
Compared with the past, it can be said that this is a fairer pillow sword meeting.
The entire area where the players stay is guarded by palace guards. Only players who have registered with the competition committee and have verified the silver iris sword badge issued by the competition committee can enter.
The Iris Sword Medal is a medal customized for each contestant. The round silver base is engraved with a four-petaled iris in full bloom, with a purple-shining rapier floating in the middle of the petals. The name of the medal holder flashed on his body, and the next second flashed a number─128, which is the number of all contestants. After the day's competition ends, contestants can go to the competition committee to update their rankings. The delicate pattern on the back of the sword medal is engraved with a number─29, which is the 29th Pillow Sword Association.
Therefore, for such a commemorative medal, many contestants who have participated in the Pillow Sword Club will save the current medal and use it in the future to inspire the younger generations. This is the highest honor of youth. After all, there is a well-known regulation in the Pillow Sword Club regarding the requirements for contestants. They must be students recommended by colleges and universities and must not be older than twenty-four years old.
If the high-ranking officials and nobles who came to watch the battle had participated in the Pillow Sword Club when they were young, they would definitely wear the iris sword badge from that year. Even when King Kelman comes to watch the battle, he will wear his own achievements from that year──sixteenth place in the 19th Pillow Sword Club. Over the years, this has become a tradition.
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There are still two or three days before the competition day, and players have already begun to register in the player areas at the east and west entrances of the stadium.
"Are you all registered?" Lai Wu glanced at Alvin who had just come out of the competition committee tent.
"Everything has to be carefully inspected. It's so troublesome." Alvin complained, thinking that just now in the tent, every piece of his equipment had to be carefully inspected, appraised, registered, and then sealed. It was really time-consuming. It took a lot of time.
"Don't talk about it, new rules were released this morning," Laiwu said with a smile. "In order to deal with equipment registration, many people brought dozens of pieces of equipment, just waiting to change equipment during the game. ... As a result, a new rule was issued today. A player can only register ten pieces of equipment. Now those people were dumbfounded..."
"A bunch of morons." Alvin couldn't help scolding, "I wonder why the registration queue was so long two days ago..."
"Did you bring a lot of equipment?" Lai Wu asked.
"No, just the staff I bought last time and some jewelry Feitimo gave me." Alvin replied.
Laiwu nodded, then looked up at an old pear wood board in the player tent and said, "Come and take a look. This is the match list that came out today."
Alvin also looked up and saw that the 128 players' battle charts had been marked with magic on the wooden board, including the expected start time of each game and which entrance each player entered from.
Alvin looked at the name of his opponent in the first round, Shijiu Fengyan, and it seemed strange to him.
"Have you heard of your opponent?" Lai Wu asked with a smile.
"I haven't heard of it. Where is your opponent? Do you know him?" Alvin started looking for Laiwu's matchup on the blackboard.
"I haven't heard of mine, but I have heard of yours..." Lai Wu had a look of watching the excitement on his face.
"What do you mean? Who is this Shijiu?" Alvin glanced at Laiwu and smiled.
"I heard he is a very powerful one in Parksley Courtyard." Laiwu wanted to laugh out loud, but was afraid that Alvin would hit him.
"Does it mean I'm going to be eliminated in the first round? Is that what you mean?" Alvin laughed and cursed.
"How is that possible? When it comes to instant spells, who is your opponent?" Laiwu joked.
"Go away, why did I encounter this kind of thing in the first round..." Alvin said angrily, not wanting to talk to Laiwu.
"Have you finished registering? Chen Zhu and Kaiba are waiting for us outside." Laiwu reminded. He actually wanted to drag Alvin to see what the odds were, so that he could take the opportunity to laugh at Alvin. .
"Wait a minute, I haven't finished reading yet." Alvin found the names of Lan Yu and Princess Onian on the blackboard. It's strange to say that after carefully looking at the battle between Lan Yu, Gafu and the princess, these three people are actually divided into three different groups.
"This matchup list is a bit interesting. Gafo, Lan Yu, and Princess Onian, the three favorites to win the championship, don't meet each other until the top four. Haha, it's really interesting." Alvin said with a sarcastic smile.
Lai Wu nodded and said, "Yes, I saw it just now. However, your luck is not bad. You are in the fourth group, and you have to be in the top four to meet them." Lai Wu finished. Holding back a smile, he patted Alvin on the shoulder.
Alvin just pretended not to see the ridicule on his face, "Yes, I will go back today and ask my father if there is any smoke coming from the ancestral graves."
After saying that, Alvin and Lai Wu walked out and saw Chen Zhu and Kaiba waiting outside the player area.
"What do you mean, why are you two laughing like this?" Alvin asked, looking at the strange expressions on Kaiba and Chen Zhu.
"Alvin, let me ask for you. Your opponent is one of the top high-level magicians in Parksley Court. It shouldn't be a big problem, right?" Kaiba said with a calm expression. After he finished speaking, he couldn't hold back any longer. The smile on the face.
"What are you talking about? To Alvin, this kind of opponent is simply... not worth mentioning." Chen Zhu glared at Kaiba.
"Yes, yes, I was wrong" Kaiba nodded and apologized.
"I just want to ask, what are the odds of betting on Alvin now?" Laiwu asked curiously.
"I just took a look in Yanle, and the price just opened seems to be 8 to 1..." Kaiba's smile was very restrained.
"What about the opponent?" Alvin couldn't help but ask.
"1 pays 0.6." Chen Zhu said calmly.
"Poof" Laiwu and Kaiba finally couldn't help laughing.
"The water level is too high, there must be something fishy." Chen Zhu patted Alvin on the shoulder to comfort him. Then he finally laughed out loud, unable to bear it any longer.
A few people walked towards the "Yangle" pub while chatting and laughing.
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It turns out that eating and drinking with these brothers is what he enjoys the most. However, ever since he studied the "Laws of Space and Time", Alvin has been in a daze a lot of the time.
Sitting in the booth, watching Lai Wu and Chen Zhu discussing which girls they had hooked up with recently, Kaiba laughed and listened while drinking beer. Life seemed to be the same as before, but since the several encounters with Lan Yu Afterwards, for Alvin, life completely changed. Originally, magic or martial arts were dispensable to him. All his peers were learning them, and he just followed the trend.
After all, Alvin is actually a very conceited person. He didn't care that the students in the college who were working hard were better than him, because he felt that he could not fall behind with his cleverness, so why did he work so hard? Therefore, he usually looks down on students who take classes seriously. Anyway, those students who practice hard may not be able to win if they really fight with themselves, Alvin always thinks like this. This also fueled his belief in disdain for learning.
Ever since the battle with Lan Yu outside the "Bauhinia Pavilion", he felt the huge gap in strength. As long as the opponent came out with a killing move, he didn't even have the power to parry. That time completely touched his heart. It turns out that there is such a huge gap between me and a truly strong person? It's ridiculous to sit in a well and look at the sky.
Since he almost lost his life last time, it has been a huge blow to him. It was only then that he understood that these so-called magic and martial arts turned out to be killing techniques. It is true that he can get through the courses in the academy with his cleverness, but when he encounters a real life-and-death situation, the despair caused by his lack of strength makes him full of humiliation and resentment at the moment when he is on the verge of death. This kept him awake every night, and the unforgettable fear and unwillingness tormented him every night. Because in the final analysis, he is both afraid of death and hates death.
So how to quickly make his magic stronger became a question that lingered in Alvin's mind. "The Law of Space and Time" was like a life-saving straw, causing him to keep delving into the problems in it. However, the eagerness for success and the unavailability made him extremely anxious. A slight breakthrough would force him to rush to use it in actual combat, and the result would be like the last offensive and defensive class, where he almost squeezed himself dry.
After that battle in the offensive and defensive class, Alvin really couldn't think of a better way to change the flow of time, which made him quite depressed.
Alvin took a gloomy look and took a sip of the dark beer on the table, exclaiming that the brew made from the black malt produced in Senon was slightly sweet and really suited his taste.
"What's wrong with you? What's the matter? You look depressed? Is it because your opponent in the first round was too strong?" Laiwu stopped the sexy conversation and glanced at Alvin.
"No, I don't know why. I've been really tired lately." Alvin sighed with a wry smile.
"Are you so vain? Have you been to Xun Mansion again in the past few days?" Kaiba said with a mocking look on his face.
"With the beauty Resa accompanying me these days, how can I go to such a crappy place?" Chen Zhu said with jealousy.
"I guess so... I only had breakfast once in total." Alvin said helplessly.
"Then what else do you want?" Lai Wu said angrily when he saw Alvin acting like he was taking advantage of him.
Alvin ignored them. When he reached for the dark beer on the table, he accidentally lost his grip and the whole beer glass fell over.
Kaiba on the side reacted very quickly. He condensed Qi in his palm, and from bottom to top, the poured black beer flowed back along the wind of his palm, and then he picked up the beer glass that was tilted downward. The whole action was completed in one go, and the whole cup was filled with water. Not much beer was spilled.
Alvin watched the whole process dumbfounded. The beer spilled down seemed to be still in front of his eyes, and the next moment it returned to the cup. The scene just now was played over and over in his mind, and the spilled liquid went back and forth at an increasing speed. Slower and slower, so slow that Alvin can clearly see the bubbles on it.
Lai Wu and others laughed at him. When they heard that Lan Yu could not even hold the cup steady. He seemed to have not heard it and was still stunned.
Thinking of the original linear fall of the liquid, and then being condensed, squeezed, and accumulated by Kaiba's palm. Watching the trajectory of the liquid made something in Alvin's head want to erupt, and he frowned. It feels like some thoughts are about to pop out of my head, but I just can't catch them.
Lai Wu, Chen Zhu and others looked at Alvin who seemed to be possessed by a demon in surprise. They shook their heads and thought that this guy's recent practice of magic was not normal.
