Parallel Memory

Loud cheers can be heard the moment we enter the arena. The number of people who came to watch the tournament has increased from round one, as well as the number of guilds looking to recruit students.

Since round one was over, the ones who were able to advance to the second round are those who are more talented than others. It is also possible that people from the diamond and platinum grade guilds will appear today.

Many people from the third-year participant have been approached by various guilds. While the Diamond and Platinum guild would not even acknowledge those participants who failed in the first round, but for the Silver and Bronze graded guild, they are the perfect candidate for their guild.

Senior Lisanna and Lyon must have been contacted by the various guilds in the past three days. Students who are about to graduate are expected to join one of the guilds unless they have already done so.

Various guilds are eager to have talented members in their guilds. They would offer all kinds of incentives for them to join, especially for people like Lisanna which would make even Diamond graded guilds offer lots of generous incentives.

They will start pestering them after this tournament is over trying all the methods to win her over to their side.

( Good thing I was a first-year! )

With talented students like Lisa and Hiro, people would not hesitate to recruit early and give lots of incentives before even having to join the guild.

But there was a problem and that was that people were forbidden to recruit students from the first and second years. It was so that they could focus on their studies and avoid being distracted knowing that they already are set for life.

Those found not adhering to the rules are barred from recruiting anyone from any school by The Authority or the school's administration.

Though the guilds that broke this rule are generally low-grade guilds. High-ranking guilds are not worried about not being able to get talented members as many students are applying to those high-ranking guilds.

Though they would fight for students like Hiro who could make any guild stronger in the future. Anyway, I have my parents' guild, so I don't think I need to join any other guild.

We stood on the stage as Nock Fletcher came and once again talked about the objectives for the second round.

"Congratulations to all the students who made it here! However, the competition is still not finished. For the second round, groups of 10 students would be fighting each other."

( H-Huh? )

"You can disqualify your opponent by either knocking out the opponents or by making them fall from the stage."

( Huh?)

"The winner of that group will be allowed to advance to the final round! Other things remain the same, no killing, no intentionally injuring others, and no bringing in potions and other artifacts other than your equipment."

( Wait, wait! What? This is different from what I know. )

Is it not to capture the flags that are going to be held in the second round? I thought that we would win easily. How come the rules have changed?

I immediately tried to calm down my emotions, which was quite difficult. Previously, I was elated to learn that the second round would have the same objective as the novel depicted.

"You have thirty minutes to discuss and the group where you belong will be displayed soon!"

The rules changed and the big advantage we had was taken away. Although even with this rule, there are still some advantages like having the same students from the same school in a group would be able to work together but still it was not as great of an advantage as the rules from the novel.

With the current rule, many students from Ace Academy would not be able to advance to the next round.

If it was still the capture the flag rule then at least 17 of us would be in the next round. Losing was impossible with our number if the objective of the second round was to capture the flag.

( Looks like someone tampered with the rules.)

As I had previously suspected, Arcane Academy seemed to have someone helping them from the tournament management team.

In the novel, they had the advantage in numbers, so rules were made to benefit them. Now that we had the advantage in number, the rule changed to give us no advantage.

It is easier to guess that there was someone who wanted Ace Academy to lose.

This is starting to get a lot more annoying than I initially thought.

"Best of luck to everyone!"

I got quite shocked knowing that the rules had changed. Eventually, I calmed down. Even if everything changes about the tournament, it doesn't change the fact that strength was needed to win the match.

I would be able to win even if the opponent had 10 students at the level of Omar Noel. Yes, there was nothing to worry about considering my current strength.

We walked to the Ace Academy resting area in the stadium.

"Good Work everyone!"

Professor Theo said.

"Huh? Professor Mia is not here?"

Zero asked, noticing that Professor Mia had disappeared. They had come together to the stadium and it is Professor Mia's job to give orders to the students.

"Well, I don't know what happened but she suddenly bolted out of the stadium saying that she had some urgent work. Therefore, today I will be handling her job."

( Went somewhere? )

I don't know why but I didn't like the sound of it. While I expected certain changes to happen to this world due to my actions, including the change in rules of the tournament. But for the strict and diligent Professor Mia to just run off without telling anyone the reason was very suspicious.

"Today, I guess the battle would be far more brutal than in the first round. But thankfully we have the advantage in number and we should be in a better position than other schools."

( Where would she go? Did something happen during this time in the novel? I don't think any other incident happened in this arc. )

I still can't stop thinking about Professor Mia's disappearance. For now, all I know is that she went somewhere according to her own will.

"You should cooperate with each other if you are in the same group. Only after defeating the other student, should you fight each other."

Even when Professor Theo started to speak of his plan. I could not concentrate much on his voice.

When he finished explaining his plan, students waited for the roster to appear. The students were praying for their group to be different from strong students like Zero and Omar Noel.

They nervously waited for the name of the first group to appear.

On the big screen, the names of participants for the first group appeared.

"What the… It is mostly from Arcane Academy and Demacia Academy."

"Good for us, they would fight and eliminate each other." Haha…"

They laughed. The list of students included top performers mostly from those two schools. This would have been a disaster if it was them who were included in that group, but if it was only those two schools' students then that means that most students from those two schools would be eliminated here.

"Wait! Look at the last name."

One of the students said in a worried voice.

They looked at the last name carefully. They widened their eyes when they saw the name and shouted.

"Zero Elea!!!"