Countermeasures Research Office, meeting room.
After the new rule was announced, everyone exchanged glances, and the same thought popped into their minds simultaneously.
That thought was: "Shadow" would definitely be one of the participants, no question about it.
One attendee was the first to speak: "Nine Ascendants represent our civilization in the competition. If we win, the Mind Power upper limit of all Ascendants in the civilization increases. If we lose, it decreases for everyone... Isn't this way too much psychological pressure on the participants?"
"Yeah, whoever loses is definitely going to get cursed to death, right?"
"I don't think it's as simple as just getting cursed out..."
"Speaking of which, since every Ascendant gets one vote each, then 'Shadow' will definitely be elected by a landslide, right?" Once someone brought up Guan Tong, the others nodded one after another.
"That's a given." Zhang Minglu said with certainty. "Whether the Ascendants around the world like him or loathe him, the one thing they all agree on is his strength. They all believe he can secure a victory for our Tianshui Star Civilization."
"Among Beixing's Ascendants, besides Guan Tong, the other one who's bound to be elected should be Shi Jingyi." Li Meng added.
Everyone nodded in agreement once again.
Shi Jingyi was currently the only universally recognized, undisputed Awakened One. A large number of people would inevitably vote for her, wanting to see her true strength in the Arena.
But given her accumulated fame from the past, even if she hadn't participated in the negotiations with Mr. Ga and hadn't exposed her identity as an Awakened One, she would still have a very high probability of being elected.
"I think there's one more person with a high probability of being elected." Zhang Minglu said, surprising everyone by naming a name, "And that's Han Qiu."
"Han Qiu?"
"True. He's been jumping around all this time, posting several videos every day to reinforce his image as an Awakened One in the public eye. Now that the moment has arrived, plenty of people will definitely vote for him."
"Now we're in trouble! If he has no real skill and is just a smooth-talking fraud, wouldn't sending him to compete hand humanity a loss?"
"That really is a big problem..."
"Nine Ascendants competing, and three spots are basically locked in already." Gao Liangwei spoke up. "One-third of the candidates are set. What matters now is the remaining selections."
Guan Tong, Shi Jingyi, Han Qiu. The moment the new rule was announced, these three had an extremely high probability of occupying three spots. This was almost universally acknowledged and very difficult to maneuver against or change.
But who the remaining six would be, that was hard to say. To a certain extent, there was room for maneuvering and lobbying.
"Dr. Zhang." Gao Liangwei turned to Zhang Minglu. "If you were to choose, who among the official Ascendants would have a higher chance of winning if sent to compete?"
"This..." Zhang Minglu furrowed his brow, finding it a difficult decision.
"The competition format of the Furnace Arena is currently unclear. From the mention of 'number of wins and losses' in the rule details, it seems to be a one-on-one duel format.
If that's the case, then among the official teams, the ones with the most outstanding individual combat ability are undoubtedly Dragon Soul, Bai Xuewu, Silver Fox, and the others. However..."
Zhang Minglu paused: "If there's a possibility of team competitions, then it's different. Take Wenren Yizhi, for example. Although she has limited mobility, her ability is extremely suited for supporting others.
Or if it's an intelligence-based competition, then I think Zhao Ming's mind and abilities would be more suitable. Especially in environments requiring quick decision-making, my Thought Palace ability won't grant me extra thinking time..."
Gao Liangwei's considerations were quite comprehensive, because each Ascendant's strengths pointed in different directions, and each had areas they excelled in and areas they didn't.
Without being able to determine the specific format of the competition, it was hard to say who would be more suitable.
"If you could only recommend one person, who would you choose?" Gao Liangwei asked, cutting through the complexity.
Zhang Minglu thought it over and gave his answer: "If I could only recommend one person, I would still choose Dragon Soul."
"Reason?"
"Dragon Soul's ability, while relatively simple and not particularly flashy, has no obvious weaknesses. Moreover, his willpower is extremely resolute, beyond what Bai Xuewu or Silver Fox or the others can match. This means his ability to withstand pressure at critical moments is stronger."
Gao Liangwei was slightly surprised upon hearing this: "I thought you would recommend Bai Xuewu."
"Bai Xuewu..." Zhang Minglu shook his head with a bitter smile. "Her mech is impressive, but it consumes too much and can't sustain prolonged battles. Also, her resilience isn't as good as Dragon Soul's. There's a chance she could drop the ball at a critical moment."
Gao Liangwei nodded slightly.
Li Meng asked curiously: "Does the person in charge believe the government will put forward designated representatives for the public to vote for?"
"Roughly so." Gao Liangwei said. "Randomly splitting votes and selecting people could result in an outcome unfavorable to humanity as a whole."
"That's true too... If we end up electing some unworthy people, that's no laughing matter."
"The best outcome would of course be winning all nine matches." One attendee said. "Each win raises the Mind Power upper limit by 5%, so nine matches would be 45%. Add the extra 10% for total wins exceeding losses, and that's 55%... That would be incredible!"
If an Ascendant's Mind Power upper limit was 1,000 points, a 55% increase would bring it to 1,550.
Something that originally might have taken a very, very long time to raise could now be achieved after a single rule event ended.
Moreover, this bonus applied to all Ascendants of the civilization, meaning that after the rule ended, the civilization's overall strength would skyrocket by a huge margin.
But that was only the most optimistic outcome.
"Winning all nine is too difficult." Li Meng didn't share that optimism. "I think having more wins than losses would be enough."
As long as they won five out of nine, they could achieve a 15% increase to the Mind Power upper limit in the end. To him, that would already be quite good.
The bad scenario was having more losses than wins. For example, winning four and losing five would mean every Ascendant in the Tianshui Star Civilization would have their Mind Power upper limit decreased by 15%. That would absolutely be a major blow.
The most extreme case would be losing all nine, in which case every Ascendant on Tianshui Star would have their Mind Power upper limit reduced by 55%, a complete return to square one overnight.
Especially for Ascendants with higher base stats, failure would be even harder to accept.
Take the same 55% reduction: someone with an upper limit of 500 points would drop to 225. But someone with an upper limit of 2,000 points would drop to 900!
This meant that in the extreme scenario of losing all nine matches, an Ascendant who could originally reach the Awakening level would plummet to a point where they couldn't even use the Mind Network!
Even if it wasn't that extreme, for Ascendants with higher Mind Power upper limits, every 5% deducted per loss would hurt terribly.
"This kind of competition format where the entire civilization 'prospers together and suffers together' really does place enormous pressure on the participants."
Gao Liangwei looked around at everyone. "However, I believe these nine can hold up and bring back victory for our Tianshui Star Civilization."
......
Undoubtedly, none of the others could possess Gao Liangwei's conviction of "certain victory."
After all, what they would be facing in this competition were Ascendants from alien civilizations about whom they had absolutely no intelligence.
If there was anything unfair about it, it was probably that for those alien civilizations, Tianshui Star Civilization was equally an unfamiliar and mysterious opponent.
Just then, the phone Gao Liangwei carried with him rang. He glanced at it and said to everyone: "I need to attend a Joint Government meeting to discuss the candidate selection issue, Dr. Zhang."
"Please go ahead, sir."
"You're responsible for contacting Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi, telling them to prepare. The two of them have an extremely high probability of becoming participants."
"Understood."
"Section Chief Li, if the intelligence department obtains the hidden rule intel from the Administrator of Ascendant Home, contact me immediately."
"Will do."
"Brother Guan, this rule..."
Inside the Wordless Book shelter, after Chen Na finished listening to the rule contents announced by the Fire Thief, she immediately looked toward Guan Tong, her big eyes full of tension and worry.
Sharp as she was, how could she not realize that Guan Tong would one hundred percent be one of the nine participants.
She knew the number of people voting for him would definitely be enormous. Forget having no suspense about participating, it wouldn't even be strange for him to land the number one spot on the representative vote leaderboard.
Guan Tong himself had naturally realized this too.
"...Mm." He nodded at Chen Na. "I will be one of the participants."
Chen Na's expression was complicated. She knew that if even Guan Tong couldn't secure a win, then no one else stood a chance.
But this rule, and what the Fire Thief had mentioned in the notes, made her vaguely uneasy.
"Brother Guan, do you think if we lose, it's just a loss?" She asked the question in her heart.
Guan Tong couldn't answer. He equally felt this rule wasn't so simple.
So he silently summoned the Terminal Panel and checked the Hidden Rule.
[Hidden Rule Twenty-Eight: Fight to the Death]
[Hidden Rule Content: The option of "surrender" does not exist in the Furnace Arena. After participants step onto the Arena, there are only two outcomes: win or die. To reward the participants' courage and victory, the winner will receive additional rewards beyond the rule's fixed rewards.]
[Note: The additional rewards will be provided by the organizers of the Furnace Arena, rewards from a high-level civilization. Do you have the confidence to claim them?]