At the bottom of the valley, inside the Wordless Book shelter.
Guan Tong finished editing his post and published it in the "Administrator's Domain" section.
He put the hidden information about this rule up for sale, and watching the rapidly increasing clicks and comments, he mused inwardly.
"I wonder if this information will motivate potential participants, or scare them off, or maybe both?"
Once you step onto the Arena, you can't concede. Either you win or you die. This rule would only further increase the psychological pressure on participants.
Because even if Tianshui Star Civilization lost more than it won this time, as spectators, the Ascendants wouldn't be in any life-threatening danger, they would only have their Mind Power upper limit reduced.
But for participants, failure meant death.
Conversely, if they achieved victory, they could obtain an additional reward. This reward from a high-level civilization, no matter what it was, would certainly be precious to the level-1 Tianshui Star Civilization.
Guan Tong's own mood was relatively calm. He knew he had no choice.
Even if he didn't want to participate, publicly standing up and shouting "Don't vote for me" would definitely be useless.
Many people believed he could win a match, so they would definitely vote for him, without caring about his personal wishes.
Especially since his action of selling hidden rule information had also blocked off another path: holding defeat hostage.
That is to say, if a potential participant didn't want to compete, then in order to prevent themselves from being voted into the top nine of the overall rankings, they might preemptively issue a statement like:
"If you vote for me and make me a participant, I'll directly concede the moment I step onto the Arena."
Now that the information that losing equals death had been exposed, this kind of threatening approach was practically useless.
Unless someone would rather die just to add one more loss to inconvenience all the Ascendants of Tianshui Star... but even a lunatic like Han Qiu wouldn't do something like that.
Guan Tong's thoughts returned to himself. He had experienced quite a few life-and-death crises over these past three years, and his temperament had become much more composed.
It was just that when he thought of Shi Jingyi, who would also most likely become a participant, he couldn't help but feel somewhat worried.
Just as he was thinking, Shi Jingyi happened to initiate a Mind Network call to him.
"Dr. Zhang contacted me not long ago, telling me to prepare for the competition during these two weeks. He also asked me to pass the same message on to you."
"Mm. How are you feeling?" Guan Tong asked.
Shi Jingyi: "Although I don't like fighting, if I ultimately get selected into the top nine of the overall rankings, I will give it my all for the sake of the entire civilization."
Guan Tong: .....
He knew that Shi Jingyi indeed didn't like life-and-death battles. She enjoyed researching martial arts, but her purpose wasn't combat, it was constantly refining herself.
But right now, she likewise had no choice in this matter. As long as she was voted into the top nine, she would have to participate.
"Xiao Tong, I was thinking that during these two weeks, we should train with each other." Shi Jingyi said, "I think this is the best preparation."
"I agree." Guan Tong agreed without hesitation.
In his mind, no one was more suitable for combat training than Shi Jingyi. The latter was practically a six-sided warrior. Half a month of high-intensity sparring would definitely let both of them push their conditions to the max.
In a certain small town in Suroma, in a hotel lobby, several figures were waiting.
An overweight fat man whose body was like a water vat and who weighed over four hundred jin, holding a stack of foam boards in each hand and constantly putting them into his mouth to chew, making "crunch crunch" sounds.
A petite woman with blue hair and blue eyes, with facial hair, curled up lying on the ground and continuously yawning.
A tall, thin figure wrapped entirely in a pitch-black long robe, not revealing even a bit of skin, gender unknown.
The last one was Tianci, who had a prosthetic limb. He swept his gaze over the three of them, his expression very gloomy.
He was absolutely loyal to Han Qiu and supported all of his decisions. But all along, he had still harbored resentment about letting these three people become the ten divisions of the guild.
In his eyes, not a single one of these three was normal. One was a gluttonous maniac who never let plastic leave his mouth, one was like a mute who never spoke and communicated entirely through gestures...
And finally, of course, there was that murderous cat woman.
Tianci looked at the cat woman lying on the ground, completely unable to hide the disgust in his eyes.
He considered himself willing, for the sake of the guild and for the sake of realizing Chairman Han Qiu's great ideal, to dirty his hands and do some necessary evils.
But a creature like the cat woman, who killed purely for pleasure, was in his eyes scarcely any different from a wild beast.
"Oh, you're all here."
Han Qiu's voice sounded. The four of them all looked over. The latter was just coming down the stairs from the second floor.
"Chairman Han Qiu~" The cat woman immediately acted coquettishly and clingingly the moment she saw him, "How about you let me go participate in the Arena competition too~"
"That's not up to me." Han Qiu shrugged, "It depends on votes."
"Then just have everyone in the guild vote for me, and call on your fans too. Wouldn't that be enough?"
"Cat woman, stop spouting nonsense." Tianci couldn't help but rebuke, "You're not famous at all in the world. Even if the Chairman canvasses for you, you won't get many votes. It's impossible for you to enter the top nine of the overall rankings."
The cat woman coldly glanced at him. Before she could speak, the big fat man beside her opened his huge mouth and let out a rumbling sound.
"Chairman Han, there will definitely be a lot of people voting for you. You're sure to make the rankings."
"Mm, I know." Han Qiu nodded, "This isn't entirely a bad thing either."
"Chairman, this time it's very dangerous." Tianci said seriously, "You should already know about the post made by the Administrator of Ascendant Home. You cannot concede in the Furnace Arena."
Han Qiu smiled: "I never intended to concede in the first place."
"But....."
"Relax. Don't forget, the Arena will have spectators."
"?"
Tianci didn't understand what Han Qiu meant for a moment.
The cat woman, however, tittered: "Chairman Han Qiu means the audience wants to watch a good show."
"Exactly." Han Qiu curved his lips, "If you were designing a competitive game, would the Arena match opponents completely using a random mode? Definitely not. If the rank gap is too large, there's no suspense at all. What entertainment value would there be in watching that?"
Tianci understood: "So that's how it is. In that case, as a level-1 civilization, the opponents we Tianshui Star match against in the Furnace Arena will also be level-1 civilizations?"
"That's not necessarily so. But in principle, the gap between the two sides definitely won't be too large. A situation where one side completely crushes the other is unlikely to appear."
After the few of them finished listening to Han Qiu, the cat woman covered her mouth and giggled: "In that case, there will definitely be fakes among the enemies too. If Chairman Han Qiu is lucky enough to run into one, that'd be great."
Tianci's mouth twitched, and he loudly rebuked: "Cat woman! If I hear you being disrespectful to the Chairman again, as vice chairman I must seriously punish you!"
"Alright, alright." Han Qiu didn't seem to mind at all, "The cat woman isn't entirely wrong. My direct combat ability is indeed a bit weak, but that doesn't mean I'll definitely lose.
There's still half a month to prepare. Time is quite plentiful. Also, haven't you noticed? For me, for us, this is an opportunity to be heroes....."
Light flickered in Han Qiu's eyes. He had already formulated his own game strategy.
At Konia Manor, when Sigaochin arrived at the backyard, she found Yelanka wielding two ice swords and continuously swinging them, slicing out streams of bone-chilling sword qi.
Sigaochin frowned slightly: "Administrator, why are you practicing combat at a time like this?"
Yelanka stopped her training upon hearing the voice, glanced at Sigaochin, then lowered her head to look at the ice swords tightly gripped in both hands.
"If you want to go to the Furnace Arena as a participant, that is absolutely impossible." Sigaochin said solemnly, "Because you are the Administrator of Xisiya."
".....I know."
Yelanka released her grip, and the two ice swords immediately dissolved into dissipating Mind Power and vanished.
She was confident in her combat strength, and she also had the courage to fight for the civilization as a whole... but her identity meant she absolutely could not take this kind of risk.
"If someone from Xisiya is going to participate, Lovska can go." Sigaochin said, "I can go too. Only you absolutely cannot."
Yelanka nodded, her expression somewhat downcast: "Teacher Guan Tong will definitely enter the battle this time. Rather than sitting in the spectator stands, I'd rather fight shoulder to shoulder with him."
".....You don't need to worry about him." Sigaochin said, "If even he can't secure a single victory, then the enemies are simply too strong. Even if you participated, the result wouldn't change."
Hearing this, Yelanka felt both annoyed and amused for a moment. In the end, she still sighed.
"I'd better go compile a candidate list with the think tank. In three days, the lists submitted by each nation will all enter the candidate pool together. By then, it can be announced to the public."