"Kelan, ability is Forced Transformation. Once activated, it forcefully transforms the target into a random animal for fifteen seconds? Wow, that ability sounds pretty amazing."
"Ferripak, exclusive item [Confinement Room], can lock a target inside it until their Mind Power is completely exhausted. That one seems pretty good too."
"Qiongdongni, ability..."
After the shortlist data report was released, it was immediately scrutinized and reviewed by countless Ascendants.
Apart from the three people from Guan Tong's group, choosing one person out of the twenty-seven to cast a vote for was no easy task for those who liked to agonize over decisions.
And the people on the list weren't just waiting to be chosen. Some of them were actively making posts on their social media accounts, drumming up votes for themselves.
Some even expressed willingness to purchase votes, which delighted those Ascendants who had been saving their representative votes to sell.
These Ascendants didn't care who they voted for. As long as they could trade their votes for some kind of profit, the amount was irrelevant.
There were also some who hadn't previously been well-known globally, but thanks to entering the shortlist, they gained widespread attention, and their personal accounts saw a massive surge in followers.
Some of them even disclosed to the public that apart from the three from Guan Tong's group, everyone else on the list had received an official talk before entering.
Regardless of which nation they belonged to, that nation's officials would first find the person and ask if they were willing to become a candidate participant.
This differed from the situation of Guan Tong and the other two. Whether they were willing or not, their high votes were sitting right there, so they had to participate.
But if others were afraid of failing and dying in the Arena, the officials wouldn't force them onto the list.
As the announcement stated, selecting people required consideration from multiple dimensions.
If a powerful Ascendant was a coward who feared death, it would be better to let someone less powerful but bold onto the list.
After all, in a life-or-death battle, unless the gap in strength between the two sides was too great, when evenly matched, mentality would likely become the deciding factor of victory or defeat.
Because of this, everyone who entered the shortlist was a volunteer.
Whether for additional rewards, for the honor of representing their nation and civilization, or for the cheers of victory...whatever the reason, as long as they volunteered, it was fine.
After the list was published, the vote distribution on the rankings began to fluctuate.
Some names quickly broke away from the pack, climbing to the top of the rankings.
"Dragon Soul, senior colonel, has entered the rankings..."
Inside the Wordless Book shelter, Chen Na was opening the Terminal Panel, watching the changes in the rankings.
Because Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi had locked in their spots as participants, they would be doing high-intensity combat training these days, with no time for anything else.
Chen Na knew the danger of this competitive match, so she wouldn't disturb them and just stayed in her room when she had nothing to do.
After the officials published the shortlist, she immediately began observing the changes on the overall representative-vote rankings. Before long, she saw Dragon Soul's name rising in a straight climb.
This was related to the descriptive profile of Dragon Soul in the shortlist.
The profile clearly stated he was an Ascendant trained by Beixing's officials. Just that single sentence would move many undecided voters to cast their vote for him.
Because over the past three years, everyone around the world had realized that the most proactive and reliable force when it came to dealing with this doomsday catastrophe was still Beixing.
Too many other nations were a total amateur operation, completely lacking the ability to handle this kind of calamity, so they were quickly and thoroughly eliminated.
That being the case, people believed that Ascendants specially trained by Beixing's officials were certainly more reliable than those trained by other nations' officials.
Based on this logic, even Ascendants who had never heard of Dragon Soul or seen him at all still voted their representative votes for him.
Chen Na herself had spent over two years at the base and could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen Dragon Soul. Combined with how serious and unsmiling the latter was, she'd always been a bit afraid of him.
She continued to scroll down. Some names were also rising rapidly.
Among them, she recognized one or two from having heard Zhang Minglu mention them, Ascendants trained as key assets by officials of other nations.
She scrolled further down and saw the names of people she knew.
"Sister Bai."
She looked at Bai Xuewu ranked eighteenth and couldn't help but furrow her brow slightly.
She didn't particularly want Bai Xuewu to make it into the top nine overall. It wasn't just Bai Xuewu, either. There was Silver Fox, Wenren Yizhi, and others she was close with, and she didn't want any of them to make it either.
She knew Guan Tong had no choice, but she didn't want other people she knew to take the risk.
"I hope none of them make it into the top nine..."
One day, two days, three days.
By April 7th, one week remained before the Furnace Arena's opening match.
After officials of each nation finished their tallies and confirmed that the number of uncast representative votes remaining couldn't affect the overall rankings, they published an announcement stating that the current rankings would be the final rankings.
The moment the announcement came out, the heat of discussion about the final rankings immediately skyrocketed.
Overall Representative-Vote Rankings:
First place, "Shadow" Guan Tong.
Second place, Shi Jingyi.
Third place, "GM" Han Qiu.
Fourth place, "Pulverizing Hand" Lovska.
Fifth place, "Dragon Soul" Xu Jiao.
Sixth place, "Mechanical Pioneer" Tasitado.
Seventh place, "Gluttony Frenzy" Satan.
Eighth place, "Apprentice" Sandro.
Ninth place, "Blood Mage" Gilal.
This final ranking left quite a few people astonished, and many people online voiced their doubts.
"Bai Xuewu and Sigaochin didn't make the rankings? They're both really strong!"
"Except for the top five, who are these monsters in the last four? I haven't heard of even one of them?"
"The person above is just ignorant. Tasitado is the most famous Ascendant in our Manchidon!"
"Blood Mage Gilal is the chief Ascendant of our Namelica, she's still pretty famous, right? The Black Flag Brotherhood was wiped out by her alone. Anyway, every Namelica person I know voted for her."
"Gilal is that new rising Luruiguo person? That place has been chosen, so it seems Luruiguo Official called on their nation's Ascendants to vote for her?"
Amid the global discussion, people quickly figured out why the rankings had turned out this way.
Because the Tianshui Star Civilization had only a handful of nations remaining. Under such circumstances, the people of these nations would naturally be more patriotic and support their own.
This led to the Ascendants of each nation prioritizing votes for someone who could represent their nation in battle, hoping this person could secure a win for the Civilization while representing their nation.
Four of the top five on the rankings were from Beixing. Although Han Qiu had already defected and taken Bel-Air's nationality, and was still wanted by Beixing's officials, people from other nations still regarded him as a Beixing native.
Lovska was from Xisiya; Tasitado was from Manchidon; Sandro was from Lury; Gilal was from Namelica... Each nation had its share of the rankings.
The most unusual figure was the seventh-ranked "Gluttony Frenzy" Satan, whose origins were rather mysterious, and many people had never heard of him at all.
The key point was, this name wasn't even on the thirty-person shortlist! That was what confused everyone the most.
A person not on the list. How did so many Ascendants vote for him?
However, this person's identity was quickly uncovered and posted on the Ascendant Home forum.
"That Satan is from Heilanja. I know him. He used to win big-eating contests. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the nickname Gluttony Frenzy, I'd never have thought it was him."
"Who voted for him? He actually got seventh place."
"I voted a representative vote for him, but I don't know him. Someone made a post offering 100 Ascension Coins to buy votes, so I sold mine."
"Person above me, same as you. I also sold my vote and voted for him."
"Holy crap, spending Ascension Coins to buy votes to enter a life-and-death match? This guy is that confident he can win??"