After a fierce struggle, this group constantly had many teams eliminated, while the ones that remained were getting smaller. The Astra Militarum didn't let down their guard; they were staring at the remaining teams, but none of them dared to come and mess with them.
The late fight became more gruesome; even Murray and Laura were fighting with all their might. After a tough battle, Laura fell while Murray and another ice-cold-faced woman obtained the other two spots. Together with Sebastian, this group's candidates were settled.
"Let's congratulate Sebastian, Murray, and Louise, who have emerged from this group after fierce competition and have been allowed to advance to the next round!" A pleasant woman's voice rang out.
"Sebastian, Sebastian..." In the spectator seats, there was an upheaval as everyone was shouting Sebastian's name. As for Murray and Louise, barely anyone paid attention.
Clifford was happy like a child, dancing with excitement, "My dad still said that Sebastian was at most seventy and wouldn't even book me a ticket for the next round. Let's see what he says now?"
The people watching this game weren't just the viewers at the scene. In the entire Endless Star Territory, in particular, the region behind each participant, many people were watching the live broadcast. This competition attracted the attention of countless people and surged the ratings of all the live-streams.
Originally, Sebastian was nothing special. The strongest, Hess, was ranked just over eighty. He is not the best, as compared to those top Level 2 Planetary Lords; there were still some gaps.
But just like the network of Earth, there was also a forum. During the group star competition, this forum usage was increasing a lot, and the posts there, almost all of them, were about this competition.
But what was surprising was that the highest importance of discussion was not about these top players, nor was it about a popular player. Surprisingly, it was Sebastian. The top ten posts on the home page, half of them were about Sebastian and Hess fighting each other.
After all, all popular players were expected to qualify, so there were no unexpected winners, except for the group where Sebastian was. In a 5 vs 1 situation, the outcome was that one person was killed and the other four were scared away. This dramatic situation was also what kept the discussion about Sebastian and Hess high, especially Hess.
As a popular player in the top 100 rankings, he couldn't even qualify, so it was an enormous shock to people. Hess became an infamous person suddenly, as a variety of open posts were popping up all over the place. Something like "Is Hess overrated?", "Hess beaten by a freshman.", etc. There were even headings like "The story Hess and Sebastian had to tell." It was a startling sight to see. But there was no doubt, this was the darkest day for Hess.
"Damn it! These bastards, how dare they throw insults at me?" Hess browsed through one post after another, and he was shaking with anger.
It wasn't just the unknown users; some contestants also came from Giant Island and they were joking maliciously.
"Haha, Hess, how does it feel to be defeated by a freshman? It should be good."
"Too bad we won't be able to taste it. I envy you, Hess, for having such a chance."
"Hess, you're a celebrity now. Give me your signature. I'm afraid it will sell for a lot of money in the future."
"Hess, I heard that a freshman beat you. Is it true?"
All kinds of ridicule and sarcasm.
Hess was full of anger. At this time, his communicator rang. Hess picked it up and looked.
It was another contestant who had a poor relationship with him, and his name was Tootie. His overall ranking was in the top 50 and was also one of the favorites.
"Tootie, are you here to mock me as well?" Hess asked without good humor.
"I already laughed." Tootie smiled slightly and said, "So I'm not here to laugh at you now, I just want to know that freshman named Sebastian. Just how strong is it?"
"And you say you didn't come to ridicule me." Hess said with a black line on his face, "You want to know how strong? Go experience it yourself!"
For Hess, this was the most unpleasant experience in his life, and now he wants him to say it again?
"No, no, no, you misunderstand." Tootie explained: "I'm just curious, and at the same time, you should also know that the Crown Prince and I are close friends."
"Crown Prince?" Hess faintly froze. Suddenly, he thought of something and said, "I remember he is also from Hope's Peak Academy?"
"That's right," Tootie nodded and said, "In fact, even Hope's Peak Academy didn't think that Sebastian was so strong. Some people over at the Crown Prince group are panicking, so I came to ask just how strong this Sebastian is. If we run into each other in the next round, I can be prepared!"
"Much stronger than me." Hess recalled for a moment and said, "The pilots he built are very powerful, especially that weapon. It's very dangerous! Anyway, my Black Flame Giant can't stop it."
"Your race is too one-dimensional," Tootie said.
Hess was silent. After all, creating one species and creating two species were two different things. Having a single species has a higher success rate as the cost is lower, and it is easy to create, while the downside is that it is easy to counter. Once you meet your nemesis, it can't fight back at all.
"To put it lightly, I also want to create both ground and sky Supernatural creatures, but it's not that easy." Hess gave a cold hum. Air Supernatural species were extremely difficult to develop.
"You prepare well for the loser's bracket; leave Sebastian to me." Tootie comforted him.
The loser's group was in each group was very time-consuming, as the whole process probably lasted nearly two months. This was also the most time-consuming part of the whole competition. But it couldn't be helped; such a tournament system could ensure that some geniuses would not be eliminated early.
Taking advantage of this time, the winning contestants were also making the final adjustments and preparations. But there were only two months, so it was used to summarize the previous matches, as well as studying the information of possible opponents in the next round in advance. As for the Supernatural species aspect, how much improvement could there be in two months?
Only Sebastian was different. For these two months, he could speed up. Two months outside, for Greater Terra, 30 years have passed.
At this time, the population of the Greater Terra continued to grow and broke the 500 million mark. The level of technology has also further improved; in particular, there were new changes in the various weapons of the military.
Sebastian glanced at the planet panel for the change that had occurred.
[ Planet Name: Greater Terra ]
[ Planet Level: Level 2 ]
[ Planet Diameter: 5,971 km ]
[ Planet Species: 2,295 ]
[ Planet Talent: Eternal Level ]
[ Extrapolation Route: None ]
When he entered the awakening space, Sebastian skimmed through the planet.
"Hmm?" What surprised him was that the Allspark, which he cast down in the middle of the Continent, changed.
Now, it had given creation to a civilization of metal people called Cybertronians. They didn't speak like human, but communicated with special metal sensing, and their number was also increasing. The lump of metal that was cast down was very small, and now it has turned into a big mountain. Every day, many Cybertronians are born from this big metal mountain.
Pikachu originally had no natural enemies, but since the birth of the Cybertronians, they often came over to mess with them, only to find that the electricity they generated was not effective against the Cybertronians. The Cybertronians were not easy to mess with, so they were chased and beaten by them instead.
The two territories were close to each other, so to compete for more territory, a small fight at the beginning developed into a big fight. The Pikachu used all its electricity, but it didn't help against the Cybertronians. The Cybertronians also lacked the means of attack, as their speed was not fast, so attacking them was not easy.
But this way, the Pikachu population was controlled, which was something Sebastian was happy to see. If he let them reproduce without limit, it was estimated that the fish and shrimp in the river would dry up.
As for the Space Kangaroo, there was nothing more to say. After Sebastian used the Water of Life, the growth rate of the colony's population was increasing at a fast pace. But because there was still the existence of the Silver Eagle, it was not that excessive.
For Schrödinger's Cat in the north, new offspring were born, but the number was not much, only a few dozen.
After he finished looking at the situation, Sebastian turned his attention to the 2nd Continent. Because of the war, the relationship between the Giant Kong and the Astra Militarum had never been better.
After seeing a wide variety of Supernatural creatures, Giant Kong felt superior to others. It no longer saw the other giant beasts on the land in its eyes. Look at other Tyrant Bears, Smilodon, and other giant beasts, even to Godzilla; there was also a look of superiority. In the fight for supremacy, there was simply no such interest.
This attitude from the Giant Kong pissed off a lot of giant beasts. Everyone was a giant beast. Who did you think you were? Why did you look down on them so much? But the Giant Kong was too lazy to explain.
Thanks to the help of the Astra Militarum, the Giant Kong family was growing rapidly. Now the number has exceeded a thousand. It was second only to Skullcrawlers, Tyrant Bears, and a few other giant beasts.
The Astra Militarum had also given up on exploring the 2nd Continent, as 30 years was enough to change a lot.
Coleman was over the age limit, so he could only retire. But after retirement, he stayed in the Astra Militarum as a staff officer, because he wanted to continue to participate in the next war.
Replacing Coleman was a young man called Dallas Cyrus. He was not a young man, nearly 40 years old, but for Coleman and others, he was very young.
Lando was not young anymore. Every day, he insists on exercising his body, as he prepares to take the position of commander of this battle to the end and be part of history.
The Astra Militarum was coming and going. The older ones quit, while new additions joined. From the previous conquest, everyone could see that the battle was fought by the Typhoon, while the ground team was not as effective. So this time, they also greatly increased the number of air forces. There are no major changes in other aspects; all were minor improvements.
Time was like water, as the two-month tournament ended quickly. All contestants were settled, and among them was Hess.
Sebastian wasn't surprised by this. About Hess's strength, the conservative estimate was that he was quite high; it was impossible to eliminate.
Next was the final battle of the qualifiers. Talents from various regions would fight against each other, and after three rounds of competition, 500 people would be selected, and then there would be a competition in the loser's group. But this time, the loser's group was the elimination tournament, so another 500 slots would be selected, totaling 1,000 spots for the qualifiers. These 1,000 people would then go to the Star Council headquarters and participate in the main competition.
In these two months, Prokopy and Clifford didn't bother Sebastian much. In the campus of Hope's Peak Academy, enthusiasm was high and overflowing with laughter. Because this year's Hope's Peak Academy, there were two players who qualified. There wasn't much to say about the Crown Prince, as this was what everyone had expected, but Sebastian was a surprise. Before the competition, not a single person could have expected that Sebastian could also go so far.
"Sebastian is bound to be the strongest one in the history of the new students. I don't know if there's a stronger one in the Endless Star Territory?"
"Endless Star Territory? That is vast and boundless; there are endless forces, all kinds of people, so I think there should be."
This was the subject of many, so people were very much looking forward to it. Compared to the previous group stage, this elimination tournament had only 4,000 people, yet it was attracting more eyeballs, as each one of them was a top genius of various regions, and their fame was not small.
This was the battle of geniuses in the genuine sense of the word and was something that many were happy to see. Now in the forum, the most discussed was the strength of each participant. There were even arguments over different rankings.
Under this atmosphere and expectations, the Group Star Competition officially started.