Not only is the Pandemonium event time reversed with the Naval Battle, it's also a little different now. Originally in the series, there were 100 monsters in the artificial Temple, participants drew lots to decide the fighting orders, and they could choose how many monsters they wanted to fight.
But in this Pandemonium, they won't draw lots because all of them will enter the Temple at the same time. Furthermore, their targets won't be just 100 artificial monsters, there will be 1000 artificial monsters in a much bigger temple.
This current upside-down temple is even bigger than the Sky Labyrinth. It also looks different because it has 8 towers around the big main temple. But many people get dizzy just by seeing the upside down temple.
"Can this even be called a temple? It looks more like an upside-down castle." Alex comments so because of how big the building is. It's already much wider than the whole stadium and it's also very tall, so it blocks the sun, making the stadium really dark.
He can't imagine how much money and power they used just to make this building along with the artificial monsters inside. It will be a big waste of money if they only use this whole event mechanism once.
But Alex doesn't know that he is the reason why the organizer improved this Pandemonium event. The hype created when people knew he would be participating was so big that the organizer couldn't just make the events ordinary.
They couldn't change everything, so they changed the Pandemonium event. It was prepared so people could see Alex in action. That's why the organizer secretly asked Alex to participate in the 4th day's Hidden Event.
Of course, they didn't tell him what it was to make it fair for all the participants. But they really needed Alex to participate. They also asked Jura, the Wizard Saint who joins the tournament to make this event much more intense.
The other teams aren't contacted, even the Fairy Tail B. Even Alex's and Jura's teams aren't informed about the request. It's to keep the element of surprise while making sure it will be a very interesting event.
Every team has their own strategies, after all, and the organizer knows that those different strategies are the things that make events more interesting to watch. So they don't interfere with other teams' choosing.
They don't even force Alex and Jura, although they did tell them that the sponsors paid high amounts of money to prepare for the last hidden event because they wanted to see Alex's and Jura's abilities, making it hard for them to refuse.
Fortunately, Alex and Jura have planned to join the game from the beginning. They haven't played any Hidden Games in the previous 3 days, so they want to do it on the last day. It also sounds like a battle-oriented game, making them more interested.
Fairy Tail A sends Alex, Fairy Tail B sends Erza, Mermaid Heel sends Kagura, Sabertooth sends Orga, Heaven's Runners sends Macbeth, Lamia Scale sends Jura, Blue Pegasus sends Hibiki, and Quatro Puppy sends Nobarly.
There are some changes from the series like Kagura instead of Millianna who has played in the Hide and Seek game, Sting instead of Orga who has played the Chariot Game, and Macbeth who shouldn't even be a member of a Legal Guild in the series.
Some of them are very interested as soon as they hear there are a thousand artificial monsters in the upside-down castle, some are worried, while some like Hibiki and Nobarly are terrified at the thought of entering a nest of a thousand monsters.
Despite their different reactions, the organizer announces the rules for this event.
1. Participants start from different positions, which are in the 8 towers around the main building.
2. They need to defeat as many monsters as they can within 5 hours.
3. The deeper they go into the castle, the stronger the monsters are.
4. They are allowed to steal the kill, but forbidden from attacking other players.
5. There are 5 levels of the monsters. S, A, B, C, and D. Each level gives different points.
6. Those who break the rules are disqualified and given 0 points immediately.
As for the points from monsters, S-Class gives 50 points, A-Class gives 20 points, B-Class gives 10 points, C-Class gives 5 points, and D-Class gives 2 points. There's also an SSS-Class boss prepared, but it only shows up when all other monsters are eliminated within 5 hours.
"The Hidden SSS-Class Monster is worth 250 points, but it will only show up when all of the 1 thousand monsters have been eliminated, which is just close to impossible to do within just 5 hours." The commentator says it like that, but it just makes people hope the Hidden Boss will appear.
"Well, even if they can make it appear, I doubt they'll still have any power left to fight it after fighting 1000 monsters. They also need to compete with the other players, which will drain their stamina more because they need to be fast. If they use weak attacks and don't kill the monsters quickly, their kill might get stolen too. But even if they all work together, which is impossible, it would still be very difficult to eliminate 1000 monsters in just 5 hours." Yajima adds his opinion making this event look a lot more difficult in the audience's minds. Though it certainly is difficult.
Of course, it is difficult. They need to conserve their stamina and magic power if they want to kill many monsters in 5 hours. But they also can't be stingy with firepower because they need to kill the monsters quickly, so quick and correct judgment will be very important here.
Additionally, there are different numbers of monsters of every level here. There are 5 S-Class Monsters, 50 A-Class Monsters, 100 B-Class Monsters, 300 C-Class monsters, and 545 D-Class Monsters.
No one knows if the power of these monsters are at the same level as real monsters of the same classes. If it is, then it will be very troublesome, especially the S-Class monsters because those are creatures that can only be defeated by S-Class Mages.
But some who don't send their S-Class Mages are still quite confident because fighting against that number also requires strategies. That's why Hibiki from Blue Pegasus is still calm because with his Archive Magic, he can quickly analyze the monsters and defeat them using their weaknesses.
On the other hand, Nobarly is shaking in fear because he has neither the strategy or power to kill that many monsters. Quatro Puppy immediately regrets not sending Bacchus because he has played in Chariot.
While the players have different reactions, something appears on the screen. It's the total points they can get from all levels of monsters by counting their numbers and the points they can get from those monsters, which makes some of them and even many people think deeply because it looks unexpected.
Total scores for all levels:
Hidden SSS-Class Boss = 250 Points
S-Class: 5 × 50 = 250 Points
A-Class: 50 × 20 = 400 Points
B-Class: 100 × 10 = 1000 Points
C-Class: 300 × 5 = 1500 Points
D-Class: 545 × 3 = 1635 Points
Despite their individual difficulty, S-Class monsters give less points in total than other levels, and because of their sheer number, the low level monsters actually give more points in total.
This actually creates a little confusion and debates among the audience. They are wondering whether killing higher rank monsters is even worth the effort if they can just kill a lot of the low level monsters.
But then, if all players go after the low level monsters, the competition will become very fierce because everyone thinks the same and they will then try to steal each other's prey.
Some people quickly understand that this is what the organizer wants by making this point system with this number of monsters. They want the players to compete fiercely by making them prefer killing low level monsters.
But some people also realize that if they only target the low level monsters, the high level ones might come to attack them too. So they won't just need to fight other players, but also high level monsters while targeting the low level ones.
Even so, attacking high-level ones from the beginning is also a bad idea because it will take too much time. If they stall the high level monsters, it will just benefit other players who won't get attacked by the high-level monsters.
With that strategy, they will be too exhausted after fighting the high level monsters, unable to fight the low level monsters anymore while only getting a few points as the other players get more from killing many low level monsters.
This is why they even say in the rules that it's okay to steal kill, but it's forbidden to attack the other players. It's because the organizer wants the players to fight each other over the hunt to make this event more exciting. They have thought this through.
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Ch. 239. Shukaku in Action