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On September 20th, the fifteen-day Super Academy Tournament concluded.
Cassius met Garlos's Holy Sword in the semifinals. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't break through that Holy Light Shield. After a standoff of over twenty minutes, he eventually ran out of mana and conceded—stopping at the top eight.
As for Victor, he made it to the finals but also lost to Garlos's Holy Sword.
Neither of them was discouraged. After all, their opponent was the Pope of Light's personal student, so losing to him was understandable for the time being. The Holy Light Shield was simply too overpowered at the moment—but that might not be the case in the future. Both of them had maximum fire-element nine-star talent, indicating immense growth potential. They believed they would not always lose to this person.
There weren't many acquaintances in other grades. Quinn of House Stormcall from the third year stopped at the top 64. They didn't interact much, so it was unclear how competitive she was. Probably quite a bit, though—she always liked to be first in games.
In short, this year's Academy Tournament was over.
But another major competition had begun.
That was the Super Street Fighter Tournament organized by Caelan.
Using Super Street Fighter as its platform, everyone could register to participate for free.
Prizes:
First Place: 100,000 gold crowns, a "First Street Fighter Champion" gold achievement, and registration on the First Clear Hero List
Second Place: 50,000 gold crowns
Third Place: 30,000 gold crowns
Fourth to Tenth Place: 10,000 gold crowns each
Eighteen characters were available for selection. (The Four Heavenly Kings became playable after clearing Nightmare Difficulty.)
In the first round, each person had to play ten matches. Each match consisted of five games—first to win three took the match. Those who won seven out of ten matches advanced.
The method for advancing in the second round would be determined by the number of qualifiers.
As soon as the Forum post went up, popularity immediately soared. People left comments below, discussing the tournament and speculating on how their known masters would rank in this illusionary world.
However, what Caelan didn't expect was that while game popularity increased and more players played, very few actually signed up for the tournament.
By the registration deadline on the 25th, only 46 people had signed up. Fewer than fifty.
This was incredibly awkward.
In stark contrast to Street Fighter, a "game" with little Forum buzz was spreading at an astonishing rate.
This game was Mahjong.
Caelan had long suspected Mahjong would become popular—perhaps even as big as it was in his previous life. However, he never imagined that in less than ten days, it would already be circulating among the ladies' circles.
Caelan investigated and found that it started last week when a lady from the Lion Kingdom's Griffin City logged into her account on her husband's Elite Edition console. She'd originally intended to play Squirrel War with her girlfriends—a game they'd all claimed for free when registering. Instead, she unexpectedly discovered a new game called Mahjong. Following Caelan's meticulously prepared tutorial, she tried it out and found it somewhat interesting. She invited a few girlfriends to play together.
After a few days, they realized the game could be played for money. Since they hadn't topped up their accounts, they agreed to play for one gold crown per tile in their Spacetime Communication group.
One of them ended up losing three hundred tiles that day. Over three hundred gold crowns.
The woman outright refused to pay.
This naturally angered the other three "girlfriends." They all showed up at her house to demand payment, eventually getting into a fight—tearing clothes everywhere—and blowing the matter up. It ended up in that week's news, making it known to people in other countries as well.
Some people who saw the news scoffed at the "ladies" for being sore losers, finding it ridiculous to refuse to pay "just" three hundred-odd gold crowns. But more people were curious about this game of Mahjong that caused the dispute. Naturally, those who had the means tried it out.
The result was predictable: in a world lacking entertainment, Mahjong's destructive power was truly terrifying.
Not only women, but many men also became addicted, abandoning other games. They constantly shouted in groups: "Room X, three short one, 5 gold crowns per tile!" They played all night, impossible to stop—more enthusiastic than many women.
Could the low number of participants in his Street Fighter tournament also be Mahjong's fault?
Caelan quickly browsed the Forum again with his mind palace and found that it wasn't that people weren't interested—they lacked confidence. Most people couldn't even clear Master Difficulty, so they simply didn't have the courage to enter a big tournament. Especially performing in front of so many people.
These people even included his two good friends, Cassius and Victor. Even though their skill level wasn't low, they still had no confidence to participate.
Cassandra, however, did sign up.
Upon further investigation, Caelan realized that in his previous life, there were so many people who played and liked fighting games, but only one or two thousand people actually participated in competitions. A thousand participants was already considered a grand event.
Another reason was that while many people knew about and followed Street Fighter, very few actually played it. Caelan himself never dared to play Street Fighter 2 before—he usually only played Knights of Valour. As for why?
One word: poor.
Games were ultimately a bit too expensive.
After reading this information and gaining clarity, Caelan was straightforward. He immediately posted on the Forum, first admitting that he had been too presumptuous and severely overestimated the number of participants.
The first round of screening was directly canceled. The competition would begin with a direct draw.
He then published the list of forty-six participants and enabled a selection function on the Forum. If the person you selected ultimately won first place, you would receive a random free game—which could even include Super Street Fighter and Dragonspire New Century. If the randomly awarded game was already purchased, it would be converted into the corresponding amount of gold crowns.
As soon as the post was released, people were surprised by the low number of participants, but they also developed a slight fondness for Caelan's attitude. They eagerly began selecting participants from the forty-six, hoping to get lucky and receive a free game.
Although the number of participants was pitifully small, the popularity fully met Caelan's expectations.
As Caelan expected, Garlos's Holy Sword was the first clear holder of Street Fighter on Nightmare Difficulty. And since the person nicknamed "Flame Queen" did not participate, the number of people who selected Garlos's Holy Sword was far ahead—almost the sum of all the other forty-five selections combined.
The competition started tomorrow at 7 PM and would last for three days.
Day One: Determine the top 23 (23 matches total)
Day Two: Determine the top 12 and top 6 (17 matches total)
Day Three: Determine the champion
The final result was no surprise: Garlos's Holy Sword successfully won the championship and took first place.
Caelan also kept his promise, giving away nearly ten thousand games, which caused a wave of jubilation. Those who received games were naturally overjoyed. No one who didn't pick the winner had any complaints about Caelan—they just lamented their lack of foresight.
Garlos's Holy Sword, the champion, didn't say anything in the room. Nor did he make any statements on the Forum. Just like the pretentious Ryu in the game. In the story, Ryu also won the championship but disdained claiming the prize, quietly leaving alone.
It was interesting that the character he ultimately won with was Ryu.
It was like the ultimate display of pretentiousness.
Despite the complaints, Caelan still added a new column to the First Clear Hero List:
First Fighting Tournament Champion — Garlos's Holy Sword
After some thought, he designed a new skin for Ryu—a Holy Light Academy-style outfit, with the Holy Light Academy emblem embroidered on the chest and back, making Ryu look several years younger. In the high-definition texture, it could be seen that on the right arm's shoulder of the clothing, it read:
Top line: Champion Bottom line: Garlos's Holy Sword