There were one hundred and four candidates in the arena stage of the college entrance trial.
After three rounds, ninety one had fallen into the loser bracket.
That meant only thirteen people were still eligible to compete for the Old Shipyard Port championship.
The fourth round did not follow the rule of lowest number versus highest number.
Instead, the organizers reshuffled the draw.
One person would receive a bye.
The bye granted direct advancement to the next round with no points gained.
The result was announced.
The person with the bye was Zayne.
If it were anyone else, the rest might envy their luck.
But since it was Zayne, nearly every remaining candidate felt relief instead.
Zayne getting a bye meant no one would face that monster in the fourth round.
Whoever ran into Zayne was almost guaranteed to drop into the loser bracket.
So this was great news.
The rest of the matchups were revealed soon after.
Two of them looked ordinary.
Only one matchup stood out.
