Physical mage, challenge me to a solo duel!

"What you are seeing now is the preliminary round of the 17th Magic High School World League. This place is the Oran Magic Hall in Oran City, America, which is a comprehensive arena that was specially built six months ago."

"We will hold a month-long competition at the Magic Hall in Oran to determine the sixty-four strongest teams in the team competition and the sixty-four strongest individuals in the individual competition, who will then enter the main tournament of the Magic High School World League."

At night, countless people gathered in front of the screens of mobile phones, computers, and televisions across China to watch the live broadcast.

People from other countries, not just China, were also watching the live stream.

The Magic High School World League, held every four years, is one of the few global magic-related competitions in the human world.

Those elusive, genius magic students who are usually rarely seen will shine in this competition, becoming the talk of the world.

There are a large number of participating teams in the Magic High School World League, totaling 256 teams.

Although there are more than 200 participating teams, which seems like a lot, nearly half of the slots are from the four major regions of China, America, Russia, and the Nordic Union.

Among them, 24 teams from China qualified for the team competition, and 33 people signed up for the individual competition. The other regions had similar numbers.

Of course, it's not that these four villains joined forces to exclude small countries, but rather that most small countries, even if they wanted to participate, couldn't even meet the basic entry requirements.

Putting everything else aside, to qualify for the team competition in the Magic High School World League, you first need to be recommended by a magic university with certain international qualifications, and secondly, at least half of the six team members must be intermediate-level mages.

Yes, half.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Chinese students participating in the competition are mostly at the intermediate level, with quite a few hidden high-level students. For many small countries' magic universities, assembling a team of seed students who are all at the intermediate level is not an easy task.

Many small countries don't even have a single extraordinary mage, which shows how weak their mages are.

In this situation, how are they supposed to gather the necessary funds? How are they supposed to participate in this competition?

The disparity in national power in this world is as vast as the gap between the rich and the poor. The fact that 256 teams were able to participate in this year's competition is already a result of the continuous prosperity of the mage community.

Many of the participating teams were just there to make an appearance in the preliminary rounds; they couldn't even get into the main competition and didn't even qualify as participants.

Most of the teams that enter the main tournament of the Magic High School World League each year belong to those four major regions, with some lucky national teams that were assigned to weaker groups but whose own strength is still quite remarkable.

However, to advance further and reach the top 32, one basically needs either extremely good luck and be matched with a weak team at the bottom of the rankings, or a rare genius emerges and advances to a high-level mage.

By the time the round of 16 is reached, it can be said that it is already an internal battle between teams from the four major regions.

The strength of mages is just like the strength of technology; the major powers hold an unshakeable and overwhelming position, leading by a precipitous margin.

It's like how a few major powers could simply restrict the navigation functions of their satellites, and many small countries would immediately get lost in their own countries.

If they can't even figure out how to navigate their own home, let alone go abroad.

Then they'll have to take the map and really try to understand what the three great philosophies of life are.

Who the hell am I? Where the hell did I come from? Where the hell am I going?

Damn, I'm completely lost again!

This year's Magic High School World League is being held in America. Due to the time difference, people in China can only watch the live stream in the evening.

Therefore, many residents in China choose to watch the first half of the show live first, and then watch the remaining second half of the show recorded the next day.

Moreover, one advantage of pre-recorded broadcasts is that you can choose whichever match you want to watch, and you can even drag the progress bar.

Of course, there were also quite a few people who stayed up all night to watch the live stream.

Even more extreme, some people travel thousands of miles to Ami's competition venue to become a "live monster."

However, the ticket price for each event is not a small amount, even for the preliminary rounds.

When it came to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, tickets became incredibly valuable and extremely difficult to obtain.

What's even more infuriating is that these four matches will be played over four days, with tickets sold four times each.

Each battle is usually decided within half an hour.

Even more so, it only takes a few minutes.

After all, in a life-or-death battle between mages, the outcome is often decided in an instant, and a prolonged, intense battle is unlikely to occur.

Moreover, if the battle goes on for a long time, even if one's spirit can hold on, one's magic power will not be able to hold on, since it is not allowed to absorb magic crystals to replenish magic power during the competition.

The audience spent so much money and time just to watch the spectators tremble on the field, which was completely a waste of money.

It's better to spend a little money to watch it online.

Even so, many people are still eager for admission tickets, and there is a constant stream of people wanting to attend in person.

In addition, the competition lasts for two months. This year, in order to hold the matches after the quarterfinals one hundred years after the Magic Calendar, the competition has been extended by another month.

The expenses incurred by spectators during the event, including food, drink, and shopping, amount to a considerable sum.

Therefore, the economic value brought about by the Magic High School World League as a host city is quite considerable.

Of course, every advantage has its disadvantages. The host country of the event also needs to bear all the consequences caused by the influx of countless ordinary people and mages.

The most pressing concern is safety hazards.

Especially with so many people around, it's virtually impossible to defend against a mage who sneaks in and makes a move.

The number of people who die outside the competition venues each year is countless, but the number of students who fight desperately on the field is far greater.

This year, in particular, saw a vicious incident at the very beginning: the King of Hell, an organization from the underworld, attacked Chinese participants.

Although there were very few people near the battle site in Oran City because of a spatial rift that appeared two months ago, quite a few ordinary people and mages were still unfortunately caught in the crossfire and died in that extraordinary battle.

However, the fact that Yama, the King of Hell from the Underworld Organization, could infiltrate Oran City as casually as sneaking into his own toilet was a dereliction of duty on America's part, especially since the attackers were contestants.

Therefore, even if America's officials guessed that this was a sting operation by China, they could only accept it reluctantly.

They should even thank Huaxia Chaofan for killing the vicious King Yama of the Underworld, preventing them from causing even greater harm.

By the time the Chinese team arrived at the Oran Magic Hall, it was the last day for all the participating countries to gather.

After a short rest, the logistics staff brought over the match schedule for the first stage.

"According to the draw results, we have been placed in the third match of Group 26, which is the day after tomorrow at 11:00 AM, in Hall A2, to play against the team from Chennai University of Magic in India."

In the private lounge of Beijiang Magic University, Jiang Yue picked up the match schedule and carefully reviewed the rules before speaking to everyone.

"What?" Qi Xiaohao, who had just declared he would play, gritted his teeth in anger. "We're not playing tomorrow?"

Jiang Yue glanced at Qi Xiaohao, then looked at Wang Jiang, and said:

"It's good that he won't play tomorrow. It gives us time to adjust our mindset. Since we're going to play, let's play well. Wang Yi has made a huge contribution to getting us this far, so we can't let him down."

Wang Jiang understood Jiang Yue's meaning: the magic that the three of them could never have absorbed originally all originated from the human crystals provided by Wang Yi.

If they can't even make it into the main competition, it would be a huge disservice to Wang Yi's hard work.

After speaking, Jiang Yue, unusually stern, warned Qi Xiaohao, whose mentality had become unbalanced:

"Xiao Hao, you're a substitute player. If you want to play the day after tomorrow, that's fine, but this is a team game. You can't let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"You wouldn't want everyone to lose the game because of you, and to let Wang Yi's hard work go to waste, would you?"

Upon hearing this, a hint of bloodlust suddenly appeared in Qi Xiaohao's eyes.

"I know."