Things often change so suddenly, as if this explosive news finally reminded the organizers of the tournament that the format of the second round of the preliminary round has not yet been announced. Early the next morning after the sky-high contract incident, Zal received a notice from the "Crystal Cloud Bridge" and went to the Blood Gladiatorial Arena with Casavallon.

The old butler seemed a little surprised by this unforeseen notice. Because the rush of time aside, even if the draw starts to group groups on the spot, the gladiator himself is generally not allowed to participate with his patrons. So after meeting up with Zhar, they rushed over as soon as possible, and it turned out that they were not the only ones who felt strange, dozens of carriages of different styles had already rushed ahead of them, and they had parked the gates of the gladiatorial arena.

Glancing at each other in a slightly stunned manner, Zar and Casavalong did not stop, and rushed directly towards the Colosseum affairs hall. Before they could reach the venue, however, they heard distant voices in the passageway, and Salile, the arbitrator standing at the door of the hall, who seemed to be waiting for him.

The arbitrator saw the light in the eyes of the two of them, and immediately greeted them. "For the sake of the Lord God, you're finally here," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead, "I'm still worried about whether the notice will be delivered to the 'Crystal Cloud Bridge' in time." ”

Casavaloon was stunned and looked at Salile a little strangely. "Why, have the rest of the Colosseum arrived?" he said.

Saliret nodded. "The more than 20 gladiatorial arenas that won the first round have basically arrived, and it is estimated that it will not be long before the schedule will be officially announced. As he spoke, he and Casavalon greeted another gladiatorial arena owner who had walked by.

However, Zar was a little surprised by the number of people present. "How can there be so many?" he asked. "Only the last 100 gladiators are involved in the preliminary round, right?"

Casavalon explained normally. "It's really the last hundred, but according to the rules of patrons, no matter how big or small the gladiatorial arena is. Each sponsor has to sign at least one Gladiator," he said, "and in doing so, it can balance out the skew of resources." ”

"Yes," Salire said, "otherwise, all of them would have sought after the top gladiators." The contestants behind will not be able to compete with them. And even so, there are many people who have not found their own sponsors. He spread his palms a little helplessly.

Zal listened, not showing much of an opinion on this. After all, the living environment on the "conviction platform" itself is the law of the jungle, so how can you expect that the "blood arena" in this environment will be fair? This is completely unrealistic.

Pulling the conversation away from the subject, Casavaloon asked. "By the way, do you hear any wind about the schedule?" he asked. "This notice is a bit too hasty, isn't it?"

Salirey shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, Mr. Casavalon," the arbitrator also had a puzzled look on his face, "Actually, as a member of the tournament staff, I was only notified last night that I was going to hold a meeting today, let alone the specifics. ”

He sighed solemnly. Casavalon didn't say anything more, but Zal could feel it. The old man expressed concern about the impromptu rally. In fact, you don't need to think about it to know that since all the contestants and sponsors are summoned so suddenly, things can't be simple at all. The question is simply how amazing the published results will be.

After a few more words, they stopped talking and walked directly into the affairs hall. It's like it's been agreed in advance. As soon as Zal and Casavaron appeared, the already noisy voices in the hall suddenly disappeared without a trace, as if they had received some kind of hint.

All that remained was one or two whispers that couldn't have been lowered, and countless stares that were projected. These eyes only lingered on the old butler for a moment, and then all turned to Zhal. There is envy, there is jealousy, there is contempt, there is hostility...... They are complex expressions of all sorts of familiarities. Or strange emotions, but they all have one thing in common, they want to make a fool of Zar, and the gaze of everyone is enough to make an unknown gladiator nervous.

But what everyone didn't expect was that almost instantly, Zar had the most standard smile that made it impossible to find any problems, which was an instinct hidden deep in his blood - as a true crown prince, no one knew how to deal with these things better than him.

The momentary distraction bloomed in the eyes of everyone, as if they didn't expect that the other party would have such a perfect performance, so they turned their eyes away in embarrassment.

With a slight cough, the corners of the old butler's mouth raised into a smile, and after greeting several familiar gladiatorial ring owners, he and Zal found a relatively quiet place to stand. After a few moments, the ripples that had smashed into the pond dissipated, and the boiling voices returned to the hall, as if the silence had just appeared was a fleeting illusion, and had never really happened.

"Look at the suffocating hostility...... It's like a piercing steel knife, scraping your skin over and over again, making your hairs stand on end!" hahaha......" The old butler's face kept the most elegant smile, greeting those glances, and as long as he touched it, he would nod his head with the most respect.

I don't know if it was an illusion or how, Zal found that the old man's gaze was getting brighter and brighter, like the morning sun piercing the mist, and the wrinkles carved on his cheeks were stretched, filled with the heat flowing under the skin and the majesty that had settled in the years.

"You seem to look much younger, my sir. Zal was largely unrelieving of those gazes, in fact he had been so familiar with them since he was younger. Moreover, the nobles of those kingdoms behaved more "professionally", they only laughed, the mildest laugh, and as for the meaning of this, you can only tell for yourself.

Casavalon, stunned for a moment, nodded without denial. "Young? Oh...... I love the word, yes, young!" He took a deep breath and straightened his waist even further. "For the sake of the Lord God, I don't need respect, respect only makes me realize. No one regards me as an opponent or an enemy anymore......"

He winked at Zhal. "What I need is hostility! Only hostility can keep me on my toes, so that I can always know that I am still alive in this murderous world! Ha, it's good to be young!" he said and nodded to Zal. "You're impressing, Zal, not everyone can stand here so calmly, like ......"

The old butler said, with a good-natured smile, and looked at Salile next to him with Zhal, well, the arbitrator was about to collapse at this time. "Don't mention me. Dear Sir!" Salir smiled bitterly and glared at Zar with feigned anger, "Because of you're a 'big star', I'm going to be an outlier among the arbitrators!" he sighed helplessly. "I didn't want to be in the limelight, and it would be nice if I could keep a low profile......"

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to do that. Zal spread his palms, seemingly dissatisfied with his popularity. But his movements, in the eyes of Casavalon and Salile, did not mean it at all. They held back a smile. Immediately expressed the greatest dissatisfaction with the "falsehood" of Zal.

At this moment, a noise from the door attracted the attention of everyone in the hall, and a middle-aged wood elf was escorted by the Black Blade Guard into the affairs hall. "It's coming. Salir whispered to Zal and turned his gaze over.

The atmosphere in the room was instantly quiet, under the gaze of everyone. The Wood Elf stood at the front of the hall, swept his eyes around, cleared his throat and said, "First of all, I'm very sorry, dear gentlemen. You have been summoned here in such a hurry. On behalf of the Blood Gladiatorial Arena and Your Excellency the Archon, I would like to express my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused......" He bowed and quickly straightened up amid a few polite words from below.

"I think you should be very clear about the purpose of this rally, so let's get straight to the point, which I believe is something that is very close to all of you. He paused, and raised two fingers in the slightly concerned gaze of the crowd. "The schedule for the second round of the preliminary round of this Arena will be a little different from previous years, and all the matches will be compressed into two, and all will be held in the Blood Arena......"

Before he could finish speaking, the gladiatorial arena bosses and gladiators below had already exploded, and one question after another was thrown out.

"What does that mean?......?"

"yes, why in the Blood Gladiatorial Arena?"

"Hell, what kind of schedule is this, whose idea was this?"

“......”

"Quiet!" the roar of the Black Blade Guard quickly suppressed everyone's dissatisfaction, and the Wood Elf continued unhurriedly: "The meaning of the two games is very simple, that is, the shortlisted gladiators will be divided into two groups by drawing lots, and each group will have a melee of more than twenty people in the Blood Gladiatorial Arena!

As soon as he finished speaking, the noise below became louder.

"Who is responsible for the interests of our gladiatorial arena for such a schedule?!"

"That's right! All the remaining games of the preliminary round will be cancelled, and our income will be greatly reduced, and what about the promotion expenses that have already been spent? It's really easy for you to do this, do you want us to go bankrupt directly!"

"Also, how do you decide the winner of the two scuffles, and how many places are there?"

“......”

The Wood Elf raised its arm in a reassuring motion. "These are these questions, Lord Archon has already thought of them, otherwise it would not have been delayed for so long before they were announced to you!" he said, "The ticket revenue of these two games, as well as the gambling revenue, will all be taken out of the Blood Gladiatorial Arena and divided equally among the participating gladiatorial arenas." In addition, all gladiatorial arenas will receive a very considerable compensation according to the size of the arena as a loss of promotion costs. ”

The gladiatorial arena bosses below listened to the words of the wood elves and gradually fell silent. To be honest, since someone pays to make up for the loss, for them, it is nothing more than a change of venue, and they don't even have to worry about the maintenance cost after the game.

The Wood Elf seemed to have anticipated such a scenario, so he smiled and continued. "As for the judging of the winners, since it is a scuffle, then of course it is the last person to stand on the field! Is there anything incomprehensible about this?" he said as a matter of course, "the quota, three people per game, a total of six gladiators, enter the next round, along with the top 100 contestants." Start the preliminaries of the competition......"

Before he could finish speaking, the Wood Elf's words were interrupted again, but this time it was the gladiators who actually participated in the competition.

"Someone has paid for the gladiatorial arena, so what about us? Our weekly salary, our share, you don't care!"

"That's right! To hell with the three people left in the end? Whoever wants to die will go, and Lao Tzu will definitely not participate!"

"That's what it means, when we're fools or deadly fools!"

"Six places! Do you think promotion is more important than life?

“......”

"Of course not!" the Wood Elf roared, "In order to make this 'Blood Arena' the most successful ever, Lord Archon will definitely not treat the gladiators who actually participate in the tournament badly!" he emphasized loudly, "If you feel the danger on the field, if you don't want to fight, just throw the 'Participation Nameplate' on the ground and stand on the sidelines to abstain!"

"As for your money!" he said. He turned his head to look in the direction of the doorway.

"Bring in!" As he spoke, five large wooden boxes with brass trim were carried in from the outside by the Blackblade Guards and placed on the ground with a clatter. "All your money is here!" the Wood Elf said, kicking the lid of one of the crates open.

I heard a sound of metal grinding like mercury pouring out of the box, and in an instant, everyone in the room. They were all stunned, and only the golden light was left in their eyes.

"Cash. Fifty thousand silver platforms!Fifty people!" the wood elves sneered and swept across the gladiators' faces, and a gasp filled the entire business hall. Not to mention gladiators, even the owners of many gladiatorial arenas have never seen so much cash. "As long as you participate in this game, you can get a thousand silver tables of appearance fees! Even if you abstain halfway, this money is yours!"

The gladiators' eyes lit up instantly. For them, the price of this thousand silver platforms is really a huge amount of money. Many gladiators who didn't even expect to make it to the preliminary stage couldn't even earn that amount in just a few matches in the preliminary round.

But the surprises brought to them by the wood elves did not end there. "Besides!" he said, startling everyone. Is there anything else?!"Besides!If you fight well, if you make the cut!As the winner of the melee, you will receive a full five thousand silver tables!Five thousand!" He jerked up his voice, stretched his palms apart, and lifted them into the air!

"Lord God, what you said is true?!" asked many gladiators, who even didn't believe their ears.

"It's true!" the Wood Elf smiled, "In the words of the Archon, this year's 'Blood Arena' should not only make the audience happy, but also make the bosses of the gladiatorial arena happy! The most important thing is that those gladiators who are really fighting on the field must be happy!" He kicked the heavy wooden box hard, "If you have the ability, you can take it! If you have the ability, these are all yours!"

"Fuck, I fucked it!"

"That's right! Let's go, where to sign up for the group!"

"Don't waste time, with these five thousand silver platforms, Lao Tzu can live happily for a long time! ha......"

All of a sudden, everyone laughed. Take the silver platform to open the way, the gladiatorial arena is not worried that no one will support it, the gladiators are not worried about running out of money to take it, as for the change of the schedule, well, you can change it as you want, this is really not a big deal.

However, Casavalon, who was standing in the corner, clenched his fists with a grim face, his body trembling slightly, as if all the air in his chest had been burned by anger. In fact, anyone who has some experience in combat will know very well that such a melee mode will minimize personal combat power. Because there are so many uncertainties involved, you may just take out the opponent in front of you, and you will be killed on the spot by a sudden sneak attack.

Taking a step back, even if you can dodge a sneak attack, how many opponents can you defeat alone? Five or ten? In such a scuffle, it is often not the strongest player who survives in the end, but they are kicked out of the game first. Because the longer such a person stays, the more dangerous it is for others.

"Zar ......," Salire said, patting Zar on the shoulder in comfort.

"It's fine. Zar smiled and shook his head, but remembered the word "funny" that Blazej had said, "If that's what you've done for me, it's really hard......" he whispered to himself. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you book friend Kiyojuro Yoshioka for the monthly pass, thank you, compass thank you.