This year's National Freshman Tournament had a total of 160 participating academies.
By 4 p.m., when the first round ended, half the schools had been eliminated.
The remaining half successfully advanced to the next round.
Martial Saint Academy was among the advancing teams.
The first day's matches came to a close.
The second round of the advancement tournament would begin the next day.
That night, after everyone returned to the hotel, the teachers and staff of Martial Saint Academy were overjoyed, surrounding Vincent Fox and the others with endless praise.
They had every reason to be happy!
In past years, Martial Saint Academy was always knocked out in the first round. They had never made it to the second round.
This year was the first time in the academy's history.
Naturally, the teachers were riding the wave of success.
When they returned to school later, the school board would surely commend them.
Riding this wave of excitement, the teachers all drank a little too much that night. Each one was completely drunk.
Thankfully, Vincent and the others had another match tomorrow.
Otherwise, the teachers would have dragged them into the drinking party too.
Back in his room, Vincent was just about to sleep when suddenly his phone buzzed.
It was a text message.
The sender was that same unknown number from earlier.
"Vincent, good luck tomorrow!"
Vincent paused for a moment.
Then, he immediately dialed the number.
He really wanted to know who this person was.
"The number you dialed is currently unavailable…"
Clearly, the sender had set their phone to block calls.
Vincent frowned, then sent a message back. "Who are you?"
The message showed "read," but no reply came.
Vincent waited for a while, then gave up.
Whoever it was, if they wouldn't pick up or reply, he might as well treat it as spam.
After that, Vincent washed up and lay in bed scrolling on his phone.
He opened his short video app and found that there were already tons of clips from today's matches.
He even came across his own battle.
It was the match against East Arts Academy, where he one-shotted everyone and achieved a clean pentakill.
That video had already hit over a hundred million views, with more than a million likes and over a hundred thousand comments.
"Holy crap! This kid's insane! Instant kills everywhere, straight up pentakill!"
"Martial Saint Academy, a trash school, since when did they have such talent?"
"Looks like Martial Saint Academy is finally turning things around this year."
"Damn Martial Saint Academy, I lost five grand betting against them. There goes this month's paycheck…"
"Hahaha, I bet 500 on Martial Saint to win at five-to-one odds. Clean two grand profit!"
Reading these comments, Vincent suddenly remembered that he himself had placed a bet on Martial Saint Academy in the first round.
It wasn't much.
Just 200,000.
He hadn't bet more because he was worried the betting site might be shady and try to cheat him.
Vincent immediately logged into the betting site and saw that his account now had over 900,000 credits (after the site's cut).
Without hesitation, he withdrew the money.
The site didn't scam him. In fact, it processed the transaction surprisingly quickly.
Half an hour later, Vincent received a text from his bank confirming that over 900,000 had been deposited into his personal account.
Combined with his previous balance, he now had close to two million on hand.
"Just a simple bet and my wealth has nearly doubled. No exaggeration to call this overnight fortune. No wonder gambling is so addictive," Vincent mused, then put down his phone.
Right now, what he truly sought was strength.
Money? As long as he had enough to spend, that was fine.
Anything more was just numbers.
So, Vincent wasn't about to get addicted to gambling.
The next day, at 9 a.m., the second-round elimination matches began.
"Will all team captains please come forward to draw lots for their next opponents!" the host announced loudly.
Autumn Summer stepped up to draw along with the other team captains.
A few moments later, the matchups were announced.
Eastgate University vs. Karlan Academy.
Scarlet Dawn Academy vs. Goldridge University.
Blue Wing Academy vs. Regal Academy.
Martial God Academy vs. Martial Saint Academy…
When the draw results were posted, the crowd instantly exploded with chatter.
"Whoa, Blue Wing Academy has to face Regal Academy in round two? Their luck is seriously awful!"
"Yeah, Blue Wing's freshmen this year are actually pretty strong. They could've made top ten, but now they're up against Regal Academy in the second round…"
"Is Regal Academy really that strong?"
"Of course! Regal is almost on par with Martial God Academy. Both are among the top schools in the country, even if Regal isn't as flashy as Martial God."
"Speaking of Martial God Academy, their opponent seems to be that Martial Saint Academy the one with the pentakill mid-laner."
"Hahaha, Martial Saint Academy is done for. I bet their school board's hearts sank when they saw the draw."
"Not necessarily. I heard Martial God Academy lost two of their top players in Forbidden Zone #3 this year, so they're not as strong as usual."
"Even with losses, Martial God Academy is still the nation's top school with deep resources. Martial Saint Academy can't compare."
"Hah, this is great. That cocky pentakill kid from last round is about to get taught a lesson by Martial God Academy!"
"Didn't expect Martial Saint's luck to be this bad. Just like Blue Wing. What a shame…"
"Match is about to start. Let's watch!"
Countless spectators continued to buzz with discussion.
Meanwhile, the teachers and leaders from Martial Saint Academy all turned pale when they saw the draw results, their hopes crushed.
"How… how could we be this unlucky? We drew Martial God Academy in round two?!"
The head instructor's face was grim.
The other teachers looked equally distraught.
"We finally got two talented students this year. We actually had a shot at top ten. But now…"
"Sigh, poor Autumn. Her luck is just awful."
"Watch your words. If that gets back to her, it could really demoralize the kids."
"I mean, I have faith in our students, but against Martial God Academy… we probably won't make it past round two."
"It's such a rare opportunity this year. What a shame!"
As all kinds of pessimistic remarks filled the air, Terry Yan sat in silence, his brows furrowed, his face darkening.
Instinctively, his gaze shifted toward Martial God Academy's section.
There, he saw Walter Wayne.
Walter was looking back at him with a smug, triumphant grin and a challenging glint in his eyes.
The expression of a man confident in his victory.