Matthew Atkinson
Oxford, United Kingdom
At this moment, Professor Holland's phone rang.
He took out his phone and glanced at it before saying, "We'll talk about the competition details for the fifth layer of the Supernatural Realm later. Now, everyone, come with me to the training grounds."
After his words, Professor Holland was the first to leave the classroom.
The other students followed suit.
At the same time, students from Class A and Class C also left their classrooms and headed towards the university training grounds.
Soon, all the students from the three classes gathered on the training grounds.
Most of the students were curious and wondered what the professor wanted to do by gathering them here.
Some clever ones guessed it might be related to the university's representative members.
As expected, once all the students had arrived, Ms. Isabel Grant, the professor from Class A, stood on the platform in the training grounds, facing them.
"Hello, students. I am the head coach of Class A, Professor Isabel Grant."
Professor Grant gave a brief self-introduction.
Actually, no introduction was needed. All the students already knew her.
"I've called everyone here because of the fifth layer of the supernatural realm. To provide information about the Oxford University Representative Team."
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.
The ten team members would definitely be ten students with relatively strong abilities.
There was absolutely no doubt that one of them would be Natalie Russell.
As for the other participants...
Following Natalie, someone might have just won the championship without lifting a finger.
Thinking of this, many students' eyes lit up, and their expressions showed eagerness to try.
Unexpectedly, Professor Grant pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a list here. This list is a list of participants that the managers have carefully considered and studied repeatedly."
Hearing this, many students who had their own ideas were quite disappointed.
At the same time, they cursed inwardly, "Since managers have already made the decision, why did she call everyone to the training grounds?"
Professor Grant ignored what the students were thinking and read the list aloud.
"Natalie Russell, Matthew Atkinson, Denis Read, Filip Walker, Lucian Richards, Karina Pearce, Bobby Burns, Charles Francis, Sam Harris, Emma Jackson."
"Students whose names are called, please step forward and come to the stage."
Ten students stepped forward, walked onto the stage, and stood in a row.
After taking a look, everyone discovered that among the ten students, seven were from Class A, three were from Class B, and Matthew was among them.
As for Class C...
Not a single one of them was from Class C.
The professor from Class C looked very unhappy.
In previous years, the University of Oxford would give special consideration to Class C in the fifth layer of the supernatural realm for freshmen, allocating one or two spots.
This year was even worse. They hadn't given out a single spot.
Of course, the professor in Class C also understood the university managers' thinking behind doing so.
The only reason was that the University of Oxford had Natalie Russell this year, who has a high chance of winning the championship, so they didn't want any surprises and chose the best student.
...
"These ten students are just the initial list of participants."
Professor Grant added, "If you are confident in your abilities, you can challenge any of these ten students in the next month. If you succeed, you can replace them and become a participant."
When these words were spoken, some very confident students' flame of hope was rekindled.
Their gazes began to sweep back and forth over the students, Matthew, Lucian Richards, Charles Francis, Sam Harris, Emma Jackson, and so on, assessing their strength and how likely they had a chance to win if they were to issue a challenge.
As for Natalie, even a fool wouldn't choose to challenge her.
Even the number of people who glanced at Matthew was relatively small.
After all, in everyone's view, although Matthew's ability was useless, his four SSS-grade mission results made him a top-tier student among the freshmen.
"Students who want to issue a challenge need to inform the professors beforehand."
Professor Grant then explained some of the challenge rules.
"To be fair, each of you will only have one chance to challenge someone, so choose your opponent carefully. Once you lose, you will not be able to challenge anyone else."
"Also, you can't all gather together and choose to challenge one person. Our university cannot tolerate tactics based on numerical superiority, which involve exhausting the opponent and then winning. So, each registered participant will only accept two challenges per day."
The students nodded in agreement.
This arrangement was indeed fairer.
Otherwise, even Natalie Russell wouldn't be able to withstand the relentless challenges. Well… Most likely… Probably… Maybe?
She had killed over 2 million avatars in that fourth layer. They didn't know what she could do, and they didn't want to find out.
"If there are no other issues, let's call it a day."
Professor Grant said something, then turned to the ten people and said, "You, come with me."
She led ten people to her office and then announced a benefit.
"This year, with Natalie Russell on our team at the University of Oxford, our chances of winning the championship are extremely high."
Upon hearing this, the students were very excited, and all looked at Natalie.
The girl, however, looked towards Matthew.
Whether Oxford University would win the championship depended entirely on Matthew. And she was the only one who knew.
"Your professor should have just told you that the freshmen who are part of the champion team will receive a reward of 100 attribute points, and even other invited supernaturals can get a reward of 20 attribute points."
"Don't underestimate these 20 points. Once the news gets out, it will attract countless supernatural individuals."
"Our University of Oxford currently has 157 freshmen, and there are 143 places left. The university plans to allocate 20 places to the participants this time, which means you."
"Therefore, each of you has two slots, which can be used to invite any two supernatural individuals to come to our University of Oxford on the 1st day of next month and enter the Supernatural Realm together."
"This is a benefit the university gives you, so you can use it to do favors."
Upon hearing this, the students' eyes lit up.
However, Professor Grant promptly poured cold water on the idea. "If you want to secure these two spots, then you must work hard and make sure you don't lose your place in the team in the next month."
"If you are challenged and lose your participation, then you will lose both of your spots, understand?"
Everyone replied, "Understood."
Only Matthew and Natalie remained silent.
Professor Grant didn't mind and reminded everyone, "By the way, you should keep the information about these two spots to yourselves. Don't go around talking about it. If you do, it will not be good for you. Do you understand what I mean?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
If other students knew that the contestants had two invitation slots, it would definitely ignite their competitive spirit.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.131: Challenge Modes of Fifth Layer
Ch.132: First Day of October
Ch.133: Deciding on the Team Captain