These four Supernatural teams, after being eliminated from the competition, dropped nearly 300 Star Fragments. This was by far the largest yield of Star Fragments by the Astra Militarum. It also meant that these four teams had taken out at least a hundred participating teams before. But Sebastian was not surprised, as the units led by these four teams were all fast and agile. Once caught by them, it would be hard for any team to escape.
Sebastian took a moment to look at his points panel, and there was another change on it.
[ Participant: Sebastian ]
[ Planet: Planet Area 81 ]
[ Points: 425 ]
[ Ranking: 255,358 ]
"Squeezed into the top 300,000." Sebastian's face was calm.
The Astra Militarum's mobility was still not enough. The drones and fighters were fast, but the ground units couldn't keep up. Once they tried to advance aggressively, it was easy for the entire formation to expose its flaws and be charged by a powerful enemy.
But Sebastian wasn't worried; after all, for the entire group stage, there were five full days. Only less than half a day has passed now, so there is still plenty of time to collect points. And for the competition to be more intense, the venue was going to change over time by constantly shrinking.
The more you get to the end, there would be fewer and fewer teams left, but their strength would also become stronger. The probability of meeting would become greater. Eliminating a team now, at most, gets a few hundred points. But at the endgame, it might be several thousand. Even tens of thousands of points were possible.
"What kind of race has this contestant created? Is it so strong?"
"There is a team on the ground, and the machines in the air are so fearsome. With Air and Ground combined, this should also be a very powerful Level 2 Planetary Lord."
"Retreat, hurry up and retreat. It's not good to have this guy on your radar."
The contestants watching the battle on the side were communicating with each other and then got far away. They are afraid of being chased by the Astra Militarum.
But these teams were of average strength; it was estimated that the Star Fragments they would possess would not be many, so the Astra Militarum was simply too lazy to make a move.
"So many teams will leak our situation. I'm afraid that other teams will not dare to come over." Coleman frowned slightly and said.
"We can't stay in this place either; let's switch to the south," Lando suggested.
The others didn't object, so the Astra Militarum quickly moved to the city's southern zone, and an ambush was set up in a flatter place. Same as before, leaving out small fish while specifically looking for trouble with those powerful teams.
A team of over 50,000 Goblin Chiefs passed by, and the Astra Militarum ambushed it as shells frantically bombarded the enemy position. For the Goblin Chiefs, they were all too familiar, so this was also one of their favorite targets. The Goblin Chiefs had a strong physique, but it wasn't powerful, nor was it slow or fast. There were no weaknesses, but no strengths either. Facing them, there was only one ending: being a living target.
From the Goblin Chiefs team, they got dozens more Star Fragments. After they eliminated the Goblin Chief, another team passed by this place unprepared. After they eliminated the team, the Astra Militarum did not move towards the east this time; instead, they returned to the city again.
In the middle of this vast city, there could be at least hundreds of teams still existing. Many teams were frantically fighting each other to kill, and there were also many teams who were on the sidelines, ready to reap the benefits.
The Astra Militarum relied on the advantage of the drones to gain information, so Lando had an enormous appetite this time. He wanted to take out these teams all at once, so they deliberated a well-thought-out plan, which involved toxic smoke being ignited around the city.
This toxic smoke was not that potent; however, the participating team was cautious, so they didn't take the chance. All of them ran towards the open space where there was no poisonous smoke, but this was also the ambush site.
This time, the Astra Militarum was in full firepower as they sent another 50 UAVs out. 80 UAVs, plus the 30 Typhoons, were turning this once-empty square into a giant cemetery.
Under the overwhelming firepower, within a minute, the ground was piled up with the corpses of various creatures. The rest hurriedly fled and scurried around in a panic. There were millions of supernatural creatures, so it was impossible to chase and kill them all; they only chose the strong ones among them.
The surrounding tall buildings had become the best helpers, as with the help of these buildings, the Astra Militarum laid out a simple encirclement. As long as the entrances and exits were fortified, they could make it difficult for the enemy that came in to get out. Even though the number was very large each time, it could only accommodate a few. The enemy also felt stupefied, as there was a team that was so bold. On their own, they dared to surround and ambush them in such a manner. The siege lasted until evening, and when it ended, only some weak teams remained. The Astra Militarum were exhausted, so they simply let them go.
Corpses were all over the place, and blood formed into a river. The participants were angry and gritted their teeth, but there was nothing much they could do. They could only watch as the unit they had built was slaughtered. Finally, they decided it was time to quit. This battle brought thousands of points to Sebastian, and his ranking also surged into the top 50,000.
The competition planet has the same time as the outside world, so it was also dark. After all, some contestants build races for the dark to be more powerful. But the difference with the outside world was that the darkness here only lasted for four hours.
Lando and Coleman also did not dare to be careless, so they found a place with good terrain to reorganize and rest. It didn't matter if the Supernatural didn't eat or drink for a day; the Astra Militarum were ordinary people, and this could not be done.
Because the city was emptied by the Astra Militarum, there was not much danger, but the other cities were not quite the same. At night, more battles would break out. Night was the best time for raids; so many teams took advantage of this rare time of darkness and launched an attack against other teams.
The night passed. By the time the Astra Militarum finished resting and reorganizing, another 100,000 contestants were eliminated from the competition. Looking at the fewer than 300,000 contestants left, Sebastian couldn't help but lament. These four hours of darkness became a nightmare for many.
After some deliberation, the Astra Militarum headed towards the east. To the east, there was another much larger city. Here, the terrain was more complex, and there were also more teams.
Through the surveillance of the drone, they could see that teams were fighting. There were quite a few supernatural creatures hidden inside the water. Not only in the water, but also in the air. There were also many unknown creatures hovering around, but all this rarely escaped the detection of the micro drones.
"In this city, there are at least thousands of teams." Lando raised his eyebrows slightly.
"It's much bigger than our previous city, and there are all kinds of terrains. Those who fly in the sky and those who swim in the water can find a place." Coleman also nodded.
"If we want to obtain as many Star Fragments as possible, this is the best place to do so," Lando said with slightly narrowed eyes. There was no doubt; the next target was this vast city.
"Avoid the waters as much as possible, and don't clash with the airborne supernatural groups either. Look for the ground-based Supernatural teams first."
The strategy was clear. Before the war, they made a lot of response guidelines. The Supernatural race in the water was given up because they didn't carry torpedoes and other underwater weapons.
Sebastian was also aware that the number of Supernatural teams underwater could not be large, so there was no need to prepare for this. As long as the ground ones were taken care of, there were numerous points. Just as soon as they entered the edge of the city, there was a small, but fast, white bird swooping over.
"Lightning Pigeon?" Sebastian recognized the type of this extremely fast bird. Its combat power was not strong, but its speed was amazingly fast. Its role was similar to that of the drone, which is mainly used for reconnaissance.
A man's voice rang in Sebastian's ears and said, "My friend, don't get me wrong. I'm not here to test you."
"Who are you?" Sebastian asked.
"My unit is in the city, but I do not intend to participate in the struggle." The voice responded, "Have you seen my Lightning Pigeon? This is the unit I created. It's not that strong, but it's good at detection. Friend, if you want to join the fight for this city, I suggest you buy a copy of the information from me. It can make you more aware of the situation in this city."
"Intelligence?" Sebastian couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He was somewhat speechless that there was intelligence for sale.
"How many fragments for one intelligence?" Sebastian asked.
"Depends on what kind of information you need, my friend. But as soon as I came here, there was all kinds of information. The more valuable it is, the higher the price!" The voice responded.
"In this city, what are the more powerful teams?" Sebastian asked.
"This information, I can disclose it for free." The voice said, "There are no Peak Level 2 Planetary Lords here, but there are very few such powerful characters. All of them will qualify for the group stage, but some teams are weaker than the average Level 2 Planetary Lord. But for exactly how much, it would have to be purchased with Star Fragments."
"Yes, I need this information. As long as it satisfies me, the Star Fragments are naturally no problem." Sebastian said.
"Good." The voice suddenly perked up and said, "I have detailed intelligence of the top 50 teams in this city for 30 Star Fragments!"
"20!" Sebastian counter-offered immediately.
"Okay, 20 it is." The voice thought for a moment and agreed.
The transaction process was simple. The Astra Militarum threw 20 Star Fragments to the Lightning Pigeon in the sky, and then the Lightning Pigeon threw down a piece of information. It was a map marked with a large group of red dots; there were 50 of them in total. These 50 red dots were the teams at the top of the rankings.
Through the detection of the drone, Lando and Coleman suddenly discovered that these teams seemed to have discussed and walked towards the other teams to kill them.
"They're ..." Lando thought for a moment and said, "Taking care of the other weaker teams first!"
Coleman nodded and said, "Eliminate the weak ones first, and then the strong ones will compete with each other!"
"Then let's wait first; there's no rush." Lando discussed it with a few more people.
A decision was soon made that was to find a hidden area and watch on the sidelines as the top dogs fight it out. They wait for the top-ranked team to take care of the other teams and then step in to deal with them.
"Next is the hard battle." Lando exhaled and said.
As time passed, they eliminated more and more contestants. Although they didn't get a single Star Fragment, their ranking was steadily rising instead. By the time the night came, they ranked in the top 150,000. But at this time, the remaining contestants were also only a little over 150,000, so Sebastian was at the bottom of the pile.
At the mountain of the Templar Order, Tonino reappeared. At a glance, he saw the black-clothed young man waiting on the side.
When he saw Tonino being eliminated, he immediately said, "You've finally been eliminated. I thought you were going to go into the top 100,000."
"You thought too much." Tonino breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, "It's good to squeeze into the top 150,000. How can I compete with those who have been building planets for decades and centuries?"
"My prediction was correct; your grades are similar to those of Sebastian." The young man in black said.
"Has Sebastian been eliminated as well?" Tonino couldn't help but ask.
"Not yet, but..." The black-clothed youth paused for a moment and said, "It's almost time. His ranking is at the bottom of that group of his, so he is probably struggling to hold on now."
Outside the Federation, in the Empire's capital city, a tall and slim figure appeared. It was the owner of this palace, Princess Elu.
At this moment, Princess Elu was unhappy, and the servants around her hastened to bow their heads respectfully. Only the old, Bis, held back his laughter.
Princess Elu beamed and huffed, "What bad luck, to run into a powerful person who has created units of land and air; otherwise, my ranking... I could move up a bit more, and there was no problem squeezing into the top 100,000!"