"You guys can't be mistaken about this freshman, right?" A Level 6 Planetary Lord shook his head. It was unbelievable.
It wasn't just him; each of the other Planetary Lords also had a questioning look in their eyes. After all, the name seems to be quite common in their area, so it might be the same name.
"This... is indeed the new student of my school this year." The man in blue spoke, "It's also true that the one who is known as the strongest freshman in the Federation this year..."
They were a bit skeptical. To know, it had been less than half a year since he was promoted to a Level 2 Planetary Lord, so the diameter of the planet would not be over 3,000 kilometers at most, and the creature created was not yet fully formed, while those veteran Level 2 Planetary Lords were far beyond.
Even the top freshmen, Templar Order's Tonino and the Empire's Princess Elu, have difficulty squeezing into the top 100,000, but now they have been told that this Sebastian ranked in the top 2,000. There was a moment of silence in the room.
Then, an old man asked: "In the previous Group Star Competition, did any freshmen come out of the group stage and make it to the elimination rounds?"
"I don't know about that." Another replied.
"If this Sebastian can make it out of the group this year, then it would have made history."
"Yes, history is indeed made." Another nodded slightly.
"Let's see, it's not easy to say." The blue-clothed man's face was calm as he said, "There are only 100 spots for each group to come out, and the ones left are the best of Level 2 Planetary Lord, so the competition will be extremely intense."
Although each group was allocated more than one million participants, the number of places was only 100. It could be said that the further you get to the end, the more intense the competition.
By the fourth day, the competition field was further narrowed, making it impossible for the remaining teams to hide. However, none of them were weak, especially those few Peak Level 2 Planetary Lords. They all got tens of thousands of points and ranked at the top of this group. The Astra Militarum was also getting a bit of fame.
"I heard that this is the strongest freshman of the Federation this year?" Next to the Astra Militarum, a team was monitoring this side.
Behind the participants, a white-haired man was also observing. Although they were in a competition, everyone's communicators were still able to work, so the characteristics of the Astra Militarum were obvious. Soon, they all found out where the Astra Militarum came from.
"Having built two races, the Musketeer and Pilots, a freshman can actually rank in the top 2,000?" The white-haired man also felt a little incredible.
"Maybe it's just a matter of luck. How could a freshman be so strong!" The white-haired man had also lived for hundreds of years, and he had seen hundreds of freshmen, but never one as strong as Sebastian.
"Hmph, I don't believe that this freshman's true strength can be ranked in the top 2,000. Since I've run into it, then..." The corner of the white-haired man's mouth curled up in a smile, "You are unlucky."
The white-haired man felt that he was lucky to have met a fat sheep. Immediately, he organized his unit and charged towards the Astra Militarum. As a result, he couldn't even break through the defense and was wounded and killed. In the end, there was nothing suspenseful. The white-haired old man was shocked and angry, but he could only choose to admit defeat.
A large pile of Star Fragments fell on the ground, while several Giant Kong immediately ran over to pick them up. At a glance, there were at least several thousand, causing Sebastian's ranking to rise once again and climb to the top 1,000.
Over time, the Astra Militarum took out more opponents, allowing their fame to also increase. Now, the people in this group were aware that there was a freshman who went into the top 500. Some didn't believe it, so there were even more teams that came to challenge them, but all of them became points in the end.
When the fourth day ended, Sebastian's ranking had entered the top 200. And at this time, there were already less than 10,000 people in the group. This day, again, a large number of contestants were eliminated.
The fifth day and the last day of the group stage were the craziest times. Regardless of your strength, as long as you don't get enough points before the 8:00 pm deadline, then there is only one result: Eliminated. This made each of the lower-ranked contestants fully activated and attacking other teams at all costs.
The Astra Militarum sat steadily on the sidelines, and no active attack was made. But if someone came to have a problem with them, it was impossible to sit back and do nothing.
The Astra Militarum had now become a fat sheep in the eyes of many people, and many people were thinking of fishing for a reward from them. But like the one before them, they were defeated. The star fragments were unceremoniously collected by them.
By the time noon came, the number of Star Fragments obtained by the Astra Militarum had already exceeded 20,000. Even if they did not obtain any more Star Fragments, they were still locked in the top 100.
Sebastian looked at his own points panel at this point. Compared to the first day, there had been a huge change on it.
[ Participant: Sebastian ]
[ Planet: Planet Area 81 ]
[ Points: 20,312 ]
[ Ranking: 57 ]
But the Astra Militarum isn't to be careless; many contestants remain, and all of whom are very desperate.
Lando discussed it with Coleman and chose good terrain to make preparations for defense. After the previous battle, they felt that the opponent was getting stronger and the power in hand was gradually somewhat insufficient.
"The HEIAP round for some creatures is becoming weakened." Coleman said with a serious face: "I'm afraid we have to make early preparations to change for a new generation of that thing!"
"Let's talk about surviving this group stage first." Lando rubbed his brow and said with a headache: "The performance of the new weaponry is fine, the main problem is… the energy problem, otherwise it would have been mass-produced!"
An important point that limited the current Imperium technology was energy. The source of energy for all walks of life in the Imperium presently is oil and coal, while the Nuclear Fusion project is still in intense research and development. Although there had been significant progress, there was still a distance from the large-scale practical.
"If it doesn't work, let's use the missiles." Lando made the final decision.
For this time, the Astra Militarum had prepared a very large number of missiles, and they brought in a lot of them too. But the cost of missiles was much higher than the HEIAP round. If they used it all the time, the Imperium was going to run out of money before they could finish the group stage.
That's why, until now, the main reason the missiles had not been used was that the competition was still long and they couldn't use as much as possible. They need to wait until the critical moment and then use it.
The good thing was that after the morning fight, the Astra Militarum was infamous, so no one came over to challenge anymore. It was also impossible for the higher-ranked one to deal with you for no reason.
Time was passing slowly.
Sebastian saw one of the surrounding teams fighting each other like their lives depended on it. One after another was eliminated, and there were fewer than a thousand left. This last half day entered the most intense moment of the group stage, every remaining participant was the best of the best, so there was not much difference in strength between each other.
The fight was fierce. Some simply didn't care and were almost on the verge of wiping out the unit they built, but no one dared to mess with the Astra Militarum.
They were aware that the unit Sebastian built had extremely long-range firepower and set up under a defensive formation, so no one would be stupid enough to come over and challenge the formation.
Though the whole afternoon, the Astra Militarum didn't have a single battle, so their points had not moved, but the ranking was up by two more. This was because the team of participants ranked in the front was attacked by other teams and was eliminated. The Star Fragments fell by half, so the ranking also dropped.
Seven o'clock at night, close to eight o'clock, the fighting was still going on. There were still more than a hundred contestants left in the venue, and they were crazy. But it was already too late.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0!" Many of the spectators outside were shouting the countdown and waiting for the time to return to zero.
Inside the competition planet.
All the teams, whether they were fighting each other or the ones who were still, everything was transported out back to their respective planets. This also meant that the five-day group competition officially ended, and the final ranking of each group was also set.
Don't look at the number of people, because this was from Level 2 Planetary Lords with more than one billion in the entire Endless Star Territory, each one of them was the best of their Level. The quota occupied by the entire Federation was less than one tenth, and the Super-Tier Academies were even less.
Sebastian's ranking was also determined.
[ Participant: Sebastian ]
[ Planet: Planet Area No. 81 ]
[ Points: 30,312 ]
[ Ranking: 55 ]
A medium ranking. Sebastian wasn't surprised by this. If he used his full strength, he could rank higher. But it didn't mean much, so this was enough.
At the same time, for the people outside watching the battle, some were happy, and some were sad. The Super-Tier Academies didn't have any mood swings, as the group stage results were the same as they expected.
The old man in blue from Hope's Peak Academy was the same. Together with Sebastian, this year's Hope's Peak Academy had ten people who managed to get out of the group. It's barely satisfactory.
"This Sebastian obliterated his way into the next rounds?" Princess Elu quickly stared at Sebastian's ranking. It was still unbelievable, to this day.
"This should have created a new record for the Endless Star Territory, the strongest freshman in history, I'm afraid there's little doubt." Bis, said.
And in Prokopy and Clifford's villa, there was an uproar.
"Miracle! This is a miracle!" A school administrator said excitedly.
"I had predicted that Sebastian would be ranked in the top 100,000 at most, but I didn't expect... Surprisingly, he was still able to come out. This is good." An older teacher also laughed.
But not everyone was happy.
In Leonard's villa, a group of people were just half happy and half worried. The happy ones were that the Crown Prince was killing it in the group stage. He ranked first without a doubt and made it out of the line without a hitch. The sad thing is that it was not on their mind at all. Sebastian, who they thought would be eliminated, also killed his way into the next rounds.
"Is this Sebastian really that strong? This is the entire Endless Star Territory, the group stage where hundreds of the strongest Level 2 Planetary Lords have participated, and he was able to break out?" A trace of awe passed through a teacher's eyes.
"If Sebastian were in the same class as the Crown Prince, or even born two or three years earlier, then the Crown Prince would be in big trouble." Another teacher also said.
The others frowned, but no one spoke out against it. Even if they did not want to admit it, they knew that in the area of talent and this growth rate, the Crown Prince couldn't compare with Sebastian.
"There's no need to talk about this." Leonard waved his hand and said, "The group star competition doesn't care what talent or age you have; what is being compared is the current strength. Sebastian is good, but his ranking is only more than 50 in the group, and the Crown Prince is far above it. The elimination round will not go too far, you guys don't need to worry about him, and cheer for the Crown Prince!"
"That's right." The corners of Neville's mouth curled up into a smile, and he said, "In the entire Endless Star Territory, there are only 1,000 final winning spots, and most of the people in the group have no chance, even the first place in the group may be overturned, what is a mere Sebastian!"
And in the Clifford villa, 4 people had turned over the sky and were throwing things in the house everywhere. Their minds were full of joy.
"No matter what, no matter how far Sebastian can go, we have to go support him." Clifford took a deep breath.