Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 208: Enemies at Every Corner

After the three hunters from England came another few countries' representatives, but none garnered such applause from the crowd until the seventeenth country to show up, Norway, captained by Charles Murphy.

The entire crowd surged in uproarious cheer, so loud that the hunters backstage were all vibrating.
Over half the crowd was from Norway, explaining the intensity of the cheering.
After all, they were all in Norway, and Norway's competitors would have the upper hand in their own land.
As a result, many hunters viewed Norway as the favorite to win the championship.

Charles Murphy was dressed in pure white, a flag draped over his shoulders, his face filled with confidence.
His teammates all seemed to puff up upon feeling the crowd's attention.

“So that's our main competitor, is he?” Chu Feng murmured, competitive intent rising in his tone.

“I heard he's long since capped out his gene fragments and has been waiting in the first realm for over a year specifically for the Void Cup.
I'm sure he's well prepared for it, so be careful if you do meet him,” Su Feng reminded him.

“Ha—so what? Does he have any limit fragments?” Chu Feng retorted.
Indeed, the most that regular hunters could do in the first realm was to cap out their superior gene fragments, but he, who had consumed Potion #1, now had 160 basic gene fragments, a wide gulf that no other competitor could overcome.

Although Charles Murphy might somehow have been able to obtain limit fragments of his own, he certainly wouldn't be able to discover Potion #1 within such a short period of time.

“Are you certain? There's been a recent research paper regarding these limit fragments from northern Europe, and it seems as though they may have hit on a method.
Whatever the case may be, don't let your guard down.
Our goal is to have everyone advance to the final, galaxywide stage—don't let them beat you in the individual rounds,” Su Feng warned again.

The worldwide stage consisted of both individual and team-based rounds: the participating hunters would represent both themselves and their countries.
As long as they were strong enough, every member from a given country were eligible to advance.

“With Zhang Lie and Team Zenith around, do you think we'll have anything to fear?” Chu Feng chuckled.

Su Feng turned to Zhang Lie, a confident expression on his face.

The crowd's cheering never stopped after the Norwegian team passed through, but no other team managed to rouse them to as loud an extent, not until Zhang Lie stepped forward with Team Zenith.

“Everyone, next up, one of the favorites to win the worldwide stage of the Void Cup this year, the Chinese representatives! They're led by the famed hunter everyone's heard so much about recently—the Dragonwolf Zhang Lie! Behind him is his team, Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, Sun Xiaowu, Zhou Ying, Li Feng; along with scions from two of China's major clans, Chu Feng and Yun Bing!”

The announcers heaped countless praises on Zhang Lie as he walked past the stage, but the hunters gathered around the stage already knew all about him.
Even before the announcers pointed to him, cheers and shrill screams were already spreading throughout the crowd.

“Dragonwolf Zhang Lie, Team Zenith!”

“Dragonwolf Zhang Lie, Team Zenith!”

Wave after wave of screams erupted, so loud they drowned out even the announcers.
The entire stage seemed like a volcano about to erupt.

Zhang Lie had anticipated the possibility of having overseas friends, but he didn't expect such a grand reception.
After all, most hunters would only cheer for representatives from their own country, never someone else's.

In truth, Zhang Lie had overlooked just how shocking his performance during the Kez invasion was, as well as the ramifications of his announcement of the existence of limit fragments.
Although foreign media had played his achievements down, hunters worldwide could understand and appreciate what he had done.

The audience's overwhelming support caused the members of Team Zenith to get nervous, but they seemed to get used to the commotion rapidly, smiling and waving as they walked across the stage.
Their names were shouted long after they returned backstage, and the members of Team Zenith, Sun Mengmeng, Fang Yi, Li Feng, Sun Xiaowu, and Zhou Ying, were now known worldwide.

Their heroic act of charging into a sea of Kez to save their captain had also been televised, but back then, they were nothing more than just a few blurry figures in a sea of Kez.
Now, however, was their chance to shine, their faces and appearance made known to one and all.

Long after the Chinese delegation left the stage, the crowd remained in a frenzy, causing the representatives of the countries immediately following China to feel rather awkward.
After all, the crowd was still chanting the names of the hunters of Team Zenith while they were on stage…

Each country's team took no more than a minute to walk across the stage, and the opening ceremony finished within two hours.
Next would be the individual preliminaries, in which those competitors trying to aim for the top would have to obtain as many points as they could.

There would be six one-on-one matches in all, with the winner gaining five points for every win, and the loser losing five.
Each additional win in a row would grant one additional point over the last; for instance, a fourth consecutive win would grant the winner eight (= 5 + 3) points.

The artificial intelligence assigning the matches would avoid pitting competitors from the same region against one another, and regardless of whether they won or lost, each competitor would fight in six matches, with a maximum of 45 points to be gained.

In the first round, none of the Chinese competitors met top competitors from other countries; most of their opponents hadn't even experienced a foundational breakthrough.
Compared to Zhang Lie and the others, they were a sorry sight to behold, and were quickly dispatched without much effort.

However, the crowds enjoyed watching such a dominating match, and much of their attention was focused on the Chinese team's individual successes.
That necessarily meant that some of the weaker challengers received less attention; some of the smaller matches were watched by no one but the families of the competitors themselves, causing the competitors to feel somewhat bitter toward Team Zenith.

After the end of the first match, there was a five-minute break before the second match, allowing injured competitors the opportunity to receive emergency treatment or to forfeit the next match preemptively. 

Except for particularly strong competitors like Zhang Lie and the rest of Team Zenith, the others were relatively well-matched, and quite a few competitors did decide to forfeit the next match so as to preserve the points that they had gained. 

Of course, Zhang Lie and the others would fight till the bitter end.
In the second match, they finally found decent opponents.
Zhang Lie was against England's Fred, whereas Sun Mengmeng was against England's Farrell.

The other hunters also faced stronger opponents than before; after all, the weaker ones were those who preferentially chose to forfeit after winning their first matches.
Chu Feng was unlucky enough to face Charles Murphy, whereas Yun Bing faced the team leader from a rather strong delegation of hunters.

The five minutes passed quickly, and the competitors for the second round stepped into a column of light and were teleported to their respective stages.
Fred appeared before him, dressed in garish red armor, with a cocky smile on his face.
“So you're Zhang Lie, the hunter everyone's been praising?”