Chapter 501: Officially Beginning! Zone 73!

The Global Genius Exchange Tournament's Peak Tournament Phase 1 qualifiers have a total of 1,000 competition zones.

Great Xia possesses zones 1 through 100. A few minutes before the match officially began, everyone received their own zone information.

"I'm in zone 24. What about you, Jingming?"

"Zone 73."

"Looks like we're not together, but that's fine too — that way there's one extra qualifying slot."

Virtual world, Lei Ting Wu Guan headquarters plaza.

After Su Qingli's pre-battle mobilization ended, none of the members of the Prodigy Training Camp left.

Instead, they gathered together, waiting together for the match to begin.

Xu Jingming's zone is zone 73, Lin Hui is in zone 24, and Xia Lan is in zone 62.

On the plaza, some trainees who were not in the same zone as Xu Jingming were secretly delighted.

Some trainees who were also in zone 73 were secretly groaning,

especially some trainees who were closer to Vice Hall Master Hu Jinyu.

They were even more worried whether Xu Jingming would deliberately make a move against them and eliminate them.

"Zone 73? I'm in zone 54. Looks like we won't meet in the Phase 1 qualifiers..."

Wang Dong's gaze flickered slightly.

It was true that Xu Jingming possessed seventh-tier combat power, but during this period he too had not been without progress.

This progress could even be said to be very great!

Suppressing Xu Jingming should be more than enough.

"Attention all contestants: the Global Genius Exchange Tournament's Peak Tournament Phase 1 will begin in 5 minutes.

Please confirm your equipment within these final 5 minutes. Once the match begins, equipment cannot be changed."

At this moment, a voice rang out in everyone's ears.

Swoosh—

The pre-selected equipment covered each person's body.

Xu Jingming wore a deep-black S-grade combat suit, combat boots on his feet, and a spatial ring on his hand.

The spatial ring held two pieces of equipment: the Flowing Cloud Golden Edge Spear and the Extreme Glare Thunder Ring.

Everything was no different from reality.

Except there were no energy bars, fresh water resources, or other supplies.

Because in the virtual world, these were not needed.

The equipment had long been confirmed; this was just the final confirmation.

Once the five minutes passed, when the time was about to reach exactly 9 PM international time, the countdown's voice echoed in everyone's ears.

"10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Teleport!"

The instant the countdown ended, all contestants of the Genius Tournament in the virtual world vanished from where they stood in an instant.

And on the plaza of Lei Ting Wu Guan's headquarters, only several dozen trainees remained — those whose age had already exceeded 27 and were thus unable to participate in the Genius Tournament.

However, they did not log off because of this; instead, they looked up at the sky.

Whoosh—

In the virtual world's sky, a giant leaderboard slowly unfurled.

At the top of the leaderboard were nine huge characters: "Peak Tournament Qualifier Rankings."

Below the characters, from 1 to 1,000, a total of 1,000 competition zones were divided.

Beneath each zone were densely packed names and point rankings.

The entire leaderboard was roughly 100 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide, recording all 1 billion participants of the Global Genius Exchange Tournament upon it.

This ensured that other people in the virtual world could discover changes in the point rankings on the leaderboard at the first moment.

"The rankings are out!"

"This leaderboard is truly stunning."

"Who says otherwise? Compared to previous Genius Tournaments, this one's scale is far too large."

"..."

Countless people watched this scene with expressions of shock.

This Genius Tournament, carried to this edition, is already the 21st edition.

Yet only this edition of the Genius Tournament has the most enormous scale.

"Hall Master Su, this Prodigy Tournament.

Your student Xu Jingming should be able to achieve a decent result and enter the top 32, right?"

On the ceremonial platform before Lei Ting Wu Guan's plaza, Vice Hall Master Hu Jinyu asked with a smiling face.

Seventh-tier combat power, in previous Prodigy Tournaments, was about enough to enter the top 32.

"Xu Jingming didn't tell me, but I estimate he probably won't stop at the top 32."

Su Qingli said lightly.

What she said was the truth. After Xu Jingming returned from the Kanda Wilderness Zone, he indeed had not told her his ultimate target ranking.

But based on her understanding of Xu Jingming, he was probably aiming for first place...

"Oh? Is that so? Then I must wait and see."

Vice Hall Master Hu Jinyu smiled lightly, then turned his head to look at Hearing Ling Shuang, whose figure was graceful, behind Su Qingli:

"Teacher Ling, Young Master Li Hao asked me to ask you whether you've received his invitation message."

"I received it, I just don't want to accept." Hearing Ling Shuang's red lips moved slightly as she said lightly.

In reality she couldn't avoid him fast enough, so in the virtual world she certainly wouldn't accept his friend invitation.

"So that's how it is. I understand."

A flicker of displeasure passed through Hu Jinyu's eyes, but it vanished just as quickly, and he gave a slight nod.

Then his entire figure vanished from the virtual world.

Su Qingli, Hearing Ling Shuang, and the others also logged off one after another.

Because there were too many contestants, the trials could only show rankings; there was no way to watch the contestants' live feeds.

There was no point in them staying here either — they could simply come back later to check the rankings.

In the virtual world, once the trials began, a thousand independent spaces were immediately opened up.

Each independent space was one arena, and each arena contained one million contestants.

Whoosh—

Xu Jingming's vision blurred, and when he came back to his senses, he was already inside Arena No. 73.

Crackle-crackle—

Blazing Doushen Shenlei surged forth, swirling around his body.

Only after guarding against any possible sudden attacks did Xu Jingming have a moment to take in his surroundings.

He was in a living room; looking out through the glass, skyscrapers filled the view outside.

Neon lights flickered in between — clearly this was a modern city environment.

"A city environment is complicated. Once someone deliberately hides, searching for them becomes quite a hassle…"

Xu Jingming murmured, looking at the smart bracer on his left wrist.

It displayed information such as arena, name, and points ranking.

'Name: Xu Jingming (Great Xia)

Arena: Arena No. 73

Points: 0

Ranking:

Time Remaining: 9 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes

Note: Killing one contestant grants 1 base point, plus half of the opponent's points.

Being killed means elimination.

The entire trial will last 10 days. After 10 days, the top 100 in points will advance to the second stage of the competition.

When the competition reaches its final day, the entire Arena No. 73 will gradually shrink…'