Thinking of this, Bai Ze patted Wu Feng's arm and said with a smile, "You don't have to be embarrassed. I've already found a good solution. After I take the stage, you can continue to cheer for me."
With that, Bai Ze picked up the bottle of water provided by the organizer, opened it up and took a sip. "I'll find someone else to expose our relationship."
Bai Ze smiled mysteriously after saying this.
It was Wu Feng's turn to be confused, his mind full of questions.
However, out of trust for his buddy, he didn't say anything.
At this moment, the students chosen for the first round of the competition had already taken their places.
They each stood in the various small arenas that had been segregated into a hundred meters in area, preparing for the first round of battle.
Through the school's software, Bai Ze learned that he would have to wait until the third batch of contestants before he was due to compete. He immediately found an excuse to go to the washroom.
Then, he took out the business card the butler had given him last time and gave the Jiang family's butler a call.
"Don't worry, Mr. Bai. I'll do what you've asked me to do at once!"
On the other end of the phone, the butler immediately agreed and hung up the phone.
Meanwhile, in the private discussion group for the Nine Academies Joint Examination at the betting platform.
Hundreds of gamblers who made a living by betting were having a heated discussion in the group. The competition would begin in five minutes, and when that time came, the platform would stop taking bets.
Therefore, these last five minutes were their chance to make a final decision.
"I'm afraid that the student named Bai Ze is a new force that can't be underestimated. It's very likely that he can make it to the top nine places in this competition. What do you think?"
"There's not much time left. Fuck, let's just throw in everything we've got."
"Don't be rash. It only takes one minute to place a bet. What's the rush?"
Just as everyone was in the midst of an intense discussion, one of the administrators named Jinmen suddenly appeared.
"Everyone, listen to me. I just found out that the group of people who were cheering for Bai Ze were all students from the same school. The one who was cheering the loudest was his good buddy."
"The support between buddies can't be used as a basis for judging strength. Don't be confused by this kind of thing! And according to my investigation, that guy won the championship of the mock competition at Maplewood Uno High purely out of good luck. At that time, a few fourth ring mages were fighting, and he was the third party who benefited from the chaos!"
The administrator's sudden disclosure of the news caused all the people hanging out in the group to explode.
"Fuck, I bet 1,000 on him ten minutes ago. I just wanted to try my luck. I have to delete it as soon as possible."
"It's highly improbable that a dark horse would appear under such circumstances. It's very likely that someone is trying to manipulate the situation and disrupt our information gathering. I think we should bet on Zheng Man, that fourth ring mage."
As time went by, the black market gamblers who had previously bet on Bai Ze withdrew their bets. As the news spread, the number of people who bet on Bai Ze gradually dropped from hundreds to two digits.
There were only a dozen or so people left who didn't believe it or didn't receive the news at all.
Moreover, because Bai Ze was only at the second ring realm, even if those people bet on him, they were only betting a few hundred bucks.
When the platform was about to stop taking bets, the prize pool money suddenly soared to more than 80 million.
Millions were placed on several popular contestants, and the dynamic odds on Bai Ze's side quickly rose to 1: 18.4.
Meanwhile, Bai Ze, who was sitting inside the arena, was paying close attention to the betting odds.
He waited until the final ten seconds, then quickly threw in all 100,000 bucks.
Bai Ze only heaved a sigh of relief when the betting interface turned gray.
He thought to himself, "The butler is really quick at handling matters."
In just a few minutes, he had influenced the judgment of so many people. Such efficiency was indeed true to the working style of the Jiang family, a top-class family in Maplewood City.
After Bai Ze was done placing his bet, he began to watch the competition in earnest.
Hundreds of students were fighting one-on-one in the arenas, and there were cameras from all angles that captured the scenes.
It made the battles that were quite mundane more exciting.
In addition, the broadcast director would sometimes interrupt the main screen to switch to the critical moments in other battles, so all the audience members enjoyed it.
Bai Ze's eyes swept over the students in the arenas.
Balls of magic of different colors exploded on the stage.
There were students who were proficient in lightning rules and could rely on their extremely fast casting speed to finish off their opponents easily.
Others who focused on cultivating defensive rules were enveloped by light shields and quickly neutralized their opponent's attacks. They would wait until the opponent's magic power was exhausted before defeating them.
In this vein, the battle tactics of the various styles shone brilliantly.
In order to advance, the students unleashed their magic rings one after another. Most of the students present had three magic rings around them.
There were very few second ring students. As for the higher level fourth ring students, out of the thousands of candidates, only less than 30 had reached this realm.
In about 20 minutes, hundreds of battles had been won.
Some candidates shouted in joy, while others looked disappointed or even burst into tears.
The first round of battles was already halfway through, and there were already more than two hundred students who had left the arena dejectedly.
Battles were cruel, and there would be no mercy shown simply because one didn't perform well or for other reasons.
"Next, let's invite the students of Maplewood Uno High to come on stage to draw lots!"
The organizer who controlled the proceedings of the competition spoke, and the students around Bai Ze immediately stood up.
"Let's go. It's our turn to go on stage!"
A smile appeared at the corner of Bai Ze's mouth, and he eagerly walked up to the stage.
Soon, those 130 students from Uno High who met the conditions to participate in Nine Academies Joint Examination had all drawn lots.
Bai Ze looked at the number engraved on one end of the wooden lot stick. There was a red 37 inscribed on it.
Before long, Wu Feng also walked over with an excited expression.
"I can only pray that the opponent I'll encounter later won't be too strong."
Seeing Wu Feng's apprehensive look, Bai Ze broke into laughter and said, "Don't count on any profound mystical arts. Just display your usual ability."
After a short while, the third batch of contestants had all drawn lots, and Bai Ze immediately came to the 37th arena.
The arena was only 100 square meters. If one left the arena or couldn't fight anymore, they would be considered defeated.
As this was an officially sanctioned competition, the contestants were strictly prohibited from using heavy-handed tactics.
At this moment, the judge had already arrived at the side of the arena.
The other contestant also arrived at the arena. The two of them simply nodded to each other and did not say anything.
"I hereby announce that the arena duels shall now begin!"
A clear whistle sounded in the distance, and the next moment, the mage standing not far away from Bai Ze immediately swung into action.
An earth-yellow light flickered around him, and three magic rings immediately appeared around him.
At this moment, Bai Ze felt an energy fluctuation under his feet. He did not dare to be careless and immediately deployed the Storm Thunder Flash to dart away from his current position.
Bang!
The floor shook, and Bai Ze's spiritual perception sensed a rock spike around two meters long had struck the place where he had been standing a few seconds ago. The tip of the rock spike was extremely sharp and could easily cut through skin and flesh!