Chapter 61: The So-Called Drive Tigers to Devour Wolves
The moment team numbers were revealed, Tilia felt no fewer than ten gazes fall on her. Tracing their sources, she found that those who had looked at her had already turned away, except for Erin, who kept staring at the number above her head with an unending cold smile.
Obviously, more than just Erin’s team had targeted her. The instant the numbers appeared, at least five teams had prioritized confirming her team’s number. Their intentions were clear.
Setting aside professional balance, all the teams present had four or more members, and everyone was unfamiliar with each other’s tactics and strategies. Under these circumstances, actively pursuing others would be more of a gamble—a high-risk move.
Everyone wanted to pick on the soft target. Among teams of four or five, Dilin’s two-person team was like a walking experience pack that these hungry wolves had set their sights on.
A newly awakened God Princess and a seemingly dim-witted God Child—who wouldn’t want to take a bite of this walking chunk of meat?
Even teams without plans to pursue Tilia had to confirm her number. What if they happened to run into her?
Tilia’s beauty had burned the eyes of everyone present. Though they all kept their thoughts hidden and acted secretively, only Erin displayed her hostility toward Tilia so blatantly. Her naked gaze practically had “I’ll be the first to cut you down once we’re in the secret realm!” written on her face.
Tilia responded to Erin’s provocation with a polite smile and looked up at Erin’s team number.
Number 57.
Ha, you little bitch, what are you pretending for?
The petty Erin contemptuously interpreted Tilia’s smile as hypocrisy and submission.
It was too late to surrender to her now. Once they entered the secret realm, she would make Tilia clearly understand exactly who she had provoked.
The identity tokens completed their connection. Accompanied by spatial distortion, time-space whirlpools that didn’t belong to the main plane rolled like tumbling waves, one stronger than the last, finally evolving into a tsunami of raging fury.
Anything involving space and time was undoubtedly the domain of absolute superiors—powerful beings no longer in this world. Like this secret realm outside Coleman Forest, its creator’s name had long been erased by time.
Everyone knew the Crown Cup had officially begun.
Astrid’s expression remained unchanged, but her eyes held a barely perceptible seriousness. Felicia’s lips curved in a confident, effortless smile as she unconsciously glanced at Astrid.
John hurriedly checked whether he had brought everything he needed.
In the center of the crowd, Tilia raised her calm emerald eyes, letting the wind lift her wheat-colored golden hair.
“Time’s up, rising stars of Coleman Academy. I wish you immediate success and smooth sailing.” The gray-robed elder’s turbid, indifferent gaze swept over all the students present. “Finally, I leave you with Coleman Academy’s motto.”
“Only those who claim first place are remembered by history.”
White light obliterated their vision, enveloping the students amid their incredulous expressions.
Then all students felt as if they had become part of the white light, carried away by the engulfing radiance, swept out of the main plane into a completely unfamiliar space.
The shift between time and space causes the brain to form incorrect perceptions, resulting in dizziness and mental confusion.
This was also part of the test—examining students’ adaptability and recovery from abnormal mental states. The academy wouldn’t accept pretty but useless students who couldn’t even cross the threshold due to poor willpower.
Tilia wasn’t particularly affected. She just felt everything was blindingly white and couldn’t see anything. When she opened her eyes again, she was already in an unfamiliar forest.
Obviously, this wasn’t somewhere in Kalib—it was a completely independent secret realm.
Tilia had roughly read a book called “Secret Realm Theory,” which explained that the secret realms scattered throughout Kalib didn’t actually exist within Kalib. They were merely entrances in Kalib—individual small worlds.
These small worlds weren’t as stable as Kalib, the world created by the gods. Their existence required enormous divine power to sustain. In other words, once the creator stopped supplying energy, the collapse of these small worlds was inevitable—secret realms included.
For Coleman Academy to use this secret realm as a Crown Cup venue for years without depletion, there must be some reason that made the academy consider this secret realm absolutely safe, without any hidden dangers.
But all this was too far removed from Tilia. Right now, she was just a fledgling God Princess who had awakened not long ago.
Glancing beside her, the puppet had been teleported together with her. Activating her elven keen senses, she detected no other life signatures nearby.
The location she’d been randomly assigned to seemed safe enough—at least no other teams were nearby. The so-called random teleportation meant being teleported together with teammates, not separately.
Tilia understood the rough mechanics well enough.
Just then, the token hanging at her leg made a sound. Taking it out to look, the black crystal token flashed a few times, and several red dots appeared on the screen, along with two blue dots.
These red dots were scattered in all directions around the blue dots, completely surrounding them, and they were all rapidly approaching the blue dots.
Tilia immediately understood.
The blue dots were herself and the ‘Dilin’ beside her, while the red dots were teams that had opened pursuit against her.
Numbers 13, 22, and 57 respectively.
So eager to eliminate her.
Tilia gently stroked the silky hair falling on her delicate collarbone.
Unlike battle royale games where you could hide if you knew your skills were lacking, potentially getting better rankings than more skilled players just by staying hidden long enough, the Crown Cup was different.
Everyone liked picking on soft targets. Teams with poor configurations and mediocre performance would be prioritized for elimination by everyone, ensuring the weakest would definitely be eliminated first.
Indeed, being pursued by so many was troublesome, and Tilia wasn’t completely confident she could eliminate all of them at once.
But that didn’t matter. Whether she and these people were enemies wasn’t important—what mattered was that these people were enemies of each other. That was the key point.
Before the competition began, Tilia had memorized the rules thoroughly. While pursuit seemed unfair to weak teams, it also had many restrictions.
For example, the pursued could also see the pursuers’ positions.
Most importantly, pursuers targeting the same objective couldn’t see each other’s positions.
And in her previous world, there was a strategy called “drive tigers to devour wolves.”