They don't want me to try anymore.

Looking up again, I saw many other professionals making the same choice. Some adjusted their direction and crashed into the bubbles, some used mage's hand to pull people over, and some simply took out their swords, inserted them into the bubbles, and fixed themselves in place. Clearly, the bubbles here were not as fragile as they looked; they could easily take a blow or two.

A few minutes later, the first group of people who came in, except for a few dozen unlucky ones who were not good at reacting or having the ability, all found their own bubbles.

Just when the remaining people thought the test was very simple...

Countless seagulls swooped down overhead.

"French fries! French fries! French fries!"

It's unclear who designed this, but these seagulls, while emitting incomprehensible cries, aimed their sharp beaks at the bubbles beneath everyone's feet and flew towards them!

"What the hell!"

"Go away!"

The crowd immediately took action, some slashing with swords and others shooting with guns, but there were too many seagulls for many to handle.

Soon, a Dark Iron-rank mage ran out of magic power, and the bubble was subsequently pierced by more than a dozen seagulls. Finally, it burst with a pop, and the man lost his footing, screaming as he fell into the sea.

Next up was a warrior... but he reacted quickly, leaping onto another person's bubble the instant it burst.

"Get out of my way, this is my territory!"

"Did they write your name on the bubble?"

The soldier, relying on his strength, pushed the person with all his might.

"Ouch! Damn it... I lost, and you won't win either!"

"Ah, don't hug me, let go..."

In the blink of an eye, the two of them fell into the sea while playing on the slippery bubbles.

The above scenario played out everywhere, and half of the contestants disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Of course, Richard remained calm and collected.

He summoned three wind elementals, who stood in a circle around him and emitted electric shocks into the sky, turning countless seagulls into roasted birds amidst the shouts of "French fries!"

Well, it also solved the problem of possibly getting hungry later.

"Why can't I feel any ground in this illusionary world?!"

Suddenly, Richard heard a somewhat familiar voice. He looked up and saw Anton, the Guamara man he had met not long ago, falling rapidly from the side in front of him.

He wanted to help, so he shouted, "Catch the bubble!"

In the midst of his frantic activity, Anton heard the prompt and saw that everyone below was standing on bubbles. He instantly understood, reached into the large box behind him, and pulled out a doll.

Then he threw the doll forcefully, and the doll automatically grabbed an empty bubble not far away, and with the help of the control threads on its body, pulled Anton up.

Richard found it quite amusing.

So he really is a puppeteer? That's a very rare profession.

Anton, with his plump body, rested on the bubbles for a while before getting up and waving to Richard: "Mr. Richard, thank you!"

"You're welcome."

"I never expected to meet you here..."

"To be honest, I didn't expect to come here... but let's talk about it outside."

Richard waved his hand and continued dealing with the seagulls.

There was still plenty of time, and he planned to carefully control it to avoid running out of magic power.

In addition, Richard also noticed that many people seemed to be deliberately moving the bubbles downwards in various ways.

Yes, with him above us, there will be far fewer seagulls below.

Richard curled his lip, but didn't stop these people from taking advantage of him. After all, if his bubble were accidentally popped, with these people under him, he could easily grab a new one.

suddenly.

boom!

A loud bang came from several hundred meters away.

People nearby all looked over and saw a beam of fire spiraling upwards, instantly melting dozens of bubbles that couldn't withstand high temperatures.

"What are you doing! I didn't do anything to you!"

"No!"

Dozens of people fell into the sea and lost their eligibility.

A disdainful rebuke came from mid-air:

"The Easter Festival competition is such a solemn event. Who gave you weaklings the audacity to come here and make a fool of yourselves?"

Immediately afterwards, another burst of flames appeared, and more than a dozen people fell into the water.

Richard narrowed his eyes slightly.

He saw that among those who had fallen into the water, there were quite a few mid-to-high level Bronze rank cultivators, who, based on their strength, were likely capable of passing the assessment.

Unfortunately, they ran into troublemakers.

Is that guy intentionally reducing future competitors?

Under the tense gaze of everyone, a figure emerged from the fireworks.

It was a man with a brown ponytail, wearing a full suit of armor. In his left hand he held a huge shield with spikes and a lion's head painted on it, and in his right hand he held a large-caliber horn gun that could fit a tennis ball. He looked at the people who were being shot down and screaming, and laughed.

Then he looked in Richard's direction.

"Silver? Yes, that makes more sense."

He licked his lips, turned the shield around, and the lion on the shield suddenly opened its mouth, spewing out a large plume of scorching steam.

Propelled by the gas, he and the bubbles beneath his feet quickly moved closer to Richard.

Along the way, he continued to raise his musket and shoot at all the bubbles along the route.

Once those bullets hit their targets, they would explode, sending the poor contestants flying into the sea.

"Help!"

"Get out of the way! This guy's crazy!"

Hearing the screams rising and falling, the professionals near Richard panicked.

Richard also frowned, assessing the strength of his opponent.

His skill level is probably around mid-silver. As for his profession, he should be a gunfighter or a shield guard, or possibly a combination of both. This is not impossible for a genius-level player.

Now that's a bit of a problem.

The shield equipped with an alchemical mechanism provided excellent mobility, and the gun in his hand had clearly been modified. Its rate of fire wasn't fast, but its destructive power was strong, and most importantly, its range was very long!

She's many times better than Herpel was back then.

On their side, due to the special terrain, they couldn't move quickly, their flying summons were useless, and their elementals were all short-ranged...

If the opponent stands 150 meters away and moves around while aiming and shooting at his bubbles, he has almost no way to fight back!

"Richard!"

At that moment, Anton called out from below, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Richard was about to politely decline when an idea suddenly came to him.

"Anton, how long can your puppet threads extend?"

"It's usually only about thirty meters..."

"The longest?"

"Two or three hundred meters is fine, but that would make it almost impossible to control..."

"It's okay, a rope will do."

"Huh? Huh, huh, huh!"

opposite.

The man with the ponytail watched Richard take action, his smile deepening.

Generally speaking, Silver-ranked players don't clash head-on in the qualifiers. But he recognized Richard's identity (there aren't many young summoners with such outstanding looks), and he couldn't hold back any longer.

In the past six months, he had heard the name Targaryen in many places: the duel of Dulles, the disaster in Nyon, and of course, most importantly, his teammate Damon's constant nagging...

The sight of a Connaught man swaggering into the Empire made him think the world had gone mad.

This was absolutely a mistake! It's time to erase it!

The grand competition always requires offerings, and a barbarian with some skill would be perfect!

I'd like to see how you, a summoner, are going to dodge my shots in this anti-air bubble array that's not conducive to deploying a large number of summons!

...Wait, what is that?

A red light flashed past, and the ponytail man's smile froze on his face.

"Shrimp catcher! So fast!"

To everyone's astonishment, Richard and Anton rode together in a bubble, while the latter's puppet strings suspended three fire elementals diagonally below, continuously spewing fire behind them...