Fairy Tail: You said you were just acting, are you serious

As Urudia, cloaked in a cape, entered the hall, her gaze casually sweeping across the crowd.

When she saw Ron, whom she had met once before, standing in the hall, her previously calm face stiffened for a moment, clearly not expecting to meet him again here.

She quickly regained her composure and casually looked away.

With the arrival of the last group of people, the top sixteen advancers from the continent of Ishgar were finally all present in the hall.

Of the sixteen spots available, the Dark Guild sent a total of six, indicating they are determined to secure this councilor position.

The invigilator, leading the last group of candidates, walked to the center of the hall and announced loudly:

"Everyone, please wait here for a moment. The higher-ups of the council will be here shortly."

After they finished speaking, the proctors left the hall.

The atmosphere in the hall relaxed a little. The contestants from the same examination area naturally formed several small groups and began to chat quietly, as if they had known each other before they came here.

However, Ron's test area was different from the others.

Azuma leaned against a pillar, striking a pose, while Eric stayed far away, standing on the edge of Ron's crowd, wandering alone.

After seeing the situation of the other test area groups, Lahar initially thought of getting closer to them, but then saw that the other two did not have this intention, so he gave up the idea of ​​communicating with them.

He sighed, and finally took a step and walked in Ron's direction.

"Greetings, Lord Ron."

Lahar greeted Ron very formally.

He breathed a sigh of relief after Ron responded politely.

"Great, it seems you're the only one in our exam area who's willing to communicate."

They walked past me without even acknowledging me, as if I didn't exist.

Ron smiled and replied:

"It's okay, if they don't want to communicate, then don't force them."

After all, they're here to do something important, so it's normal for them to be busy.

Ron observed that these six individuals seemed to be spies far removed from their respective guilds, deliberately keeping their distance from each other and avoiding standing together.

If the mages didn't know them, they might think they were all people, strangers to each other, so they were a little afraid to look at the mages' faces.

But in Ron's eyes, their deliberate concealment and pretense of not knowing each other was actually quite amusing.

Squeak!

Just then, the wooden door at the front of the hall slowly opened to both sides.

The young mages who had been talking fell silent, and all their eyes turned to the direction of the door.

Buzz!

Suddenly, streaks of eerie blue light appeared in mid-air above the gate, and more than a dozen magic circles lit up simultaneously.

Led by Crawford Him, the president of the Magic Council, a group of council members projected their thoughts onto the high platform directly above the hall.

As they ascended the platform, they would occasionally glance in the direction of the advanced participants, trying to see what they looked like.

"Are these the top sixteen from the first stage?"

"They are indeed all promising young talents."

"It looks like there are 10 students from the magic academy and 6 others from regular guilds."

Ron's gaze swept over the council's thought entities, and he quickly noticed two familiar figures.

One was Yajima, who would occasionally visit Chairman Makarov, and the other was Councilor Tochi Andeba, whom he had previously helped.

When the two old men's gazes fell on Ron, they both smiled kindly.

Ron then smiled and nodded in response.

Then, Ron noticed that an old man's gaze seemed to be fixed on him, which made him look over in confusion.

This serious-looking councilor looks familiar. Have I met him somewhere before?

After making eye contact with him, the former actually waved to the latter.

Ron paused for a moment, then waved in response.

Once all the councilors' mental images were firmly planted on the platform, they began their declaration.

Speaker Crawford Him, with his large pregnant belly, took three more steps forward.

"Welcome to the ERA's exclusive arena, young mages of Ishgar."

Speaker Crawford looked down at them, his voice booming throughout the hall.

"The fact that you are standing here means that you have passed the most basic written test, but remember, the second stage is the most important practical selection for you!"

You've all seen this arena, right? The format for the upcoming matches is very simple: a one-on-one elimination tournament!

Ron gave a knowing look; in the end, it would have to be an elimination round.

The few dark guild leaders who infiltrated pretended to be surprised, as if they had never heard of the rules.

Lahar and the other mages present all showed confident expressions when they heard about the elimination rounds.

Then Speaker Crawford changed the subject and sneered:

"However, don't think that you can just win the elimination rounds and get first place. In this assessment, we will still use performance scores to determine the top three spots."

In the upcoming battles, your performances will be scored by all the judges present.

This means that even if you lose the game, as long as you leave a deep impression on us, you may still be specially recruited!

Conversely, if the victory is too embarrassing, the performance score will be significantly reduced, and it's possible that the player won't even make it into the top three.

These words immediately caused an uproar in the hall, and most of the qualifiers frowned at the competition format.

Ron listened to the rules with a calm expression and a smile.

Isn't this tournament format just like the Chunin Selection? I'm very familiar with it.

Even so, this scoring system still benefits the best players, since the more matches they play, the more performance points they will receive in the judges' eyes.

They really made it to the finals, and the judges couldn't possibly ignore the two finalists as the speaker said; at most, they would just recruit other potential candidates who didn't make it.

Speaker Crawford waited until the commotion below subsided before continuing:

"Do you understand the rules? You can rest comfortably in the living area tonight. Everything is prepared and ready for your use."

If there is anything that is not taken care of properly, please let the invigilators know.

Before we adjourn, let's draw up the match list for tomorrow's first round so you can prepare well tonight!