"The content of this round of competition is to state the number of monsters to be challenged in turn, and then enter the Demon Suppression Hall to fight.
"Inside, the monsters of varying levels will appear randomly according to the chosen number, and defeating these monsters will earn corresponding points.
"If unable to defeat them all, no points will be acquired at all, so be sure to gauge your strength when choosing the number.
"Additionally, every monster, regardless of its level, counts as just one point, so luck is also a very significant factor.
"Each monster will only appear once, meaning each defeat reduces the total by one, so the next person can only choose from the remaining number of monsters to challenge.
"If there are monsters left after all contestants have had a turn, the original order will continue for the next round of selection and combat, and so forth."
The contestants stared silently at the Pumpkin Man explaining the rules, pondering the key points within.
The intent of this event is likely to test strength, strategy, and luck all at the same time.
The person with the greatest chance of winning should undoubtedly be the one who starts first, given their strength is sufficient.
If Mr. Jura begins first and chooses to challenge 51 monsters, he can almost ensure victory.
So, how will the challenge order be determined?
At this moment, the Pumpkin Man shook a holder, "The order will be decided by drawing lots, and these Magic Sticks will only show numbers once drawn."
The 8 contestants stepped forward, each drawing a stick.
The stick in Erza's hand lit up, and the camera focused at just the right time, revealing the conspicuous number '1'.
Number 2 is Mirena, number 3 is Yeluo'er, number 4 is Rogue, number 5 is Simon, number 6 is Reavers, number 7 is Gajeel, and number 8 is Jura.
Rhode sighed, "Gajeel has really bad luck today."
Laxus seldom teased, "His face is as bad as his luck."
Jubia sympathetically remarked about Gajeel for a second and asked, "Miss Erza got number 1, so most likely it's Team A that will win, right?"
Wendy thought briefly about the rules and felt there was a lot to calculate: "If Brother Rhode got number 7, what should be done?"
Rhode made a simple math calculation, helplessly smiling, "If you want to get a higher ranking, you can only cling to Erza's leg and hope she defeats all 100 monsters."
Jubia and Wendy still didn't understand, puzzled, "Why?"
Rhode explained, "Because if Erza chooses 51 monsters and secures first place, there will be 49 monsters left after she finishes.
"The second contestant only needs to defeat 25 monsters to secure the second place, leaving 24 monsters... and so on. Third place needs to choose 13 monsters, fourth place 6, fifth place 3, sixth place 2, and then... there will be no monsters left.
"The remaining two contestants are number 7 and number 8, which means it might come down to Gajeel and Jura dueling for the last place..."
The group thought about Gajeel and Jura's strengths and remained silent; this means getting 0 points.
Laxus said, "You are calculating assuming everyone successfully wins, right?"
"Yeah." Rhode nodded, "Even if they don't reach that level, the difficulty of securing rankings in advance is gradually decreasing, and those a few places ahead of Gajeel aren't weak, leaving him with very little room.
"With this order, if Erza acts rationally, then Gajeel can only hope for earlier contestants to be unlucky if he wants a high ranking.
"But considering his luck today... we just mentioned his bad luck."
Everyone was speechless, indicating Gajeel is indeed in trouble today, but losing due to bad luck does seem a bit unfair.
In the past few years, Fairy Tail's participating teams seem to have had difficult rankings because of luck, don't they?
Fortunately, their B team's score is high enough now...
As everyone was thinking this, it seemed like Erza said something to the Pumpkin Man on the field.
Then the Pumpkin Man hastily refuted, "No, no, this is certainly not a game of luck. This competition values a mage's understanding of the situation on the field and the ability to adjust strategies adaptively..."
Then Erza's mouth curved up slightly, "No, there's no need for that anymore."
She walked in front of the Demon Suppression Hall's door and declared, "I want to fight 100 monsters, number confirmed!"
"What?!!!"
Amidst the unbelievable voices, the Demon Suppression Hall responded.
The terrifying styled door opened for Erza to walk inside.
At the same time, the large screen showed various scenes inside the Demon Suppression Hall.
Voices of doubt arose, but Natsu and Gray laughed heartily, saying things like 'this is how it should be', 'as expected of Erza'.
Team B's side all turned to look at Rhode.
Wendy exclaimed happily, "Is Miss Erza really considering us? How kind."
"..." Rhode felt it wasn't that, as her tone earlier seemed more like she intuitively felt it was better to do so, so she did.
A few seconds later, the camera inside the Demon Suppression Hall locked onto Erza's position.
At this time, Erza's back was captured in the shot.
The camera zoomed out a little, and her small figure took up only a negligible part of the screen.
In front of her were a dozen wolf-like mechanical beasts about her height, a dozen taller dinosaur-shaped ones, fewer still were ghost-type mechanical beasts twice as tall, and even taller and stronger giants...
Compared to these terrifying and fearsome beasts, the knight in armor seemed so small, so lonely, and outnumbered.
This situation clearly showed that she was already surrounded by the monster horde as she entered the hall, as if she might be devoured by them at any moment.
But the red hair lightly swaying behind her was so conspicuous, like a bright flag, or a flame burning fiercely.
"Anyway, choosing to fight 100 monsters is too reckless," said the Pumpkin Man, "The game was not designed to be completed in one round, yet she wants to handle everything herself..."
Simon nervously said, "I think, if it's Erza, she might actually be able to do it."
Mirena clasped her hands into cat paws, raised one leg, swung her tail, and laughed, "Since Simon said so, I support Erza too!"
Gajeel took it a step further and directly questioned the Pumpkin Man, "Hey, if that woman wipes out all the monsters, what happens to us? Do we tie for last place?"
The Pumpkin Man insisted, "This... that's impossible, so no need to worry at all."
Jura, however, smiled and sided with them, "I think it's better to consider backup plans in advance."
Rogue and Reavers did not voice their opinions.
Yeluo'er muttered softly, "If it were Miss Mirajane, she could definitely do it. The Fairy Queen... might also manage it with some effort.
"Sigh, why did Miss Mirajane get replaced anyway?"