Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

"Our opponents total thirty-one. The tournament consists of five rounds, culminating in determining the top three players."

"The number of spots advancing from each Stellar District is currently uncertain. While it's said that the top three all have opportunities, only the first place truly guarantees participation on the stage of the Galactic League."

"The matchups and venues are decided by a random draw. Nobody will know their opponent or the environment of the battle until right before taking the field."

"Primal jungles, snowy mountain peaks, isolated ocean islands, lightning storm zones, electromagnetic anomalous regions… all are possible. Two teams with the same drawn number are opponents, and that number also corresponds to the battlefield environment."

"In this competition, we need to focus on three primary opponents... Thunder Dragon Empire, Blood Cry Empire, and the Thousand Stars Commerce Alliance."

"Among them, the Thousand Stars Commerce Alliance warrants particular caution. Of the four Legendary Mechanics qualified to participate in this tournament like myself, two are in their ranks. Thunder Dragon and Blood Cry Empires each harbor one Legendary Mechanic as well. Additionally, many of their other pilots are near Legendary level. It's not impossible for someone to break through in battle or to have ascended to Legendary status in the time unknown to us."

In the preparation room, Catherine shared the information in her hand with every member of the team.

Most of the details were already known to the local members. The thorough explanation was primarily for Bai E. "Of course, all this is surface-level intelligence. Whether they're concealing any trump cards unknown to us is something we currently cannot ascertain yet."

Bauhinia was already heavily suppressed within this Stellar District, and intelligence work was incredibly challenging.

Their own ranks were rife with leaks, while they knew very little about surrounding rival powers.

Fortunately, fate smiled upon Bauhinia Republic. From the uncharted depths of the cosmos, they had acquired an extraordinary leader from a primal civilization to join Bauhinia's team, which granted them a real shot at claiming first place in the competition.

...

Just as a taunting Mech Pilot from the Golden Eagle Kingdom remarked, Bauhinia Republic was the last team to arrive and register.

As time elapsed, when the appointed moment finally arrived, under the live broadcast cameras, the leaders of all participating teams stepped forward to draw their competition numbers.

"Number thirteen."

This was the number Catherine drew.

Five solo matches, one point per match.

One duo match, two points.

One trio match, two points.

One five-person team match, four points.

This was the format of the Star Alliance competition, and the tournament within the Stellar District followed the same system.

Pilots could appear in multiple group matches, and each participant could compete up to two times in a single round. There was only an hour at most for rest between matches.

Participant lists for each sub-match had to be submitted to the official organizers before the matches began and could not be altered.

Thus, no competitor would know their opponent until they were about to take the field.

This system, which left limited room for tactical maneuvering, was designed to test the all-around capabilities of each participating nation's pilots.

Pilots who excelled in specialized combat would only have room to shine during the team matches.

"We still don't know who our opponent will be..." Sitting in a spaceship descending toward the planet, the swaying cabin made Catherine frown in frustration.

Catherine's concern clearly stemmed from something deeper. Sitting next to her, Victor asked curiously, "Sister, did you receive some bad news?"

Catherine shook her head. "I don't know if it counts as bad news... it's just unusual."

During the earlier draw, among those teams she highlighted as needing special attention, aside from the Thousand Stars Commerce Alliance leader, a familiar old rival, the leaders of the other two empires were completely unfamiliar faces instead of the legendary mechanics she remembered.

Ordinarily, a team's leader would be the outright strongest pilot on the team.

Such a change could only mean one of two things.

Either those two legendary pilots were no longer part of their respective empires' teams, or... the new unfamiliar faces were even stronger than the previous legendary mechanics.

Like a new lion king ousting the old one, the new pilots replaced the veteran legends to become the face of their teams.

Either scenario suggested this tournament might not be as straightforward as they had anticipated.

That such a significant shift occurred without Bauhinia catching wind of it highlighted how limited their intelligence network was...

"It's okay. When the time comes, I'll serve as the vanguard. I'll aim to secure the first win for us in every round." Victor puffed out his chest.

Under the current competition system, the first team to reach thirteen points would advance. Securing seven points would be enough to claim victory.

But no single participant could compete more than twice in one round.

To ensure their team's steady progress, Catherine and Bai, as the two ace players, would need to appear in matches with the highest scoring potential.

They would need to win two team matches to secure six points, or a team match plus two solo matches to achieve the same result.

In this scenario, when facing one of the three formidable opponents, someone from Bauhinia's team would need to secure at least one point in the solo matches to ensure the team's qualification for advancement.