The closing ceremony and awards event were filled with a lively yet solemn atmosphere, tinged with restlessness.
Reporters from the Republic of Ghana were also present at the scene, with their caras lingering on Chu Tingwu and a few other students. From the reporters' perspective, the students' deanor and spirit were quite comndable.
However, as the cara panned upward, her gaze drifted downward, and due to the angle, it was clear that the children had their hands behind their backs, playing a ga of passing a copper coin.
The reporter: "..."
Whenever the speaker above paused, the copper coin would land in soone's hand, and the person holding it would have their palm lightly slapped by the person next to them.
Team Leader Yang maintained a smile but kept subtly glancing at the group out of the corner of her eye. Realizing she couldn't stop them, she eventually shifted slightly to block their antics from view.
Then the awards began—
The order of the awards was announced in reverse, starting from the lowest rank and moving up. The reporter's heart was in her throat.
Although she had faith in the children, no one could guarantee there wouldn't be any surprises.
...The silver awards were announced.
The reporter held her breath and glanced at the line of students... Wait, are you still passing that copper coin?!
The copper coin reflected a faint glimr, but the rules seed to have changed. Now, whoever held the coin when applause was required would have their palm slapped.
Then, just as the final awardee was about to step onto the stage, Chu Tingwu flicked her fingers, sending the coin flying onto Team Leader Yang's collar.
Feeling sothing unusual, Team Leader Yang: "...?"
Zhou Qiang and Chu Xiao glanced at her hand, found nothing, and continued clapping with puzzled expressions.
Chu Tingwu: "=v="
The next second, Zhou Qiang's na was announced.
Zhou Qiang, ninth place, gold award.
Feng Ziping, eighth place, gold award.
The reporter also smiled, clapping sincerely and enthusiastically. After capturing the footage of the two children stepping onto the stage one after another, she couldn't help but glance at Chu Tingwu and Chu Xiao.
The two of them were still sitting calmly, showing no signs of nervousness.
There shouldn't be any surprises... the reporter thought. The gold awards were being announced, and their children had co to the international stage; they wouldn't leave empty-handed.
Team Leader Yang, now empty-handed, discreetly removed the copper coin and, while welcoming Feng Ziping and Zhou Qiang, couldn't resist stuffing the coin into Feng Ziping's hand—this is what you get for bringing this thing along!
Feng Ziping was still smiling, unaware of what had just happened.
Then his hand was promptly slapped by the other three.
Feng Ziping: "..." Hey!
Zhou Qiang stood nearby, a faint smile on her face. No matter the ranking, winning an award was a good thing, and the end of the competition was also—
In the future, she might participate in more competitions, standing on different stages, but she would always rember this day.
It felt like the end of one journey and the beginning of another.
However, Chu Tingwu didn't share such sentints, nor did she feel any particular emotion when her ranking was announced—she was sixth.
Unlike the calm Chu Tingwu, her system was ecstatic, as if it had successfully shown off its cat to the entire world. It kept muttering in her mind: "It's a gold award, it's a championship! Champion cat! We have to let San Wu Wu see this!"
No, there are still five people ahead.
And San Wu Wu wouldn't understand anyway!
Chu Tingwu's mood was indeed calm because, regardless of the competition, it was already over. What excited her was the present mont—
Like parkouring and leaping between two buildings, with crowds walking below, feeling as if she were flying.
Or rock climbing without any safety gear, relying solely on her hands and feet to cling to the cliff, looking down at the waves crashing against the rocks.
Or skiing during an avalanche, with the snow chasing behind her, ard only with a snowboard and herself. The world was silent, the loudest sound being her heartbeat... She wanted to shout, to laugh, like a lone sailboat rocking on a dark sea, uncertain of the future but reveling in the thrill and joy of the mont.
And the international competition was now a thing of the past, settled and done.
When the na and country of the second-place winner were announced, everyone turned to Chu Xiao.
Now, only Chu Xiao's na remained unntioned... but everyone already knew his ranking. Chu Xiao pursed his lips, feeling a mix of nervousness and anticipation—but then, a hand reached out and patted his shoulder.
Chu Tingwu gave her nephew an encouraging look.
Chu Xiao: "..."
The nervousness vanished, replaced by a slight urge to hit soone.
"First place..."
"From Hua Country..."
"—Chu Xiao!"
The applause was thunderous, and people around kept glancing their way, offering congratulations along the path. It had been four years since Hua Country last claid the top honor at this competition, and now they had done it again. While the team mbers remained composed, Team Leader Yang's smile was so wide her eyes nearly disappeared... Oh, right, after the closing ceremony, they could take a group photo with their dals and commorative certificates, wearing their competition uniforms, and then—
Chu Tingwu: "If we don't speed, can we make the flight?"
Team Leader Yang: "=="
Whether they could make it was uncertain, but she knew for sure that getting caught speeding would guarantee they wouldn't.
The photos would have to be quick, interviews moved online, and they'd have to leave imdiately after to barely make it to the airport. With all their luggage, it was going to be a tight squeeze.
In the car, Team Leader Yang couldn't hold back any longer: "...I wasn't even this nervous when they were announcing the rankings earlier!"
Of course not.
Because the previous test was over—now, the airport sprint test had just begun!
They rushed through security, rushed onto the plane, and rushed to their seats before Zhou Qiang finally said, "Did soone call out to us just now?"
Chu Xiao: "If they didn't catch us, then it wasn't important."
Chu Tingwu: "It was the Arican team."
The Arican team seed to be heading straight back too. They ran into them at the airport, and the Aricans tried to greet them, but the group breezed past without a second glance.
Chu Tingwu didn't see them either... she just slled them.
So it must have been the Arican team, right?
-
Not only were they ignored by the Hua Country team, but the Arican team also had the misfortune of facing a flight delay—five hours, to be exact.
The team mbers exchanged glances, and Luna couldn't help but say:
"If only we could play cards right now."
With their phones in hand, they could play any ga they wanted, but after experiencing that AR card ga, regular gas just didn't hit the sa.
Because this kind of "ga" that combined problem-solving and competition was exactly what these high-IQ kids loved—but previous gas of this type hadn't provided enough entertainnt or a sense of achievent.
Most popular gas on the market didn't give much advantage to intelligence, focusing more on speed, reflexes, and practice. anwhile, gas marketed as "high-IQ" had such high entry barriers that the competition was evenly matched, and they often lacked fun.
But "Learning Through Play" hit the sweet spot. It was easy to see that it would attract a large user base, mostly ordinary people, while the open competitions provided a platform for the elite to shine. The ga was both entertaining and "legitimate," as it genuinely helped players learn.
Of course, at this point, Luna didn't know that the card ga they played was a mini-ga extracted from "Learning Through Play"... They were just waiting for their delayed flight when soone spoke up:
"By the way... do any of you have a visa to visit Hua Country?"
"What are you suggesting...?"
"What does the coach say?"
"I heard from the Russians that there's going to be a massive AR performance, and if we go now, we might catch it—"
Now the pressure was on the coach.
The coach: "...?"
If the Arican team wanted to co and watch the competition, they could actually land directly in Wu City, the location of the Sea Sports Center where the city representative competition is being held. Their schedule would even be more flexible than Chu Tingwu and the others, as the Hua Country team would have to undergo photo ops and interviews after their plane lands.
At this mont, players from Sea City and Jing City were unaware that several key players were absent—most players had already arrived early at the Sea Sports Center in Wu City.
The venue had previously hosted large-scale concerts and football matches, with a capacity of 40,000 people, and its exterior resembled a tilting sailboat.
Tian Shi was pacing around inside the sports center.
She didn’t want to appear so nervous, but she couldn’t help it. Even though they had hired a professional outsourcing team and had others assisting, making everything seem well-organized—the boss wasn’t in the country! If Chu Tingwu were here, she probably wouldn’t have offered any suggestions or changes and could have easily contacted the system. But Tian Shi couldn’t shake the feeling that if she just heard Chu Tingwu say, “It’ll be fine,” then everything really would be fine.
Ugh, maybe I should go find soone to do a tarot reading.
Since they had rented the stadium, the company naturally had to sell tickets to recoup the costs. In the ga, a lottery was arranged, with 60 beta testers and 40 pre-registered players for the second beta being selected to receive free tickets.
Additionally, purchasing tickets through the ga offered a 30% discount, while those who had pre-downloaded the app and registered (but hadn’t gotten into the second beta) could also buy tickets through the app at a 20% discount.
Wu City, located in the special economic zone, had convenient transportation. With local visitors and those who had traveled from afar, the tickets had mostly sold out.
Tian Shi felt both happy and sighed: If this were a concert, tickets would have sold out instantly. But this was a gaming competition, and it was still in beta... Experienced ga developers wouldn’t normally host such a large-scale public event in a sports center during the beta phase, as it could easily result in zero ticket sales and massive losses.
What Tian Shi didn’t ntion was that the cost of this competition was actually much higher than what so industry insiders had imagined.
During the planning phase, she had originally wanted to invite so industry celebrities to host or perform as a warm-up act. After all, the entire event would last at least three hours, with the competition itself scheduled for an hour and a half. Any longer would be too exhausting, so they needed other content to fill the ti... They couldn’t let the audience, who had traveled from afar, leave after just an hour and a half of competition. Nowadays, even football matches have cheerleaders.
But all of this was vetoed by the system.
The system: “What’s so interesting about human hosts?”
If they were going to have a host, it might as well be Three-Five-Five.
Tian Shi: ==
Let’s not burden the cat with such a big responsibility, okay?
In the end, the host position was filled by a virtual projection of a white horse nad Raphael, wearing a the park manager’s hat. This horse, now the ga’s mascot, was the kind of character that players would curse as a scam artist upon seeing... So, it could still be considered auspicious, right?
By 7:50 PM, all the audience mbers had put on their wristbands and successfully entered the venue. The live broadcast went live across the internet, and Chu Tingwu and the others finally sat down, opening their competition screens on their phones.
There were 15 minutes left until the competition began.
Tickets were still available, and people continued to trickle in.
The wristbands emitted a faint glow, and as the lights dimd, a white horse leaped onto the stage. It then tipped its top hat, greeting the audience to the left and right—
Which was t with a chorus of “Ugh, why is it this scamr?” along with plenty of laughter.
In the next mont, the wristbands began to flash in unison, and gasps filled the air as familiar cats leaped out from the bands—so perched on the seats, others lounging on the players’ laps... anwhile, so audience mbers didn’t have accounts or cats, so holographic top hats appeared beside them instead.
Reaching into the hats, they could pull out random small gifts.
All audience mbers received these gifts.
The small trinkets could be held in hand (though it felt like holding air) or displayed on their personal accounts in the app, with physical versions mailed to them later.
Though there was a tinge of disappointnt, the general audience was still thrilled and eager to capture the mont with their caras, which was also being recorded by the live broadcast.
That was until soone pulled out a gilded figurine of Raphael, the white horse.
The audience mber: “...”
Why is it this scamr again!?
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