"That's wonderful!" Ryan replied, putting on a dazzling smile. "But did anyone already ask you to join your team?"

The girl paused, then blushed as if she was ashamed. "Yes, two people have already asked me to join their team."

Ryan nodded. "Then I'll have to pass on you, my love, good luck in the competition!"

Ryan started to walk away but stopped when he heard the girl frantically call, "Wait!"

'I guess this pleasant face is better than I thought,' Ryan mused.

"What if I stop accepting people? You'll still have a one out of three chance at getting me?" the girl asked, a tinge of worry in her eyes.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. 'From what Stacy told me, these recruits would rather let luck decide it than choose themselves. For they believe the heavens will guide them.'

Ryan scoffed. 'What a load of horse shit.'

Ryan faked a sigh. "I'm sorry. Maybe if I can't fill out the rest of my list, I will return."

He added off-handedly, "But it would be a shame if you accepted anymore. There wouldn't be a chance then."

The girl got a fiery look in her eyes and nodded.

Walking away, Ryan lightly chuckled as he made his way to the next person.

===

After going around the stadium and using energy vision, and pleasant face, Ryan was able to garner a solid force of four women who swore that Ryan was the first one to pick them and who swore they wouldn't accept any remaining people.

Ryan also had a few run-ins with recruits who didn't take the initiative to offer to stop accepting participants and even one who flat-out rejected him from adding her name to his list.

Ryan wasn't disturbed by the news. Instead, he treated it as limit testing his pleasant face ability as he continued asking more recruits.

By the time 15 minutes remaining was called, Ryan had decided on his top five recruits he wished he had, three of which he had 'secured' as the only participant to ask and be accepted, the remaining two having already accepted a few before him.

Cracking his neck, Ryan wrote down the names in the best order he thought, hoping he wouldn't get screwed.

'Although the last four names on my list all are 'secured', I still hope I don't have to accept any of them,' Ryan sighed.

Ryan didn't know how far his pleasant face ability worked and whether he could trust the girl's words that they didn't already accept any participants or if they lied to get on his good side, so he had to have a few more 'secured ones' for protection.

"Time's up, participants," a booming voice rang out around the stadium.

As soon as the voice sounded, the piece of paper in Ryan's hand was pulled like a magnetic force toward the middle of the stadium.

The person standing there was also the source of the voice let all of the papers fly into a spatial bag that was pulling them and waited.

After about five minutes of waiting, he suddenly clapped. "The time has come. The heavens have decided your fates."

Ryan furrowed his brow but still looked up at the giant holographic screen that had suddenly come into view.

Looking for his name, he found it, complete with his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 9th choices.

'I wonder if it was the heavens who decided it or the Holy Phoenix Empire,' Ryan thought after seeing how quickly everything was decided.

As if hearing Ryan's, a few of the participants in the audience started shouting, "Why is that fair? Why is my name not on the screen?"

"How come you get to decide who moves on and who doesn't?!" another yelled.

The man in the center, seemingly undisturbed by the growing rage of the disqualified participants, said, "I know some of you must be thinking that this competition is rigged. But that'd be assuming I was from the Holy Phoenix Empire."

The man suddenly flicked his wrist and produced a token which caused a collective gasp to resonate around the stadium.historical

"The Holy Phoenix Empire has hired me, but as you should know, no one can bribe the Dawn Family."

Ryan looked intently at the man. [Yoko, that man didn't say Pavilion, he said family right?]

[Correct Master,] Yoko replied. [We found a similar crest on your aunt's person when treating her earlier.]

Ryan's hair stood on end. He had been so preoccupied that he had forgotten about his aunt and her status.

[Now that Hannah is back, is my aunt awake?] Ryan asked eagerly.

Yoko hesitated but said, [I'm sorry, Master, no. She hasn't woken up yet.]

Ryan felt a small punch in the gut. [Has Hannah said anything about her status?]

[She...] Yoko started, then seemingly didn't want to continue, until Ryan said [Tell me, Yoko.]

[She said that she has nothing to treat this poison and that our best bet is with your mother.]

Ryan exhaled and let out a long sigh. [Then it looks like I'll have to contact this man and see how we're related.]

Focusing back on the man, Ryan saw that the crowd had calmed down, and the disqualified candidates had begun to file out.

"Now," the man began once again. "You are all free to meet with your teams and begin their training."

"The next round of the competition will begin tomorrow with your first battle against another team."

One of the participants raised their hands, and the man asked the person to speak.

"Are we allowed to spar with other teams today?" the participant asked.

Everyone eagerly awaited the reply, as sparring was a fast way to gain chemistry in battle.

The man smiled. "Yes, as in every Military Summit, each of your teams will be given a Dawn Net training room and access to a private server to spar against any of the teams here."

"Your matches will also be played on the Dawn Net, which will allow for no casualties and for each of the recruits full abilities to be displayed."