Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

The architecture of the Gus Empire Sports Arena is magnificent and spacious, fully demonstrating the empire’s strength.

However, the number of attendees at the opening ceremony is not very high.

Since this is just a youth competition, although it involves the youth of the entire Gumera star region, those present at the venue do not hold very high positions.

Not to mention members of the royal family of the Gus Empire being present, even high-ranking officials typically do not attend; only some relevant officials are present.

However, the Gus Empire’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced in advance that during the opening ceremony of the Youth Elite Competition, the King of the Gus Empire will meet with everyone through a holographic projection.

For the Gus Empire, this is already the highest level of hospitality extended to ordinary foreign guests. Once this information was known, competitors from various countries and netizens expressed their satisfaction because, aside from the fact that the real person would not be present, it would be nearly indistinguishable from having them there in person.

The audience in the stands, aside from the people from the Gus Empire, consists mainly of diplomats from various countries, as well as the mentors of the competitors and their security teams, totaling around four to five thousand people. In such a spacious venue, they appear quite sparse.

However, the online buzz is extraordinary, with the number of viewers on the live-streaming platform already exceeding twenty billion.

Jerome Atchison, a young and handsome diplomat from the Gus Empire, has a bright smile that instantly endears him to others. His appearance immediately draws strong praise from netizens, making him a temporary focal point for those who admire good looks.

Inevitably, his background is quickly dug up.

As a diplomat, Jerome Atchison’s personal information has been scrutinized tens of thousands of times to date, and this number will certainly exceed hundreds of millions after today.

With the opening ceremony of the Gumera Youth Elite Competition not yet underway, Jerome Atchison, completely unfazed by others prying into his life, sits there slightly leaning to the left, quietly conversing with Principal Christian from the Xuan Gu First Military Academy.

Both of them wear smiles as they talk, and the atmosphere feels very relaxed. Due to privacy restrictions on the net, although diplomats’ images are not blurred online, their lip movements are somewhat obscured while they speak. As a result, everyone is unable to discern the content of their conversation through lip-reading alone, but they can judge from their expressions that they are discussing something pleasant.

But in reality, Jerome Atchison was secretly worrying and asking, “Have those two little ancestors arrived at the venue?”

This morning, when Jerome Atchison learned from the Crown Prince that the two little ancestors would be present at the opening ceremony today, his heart, filled with concern for the country and the people, finally settled down.

As far as he knew, the Second Prince had already reached the mid-level of the fifth rank three years ago. Even if his cultivation hadn’t increased much in the past three years, as long as he made an appearance, the Gus Empire team would definitely not lose.

Moreover, judging by the situation three years ago, the cultivation level of the other little ancestor wouldn’t be lower than Mina-Olli’s. Therefore, as long as either of these two little ancestors showed up, it would be enough to suppress the participating team from the Vera Federation.

Jerome Atchison had been eagerly waiting, but the problem was that the opening ceremony was about to begin, and he still hadn’t seen any sign of those two little ancestors, which made him a bit anxious.

Principal Christian, with a beaming smile, softly replied, “They arrived at the Imperial Capital Star last night, but they were picked up separately by people sent by the Hua De family and Queen Amber at the space station. The school security we sent couldn’t catch them, so they didn’t come with their teammates this morning. But don’t worry, since the Crown Prince has spoken, they won’t miss it.”

“How high are the cultivation levels of these two little ancestors now?” Jerome Atchison was very concerned about this question.

“I haven’t seen them in over two years. They aren’t directly under our supervision, and their news comes from the Crown Prince. Apart from the Crown Prince and Colonel Hua De, I don’t think anyone else knows. However, I’m confident that they will give everyone a pleasant surprise.”

On the Vera Federation side, besides the diplomat wearing a kind and gentle smile and the serious instructor, everyone else was happily chatting.

“Our players just ran into the Gus Empire team, and they still have only ten main players.”

“The Gus Empire team is a bit strange. Not to mention the entire country, they could find plenty of strong players just within the First Military Academy of Xuan Gu. Why do they only have ten players? Is it really that hard to invite a couple more? Could there be some issue with that?”

“There’s no problem at all. Among the information on elite youth under twenty from the Gus Empire, these ten are the strongest. If they selected more, they would just be substitutes.”

“It’s said that two substitutes are rushing over from other planets.” One person with insider knowledge said.

“Oh!” Upon hearing that they were substitutes, the Vera Federation members lost interest.

No one wanted to look into the profiles of those two substitute players, as substitutes in the competing teams were always weaker than the main players.

The members of the Vera Federation exchanged satisfied glances. If the Gus Empire didn’t have new main players joining, their chances of winning would be significantly higher.

They were confident that the Vera Federation would definitely take home the championship this time.

The implication of the Vera Federation’s words somewhat influenced even their diplomats and instructors, who had not received any updates. Since their worst fears had not come to pass yesterday, they gradually relaxed.

Soon, the idle chatter came to an end.

The opening ceremony of the Gus Empire Youth Elite Competition was about to begin.

Jerome Atchison gracefully took to the stage to give a speech. To be honest, as a perfect diplomat, serving as the host was truly a piece of cake.

Backstage, the elite class watched the person on the projection screen. Sheila sighed, “Dean, your cousin is really charming and way more handsome than you. Plus, he can talk to people like they’re people and to ghosts like they’re ghosts. It’s infuriating!”

Although Jerome Atchison’s speech was brief, it was very humorous, eliciting knowing laughter from the audience in the venue and online.

After finishing his speech, Jerome Atchison activated his light brain, and King Adam’s holographic projection appeared at the center of the stage.

King Adam’s speech was about the same length as Jerome’s and had a very official tone. In the end, he said a few encouraging words to the youth, which made everyone’s expression solemn, yet their blood surged with excitement.

Next up was the most anticipated part of the event for all the spectators: the opening ceremony, during which the thirty-one participating teams entered the venue one by one.

At today’s ceremony, the appearance of the young competitors was deliberately obscured to only thirty percent clarity, which was half of the usual seventy percent. This allowed netizens on the Sky Network to clearly appreciate the outstanding youth.

The first team to enter, as expected, was the host team from the Gus Empire.

Led by their captain, Hua Deli, the Gus Empire team marched out in an orderly formation, proudly holding up the national flag of the Gus Empire, walking two by two through the main entrance from backstage.