By comparison with previous years, the Thesis Competition was actually more important than the Nine Schools Competition. Unlike the Nine Schools Competition, which had teams of three from each school, the theses proposed solutions and explorations for difficult problems in the Wizarding World, so they received even more attention.
By comparison, the Nine Schools Competition was ultimately nothing more than a high school sports festival.
Yet this year's Thesis Competition had barely made a name for itself and even seemed half-dead.
There was nothing to be done about that. The previous terrorist attacks had caused all eight schools apart from First High to lose quite a few elites, naturally including many talents in magic engineering. Masaki Ichijo of Third High, for example, had partnered with an outstanding magic engineering technician. These people had naturally been preparing for the Thesis Competition, but now that they were dead, those preparations were useless.
Under such circumstances, never mind making grand preparations for the competition—there had even been discussions about whether this year's Thesis Competition should be canceled.
In the end, Japan's excellent bureaucratic system once again perfectly displayed its stubborn and rigid nature, declaring that it would not be canceled. The schools had no choice but to nod in agreement.
Fortunately, not everyone at the top had diamond for brains. Considering this year's circumstances, they had exceptionally loosened the restrictions on contestants and specifications—their highest priority now was simply to complete this year's Thesis Competition smoothly. Nothing else mattered.
That was why Fang Zheng had sought out Ushio Kitayama for cooperation.
Naturally, the other two members of the trio beside him were...
"C-Can I really join?"
Following behind Fang Zheng through the steel workshop filled with enormous echoes, Honoka Mitsui asked uneasily. At first, she had been anxious over the possible relationship between