The rising stars who had emerged from the matches over the previous two days were now cooperating with staff inside [Duel City] for interviews and filming.
During a short break, Dark watched footage of the rising stars being filmed, and an involuntary smile appeared on his face.
Most of Saint Marian Academy's fourth-year and third-year students participating in the tournament had successfully passed the first round of the preliminaries.
Compared with the other contestants, their young age naturally made them the focus of audience attention. Unlike the previous [World Cup], far fewer academy professors had entered this year's [World Cup], so the students naturally drew more notice.
Among them, White God, whose strength had increased tremendously since the previous tournament, was rapidly gaining popularity.
After all, he had accomplished the great feat of "slaying the Demon King" last year. If there had not still been so many doubts surrounding him, his popularity would have been even greater by now.
However, as his ranking in the [World Cup] rose higher and higher, those doubts would naturally fade away. Yet as his popularity soared, there were also increasingly more people heaping praise on him by declaring that he would definitely win the championship. That was another kind of burden for him.
The one Dark was actually most concerned about was Victoria.
After stumbling through the process, the Vampire Heiress had ultimately passed the first round of the [Preliminaries], which made Dark very happy. Splitting the [Preliminaries] into three rounds truly was the best decision made for this year's [World Cup].
It had suddenly made an immediate elimination far more difficult.
Having successfully passed the first round, Victoria would find it easier to accept things even if she were eliminated later on. As for Victoria herself, she was naturally celebrating extravagantly in a