On the afternoon of the second day, Ronnie and his five "rebirth partners" headed to Zi City. He had made it to the finals six years ago, but only for one match. Back then, No. 2 had tied with "The Rhinoceros in the Wilderness" and won by a draw. This time, Ronnie was hoping for a better ranking, and he sent Gina to gather information on his opponents. No. 3's opponent in the first match was "Ghost Eye Shura", who had a pair of big eyes like a goldfish, a bloody mouth, and a clenched iron fist that seemed to hide a huge amount of energy. His whole body was covered with spikes, and he had a long tail behind him. Those who made it to the top 36 were all strong robots from the New World, including Professor De Silva's "Angel of Judgement", which made it to the finals as the third best robot in You City. Ronnie's No.3 was now following him around, almost like a bodyguard. The first match started on time at the Dream Plaza. The Rebirth Pals were all sitting nervously on the stage, and No.3 was undaunted by Ghost Eye Shura. Shura threw his head back and screamed, and attacked first, swinging his fists like a boxer. No. 3 raised his sword and blocked them all. Iron fists and swords collided, emitting white light. No. 3 was weaker and was repeatedly knocked back. He tried to find his opponent's weakness, but Ghost Eye Shura was like a hedgehog. No. 3 tried to attack his back, but Shura's tail seemed to have eyes and was able to hit him back accurately. No.3 had a headache and could only run fast to distance himself from his opponent, at this point, boos rang out from the stage, the last thing the crowd wanted to see was a match like this. The running No. 3 suddenly stopped and grabbed the back of his neck, a pair of wings immediately unfolded on his back, only to hear a "whoosh" sound! No. 3 flew into the air, the other party losing its target. Shura turned his head to look back and forth for a while before noticing No.3 in the air. He wasn't good at prancing around, and for a moment, he couldn't do anything to No.3, and the two sides just stood there in a stalemate.The referee spoke up at this point, "If both sides don't engage again in three minutes, we'll call this a draw, and then draw lots to determine the winner."
Ronnie didn't want to end up with a draw in the first match of the finals like last time, so he resolutely gave an order to No. 3 through his "Big Butler", "No. 3, stealth attack him.”
No. 3 received Ronnie's instructions and immediately disappeared from the air. A few moments later, "Ghost Eye Shura" had a broadsword stuck in his mouth. He covered his mouth and tried to pull the sword out when the stealthy No. 3 kicked him in the big eye and Shura fell on his back. All this happened in an instant, and the audience on stage didn't realize that No.3 had used stealth; most thought it was because he was moving too fast. The next moment, No.3 appeared in a corner of the ring and waited to see if his opponent could get up, but unfortunately, "Ghost Eye Shura" didn't get up in the allotted time, and the referee declared him the winner.
In the afternoon match, No. 3's opponent was Prof. De Silva's "Angel of Judgment". Surprisingly, De Silva conceded the match, leaving No.3 to compete against another robot in the same group, which he won easily. At this point, No.3 was in the top six. Ronnie was overjoyed that he had finally made it this far based on his strength. It was the evening after the match, and Ronnie was so happy that he took his "Rebirth Partners" for a walk around Zi City. Unbeknownst to them, they came to the North District School, and Lily pointed to the forest in front of them and said, "There's a 'Historical Tablet' over there, shall we go over and take a look?”
Ronnie was intrigued and replied, "Yeah, let's go over there."
The six of them walked over to the historical marker. About three minutes later, the group saw a piece of granite about five feet high and three feet wide. As they got closer, they saw that the inscription read, "This monument was built in 2373 by Dr. Norforth to record the major events of the City-state, important historical figures, the names of the recipients of the Order of the Holy Virgin First Class, and the names of the donors at the time of the City-state's founding.”
Ronnie wasn't interested in the history of the City-state, but looked directly at the list of recipients of the Order of the Holy Virgin First Class. There were a total of eighty-two recipients of this honor in the three hundred years since the City-state was founded. When he saw the last one, his whole body stiffened as he saw his father's name, and pointing to Elliot's name, he said to Lily and the others, "This man is my father.”
Alice was slower to see and follow Ronnie's pointing, and when she realized that it really was her father's name, she said happily, "It really is, I can't believe Dad is so great.”
Lily and the others were also in a flurry of compliments and Gina turned to Ronnie and said, "Boss, maybe your name will be there later.”
Tom chimed in, "Every two years the City-state awards a major scientific achievement that affects the world, and it tends to be vacant every year, if the boss can give the stealth technology to the City-state this time, the grand elders should give him a first-class medal.”
Everyone looked at Ronnie after hearing Tom's words. If it was in the past, Ronnie would have agreed without hesitation, but since the last time he was kidnapped by the Doomsday Bunker, the City-state did not go looking for him, only symbolically circled You City a few times and then made no move. In the end, it was only through his father that he was able to escape, and it was at this point that his loyalty to the City-state began to wane. He felt that only his family could be counted on when it mattered. Tom asked him to transfer the stealth technology to the City-state, but he privately refused. Actually, it wasn't the City-state's fault; every year, the City-state had a few scientists who left on their own for no reason, and after a long time, the City-state didn't take them seriously. Alice saw that he had been silent for a long time and gently pushed him, "What's wrong with you? what are you thinking about?"
Ronnie knew that everyone was waiting for his answer, "We will talk about it after the competition, I am not thinking about it now.”
After hearing this, everyone except Alice was a little disappointed, they hoped that their boss would be awarded the First Class Order of the Holy Virgin so that their "Rebirth Partners" could become the top science team. Now, among all the science teams in the New World, there are only six leaders who have the honor of the First Class Medal. They walked around the school and returned to their temporary quarters. On his way back, Ronnie accidentally ran into the same "Doomsday Bunker" as Laurent - the City-state scientists who had tricked him twice. As soon as the other party saw him, he came over in a rage: "Ronnie, you liar, you actually ran away first when we agreed to go out together."
"Didn't I leave you a note, didn't you get rescued later because of me?" Ronnie felt guilty and was busy explaining.
Laurent thought carefully, felt that Ronnie had said nothing wrong, and his anger subsided for the most part. As his anger subsided, it occurred to Ronnie that he had betrayed him. He asked: "Were you the last to report my escape to the 'Doomsday Bunker'?"
"I ... "Laurent was about to reply, but when he thought of his current situation, he smiled awkwardly and said, "Forget it, let's not mention these things, people become devils in that environment, you betrayed me once too, now we're even."
Ronnie wasn't a small-minded man, and he forgave him. The two of them chatted for a while, and when Laurent was about to leave, he said, "The bearded man also wants to come to the City-state and now lives in the 'Shire Town,' and I heard that he came to the City-state because he wanted to find someone.”
Hearing his words, Alice's face immediately turned red, just in time for Ronnie to see it. After Laurent left, he asked, "Sister, do you think the bearded man came to look for you?"
The bearded man came to look for Alice, since he had been relieved of all his duties by the "Nine Stars United" after the discovery of the "Doomsday Bunker", he was without a job and wanted to enter the City-state. He couldn't forget Alice, so he inquired about her. When he arrived in You City, the enrollment period had already passed, so he had to stay in Shire Town and wait for the next year to enroll again. Ronnie was still very grateful to the bearded man, he had saved them several times, without the help of the other side, he and his sister could not have come out of the Doomsday Bunker alive.
Of course, Alice had guessed the bearded man's mind, but she didn't love this man and was more than grateful to this person as well.
"I don't know, maybe!" Alice replied.
"Sister, we should meet him after the game, after all, he saved our lives."
After a moment of hesitation, Alice said, "All right then!"
The third match of the finals was held on the morning of the twenty-ninth. The six robots were randomly divided into three groups, with the winners going to the top three. No. 3's opponent this time was "Si City Berserker". This robot was a dark horse that had appeared in the past two years, and it had defeated Andre's "Thunder Eater". He was also the runner-up in last year's tournament, and Gina had gathered information about his opponent beforehand. Ronnie's confidence was greatly diminished after reading it, and he felt that No. 3 was probably no match for him. The matches now could be much more brutal than six years ago and the opponents were getting stronger. The match was about to start, and No.3 stood quietly, waiting for the referee's whistle to blow. While waiting, he looked at his opponent, "Si City Berserker", who had yellow hair, a large shovel in his hand, and a smile on his face. When the referee's whistle blew, before No. 3 could see it, the Berserker was already in front of him, he raised the shovel and pushed it towards No. 3. No. 3 was caught off guard and was hit in the chest by his opponent. He took several steps back before stabilizing himself. Just as he stopped, his opponent followed him again, and the berserker's shovel attacked at the same time as a chain flew out from the back handle, quickly wrapping around No.3's feet. No.3 did not expect his opponent to be able to attack from two places at the same time, and his feet were wrapped up at the same time. It's useless to try to be invisible at this point. He swung his broadsword to cut the chain, but the berserker had already grabbed him and pulled him up by his feet. He lost his balance and immediately fell down, and when the berserker saw him fall to the ground, he leapt up and jumped on top of him, pressing down on No.3's head in one fell swoop and saying with a smile, "Are you convinced?”
Ronnie sighed from the stage and raised the white flag. The six Rebirth Partners were disappointed that No. 3 had been defeated by his opponent in this match before he could even use his Stealth Technique.