...…

The second stage of the Shadow Ranking Cup was scheduled to be started the day after its first stage of the tournament. And due to that, the event staff of the game were too busy scheduling the matchups.

They didn't do the matching up of players manually, since the AI Chronos would take care of that part. So, these matchups were going to be fair since they were completely randomized.

And since most of the participants that managed to advance for the next stage were quite famous, the event staff didn't have to worry about the selling of the paid tickets.

The only problem that they were going to encounter was the arrangements of the matchups. After all, they needed to put a good sequence of battles so that the most anticipated fights of the most famous ones would not overlap with each other.

What's more, they also needed to make sure that the hype of the preceding battles would not die down easily compared to the previous battles that they followed after.

But despite all of the troubles that these event staff had gone through, they still managed to finish the complete schedule for the first round of the tournament's second stage before the end of the day.

The players that wanted to watch the battles of their idols or 'bets' immediately brought the paid tickets for the live audience when the official list became available to the public; it didn't even manage to reach the one-hour mark, before all of the tickets for the match of these famous participants became sold-out.

This signified the intensity of the current Shadow Ranking Cup compared to the previous ones; the excitement and anticipation of all of the players for the upcoming second stage of the tournament were pretty much unbelievable.

Together with all of these, there were also a lot of complaints from pensionable players about the amount of tickets for the live audience.

After all, even if the different entertainment industries focusing in the gaming world had plans of covering some battles for a live broadcast, there were still some problems regarding it; the number of battles that they could cover were pretty much limited.

All they could do was to choose a matchup that they wanted to feature while the others were going to be left alone.

From the 30 battle arenas of the first stage of the tournament, the total number of participants that managed to advance for the next stage was 384. And these players were going to be divided in 16 groups with 24 participants each.

Meaning, there would be a total of 192 simultaneous fights that would take place for the first round of the second stage of the tournament.

Even if the entertainment industries chose different fights to cover for their broadcasts, they were still not enough to feature all of the good fights from the tournament.

But regardless of all of the complaints, the Game Management couldn't do anything about that since it was pretty much impossible to occupy all of the players on the viewing platform for the live audience.

Fortunately, the True Sight Industries found a way to ease the outrage on the online platforms; they decided to let the players vote for the fight that they wanted to watch. And whoever got the highest vote from this would be the matchup that they were going to feature on their live broadcast.

Learning all about these, the other entertainment industries also saw the opportunity to get high ratings. Unfortunately, it was already too late for them; as what the saying had said, 'Early birds catch the first worm'.

What's more, Mr. Cool Guy and Ms. Bunny were a pair of famous people on the online platforms. So, even if these other entertainment industries tried to mimic what the True Sight Industries did, it was pretty much impossible for them to steal the viewers from the later no matter how hard they try.

...

Meanwhile, as the whole gaming world was too busy at throwing a fuse over the tickets, there was a certain guy busying himself at browsing at the betting polls of the tournament.

And while he was doing it, a bored voice suddenly interrupted him. "Hey, what are you doing Shin? Are you not going to get for the next stage? Are you that confident in winning this match?"

Shin threw a sidelong glance at that guy before replying. "From what you said, that guy belongs to the weaker group of Titled Rankers. Meaning, beating him is not going to be a hard one."

He paused for a moment and turned his head back to the virtual screen in front of him before continuing. "How about you, Arthur? Are you going to continue slacking off here and not going do anything productive and?? You are not afraid of getting left behind by the other leading players?"

Arthur was sitting on a sofa not far from him while comfortably leaning his back on it. And when he heard what Shin had, he suddenly formed a huge grin with lips before sneering. "Heh! You will not be able to understand me for now. But when you reach my current level of skill, you will know that grinding levels are not that important anymore."

Shin suddenly knitted his before asking slowly. "But levels are the biggest advantage that the leading players have. The larger the gap you have over the others, the stronger you are."

Hearing this, Arthur gave Shin yet another sneering reply. "It is true that levels are the biggest advantage we have, but there will always be a time when levels are not enough anymore. Skills and items however, are much more important when you reach a certain point."

"In our current level, grinding more experience points is much harder compared to the lower levels. At this point of time, you need a certain threshold of items and skill level to further advance forward."

Then he leaned further backwards and placed both of his hands at the back of his head before continuing. "Grinding experience points on the higher levels is pretty much too hard. So, focusing on getting a much better item and honing our skills further are much more important compared to it."

Then he closed his eyes as if he was going to take a nap while saying. "What's more, hunting some monster bosses to get some decent items and materials is much more productive on our current stage. At the same time, doing some quests to gain some levels is much faster compared to grinding in the field."

Shin suddenly knitted his brows before asking with a confused tone. "Then why are you still here and not doing either of those?"

Hearing this, Arthur couldn't help but click his tongue and replied with an annoyed tone. "Isn't it quite obvious already? I have much time to slack off because all of my equipments now are already the best at the current stage of the game. As for my skill set, there is no need to ask for that, right?"

The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly twitched the moment he heard that arrogant tone from Arthur's words. 'D*mn! This guy really loves to boast about himself.'

Realizing that he was being led in the conversation, Shin couldn't help but release a helpless sight before asking with a sarcastic tone. "Then how about doing some of your quest? Since you are already this amazing, why don't you clear some of those quests to gain more levels?"

Arthur ignored the sarcasm on Shin's words before replying in a leisure manner. "I already cleared all of the quests that I can do solo."

"Right now, all of the quests that I have in the queue are either an Empire Quest or Expedition Quest, which are pretty much impossible to be cleared alone. So, I need some assistance to clear it."

Then he released a helpless sigh before continuing. "And didn't I already tell you that me and Leo are waiting for you to finish up everything on your side before doing my quests? That quest is too hard so I need some help from trustful individuals."

"And of course, I am not generous enough to share it with others that I am not close with."

The corner of Shin's mouth twitched a little further the moment he heard all of those. 'And now, this guy learned how to boast in a nonchalant attitude; it was as if those things are not a big deal. It is getting on my nerves now.'

Shin tried to calm himself down before replying to Arthur. "Then sorry to disappoint you, Golden Boy. I am going away for quite some time to train under that Old Geezer and the Old Fatty after I am done with this tournament. So, I might not be able to help you this time."

As if he was waiting for Shin to say that, Arthur suddenly smirked and said. "Heh! You don't have to worry about that. The game is only going to be open for only a few days after the Shadow Ranking Cup, before going into a major maintenance that is going to last for at least two or three weeks."

Shin was suddenly taken aback with those words and asked confusedly. "Huh!? That is a pretty long maintenance. Why are they going to do that and what for?"

Arthur suddenly sat up straight and thought for a moment before giving his reply. "Well, it is pretty much common for all of the VR games to have this long maintenance at this season of the year. And there are pretty much a lot of reasons for it."

"The game is already running for more or less four months now, so the testing and early phases of the game are already done. So, it is time to move on the stage of the game to make things even more exciting."

"Next, the current levels of the players are rapidly increasing due to various number of special events. And due to that, the game developers need to input the new contents of the game. And since the world of this game is pretty much big, where a lot of places are needed to be updated, the input of the new contents will obviously take some time."

"And the last but not the least is the real world and in-game time difference. Since a lot of players of the game are students, the majority of these players are going to get busy in the real world when the school year starts once again. And due to that, their gaming time is going to drop significantly."

"Having this in mind, the World Gaming Organization will not let their game suffer a considerable amount of loss due to it. That is why they are going to adjust the in-game time and match it in the real world. That way, the players don't have to worry about being left behind too much due to the in-game time difference."

"And as a conclusion, you don't have to worry about being absent from the game for a long time since even the gods of this game is your side."

Hearing all of these, Shin looked at Arthur with a weird expression on his face while thinking to himself. 'As expected of a veteran gamer, he really knows a lot of this about the game. He can also predict the future plans of the game developers.'

Then he suddenly paused for a moment before shaking his head and wearing a bitter smile. 'Too bad, he didn't put this much effort on his studies. If only he put at least a fourth of it, I am pretty sure that he can be an honor student.'

And as if he could read what was running inside Shin's mind, Arthur suddenly 'defended' himself. "Schools are boring, why would I put more effort on something that I am not enjoying? It is not fun at all."

Hearing this, Shin couldn't help but further shake his head and continue smiling bitterly. 'This guy is hopeless.'

...…