...

Then the next day after the first stage of the tournament, the first round of the next stage was about to start.

All of the first-round matchups were scheduled to start at exactly 12 noon (in-game time). And since all of the battles were scheduled to take place simultaneously, most of the players that wanted to watch the battles were forced to choose which one they were going to watch.

Of course, the live audience were not included in these since they already bought the tickets of the battles that they wanted to watch; and there was no refund for it.

Given these, everything was already set in motion; all of the viewers and audiences were already waiting for the battles to start, and they were impatiently anticipating the battles that they had chosen to watch.

At the same time, the participants were also ready for battle and were just waiting for the system to transfer them on their respective battlefields. And with this battle hunger attitude that they currently had, the opening round of the groups stage would surely be going to become an absolute battle feast.

...…

In the meantime, one of our combatants was completely in a different mood compared to the others.

"D*mn, Shin! Can you stop walking back and forth? I thought you are confident about winning this battle? Then why do you look like an anxious dog right now?" said Arthur while looking at Shin with a completely annoyed expression on his face.

Hearing those words, Shin threw a fierce glare at Arthur while. "D*mn you, stupid Golden Boy! Why did you not tell me that the participants will get a 50% commission from the ticket sales of their fights?"

Arthur took a helpless sigh when he heard that and said. "And why will it matter? No matter what you do, your battle is still not going to become as popular as the Title Rankers from the previous games. So, it is better if you give up on that thought for now."

"Still!!! You should have informed me about that! I can't at least think of a marketing strategy to promote my own battle!" yelled Shin strongly before going back to having the dejected mood.

Then he opened a virtual screen before showing it to Arthur. "Can you see this? The ticket sales of my upcoming battle did not even manage to reach tenth of its total. Do you know how terrible it is? Despite me showing some good performance at the first stage of the tournament."

After hearing this, Arthur couldn't help but threw Shin a mocking look while sneering. "Heh! Marketing strategy? You know, you sound like Big Sis right now. And what kind of marketing strategy will you be able to come up with in just a short amount of time?"

"And as for your concern about the ticket sales of your battle, that is where your in-game reputation will come in. You may be shown a good fight in your battle against Owen. But in the eyes of the majority of the players that watched that battle, it was just an occasional good battle that they can witness; that's all."

"At the same time, if you compared your battles to the players that already solidified their footings in the gaming world, your battle is somewhat to the same degree. But they can't be sure that they can still see the same level of battle if they watch you once again."

"So, it is natural for them to prioritize watching a battle of those Titled Rankers than yours since they are already confident that they can see the degree of battle that they are expecting. After all, it is quite wise of them to choose a battle that they can be sure about their money being well spent."

Hearing those long words from Arthur, Shin couldn't help but become suspicious if he was still the brother that he knew. 'What's wrong with this guy? Why can't I refute his words now? And why did he start to become somewhat reasonable right now?'

After all of these, Shin finally threw everything at the back of his head now and started focusing his thoughts for the upcoming battle.

Then he threw a quick look at his game clock and saw that there were still a couple of minutes before the first round stated. Seeing this, he chose to take a seat at the chair nearby before closing his eyes to regain the peak mindset for battle.

And when Arthur saw Shin's quick change of mood, he couldn't help but click his tongue and say. "Tsk! This guy is really unpredictable; he is too quick at changing all of his moods."

Then he turned his head to the side and looked at Leonard, who was actually sitting there since the beginning with crossed arms and closed eyes. "What do you think, Leo? This guy's mental illness is becoming more and more frequent, isn't it?"

Hearing that Arthur was calling him, Leonard slowly opened his eyes before releasing a helpless sigh. Then he took a look at Shin before saying. "We can't do anything about it for now. I asked my Master if Shin Bro is suffering mental problems because of his bloodline, which is similar to my case. But after explaining everything to him, he said that they are completely different."

"According to the Master, my bloodline came from a tribe of Ancient Warriors of the Ancient Era. This certain tribe is calling themselves as 'Crimson Lions' since they are worshiping a Divine Beast that resembles a lion."

"The warriors of this Crimson Lion Tribe are notoriously known for having bad tempers and famed for being a bunch of battle hanger individuals, but that was only because of their bloodline that is bestowed to them by the Divine Lion Beast. And if not controlled properly, they might become some unstoppable killing machine that will continue on slaughtering until they die."

Then Leonard took a quick pause and smiled bitterly before saying. "On the other hand, Shin Bro's situation is quite different. He says that he has already examined Shin Bro before. And according to what he has discovered, Shin Bro's problem is because of something else."

"In fact, Master even said that the bloodline that was flowing through Shin Bro's veins is showing some signs of having the sacred property; and it was actually surprising the evil within Shin Bro."

Hearing all of these, Arthur couldn't help but look at Leonard dumbfoundedly as he didn't expect that he would get a very long reply for such a simple question.

When Leonard felt that gaze from Arthur, he suddenly got embarrassed, making him clear his throat a little and said. "Cough! Sorry about that. I was actually mimicking you when you were explaining some things to Shin Bro earlier."

Arthur's face suddenly turned stiff after hearing that reply and flashed a middle finger at Leonard with an annoyed face.

Seeing that, Leonard suddenly started chucking and said. "Now you know how it feels when you are actually explaining things in a wise tone. It is quite annoying isn't it? I am not saying that you are wrong, it just doesn't feel right when you are sharing some of your wisdom."

This time, Arthur raised his other hand and flashed another middle finger with it before saying. "F*ck you!"

After feeling satisfied at making fun of Arthur, Leonard went to the subject with a serious tone. "Anyway, jokes aside, my Master also said that we need to keep an eye on Shin Bro from now on."

Then he squinted his eyes and said. "He said that even if the Shin Bro's Bloodline is quite strong, that 'evil' is not that weak either."

"Actually, Master also said that they might be even in equal terms. The latter was actually on the weaker side because it was being suppressed by something, which is why Shin Bro's Bloodline can overwhelm it; though, it was not completely."

"According to Master, the frequent chance in Shin Bro's mood was actually due to the residual energies of those powers."

At this point, Arthur also stopped fooling around and muttered to himself. "It pretty sounds like an amazing pair of powers. I wonder how strong they are. I guess I really can't slack off on my training from now on."

Leonard happened to overheard Arthur's mumbling and thought to himself. 'It looks like I need to put more effort on all my training too. I can't afford to be left behind by these too.'

At the same time, Shin was actually sitting not far from them. But he couldn't not hear what they were saying since he was already in a deep mediation state. And in this state, he already separated himself from his surroundings to achieve a complete serenity.

Due to this, the aura that he was giving suddenly changed and suddenly became tranquil, but there was also an intense feeling of threat from it; his aura felt like a vast ocean that was too calm on the surface yet hiding some danger underneath.

Naturally, the two were able to sense such an obvious change. And when they felt it, the two of them suddenly turned their heads at Shin with a weird expression on their face.

Then they look at each other before smiling bitterly; they have the same thoughts in mind.

– "Now I felt sorry for his opponent this time." –

...…