...…

The second stage of the Shadow Ranking Cup continued. And as this event proceeded on its pace, the players that needed to be noticed started showing up one by one. Some were beating their opponents one-sidedly while others were just toying with their opponents.

At the same time, there were also some battles that were pretty hard to be ignored. It was because these fights were either too amazing to watch since they were a fight between top contenders, or it was an emergence of some dark horses that started introducing themselves.

But amidst all of these amazing fights and battles, there was a certain player, who was too odd to watch. It was not because the fights that he had were not amazing or anything. In fact, it was beyond just being amazing.

The only problem in his fights was the span of the battle.

Due to the brackets of each group only had 12 participants; and it was a single elimination bracket, each player only needed to win 2 battles before advancing to the semi-finals, which was a round robin between the top 3 players. And whoever the two players win the most, were the once to advance to that finals.

Meaning, each fight was very important for each participant of the tournament. But this certain player not only crashed the hopes of his opponents miserably, but he was also doing it in a very quick fashion.

Both of his battles didn't even surpass the thirty-second mark of the battle; one of them was even below the 1-second mark, which was pretty much unbelievable. And that was a one-second kill from the very first round of the stage.

He defeated both his opponents in one-sided fashion. And even if one of them managed to survive the first moves that he threw, the follow-ups were another story. What made the matter ever worse was the speed that he possessed in monstrously unreal.

So, even if both those opponents were quite aware about the opening moves that he was going to use, they were still going to get off-guard by how fast he was going to execute it. Knowing what was about to come and reacting on it on the spot, were completely different types of matter.

At the same time, the news about this player spread throughout the different online platforms. And when the other players got a wind about this news, they immediately doubted its credibility; especially when they heard about the one-second kill.

But when they tried to look for the footage of those fights that he had; they couldn't refute the news anymore. All they could do was to believe that it was real.

But the world would get imbalanced if there were no people that were going to antagonize the others. So, these players started saying that the opponents of this certain player were the weakest group among all of the candidates.

Unfortunately, the reality gave them a hard slap yet again when they learned the identities of those opponents. All of the players in that bracket were either known rising stars or old-time experts of different games. And no matter what these antagonists say, all of those candidates at least had some reputation in the gaming world.

So, all they could do was to shut up their mouths and accept the reality.

On the other hand, the eyes of all the expert players of that game suddenly got attracted to this player. Even if they were already aware about his presence since the start of the tournament, his value suddenly rose up due to the recent feats that he just achieved.

And since they could see more on the surface than the others, they could somehow tell that this certain player was actually trying to achieve something every time he stepped foot on the battle arena.

The idea was quite bold and unbelievable, but the much surprising thing about this was the idea kept on succeeding every single time. What's more, the player was actually testing out a different idea on every battle. It was the same whether it was during this tournament or his previous fights.

Due to this, these guys became even more uncertain about his battle style, which also made it even more unpredictable.

Moreover, other top contenders of the Shadow Ranking Cup started to become too wary of him and were taking the matter too seriously. And since he was only testing out something during all of his fights; especially during the beginning of the second stage, his real strength and battle prowess was still unknown, which was making him even more dangerous.

Even if they could try figuring out his real strength by watching all of his previous battle footage, they were still not accurate enough to give their judgement; especially when they could see that he kept on growing each battle that he had.

His battle against the 'Dark Knight: Owen' might be the closest one to show his combat prowess. But that was still not good enough to accurately access his real battle strength given that both of them were actually still hiding a lot of cards under their sleeves.

Given all of these, both the expert players observing the tournament and all of its top contenders, started to assess the player as someone that possessed a battle strength equivalent to a Peak-Title Ranker.

*********

Meanwhile, while everyone was busy raising a big fuss about that player, that man itself was currently unaware about everything. He was actually still inside his room at the Mayor's Residence while busily assessing all of his progress during all of his recent battles.

Even if all of his fights looked like a stroll in the park, Shin actually put a lot of effort to achieve all of those. Since he was still not familiar at controlling the elemental mana on his surroundings, the entire process was putting a lot of toll on his mind.

And even if the adrenaline that he got during his first fight was still present for quite a while, the thirty-minute gap of the rounds made it to become subdued. And because of this, he suddenly felt the aftermath of his new trick during the supposedly 'resting time'.

Given this, he couldn't help but mess up a little when he was trying to do another trick on the next round. Which resulted in the fight being slightly 'longer' than the previous one.

Fortunately, that was everything for today; since the group stage was already at the semi-finals round, he didn't need to worry about the next fight for the time being. But due to him being a training enthusiast and a battle maniac he was, he was still thirsting from more improvements and battles.

Originally, he was planning to ask some help from Arthur and Leonard; he wanted to have a little sparring match with them, so that he could experience the battle prowess of some real Godlike Players of that game, who were also standing at the very top of the virtual world.

But too bad for him, the two suddenly went out to who knows where. And even if he tried to contact them, all of his calls couldn't connect no matter what he did while all of his messages didn't get even a single reply.

"D*mn! And where that hell are these two? For all of the time that they can disappear, it has to be now? And here they keep lurking around here to waste some time?" Shin became a little frustrated when he couldn't contact the two.

And due to this, he had to give up the idea of challenging them. But that didn't mean he was going to forget about having yet another match. So, he settled with the 'second best' candidates that he could ask for. And they were Lawless and his group.

After a few more thoughts, Shin didn't waste any more time and immediately contacted Lawless.

The call didn't even get the second ring before it got answered. And when the call connected, a virtual screen suddenly appeared and showed Lawless, who was wearing a huge grin with his lips.

And before Shin could even say something, Lawless immediately beat him on the greetings. "Hey! Hey! Hey! Look at who we have here. Isn't this my oh-so famous brother? How come that you have the time to call me now?"

The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly twitched after hearing that as he didn't know if that was an honest greeting or just a sarcastic remark. But even if that was the case, he still greeted back. "Sorry for calling you just now. I suddenly got busy on my side. Though, I don't know what you are talking about."

Hearing him, Lawless suddenly started laughing out loud and said. "Hahaha… I see that you are still the same. Still clueless about the sensations that you are making if both of the online platforms and in-game platforms."

When Shin heard that, he suddenly knitted his brows and asked. "What do you mean?"

Getting that reply, Lawless suddenly made a snap with his right hand and said. "That's it! You finally learn how to keep up with the suspense of the conversation and stop having that half-ass attitude that you have before."

'And here you are again getting off the topic as usual,' thought Shin to himself as he watched Lawless saying that.

And as if he could hear what was Shin saying inside his mind, Lawless suddenly said. "But I am not going to spoil you this time since it is better if you discover it on yourself."

Then he paused for a moment and looked at Shin with a cheeky grin before saying. "How about you state your main purpose for this call? I know that you are going to ask for another help as always. So, be straightforward and state your mind. We are brothers after all."

With yet another twitch, Shin thought to himself. 'Tsk! and this guy's randomness is in top-class. He keeps changing the topic here and there. As for that remark, am I really that kind of person?'

Regardless, he still gave his reply. "It is not a big deal actually. I just want to ask if you can help me train a little. I am looking for some guys to spar with. Are you guy free?" while scratching his right cheek with his right-hand index finger.

The moment Lawless heard this, the grin that he was wearing suddenly rose even higher and said. "Heh! You called at the right time, brother. Me, Faker, Ravier and Ember were actually about to have a training session right now. Come at the Battle Arena of Calderock Town. We are going to wait there."

Hearing this, Shin suddenly became overjoyed and said. "Alright, I will be right there in a minute."

He was about to end the call when he heard Lawless say something more. "And while you are at it, please give us a free pass to the Arena. You can also exempt us on the time limit rule if you want. We don't mind."

Cough! Cough!

And when he heard that, he was suddenly choked with some air as he thought to himself. 'I thought your name Lawless fits you really well. But now, I am starting to I think that 'Shameless' is even better.'

...…