...

Few moments before the end of the battle, Shin was closely sweeping his eyes on the whole area, trying to find the location of his opponent. But after a few more minutes of waiting, it seemed that finding Janine this way was going to be impossible.

Reaching this point, Shin chose to make another move. First, he secretly activated the 'Phantom Dance' to summon a single phantom, which he made overlapped with himself. Then he activated one of the stealth skills attached on his [Nightwalker's Cloak].

After setting up such a cunning scheme, Shin controlled his breathing as some sort of stealth technique before starting to roam around the ruined church as he tried to locate his opponent.

But after a few more moments of looking around, Shin started frowning his eyebrows. It was because he couldn't find Janine after such a long time of looking around. "Huh!? Now, this is a little bit troublesome. Here hiding skills is quite something. Truly worthy of being a top contender of this tournament."

Since Shin failed to find Janine despite all of the trouble he went through just to put that cunning setup, he started trying a different kind of approach. He deactivated the 'True Sight' ocular skill before closing his eyes and focusing all of his senses at using the 'Sensing Circle'.

Then he started increasing the range of the 'Sensing Circle' bit by bit with accordance of a sensing Mentalism Technique that he had. He already tried this kind of trick before during the time when they were sieging the Fallen Outpost. And after experiencing the benefits of it, he also put quite some time at familiarizing himself with it.

This might be his first time using this trick in an actual battle, but he was actually quite skilled at utilizing it since he was currently focusing all of his training at relearning his Mentalism Techniques in the real world.

Shin extended out the range of 'Sensing Circle for as far as possible until he finally managed to spot the target that he was looking for. And the moment he found Janine, he couldn't help but wear a bitter while shaking his head. "I don't expect that this fight is going to be like this."

After that, he started sneaking towards Janine as soon as he found her. And when he reached her spot, Shin immediately executed her with a quick series of his melee skills before saying. "You have a quite good hiding skill, huh? It takes me quite an effort to find you in such a small place."

Then he watched his opponent fall lifelessly on the ground while muttering to himself. "This fight may progress differently if only you properly utilized your hiding skills."

He paused for a moment before shaking his head once again before saying. "You got blinded too badly by that usual style of yours. And unfortunately, you don't have a second plan if ever that style of yours became ineffective against someone."

Reaching this point, Shin suddenly did another paused moment. But this time, he actually did it quite unintendedly. Then he started shaking his head once again while having yet another bitter smile.

Then he said bitterly to himself. "I already choose to walk this kind of path so I will make sure that I am going to see through it until the end."

After that, he looked at the specks of light that Janine turned into before adding to what he said. "And I am sure that I am not going to end up like her since I have some reliable friends that can help me grow on this path."

A moment later, Shin was also teleported out of the battle arena as the matchup finally ended.

...…

Meanwhile, on different online platforms, this battle of Shin and Janine completely blew up; it became a very hot topic online. Though, it was actually in a negative way.

Due to the promotion that this matchup got left and right from the 'True Sight Industries', this battle really has been hyped up to an unimaginable degree. And this was the main reason why the tickets for the live audience of this fight were sold out.

Unfortunately for both of the audience and the 'True Sight Industries', became quite disappointed at the battle process since it didn't manage to meet their expectations. As for its ending and result? It was pretty much unexpected for everyone.

And since all of the battles were running with a strange rule of protecting the secrets of every participant, everyone that watched couldn't see the players inside the field whenever the players in the field entered the stealth.

Given this, everyone was too confused when the battle suddenly ended when they were still thinking why Janine was not using her usual 'Psychic Style' of battle.

Due to all of these, all of the keyboard warriors of the internet started accusing Shin and Janine for fixing the match. It was quite understandable since they had very limited information about the battle; especially since they were missing the critical most information that actually affected this flow of this battle.

Because all of these, the World Gaming Organization was suddenly alarmed since the certain rule that they made to make this tournament become even more challenging was not backfiring at them.

They closed off most of the basic information that every contestant could get from all of the battle clips. But right now, it seemed like this very rule made them shoot their own foot.

Fortunately, the response that the World Gaming Organization made was quite crafty. They said that they already investigated the said topic before saying that they didn't find a foul play that could count as Shin and Janine fixing the match.

They refused to show the footage of the battle to keep that rule that they were holding, but for them to further prove their side, they invited some Top Godlike Players to break down the whole match. And given that these Godlike Players had very high reputations in the gaming industries, the keyboard warriors in the internet had no other choice but to shut their mouths.

Regardless, Shin's reputation in the eyes of these guys suddenly became all time low. Even if he managed to uncover the secret behind the strange battle style of his opponent, he was still going to be the villain for all of these players.

...…

On the other hand, Shin didn't give a d*mn on them. All he cared for now was the ratio that he got on the betting pool of the tournament; he suddenly got a very high stake if he ever won his upcoming battles.

"Hahaha… you are the only one that I know who can still smile wide despite having a very bad reputation in the gaming world," said Arthur as he looked at Shin who was currently smiling from ear to ear.

"How can I not be happy if I know that I can earn a lot of money if I manage to win my upcoming battle," replied Shin without removing his eyes at the virtual scene in front of him.

Then he immediately added after a slight pause. "And why would I care what the others think of me if I know myself better than them? What's more, I don't even need them in my life, so why would I care for them?"

And after another pause, he suddenly turned his head at Arthur who was comfortably sitting on the sofa of his room once again before saying. "And why the hell are you here again? I thought you have some things that you need to do in the real world."

Hearing that, Arthur suddenly shrugged his shoulders while replying. "What can I do? Uncle Nathan was suddenly summoned at the Military Headquarters when I am about to have a lesson under him."

Then he suddenly paused for a moment as he remembered something. "Oh! I overheard earlier that it is regarding the incident in Michigan City that you had been involved into. From the looks of it, they finally found the organization behind that incident."

The moment Shin heard that, he seemed to forget everything else and looked at Arthur seriously. His sworn brother was abducted by those guys after all. Even if Leonard somehow managed to get some benefits from that incident, but things might still be dangerous if those guys were still around.

"Did you hear anything else?" asked Shin solemnly. At the same time, the atmosphere inside the room suddenly turned cold as some intense killing intent was being released from his body.

"Hey! Hey! Calm down a little. I know how you feel, but things are already out of league," said Arthur as he was trying to calm Shin's mood a little.

Then he continued right after seeing that Shin retrieve his killing intent back. "I don't know much about it, but from what I heard earlier, it seems that the whole organization is suddenly wiped out."

Shin was taken aback after hearing that before having an even more solemn expression on his face. Then he said while frowning his eyebrows. "Being silenced?"

Hearing that, Arthur just shrugged his shoulders before saying. "Not sure about that. But if that was the case, and given how big that organization is, we can say that there is actually an even bigger monster behind it."

Shin heavily nodded his head after hearing that. He and Arthur were raised in a Military Family, so they were pretty much aware how the things were actually working under the surface. Especially for Shin since he was also trained in the Black Serpent Mafia.

And now that he discovered what happened in the organization behind the incident in Michigan City, then he could really tell that there was actually a hegemon behind that organization.

Learning about this, Shin couldn't help but feel threatened as his instincts were telling him that this mysterious organization was planning something big; big enough to shake the current balance of the world.

And when he suddenly thought about it, he couldn't help but have a rush feeling to become strong as soon as possible. So, he clenched his hand into a fist before muttering to himself. 'I guess we need to become ready as soon as possible for something big is about to come.'

...…