As the staff member leads the fourth member of the group, he glances at Feng Ye and says, “Your next opponent is a rank E esper.”

Feng Ye nods. “Rank E…”

He waits at his indicated position and observes the fourth member of the group who walks in. This individual is of unknown gender from Feng Ye’s observations. They have hidden their face under a mask and dressed in dark blue colored hoodie which seemed to be a size too large for them. The individual is wearing the hood which covers the back of their head.

The mask is of a rather odd design. It reminded Feng Ye of the mask from his old world.. the Guy Fawkes mask. This type of design essentially consists of a smile, red cheeks, and mustache and usually associated as the symbol for the online hacktivist group, Anonymous.

The difference lies in which the mask doesn't have a smiling expression. Instead, it was one which portrays pain and anger. The height of this individual seems to be shorter than Feng Ye. They also don’t appear as athletic as the other three prior opponents. Rather, they appeared rather frail in appearance.

The fourth member walks to the indicated position and nods to the staff member.

DIINNNGG!

The opponent stands in the same place without making any movements and stares at Feng Ye. However, this staring didn’t last very long as a very large aura wells up. With his Spiritual Awareness, Feng Ye notices that a blanket of gloominess arises. At first this blanket was only noticeable through Spiritual Awareness. However, quickly, it had grown to exhibit a black colour which was visible to the human eye.

This gloominess seemed to contain feelings of hate, resentment, and fear. The blanket of gloominess cloaks his opponent and widely spreads and grows. It develops similar to a huge blazing flame that would burn away an entire forest during the early stages of a forest fire. This gloominess envelops his opponent.

At this moment, Feng Ye could feel a chill going down his spine. Just what kind of ability is this?! Is this really rank E? A drop of cold sweat slides down his forehead.

Strands of the gloominess from the opponent’s frail figure approach Feng Ye. As he had no solution at the moment, he decided to directly face it head on. He rushes towards his opponent. At the same time, the strands of gloominess emitted from his opponent strike from above towards him.

Feng Ye maintains a constant high paced sprint while dodging the strikes from above. He avoids the barrage of strikes from the sky. The missed strikes which come in contact with the arena floor form small potholes in the ground.

The frail looking opponent notices that their attacks aren’t landing and decides to recall all the strands and centre all of it on themself.

At this time, Feng Ye arrives to his opponent near body and prepares to knock this odd one out with a fury fist Feng punch (normal punch).

Unfortunately, his arm is stopped by one of the strands of gloominess which has wrapped around his wrist and halted his attack. The strands of gloominess start to tangle around his legs, arms, and upper body.

A huge sense of fear, hatred, and resentment can be felt around him at this time. In this period of silence, the two stare at each other. Feng Ye’s fist is held midair around 5 centimetres from his opponent’s mask. The strands continue to envelop Feng Ye and he feels that the strong emotions and feelings are trying to intrude into his mind.

Quickly, Feng Ye’s mind begins racing and calculating a solution in this limited amount of time as a crisis approaches.

“Hidden Wanderer? Nope, won’t be able to use it..

Spiritual Awareness? Perhaps…”

From the system description, he knows that the esper ability allows him to have increased mental fortitude, exchange of consciousness, mental communication, and Shira Takeover. However, he had discovered in his last match, that he could also utilize it to sense and visualize ill intentions.

Then what if he could potentially use his ability to exchange consciousness as a mental attack? It sounds crazy but may work.

He resolves himself to use this as an attack. Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense. This is his first time using this Spiritual Awareness as an “attack.” Immediately, Feng Ye concentrates all his strength, and thoughts into assaulting the mind of his opponent in front of him.

His surroundings change. However, it is filled with the same gloominess that he had seen a moment ago. He notices that he’s standing in an open space. This most likely is the consciousness of his opponent.

In front of him is an individual of similar appearance to the opponent that he was just fighting against. This opponent was wrapped completely by the gloominess. Feng Ye rushes forward and completes the fury fist Feng punch at full power.

BAM!!

As soon as the punch connects, Feng Ye finds himself out of that gloomy space of consciousness and notices that the opponent in front of him had fallen to a single knee panting. The strands had disappeared as though they had never appeared.

His opponent then taps out by patting the floor.

Observing nearby, the staff member announces the victory. “Victory to the Challenged Party.”

Shira’s voice resounds in his mind. “You have gained another 30 EP (Energy Points). So, total 90 EP to be allocated.”

Another member of the staff arrives from the entrance and whispers into the ear of the staff member who had just announced the outcome. The staff member then turns towards Feng Ye and smiles. “Congratulations for completing and winning the Dispute Challenge as the challenged party. The fifth member decided to forfeit immediately after hearing that they were called up.”

As his words fall, Feng Ye can see the rest of the group members arrive. The green haired male, the European male, the red hoodie opponent, and a blond haired male all enter the arena. The blond male scratches his hair awkwardly and was the one who gave up. Beside the four, is the opponent he had just faced who had stood up.

The European male approaches Feng Ye and smiles. “You are actually way fiercer than we thought. Take your winnings.”

The staff member then continues. “In accordance to the agreement, this cash is given to the winner.” The staff member hands out a card. “This is a card which contains the amount. It is $550 USD in value.”

Feng Ye accepts the card. He turns around to leave after a last glance at his defeated opponents. His opponents nod towards him as a symbol of acknowledgement. The masked individual watches Feng Ye’s back as he leaves.

Feng Ye arrives back at this rented room. “This has been a pretty good experience. That rank E esper was serious different. Perhaps, that particular ability only is a good match for those who are weak willed or don’t have enough tenacity to power through the strands of gloominess. Seriously, quite odd for an ability. This world will definitely have more formidable ones. I need to find a way to further develop these esper abilities and upgrade the abilities from the system as soon as possible.”

He sits down and analyzes the harvest.

“This quite a good harvest. 90 Energy Points have been gained which will help immensely. Unexpectedly, the largest harvest was actually further development on his Spiritual Awareness ability. Two applications and paths for growth had been discovered. Mental attacks as well as increased detection are now available. “

He then decides to utilize this ability to shield his dreams from Shira to prevent her trolling. As it is able to mentally pressure and attack his opponent, the ability should be able to form a protective wall in his mind. This will allow him some privacy from the ever so bored Shira. He also uses this ability to shield his current consciousness and thoughts from Shira. It can be sometimes hard work to try to keep one’s mind pure. Sometimes, when an impure thought creeps up, Shira would tease him. This advancement in the application of his ability will prevent Shira from peeping. Naturally, this wall isn’t impermeable. Shira can still express her thoughts to Feng Ye and vice versa. It is just that now, Feng Ye will have more freedom of thought as his own thoughts will be separated. All of Feng Ye’s senses can still be experienced by Shira such as smell, taste, hearing, sight, etc. With the exception of thought, nothing has changed much with the usage of this ability.

He had been quite annoyed of the random troll faces that pop up like jump scares in his lovely dreams. He decides to allocate the energy points after some good rest.

Shira noticed this new disruption due to the esper ability and sighs. It seems like she had lost a method to killing time. No more trolling through dreams.

It doesn’t really affect her, so she shrugs it off and continues to lay on the floor within Feng Ye’s mind. Although, she won’t have direct access to Feng Ye’s thoughts, she will still be able to experience whatever Feng Ye experiences which satisfies her anyways.

The Dispute Challenge had lasted a few hours. Outside, it is morning. However, Feng Ye is exhausted. After 24 hours of the Shira Takeover condition, and finally completing the matches, the only goal is to sleep.

Feng Ye dozes off into dreamland as his head makes contact with the pillow. It seems tonight, there won’t be any interruptions by Shira due to his newly found application of his esper ability. With a smile, he sleeps and rests with no fear of being trolled.

***

Meanwhile, in the next room, Kotomi Miku had woken up and started to go downstairs to meet up with Feng Ye. It is morning and another day in which Feng Ye should be training.

Kotomi Miku was unable to find Feng Ye at this time. Thus, she approaches the security floor to inquire where he may have headed.

After some discussion with the security, Kotomi was informed that Feng Ye had gone into his room late and hasn’t come out since.

She thinks to herself. “Hm...odd. However, I’ll let him sleep and once he wakes up, I will get a reason..” Following this decision, she heads out to complete her daily training routine.