( Meanwhile, at other arenas )
Lin Mu was assigned to the same preliminary venue as the other night guild members and had to not even lift a finger to clear the first round.
Standing at the center with both her arms folded, she watched calmly as her lackies handled everything for her as from start to finish she was needed to take no personal action.
The common contestants were of course no match for the juiced up night guild fighters on steroids who not only had excellent technique, but also enhanced strength, as they were mauled like a child when facing them.
Overall, Dem Paltrow was very satisfied with the performance as Lin Mu and the rest all progressed to the second round.
**********
The arena that Jerome and Luke went out to spectate, just happened to be the arena where Cervantez was trying to qualify from, as the duo was treated to a top performance from the guildmaster of DarkSky guild.
This was the first time that Luke saw Cervantez in action and he did not disappoint at all!
Even without a weapon, anyone could see the difference between him and the other contestants easily, as whether it was positional awareness, explosive speed, or impressive strength, Cervantez was miles ahead from the rest as just like Leo in his round, Cervantez wiped house in his.
"Hmmm, this DarkEmperor guy is strong-" Jerome commented, while observing the fight as he felt genuine threat from Cervantez, as he committed him to memory for the future.
While Luke and Jerome watched all three qualification rounds on that venue, no other individual stood out as much as Cervantez, as in the end, he was the only fighter that genuinely worried Jerome.
Other DarkSky members like Tor also managed to qualify, but with hundreds of NPC and players qualifying to round two of preliminaries, this small win was nothing to write home about yet.
With there still being two more stages of preliminaries to cross, the road between now to the start of the grand tournament was still long.
**********
( The Uprising, core members group chat )
"I think the grand tournament brings with it a grand opportunity to start a betting ring. We observed the crowd across all arenas today and have realized that the official betting channels are too expensive, taking 20-25% cut off the winnings.
If we can undercut them, offering a 10% margin, we can make hundreds of thousands of gold coins" a core member suggested.
"I think just taking part in illegal betting is too risky, what if we are caught and our funds are seized? We should instead leverage our bet by using the illegally obtained money, and placing a bet on the official channels.
That way we can potentially earn double the money while also evading official scrutiny" another core member, who was incharge of smuggling people into the city said, as his suggestion was warmly accepted by many.
"I think what we need is set-up inside men. We need people who can help us rig the fights and eliminate the risk of gambling. I think we need to approach those fighters who have no hopes of winning the tournament overall and then buy them over for small sums of money.
This way, we can make maximum profits while taking minimal risk" suggested a third core member, responsible for running the black markets as ChaosBringer who was reading this chat could not help but feel impressed by their ideas.
At first when he set up the uprising, it was a rag-tag bunch of hooligans, however, over time it had evolved into a more solid organization with actual smart people in it.
These days, everything from smuggling people in, buying arms, property, running black markets, bribing public officials, occurred in a smooth way without ChaosBringer needing to personally do much, as the core members of the uprising had turned into reliable mob bosses.
The organization grew on its own and relying on the fake news that 'TheBoss' was one of their own, the group managed to expand their lower management by a lot, as the prestige of the top player brought a lot of names to the organization.
"I agree with the approach that buys the fighters out before the fight. However, I want to know if any of our organization members have made it to the second round?
I mean, rather than buying people off, I would first buy off people in our own organization as that would definitely be more reliable" another core member said, as discussions broke out about the point that he put forward.
Some suggested making a public announcement within the uprising server to ask if any of their members were participating, while the others suggested lurking in global chat and catching people who were flexing their wins there.
Finally, someone asked if 'TheBoss' was participating in the tournament or not, as if he was participating then they did not even need to rig the fights as because he was the best player, they could simply place all bets on him to win, as once again discussions broke out about TheBoss, and demands were made that he address the guild chat.
"To be honest I'm tired of 'TheBoss' always being silent. Like at some point you need to talk-"
"Yes, leader ChaosBringer, please ask him to address this crowd-"
"We wish to talk to 'TheBoss' "
Wild demands started to be made, as ChaosBringer frowned watching this situation develop.
He hoped that the demands to talk to 'TheBoss' would fizzle out after a while like they usually did, however, today seemed different as he was forced to make a public statement.
" TheBoss is an erratic entity, he's not someone that even I can get a hold off easily, however, as far as him performing in the Grand Tournament is concerned, I think it will be open for all to see.
Just wait till the tournament officially starts-" ChaosBringer typed, as he wrote a complete lie to silence the crowd.
As for how it was going to play out, only time would tell.
—--------
/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone! ///