( Virtual World, Terra Nova Online )
As Leo logged back into the game, he found himself sleeping in his motel bed with Ben sitting on a chair adjacent to the bed.
"Morning-" Leo said, waking up as Ben nodded in acknowledgement to his greeting.
"Morning", he said, yawning, as he seemed to have spent the entire night staying awake.
"What happened? Why are you in my room?" Leo asked Ben, who got up from the chair he was seated in and began stretching his body.
"Night guild. I spotted their members at the second round qualifiers yesterday.
I think they were scouts and haven't recognised you yet, however, you can never be too careful" Ben said as although he did not elaborate fully, Leo understood the meaning behind his sentence.
Since the night guild was scouting competitors, there was a big chance that Leo was identified to be Ben's student and the assassination mission that was left incomplete before, was resumed again.
It was also true that one could never be too careful when dealing with a clan of assassin's, as Leo secretly thanked Ben for keeping the night's watch.
"The third round of the qualifiers is in two hours, this is the final hurdle before the tournament officially starts, are you ready?" Ben asked Leo, who nodded his head and gave him a thumbs up sign.
"That's my boy, give your opponent hell, whoever it may be" Ben said, as Leo cheerfully replied "Aye sir".
***********
The third round of the qualifiers was held in the prestigious Grand Arena.
The arena was built at the heart of Stronghaven city, an architectural marvel that could hold a total of 120,000 spectators at once.
Today, for the third round qualifiers 16 martial stages were built side by side in this grand arena, as the third and final round for open qualifiers was a one on one martial arts fight.
Out of the 128 candidates who had cleared the second round, only 64 would now advance as the official open candidates with the rest being eliminated at the third and final round.
With the fighting slots selected based on their overall score during the second round, the strongest were matched against the weakest opponents, while those near the middle faced a pretty even contest.
As Leo reached the waiting area designed for contestants, he found all eyes trained on him, as he found many familiar figures within the crowd.
For one, he recognised DarkEmperor, the number two player wearing his flamboyant DarkSky guild robes as just his presence in the room irked Leo.
Beside him stood Tor, a brute whom Leo had humbled just yesterday, as looking into his eyes today, Leo could not find the same level of defiance or arrogance.
Then there was the famous ranker 'RamenKing' standing in the room with his long pointed spear and flashy red robes, standing beside 'PurpleRock' another top ranker who was the guildmaster of a big guild called 'PurpleSmokers'.
Finally, there was Lin Mu and the night clan assassin's, as while Leo was not happy to see anyone else, he was very happy to meet Lin Mu.
Walking up to her, Leo wanted to strike up a conversation, however, before he could reach her, DarkEmperor blocked his path as he extended his hand forward.
"Hello-, I'm DarkEmperor" he said, his tone sounding complex as Leo let his hand hang in the air as he did not bother reciprocating.
"The Boss" he said, authoritatively as he stared into Cervantez's eyes, making him realize that the hand-shake he was waiting on was never coming.
"Well, I'm a fan, sort of, I've been wanting to meet you forever" Cervantez said, as he smiled and glanced at Tor standing behind him.
"I'm just here to wish you the best of luck in your upcoming fight, I know you'll make it to the main tournament-" Cervantez said, as Leo suppressed a scoff.
"Well, just pray you don't face off against one of the DarkSky guild members in the main tournament, Bossy boy, because if you do, that'll be the end for you" Tor chimed in from behind Cervantez as Leo rolled his eyes at the comment.
"We won't be taking any more of your time, excuse us" Cervantez said, moving past Leo but deliberately brushing his shoulder as he let the hostility be known.
Leo was an asshole, he did not even respond to basic courtesy and hence by the end of their brief conversation Cervantez did not feel the need to maintain any fake niceties either.
Initially he was wondering if he should make an offer to recruit The Boss into his guild or not, however, from the second their conversation started he knew that the man was not interested in anything he had to say.
Cervantez knew in his heart that there was nothing that he could offer The Boss to consider his offer and that trying to do so would only make him lose honor.
It was unfortunate, but whether it be the past life or this one, it seemed like recruiting The Boss was a mission that was going to be left uncompleted for Cervantez.
"That guy..." Cervantez murmured once he was out of Leo's earshot range as Tor nodded and completed his sentence "Yep, asshole, but also so different from the rest, like a regal asshole".
"Not just a regal asshole, but more like a deliberate regal asshole, he knows that his behavior will piss people off but he doesn't give a fuck. Gosh, he's so irritating" Cervantez said, as he felt a rage bubble build inside him.
Although the duo had only hardly exchanged a few glances and words, they felt completely riled up by Leo's attitude which viewed them as mere peasants in the presence of true royalty.
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/// A/N - Mass Release Chapter 3 of 5, This is a bonus chapter for hitting the power stones target, good job everyone! Thanks to your support we ended the month on a new all time high! ///