(PinkLotus's POV)
The moment PinkLotus teleported into the event room alongside the other guardians, a wave of regret washed over her.
Almost immediately, she felt the familiar, unsettling weight of someone's gaze falling on her body, as she found one of the men present in the room blatantly staring at her, his eyes drifting over her face and figure as if she were an object on display.
The experience was all too familiar, and it made her question her decision to come here in the first place.
But to her relief, not all the men in the room behaved the same way. The blonde with blue eyes, though clearly captivated by her, was discreet. He stole the occasional glance in her direction, but at least he had the decency to avoid making her feel uncomfortable.
Then there was the man with black hair, whose demeanor was entirely different.
His lack of interest in her was startling, almost refreshing. He exuded a calm, almost paternal authority, and when he caught the other man staring, he didn't hesitate to tell him off.
His actions made her feel an unexpected sense of security, something she wasn't used to.
And finally there was 'TheBoss,' cloaked in his signature black robes and mask.
He was completely indifferent to her presence, not even sparing her a second look after his initial glance.
It was as if her being a woman had no bearing on him at all, and for the first time in a long while, her charm seemed to have failed to affect someone.
It was an oddly refreshing feeling for her, leaving her with the realization that he was unlike anyone she'd ever encountered before.
'So this is the number one player? I wonder if he would accept my offer to spar with him,' PinkLotus thought, as at that moment, a beautiful elf teleported into the room.
"Oh? Hey Raya–" TheBoss said casually as if he already knew the elf, and the elf too bashfully smiled at him, as if she were smitten by his charm.
"Hello adventurer, welcome to the second rankers event—" the elf said, gulping a mouthful of saliva, as she showed the same signs of nervousness and longing that men usually showed when talking to PinkLotus.
'Oh… this beautiful NPC likes him,' thought PinkLotus, as it further improved her impression of 'TheBoss'.
"Let me tell you the rules of this event. The five of you have been chosen as the guardians, and you will be pitted against all the other players participating in this event.
The format of the event is….." Raya began, as she explained the entire format of the event in depth to all the guardians.
As she revealed details about the event that Luke and Cervantez already knew, Luke excitedly looked towards Cervantez, to give him a knowing nod, but the usually reliable guildmaster seemed to be lost staring at PinkLotus's back today.
As much to Luke's dismay, he never looked towards him once.
'I've never seen him behave this way before, the guildmaster is really smitten this time around' Luke thought, as the signal became clear to him that he had no room to harbor any emotions for PinkLotus and that she was the guild masters to pursue.
Finally, after ten minutes as Raya was done explaining the event and it's rules, she gave time to the players to ask her any doubts that they may have regarding the event, and it was at that moment, that 'TheBoss', asked her a simple question.
"So the selection of the guardians, you mean to say that after me, these are the four strongest players in the game?" TheBoss asked, his voice sounding condescending as if he could not believe that this was the best that the game could produce.
"Yes that's correct, according to our database, after you these are the four best combat players with a recorded history of participating in difficult combats.
There can be potentially more talented players, however, they are either not high leveled enough, or they don't have any extensive history of combat for us to judge them on, so for now it's safe to say that these four are the best" Raya said, as Leo shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Please note that this event will be livestreamed, so once the rankers reach the guardian chambers, their combat against you will be shown to the whole server.
Also, all four guardian chambers have distinct terrain, so it's up to the treasure keeper to decide as to which guardian will hold what door" Raya said, as she tossed Leo a scroll which described what entrance gate had what guardian room terrain attached to it.
"That will be all from my side guardians, I wish you all the very best!" Raya said, teleporting out of the room, but not before biting her lips longingly as she stared at Leo.
With her gone, all eyes now turned to Leo, as he was the one who had to decide what guardian went to what chamber.
"Live Streamed? Were any of you informed about this prior to this event?" PinkLotus asked, as while Leo studied the information scroll, PinkLotus raised objection to this event being live streamed server wide.
For her, there could be nothing worse than her image being live streamed server wide and if possible she wanted to avoid that grim fate.
"Well what's wrong with it being live streamed. I for one would not mind showing off my skills to the world.
I'm the best, and I'm not shy to show it–" said Andheri, winking towards PinkLotus as he tried to insinuate that he was best at something else too, but his cheap humor only garnered a disdainful snark from PinkLotus.
"No I wasn't informed about the event being live streamed, I think all of us got the same invite message asking us to be a guardian" Luke replied, as PinkLotus grit her teeth in anger.
She was mad at the game developers for putting her in such a tough spot, but now that she was already here, there was nothing she could do about it anymore.