Hate

In the main room, where all the players sat in their divisions, one of the players stopped moving his fingers and got up from his chair. He stretched his arms behind his back which caused a few popping sounds to erupt. As there was a distance of few meters between players and most of them were busy thinking of ways to win, nobody cared about what he did.

He pushed his chair back and walked away from the computer. After walking away from a few distances away, he began making small jumps. Then jumped a bit higher more than 30 times and stopped after a while. He then began rotating his feet.

The people had their mouths hung open when they saw what was going on. Some began clicking photos and posting them online. A few started laughing and snickering at the sudden turn of events but, that wasn't the case for everyone. Some people didn't like his attitude at all. They began spreading hate on him throughout the internet. It wasn't just spectators and audience that felt like that.

There was someone else too, who felt offended. A pressure so powerful that could make many bow to it was released all around the stadium.

It was the king.

The humongous palace flying above the ground made of shiny sapphire and topaz crystals sat the king alone inside it. There was no one inside except him. Not a maid nor an attendant. Not even insects were present inside the huge palace. The palace shone akin to a diamond in the dazzling night but, the inside begged to differ. Regardless of how extravagant it seemed on the outside, the inner side of the palace was completely dark. Not a shred of light was present except the beautiful moonlight.

The king sat on his throne with his eyes closed, his head resting on his arms and legs one above the other. The moonlight made direct contact with the throne, brightening his pale blond hair.

His other hand tapped on the arm of the throne. He had long eyelashes that were the same color as his hair. And his plum red lips were mending together that made his face appear indifferent. He looked like he was sleeping. In reality, he was watching over the kingdom in that state. As of now, he was focusing on two places he was supposed to attend.

When he saw the man named AVA in the black act over smartly, his bloodthirst leaked to the stadium. Since the distance between the stadium and the palace was too large only 1/100th of his powers affected the stadium but, that was more than enough to make the people cower in fear.

Most of them got on their knees when they felt that overwhelming pressure.

They knew what it was. There weren't many in the kingdom that could use bloodthirst to this extent. The more power, mana capacity, or just mana for short and comprehension one has over one's strength, the stronger the bloodthirst gets.

And the only one who had this much power over his bloodthirst that could make them cower in fear was The King himself.

Even the commentator had to bow to the king as the pressure was too intense for him to resist.

Nobody could care less about how good AVA plays at this moment. All they did was curse him under their breath for making a fool of everything in front of their lord.

AVA, on the other hand, didn't even flinch. He continued minding his own business but, his eyes were focusing towards the east direction. Exactly where the palace was situated. Was it a coincidence.....or not?

He bent down to touch his toes and quickly faced up to stare in that direction again as if whatever he was staring at would run away. Placing his hand on the neck, he stretched it sideways too. His gaze, growing sharper by the second. It was hard to understand his thought process as he was wearing a mask on his face.

Walking back to his seat, he continued playing the game. The bloodthirst faded slowly after that. Sighs and gasps filled the stadium for a while before they began focusing on the game. The people on the internet were just as shocked as them when the aloof and schizoid king suddenly made his presence known.

Though they probably were never going to forget what happened today. Some people hated AVA with a passion regardless of how much indifferent they were to him before. His fans were too toxic for them to fight them, but after today, they weren't going to leave him a room to breathe.

They hated his guts,

His attitude,

His risky style,

His ego,

And his over-confidence.

All in all, they hated his whole existence. Some people admired him for those things too.

The more toxic haters he had, the more toxic his fans got, and of course, he gathered many admirers this way. Nobody knew whether he did that with that intention or was it just a by chance incidence. But they had more things at hand than to fret too much about it.

The players had already acquired an element in the game. Most of them even had a weapon with them. The people who hated AVA were celebrating their heads as regardless of how good he wasn't going to win from attacks that could one-shot him without any armor.

"Ahm...ahm, the interruption seems to have gone.

Back to the game,

Oh, from the looks of it, the atmosphere has finally heated up. I don't think AVA should have taken it easy and went to exercise, but I would love to see what he has in store now," The commentator continued doing his job without hesitation.

It wasn't just the commentator that thought like that but everyone who was watching. They were waiting for AVA to do something that could make the game more fun for them to watch.

People continued watching the match with anticipation.

The character of AVA showed signs of movement. But most of the people were fixated on watching the fight played on the big screen.

"It's quite a presentation of amazing skills by Oreus_the_Legend. I don't think even the strongest players right now can compete with Oreus_the_Legend. But Z7T doesn't seem to have given up yet," exclaimed the commentator.

The two players bombarded each other with different kinds of elemental and weapon attacks. They both played with different elements.

One has fire as his main element. The other used a metal and wood combination. Scorching marks filled the ground they were fighting on, giving it a realistic feeling. The player Z7T planted some landmines on the ground in front of him while fighting. Then began shooting with a gun in his hand. He would have dealt with Oreus_the_Legend "if" he had fire resistance on him.

As a result, he was in a hurry to finish Oreus_the_Legend before he died or take him with him. Alas, the storm of fire released by Oreus_the_Legend burned him to ashes. At least that was what was being shown on the screen after he used the skill.

"Whooo, looks like we have another black sheep in the game," The commentator whistled.

"Oreus_the_Legend!!!" One of the people in the audience screamed. That made the others with him shout too, and in turn, all the other groups turned silent.

The people watching him cheered for Oreus_the_Legend and even gambled on his name. Many of them wanted him to win. On the other hand, the people who hated AVA couldn't care less who won. All they wanted was AVA to lose, but as they were just a minority of people watching, their voices didn't reach the people supporting him or other players. But when Oreus_the_Legend won, everything changed. They gained confidence and began trashing AVA's name anywhere they could. Be it the internet or in the stadium.

"I hope someone would make AVA mature soon and make him stop acting like a kid"

"Who are you to say that, huh?"

"Shut up, you nine-year-old. That guy above you is right. AVA should learn to know his place. The king himself had to interfere because of him. Do you even know how much effort and time our king wasted on him?"

"@smarty_pants Ikr"

Several people agreed to that statement. In a matter of minutes, that comment had more than a hundred likes.

While this conversation was going on the internet, the game screen shifted from one player to another.

Suddenly, a golden light shone on the game screen with bold letters.

{Congratulations Player for clearing the hidden stage}

That was the only thing written on the screen.

Then screen changed to that of a gigantic cave.

*Sssss

No one uttered another word after that.

They just stopped making calculations and threw logic at the back of their head, or what they were seeing would have made them go insane.

"Haha, I don't like what I am looking at right now," said the commentator while shuddering.