The Boy in Yellow

Yami looked at the monitor and saw the names of the Warrior rank trainees and their points.

"You could see the type of classes they picked and points. The trainees are also in a booth and available to fight. You can get to pick an opponent, and they could also select you as their opponent. If you want to stop fighting, get out of the booth," Nui explained and scanned the screen to see the available trainees.

"I see, then I'll just pick one and wait if they'll accept my invite," Yami stated and tried to remember the orientation from earlier about the rank wars, but before his brain could recall, Nui spoke.

"You will get more points if you beat someone with higher points. That means you'll only get fewer points if you beat someone with low points, but if you fail, you lose many points," Nui explained since he saw the confusion on Yami's face.

"Winners gained 10% of the opponent's points, while the defeated will lose 15% of the points, right?" Yami asked, and Nui nodded his head.

"Thank you for your time, Senior Nui," Yami stated and bowed a little to show respect since he had helped him.

"Good luck," Nui smiled and waved goodbye before returning to his paperwork.

Yami sat on the chair and scanned the monitor for any high-scored trainees when an invitation appeared on his screen.

"Gang?" Yami muttered in amusement when he saw Gang's name, the one who forced him to join their group was inviting him to battle. "Well, he has high points."

Yami accepted the invite. He went toward the door at the side where his artificial body teleported into the virtual field. Right in front of him was Gang with a massive smirk on his lips, but when he saw Yami. His smile dropped.

"It's you!" Gang shouted in disbelief and stepped back when he saw Yami's figure as his opponent standing in front of him. "Why are you here!?"

"Huh?" Yami tilted his head to the side. "Are you dumb? You invited me here."

Gang coughed. He ignored Yami's name on the monitor and rather looked at the points.

( "Battle Stage: Cityscape B. Warrior rank war, begin!" )

"Then let's begin," Yami stated and positioned himself before launching an attack toward Gang using one stinger.

Gang trembled, but he took out his dagger to defend himself. He gritted his teeth and didn't take his eyes off Yami's movement.

Yami smirked and sprinted toward him in a flash, piercing his stinger on Gang's stomach, creating a huge wound and mana particles flying around.

( "Score 0:1" )

"Nine more battles to go," Yami stated and looked at the scoreboard. After a second, Gang respawned in the area, and the timer started again.

The rank war consists of 10 rounds, but the participants could edit the number of matches; the highest win would become the victor. The points would be distributed after the battle ends.

"You're going down!" Gang yelled and rushed toward Yami to initiate the attack first. He twisted his dagger and attempted to stab Yami in the chest, but his plan failed.

Yami just stepped onto the side and kicked Gang's hips, which caused his body to fly next to the house at the side. He didn't waste time, jumping toward Gang's body and slicing his neck.

( "Score 0:2" )

The battle between Yami and Gang went on, and the trainees outside looked at the scoreboard with curiosity when they saw the results.

( "Score 0:10. Winner trainee Yin Ying!" )

Yami pulled Gang's head and looked above when the robotic voice congratulated his win.

"It's already over? That was fast," Yami muttered and threw Gang's artificial head on the ground before both of their body's vanished and went back to the booth.

Yami stretched his body and looked at how many points he gained from the battle. "Oh, I gained 200 points. I only need 2,900 more!"

Yami walked back to the monitor and searched for trainees with high points, but he was the one with the highest points. He received several invites from trainees with low points aiming to gain more from him.

"This sucks," Yami muttered and sighed loudly. He leaned back on his chair and ignored the invitations since he could only gain a few points from them. "I don't want to break their spirits and squeeze all their hard earn points."

Yami closed his eyes and relaxed, but it didn't take long before he heard noises outside. Since he was bored, he got up, checked to kill time, and observed.

When Yami went out, he first saw the crowd forming, and Shun was in the middle with an unknown guy in civilian clothes. They were talking, but Yami got an inkling of their conversation.

Based on Shun's expression and the man next to him, Yami's instinct tells him it wasn't good. He rubbed his chin while looking at the man's body language as they went to a booth below his.

"He radiates arrogance but hides it well with his innocent face. Most of all, he's strong," Yami muttered in deep thought. "Why would Shun fight that man, knowing he is weaker than him?"

Yami sighed and went down to the lobby to watch the scoreboard and the other trainees interested in the upcoming battle. He enhanced and focused his hearing on his surrounding to get a glimpse of what had happened.

"Eh, two official Combatants will have a mock battle here at our lobby!?"

"That guy in yellow jacket. Isn't he a Legend rank Combatant!?"

Yami looked at the source of the gossip, and those trainees flinched when they saw Yami's fierce eyes looking at them. They all turned their backs on him.

'Shun, what are you thinking!?' Yami thought and looked at Shun and the opponent's name on the board.

"Deng Yaoting," Yami read the name of the opponent. "What's your purpose of asking Shun for a battle?" he muttered and watched as the mock battle commenced.