Grand Acting

The person displayed as his teammate was someone he was familiar with: Jasmine, the person who had approached him after his defeat by Iris.

According to his ranking, she was previously number 4, which made him happy, as she was strong enough to help with his plan.

The reason he referred to it as *his* ranking was because he was the one who made it up. There was nothing official about it.

But he was sure that he was right—unless there were more anomalies like Tess, who wasn’t able to release her true ability for certain reasons.

He wondered what kind of face his partner would be making.

********************************

Jasmine stared at the screen in front of her with eyes filled with disbelief and parted lips.

How? Just how was she stuck with someone like him? She calmed herself down; panicking wasn’t going to help her.

She needed to come up with a strategy for them to fight. Shortly after, they were teleported into a different room. Art stared at the bracelet on his hand, concluding that it had several more functions than he had thought.

Looking up, he saw Jasmine staring at him.

“W-What’s wrong?” he asked with a made-up nervous expression. She shook her head hopelessly. There was a part of her trying to believe that he might’ve gotten better, but seeing him now, she realized how delusional she had been.

“This is how we’re going to do this. Try your best to keep one of them busy. I should be able to finish off one of them in less than a minute, but I can’t be too sure, so don’t let your guard down.”

Art nodded while hugging his sword, determination in his eyes. A few minutes later, they were teleported once more. This time, they were in the middle of the battle arena. In front of them were two boys.

Art believed that his Inspect skill also gave him the ability to gauge how strong a mage was. It wasn’t specific, as he just had a general idea. That was why he could tell that the way they were paired was somewhat balanced. No team had both members being very strong.

One of their opponents was quite strong, and his gaze was fixed on Jasmine. He didn’t even glance at Art—it was as though he didn’t exist, which was heartbreaking.

Art held his sword with both hands, which were slightly shaking, his eyes filled with determination. Jasmine, who noticed this, let out a sigh while unsheathing her katana.

Their opponents were also exchanging words. “Hey, she might be difficult to defeat, so I want you to finish up that wimp and quickly join me,” the boy holding a battle axe, his eyes fixed on Jasmine, said.

“I see no problem there,” the other boy, wielding a spear, shrugged.

‘And now, for my grand acting,’ Art smiled internally.

As the green line separating them disappeared, they all charged toward their opponents. Normally, most of the spectators’ attention would’ve been on Jasmine and the boy wielding the battle axe, as they seemed stronger. But instead, it was on Art, as he looked like a total clown while approaching the boy with the spear.

His steps were clumsy, and the way he was holding the sword screamed “amateur.” They even wondered if he had received an awakening in the first place.

When they got close enough, Art swung his sword. The attack wasn’t quick or precise, so it was easy to dodge. The boy wanted to play with Art a little, so he refrained from attacking.

Art kept swinging his sword at him, and he kept dodging while speaking.

“I wonder what someone like you is doing here. I would’ve never believed a Silver as weak as you existed.”

Art gritted his teeth, trying his best for an attack to connect, but it was all in vain.

“I think it’s time I end this,” the boy said, and for the first time in their fight, he thrust his spear into Art’s chest. Everyone believed it was over, but suddenly, Art’s sword somehow managed to get in the way, a clang echoing as he staggered a little backward.

“What a lucky boy,” a man in the VIP section voiced out, echoing the thoughts of most people there. The VIPs had been engaged in discussions, especially during interesting matches.

The seven of them were now present, and two people hadn’t spoken a word since.

One was the powerful young lady who had only shown interest in three people since the contest began, and the second person was the green-haired man seated beside her, who seemed too shaken to speak up.

She was now showing traces of interest in the weak boy. The VIPs who noticed this wondered why, but after watching him longer, they too were beginning to feel intrigued and surprised.

Somehow… just somehow, he was managing to block all the attacks being sent at him. Each one that he blocked seemed to be the last he could, but he would still barely block the next.

At this point, the boy using the spear became annoyed and impatient, especially after hearing his partner shout, “What is taking you so long?”

“Die already!” he screamed, thrusting the spear once more.

‘This is fun,’ Art grinned.

Again, Art managed to block his attack, and the force caused him to fall to the ground. The boy once more stabbed his spear toward him, but that “happened” to be when Art shifted to grab his sword, which had fallen away from his hand, causing the spear to pierce into the ground instead.

Having had enough, the boy let go of his weapon and jumped on Art, sending out punches to his face.

“Die, motherf***er! Die!” he screamed.

Art crossed his arms over his face. ‘This guy must’ve lost it.’

Amid his punching, the boy suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck and immediately fell unconscious.

Art slowly opened his eyes to see both opponents unconscious and Jasmine staring at him with a smile.

“I don’t know how, but you did it.”

Art’s eyes grew teary as he gripped his sword tighter.

“I did? I did!” he exclaimed, as those who had found this match amusing began to clap and cheer. Well, this didn’t change the fact that they thought he wouldn’t last in the tournament. Or so they thought.

‘I can’t believe this,’ his guide’s voice sounded in his mind. She hadn’t expected him to show such an amount of shamelessness. But she liked it. Turns out he wasn’t a bad host after all.

Art and Jasmine were teleported back to their rooms, and more matches happened after that. The group stage was to be finished today, and the next stage would commence tomorrow.

The weak, shameless Art also had other matches that ended similarly.

Now, Art was faced with another match. Seeing his opponents, a small drop of tears fell from his eyes. He had experienced several lucky occurrences, but this—this topped almost all of them.

His tears were due to happiness. It wasn’t every day he got to be this happy, so he made sure to cherish this moment.

Right in front of him were displayed the pictures and names of the next contestants. Their names read:

Jasmine Von Silver, Art Von Silver

VS

Jirke Von Silver, Chucky Von Silver.

Yes, by their faces, there was no doubt about it. His next opponents were JV and Chucky.