Narcissist

It looks like his approach was wrong from the start. He had planned to fight with his full capacity, and he wasn't going to change it even now, as this was the reason he was here in the first place.

But he forgot that his moves could be very attractive to spectators, and it would only make him famous.

Oh well, he'd have to deal with it. His fighting style might be built on the foundation of Tenebran and Glacien, but it was still a lot different from them.

He didn't know why, but from the very beginning, when he started to master the styles, some moves came to his mind, and when he tried to infuse them into his main fighting style, they fused perfectly.

He narcissistically gave himself the title of genius, but it was definitely something different, which he hadn't been able to figure out until now.

His mother was very surprised whenever he pulled out something like that. Now that he thought about it, all his moves seemed to be improved versions of the main fighting style of the Tenebran family.

...

In a basement of a house, which was in the style of a Tenebran house, made of wood with an old design structure, a young boy of 16 years emerged from his virtual pod.

"Dammit, how the hell did I lose to that scrawny kid?"

Suddenly, he heard the footsteps of someone coming downstairs. He looked up and saw it was his sister. She was one of the spectators who had watched his match, so she already knew that he had lost.

Darion looked at his sister and spoke.

"I must have made a fool of myself, right?"

Emberis shook her head, came near Darion, and ruffled his hair.

"That kid wasn't normal. No one can pull a move like that easily without having extensive experience.

Also, I don't know what you were thinking when you saw him not react to your sudden speed, but he was anything but surprised, like he knew you would come to him.

He understands our fighting style perfectly, and you fell for it. That's why I always tell you not to be too impulsive. There are many talented people in this world."

"But... he was hiding his affinity. He definitely was also a newbie of rank 1."

"So? Some people have a tendency for high battle instincts, just like how your tendency is to be impulsive."

"I... I'm not impulsive."

Emberis smiled.

"Can you even believe what you're saying? Let's forget about it for the time being. Even I'm intrigued by his performance. Let's find out who he is."

"How?"

"Let me call someone."

Emberis brought out her communication device and immediately sent a connection request to Zareth.

...

Zareth had just finished his battle with his mother when his communication device rang.

He looked at the identity of the person who was calling and was a little surprised. It was unusual for Emberis to call him on her own accord.

Zareth picked it up, and immediately Emberis's voice came through.

"Hello, Zareth."

"That's a surprise. Should I be ready to get proposed to?"

"Your dreams are as high as always. By the way, I called to get some information."

"Oh, has the Ignis family stopped their intelligence department's funding or something?"

"Would you listen for a second instead of speaking like the idiot you are?"

"Yes, ma'am, go ahead. I'm all ears."

"So, has anyone awakened in the darkness element recently?"

Zareth squinted his eyes.

"I haven't gotten anything on that. Why, though? If it's important, I can check with the Lineage Branch. If they've recruited someone, then we might get the news."

"I see. As for the reason, well, a guy named Ashenveil has appeared in the parallel world. He's quite intriguing, to say the least."

Zareth was a little surprised listening to that. Surely his brother's fame hadn't risen to a level where people from hidden lineages would pay attention, or had he missed something while practicing with his mother?

"Why do you say that? Was his affinity high?"

"No, he had hidden his affinity."

Zareth knew this already; he just asked for the sake of appearing clueless.

"So?"

"Well, he just beat Darion with one move."

Zareth knew who Darion was. Not everyone was like Vaelen and Lyriana, who went public only on their 16th birthday.

He doubted that his brother would even want to go public on his 16th birthday.

Darion got awakened, huh...

But what the hell was his little brother doing, beating a descendant with only one move? Did he lowkey want to get famous? Why not just come to him, then?

"Damn, that's a lie, right?"

"The video is already circulating on forums as the most epic news. You can watch."

"Oh well. Is Darion okay? The trauma of his first death, along with getting defeated in one move, could break his confidence."

Zareth was genuine here. There were very few descendants of hidden lineages present, and given their high affinities, they were quite an asset to humanity.

"Don't worry about it. Before joining, I already booked the arena and gave him a taste of what death feels like, and as for the loss, my brother isn't weak-willed."

"As heartless as always, huh? Well, that's fine. I'll look into it. If I find something, then I'll definitely share with you. By the way, what is Darion's affinity?"

"88%. Tell me if you find anything."

"88%, huh? That's good. Okay, sure."

Zareth heard a clicking sound, which meant his connection was disconnected.

He immediately opened the forums and watched the video.

"What the hell? Even I would think twice before pulling something like that with my experience. When did he become this sharp? Looks like I haven't sparred with my brother for a long time."

...

After waiting for a little time, Vaelen started again. He wondered how many spectators would come again. Surely there would be as many as in his previous match.

[Match Found - 8 secs]

Eight seconds later, he arrived at an arena that seemed to be floating in the air. There were various types of arenas in the parallel world; as far as their imaginations could think, they would make one.

As expected, just as he landed on the concrete of the arena, he saw multiple seats arriving in succession.

...

"Here we go again. By the way... has anyone found anything yet?"

"None from my side."

"Dammit, I just recently sent my men to various famous locations to check if he appears after the battle."

"That's where you're wrong. Since he's wearing a mask... he definitely doesn't want to be found, so why would he be at any famous place?"

"Fuck, that makes sense. I have to make changes."

...

Vaelen looked at his opponent.

[Ashenveil (Rank 1)(3/0), Element - Darkness, Affinity - Hidden] Vs [Terminator King (Rank 1)(3/1), Element - Water, Affinity - 64%]

Vaelen sighed inwardly. His hopes were high after the previous match, but it was also true that most of the rankers who joined the parallel world to fight had affinities between 50 to 70 percent, so unless his luck was good or his ranking improved, he would be matched with these guys.

Since his luck was shitty, he could only increase his ranking.

[00:00]

There was no suspense in the fight; he ended it just like his first battle.

Gaining 4 wins.

Afterward, Vaelen continued with 4 more fights, getting similarly weak opponents. He won all of them with a single hit too.

After coming back to his tree, he saw his profile for ranking.

Battle stats (W/L) - (8/0) and ranking (Rank 1) - unranked.

Still unranked. Well, it was a long endeavor, so he wasn't disappointed.

Ranking doesn't depend on KDA, but on points. Every win gives you two points; it wasn't displayed, but it was confirmed by the organization.

While losing deducted one point, so whoever had more battles would naturally have higher points if they had more wins compared to losses.

This is true from rank 101 to 1000, but from rank 1 to 100, it's different.

Here, you will only move up if you defeat the person above you. In this case, matches are organized beforehand so that both parties will be present on the day of battle.

Lower levels are given the privilege of challenging anyone above them if the rank difference is within 5 levels, like a rank 100 person can challenge up to rank 95 and so on, but there are also rules to maintain order so that one person cannot be challenged multiple times.

Overall, it's a structured way of handling things. He didn't care about ranking; he only wanted it so he could fight strong people.

If he could battle those guys without even an official battle, then he wouldn't care for his battle rank.

He finally decided to call it a day after 8 battles. Although they were quick battles, he got bored fighting weak rankers consecutively, not to mention he saw some people come to this spot, and the way they were behaving, it felt like they were searching for something.

It wasn't hard to guess that they might be looking for him. There was a chance that they weren't, but he didn't want to get surrounded and his spot to be found.

If he wasn't on a tree, he might have already been found.

Seeing someone's basic username is easy; they just have to tap toward the person.

Vaelen opened his profile and clicked logout. He vanished from the parallel world.