A Private Booth of the Tournament

Allen can’t help but question what he just watched.

Did… did Scarlet do something to that poor kid? Or what…

He glances over to his wife to ask, only to find a wide smile on her face as she herself turns to him and says, “I’m glad the kid’s learned his lesson.”

Oh. Oooh, it’s that kid. I remember now. And I’m still glad that she hadn’t attracted the other instructors’ attention yet at that point.

Allen frowns at that thought.

Then again, she probably traumatized some of the students during the second round too, and I don’t think the instructors particularly cared.

He stares at the screen for a bit, just watching as Scarlet simply walks over and finds a nice spot to lie down for a short nap. And after watching her for a few more seconds, he makes a brief note to remind himself later to talk to her about traumatizing other Guardians.

Not something I ever expected to have to talk to someone about…

His thoughts are interrupted by the buzzing of his terminal, making him quickly focus on it before finding a call from Sage. And the moment he accepts the call, she immediately starts it off by saying, “The Black Hand has been wiped out.”

Allen’s eyes shoot wide open, and he notices Cynthia stiffening and looking at the screen upon hearing those words as well.

“How?!” Allen shouts, unsure of if he should even be believing his ears right now.

An entire group of Class IV Rogue bounty hunters were eliminated in a single day?! How is that even possible?!

“All we know is that all of them have suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth, and all of their secrets have been exposed to the government at the same time,” Sage continues, shocking Allen further. But she doesn’t stop there. “In addition to The Black Hand, a single section of the Guardian Research Team has gone missing as well, with their own secrets having suddenly found their way in the hands of the local Guardian authorities as well.”

“What the fuck?!” Allen shouts, his voice echoing through the room. “How?! I know for damned sure that they were perfectly fine yesterday since I personally have at least half a dozen of The Black Hand members under watch!”

“Those six were also eliminated at the same time,” Sage says, adding fuel to the fire without a care in the world. “Right after the bounty on the young miss’s head was increased.”

Allen slumps into his seat before staring straight ahead in a daze.

How is this even possible…

Several seconds pass and eventually Sage nods her head to be polite before hanging up the call, leaving Allen and Cynthia in silence.

“Do you think…” Cynthia starts, drawing Allen’s attention to her. “Could this be White’s doing?”

Allen’s eyes widen at that.

“It’s certainly possible,” Allen answers while sitting up and looking down again as he contemplates it. “I can definitely see her using her mindreading skills to get straight to each and every member before wiping them from existence.”

If what she told me before about her level was true, then she should be around level 1871 by now. And that is far more than enough to read the minds of some Rogues between levels 500 to 700. Much less wipe them all out in a single day. Although I suspect the only reason she told me her level was that she’s the highest leveled human on Earth, meaning it doesn’t matter if people know. Since no human is stronger than her.

He raises his head again to look at his wife. “The question we should really be asking is if she’s doing this for her daughter, or for some other reason.”

Cynthia grits her teeth a little as she nods in agreement.

I… don’t know how I feel about any of those possibilities. If she’s helping Scarlet, that’s good, but it also likely means she’s going to be even more unlikely to allow the adoption to go through. If she’s not helping Scarlet, that means she’s attacking them for unknown reasons. Which means she’s on the move again for the first time in decades.

“I need a drink,” Allen mutters, and Cynthia just mutters an agreement.

Scarlet

Sometime during my nice and very relaxing nap, the timer runs out and I find myself back in the private booth again. But I don’t bother opening my eyes, because the luxurious chair I’m on now is even more comfortable than the spot I’d found in the tower.

“Scarlet Wolf!” “Scarlet Wolf!” “Scarlet Wolf”

That has me opening my eyes though with a slight frown.

I know that Scarlet Wolf is still my official title, with the other one actually being Apex Predator of the Guardian World or some really long title like that, and not the Apex Predator that they were originally saying. And it isn’t an official title either. Just one that a lot of people refer to me by.

With that saddening thought in mind, I close my eyes again as the chanting of my official title begins to die down finally, the next battle beginning on the screen.

This whole tournament has been a bore so far.

I really wish the last set of rounds would come here sooner.

From what I understand, they’ll be splitting the last fifteen teams up into a slightly different manner of brackets. In this one, each team will fight other teams chosen at random back to back. And whichever five teams reach two victories first gets to move onto the next round. Then the last round itself is a bit of a free-for-all, with there being five teams, five towers, and one core for each tower, the winner being decided by the last team to remain standing with their core intact, and with no time limit.

A much more interesting setup than this.

But at least we’ve finished with the more boring rounds. So we’ll be moving onto the more interesting ones soon.

The sixth round. The back-to-back gauntlet of siege tower battles.

And a round I am very much looking forward to as I know for a fact that there are other Primary tournament competitors in this round, and I’ll likely end up fighting at least one.